Han De watched as his mother's expression kept changing. At first, she only looked at Ning Bi with dead eyes. Then furrowed her brows, a surprise replaced that, followed by shock, even more shock, bafflement, pride, relief, even more pride, disbelief, then shock again.
Her expression kept changing all the way. Then both Ning Bi and Long Xiu started smiling. Both of them looked proud and both of them started nodding.
Father and son duo looked at each other. Neither of them could make sense of the situation. Han Wei already knew about the non-existence of the so-called hidden family. He didn't interfere with his son but knew a lot about his affairs. He was curious, what could shock Long Xiu this much?
"Haha! Good! My little De! You got a good disciple here. You really have good eyes! Just like your mother!"
Long Xiu's voice was filled with joy and she was borderline shouting. She hugged Han De again and whispered: "I am sorry for doubting you."
She quickly released and looked at Han De right in the eyes.
"However, I will be upset if you hide an important matter from me again. You should've told me immediately when you found out about it."
Long Xiu glared at Han Wei, which caused the latter to flinch. They had a nice discussion about this a few days ago already. Those memories weren't pleasant, to say the least.
"Don't worry! That Zhao Dong will never live another second free of agony. And once I find their tool they will also suffer the same fate! Good job with capturing the tool's apprentice but from now on don't act your own, you are not alone after all."
Eager to earn some points, Han Wei interjected.
"Since the Zhao family is no more, and the sect is lacking elders, you will take an active role in the sect from now on."
Long Xiu scoffed at her husband but didn't say anything else.
"An active role?"
Ever since coming to this world Han De lived a life of laziness. He had experienced threats to his life one after the other but was able to keep himself grounded by relying on his laziness. 'An Active Role' wasn't appealing to him at all. On the contrary, it would increase his chances of interacting with potential offendees and/or already offended people.
"Of course! You should have had one from the beginning in the first place!"
Looking at her mother's beaming smile, Han De found it hard to voice his complaints. He had the sneaking suspicion that this was the purpose of the official summons and had already prepared some lines to dodge responsibility, at least for a while. His mother being here was a miscalculation on his part.
Han Wei sensed his son's reluctance and continued to press on.
"Demonic pagoda wasn't a bad idea. It seems to have motivated the inner sect disciples quite a bit. You don't need to have a role that requires you to stay away from your cultivation. Playing an active role to improve the sect in your own way is more than enough."
Han De hadn't visited or even asked about the pagoda after he placed it. It had only operated for a day and a civil war had ensued afterward. He was about to make an attempt at denying, but a sudden thought appeared in his mind.
'Maybe this way I can finally hire an immortal chef and open an immortal restaurant? Maybe some entertainment too, like a bookstore or something? Even a pet cafe would be nice.'
Both Long Xiu and Han Wei saw the glint in their son's eyes. It seemed like he had some plans already, so both didn't pursue it anymore. Han De's agreement was more than enough.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Long Xiu spoke.
"The apprentice said something about a spiritual artifact. It seems his master had attacked you to acquire it. Do you remember anything about that?"
Han De combed through his memories but the only thing close to something like that was his sword.
"What kind of spiritual artifact was it? Maybe knowing will jolt my memory?"
Han Wei shook his head.
"We don't know. We couldn't get much information out of him, he leaked that he was from a hidden sect but his soul burned away when he tried to say its name. Coupled with the demonic pagoda he had, it’s safe to say he was from a demonic sect. That narrows things down significantly."
"Seven Luminaries Reminiscence ingredients are almost complete. Even if you don't regain all of your memories you might regain enough for you to deduce its purpose."
Han De gave a nod but didn't say anything. The events seemed too coincidental. An arrogant young master finding a heaven-defying item and losing it to an MC or some other force that will come in contact with an MC wasn't an outlandish plot device. Later, when the arrogant young master sees the MC with that item, he will start seeking death and will eventually get killed by the MC.
Of course, the cultivation freak died due to this item. But, Han De was now in his body, and this B plot could continue where it left off uninterrupted.
Han De wanted this item to stay far away from him as possible. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a heaven-defying item. Even the timeframe of cultivation idiot's quick advancement to Mid-Stage Core Formation and his missing memories' entry point fit together perfectly.
