Xue Yuehai couldn't believe that the worst possible outcome had come true. 'That loin-clothed bastard was actually an expert! He must've been stringing us along the entire time by acting as a random fool, and we fell right into his trap...'

Nevertheless, he had complete confidence in his father who he had called over. After all, he was a respected and powerful elder of the Xue Yue clan who had reached the Soul Transformation Stage!

And as the shattered black talisman pieces fell down onto the ground, Zhen Shi grew apprehensive at the sudden possibility of the arrival of a Soul Stage expert.

But, at the same time, Lin Hai who was already in the act of running away roared in a great hurry as if he was being chased by a demon, "Edict: Speed!" Instantly, a set of majestic white wings appeared on his back.

In Lin Hai's mind, even if Xue Yuehai's father was arriving soon, that time would be more than sufficient for him to lose his own life many times over...

As such, without even turning back, his wings flapped powerfully as he dashed into the nearby forest, and disappeared among the trees.

Seeing his fellow comrade run-away so shamelessly, the other cultivator who was running away as well was feeling stifled and helpless. But powerless as he was, he could only keep running at his current pace while cursing his own weakness.

Fortunately for him, Zhen Shi who was nervous about the arrival of this expert was distracted at the moment, giving him precious time to escape into the forest as well.

However, the most helpless and pitiful person was Xue Yuehai. Seeing the 'genius proclaimer of his sect' and his other comrade run away, he could only lament his poor choice of friends.

But with the belief that his father's arrival was imminent, he continued to stare at Zhen Shi and Zou Rou with his back straight and a haughty gaze.

Meanwhile, Zhen Shi who had been worrying before was completely relaxed now.

This was because the aether had whispered some important details to him once more, making him realize that he had worried for nothing...

Even if it wasn't so, he still had the Spatial Tear Sword! Considering Xue Yuehai's father's cultivation he should be one-shotted into the after-life under the power of that sword!

As such Zhen Shi grinned nonchalantly and spoke, "Brother Yuehai, I understand that your 'little brother' is short, especially since you made it so clear before... But why is your temper so short as well?

Besides, you didn't have to go crawling to your father, now did you? We could've solved this small matter amicably like fellow cultivators that tread on the same path.

Now, now, calm down and reform that broken talisman so that your father won't waste his time. And after that, let us settle this matter in a fair duel between the two of us. I'll even give myself a handicap, despite my lower cultivation... and only use that fire attack once!"

Hearing this fellow's shameless words, Xue Yuehai's face twitched as he was suffering from a seizure, 'Small matter my ass! This became irreconcilable the moment you slaughtered more than half of my loyal *cough* comrades.

And what fair duel? Only one slap and I'll die in a pitiful scream under that horrid flame of yours! But most importantly, why the hell do you have such a great interest in my little brother?'

Despite his thoughts which he just couldn't bring himself to say, Xue Yuehai shouted out with great confidence, "Just shut your trap. My father will be here in a breath's time to gift you the end of your pathetic life!" while laughing gleefully.

But his laughter died rather fast as he was reminded of the fact that he was the only one remaining from his entire group...

Zou Rou suddenly shook her head as well and spoke beratingly, "Loin Shi, did you use up all of your intelligence in that last move? Do you really think that just because the talisman is re-formed, that bastard's father won't come? Is your brain in your loin-cloth? I suggest we leave now and come up with a plan on how to escape!"

Zhen Shi stared at her, in silence, for a moment.

But instead of worrying as she had expected, Zhen Shi calmly grinned and replied, "My dear Tsun Rou. It appears you still underestimate this humble and scholarly self... Let me show you the true extent of my heaven-shaking abilities!"

Whoosh!

In a gust of wind, Zhen Shi appeared close to Xue Yuehai's location causing the latter to hurriedly retreat in fear. Ignoring the fearful Xue Yuehai with his tail in between his legs, Zhen Shi picked up the randomly scattered talisman pieces and quickly reconstructed it.

This was a very easy task, because he found out to his great surprise, that he could easily remember the original structure of the talisman. And once it was reformed he applied some ordinary fire aether to melt it and combine the shards once more.

And just like that, the talisman was reformed!

