Ning Buwei returned to the flying boat, just in time to meet Feng Zizhang who had just gotten up.
“Father, are you all right?” Feng Zizhang seemed instantly relieved, circling around him before finally sighing with relief.
Ning Buwei said, “What could possibly happen to me?”
Feng Zizhang anxiously poked his head outside again. “Then the Venerable he—”
“He’s fine too.” Ning Buwei grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in. “Where are Xiao Jiang and Ning Xiu and the others?”
“They’re not up yet.” Feng Zizhang yawned. “You two fought for three days and three nights. Xiao Shan cried twice from worry.”
“Three days and three nights?” Ning Buwei was surprised. When he came out of the Seven Killing Formation and saw the morning light, he thought he had only sparred with Chu Jun for one night.
“Yeah, you two looked so frightening. I almost thought you had turned against each other——pfft, pfft, pfft!” Feng Zizhang patted his own mouth and muttered quietly. “A dog’s mouth can’t produce ivory. Children’s words are innocent, children’s words are innocent.”
Ning Buwei looked at this nearly twenty-five-year-old but not particularly smart “child” and patted his head. “Wake up Xiao Jiang and the others and pack up.”
Feng Zizhang’s eyes brightened. “Father, are we leaving?”
“No.” Ning Buwei hooked the corner of his mouth in good spirits. “Taking you all out to play.”
An incense stick’s time later, Chu Jun looked at the children of varying heights but all with bright eyes before him, and fell into silence.
“What did he say?” Chu Jun felt an unpleasant premonition rising within.
“Father said he’s going to find a place to form his Nascent Soul and undergo the tribulation. Venerable, you’ll take us to train in the Floating Sky Realm while waiting for him.” Feng Zizhang said with a long face, “I wanted to stop him, but in the blink of an eye, Father disappeared.”
Ning Xiu turned over in Chu Jun’s arms, then pulled up his sleeve to cover himself and continued sleeping.
Chu Jun used the sealed Dao contract to sense that Ning Buwei was not too far from them, but his spiritual power fluctuations were very strong and frequent, indeed preparing for a breakthrough and tribulation.
Chu Jun looked at the children with expectant faces and nodded calmly. “All right.”
In the eyes of Feng Zizhang and Jiang Yizheng and the other children, the Venerable Jinghe was beautiful, kind-hearted, and good-tempered. No matter what he did, he was always steady and methodical. When their great demon father trained them, it was like a violent storm, making them tremble with each word, but the Venerable not only never lost his temper but would also plead for mercy when Ning Buwei wanted to punish them.
He was a gentle and kind person.
Training with the Venerable would definitely be a relaxing experience.
From Feng Zizhang to Cui Yuanbai, and even the sneaky Big Yellow and Little Black who had mixed in hoping to play, all thought this way.
Until Chu Jun began checking their spiritual roots and cultivation levels one by one, they gradually realized things weren’t going to be pleasant.
Cui Yuanbai stood with his round little belly full of meat, with a bit of meat residue at the corner of his mouth, which he secretly licked away.
“Although you have a Heavenly Spirit body, you’ve spent too much time in the knife, so your future advancements will be more difficult than normal people.” Chu Jun sealed his Purple Palace that had been refined less than one percent. “You have early-stage Nascent Soul cultivation, but lack patience. If you can’t control it well, the Purple Flame True Fire will gradually affect your temperament…”
Cui Yuanbai seemed to be listening very attentively, but actually didn’t quite understand. He just nodded.
Chu Jun stroked his head and handed him a jade tablet. “Go find a cave by yourself. Come out when you’ve memorized this heart mantra.”
Cui Yuanbai held the jade tablet, stunned.
Chu Jun then walked to Yang Lingzhu. Although she hadn’t spent much time with him, she knew he was the legendary powerful Venerable Jinghe, and held her breath nervously.
