by Dragon King
Hao Ren was also curious, and he listened attentively to their conversation.
Zhao Guang looked back at Zhao Hongyu before glancing at Hao Ren and answered in a whisper, “West Ocean just sent a peace treaty through their premier. They will trade the life of Zeng Yitao with 25,000 kilograms of gold, 50,000 kilograms of silver, 300 10,000-year deep ocean corals, 800 top-tier nightly pearls, 500 Foundation-Building Pills, and 12 West Ocean Mystic Ice! Besides, they offered a peace period of 500 years between the two oceans!”
275 A Big family
“Really?” Zhao Hongyu had been calm in every emergency, but this time she was astonished.
“I don’t know if it’s a trick of theirs. Tomorrow evening, the premiere of the West Ocean Dragon Palace will come to the East Ocean Dragon Palace with the gifts and pick up Zeng Yitao,” Zhao Guang said.
“But West Ocean’s style is not to play tricks. They don’t think they need schemes with their greater strength,” Zhao Hongyu analyzed in a low voice.
Standing next to them, Hao Ren didn’t understand the 180-degree change in the West Ocean’s attitude.
“Mom! The pot is taken out. Shall I wash it?” Standing on the other side of the living room. Zhao Yanzi asked with a dusty electric hotpot pot in her hands.
Zhao Yanzi glanced at Zhao Guang. “We’ll talk about it when we get home.”
She turned to face Zhao Yanzi. “Of course, you must wash it. It’s dusty!”
“Ok!” Nodding, Zhao Yanzi walked to Hao Ren and placed the pot into his hands with a frown. “Hurry up and wash it!”
“Zi, you wash it!” Zhao Hongyu glanced at Zhao Yanzi in exasperation.
“The pot belongs to him, and I don’t know how to wash it! It took a great effort of mine to dig it out from the storage room!” Zhao Yanzi said, widening her bright eyes
Hao Ren saw threads of spider webs on her arm, knowing that she had indeed dug out the hotpot from under the pile of rarely used objects. Without talking back, he took the pot to the kitchen to wash it.
“Linlin, Lili, come with me to rinse the vegetables!” Zhao Hongyu beckoned to the sisters.
“Ok!” The Lu sisters answered in unison.
They needed to wash and rinse the vegetables and chop the meats for hotpot.
Obediently, Lu Linlin and Lu Lili followed Zhao Hongyu to the backyard and helped her.
This left Zhao Yanzi with nothing to do. While Grandma talked with her dad, she stood in the living room and found it quite empty.
She thought for a while and ran into the kitchen to stand beside Hao Ren.
Hao Ren was rubbing the pot with a piece of cloth, and he ignored her when she came in.
Zhao Yanzi didn’t speak; she just watched him by his side.
“What are you doing here?” Hao Ren turned his head slightly and looked at her.
“Nothing.” Zhao Yanzi curled her lips.
Hao Ren rinsed the pot with hot water before scrubbing the stubborn stains with a tougher scrubby.
“Hey!” Zhao Yanzi yelled abruptly.
Ignoring her, Hao Ren continued scrubbing.
“Hey!” Zhao Yanzi yelled again.
When Hao Ren continued to ignore her, she said, “Do you want me to call over your Class President?”
“Are you trying to mess with me?” Hao Ren looked at her in exasperation.
“Not at all. You miss her, right?” Zhao Yanzi glanced at him and said in a provocative tone.
Ignoring her, Hao Ren scrubbed the pot more thoroughly.
“Give me your cell phone; I’ll call her.” Zhao Yanzi reached out her hand.
“I have no time for your nonsense.” Hao Ren took the pot to the other sink.
However, Zhao Yanzi followed him. While he was busy scrubbing, she stuck her hand into his pocket for his cell phone.
Hao Ren tried to dodge, but her hand kept wriggling in his pocket. Hao Ren panicked.
Finally, she grabbed the cell phone and took it out of his pocket.
“Hey! Give it back!” Hao Ren chased her with the pot in his hand. However, she had run out of the kitchen and then out of the house, making the call.
With the pot in his hand, Hao Ren could only watch her.
Minutes later, Zhao Yanzi returned to the kitchen with his cell phone.
