Few knew that some of the beasts, monsters and humans in the armies Cheng Hao had gathered in his past as Xu Ling had actually been opponents he had fought and subjugated on his journey to the Ninth Level of the Nine Heavens. Little Black, for example, had been the jail keeper of the Nine Heavens' highest security jail, World's End. There, Tian would throw those whom had rebelled against him in his reign as a Tyrant and leave them to the Hellish Nightmare Dragon to deal with.

Following Blindlight's suggestion, Xu Ling had attacked the prison and freed the captured criminals. Although some had immediately run away, enjoying their freedom, most had decided to join the ranks of the Evil Saint and get their revenge against the people of the Nine Heavens.

During the jailbreak Xu Ling had fought many minions of Tian, with the most formidable being none other than the jail keeper of the World's End, the Hellish Nightmare Dragon.

Astonished by the beast's capabilities and potential as a powerful ally, he had challenged it to a duel. The terms had been that, if the dragon were to win, then Xu Ling would have had to follow him as its slave for ten thousand years; on the other hand, if Xu Ling were to win, Blacky would have had to become his mount for a thousand years. The battle had been long and harsh, but only because Xu Ling being a human caused him some trouble due to the drastic difference in size. Fortunately, the Golden Aura's enhancing capabilities was increasing his strength, speed, and endurance as time went on, ultimately allowing him to just barely defeat the beast and snatch victory. The pact between the two had been a Soul Pact, just like the one Cheng Hao had just made with the same Hellish Nightmare Dragon: this meant that the winner would hold the loser's life in its hands and, if the loser didn't comply to the terms, the winner of the pact would be able to destroy the other's soul.

Unfortunately, during the thousand years Xu Ling had passed at the Yellow Springs, the contract had also expired. The dragon had therefore been set free from the shackles binding it. How could the poor beast possibly at the time that, one thousand years later, it would one day wake up… only to find out it had been locked inside a huge tower without so much as a notice.

At least, judging from all the roars coming from above him, it most likely was not alone! At first Blacky had thought of uniting its might together with those beings aside from himself in order to break out of the giant Tower. However, just as the Hellish Nightmare Dragon had been about to propose this, it had suddenly heard the powerful cry of an incomparably grand beast from above. Immediately, he had given up on the thought, scared witless: the might contained within that single roar had been powerful enough to shake Blacky's very soul! Being a coward by nature, as soon as it had smelled danger, the black dragon had immediately given up on the thought of conversing with its neighbors, opting instead to wait. Blacky was sure that the person that had imprisoned it wouldn't have done so just for fun, so it had deduced it would only have to wait for some time, maybe a few dozens of years at most, and that person would likely show up! The dragon would definitely deal with him or her then...

Unfortunately, the poor snake had been so unlucky that that one person that had imprisoned it had turned out to be Xu Ling; the one guy it wouldn't have wanted to meet again in its life the most, no matter what!

As of now, the Hellish Nightmare Dragon was bitterly thinking that it could only be bad luck that Xu Ling (Or was it Cheng Hao now?) had found it. However, little did the poor beast know that the karma threads that had once connected the black dragon to Xu Ling after striking the Soul Pact in the past weren't something that would disappear with time...

Instead, they would actually grow even brighter and clearer as the years passed!

From the very moment Cheng Hao had offered Goldy to trap Blacky instead of him if, in exchange, he were to help in finding the black dragon's location, Blacky had no chance to escape. Heavenly Beasts were, after all, extremely sensitive to shifts in Karma, and Primordial Beasts like Blindlight were even the more so.

It literally was sowing bad Karma!

"So, Little Wu, how did your very first breakthrough feel?" Cheng Hao inquired, "Pretty strange, isn't it? Suddenly being able to freely interact with Spiritual Energy, I mean." The youth had already changed into a new set of clothes: the robes he had been wearing earlier had been burnt into crisps by the aftermaths of his breakthrough.

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Xiao Wu, "Yes! The breakthrough process was overall nice... plus, this sensation of power, it's even the more so pleasant! If anything, it's like my body has gotten lighter! It all went so smoothly, I still can't believe it," the girl exclaimed cheerfully, "and it was all thanks to Goldy uncle and Brother Cheng!"