Chu Jun glanced at her right arm that had barely recovered somewhat. “Your Dao heart is not bad, your aptitude is top grade, your spiritual root is pure, suitable for water and wood cultivation techniques. Your Foundation Establishment cultivation is average, your foundation unstable.”
The more Yang Lingzhu listened, the lower her head drooped, her face flushed with shame.
Chu Jun handed her a storage ring. “Thirty miles southeast there is a Bone-Growing Lotus with spirit beasts guarding it. Inside are Bone-Growing Pills and a medicinal cauldron. As for how to get it, figure it out yourself.”
“Yes.” Yang Lingzhu accepted the storage ring with both hands and responded in a small voice.
Chu Jun then walked to Jiang Yizheng.
Jiang Yizheng grinned at him, her eyes full of expectation and excitement.
“Aptitude below grade C, mixed spiritual roots, early stage Foundation Establishment,” Chu Jun said objectively. “Although your foundation is solid, your comprehension is ordinary, and your cultivation is lazy… Yuanbai’s true form is a knife, so it doesn’t matter how much he eats, but you are a human cultivator. You eat too many impurities, which hinders your cultivation.”
Jiang Yizheng nervously touched her nose and said dejectedly, “Oh, then I’ll…I’ll eat less in the future.”
Chu Jun: “…You’ve already established your foundation and can abstain from food. You don’t need to eat.”
Jiang Yizheng was thunderstruck, looking at him with shocked eyes.
Chu Jun cleared his throat, ignoring her pleading gaze. “A hundred miles northwest there is a peach forest with a stone tablet. Go and comprehend it yourself.”
Hearing that the task seemed simple, Jiang Yizheng nodded happily.
“As for Zizhang,” Chu Jun paused, held his wrist to probe for a moment, then said, “Aptitude above grade B, ordinary spiritual roots, your opportunity lies in the northwest. Go seek it yourself.”
“Yes.” Feng Zizhang nodded.
Chu Jun waved his sleeve, and the group disappeared from the spot.
The remaining dog and dragon immediately tucked their tails.
Chu Jun looked at them, then at the sleeping Ning Xiu in his arms, and said, “Follow me to a place.”
****
Feng Zizhang came to his senses to find himself in a completely unfamiliar forest.
Until he was twenty-four, he had always lived with his senior and junior brothers in Yunzhong Sect. When he went down the mountain to train, his senior brothers would always accompany him. Later, after his senior brothers perished, he met Ning Buwei and Xiao Jiang, and then came Chu Jun… There was always someone more powerful protecting him.
This kind of proper solitary training was almost unprecedented. He swallowed nervously, alert and tense.
And also secretly excited.
Although he didn’t know what the opportunity was, if the Venerable said it was there, it must be.
For the first two days, he first dug up three or four large pieces of top-grade spirit stones from underground, then was led by a small mushroom to find an unrecognizable magical artifact. Before going to sleep that night, he had good luck and caught a wild rabbit to roast. Only after eating did he realize it didn’t quite look like a rabbit.
Nothing much happened along the way until the third morning when he discovered a person in the bushes.
A familiar person.
Seeing Chu Xin who was dying and covered in the smell of blood, Feng Zizhang’s first reaction was to run away quickly, but after running a few steps, he stopped.
The last time on the Dao Discussion Mountain when he voluntarily stayed behind to block Chu Xin, he actually didn’t have much confidence. After just a few moves, Chu Xin’s own evil qi rebounded, and he took the opportunity to escape.
At that time, Chu Xin’s gaze toward him was terrifying, giving him nightmares for several nights, but later Chu Xin never appeared again, so he gradually stopped thinking about it.
But now looking at Chu Xin’s blood-stained face, images from a year ago in Linjiang City involuntarily surfaced in his mind. The spirited youth, disregarding his martial uncle’s obstruction, insisted on opening the window and leaning out to wave at them as they were fleeing.
