Five days passed as Hong Zhou stabilized his cultivation. He had become the first human to step into the bone-tempering realm of 15 levels.
Upon leaving his cave abode, he saw Yang Sen gazing at the scenery outside. It was raining, and the spring rain fell quietly on the mountain peaks of the Luo Celestial Sect. Yang Sen was waiting just outside the cave, patiently for Hong Zhou to finish his cultivation.
As Hong Zhou opened the door, he noticed Yang Sen standing there.
"I thought you had run away," Hong Zhou said, walking closer to where Yang Sen stood. The view was spectacular; despite the rain, the mountain peaks of the other caves glowed with lights, creating a brilliant atmosphere.
"Run? I have no place to go," Yang Sen replied, his voice heavy with sadness and regret.
"Hmmm, no place to go? What about your village or where you came from?" Hong Zhou asked, already aware of Yang Sen's background through the astral archive.
"It's a simple story," Yang Sen said, looking at his master. "Demons burned my village."
Pretending to be surprised, Hong Zhou asked, "What? I'm sorry! But how did you escape?"
"The demons attacked our village, devouring and ravaging the villagers. When the immortals finally arrived, only I and a few elderly people survived. They saved us, and a lady gave me a token, telling me to come to the Luo Celestial Sect."
"After three years, I finally summoned the courage to seek immortality, but I was immediately rejected."
"That's when I learned the truth: I'm utterly useless."
"Will you give up on your dreams of becoming immortal?" Hong Zhou asked, his eyes serious as he awaited Yang Sen's response.
"No! How can I give up without even trying? At least if I die, I will know I died trying." Yang Sen paused, kneeling and bowing. "Thank you for accepting me as your disciple, Master. I heard that those who weren't accepted at the ceremony were thrown out of the Luo Celestial Sect."
"If that had happened to me, I wouldn't have known where to return. I, Yang Sen, will follow you until the day I die as your disciple. If you tell me to jump into a burning flame, I will do it for you, Master. Please don't abandon me."
He was sincere; however, he might regret his decision tomorrow. *If I told him he was a genius? I don't need a disciple, nor did I plan to take one in, but fate has brought us together somehow,* Hong Zhou thought.
"Will you regret your decision today?" Hong Zhou asked.
Yang Sen gave a bright smile and answered, "No, I wouldn't regret it for eternity."
"Come, let's go to see the sect leader."
The two walked toward the center of the mountain peaks, where the grand pavilion was located.
Suddenly, a rush of true qi flowed through the air. Yang Sen dropped to his knees since he was not yet a cultivator, while Hong Zhou stood unaffected.
"Oh yeah, I forgot, normal humans can't get past the flow of true qi in this area. I'll go in by myself; wait here for me," Hong Zhou said.
The sect leader of the Luo Celestial Sect was prideful and neglected the fact that Hong Zhou had been poisoned since birth. She didn't care if he was going to die the next minute; all she cared about was the development of the sect and cultivation. She only gave Hong Zhou things like the elder position to prevent criticism, but deep down, she truly didn't care about her brother.
Her name was Luo Ning Zhou; she was always cold and unjust to Hong Zhou. "I guess that's what I remember," he said.
The grand pavilion was at the center of the sect, where the inner and outer sects were divided by a large building.
"Young master Luo Hong Zhou, why did you visit the grand pavilion?" an elderly man dressed in white robes and sitting at the center of the hall asked.
"I am here to see the sect leader. Can you please send me to the inner sect so that I can go to the central hall?"
"Sure, please stand on the formation," the elderly man said.
The formation activated, and blue lights illuminated his face, teleporting him to the inner sect.
Hong Zhou slowly opened his eyes and touched his head as he walked forward.
"I'm dizzy. Maybe I will get used to teleportation soon."
The inner sect was much larger than the outer sect; it spanned 50,000 kilometers and had twice the number of cave abodes as the outer sect.
Despite its size, it was still one of the lower sects in the Asura continent.
Hong Zhou lifted his head and saw young cultivators, some flying with swords. Nonetheless, the inner sect was a very busy place.
"Hmm, is that the building? It will take at least one hour to get there by walking. I'll just jump across the mountain range; that will be faster."
He jumped 520 feet into the air and landed on one of the peaks.
"This… this is incredibly high."
Hong Zhou leapt from one mountain range to another to reach his destination more quickly.
"Who's that?"
"That's the sect leader's brother."
"How is he jumping that high? I heard he can't cultivate because of some strong poison."
"Maybe he is cured."
"Isn't he handsome? I would love to be his wife."
Both boys and girls were admiring him as he jumped from one mountain to another.
