12 Calm before the storm

The next few days were uneventful.

Liang Lu continued nurturing his aperture and strengthening his soul.

The academy gave the weekly allowance of 5 primeval stones to new outer disciples and the uniform of the soul toad sect consisting of black pants and a beautiful black robe with embroidered silver forming a flowery pattern on the shoulders and part of the back and chest.

Liang Lu immediately noticed the similarity to Lin Hao's robe but after asking about it Lin Hao's will said it just liked the design and chose to base the uniforms on his favorite robe.

The only difference from the robes was that on the sect's uniform, there was an embroidered tadpole on the right chest and a horizontal line underneath.

Other than that the academy gave a rank 1 gu worm to each disciple along with a little contest for the disciples consisting of being the first ones to refine their rank 1 gu worm. 100 primeval stones for first place, 50 for second place, and 20 for third place.

From the huge variety of gu worms available to choose from, Liang Lu ended up picking a healing gu worm with the recommendation of Lin Hao's will.

Chewing Sap Gu was one of the specialties of the soul toad sect. It was a man-made gu worm from the wood path with characteristics of food path. It had the form of a tree sap with a light brown color and was small the size of a tooth. When one injected primeval essence into the flavorless Chewing Sap Gu it would gain the flavor of cinnamon indicating it could heal injuries when one chewed it.

Chewing Sap Gu was easy to feed as it fed on the primeval essence of the respective rank. The durability was enormous. It was like a natural bubble gum no matter how much one chewed it didn't lose consistency unless it was burned or left unattended only then it would die.

Of course, like many gu worms, it had weaknesses. The first was the obvious: it needed to be chewed to heal injuries and stopped healing when it lost flavor. The gu worm was a picky eater it would only eat primeval essence of the respective rank for example if Chewing Sap Gu was rank 2 it would only eat rank 2 primeval essence if primeval essence of a lower rank or higher rank was used Chewing Sap Gu would die.

The other weakness was the limitation of rank. Rank 1 Chewing Sap Gu could only heal minor injuries the healing effect improved with each rank but there was only rank 1 to 3 Chewing Sal Gu the creator of Chewing Sap Gu died of old age leaving behind a half-finished rank 4 gu recipe and the rank 1 to 3 complete gu recipes of Chewing Sap Gu.

Lin Hao's will didn't help Liang Lu refine Chewing Sap Gu as it was a competition and would help give him experience.

Liang Lu took about half a day to refine Chewing Sap Gu it wasn't that hard he even nurtured his aperture while he refined it and even felt he had free thoughts for another action Liang Lu could only attribute such ample mental fortitude to the carefree wisdom heart physique.

But Liang Lu still realized how tedious it was to replace the will of the gu worm with his own, not to mention refine it from refinement materials which he wasn't confident even with his master attainment in refinement path that lacked foundation.

Liang Lu also realized how fucked he would be if he didn't have the recovery rate of the carefree wisdom heart physique as the primeval essence required to refine the gu worm ended up consuming his middle stage rank 1 primeval essence refined with the help of liquor worm.

But putting aside the what-ifs Liang Lu didn't lack any primeval essence as the recovery rate of extreme physiques was simply too absurd Lin Hao's will mentioned that except for one extreme physique all extreme physiques recovered their whole primeval sea in 30 minutes. The exception to that rule was the great strength true martial physique which had an even faster recovery rate.

After refining Chewing Resin Gu Liang Lu claimed the first prize and things once again were uneventful with boring lessons until the first week passed.

…

In a clean and orderly classroom, a group of youngsters sat listening to their instructor named Han Ye, the same one who had guided Liang Lu, Yi Fang, Dou Wei, and others to their awakening ceremony.

The once excited faces of most youngsters had been worn down to ones filled with boredom after many boring lectures as Han Ye didn't bother to make the lectures interesting instead reciting as closely to the books as possible he talked, talked, and talked making the eyelids of the youngsters to become heavier and making them have the urge to sleep.

Suddenly on one of the rare moments in which Han Ye broke his monotonous explanation, he announced to the classroom "That is all regarding the basics from this day onwards along with our daily 3-hour lectures you will receive combat training. Now meet instructor Gao Ge."

A huge imposing man with wide shoulders and a bare chest that exposed his bulging muscles walked in front of the classroom. On his belt that held his black pants a silver plate with 3 horizontal lines showed his cultivation level as a rank 3 gu master.

