by Dragon King
Hao Ren was just like her; he would do a lot of things quietly without saying.
When she went back to her dorm, she saw several missed calls from Hao Ren on her phone. She knew that Hao Ren tried to get in touch with her.
However, Hao Ren wouldn’t explain himself. To him, an action was worth more than thousands of words.
If her Little Older Brother didn’t have the personality that she liked, she would give up the dozen-year-wait.
However, Hao Ren was still the old Hao Ren. He didn’t say any sweet words or try to comfort her, yet he protected Little Carrot with his hands.
Zhao Yanzi’s lips twisted a bit. She also knew the answer, but she wanted Hao Ren to tell the truth himself.
Her mom, Zhao Hongyu, had already told her that there was no winning or losing in this case, only the difference between strong and weak.
However, Zhao Yanzi didn’t expect Hao Ren to be so direct even though she asked.
“But… I like Xie Yujia more when she is cheerful.” Hao Ren walked two steps toward Xie Yujia and lightly touched her forehead.
Xie Yujia looked up and backed up two steps in panic.
“Jerk!” Zhao Yanzi knocked on Hao Ren’s back with her fist.
Boom!
Two sword energies appeared below Hao Ren’s feet.
Hao Ren had recovered to the strength of Zhen-level, so he could easily travel in the air.
Zhao Yanzi and Xie Yujia looked up at Hao Ren as he entered the pitch-black sky. Then, they looked at each other.
“If you like him, then fight for real!” Zhao Yanzi stared at Xie Yujia as she pouted and said.
Xie Yujia looked at Zhao Yanzi, and she was suddenly relieved.
At first, she didn’t dare to fight because she didn’t want to lose. Therefore, she had been gloomy. Zhao Yanzi was like a little ice drop, transparent and refreshing. No wonder everyone liked her.
“Ok!” Xie Yujia responded; the massive cloud on her mind had finally been lifted.
She had officially admitted that she liked Hao Ren in front of him and Zhao Yanzi. There was no more secret on her shoulder or a way back now.
Hao Ren was a bit over the limit with his answer, but he was quite upfront.
No sweet words or promises; he was just trying the best he could.
“Humph! Come to my home for dinner sometime. My mom wants to cook for you!” Zhao Yanzi said.
Instead of Xie Yujia as a person, Zhao Yanzi hated her attitude and the secret relationship between her and Hao Ren.
She wasn’t happy about the fact that Xie Yujia liked Hao Ren. But if Xie Yujia stayed with him although she didn’t like him, then Zhao Yanzi would hate her.
There would be more and more girls who would fall for Hao Ren. There were even some girls who had a crush on him in her middle school.
Zhao Yanzi had her own worries and problems, but she would hold on to Hao Ren! If Xie Yujia liked him just as much, then she should fight for him.
“Humph! I, Zhao Yanzi, must be the best! You must go through me to get to Hao Ren. You can’t sneak beside Hao Ren without telling me…” Zhao Yanzi muttered to herself.
Xie Yujia laughed when she saw Zhao Yanzi mumbling.
In the meantime, Qingfeng Hermit was cultivating on Eighth Heaven in the simple and crude cave. Golden and silver notes revolved like fireballs in her palms, intertwining with each other.
“Humph, I only have two disciples in the mortal world, and they both want to be with him. It is too easy for this kid.” Qingfeng Hermit slowly put away her palms which were facing the ground.
She was cultivating on Eighth Heaven when she sensed Xie Yujia’s change of emotion through the Life-Death Notes. Therefore, she used her power to see what was going on with her.
Just as she was about to smash Hao Ren into pieces, Xie Yujia’s mood turned better suddenly.
She only had two disciples in the mortal world; Xie Yujia being the older one and Zhao Yanzi being the younger one. However, both of them liked Hao Ren with all their hearts. She had no way to know what to do about it.
“Whatever, whatever…” Qingfeng Hermit put her hands on her knees, shook her head, and continued cultivating with her eyes closed.
As she closed her eyes, she still felt the lingering anger on her mind.
“This kid doesn’t have a high realm, yet he has so many girls around him. Even if he isn’t a womanizer, he is a playboy!” Qingfeng Hermit pointed to the ground with her hands softly.