His parents didn't miss this 'coincidence' as well. They were holding themselves together rather well but in reality, their fury was boundless. Someone attacked their son under their nose, nearly killed him then took his godly spiritual artifact? There could be only one answer to that...
Ning Bi was still present during this conversation. Long Xiu trusted her and didn't mind her knowing about matters related to Han De.
Someone attacked her master and caused him to lose his memory. This situation was unacceptable! And they even stole from him as well?! No one had noticed the fire that was roaring inside her right now. Well, no one but Long Xiu.
They didn't keep talking for long. Han Wei informed his son about one of the last ingredients appearing on an auction. Once that was acquired the last spiritual herb just needed a few weeks to mature, it was something the sect was already growing.
Long Xiu told Han De to attend the auction as well. He reluctantly agreed as he couldn't explain the concept of MC appearing in an auction to his mother.
Han De and Ning Bi left soon after. Long Xiu watched them leave with a faint smile. Then turned to her husband and released a long sigh.
"I didn't expect little De's comprehension to be this monstrous. Didn't you cause thousands of disciples to burn their souls because of the Blazing Sun?"
Han Wei gave a long sigh of his own.
"It wasn't just thousands and it wasn't just disciples. What did the girl say? Are you really convinced he really rewrote it?"
"Not once, but 3 times as he said. It wasn't only Blazing Sun either. He completely rewrote 13 different standard scriptures and gave them to her for study. She even told me some of its contents from the memory. There is no doubt about it. Also..."
Long Xiu coquettishly walked to her husband, threw her arms around his neck and smirked.
"Like me, it seems little De really has good eyes. He chose a disciple that could go through enlightenment twice in one week."
Han Wei was about to roll his eyes on her self-praise but he froze.
"What?!"
* * *
3 days later, Han De felt a pain in his liver. Starfall Mountain spiritual boat was prepared and they were ready to go to this auction.
On one hand, spending time in a luxury boat flying high above the ground was nice, but on the other hand, this meant an auction arc. Even if he didn't spot an MC, there could be other mysterious forces laying low, waiting to get offended by death seeking idiots. From Han De's perspective, this whole thing could blow up at any moment.
During these 3 days, Ning Bi had finally entered the pagoda without her OP Breach skill. She got stuck on the first floor at first but was able to reach the 2nd floor by the 3rd day. Her Cosmic Destruction advanced considerably.
Han De didn't ask her to write it down again, but according to her description, he thought it was around 1% improvement. It didn't look like a lot, but the initial completion rate was 5%. A total of 20% improvement in one day wasn't anything to scoff at.
Master and the disciple were looking towards the massive spiritual boat in the distance. Since it was a flying spiritual artifact, they obviously had to fly towards it. Han De had flown quite a few times since he had arrived in this world. As long as he wasn't flying at full speed, he had confidence.
'Man, if someone knew that I was afraid of flying, how could I ever look at anyone's face again? A Core Cultivator that is afraid of flying?! Even Ning Bi was able to fight right away after our flight to the Battlegrounds while I had to use all my strength to get to the seats!'
'I really need to get on top of this. I'm not afraid of heights, I only need to get used to the speed! Well for this little flight lets choose a low speed though...'
Both of them jumped on Han De's sword. Ning Bi was completely calm. She was the very perfection of calmness. No one could claim otherwise. The only odd thing about it was that she had completely closed her eyes while standing behind her master. Han De himself didn't notice anything.
Using only 2% of his power, they took off. It was a rather nice flight, but looking at the large distance Han De slowly increased his speed. They arrived at the spiritual boat under a few minutes. The flight itself satisfied Han De greatly, he used 1/5th of his power during the fastest part and was able to achieve gradual acceleration and deceleration. A success story!
[Breach (Mortal)]
[Progress: (+2) 4%]
He saw the indicator as they were jumping down. He looked at Ning Bi and saw that her eyes were shut.
'Damn, here I am, trying to overcome my phobia, and then there is this girl that decides to train because it was too slow for her. Fine! I'll just go full speed next flight!'
Ning Bi was able to overcome this tribulation by using her Breach skill. She was happy that she thought of it but then felt a chill on her spine. But when she opened her eyes everything was normal.
Both of them ignored the surrounding people with slack jaws and went to their cabin.
