His eyes slowly opened. It felt like they had not opened in days and the blinding light made him feel like that two. He took a sharp intake of breath as he used his hands to avert the light from his sensitive eyes.

He shut his eyes for a bit more, entering the forgiving darkness. He took a breath again and found the courage to slowly open his eyes. The blinding light began fading. He looked around the room. He slowly identified the room he was in.

There was fine silk curtains on the wall, light fixtures on the wall.

Wang Zen swung his feet off the bed. He sat for a while, confused on where he was.

“Mommy?” he said. “Shibi?”

He touched his chest. Something was different. He could not feel the ache in his body that had been so familiar to him.

“The operation!” He remembered.

“Zen?”

Zen looked toward the window. Shibi was hanging off the edge of the window. He swung in and gingerly made his way to Zen. The boy swept the Scorch Ape in his arms and hugged him. Shibi hugged him back.

“Well Bud, looks like I didn’t die.” Zen said.

“Zen okay. Zen breathes.” Shibi said.

Zen let go of the Scorch Ape. He clenched and unclenched his fists. “Well at least I’m alive. Hopefully my strength is back. I should probably find my mother to ask, or even Miss Xing.”

He got to his feet.

“Where are we, Shibi?”

“City Lord Mansion.”

Zen groaned. “How big is this place?”

Zen left the room.

Wang Zen walked through the house in his white gown. He passed by a mirror and stopped. His eyes widened in horror as he looked at his face.

“My… My face!” he said, touching his nose. His nose, once skew and misshapen was now perfect, similar to the way it was before he was injured by beasts such a long time ago. The boy staring back at him looked a little familiar but he felt he was not exactly him.

His eyes then wandered to his chest, which was exposed in the low neckline of his gown. He pulled the already low neckline further down. His chest now had four, deep scars snaking out from the centre of his chest.

The scar on his chest touched his shoulder. Zen squinted as he could see something else. He turned around and looked at his back’s reflection and could see the exact same scar on his back, snaking out from the small of his spine.

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“Master Wang?”

Zen’s attention was taken from his image and looked at Ding Wu. He smiled at the Wang family retainer. “Ding Wu!”

“You’re… You’re up!” Ding Wu said, excitement and happiness obvious in his voice. “Oh no, you’re up!” He suddenly said in dread, the piece of wheat he was chewing being spat out of his mouth. “This might not be good. You need to get back to bed.”

“What?”

“Yes! Yes!” Ding Wu said, gently shoving Zen back to the direction of the bed. “I’m not sure what you can or can’t do. Better safe than sorry.”

“But I wanted to see my mother.” Zen said.

“I’ll tell her you are up.” He said. “I’ll tell everyone, you just get back to bed and rest.”

Zen sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

Zen was lying in bed when his door burst open.

“My baby boy!” Wang Lin said before she pounced on her son, hugging him and rubbing their cheeks together.

Zen smiled widely. “Nice to see you too, Mommy!” He said.

“Ah, Master Wang.” Miss Xing said, entering the room. “It is good to see that you are okay.”

“Miss Xing!” Zen said. “Thank you for healing me! Wait… I am healed right?”

Miss Xing smiled and nodded. “It was hard but yes, I was able to heal your diantian. You are back to normal… well, minus a few ranks that you lost during the surgery.”

“Who cares?” Wang Lin said with a smirk. “With my guidance, you’ll gain those levels back and you’ll be better than ever!”

Zen touched his nose. “What happened to my nose?”

“You like it?” Wang Lin said. “It’s a littler bonus I was able to pull out of Miss Xing.”

“I’m not very good at reconstructing and beauty but I did my best.” Miss Xing said.

Zen frowned.

“I take it you don’t like it?” the healer said.

“I mean no offense but I preferred my old nose, with all its injuries.” Zen said. “It meant something.”

“That’s a weird to look at an injury.” She said.

Zen touched his chest, where his scars were. “What are these scars about, Miss Xing?”

“Those are from the operation. The injury was so intense it manifested itself physically.” She said. “It caused a lot of damage but I was able to heal it. Those are deep scars. They may never disappear.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Zen said. “As long as I can start cultivating and getting stronger again.”

Wang Lin smiled. “That’s the spirit. That’s my son!”

Jun Nee opened the door to Zen’s room. Zen was sitting cross legged on his bed, his fingers in the Cracked Earth Cultivation. Next to him as Shibi, who was in the exact same position.

“Zen’er?” she said.

It took a few moments for Zen to open his eyes. He smiled at his friend. “Jun Nee, come in!”

“You’re already cultivating? You look so good!” she said, entering the room and carefully balancing the tray of food she was carrying.

“Yes,” Zen said. “It’s strange, my cultivating has been so good. Its so much better than when I got injured.”

“Maybe it has to do with your state of mind?” she said as she placed the food before Zen.

As soon as she did, both Zen and Shibi pounced on the food. Stuffing it in their mouths. Jun Nee’s face twisted in disgust.

“Seems your appetite is back too.” She said, stepping back from the pair.

“Mhm!” Zen said. “I was told that I’ve been out for 2 weeks. Miss Xing was basically keeping me alive using her energy. I’m real hungry!”

“At least swallow before you chew,” she said. “It would be sad to hear that you survived the operation but died from choking on bread.”

“Yeah!” Zen said. “Well, about my cultivation, you’re actually right! My teacher Daomeng once told me that Meditation Cultivation techniques like Cracked Earth depends on having the right state of mind, I think he called it inner peace!” he said, before taking a gulp of milk before filling the cup again, which Shibi took and downed, giving both of them milk moustaches. “I think my mind is in that state. I’m so happy. So excited! So calm. I feel like after what I survived; anything is possible!”

“That is great, Zen’er, I’m so happy for you!” Jun Nee said. “Zheng actually taught me a bit about cultivating. About how your thoughts effect how well you do.”

“Where is Zheng?” Zen said, spat pieces of food as he spoke. “Is he coming?”

Jun Nee looked down on the ground.

Zen gulped and wiped his mouth. “Jun Nee? What’s wrong?”

“Zheng was also hurt.” She said.

“What?”

“The Li Family goons came after us.” She said. “They took the sword and Zheng was hurt badly.”