"Good evening disciples first I must apologize you should have received combat training sooner but circumstances occurred anyway follow me to the training grounds." Gao Ge spoke politely creating a great contrast to his imposing aura "Oh I almost forgot I will assign you a number be sure to remember it."

While Gao Ge was giving a number to the youngsters an average-looking youngster with indomitable eyes asked a question.

"Instructor, are we going to spar with gu worms?"

Gao Ge looked in the direction of the youngster "Dou Wei right? You are number 7 and yes but not right now."

With that answered Gao Ge continued giving numbers to the disciples but Dou Wei quickly asked another question "Then when are we going to spar with gu worms?"

"Wang Mei, you are number 8. And Dou Wei we are going to spar with gu worms when the time comes as for when I don't know."

After many more questions, Dou Wei was finally satisfied and sat down as he inwardly thought "Liang Lu I'm going to claim back my boundless forest samsara physique by killing you by 'accident' when we spar."

Dou Wei originally wanted to borrow the strength of his family to kill Liang Lu but his family was unwilling to do so first because Liang Lu was constantly monitored from the shadows there were even rumors that Liang Lu was taken as an immortal seed.

Second, they were in the Lao faction and Liang Lu seemed to be good friends with Yi Fang the son of elder Lao Fang the leader of the Lao Faction instead of killing Liang Lu they were supposed to protect him from assassination attempts of other factions and sects.

Lastly, Dou Wei's family was in a bad mood and was quite harsh on Dou Wei forcing him to cultivate hard until late at night they had to exchange their hard-earned contribution points accumulated over 20 years to exchange for a man triumphing over heaven gu and to buy a talent raising gu worm they even had to borrow from Lao Fang putting many of their assets as guarantee that didn't even cover half of the cost of the gu worm if it wasn't for Yi Fang promising to pay in their stead if they failed to do so Dou Wei wouldn't have been able to raise his aptitude to 70 percent getting him a decent B-grade aperture.

"Consider yourself lucky Liang Lu, enjoy your life as a third-rate villain while it lasts." Dou Wei inwardly thought as he threw a mocking gaze to Liang Lu Who was minding his business writing something.

"That youngster is quite interesting, he has enough human qi to undergo immortal ascension if he succeeds he would at the bare minimum get a medium-grade blessed land." sitting on the shoulder of Liang Lu, Lin Hao's will commented. "A shame he was born with a deformed soul, it would have definitely affected his judgment and can partly explain why he constantly mumbles to himself."

"Master, it has been days since you saw him. Why are you talking about him just now?" Liang Lu wrote on a paper filled with disorganized annotations that strangely enough had formed the old face of Han Ye.

"Simple my dear disciple his soul deformity can be fixed and he can prove to be a useful lackey to you if you manage to tame him but that might be difficult as he considers you his love rival and hates you with a burning passion to the point of unleashing killing intent." Lin Hao's will sighed "Ah the naive love of youngsters you should cherish it while it lasts or else you might be unable to love again."

"Master, I've shown no romantic interest in Wang Mei. If he just wanted her he should have stopped throwing me threatening glances. I think he has something personal against me." Liang Lu continued writing.

"Oh, so you noticed? Well done." Lin Hao's will gave Liang Lu a casual thumbs up as if it was something he should have realized sooner.

"I'm also not sure what could be going through his mind, maybe a sense of inferiority? After all, he comes from a great background but had no cultivation talent; his childhood friends all awakened an A-grade aperture leaving him in the dust. He must have felt great humiliation and to top it all off his childhood sweetheart is throwing herself at you, someone with a mortal background that awakened an extreme physique, something extremely rare causing everyone to kiss your feet everywhere you go, a treatment he can only wish for."

Just as Liang Lu was going to respond, Wang Mei interrupted him. "Liang Lu sorry to bother you but you seemed too distracted. Your number is 12."

Wang Mei who sat next to Liang Lu leaned towards Liang Lu to observe his drawing. "Liang Lu, you have already drawn the founder of the sect, Yi Fang, and now our instructor when are you going to draw me? Have you forgotten all the times I have bought you lunch?"

Wang Mei teased Liang Lu. "I understand the first 2 and even the third but are you planning to forget the devoted girl that has been trying to become something more than a friend? Or are you saving the best for last? Maybe you want me to pose how I would carry you in my arms to a date with only the two of us under the light of candles and the soothing moon." Wang Mei smiled while she grabbed Liang Lu's hand and kissed it like a gentleman would greet a lady.

