by Dragon King
“It’s late…” She hesitated for a few seconds. “I’ll go with you.”
She put the bags on the floor before walking toward him.
The moon was bright at midnight.
Hao Ren walked to the place where he had cultivated last time. After inhaling deeply, he released 80 sword energies!
One-line Snake Array Formation! After the sword energies spun in the air twice, they dashed down and cut a perfect circle in the sand.
The area inside the circle was the danger zone! Hao Ren stood in the center of the circle as the target of the lightning!
Eighty five-colored sword energies connected end to end, turning into one large hundun sword energy and shooting up into the clouds.
Hao Ren was now very smooth with the process. Just a couple of months ago, he would never have imagined that he could control 80 sword energies smoothly!
Xie Yujia stood outside of the circle, watching Hao Ren’s movements in amazement.
Boom! Boom!
The calm clouds began to tumble under the stimulation of the hundun sword energy.
Regardless of Zhao Yanzi’s attitude toward him, he would never slack off in his cultivation since he was determined to repay the kindness Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu had shown him.
Swoosh!
A bright white beam of lightning traveled down the path of the hundun sword energy and shot down toward Hao Ren from the southeast side.
Hao Ren emitted a pale blue energy sphere while the hundun sword energy split into 80 sword energies and formed an array formation in front of him like a colorful dragon.
Bang! Lightning struck the sword array formation and instantly scattered the first 40 sword energies!
The 40 sword energies in the back connected and formed a dense net. It was the second line of defense!
The lightning penetrated the net and turned into several narrow, earthworm-like lightning beams before piercing all the acupoints on Hao Ren’s body.
Having never seen such a scene, Xie Yujia was anxious and alarmed.
Summoning lightning into one’s body was a dangerous method of cultivation!
The Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll in Hao Ren’s body immediately swallowed the small beams of lightning before turning them into pure chaotic lightning energy.
This week, Hao Ren had followed Lu Linlin and Lu Lili’s instructions and balanced the five elemental essences in his body. That was why he could absorb the lightning energy more smoothly.
If his five elemental essences were not balanced, he would probably be hurt by one of the elemental essences in the lightning and got his meridians destroyed!
Hao Ren looked up at the sky, waiting for the arrival of the second bolt of lightning.
Xie Yujia looked at him in shock, and it dawned on her that he had been using this dangerous method to cultivate.
Boom! The second lightning streaked through the air toward Hao Ren.
The two barriers put up by the One-line Snake Array Formation were instantly shattered by the lightning.
This lightning was more powerful than the last one. It entered Hao Ren’s body and struck his dragon core.
Painful! Very painful!
But he had to bear it!
How could he achieve breakthroughs fast if he couldn’t endure the pain?
Xie Yujia was stunned by his determined expression while he bore the pain by gritting his teeth.
“Is this the real cultivation? One could never achieve a high realm without great fortitude. In comparison, my cultivation is a simple method of breathing! Did he ask me to come with him because he wants me to drag him back to the house once he couldn’t bear the strikes of the lightning?”
Xie Yujia’s heart hurt at this thought, knowing that Hao Ren was risking his life to cultivate for the sake of that little girl. However, that little girl would never understand his sacrifices.
The third lightning arrived in the blink of an eye!
Xie Yujia suddenly stood up straight and shot out the two godly notes with both hands.
The golden one was the Life Note, and the silver one was the Death Note. With one absorbing essence and the other releasing essence, they formed a cycle of Yin and Yang!
As if receiving strong guidance, the lightning shooting from the sky turned to the golden note!
The Life and Death Notes in Xie Yujia’s hands were on the Nascent Soul Realm, and the power of the lightning Hao Ren summoned was well below that. Therefore, the fierce-looking lightning was instantly absorbed by the golden note!
After absorbing the lightning energy, the golden note instantly turned from palm-sized to the size of a truck!
Xie Yujia felt some numbness in her body, but she felt like she could manage it.
The silver note that was close to the golden note was getting bigger and suddenly spat out a narrow beam of lightning!