The three of them had gone through life and death together in the illusion, protected by Ning Buwei and survived. They parted at the gates of Linjiang City amidst countless happy tears, and by chance met again at Wushi Sect.
Chu Xin was once his “good friend.”
Feng Zizhang pursed his lips. If his father knew what he was thinking now, he would probably scold him to death—he actually wanted to save someone who had almost killed him.
Feng Zizhang sighed with hesitation.
****
Ning Buwei benefited greatly from his sparring match with Chu Jun. He chose a cave rich in spiritual energy to seclude himself. This time he didn’t deliberately suppress his cultivation, and with his storage ring often filled with good things by Chu Jun, after forming his Nascent Soul, he riskily attempted to directly break through to the Soul Transformation.
But as a demonic cultivator not particularly favored by the Heavenly Dao, when Ning Buwei underwent his tribulation, the lightning tribulation came down fiercely. Seeing that he wanted to directly cross a major realm boundary in one go, black-purple lightning tribulation struck down on his head as if it cost nothing.
Ning Buwei was setting up formation arrays while taking out all his magic treasures except the Suzaku Knife to block the lightning. When the final lightning tribulation struck, there was nothing left to block it. Just as he was about to let the Suzaku Knife take the hit painfully, a Taiji seal suddenly appeared on his brow, firmly protecting him in place.
As the lightning tribulation slowly dissipated, Ning Buwei stood frozen for a long time, unable to recover.
Casually blocking someone else’s tribulation lightning—had Chu Jun gone mad?
With no time to think more, Ning Buwei stepped on the Suzaku Knife and went straight to find him.
The positioning talisman showed the person was nearby.
Seeing Chu Jun still standing there intact, with no missing limbs or arms, and no lightning chasing after him, Ning Buwei immediately let out an imperceptible sigh of relief, but his voice was still somewhat tight. “Have you gone mad?”
“Hmm?” Chu Jun’s gaze held a trace of confusion.
Ning Buwei gritted his teeth and said, “Have you gone senile? Randomly helping others block lightning tribulation—even if your cultivation is high, the Heavenly Dao will still strike you dead—”
“Not others.” Chu Jun met his gaze unhurriedly. “You have formed a Dao contract with me. Even if temporarily sealed, you are still recognized by the Heavenly Dao as my Dao companion. Helping you block the lightning tribulation is normal.”
If they could form a Dao contract, the Heavenly Dao couldn’t find fault with helping block a lightning tribulation.
Ning Buwei’s expression went blank for a moment. After a while, he finally made a sound. “…Oh.”
In his urgency, he had actually forgotten about this.
“Father~ Father!” Ning Xiu’s voice came from by his feet.
Ning Buwei looked down at the source of the sound, and his leg was grabbed by Ning Xiu. The little child hugged his leg and called in a childish voice, “Father~ ah da?”
Where did Father go?
Ning Buwei reached down to pick him up and found that his son seemed to have grown a bit bigger, heavier than before his seclusion and tribulation.
Ning Xiu affectionately hugged his neck, blinking his eyes at him. “Father~”
Ning Buwei reached out to pinch his face, scanning the surroundings without seeing any sign of others. “Where are Zizhang and Xiao Jiang and the others?”
“Went to train.” Chu Jun said, “You’ve been in seclusion for a month and a half. They should be back soon.”
Ning Buwei was a bit surprised. “You let them go by themselves?”
“Yes.” Chu Jun said, “They each have their own opportunities here.”
Chu Jun was always reliable. Since he said so, Ning Buwei felt at ease and casually used spiritual power to form a little duck for Ning Xiu to play with.
“How is your cultivation now?” Chu Jun asked him.
Ning Buwei held Ning Xiu with one arm and raised his other hand to him. “See for yourself.”
Chu Jun lowered his gaze to look at the lines and faint blue veins on his wrist, and said methodically. “I’ve gone senile and afraid I can’t see clearly.”
Ning Buwei: “………….”
