Taking a seat on the study chair, Zhu Furong started reading the letter sent by princess Ming Lan.

The first contents of the letter were Ming Lan thanking Zhu Furong for letting her listen to such beautiful music. She praised him in a million words.

The plethora of praises didn't affect Zhu Furong but what worried him the most were the next contents of the letter.

Ming Lan wrote. "Don't worry, I haven't told anyone about meeting you in the All Metals store. Also, I have forbidden my bodyguards from talking about anything related to you. I know you want to keep it a secret, else you would have at least told Sister-in-law Zhu Ling about it, given how close you two are."

"Phew!" Zhu Furong breathed a sigh of relief. "At least this Little Princess has some humanity within her. I thought she was a devil in the form of a little girl."

Zhu Furong read further and was surprised by the first line he read.

"I am sorry about my behaviour that day. I thought you were just like those other Young Masters who lick my shoes to fawn over me. They take any humiliation I throw at them with a face full of smiles. So disgusting, bleurgh! I am glad you aren't like them."

"Really? There are people who can take the harsh criticisms and rude remarks of that Little Princess?" Zhu Furong made an awkward face. 

"Sigh! The world is really filled with weird people, they can stoop so low just to fawn over powerful people, they don't even care about their prestige."

"I can understand if poor people do this. But, someone from a noble or aristocratic family doing this just..." Zhu Furong shook his head with disappointment. He continued reading the letter.

"But you are also not a good guy. I don't care if you don't give any consideration to my position as the princess, but at least you shouldn't have mocked me like that. You hurt my feelings. Boohoo! How can you bully such a cute little girl like me." Ming Lan complained.

Reading Ming Lan's complaint, Zhu Furong just rolled his eyes. "Cute my ass! Er... Well, I have to agree you have a good looking face, but you went too far with your words. There is a limit to what you can say and what you can't. This Young Master indeed doesn't give a shit about your position as the princess but I will still give you the respect you deserve. Only if you act accordingly." Zhu Furong murmured.

The letter ended here.

"That's it? Nothing else? She just sent me a letter to apologise to me? That's weird." Zhu Furong frowned and then he folded the letter to put it back inside the envelope. He opened the envelope just to notice a curved folded letter inside the envelope. The first letter was placed in-between the crease of the second letter, making it hard for the second letter to get noticed.

With his eyebrows puckered, Zhu Furong opened the second letter.

"I love you."

Three words. Just three words. That's all there is written inside the second letter. Rather than a letter, it is a note. A confession of love.

Silence...

The whole room is silent. There isn't even the sound of Zhu Furong's breathing.

Zhu Furong is sitting on the chair with his mouth wide open, big enough to stuff a dinosaur egg. He forgot to even breathe.

It took a while for Zhu Furong to get out of the shock.

"Siiiii..." He sucked in cold air.

"I have no words to say."

These few words are Zhu Furong's answer to the confession.

He fiddled with the envelope to check if there's something else inside that he didn't notice, but he couldn't find anything else.

With a face full of shock and amazement, he folded the two letters, put it inside the envelope and threw the envelope inside the Nine-Layers Pagoda.

"Pffft... Hahaha... Hahaha..." Zhu Furong could hear the constant laughing of Zhu Xingzuo inside his head.

Zhu Furong didn't speak and took out some of the pills he had concocted before and prepared to open his Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

Unlike the 12 Major Meridians, the Eight Extraordinary Meridians are supposed to be opened in one go.

The Chaos Qi from Zhu Xingzuo will play a major role in this.

Seeing that Zhu Furong is about to Cultivate, Zhu Xingzuo stopped laughing and after cursing Zhu Furong for his abrupt actions, he prepared to help Zhu Furong in opening his Eight Extraordinary Meridians. This process requires immense focus and successfully opening the Eight Extraordinary Meridians will be a huge step forward for Zhu Furong in the world of Martial Arts.

Zhu Furong has already consumed twenty pieces of Bone Amalgam pills, which helps in bone strengthening, twenty pieces of each, Silver Gall pills and Red Cicada pills which helps in organ tempering.

Now he is left with twenty pieces of each, Meridian Transverse pills, Meridian Flex pills and Meridian Tensile pills, all of which helps in meridian tempering.

It's not the time to consume all of these three types of pills, so Zhu Furong only took out two of each to support the opening of his Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

Zhu Furong ingested the six pills and sat into meditation with his hands placed in front of his dantian.