Hao Ren’s Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll moved instantly. It cut the lightning beam into pieces before absorbing them comfortably into his body.
The silver note shot another beam, and Hao Ren absorbed it again.
The third lightning was divided into pieces by Xie Yujia’s Life and Death Notes!
Hao Ren felt like he was bathing in a hot tub after a long day, and all his pores were absorbing the warm lightning energy. The five elemental essences that were cut into pieces by the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll were flowing into his dragon core like gentle streams.
This continued ten more times until the lightning energy of the third lightning entered Hao Ren’s dragon core without any waste!
When the fourth lightning came, Xie Yujia’s golden note caught it, and the note got as big as a house!
With the help of the golden note, the silver note turned the huge amount of energy into traces of pure lightning energy before transferring them into Hao Ren’s body.
Xie Yujia caught the fifth lightning in the same way!
With crackling sounds, five openings were unlocked in Hao Ren’s dragon core!
Xie Yujia was literally hand feeding Hao Ren.
Right before the sixth lightning struck, Hao Ren yelled, “Yujia, stop!”
“Ok!” She immediately withdrew the Life and Death Notes after feeding him the last beam of lightning energy.
Hao Ren immediately withdrew his nature essence and rolled to Xie Yujia’s side.
Boom!
The sixth lightning struck a half-meter deep pit where Hao Ren had been standing.
It was fortunate that they were on a remote beach, and the deep pit would be smoothed out after one night’s surging waves.
Hao Ren was delighted that he had unlocked five openings in one night!
Five-elemental technique versus five-elemental technique. Xie Yujia’s Five-Elemental Life-Death Note was a perfect match for Hao Ren’s Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll!
After unlocking five openings, Hao Ren was one step closer to Gen-level. However, Xie Yujia got nothing out of it herself. She still had to cultivate slowly with her basic Qi Refinement Scroll!
But Xie Yujia didn’t care; she was happy that Hao Ren wasn’t hurt in the process!
“Yujia, thank you,” Hao Ren stood up and said to her after brushing the sand grains off his clothes,
Xue Yujia lowered her head and smiled, and they began to stroll in the direction of their home.
Xue Yujia’s hand slipped into her pocket and clenched onto the little box containing the Beauty Pill.
299 Hao Ren Is a Big Bad Guy
When the bright morning light shot on the house by the sea, Hao Ren exhaled deeply and stood up slowly.
It was not an easy task to solidify the five newly unlocked openings.
With a total of 50 openings unlocked, Hao Ren felt like he had elevated half a realm. With a casual wave of his hand, sword energies flew between his fingertips.
Each of his fingers emitted one colored light; it was quite a mystic sight.
Each of the sword energies he had contained the strength of Zhen-level, an enormous improve
ment compared with the state he was in when he began cultivating.
Refreshed, he got dressed and walked downstairs; he felt hungry.
Grandma was back from her morning walk, and now she was listening to Chinese operas from the radio while sitting in the wicker chair on the balcony.
With her hair pulled into a ponytail, Xie Yujia was seated beside her, chatting with her while peeling an apple.
In the morning light, they looked as graceful as a classic painting of a grandma and a granddaughter.
“Grandma!” Hao Ren pushed the door open and walked out.
“Ren! Come, Yujia peeled an apple for you.” Grandma handed the newly peeled apple to Hao Ren.
“Grandma, that is for you, not him!” Xie Yujia complained sweetly.
“Hehe, you don’t want Hao Ren to eat it?” Grandma placed the apple in Hao Ren’s hand. “Peel another for Grandma!”
Xie Yujia pouted. She put a long apple peel into the nearby dustbin and picked up another apple before turning her attention to peeling it.
Hao Ren watched her peel the apple with her head lowered and found that she emitted a mysterious light that only cultivators could see. Every movement of hers was elegant and graceful.
“The Beauty Pill,” Hao Ren immediately thought of those three words.