At the 'uncle' part Goldy could only scoff. Although it did hurt him, as he technically was already over a few billions years old, it was already enough that the girl hadn't called him grandpa... all it could do was crawl in a corner of the small hut and silently shed a few tears.

On the other hand, Cheng Hao’s pupils lit up and he nodded ecstatically, "I know, right? The sensation of being able to see the world, of slowly coming to an understanding of reality's deepest secrets, of experiencing a slight rebirth of the body with each sitting..." Cheng Hao sighed with feeling, "It's simply intoxicating!"

The child fell into contemplating, as he recalled of the countless nights he had favored meditation over rest, ending up cultivating for days nonstop... at the time, he had been looked at as if he were a maniac. Some even joked that he derived some sort of 'pleasure' from spending all those sleepless nights and torturing himself like that, to the point many had come to doubt his sexual preferences... Maso-Ling, his closest friends jokingly called him whenever he would finally come out of those months-long sittings, alone in the dark.

To normal people after all, meditating only brought about stress to their minds and strain to their body, as the cultivator would have to remain completely immobile during the whole length of the process in order to distance his or her consciousness from their body and enter the mysterious state where they could sense Qi strands. During this time, the strain of forcefully peering into the world's laws would cause normal cultivators to end their sittings in a dozen hours' time, a few days at most, in order to recuperate and ease their tired minds and bodies. This time would increase as one grew more powerful, to the point many beasts would even spend months, years behind closed doors in order to cultivate without being disturbed, but even then that time would rarely be dedicated solely to meditating and most of it would instead be used up resting one's mind in between each session.

Xu Ling however was different. For some reason, such restrictions did not apply to him, to the point spending a few years in a dark room in order to increase his strength would hardly be any challenge. Meditating was as natural as breathing, even the legendary state of Enlightenment would only require a few breaths for him to enter it! A few breaths! Even the strongest Supreme stage Heavenly Beasts would rarely experience an enlightenment in dozens of years... Xu Ling, on the other hand, only had to close his eyes for a short while, and the mystical state would be achieved just like that! The only people who managed to even approach Xu Ling and manage to spend months peering into the world's laws and forcefully digging out its secrets, one would be able to count them on one hand!

Goldy, of course, had not been a part of this group. Being able to devour and absorb other people's strength had made the Heavenly Devouring Dragon Blindlight extremely lazy with his own cultivation, to the point he would spend the time other spent cultivating in a state of deep slumber. Even then, he had managed to grow into a being that even other Primordial Beasts would oftentimes respectfully call ‘Dragon King’ as a form of respect towards his might.

Xiao Lan, on the other hand, was recorded achieving the state of enlightenment after three hours of nonstop meditation... at his best.

Indeed: even the genius that would one day beat Xu Ling's record as the fastest to have stepped into the Immortal Realm would normally need to spend a good quarter of a day meditating being able to finally enter enlightenment.

As Xiao Wu was not only Xiao Lan's blood-related descendant, but she also had the same Triple Qi Xiao Lan had, Cheng Hao had been looking forward to seeing as to whether he would find in the little girl a new companion in his beloved meditating sessions... and whether she would be able to surpass her ancestor!

‘Do you think you might get addicted to this feeling? Can I count on you for some company in my meditations?’, was basically what the youth was asking the emerald-eyed girl.

And to that question, surprisingly enough Xiao Wu, had nodded, "Yes! It was such a weird feeling at first and it was also quite straining... but after having the process ingrained into my mind, that slight burden was lifted, to the point it almost felt as if I had fallen asleep and was dreaming!"

Cheng Hao's eyes glinted and he spoke solemnly, "Little Wu… I proudly welcome you to the Maso-Ling club!"

"The what?" The girl furrowed her brows: Maso-Ling Club? What was that?

Holding his laughter in, Cheng Hao shook his head, "Ahem, it's nothing. Anyways, now that we are actually cultivators and are capable to actually begin cultivating, I will now proceed to teach you two more things!" The golden-eyed youth raised his right hand, his index pointing upwards as he spoke, "The first is how to bring your martial way and use it in battle! Of course, we can't simply have it gather dust in your Pseudo-Core, can we?"

"As for the second," Cheng Hao's mouth formed a crescent moon and his eyes glinted as he spoke the next words with much gusto, "I believe it's now time for you to finally be handed down the first part of the Three Little(Xiao) Qi Scripture: the Ascending Black Dragon's Four Deifications!"