"...What?" Liang Lu remained in place unable to process what had just happened before he took a step back, everything was so sudden and unexpected that unknowingly he blushed as he suddenly imagined himself dressed in a cute dress blushing while Wang Mei with a lush beard laughed from ear to ear with a brutish laugh as she carried him in her arms.

"Liang Lu!" Seeing what was happening Dou Wei's heart was bleeding he bit his tongue to not scream and stop himself from standing up and beating Liang Lu to death.

"Oh, disciple so you are one of those… hmm… how are they called? eccentric people?" Lin Hao's will teased Liang Lu.

Liang Lu inwardly sighed and quickly recovered his composure from the sudden teasing of both sides. He retrieved his hand and responded, "Sister Mei please understand our situation."

Wang Mei laughed off what had just happened as she tried to guess what Liang Lu implied 'Does he want to focus on cultivation or is he saying his background is too low to court me?'

While the little drama slowly died down the combat instructor Gao Ge gave the signal to follow him and the disciples obeyed soon enough they gathered in the training grounds.

The training grounds were huge and were divided into multiple sections. The one Liang Lu and company were standing on had a clean stone floor that extended for about 100 Square meters and was exposed to the scorching sun that was hotter than usual.

"Attention disciples" Gao Ge raised his voice to gather the attention of the youngsters "You will be training in martial arts starting today. Depending on your level of mastery I will assign you a martial arts teacher that fits your current level. Your task is to defeat your martial arts teacher in hand-to-hand combat and the reward for succeeding is 50 primeval stones and 100 primeval stones for the first who manages to do it. The use of gu is prohibited whoever uses gu will be punished accordingly any questions?"

Right after Gao Ge stopped talking a disciple spoke up "Why are we wasting time in martial arts? Aren't gu worms more effective?"

Another disciple joined him. "Yes, why would we fight with our fists when we can use a gu worm to send a long-range attack?"

Hearing the questions Gao Ge explained "I'm sure most of you were curious and activated your gu worms as soon as you refined it. Am I right?"

Many of the students nodded silently admitting.

After seeing that most students had done so Gao Ge continued "Activating gu worms consumes your primeval essence with each use and there is only a limited amount you possess eventually you will run out and you will need to wait until you naturally recover it or you use primeval stones but both take time and what will happen if you are in the middle of a battle your primeval essence runs out and you don't even know how to fight without gu worms?"

Many of the students realized what Gao Ge was implying but he continued "The only answer is dead if you at least know basic hand-to-hand combat your chances of surviving will increase."

Just as Gao Ge finished speaking, one of the female students, a small and feeble-looking girl pointed at the martial arts teachers behind Gao Ge. "Why are there only men? Do we women need to defeat them in hand-to-hand combat like the men?"

"Yes." Gao Ge responded.

"But… isn't that unfair? Men are stronger and bigger th-"

Gao Ge interrupted her he had seen the same reaction countless times through his many years of teaching "The purpose of the academy is to prepare you for the world inside and outside the soul toad sect knowing how to defend yourself from a demonic gu master is essential as they are more dangerous than beasts. Most demonic gu masters are men you can consider your current situation as preparation for the future to come."

Gao Ge then proceeded with the main topic "Alright let's start. I will check your ability when you spar against a fellow disciple, don't worry there is a healing gu master ready to act in case something happens." Gao Ge then proceeded to call two numbers "15 and 21."

"..."

The group of disciples remained quiet; most had already forgotten their assigned number.

"15 and 21!" Gao Ge spoke louder thinking they might not have heard.

"..."

Once again an awkward silence followed.

"Sigh… alright be honest how many of you forgot your numbers? Raise your hand." When Gao Ge finished talking. Of the 30 disciples, only 5 didn't raise their hands.

"Why does this keep happening?" Gao Ge mumbled before saying "All alright let's forget about the numbers let's go by names Liu Ze and Fang Dong."

Two male youngsters stepped forward and began sparing based on the weak attacks they threw and the main strategy they both had was trying to get on top of the other it was obvious they didn't have much experience.

While everyone gazed with interest and commented on the spars Lin Hao's will told Liang Lu "If you manage to be the first to defeat your instructor I will reward you accordingly."

Liang Lu nodded mumbling. "How much?"

"1000 points" Lin Hao's will commented.

Liang Lu immediately noticed that Lin Hao's reward was really generous, many times more than the academy's 100 primeval stones.

With Lin Hao's reward Liang Lu could exchange for a couple of rank 1 gu worms, many gu materials to refine gu and start building experience to complement his master attainment in the refinement path, or 10 drops of condensed souls each being able to strengthen his soul by 10 with the help of the Soul Tapeworm Gu.