Elixirs were indeed miraculous. A small level 2 elixir pill gave Xie Yujia, who had just entered the world of cultivation, such a drastic change.
Sensing Hao Ren’s eyes on her, Xie Yujia looked up and met his gaze.
“Oh, Grandma, I’ll go out today,” embarrassed, Hao Ren immediately looked away and told Grandma who was dozing in the wicker chair.
“Where are you going?” Grandma opened her eyes and asked.
“I’m going to Zhao Yanzi’s mom’s studio to help her with some errands.”
“Oh. Do what you can to help Hongyu. Remember to come back for dinner. Their family will come for dinner, and your parents will be back by noon,” Grandma said.
Hao Ren looked at Xie Yujia and Grandma. “Will it be ok for you two to stay here by yourselves?”
“No problem!” Grandma waved her hand graciously. “Get on with your errands. In a while, Linlin and Lili will come, and it will be lively here!”
“They will come, too…” Hao Ren thought to himself but didn’t voice it.
“You can go and do your stuff! I’ll take care of Grandma,” Xie Yujia said.
“Ok!”
With Xie Yujia keeping Grandma company, he had nothing to worry about. Biting into the apple, he walked toward the garage.
Since Hao Zhonghua was using the white Ford, Hao Ren drove the red Ferrari to Zhao Hongyu’s studio.
This limited-edition race car was a dashing sight as Hao Ren drove toward downtown, and the vehicle caught the eyes of the girls on the street and car enthusiast.
Located in the 1825 Art District, the LOM Studio was one of the top six architectural studios in the country. If Zhao Hongyu didn’t spend most of her time on her family, this studio that only occupied an area of 200 square meters could have been the No. 1 architectural studio.
The students of design majors in top universities of the country fought for the opportunity to be an intern for this studio. However, Hao Ren, a student of engineering major in East Ocean University could come into the studio and learn stuff there.
The so-called elite students would have been jealous of him if they had known about this.
Walking up the iron stairs, Hao Ren pushed the door open and entered the studio. Some employees were working overtime that Saturday.
Their boss Zhao Hongyu had not arrived yet, but one of the employees remembered that Hao Ren had once been there with Zhao Yanzi, so she greeted him warmly.
Hao Ren sat down, flipped through some design books, and had some tea.
Half an hour later, Zhao Hongyu finally came in.
Following her was Zhao Yanzi in a purple sweater.
“Ren! You are early!” Zhao Hongyu put the keys on the plate by the door and greeted him.
“Good morning, Auntie!” Hao Ren stood up.
Zhao Yanzi snorted and rolled her eyes at him.
“Well! Little Zi is here!” At the sight of Zhao Yanzi, the quiet studio suddenly became lively.
The older girls and women surrounded her immediately.
“Little Zi is getting even more beautiful…”
“I saw you on TV; your performance was great…”
Faced with these compliments, Zhao Yanzi looked up and answered them one by one with politeness.
“Humph, you pretend to be so polite here, but back at home, you are an aggressive little bully.” Hao Ren thought to himself.
Seeing everyone was there, Zhao Hongyu pulled Hao Ren to her side and said, “Everyone, this is Hao Ren. From now on, he will come over and help us every weekend. If he has any problems, please give him a hand.”
No one would object the request of the boss, and everyone applauded to welcome the newcomer.
Working in this world-renowned architectural studio, one could learn a lot of stuff.
Seeing Zhao Hongyu’s high regard for Hao Ren, the employees understood the hidden message. “It seems like this young man might become the future boss of the LOM Studio.
They remembered the intimate relationship between Zhao Yanzi and Hao Ren when they were here last time and guessed that he must be Zhao Hongyu’s relative!
Therefore, the staff would immediately surround him and answer his question when he was doing the work Zhao Hongyu gave him.
While Hao Ren was running the errands of the office, Zhao Yanzi sat down at an empty desk and began writing and drawing.
The staff felt strange since Zhao Yanzi had never been able to sit still in the past; she would go out and walk around even when she was waiting for her mom to finish the day’s work.