'Why even call this thing a spiritual boat? This is more like a spiritual ship, no a spiritual cruise ship. No, not even that, more like a spiritual yacht that is the size of a spiritual cruise ship...'
Han De was complaining, but he was secretly glad. When he first came to this world, he had decided whenever he traveled, it had to be in utmost luxury. For Han De, this absurdly large spiritual yacht was the peak of luxury. He was rather content.
* * *
3 days later Han De was regretting this trip already. Although everything looked luxurious, this was a cultivator spiritual boat, or more accurately a prestigious sect's spiritual boat. This meant there was nothing in the boat that would satisfy secular desires. In this boat, you would sit and cultivate. It's just that your cultivation environment looked nicer than the 99.99%.
Although he was an active elder now, and he was the son of the grand elder himself, he still wasn't alone in this giant luxury yacht. There were many other elders as well. Some came as sect representatives, some as guards. Where there were elders, disciples would also follow. A large number of disciples were also present, this was a real-world experience for them. There was also that insufferably slow talking guy that almost killed him with a heart attack a week ago. Han De's lackeys had joined them too, in fairly large numbers as well.
Places he could go without people were just too limited. He couldn't do his routine, there were too many eyes everywhere.
'Are you expecting me to cultivate all day long? That is just too cruel!'
Han De got tired of acting like he was meditating the first day of the voyage. He started randomly walking around in Profound Expert mode. Occasionally he would start gazing at the landscape. Sometimes he would narrow his eyes for extra profoundness effect. Sometimes he would sigh or sagely nod and continue walking.
However, after three days, he was finally out of the applicable skills. He couldn't just repeat the same actions over and over again. If he did that those skills would just backfire on him. He couldn't just blatantly look down at the ever-moving landscape either. He had already seen some elders scold disciples for doing just that.
Right now, he was looking down from the port bow. This voyage was just taking too long for his tastes. Auction or not, he just wanted to arrive at the destination. Han De muttered without thinking.
"Why is this so slow..."
'Wait, of course, I can fly, can't I? HAHA! I can act like I'm scouting or studying clouds or something! No one would see me as long as I fly high enough anyway.'
Han De didn't wait, he quickly jumped on his sword and flew up with great speed.
He wasn't alone at the port bow. There were many disciples around and being cultivators, some of them heard the mutterings of Han De.
"Elder De is so fast!"
"No wonder Elder De likes speed!"
"Of course this boat would seem so slow from his perspective!"
* * *
Han De was having fun flying around the clouds. He could fly at full speed for days, his upgraded sword art's energy efficiency was that amazing. So he kept flying at full speed and never slowed down.
'Hmph, flying at full speed? It doesn't matter at all. Of course I can do it! Why would I be afraid of it?!"
While he was flying at really high speeds and enjoying the feeling of thin air, Han De suddenly thought of something.
'You know, the altitude I'm flying at is really high, I should've seen the curvature of this world by now, right? Why does it look so flat?'
Han De furrowed his brows and flew higher and higher. The sky became dark and for the first time since his transmigration, he felt cold. His clothes were made out of spiritual materials so they didn't freeze with the excess moisture, but he could feel some ice forming on his face. He started holding his breath as well since the air was so thin it was practically non-existent.
After a while, Han De squinted his eyes and looked at the horizon again.
'No curvature?! Are you kidding me?! This is a flat world?! Is there an edge?!'
Although he spent half an hour looking, he couldn't spot an edge.
'There seems to be a veeery slight curve now that I looked at it carefully. I have no idea how high this is. System, do you have an altimeter?'
Naturally, there was no response.
'I thought not. Just thought I'd check. Still, I have clearly left this world's atmosphere. Everything down below... is so...'
'...tiny...'
Han De's heart dropped. Everything was so tiny! He had no idea where he came from! Where is the spiritual boat? Where is the sect? He had no idea! Maybe that small tiny minuscule blotch was the sect, maybe not. Even with his Core Formation eyes, he had no idea.
'F#$%'
* * *
Far, far away into the void.