"If I do it today?" Liang Lu mumbled.

"I'm feeling generous how about 2500?" Lin Hao's will said.

"Is there something in your mind brother Liang?" Yi Fang heard Liang Lu mumbling to himself and curiously asked.

"Oh it's nothing brother Yi it's just that I'm excited to spar with someone I used to spar with my grandpa every day but for more than a week I haven't been able to do so and I'm starting to feel rusty." Liang Lu made up an excuse before he pointed at Liu Ze and Fang Dong "Don't you think they are taking too long?"

"hmm… I guess." Yi Fang agreed before asking "Do you have experience in martial arts?"

"I can throw a punch." Liang Lu downplayed his skills.

Yi Fang nodded, returning to see the current spar.

Yi Fang felt that with each passing day, Liang Lu was closer to joining his faction. Their friendship had strengthened over the past week. Yi Fang even started seeing Liang Lu as the little brother he never had and found him interesting as Liang Lu talked more the more trust he had and displayed his talent and knowledge in literature and art.

Yi Fang could only sigh in admiration every time they exchanged knowledge. He was a talented merchant but still lacked in some areas yet Liang Lu not only had ample knowledge in his fields of expertise he was like a sponge, quickly absorbing the knowledge he acquired.

'The world is truly vast now. I know what inferiority feels like; did others feel the same when they looked at me?' Yi Fang asked himself 'It doesn't matter, I can only work hard to not fall behind hmm? this feeling… Father, now I understand when you said a rival can motivate you to work harder.'

The spars continued.

After many spars in which most youngsters showed shallow hand-to-hand combat experience and a few showed decent experience, it was Liang Lu's turn.

"Dou Wei and Liang Lu." Gao Ge spoke.

Hearing who he was going to fight, Dou Wei was excited. "Finally the time has come, Wang Mei. I will show you I'm better for you." Dou Wei glanced at the healing gu master who closely watched all the matches. "Hmpt Liang Lu you are lucky an elder is watching otherwise I would kill you."

Dou Wei was confident in his skills, he trained under many martial arts teachers hired by his father and he wasn't lazy in his training.

Dou Wei also underestimated Liang Lu as he seemed like a feeble femboy who had never lifted a weight his entire life. If only he knew Liang Lu trained like a madman.

'Sigh this guy again.' Liang Lu felt slightly annoyed as he stepped forward cupping his fist to greet Gao Ge.

Gao Ge nodded before looking at Dou Wei who remained in place "Dou Wei!" he raised his voice.

"Eh? Oh, coming!" Dou Wei awakened from his thoughts and stepped forward.

"Who do you think will win?" a youngster from the crowd asked.

"Liang Lu is a genius but just look at how frail he looks. I bet 1 primeval stone Dou Wei will beat him." a youngster from the crowd confidently made his bet.

"You are just jealous of Liang Lu. He is a genius in everything. I'm sure he is also a martial arts genius." One of the female youngsters interjected in their conversation.

"Yeah, Dong Fang you always boasted that no one was your match in painting yet Liang Lu beat you up with one of his word drawings and he was humble about it." another girl joined the previous as if they were bees other girls quickly joined her.

"I've heard Dou Wei has been trained by many martial arts masters while Liang Lu relies on women for everything. Just look at Wang Mei. She needs to buy him lunch every day because Liang Lu is a pauper." A youngster defended Dong Fang.

While both sides were arguing the spar continued.

After both Liang Lu and Dou Wei stood a few meters from each other, Gao Ge said "Begin."

Immediately after the words left his mouth Dou Wei quickly stepped forward throwing a flying kick at Liang Lu's face.

Almost instinctively Liang Lu reacted by dodging to the side and placing his fist in the direction of Dou Wei's crotch.

Everything happened too fast. Less than 2 seconds passed but as soon as Dou Wei touched the ground he immediately collapsed on the ground, contracting his body into a ball and holding his crotch as his face turned red and he screamed from the pain.

"AHHH!" The painful growls echoed through the training grounds gathering the attention of everyone present.

"What was that?"

"What just happened?"

The majority of youngsters immediately asked, not understanding how Dou Wei was already on the ground.

Only a few were able to see what just happened from among them one of them shouted "Liang Lu are you even a man? How could you punch him there? Do you want to kill his lineage?"

"...what?" Many youngsters had that question before they could ask that same youngster explained.

"Liang Lu broke the unspoken rule of men. He punched Dou Wei in his manhood."

"What?"

