9 Meeting 2

"Hahaha! I could hear the three of you discussing about my grandson from a mile away!" The instant Li Kui entered the venue, the old man couldn't help but gloat about his grandson, Li Tian. 

"Old Li! You're surely mistaking it again, right? This is probably the same as the time you lied about your grandson, Li Ming?" Li Ming was the son of Li Kui's second eldest son. Meng Zi asked questioningly. 

"If you think I'm joking, let me call up my daughter!" Li Kui was just waiting for someone to bring it up. His phone was already in his hand. The messaging app was even open on the phone when he entered. "Let me show you all how amazing this grandson of mine is!" 

"Tsk…" None of the other elders believed his words. 

Ring ring… The phone rang for a short moment before Li Xian had already picked up the video call. A voice that sounded like an angel came out of the phone, "Hello, father? Is there something you need?" 

"Xian Er, could you pass the phone to my sweet grandson, Tian Er? This old man is currently with the other elders, and they would like to look at him." 

"Ah? Are you showing off again?" Li Xian could already tell what was going through his father's head. 

"It's because those three refuses to believe my words and would rather see my grandson in action before they would believe me." 

"Alright, alright." Li Xian did not bother to argue with his father. She turned to her side and looked at her baby boy. With a sweet tone, Li Xian spoke with Li Tian. "Tian Er, grandpa is looking for you." 

With Tian Er holding the phone, the image of a cute and adorable baby boy appeared on the screen. When Li Tian heard from the side about his grandpa's doings, the baby boy knew what to do. With an endearing voice that could melt anyone's heart, he greeted. 

"Grandpa!" 

"My grandson! Grandpa misses you!" 

"I miss you too, grandpa!" Hearing his voice, Li Kui's old heart instantly quivered. 

"Tian Er, let me show you a few other grandpas. This is grandpa Zhuge, grandpa Meng and grandpa Tang! Come greet them!" 

Li Tian nodded as he greeted the three elders. "Nice to meet you, grandpa Zhuge! Nice to meet you, grandpa Meng! Nice to meet you, grandpa Tang!" 

When the three other elders heard Li Tian's greetings, all of their eyes widen in disbelief. 

"This this…" 

"Impossible!" 

"My god!" 

To continue with the stimulation, Li Kui proceeded to ask what Li Tian was reading. Li Xian played along and switch the camera view to show Li Tian in a third-person perspective. 

"I'm understanding words that start with the letter 'B'." Li Tian explained. In front of him was a large dictionary that was the thickness of Li Tian's body. To say that this seen looked absolutely ridiculous, wouldn't be an understatement. 

When the other elders saw this, all of them were rendered speechless. Meng Zi quickly nudged Zhuge Ming Yu. "Old Zhuge, go test little Tian's English." 

"What?" Zhuge Ming Yu didn't know what to say. He himself was basically seventy times the little baby's age and yet, here he was, about to test the baby's English proficiency. "Um little Tian, can you introduce yourself in English?" 

Zhuge Ming Yu fluent English made Li Tian slightly surprised. This was the first time since he came into this world where he heard English. Moreover, this came from a Chinese elder who looked older than his own grandpa. With a nod, Li Tian replied in a fluent American accent, "Good morning elders, my name is Li Tian. I am turning one very soon. Nice to meet everyone." 

"WHATTTT?!?!?!!" Three loud voices rang throughout the teahouse. The three elders were simultaneously stumped by the little baby's response. Even without fact checking, both Meng Zi and Tang San Ze could tell that this baby spoke in perfect English. It could even be said that his English accent was better than Zhuge Ming Yu. 

"Th…This…Is this real?" Zhuge Ming Yu was the first was look at Li Kui, who was busy saying bye to his beloved grandson. When Li Kui was done, he looked up at the three elders with a huge grin. 

"My grandson is amazing right?" 

"No, that's not just amazing. That's terrifying! Little Xian had given birth was an absolute monster of a human!" Tang San Ze commented with a ghastly look. 