{...}
{What is this? What a peculiar echo. The technique is fairly decent but the power is so weak...}
{Ah, so it came from this one. His roots are barely above average but why is his mastery so high?}
{Oh? There is another one as well? And close too. How entertaining...}
Han De watched as his mother's expression kept changing. At first, she only looked at Ning Bi with dead eyes. Then furrowed her brows, a surprise replaced that, followed by shock, even more shock, bafflement, pride, relief, even more pride, disbelief, then shock again.
Her expression kept changing all the way. Then both Ning Bi and Long Xiu started smiling. Both of them looked proud and both of them started nodding.
Father and son duo looked at each other. Neither of them could make sense of the situation. Han Wei already knew about the non-existence of the so-called hidden family. He didn't interfere with his son but knew a lot about his affairs. He was curious, what could shock Long Xiu this much?
"Haha! Good! My little De! You got a good disciple here. You really have good eyes! Just like your mother!"
Long Xiu's voice was filled with joy and she was borderline shouting. She hugged Han De again and whispered: "I am sorry for doubting you."
She quickly released and looked at Han De right in the eyes.
"However, I will be upset if you hide an important matter from me again. You should've told me immediately when you found out about it."
Long Xiu glared at Han Wei, which caused the latter to flinch. They had a nice discussion about this a few days ago already. Those memories weren't pleasant, to say the least.
"Don't worry! That Zhao Dong will never live another second free of agony. And once I find their tool they will also suffer the same fate! Good job with capturing the tool's apprentice but from now on don't act your own, you are not alone after all."
Eager to earn some points, Han Wei interjected.
"Since the Zhao family is no more, and the sect is lacking elders, you will take an active role in the sect from now on."
Long Xiu scoffed at her husband but didn't say anything else.
"An active role?"
Ever since coming to this world Han De lived a life of laziness. He had experienced threats to his life one after the other but was able to keep himself grounded by relying on his laziness. 'An Active Role' wasn't appealing to him at all. On the contrary, it would increase his chances of interacting with potential offendees and/or already offended people.
"Of course! You should have had one from the beginning in the first place!"
Looking at her mother's beaming smile, Han De found it hard to voice his complaints. He had the sneaking suspicion that this was the purpose of the official summons and had already prepared some lines to dodge responsibility, at least for a while. His mother being here was a miscalculation on his part.
Han Wei sensed his son's reluctance and continued to press on.
"Demonic pagoda wasn't a bad idea. It seems to have motivated the inner sect disciples quite a bit. You don't need to have a role that requires you to stay away from your cultivation. Playing an active role to improve the sect in your own way is more than enough."
Han De hadn't visited or even asked about the pagoda after he placed it. It had only operated for a day and a civil war had ensued afterward. He was about to make an attempt at denying, but a sudden thought appeared in his mind.
'Maybe this way I can finally hire an immortal chef and open an immortal restaurant? Maybe some entertainment too, like a bookstore or something? Even a pet cafe would be nice.'
Both Long Xiu and Han Wei saw the glint in their son's eyes. It seemed like he had some plans already, so both didn't pursue it anymore. Han De's agreement was more than enough.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Long Xiu spoke.
"The apprentice said something about a spiritual artifact. It seems his master had attacked you to acquire it. Do you remember anything about that?"
Han De combed through his memories but the only thing close to something like that was his sword.
"What kind of spiritual artifact was it? Maybe knowing will jolt my memory?"
Han Wei shook his head.
"We don't know. We couldn't get much information out of him, he leaked that he was from a hidden sect but his soul burned away when he tried to say its name. Coupled with the demonic pagoda he had, it’s safe to say he was from a demonic sect. That narrows things down significantly."
"Seven Luminaries Reminiscence ingredients are almost complete. Even if you don't regain all of your memories you might regain enough for you to deduce its purpose."
Han De gave a nod but didn't say anything. The events seemed too coincidental. An arrogant young master finding a heaven-defying item and losing it to an MC or some other force that will come in contact with an MC wasn't an outlandish plot device. Later, when the arrogant young master sees the MC with that item, he will start seeking death and will eventually get killed by the MC.
Of course, the cultivation freak died due to this item. But, Han De was now in his body, and this B plot could continue where it left off uninterrupted.
Han De wanted this item to stay far away from him as possible. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a heaven-defying item. Even the timeframe of cultivation idiot's quick advancement to Mid-Stage Core Formation and his missing memories' entry point fit together perfectly.