Two lights traveled through the ground and immediately disappeared.
Hao Ren just got high into the sky on his sword energies and stepped on the golden ship that was transformed from the purple gold hairpin. He suddenly realized that there was a thumb-sized golden lightning bolt coming toward him from the sky!
Splash… The energy sphere created by the purple gold hairpin immediately broke into pieces.
The golden lightning poked through the energy sphere and hit the top of Hao Ren’s skull.
Hao Ren’s clothes and body immediately turned black. He was only at Zhen-level, yet he had to defend a heavenly lightning bolt!
It didn’t kill him, but he was halfway there!
Even the purple gold hairpin couldn’t resist such strong power. It immediately lowered a few hundred meters.
Boom! The purple gold hairpin obtained a steady speed and suddenly flew up.
Hao Ren felt like all his bones were broken, and blood was going backward in his body. He didn’t want to hear Zhao Yanzi’s condemning words, so he went up to Fifth Heaven to cultivate.
However, he got attacked by lightning bolts.
Crack! Hao Ren suddenly leveled up nearly half a level due to the heavenly lightning, reaching top-tier Zhen-level.
Hao Ren couldn’t even tell if he were lucky or unlucky anymore!
He just felt very thrilling since he told Zhao Yanzi and Xie Yujia about his true feelings.
“This is what I feel like no matter what they think! I like them both!”
Hua… The purple gold hairpin flew into Fifth Heaven.
Ethereal Summit was surrounded by mist, which made it even more mysterious! He could sense the strong nature essence intensity in the valley as soon as he got closer.
The reason no one dared to take up this valley was that… it was Herb King Master’s territory!
Hao Ren dashed into the array formation and hopped into his cave.
That golden lightning hit him perfectly. Although it caused him tremendous pain, it also brought him a small breakthrough!
Hao Ren planned to cultivate on Fifth Heaven until tomorrow afternoon. Now, he had to work harder on cultivation!
The Lu sister’s Poison Pill Plan blocked all his nature essence as well as the dragon core. Hao Ren’s current cultivation was like the cultivation method of human cultivators, and there was a small golden core slowly forming as it merged perfectly with the spiritual core that contained Zhao Haoran’s 1,000 years of cultivation strength.
Roll… The dozen snow lion cubs were rolling around on the grass.
The sky slowly turned from dark to bright. Hao Ren circulated nature essence in his body 98 times, but his skin was still as dark as ink!
He was completely burned up by that golden lightning!
Xie Yujia looked at the empty seat beside her in the classroom at East Ocean University; she seemed a bit lost.
Lu Linlin and Lu Lili felt like something was missing when Hao Ren didn’t show up as well.
Su Han had on a white cotton shirt, black short skirt, black stockings, and silver high-heels. The guys roared loudly as soon as she walked into the classroom.
She walked straight up the teaching platform and put her materials on the podium. Then, she looked up at the first row.
Hao Ren wasn’t sitting in the center of the first row, which was right in front of her podium.
Su Han’s eyelids twitched a little, but she didn’t say anything.
She flipped open the material and turned on the projector,
and she started her class smoothly according to the lesson plan.
Da, da, da… It started to drizzle outside of the classroom again. Xie Yujia looked outside into the rain and then at the empty seat beside her. She was a little worried.
Her mind was a little blank now that Hao Ren wasn’t here.
Su Han held the teaching pointer and pointed at the formulas on the screen, and she glimpsed at Hao Ren’s seat from time to time.
Hao Ren’s absence worried her a bit too.
She then looked to Xu Ke’s corner which was at the very back of the classroom, and he was present.
Her face suddenly went back to her usual cold expression.
However, the students who were admiring her looks and figure wouldn’t be able to notice such a slight change of facial expression.
Zhao Yanzi rested her head on one of her hands at her window seat in LingZhao Middle School’s classroom. She spaced out as she stared at the rain outside.
“Zi!” Luo Ying knocked on the whiteboard with the wiper during class.
“Oh!” Zhao Yanzi suddenly looked back with a smile as she listened to class carefully.