Seeing that no one was understanding, a youngster interfered. "What my friend tried to say is that he punched him in the dick."

as if the dam that was holding back an ocean suddenly broke down the youngsters all gasped before they began arguing.

"Liang Lu, what were you thinking? Have you gone mad?"

"Are you a coward?"

"This was a fight. There are no rules in fighting. What has he done wrong?"

While the arguments grew louder and louder the combat instructor Gao Ge shouted "Silence!"

After hearing Gao Ge's remainder the youngsters realized where they were and immediately quieted down.

Gao Ge looked at Dou Wei and then at Liang Lu before shouting. "Dou Wei can't continue, Liang Lu won!"

"No this still isn't over!" Hearing the announcement Dou Wei gritted his teeth from the pain and crossed his legs shouting as he stood up, his brown eyes shining with an indomitable aura as he stared at Liang Lu determined to beat him up.

Gao Ge reprimanded him "I admire your fighting spirit but you need to accept when you have lost and learn from those losses. You lost the moment pain overwhelmed you. If this was a life or death fight the opponent would have finished you off."

Just as Dou Wei was going to retort, the healing gu master that was right beside him said "Hold still I'm going to heal you."

"I… tsk." Dou Wei could only back off while the healing gu master healed him Dou Wei swore to take revenge. 'Liang Lu I will make sure to make you an eunuch!'

After Dou Wei and Liang Lu returned to the crowd Gao Ge continued calling names.

Yi Fang fought against a youngster that had developed faster than others. He was big and tall with bulging muscles. The result was that Yi Fang won in a few moves.

Surprisingly Yi Fang was faster and stronger than he looked and his fighting style was like sumo consisting of closing the distance and taking advantage of his weight to push the opponent to the ground and suppressing them with a grab with the support of his weight very few were confident of winning against him even Liang Lu wasn't confident to break free if Yi Fang managed to grab him.

When Wang Mei was called forward she immediately admitted defeat as soon as the spar started, making many raise an eyebrow from the 3 A grade talents; she was the only one that didn't show anything impressive.

Of the rest of the youngsters, only one caught Liang Lu's attention. A small female youngster with a malnourished body, golden irises, and sharp facial features, she was called Du Jian. She was originally a slave and had just recently been adopted by an elder according to the gossiping of the crowd.

She was the third A-grade talent that awakened with a 99 percent aperture surpassing Yi Fang by a small margin. Only a few knew that she could awaken an extreme physique if she was lucky or unlucky.

Du Jian was nothing impressive in Liang Lu's eyes she was quite weak, slow, and lacked combat experience but strangely enough, even when receiving blows to the face she didn't let out a single sound and her face remained unmoved especially her eyes shining with an uncaring aura as if nothing mattered.

When she was thrown into the ground she quickly got up and kept fighting. It happened so many times that the opponent begged her to stop and even Gao Ge had to interfere fearing that she might die at this rate.

When she was declared the loser, she simply nodded. She was about to return to her place but was stopped by the healing gu master, who pointed out that her face was swollen, bleeding, and her nose was broken. She admitted she had forgotten and allowed the healing gu master to heal her.

When Du Jian walked back to her spot she noticed Liang Lu looking at her. She stood in place and stared at him directly in the eyes as if she was curious about what she was seeing.

Liang Lu couldn't sense any danger coming from her but he felt a sense of uneasiness that he couldn't explain with words. Du Jian's next words only increased that feeling.

"I thought I would never feel my heart being warm again." Without elaborating further Du Jian returned to her original spot. The youngsters near her had subconsciously taken a few steps away from her.

"It seems you have a talent to attract eccentric people." Lin Hao's will casually remarked.

Liang thought to himself 'I'm a transmigrator and an extreme physique. With Dou Wei, there are 2 transmigrators in the sect; the chances of that are already extremely low and now with Du Jian, there is a possible extreme physique. Is this a pattern?'

Liang Lu sighed in his heart 'Both had to have a loose screw and both ended up targeting me. Am I a magnet for crazy people?'

Liang Lu closed his eyes planning. 'It doesn't matter, they will all become unimportant in my plans. As long as they don't get in my way I will do the same.'

…

Meanwhile in Nie Hu blessed land.

Lin Hao coldly stared at a rank 5 letter sending green bird gu after reading the contents he was suspicious "Help me pass my tribulation? As if."

Lin Hao had been receiving messages from a nameless organization for a long while it was mostly to trade resources and from time to time information. They had made it clear that they wished to exchange for some of the soul path immortal gu he had they especially wanted the rank 8 immortal gu from Old Loveless Xie's soul path inheritance. Soul Qi Immortal Gu.

