NOVEL NEXT Chapter 80: Breakthrough
I saw AnEr and Uncle Huai coming my way but I did not have the time to talk to them so I flew up. When they lifted their heads to follow my movements, they saw the clouds that appeared suddenly and they understood what was happening.
Enlightenment was a different type of breakthrough. This type did not strain the body much and the thunder - ahem lightning - tribulations were just a formality.
With my lightning root protecting me, I felt almost no pain when lightning hit me over and over again. It even helped all my roots to increase in size and quality. I closed my eyes and started increasing the speed of my energy flow in my body. This was the perfect time to finish the technique I created...
Three days later, I opened my eyes to see a burned forest. The 3 days of lightning destroyed everything around me. I felt bad so I used my wood and water element to regrow trees and plants.
Yep, I could do that now! I skipped Core Formation and ended up in the early stage of Nascent Soul. My technique created a spiritual core naturally and my enlightenment consolidated it1In the Core Formation stage, a spiritual core is normally created.
I smiled, Uncle Huai and Aunt Yan should forget scolding me this time
~~~~~
5 years later
I looked at myself in the mirror with my new robe. I was still a growing boy but was much more mature now that I was 17 years old. A lot has happened since I reached the Nascent Soul stage.
Uncle Huai deemed me strong enough and released the news that I was the sage who figured out the freezing winter. I had to use seclusion to consolidate my cultivation as a reason to avoid the limelight. I still think it was uncle Huai's plan to make me stay home obediently and stop giving him so much work.
My technique took a long time to set up but now that it was done, it helped me cultivate faster and I reached the middle stage of Nascent Soul a few days ago. Aunt Yan twisted my arms, figuratively, until I let her host today’s party for the occasion.
TongTong was named Huai ShinXie on his first anniversary and was now 5 - almost 6 - years old2In case you are wondering, Shin was from our MC name and Xie from uncle Huai - Huai WenXie
He was a mischievous child who gave headaches to his parents. He would run away from his house and end up in mine to play and eat. He had a big amount of energy that made all of us, including his parents, exhausted. Who let him be uncle Huai’s son and inherit his energy and foodie nature?
I let grandma Li fully retire and gave her a courtyard to live in. She was still healthy and would often make snacks for her grandsons, myself and Xie-er. I suspect she was using food to abduct Xie-er, her kitchen was the first place we would go to look for him.
AnNan’s extreme weather pattern was not the only one I found. When my fame increased, I received a lot of requests from far away cities and powerful families. They sent their historical books and I was able to deduce some patterns for other situations including predictions for secret realms openings. I was paid well for that work and I gained many backers thanks to that. It also helped me get enlightened many times over the years. It was the reason I reached middle stage of Nascent Soul so quickly
AnNan school was adding, next year, a branch to teach advanced mathematics to promote research in the field. My perfect memory recall abilities helped me write introductory books on the matter and the school was planning to use them as teaching material. My last seclusion to reach mid stage was initially a reason to hide from over eager teachers who came for additional explanations of those books. Luckily, the dean accepted to keep this branch optional or I would have turned into the enemy number one of future generations of AnNan students.
Since I reached Nascent Soul, the heavenly bracelet time increased 5 fold and I used it often to study, cultivate and most importantly sleep. Ji FangFang was right, sleeping there was the best use of it. I even took Xie-er when he was a baby and had trouble taking naps during my babysitting shifts.
At the middle stage, the time was now fifteen times faster than the outside and I used it well these last 2 days to write down my finalized personal cultivation technique. I was planning to officially release it during today’s banquet. After testing the technique with volunteers, I knew that those with two or more spiritual roots could benefit from it. My target was poor cultivators who did not have enough money to buy washing root pills but were smart enough to understand my technique. It was complex and long to set up at first but I was living proof that this technique could be used until at least Nascent Soul stage.
My volunteers were some children from villages I visited that I sponsored to come study in AnNan school and live in my residence. I let Li Bo tutor them and I helped them understand my technique - I was bad at it but Li Bo did the grunt work for me -
Li Bo, surprisingly, chose to not follow in his brother's footsteps. His single fire root was not a good fit for my technique even if he understood it best after me. Thankfully, I found him one that worked better for him. It was a gift from one of the powerful families I helped earlier. I made sure it was a genuine technique before letting him use it though. He reached the late stage of Foundation establishment months ago. Now that he was 12 and already graduated from school, his dream was to be a teacher. Teacher Wei chose him as a disciple as he shared the same gentle nature as hers.
Yes, a single spiritual fire root cultivator who could have turned into a madman murderer was now gentle enough to be a teacher!
Li Yao’s carrier was rising within the city’s security guards. As a guard, the city was responsible for his cultivation. At 19, he got 2 rewards already for going above and beyond in his work. He was also very popular with girls these days. I expected him to be one of those who would marry early in life and grandma Li was looking forward to it
Lei Sui joined the same sect as Hei Jiang after graduation. Uncle Qin moved closer to that sect for him. Sui-er sent me a message that he met a woman that could be the perfect stepmother and he was trying to matchmake her with his father. I wished him luck but I knew that no one could force love if any of the concerned parties was not ready.
As for why I was trying to do everything in a short amount of time, from sharing my technique to writing books. I was going to visit Li-er to tell him about what happened 5 years ago face to face. I would need his stealth stone for that. Except for him, no one should know what happened in the cave. The trip would help me be present at Aunt Sun’s wedding. She moved on from her scum ex-husband and found a new love. Li-er told me, in secret, that he was a good man but I was not allowed to share that with his mother!
Life was as I dreamt it to be; A loving family, good friends and a happy life I worked hard to get.
The peaceful part... was still a work in progress. But life was long, who knew what it had in reserve for me?