While Zou Rou waited impatiently and skeptically, unable to bring herself to run away and leave her savior to fend for himself, several moments passed without the arrival of the so-called expert...

Xue Yuehai's expression was becoming uglier by the second, but Zhen Shi was smiling with the confidence of a powerful expert, while Zou Rou's eyes were gradually widening in surprise.

As a few more moments passed, Zou Rou had to truly accept that Zhen Shi had succeeded and Xue Yuehai's father was truly not coming.

As such, she spoke with an impressed face, "Loin Shi, it looks like I underestimated you once more. But... How did you do this? Are you perhaps a fellow talisman master? Or did you inherit some special technique? Or is this the power of the divine blessings that the Central Plains is so well-known for?"

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Ding!

Congratulations to the user for earning 10 OP!

Zhen Shi was extremely pleased with this turn of events, not only had he impressed the girl, he had gained the expected reward! Still, he was wearing nothing but a dirty loin-cloth that was lightly flapping in the wind. He had gotten rather thick-skinned and forgotten about it.

But how did he do this? Simple. He actually did nothing.

But... the aether had told him that Xue Yuehai's talisman did not release any aura and that it would not send out any message. And all Zhen Shi had done was make up a story to gain all the credit!

As for the real reason, he could only assume that the explosion of the opposing Hel-Fire and Celestial Light had somehow damaged the talisman when Xue Yuehai had been injured back then.

Xue Yuehai's face had turned horrible at this moment. But he still fearlessly shouted out, "Little Broth--I mean, you BASTARD, consider yourself lucky! If you had been unfortunate enough to meet my father, let alone your stupid self, even your own pathetic father would've died a thousand times over!"

Zhen Shi was about to reply back with a smirk and a smart come-back, but, to his great annoyance, another series of memories arose in his mind.

⛰️⛰️⛰️

A light breeze blew by causing the trees in the familiar training courtyard to rustle in the peaceful evening wind. It was only earlier today that Zhen Shi had reached the Elementary Qi Stage Completion, but... what the hell was this?

Zhen Shi's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the beautiful vision ahead of him.

Dozens of transparent spirit-like animals of beautiful colors were dashing around the courtyard; white bunnies that hid amidst the tree trunks, majestic golden stags that grazed peacefully, singing parrots that flew around the treetops, roaring tigers that stared around threateningly, and even some mystical beasts ranging from dragons to phoenixes!

This vision was almost as amazing as the sight of the aether that Zhen Shi could see now, but it was even more astounding!

Suddenly Zhen Shi noticed that amidst all these animals, a familiar fiery orange figure was chasing after a pack of silver wolves...

Surprisingly, it was his sister Zhen Xixi, and while the sight of a little girl, chasing down spirit wolves that were running away from her in fear... was rather weird... it was still reality!

Zhen Shi who was reminded of the previous mentions of "Spirit Hunters", a children's game created by himself, could only assume this was that game. 

As Zhen Shi continued to watch in interest, Xixi quickly caught up to the wolves, and instantly threw out three black stones at three of the wolves.

Poof!

The silver wolves disappeared in a puff of smoke the moment those stones came into contact with their bodies. Zhen Xixi cheered loudly as she gathered the three black stones that were now glowing in a mystical white light.

Noticing that Zhen Shi was staring at her, she revealed the glowing black stones like war-trophies, and spoke haughtily, "Little Brother, what are you doing standing there? Have you already given up in fear of my amazing Spirit Hunter skills? If you beg for mercy, as a kind elder sister, I just might go easy on you!"

Zhen Shi calmly retorted back, "What nonsense are you even saying? I came up with this game! Watch the master at work..."

Instantly he threw a single one of those stones towards a direction that was completely free of spirit animals. However, the sudden threat of one of those stones caused a ripple effect of fear among the nearby spirit animals throwing them into disarray.

As such, two wolves and two stags ended up dashing towards the direction that Zhen Shi was in. The moment they grew close enough, with a calm smile, Zhen Shi threw out four black stones.

Poof!

Exactly four puffs of smoke appeared around Zhen Shi as the stones hit the pairs of confused wolves and stags. Zhen Shi calmly picked up the glowing black stones and turned to Zhen Xixi with a challenging grin.

After all, he had beaten her score without taking a single step!