Lin Hao refused to trade Immortal Gu the ones they offered didn't raise his interest but he acknowledged that they had a deep foundation as they often underwent large transactions and they even tried to recruit him although many had attempted to recruit him that organization was the most generous.

They shared part of an inheritance of a nameless soul path expert and promised to share the rest once he joined them. The conditions of the alliance agreement were generous but Lin Hao refused as he knew people wouldn't give something so valuable without something in exchange and right he was.

In the letter the organization asked for the clues to the rest of Old Loveless Xie's inheritances along with Soul Qi Immortal Gu, those 2 had already crossed Lin Hao's bottom line but it didn't stop there.

"These people have been blinded by greed," Lin Hao thought deeply. He could give up those benefits and swallow those huge losses, but the next conditions were unacceptable. "Those bastards want to take away my disciple, and what is this about having to undergo an alliance agreement to do one favor for one of their members saying a password no matter who it is or how dangerous it is?"

Lin Hao found the conditions overbearing and he didn't trust that they even had a way to help him pass his tribulation, sure he knew they had a few rank 7 gu immortals but he would need the help of a rank 8 to have any hope of succeeding.

Lin Hao tried asking for help to the ten great ancient sects one by one he even promised to join and offered his rank 8 Soul Qi Immortal Gu as payment but they all rejected him as for why? Lin Hao knew the reason was similar to why they didn't take Soul Qi Immortal Gu when they had the chance to do so the ten great ancient sects restrained each other.

If Lin Hao succeeded in becoming a rank 8 gu immortal and joined one of the ten great ancient sects the balance of power the ten great ancient sects had created after years of competition would collapse although the ten great ancient sects moved together to hoard as many resources as possible and also to fight major threats at the end of the day they competed among each other for benefits and even sabotaged each other when enough benefits were involved.

Not to mention that the current rank 8 gu immortals didn't want competition, much less let him join their sects as they would have to share their authority and benefits with someone who had just joined.

Lin Hao grabbed the letter gu and wrote his own message before sending it back.

Lin Hao watched the letter gu leaving his blessed land before sighing "This wealth it can all be given up once I die I can't take it with me anyway but I don't want to drag anyone else with me."

As Lin Hao sat and closed his tired eyes he began remembering the faces of his loved ones and the most important ones his wife and his son.

Strangely enough every time Lin Hao thought of his son the image of Liang Lu appeared beside him.

Sigh…

"Has age made me soft? To think that I have already formed a bond with someone I just met a week ago when in my days on the demonic path I killed one of my childhood friends for a bag of rice." Lin Hao soon returned to the present.

"Licking my wounds like a beaten dog and crying about the past won't take me anywhere." Lin Hao stood up beside him, the land spirit, a paper tiger that flickered with the wind spoke with a hoarse voice.

"Master, it is ready."

"Good." Lin Hao descended from the mountain he was sitting on. On the foot of the mountain, a group of hairy men had finished processing the ingredients. They were lively as they were going to help with the refinement of an immortal gu.

Lin Hao couldn't help but remember Nie Hu when he saw the hairy men unlike other hairy men who were worked to the bone and were treated as disposable assets these ones had healthy shiny hair and their eyes were filled with enthusiasm the original owner of the blessed land Nie Hu treated them well even guiding a few of the talented ones personally.

Lin Hao still remembered the scolding he gave her when she wanted to nurture one of them into rank 6.

Just as Lin Hao was about to smile at the good times he immediately remembered how she died with her body turning to ashes while helping him during his second grand tribulation he had warned her that fighting wasn't her specialty but she insisted and he permitted it he lost a good friend due to his indulgence.

Suddenly Lin Hao was awakened to reality by a hairy man cupping his fists "Mi Ling greets Lord Lin Hao."

Lin Hao looked at Mi Ling. He was the genius hairy man Nie Hu wanted to nurture to rank 6. He was a rank 5 gu master and only 150 years old but was already a refinement path grandmaster even Nie Hu admitted Mi Ling was more talented than her.

'You are extremely talented and your future would be bright if you had been a human. A shame you are a hairy man if I were to nurture you to rank 6 Heavenly Court would come knocking into my sect and destroy what I have created… maybe… just maybe I should let you go to the eastern sea granting you your freedom this is what Nie Hu would have wanted… sigh…' Lin Hao's mind was filled with complex emotions but his face remained cold and indifferent he said to Mi Ling "Let's begin."