Zhao Yanzi was drawing rough comic, and whenever she finished one, she would look up and search for Hao Ren.
“Oh…” the staff suddenly understood.
“This Hao Ren is, in fact, Zhao Yanzi’s boyfriend… No wonder the boss took in such a newbie into the studio… It seems that the boss is quite open-minded…” they thought.
“Today is a busy day, and I’ll order some takeout food for us!” Zhao Hongyu came out of her office and said.
“Ok!” Everyone answered her in unison.
Zhao Hongyu often took them to have lunch in the nearby fancy restaurants, so they didn’t mind having takeout food while working overtime one in a while.
More importantly, Zhao Hongyu gave them not only monetary rewards but honor as well; that was something a lot of other studios couldn’t offer.
The big projects and magnificent buildings they had designed were the symbols of their success.
“I’m meeting a client this afternoon. Call me if you have any problems,” Zhao Hongyu said before walking to the door and picking up the keys. “Ren, you can go back with Zi around four o’clock.”
“Ok, Auntie,” Hao Ren answered immediately.
The staff in the studio looked at each other and thought, “Sure enough, Hao Ren is Zhao Hongyu’s future son-in-law! The upper-class is indeed different from ordinary people! The boss had already picked a son-in-law when her daughter is only 15 years old! What is this Hao Ren’s background? He must be the son of a founder or a CEO of big companies like the Mingri Group.”
Zhao Hongyu left with the keys in her hand.
Shortly, the dozen or so lunch boxes Zhao Hongyu ordered arrived at the studio. Zhao Yanzi took a box and sat beside Hao Ren. She looked like a homeless kitten.
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking so serious?” Hao Ren asked her while eating his lunch.
“Humph!” Zhao Yanzi snorted but remained by his side.
“Xie Yujia doesn’t live in my home every day,” Hao Ren explained.
“I don’t care where she lives!” Hao Ren thought this was the response he would get.
To his surprise, she turned to look at hi
m and pursed her lips. “You only think of her!”
Hearing the jealous words, Hao Ren almost fell from his chair.
He lowered his head and cleared his throat, trying to calm himself down.
He didn’t know how to reply to that.
After lunch, the staff got back to their busy work. Last month, Zhao Hongyu’s design secured the bid for the New Plaza in Beijing, and that would keep them busy for a while.
Hao Ren was instructed to review the architectural design of the other seven bidders and compare them with Zhao Hongyu’s. However, due to the lack of knowledge and background, it was hard for him.
Zhao Yanzi, on the other hand, had moved to Hao Ren’s desk. After taking out some books from her bag, she began to do her homework!
Hao Ren was surprised at the sight of this well-behaved Zhao Yanzi and almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Time ticked away, and one female employee walked over and reminded him, “Little Hao, it’s four o’clock now!”
“Oh!” Hao Ren had been engrossed in understanding the other designs and commenting on them and didn’t notice the passage of time.
Zhao Yanzi checked her cell phone and found that it was indeed four o’clock. It was the first time she had been focusing on her homework for hours on end.
“Ok, we’ll head off now!” Seeing Zhao Yanzi put her homework into her bag, Hao Ren said to everyone in the studio.
That female employee waved at him with a smile.
“This young man is cute, but no one would dare to flirt with him since he is Zhao Hongyu’s son-in-law.
After Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi walked out, this female employee carefully picked up the A4 paper which had Hao Ren’s notes on it, wondering what kind of reviews this newbie could write.
Suddenly, her pupils widened slightly.
“The diameter of the spring pond in the core area should shrink by 80 centimeters; the shops on the street have a five-degree slant difference with the height of the street; the shops, from the 7th to the 15th, would have the nature sunshine blocked off by the building on the opposite side…” These sharp and accurate comments were results of a powerful sense of space!
This woman didn’t know that Hao Ren was a cultivator who could easily control 80 sword energies from all directions. If he didn’t have a good sense of space, he could have accidentally chopped off his own head!