His parents didn't miss this 'coincidence' as well. They were holding themselves together rather well but in reality, their fury was boundless. Someone attacked their son under their nose, nearly killed him then took his godly spiritual artifact? There could be only one answer to that...
Ning Bi was still present during this conversation. Long Xiu trusted her and didn't mind her knowing about matters related to Han De.
Someone attacked her master and caused him to lose his memory. This situation was unacceptable! And they even stole from him as well?! No one had noticed the fire that was roaring inside her right now. Well, no one but Long Xiu.
They didn't keep talking for long. Han Wei informed his son about one of the last ingredients appearing on an auction. Once that was acquired the last spiritual herb just needed a few weeks to mature, it was something the sect was already growing.
Long Xiu told Han De to attend the auction as well. He reluctantly agreed as he couldn't explain the concept of MC appearing in an auction to his mother.
Han De and Ning Bi left soon after. Long Xiu watched them leave with a faint smile. Then turned to her husband and released a long sigh.
"I didn't expect little De's comprehension to be this monstrous. Didn't you cause thousands of disciples to burn their souls because of the Blazing Sun?"
Han Wei gave a long sigh of his own.
"It wasn't just thousands and it wasn't just disciples. What did the girl say? Are you really convinced he really rewrote it?"
"Not once, but 3 times as he said. It wasn't only Blazing Sun either. He completely rewrote 13 different standard scriptures and gave them to her for study. She even told me some of its contents from the memory. There is no doubt about it. Also..."
Long Xiu coquettishly walked to her husband, threw her arms around his neck and smirked.
"Like me, it seems little De really has good eyes. He chose a disciple that could go through enlightenment twice in one week."
Han Wei was about to roll his eyes on her self-praise but he froze.
"What?!"
* * *
3 days later, Han De felt a pain in his liver. Starfall Mountain spiritual boat was prepared and they were ready to go to this auction.
On one hand, spending time in a luxury boat flying high above the ground was nice, but on the other hand, this meant an auction arc. Even if he didn't spot an MC, there could be other mysterious forces laying low, waiting to get offended by death seeking idiots. From Han De's perspective, this whole thing could blow up at any moment.
During these 3 days, Ning Bi had finally entered the pagoda without her OP Breach skill. She got stuck on the first floor at first but was able to reach the 2nd floor by the 3rd day. Her Cosmic Destruction advanced considerably.
Han De didn't ask her to write it down again, but according to her description, he thought it was around 1% improvement. It didn't look like a lot, but the initial completion rate was 5%. A total of 20% improvement in one day wasn't anything to scoff at.
Master and the disciple were looking towards the massive spiritual boat in the distance. Since it was a flying spiritual artifact, they obviously had to fly towards it. Han De had flown quite a few times since he had arrived in this world. As long as he wasn't flying at full speed, he had confidence.
'Man, if someone knew that I was afraid of flying, how could I ever look at anyone's face again? A Core Cultivator that is afraid of flying?! Even Ning Bi was able to fight right away after our flight to the Battlegrounds while I had to use all my strength to get to the seats!'
'I really need to get on top of this. I'm not afraid of heights, I only need to get used to the speed! Well for this little flight lets choose a low speed though...'
Both of them jumped on Han De's sword. Ning Bi was completely calm. She was the very perfection of calmness. No one could claim otherwise. The only odd thing about it was that she had completely closed her eyes while standing behind her master. Han De himself didn't notice anything.
Using only 2% of his power, they took off. It was a rather nice flight, but looking at the large distance Han De slowly increased his speed. They arrived at the spiritual boat under a few minutes. The flight itself satisfied Han De greatly, he used 1/5th of his power during the fastest part and was able to achieve gradual acceleration and deceleration. A success story!
[Breach (Mortal)]
[Progress: (+2) 4%]
He saw the indicator as they were jumping down. He looked at Ning Bi and saw that her eyes were shut.
'Damn, here I am, trying to overcome my phobia, and then there is this girl that decides to train because it was too slow for her. Fine! I'll just go full speed next flight!'
Ning Bi was able to overcome this tribulation by using her Breach skill. She was happy that she thought of it but then felt a chill on her spine. But when she opened her eyes everything was normal.
Both of them ignored the surrounding people with slack jaws and went to their cabin.
