“How long did I sleep for?” Qian Yu asked the man. Unlike before, he only had respect and complete trust in this remnant spirit. 

“A little over 3 and a half years,” the man gave a simple and short reply. 

‘That means I’m already 17 and probably almost maybe 18? I wonder if I can become an inner court disciple still? Hmm, they won’t randomly use a strange formation or something to measure my age and even though I’m that old, my body didn’t really change,’ Qian Yu thought to himself. 

While he did grow just a little, it wasn’t really noticeable. His body was nourished with qi while in the cocoon and while qi is all-encompassing and powerful, it didn’t mean that his body could efficiently use qi to make him grow. 

‘It seems there are some limitations to his power,’ Qian Yu silently thought as he turned his attention to the man.

Seeing the silent Qian Yu, the man finally talked about himself, “As promised, I’ll talk a little bit about myself. My name is Tian Wei and I was one of the strongest Martial Emperors during my lifetime. I had achieved the 9th layer of the unique cultivation technique for ourselves and 8th layer in a cultivation technique regarding space and time laws. Even then, I managed to only live for about 15,000 years.”

“In my time, it was very rare for people to reach the 9th layer of a cultivation technique and I only obtained the 9th layer easily due to the heavenly constitution. Martial Emperors were numerous in number and they mainly reached the 6th or 7th ranked for one of their cultivation techniques while reaching only being at the 4th or 5th layer in the other cultivation techniques. I remember that I was able to beat a Martial Lord as a Martial Fighter because I was a 6th layer cultivator while he was only at the 4th for both his techniques.”

“Enough about my achievements though. Going back to me and my family or whatever I left behind, I don’t know. I didn’t expect to die so suddenly and my injuries were too severe so I didn’t make preparations,” he stopped talking and sighed as he reached this point.

Without a shred of hesitation, Qian Yu instantly kowtowed as he said, “Disciple Qian Yu greets master. I shall forever remember master’s kindness.” 

Hearing it, the man laughed a little as the mood lightened up. Then he said, “I have some advice to tell you before I impart the cultivation technique to you and disappear forever. The other techniques I cultivated were relating to fire and destruction and an ice and sword technique. It wasn’t really known during my time but cultivating such a variety of different laws and skills had limited me a lot as I grew stronger and older.”

“As you cultivate a more diverse set of cultivation techniques, it becomes harder to master and increase your mastery. You don’t see people learn how to use a sword and a spear at the same time do you? It is also similar to the laws. Of course, I’m not saying you should only limit it to the lightning and chaotic laws, I’m saying you should limit it to a few attributes only.”

"Later on, this became known as the Law of Amplification. If one person cultivated two legendary grade fire techniques, their power could be amplified together as their understanding of fire laws would be higher than normal. This isn’t to say you should go find and master 4 lightning attributed cultivation techniques though as it has diminishing returns but it is something to keep in mind. A good balance between the Law of Amplification and Law of Attributes is key.”

The two continued to chat about random things in their life and were like two good friends that hadn’t seen each other in ages. After a few hours, the departing time arrived.

“I will now impart to you the cultivation technique. You will lose consciousness as it is a large amount of information and I will also send you out of my soul world. Fortunately, there are people on the other end who don’t have malicious intentions.” Tian Wei said as his eyes glowed profoundly.

Qian Yu had some ideas about who it was but he didn’t think about it too much as he replied, “I’m ready.”

Tian Wei nodded and smiled as he said his last thoughts as his hand approached Qian Yu’s forehead, “I’m sure you will do great things. I dare say that the qi in the world right now is 1000 times stronger and abundant than the qi from my era. If a random cultivator from right now was put into my era, they would easily be considered a genius. Anyways, I know you would definitely love this cultivation technique so you’ll get strong pretty quick anyways hahaha!”

‘Thank you, master’ Qian Yu thought as he lost consciousness once again. Lightning and space distorted as Qian Yu vanished from Tian Wei’s soul world. At the same time, Tian Wei’s soul dissipated yet a bright smile could be seen on his face. 

Likewise, lightning sparks appeared as space warped, before an unconscious Qian Yu fell down from the hole. Since the lady in the black dress had seen where he first disappeared, she had positioned herself directly under it while Bai Jia was further away. Falling right in front of her, she quickly grabbed him.

Looking at his face, she made sure to remember it before teasing Bai Jia by saying, “Truly a handsome man”. Of course, after his heavenly constitution awoke, it wasn’t an understatement saying he was handsome. 

“Yo-you, what are-” Bai Jia said before she was cut off. 

“Here, catch,” the lady in the black dress said as Bai Jia saw Qian Yu’s body flying over. 

Just as she caught Qian Yu, Bai Jia felt a hand grab her butt as she heard a giggling voice, “Mhm, very soft but mine’s better hehe!” 

“YOU!!” Bai Jia yelled but she realized that the lady had already disappeared. ‘Damn devil!’ she cursed the lady for who knows how many times in the last few days. 

Yet as she turned to look at the figure in her arm, her anger diminished as she hurriedly flew back while holding Qian Yu.

Currently, Qian Yu was resting in a high-end inn in the noble district of the Xia capital. In the room, there were two people. A girl sat on a chair as she stared at Qian Yu who was still unconscious. 

Seeing him like this, tears appeared in Zhao Xieren’s eyes. Silently, she sat there. After a few hours, a knock resounded on the door and Zhao Xieren finally stood up from the chair. Leaving the room however, her crying face was replaced with a determined one. ‘I’ll repay everything you’ve done for me. I’ll grow stronger,’ she steeled herself.

Another day passed before Qian Yu opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw an unfamiliar  room but there was a familiar person. Feeling his awakening, Bai Jia stopped cultivating as a smile blossomed on her face.  

“Welcome back,” she said.

“Mhm,” Qian Yu couldn’t help but smile. 

Afterwards, Bai Jia gave an update on what happened while omitting a certain woman in a black dress. She had waited around 4 days for Qian Yu to appear and he had been unconscious for another 3 days after he came back. By now everyone that participated in the hunt had already returned to the sect except for Zhao Xieren. She had stayed in the capital after the hunt ended and after seeing that Qian Yu was back, decided to stay in the capital and focus solely on cultivation. In fact, she had already gone into closed cultivation and nobody knew when she would come out.

Although Qian Yu felt it was a shame that he couldn’t see Zhao Xieren one last time, there was nothing he could really do. 

Qian Yu then explained to Bai Jia a little about his encounter with Tian Wei but didn’t really talk about the cultivation technique, his heavenly constitution, and other important details like the first plague and the world before the first era.

After they finished talking, Bai Jia left Qian Yu alone to rest. Finally, it was time.