My perception of things is clearer; I can hear sounds I couldn't hear before. After forming my dantian and cleansing my body with true qi, I feel stronger than the strongest man on earth…
"My dream of becoming the strongest will soon be achieved."
As Hong Zhou arrived at the sect leader's residence, it was far grander and more beautiful than he had expected.
Two men were standing in front of the hall acting like security guards.
"Fellow cultivator, are you looking for Lady Luo Ning?" the young man in white sect robes asked.
"Yes, is she inside?" Hong Zhou asked eagerly.
"She is waiting for you in the Ancestral Hall." The young man answered
Hong Zhou stepped into the large hall and was surprised to find his sister cultivating. He had assumed she would be busy with business matters.
"Stop right there" A feminine loud sound came from all directions, it was as if there were speakers kept in every corner of the hall".
"Hmmm, you actually broke through! The aura you're emanating is that of a Bone Tempering Realm expert. Well done, Hong Zhou," Luo Ning praised.
"Thank you, landy Ning," Hong answered.
He was standing ten metres away from her while also being suppressed by her true qi.
She opened her eyes, stood up from her lotus position, and said, "But this realm is your limit. Your veins are twisted, which will make it difficult for you to even form a Dao Heart with twisted blood vessels."
She was right. That's why I need to obtain that inheritance of the heavenly emperor soon, I hope li won or any other person does not break the lion array soon.
"What realm are you in now?" Hong Zhou asked, curious, she was too far away for Hong Zhou to access the astral archive on her.
"Core Formation. Soon, I may even break through to the True Spirit Realm," she replied
"I need some cultivation resources for my disciple and a steel sword too," Hong Zhou requested.
"I can't provide that. I can't keep giving you things for free now that you are a cultivator. The elders will make things harder for me unless you participate in the beast-hunting competition. If you compete, you will become an inner sect elder and be free from certain restrictions, which will allow you to acquire the materials you need."
That will be too long, what if somebody succeeded in breaking that array, that's my only hope to continue cultivating
"When will the competition be held?" Hong Zhou asked with a high tone.
"In about a year from now." Luo ning calmly gave her response
A year? that's too long
"Can I at least access the inner sect lib?"
"No," Luo ning cut him of "the library reserved for elders and disciples of the inner sect. But I'm glad that you successfully cured your poison."
Hong Zhou offered her sister a brief glance ; their eyes met, but hers did not reflect joy for him. It was as if they were engaged in a silent battle.
"I will take my leave. I'll see you in one year, sister," Hong Zhou said.
"See you in one year," she replied.
With that, Hong Zhou exited the hall just as Wang Feng emerged from behind one of the Ancestral Hall's caves.
"When are you going to kill him? Don't tell me you plan to wait until he improves his cultivation, though his veins are shattered today what if he finds a way to heal, just like he found a way to remove the poison from his body," Wang Feng said, circling around her as he continued to instigate and manipulate her. "With the pure phoenix bloodline you have, your cultivation progresses faster than anyone else's in the sect. One day, he will discover that you poisoned him, and he will come for you. You know his talent better than anyone. What will you do now, sect leader?"
"Let's wait for one year. Then he will truly face death," she replied, stepping outside the hall.
Wang Feng grinned chillingly; his plans were nearly complete.
Meanwhile, Hong Zhou returned to Yang Sen and began teaching him how to cultivate properly and Yang Sen was extremely intelligent making it easier to teach him.
Six months passed, and Yang Sen had reached level three of the bone-tempering realm, which was the expected pace of cultivation.
During those six months, Hong Zhou started learning breathing techniques and battle skills. He wasn't particularly fond of spear techniques, so he chose not to practice them. After five more months of practice, he mastered the perfect flying technique without the use of a flying sword.
Typically, flight is only possible when a cultivator reaches the Foundation Establishment stage, but he innovatively created swords using True qi and learned to fly while controlling them. This was a challenging feat because the sword he created with true qi would often break whenever he attempted to ride it.
With each mistake he made, he refined the qi flying sword technique by removing its imperfections through the astral archive.
But each time he taught it to Yang Sen, Yang Sen will improve the qi flying sword technique and show it to him, and Hong Zhou will remove the imperfections of the techniques and teach him the new version of the techniques he just learnt and this process continuously repeated itself. It was as if Yang Sen had astral archive in his soul used for only upgrading techniques.
At the end of one year Hong Zhou perfectly mastered five techniques in total all this techniques cost so little true qi to use that Hong Zhou could potentially use it for years without running out of true qi, but it was a 100 times more deadly than any technique in the Luo celestial sect.
Finally, the day of the competition arrived.