Her reaction made Luo Ying worried. “Has Zi started behaving properly? Or is she just sick?’
Shoo… A ray of golden light traveled across the sky outside the classroom window.
Hao Ren stood on the golden ship.
He didn’t forget that today was the day his grandma was coming back!
He landed a distance away from the train station and quickly ran toward the station.
“Grandma!” Hao Ren immediately saw his grandma who had several bags in her hands.
She looked healthier after such a long time. She almost seemed as if she was glowing with health.
“Hey! Ren!” Grandma reached out her hands to give Hao Ren a big hug. Then, she looked closely at him and asked, “Where did you go? How come you got much darker?”
“I’m alright… I’ll go back to my old skin color in a few days…” Hao Ren scratched his head and said, “My parents had to go to work, so I came to pick you up.”
“What’s the matter? Do you have some trouble? Let me know if you have any problems.” Grandma stared at Hao Ren and said with worry.
Hao Ren hid on Fifth Heaven to stay away from everyone, but Grandma saw right through it.
“That’s ok…” Hao Ren shook his head in embarrassment.
Just as Grandma looked around in disappointment, several loud shouts sounded around them, “Grandma!”
646 Everyone’s Spiritual Pillar
Xie Yujia, Zhao Yanzi, Lu Linlin, and Lu Lili all ran over from one direction.
Hearing from different sources that Grandma was returning to East Ocean City today, they had all rushed over.
Hiding Little White in her school bag, Zhao Yanzi had rushed out of the classroom as soon as the school bell rang and rode Little White to the train station.
She encountered Xie Yujia and the Lu sisters in the sky, so they had landed together.
“Zi! Yujia! Linlin! Lili!” Grandma’s eyes lit up. Not caring about Hao Ren’s strange mood, she opened her arms and took them in.
“Grandma,” a crisp voice came from the distance.
Wearing a white cotton blouse and a black short skirt, Su Han walked over elegantly. In black stockings and silver high-heels, her legs alone were too much for men to handle.
Hao Ren’s heart raced when he saw Su Han’s simple yet tempting outfit.
“Little Su!” When Grandma saw Su Han, her eyes curved up as she yelled happily.
“Ugh… Little Su…” Hao Ren thought to himself as his heart almost jumped out of his chest.
“Hehe. I knew you’d come back today, so I came to pick you up,” Su Han said with a smile.
In fact, she was the one who had taken Xie Yujia and the Lu sisters to the train station. Her newly-refined longsword was very fast, and no one dared to block her, who was an inspector.
She traveled across half a city with the girls.
“Good! Good! Good! These are specialties I brought just for you.” Grandma picked up one heavy knitted bag.
She had been a bit disappointed when she saw only Hao Ren coming to pick her up. To her surprise, all the girls that she had missed came to welcome her home.
She was especially happy when Su Han, the most mature and considerate one, had also taken the time to come to see her.
“Let us…” The girls fought to pick up the rest of the bags for her.
Su Han had walked to the crossing and got two taxis.
The people around the train station were amazed to see five beautiful girls carrying dirty knitted bags and helping an elderly lady into a taxi, wondering who the elderly lady was and how she had so many pretty granddaughters.
Hao Ren put the knitted bags into the trunk of the taxi and followed Grandma into the car.
Xie Yujia sat beside Hao Ren, and the three seats in the back row were full. Gritting her teeth, Zhao Yanzi got into the passenger seat reluctantly.
Su Han and the Lu sisters got on the second taxi, following Grandma back home.
“Little Yujia, you got thinner,” Grandma picked up Xie Yujia’s tender hands and sighed a little.
Xie Yujia smiled shyly. She had indeed lost weight with her mind full of Hao Ren each night recently.
“Grandma, I’m thinner too!” Zhao Yanzi immediately turned her head and interrupted.
She was jealous that Grandma showed concern only for Xie Yujia. If Grandma favored Xie Yujia more, she would lose all the advantage that she had accumulated before.
Grandma looked at her up and down and said, “No. Little Zi is plumper.”