“Did you finish the call?” Hao Ren looked at her.
“No! I lied to you. I didn’t call her.” Zhao Yanzi slipped the cell phone back into his pocket before running out of the kitchen to join Zhao Hongyu and the Lu sisters in the backyard.
Hao Ren didn’t believe her.
After drying his hands, he took out the cell phone and pulled out the recent calls. Sure enough, there was a call made to Xie Yujia a few minutes ago.
He dialed her number, and it was answered after two rings.
“Yujia?” Hao Ren said immediately.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Xie Yujia answered.
“Did Zhao Yanzi call you?” Hao Ren asked.
“Yeah. She called me,” she answered lightly.
“What did she say?” Hao Ren asked cautiously.
“Nothing important. She just invited me over for hotpot,” she paused for a few seconds before asking, “Is she with you right now?”
“Yeah. She’s at my home with her parents.”
“Oh…”
Silence.
To break the silence, Hao Ren asked her, “What are you doing?”
“Reading.”
“Are you home alone?”
“Yeah,” she answered in a gentle and lazy voice.
“Do you… do you want to come over and have hotpot with us? Lu Linlin and Lu Lili are here as well.”
“No. I’ll cook something for myself.”
“Oh…” Now, Hao Ren didn’t know what to say.
“Have fun. I’ll go back to my book.” Xie Yujia’s words signaled her intention to end the conversation.
“Ok. And… Grandma hopes that you can come over when you have time,” he said.
“Got it,” she answered before hanging up.
Hao Ren was suddenly at a loss.
He could imagine Xie Yujia sitting in the small windowless room, reading under a yellow lamp.
Seeing Zhao Yanzi playing with Zhao Hongyu outside, Hao Ren wondered if Zhao Yanzi had called Xie Yujia for fun or to meddle with her.
“Ren! Are you done washing the pot?” Grandma called him from outside.
“Yeah. It’s done!” he answered immediately before taking the pot out of the kitchen.
Then, a boisterous and lively hotpot meal began. With Grandma in the center, everyone talked, laughed, and got closer to each other in the process.
Zhao Guang was in a great mood, eating, drinking and talking a lot. Grandma rarely had so many people eating a meal with her in recent years, so she was delighted.
When the night came, Zhao Hongyu and the Lu sisters helped Hao Ren to clean the table, and then it was almost time to leave.
Grandma stood in the doorway, seeing them off reluctantly.
There were two vacant spots in the car, so Zhao Guang would drive Lu Linlin and Lu Lili back to downtown. Since Lu Linlin and Lu Lili were ‘granddaughters’ of Lu Qing, they were also part of Zhao Guang’s big family in a way.
While the black Chevrolet drove away slowly, Grandma sighed slightly.
Loneliness always came after the party.
Knowing Grandma’s sentiments, Hao Ren helped her back to the house.
“I called Yujia today, but she said she is busy and can’t come,” Grandma said while walking into the house.
“She… I guess she’s busy,” Hao Ren said helplessly.
“Well, well! Nothing is perfect in the world!” With a wave of her hand, Grandma walked into the brightly lit house slowly.
While Hao Ren sighed together with his grandma, in her small room, Xie Yujia rubbed her head and closed a thick book.
After checking the clock on the desk, she rolled her shoulders and stood up. “Well, it’s time for me to
go to the old Grandma’s place and cultivate.”
276 Grandma Cherishes You!
Xie Yujia cooked a couple of dishes and packed them in separate boxes before going to the nearby shanty town.
After arriving in front of the old Grandma’s rundown little house, Xie Yujia knocked, and the old Grandma opened the door.
“Grandma, I cooked these dishes and they are still warm.” Xie Yujia walked in and placed the boxes on the black wooden table.
The old Grandma nodded and sat at the table.
Xie Yujia sat next to her and took out two pairs of chopsticks. Today, she was alone at home, so she cooked the meal to eat with the old Grandma.
The old Grandma ate slowly without a word.
Xie Yujia glanced at her and said after a few seconds of hesitation, “Grandma…”
“Yes?” The old Grandma looked up.