With a displeased harrumph Zhen Xixi stuck out her tongue and ran after some other spirits, unwilling to be beaten by her little brother. Zhen Shi grinned at her leaving figure but turned away soon after, eyeing some more prey himself.

An hour passed by as Zhen Shi and Zhen Xixi rapidly captured all of the spirit animals. While Zhen Shi made use of various tricks to capture the spirits, Zhen Xixi made full use of her Foundation Establishment speed and strength making their scores rather close...

And they finally gathered together to count the scores. Zhen Xixi laughed proudly as she showed off a bundle of glowing black stones and spoke, "I've beaten you Little Brother. I have 52 Black Stones!"

Zhen Shi grinned calmly as he showed another bundle of glowing black stones, "Well... so do I!"

Zhen Xixi's face turned awful as she realized that they were actually tied in the score!

Indignant at this turn of events, she hurriedly turned to the side and shouted, "Father, Mother, this game is a draw! We have to try again!"

Xie Li and Zhen Wei, that had apparently been watching the entire time, laughed out together. Nevertheless, Zhen Wei spoke sternly, "Alright, but it's getting late, so this will be the last time!"

Zhen Shi spoke out as well, "Father, this time, make the spirits into the ghosts that we used last week."

His sister turned to him with a frown, "Ghosts? I think that beasts and animals are much better."

Zhen Shi laughed and retorted, "Elder Sister, could you be afraid of ghosts then?"

Zhen Xixi scowled and grumbled, "Don't think that I've forgotten the rules that you told me about. Like you said... I ain't afraid of no ghost!"

Beginning the process, Xie Li smiled as she flicked her hand causing floating bubbles of water and globes of mud to form. Zhen Wei too flicked a hand causing spheres of rotating wind and balls of fire to form in the air.

With another flick of his hand, a colorless spiritual energy combined with the globes of water, mud, wind, and fire. And as they watched, each globe split apart into twenty smaller globes... that slowly re-arranged themselves to form various spiritual figures; hooded figures wielding scythes, head-less soldiers, fat eery snowmen, demonic fire dogs, creatures formed of slimy liquid...

Instantly, the eighty ghosts dashed forwards towards various areas of the courtyard. Zhen Xixi grabbed a handful of black stones and ran off with an excited shout, "Who you going to summon? Spirit Hunters!"

Zhen Shi too followed her while analyzing the various spirits with a grin...

Watching their children play peacefully, Zhen Wei smiled and spoke, "Our son has truly come up with an interesting game. I wonder what inspired him to make this."

Xie Li simply smiled in response while admiring the sight of her children playing happily.

Zhen Wei suddenly turned to Xie Li and whispered, "Li, is this truly fine? Xiao Shi can already be considered an adult having completed his duel of justice. Don't you think that he should continue to work hard on his training, especially considering our suspicions?"

Xie Li frowned and replied back, "It was entirely due to your suggestion that he completed the Duel of Justice. And that is not a reason for him to be treated like an adult!

Even if our suspicions are true... I don't want our son's childhood to be nothing but training. He's only seven for god's sake!

Besides, since the cultivation technique came from them as well, it's probably for the best if Shi'er can hold out on practicing for a while..."

Zhen Wei shook his head and spoke grimly, "Even so, we can't ruin his future just because we wish a peaceful childhood for him.

But like you said, I truly hope they didn't purposefully tamper with our son's cultivation technique... As we don't have any other choices either, he can only practice that technique for the moment.

The cultivation technique related to the Chaotic Dantian is simply too complex! Even my Father is incapable of comprehending the inner workings beyond the basic method of practice...

As soon as Shi'er reaches the Foundation Establishment Stage, we should have him switch over to the [Martial Cultivation Technique]. That should give me sufficient time for me to find that old fellow and have him look over it. If even he can't make sense of it...

Nevertheless, if they truly tampered with the cultivation technique, even if they are a divine organization, we'll show that the respected Zhen Clan aren't a bunch of pushovers!"

Xie Li nodded in agreement with fierce eyes.

But her eyes softened almost immediately as she continued to spectate her children being 'spirit hunters'.

Noticing his wive's actions, even Zhen Wei gradually grew silent as he too continued to observe the game with a slight smile.

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