“Ah? Not at all!” Zhao Yanzi tried to refute. After all, girls were afraid of being fat, especially when Grandma said she was plumper while Xie Yujia got thinner. Didn’t it mean that Xie Yujia has lived miserably while she has been happy?
“Hehe, your chest is plumper,” Grandma said with a smile.
“Oh…” Zhao Yanzi opened her mouth slightly and looked down at her own chest. Then, she saw Hao Ren looking at her chest at Grandma’s words.
She turned back immediately and blushed.
Hao Ren looked at Grandma and thought that she was definitely not hiding anything on her mind.
“While I was away, did Little Zi and Little Yujia get along well?” With a benign smile, Grandma asked gently.
Xie Yujia glanced at Zhao Yanzi who was sitting in front of her and remained silent. If she replied with good, she was afraid that Zhao Yanzi would accuse her of being fake.
Seeing the silent, Grandma asked, “What is it?”
“We got along well, Grandma!” Zhao Yanzi turned her head and said.
“Good! I’m relieved!” Grandma patted her chest in satisfaction and continued, “When I was in the countryside, I worried most about you girls. I hope you can take care of each other.”
Hearing Grandma’s words, Zhao Yanzi felt guilty when she thought of the way she had treated Xie Yujia in the past.
Xie Yujia had some tears in her eyes, knowing that Grandma cared for her the most.
The taxi came to the residential area by the ocean, and Xie Yujia and Zhao Yanzi fought to take the bags into the house after the taxi arrived, eager to show their best side before Grandma.
The other taxi stopped behind them, and Lu sisters came out of the car with Su Han.
It was still drizzling, but it didn’t dampen their passion toward Grandma as they held an umbrella for Grandma.
“How have you been lately, Linlin, Lili?” Grandma asked them.
“Very well! We missed you very much, Grandma!” The Lu sisters were full of sweet words.
“Hehe… I’m back now. When I was in the countryside, I worried about you girls the most…” Grandma said while she walked to the house.
Her words touched the Lu sisters while Hao Ren didn’t know how to react, knowing that Grandma had said the same words to Xie Yujia and Zhao Yanzi only ten minutes ago.
When he was still thinking about it, Su Han entered the house after paying the taxi driver. Grandma picked up her slim hands benignly and asked, “Little Su, how have you been lately… When I was in the countryside…”
“Ugh…” Hao Ren was at a loss for words.
After entering the house, the Lu sisters, Xie Yujia, and Zhao Yanzi got busy immediately, straightening up the living room, putting away Grandma’s bags, and boiling water for tea.
Grandma didn’t need to lift a finger while Xie Yujia and the others did everything for her.
The cold seaside home turned lively instantly despite the drizzle outside.
Due to his troubled thoughts, Hao Ren didn’t achieve a breakthrough after cultivating for one night on Fifth Heaven.
Seeing Xie Yujia and Zhao Yanzi talking and laughing by Grandma’s side and fighting to take tea to Grandma with some competitiveness on their faces, he knew the storm had passed.
Only with a calm mind could one cultivate successfully. If Hao Ren had known that the girls were okay yesterday, he probably would have elevated to a higher realm.
At a closer look, he realized that Xie Yujia had reached mid-tier Foundation Establishment Realm while Zhao Yanzi had reached top-tier Foundation Establishment Realm. They had obtained some progress last night since their troubled minds were cleared by a lot!
Meanwhile, Lu Linlin and Lu Lili’s realm had risen back to Qian-level from Kun-level!
He then glanced at Su Han. She emitted a pale light, which was a sign of reaching the peak stage!
647 Girls, You Must Work Harder…
“Did something go wrong with your cultivation? Why are you as dark as a black pig?” Su Han walked over and asked Hao Ren.
When she saw that Hao Ren was absent in class, she had been worried, wondering if anything had happened to him. Seeing his dark skin, she suspected that Hao Ren had problems with his cultivation.
“I’m fine.” Hao Ren waved his hand.
He knew his current condition; the nature essence in his body was more abundant than before. However, it was a pity that he didn’t reach Gen-level with the aid of the golden lightning bolt from yesterday.
“You are going to the Nine Dragon Palace with me in about one week. Don’t mess up,” Su Han glanced at him and said in a warning tone.