“One of my friends wants to make Beauty Pills. She… wants you to help her,” Xie Yujia said cautiously while observing the old Grandma’s expression.
“What’s her name?”
“Su Han.”
“The Dragon Tribe’s inspector in East Ocean City? I won’t help her,” the old Grandma said.
Xie Yujia was a little surprised, but she didn’t pursue the topic since the old Grandma had refused to help Su Han.
“However, I can teach you how to make the pills,” seeing Xie Yujia’s awkward expression, the old Grandma softened and changed her tone.
“Me?” Xie Yujia looked at her with doubt and excitement. “Can I do it?”
“Why not? You are my disciple!” The old Grandma’s face fell a little.
She couldn’t bear to see Xie Yujia in such a hesitant and self-doubting way. She was a lively and confident girl, but she had become so hesitant and indecisive due to her love life. The old Grandma’s heart ached for her.
A moment later, the old Grandma’s expression softened. “The Life-Death Note I taught you is not a simple technique of attack and defense. It can control the changes of the nature essence. Naturally, it can make elixir pills.”
Elixir creation, after all, extracted the five-elemental essences from the materials before combining them in proper proportions with special techniques in a furnace.
The Five-Elemental Life-Death Note could use the five-elemental essences in nature, so it could control the flows of the five elemental essences in the furnace. By extracting the purest elemental essences from the materials, it could greatly enhance the success rate.
“But you can’t make elixirs with mortal fires. You need to borrow the snow lion from that kid,” the old Grandma continued.
She called Hao Ren “that kid” instead of his name, showing her disapproval of him.
“Ok, Grandma,” Xie Yujia, who lowered her head to focus on her meal, answered gently.
The old Grandma stopped talking and began savoring the dishes cooked by Xie Yujia.
After the meal, Xie Yujia cleaned the table, and the old Grandma rested for a while before teaching Xie Yujia how to make elixir pills with the technique.
The Five-Elemental Life-Death Note was the technique that earned old Grandma her reputation in the world of cultivation. The Five-Elemental Note controlled life, death, and nature. She had used this technique to take essence from nature by force, leaping from the top-tier Nascent Soul Realm to the Soul Formation Realm.
By learning the Life-Death Note, Xie Yujia had undoubtedly become the direct disciple of the old Grandma. However, due to her poor cultivation talent, the old Grandma had no hopes of her reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.
Here is the key; the Five-Elemental Life-Death Note was the perfect counter for the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll.
While the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll could activate the five-elemental essences and turn the essences into sword energies, the Five-Elemental Life-Death Note could control and collect the five elemental essences in nature and thus became the nemesis of the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll.
The old Grandma taught Xie Yujia this technique, not in the hopes that she would sweep over the mortal world. Instead, the old Grandma hoped that Xie Yujia could use it against Hao Ren if the latter dared to ‘bully’ her.
No matter how many sword energies or sword energy array formations Hao Ren released, Xie Yujia could absorb them all with the Five-Elemental Note.
If the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll was a sword, then the Five-Elemental Life-Death Note was the scabbard.
“I would never allow my disciple to be slighted!”
Seeing Xie Yujia practicing the elixir making technique with Five-Elemental Note, the old Grandma beckoned to her.
“Grandma, is there anything wrong?” Xie Yujia got anxious since she hadn’t made any progress after cultivating for a long while. Although she was smart in studying, she was quite obtuse in cultivation.
“Last time, I gave you the Life Note, and now I’ll plant in you the Death Note.” The old Grandma placed her hand on Xie Yujia’s shoulder, and a surge of pure nature essence entered the center of her left palm after passing through her meridians instantly.
With a burning sensation in the center of her left palm, a faint silver note was printed in Xie Yujia’s palm.
Golden was life while silver was death. One was the Life Note, and the other was the Death Note.
The two notes the old Grandma injected into Xie Yujia’s body with her cultivation strength of the Soul Formation Realm were ‘Source Notes.’ After she could circulate them proficiently, she could create limitless Life-Death Notes.
The Life Note could absorb the essences of nature and other people’s cultivation strength; the Death Note could shoot condensed energy beads into enemies’ acupoints, blocking their meridians and exploding their bodies.