The three elders looked like they had just seen a ghost. 

"When I first heard about this, I lost my bearings too." Li Kui shook his head. He himself was also not able to believe it. He looked at the three of them and smirked, "Guess I now have the most talented grandson out of the four of us." 

Ever since the four of them had grandchildren, the four patriarchs had been competing on who had the most talented grandson. Usually, talent was measured using their level of martial arts comprehension. However, today, the other three elders had to give the title to Old Li's grandson. There was no way to refute this claim. After all, recent research has shown that language comprehension plays a huge role in predicting whether a child has great martial talent or not. The earlier a child speaks and learns a language, the higher the intelligence. 

This claim could be proven by the current genius of the Zhuge family, Zhuge Ke Ming, who was originally the greatest genius grandchild in the four major clans. Zhuge Ke Ming started speaking fluently at one years of age and that was shocking enough for the four elders. Now, at the age of 13, the teenager was already in the first layer of Qi Refinement Realm. 

Before the The Land of Hua was formed, the country was originally broken into many segments of land, where each land was ruled by a different king. For thousands of years, the kingdoms fought in wars to claim more territory over the others. Brutality and turmoil were the norm in that era. It wasn't until the very first emperor had managed to unite each kingdom, to form the one and only The Land of Hua. This process was not done through politics or the might of his army. It was done through the emperor's individual strength. 

The first emperor's name was Mu He Xin. Mu He Xin came from an ordinary background. Being an orphan, Mu He Xin was placed in a monastery when he was born. The boy grew up under the care of the monks. He learnt moral values and how to hone his strength to use it for the right purposes. Eventually, when he turned 18, Mu He Xin left the monastery for a religious mission. On his journey, he witnessed the cruelties of war and the fickleness of humans. Something clicked in his while he was walking through the battlefield. Mu He Xin found his purpose in life. He wanted to end the people's suffering. 

Mu He Xin did not continue with his religious mission. Sending a letter back to his master, he wrote of the fact that he found his purpose and now, it was time for him to grow his strength. From the beginning, the master of the monastery already knew of Mu He Xin's monstrous talent. While others had one or two affinities with the elements, Mu He Xin was born with four, Water, Earth, Fire, and Wind. Understanding that war was not won by talking, Mu He Xin devoted his time in cultivating and honing his Qi to elevate his control and mastery over the four elements. 

Although many martial partitioners have existed in the land of The Land of Hua, no one had ever coined the different stages in cultivation. Mu He Xin was the first to develop the cultivation realms. The first stage in cultivation was the Qi Gathering Realm, followed by the Qi Refinement Realm, Core Formation Realm, Nascent Soul Realm and lastly, Soul Ascendence Realm. According to myths, Mu He Xin had theorized that there was a realm above Soul Ascendence. That realm was named Celestial Realm and when reached, the martial practitioner would become immortal. However, no one had even reach or been recorded as reaching the Celestial Realm. In regards to the previous emperors, all of them had attained the Soul Ascendence Realm and with their terrifying strength, they managed to expel the Demonic Beasts that invaded the land, whilst uniting the people of Hua. 

Typically, martial practitioners only start their cultivation journey at the age of 12. Only when they just stepped into adult hood at 18 would a regular martial practitioner complete the Qi Gathering Realm. As such, existence like Zhuge Ke Ming who completed Qi Gathering at the age of 13 was such a terrifying existence. Since Li Tian could speak earlier than Zhuge Ke Ming, it gone to show that Li Tian would most likely become an even more terrifying genius than Zhuge Ke Ming. What the four elders did not know was that Li Tian had already stepped onto the path of cultivation even before he turned one. This concept was unfathomable and no emperor in the Land of Hua had ever done this before. 

After the heart-stopping event started by Li Kui, the four Elders calmed themselves and started on proper business. The patriarch of the Meng Clan got the ball rolling. "So, Old Tang, how's the Northern Borders?"