'Why even call this thing a spiritual boat? This is more like a spiritual ship, no a spiritual cruise ship. No, not even that, more like a spiritual yacht that is the size of a spiritual cruise ship...'
Han De was complaining, but he was secretly glad. When he first came to this world, he had decided whenever he traveled, it had to be in utmost luxury. For Han De, this absurdly large spiritual yacht was the peak of luxury. He was rather content.
* * *
3 days later Han De was regretting this trip already. Although everything looked luxurious, this was a cultivator spiritual boat, or more accurately a prestigious sect's spiritual boat. This meant there was nothing in the boat that would satisfy secular desires. In this boat, you would sit and cultivate. It's just that your cultivation environment looked nicer than the 99.99%.
Although he was an active elder now, and he was the son of the grand elder himself, he still wasn't alone in this giant luxury yacht. There were many other elders as well. Some came as sect representatives, some as guards. Where there were elders, disciples would also follow. A large number of disciples were also present, this was a real-world experience for them. There was also that insufferably slow talking guy that almost killed him with a heart attack a week ago. Han De's lackeys had joined them too, in fairly large numbers as well.
Places he could go without people were just too limited. He couldn't do his routine, there were too many eyes everywhere.
'Are you expecting me to cultivate all day long? That is just too cruel!'
Han De got tired of acting like he was meditating the first day of the voyage. He started randomly walking around in Profound Expert mode. Occasionally he would start gazing at the landscape. Sometimes he would narrow his eyes for extra profoundness effect. Sometimes he would sigh or sagely nod and continue walking.
However, after three days, he was finally out of the applicable skills. He couldn't just repeat the same actions over and over again. If he did that those skills would just backfire on him. He couldn't just blatantly look down at the ever-moving landscape either. He had already seen some elders scold disciples for doing just that.
Right now, he was looking down from the port bow. This voyage was just taking too long for his tastes. Auction or not, he just wanted to arrive at the destination. Han De muttered without thinking.
"Why is this so slow..."
'Wait, of course, I can fly, can't I? HAHA! I can act like I'm scouting or studying clouds or something! No one would see me as long as I fly high enough anyway.'
Han De didn't wait, he quickly jumped on his sword and flew up with great speed.
He wasn't alone at the port bow. There were many disciples around and being cultivators, some of them heard the mutterings of Han De.
"Elder De is so fast!"
"No wonder Elder De likes speed!"
"Of course this boat would seem so slow from his perspective!"
* * *
Han De was having fun flying around the clouds. He could fly at full speed for days, his upgraded sword art's energy efficiency was that amazing. So he kept flying at full speed and never slowed down.
'Hmph, flying at full speed? It doesn't matter at all. Of course I can do it! Why would I be afraid of it?!"
While he was flying at really high speeds and enjoying the feeling of thin air, Han De suddenly thought of something.
'You know, the altitude I'm flying at is really high, I should've seen the curvature of this world by now, right? Why does it look so flat?'
Han De furrowed his brows and flew higher and higher. The sky became dark and for the first time since his transmigration, he felt cold. His clothes were made out of spiritual materials so they didn't freeze with the excess moisture, but he could feel some ice forming on his face. He started holding his breath as well since the air was so thin it was practically non-existent.
After a while, Han De squinted his eyes and looked at the horizon again.
'No curvature?! Are you kidding me?! This is a flat world?! Is there an edge?!'
Although he spent half an hour looking, he couldn't spot an edge.
'There seems to be a veeery slight curve now that I looked at it carefully. I have no idea how high this is. System, do you have an altimeter?'
Naturally, there was no response.
'I thought not. Just thought I'd check. Still, I have clearly left this world's atmosphere. Everything down below... is so...'
'...tiny...'
Han De's heart dropped. Everything was so tiny! He had no idea where he came from! Where is the spiritual boat? Where is the sect? He had no idea! Maybe that small tiny minuscule blotch was the sect, maybe not. Even with his Core Formation eyes, he had no idea.
'F#$%'
* * *
Far, far away into the void.
{...}
{What is this? What a peculiar echo. The technique is fairly decent but the power is so weak...}
{Ah, so it came from this one. His roots are barely above average but why is his mastery so high?}
{Oh? There is another one as well? And close too. How entertaining...}