The Life-Death Note was a very aggressive technique both in cultivation and combat.
“Death and Life correspond to Yin and Yang respectively, but it’s not a fixed rule. Since you are still at the Qi Refinement Realm, you can’t understand the greatness of the Life-Death Note…”
The old Grandma straightened up the nature essence in Xie Yujia’s body, and she explained to her the concepts of the notes at the same time.
Xie Yujia cultivated while she listened, feeling one cold energy current and one hot surge of energy current moving in her body. It was an exquisite sensation.
“Grandma, did you say that Hao Ren is already at the Core Formation Realm?” Xie Yujia asked abruptly.
“He has better cultivation talent than you. With that little help from me, he is now at the Core Formation Realm,” the old Grandma said genially.
“Core Formation Realm…” Xie Yujia murmured to herself.
According to the old Grandma, she was now only on level 2 of Qi Refinement Realm. After reaching level 10 of Qi Refinement Realm, she would have the opportunity to advance to Foundation Establishment Realm. After she reached the top-tier of Foundation Establishment Realm, she would have the chance to form an internal core… There seemed to be a long way ahead of her before she could catch up to Hao Ren.
“Grandma, you can speak well. Why did you pretend to be mute?” Xie Yujia asked suddenly.
“What can I say to these mortals around me? It’s enough for me to sit in the mortal world and watch the vicissitudes of the world,” the old Grandma answered.
Xie Yujia didn’t quite understand the thoughts and the mind of the old Grandma who was already a Soul Formation Realm cultivator. However, she knew that she was quite fortunate that the old Grandma talked to her.
Time passed quietly, and the moon rose and fell.
Without noticing it, Xie Yujia had cultivated for a whole night in the old Grandma’s place.
The house looked broken, but the essence intensity in it was dozens of times more potent than the outside. After one night’s cultivation, Xie Yujia felt like her realm had elevated.
“Grandma, it seems like I got a small breakthrough,” Xie Yujia, a new cultivator, said with pleasant surprise.
“Well, you are at level 3 of Qi Refinement.” The old Grandma, who was sitting cross-legged on her wooden board bed, opened her eyes slowly and nodded.
“Hehe, thank you, Grandma!” Xie Yujia was pleased.
A smile appeared on the old Grandma’s wrinkled face.
In fact, she was a little exasperated. Xie Yujia possessed the ‘Stone Body Type’ that was the most unsuitable for cultivation. After cultivating with a Nascent Soul Realm Life Note, she only broke through one level in the Qi Refinement Realm…
“Grandma, I have some errands to run today. I’ll buy you breakfast, and then I’ll head back,” Xie Yujia stretched and said.
“You don’t have to buy me breakfast. You’ve cultivated for one night, so you must be tired. I’ll give you a lift.” The old Grandma waved her arm.
Xie Yujia felt her body was lifted suddenly. When she opened her eyes again, she was in the clouds.
“That kid doesn’t cherish you, but I cherish you. Don’t worry, Yujia, as long as I have a breath in me, I’ll never allow you to suffer,” the old Grandma held onto Xie Yujia’s hand lightly and said while they traveled in the clouds.
While feeling the moist mist rushing against her face, Xie Yujia heard the old Grandma’s words; she suddenly felt like crying.
“Go! You are too soft-hearted. You don’t want to fight for yourself, but I’ll fight for you!” The old Grandma released her abruptly.
Xie Yujia fell toward the ground. When she was close to the ground, beams of light appeared under her feet and steadied her body.
She looked around and found that she was standing in front of Hao Ren’s house!
“Grandma even knows that I wanted to come here…” Xie Yujia looked up at the sky but couldn’t see the old Grandma in the thick white clouds.
No one could see the whereabouts of a grandmaster of the Soul Formation Realm! In the whole world, who would have the audacious to block a Soul Formation Realm cultivator?!
“Grandma! Grandma!” Xie Yujia stood in the doorway and called out in her clear voice.
Hao Ren’s grandma was an early riser. Hearing the voice, she immediately opened the window to check who it was.
“Well! It’s you, little Yujia.”
“I’m free today, so I came to see you,” Xie Yujia said, blushing.