Soon there occurred slight disturbance and ripples in the air surrounding him and Spiritual Qi gushed inside his body at a rapid speed, at the same rapid speed the Spiritual Qi left his body dispersing into the air. And the process repeated.

The main acting Qi in this stage of Body Transformation technique is Zhu Xingzuo's Chaos Qi. If not for that, Zhu Furong must have sucked in all the Spiritual Qi inside and surrounding the Zhu manor, calling for trouble.

The process of opening of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians went on for the whole evening and night. Zhu Furong didn't sleep and just focused on successfully opening the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. The process was quite painful, unlike the non painful opening of 12 Major Meridians.

But at the end of the night, with the first light of the sun, Zhu Furong succeeded in opening his Eight Extraordinary Meridians. He is overjoyed.

He was so happy that he forgot about the letter from yesterday. But things have just started to turn interesting. More surprises are waiting for Zhu Furong today.

All the unfortunate events transpire after the morning classes of Zhu Furong are over. Maybe the tutors pass all their bad luck on to Zhu Furong before leaving.

...

In the afternoon, in the courtyard of Zhu Furong, Zhu Furong is playing the zither.

He finished his first piece and then turned his face towards the approaching Zhu Ling.

Zhu Ling walked up to Zhu Furong and stood still in front of him gazing at his face with an amazed look.

Zhu Furong felt it was weird at first but when Zhu Ling didn't say anything and just kept staring at his face, Zhu Furong felt uncomfortable and couldn't help but ask. "What are you looking at, Elder Sister?"

"Indeed you have a beautiful face. As your Elder Sister, even I am mesmerized." Zhu Ling blushed slightly.

Zhu Furong made an awkward face not knowing what to think of it.

"What did you do to the princess?" Zhu Ling suddenly frowned and asked.

"What?" Zhu Furong is surprised by the weird question.

'Didn't that little girl write, she will keep my secret? Did she snitch me out? Given her character, it's a possibility.' Zhu Furong thought.

"What are you talking about Elder Sister? What can I do to the princess? She is the princess of the Ming Dynasty, I don't dare to do anything to her. I don't have a death wish." Zhu Furong swore.

"You sure? Then why does the princess want to marry you?" Zhu Ling asked with confusion.

"What?" Zhu Furong yelled.

"Marry? Marry who? Me? That rude, arrogant, tomboy of a Little Princess wants to marry me?" Zhu Furong asked in a single breath.

Zhu Ling frowned. "What do you mean by rude, arrogant, tomboy? Little Sister Ming Lan may be a little playful and naughty but she is quite a well behaved person. She only acts rude with the uncivilized people or the people who are always looking for benefits. She is quite smart for her age. Humph!" She shrugged her nose.

"Well anyway, come with me. Grandpa is waiting for you in his home office." Zhu Ling held Zhu Furong's hand and dragged him out to meet Zhu Bohai.

Zhu Furong followed quietly, lost in thought. He still couldn't understand what princess Ming Lan was cooking.

...

In his home office, Great General Zhu, Zhu Bohai is sitting in a chair with his arms resting on the desk. He is holding a letter document in his hands, reading with attention.

He is wearing a turquoise coloured hanfu with his black hair with visible white hairs here and there tied into a topknot.

Zhu Ling entered the office with Zhu Furong behind her. "Grandpa, I brought Little Brother with me." She reported.

"Hmm." Zhu Bohai nodded, still looking at the document in his hands.

"Lock the door and close the windows, light the candles." He said in a calm manner. Then he commanded. "Guards, make sure no one comes close to my office till I order and you all too keep your ears away from here."

"Sit down." He gestured to Zhu Ling and Zhu Furong to the chairs opposite to him.

Zhu Furong and Zhu Ling quietly took their seats.

Zhu Bohai read the document for some time then placed it on the table.

"It's an engagement letter with the Royal Seal of his majesty, the Emperor." He calmly said.

He then looked at Zhu Furong. "In the morning assembly today the Emperor asked me to meet privately, the princess was also there."

"She said it was love at first sight." Zhu Bohai made an awkward face.

"Even though I know the Emperor doesn't want this. But he is also quite helpless when it comes to his only daughter."

"It seems the princess threw a tantrum when his majesty denied her request for marriage. Even the Empress couldn't convince her daughter."

"Well anyway, whether you want it or not, you are now engaged with the princess. So live with it." Zhu Bohai concluded and shoved the engagement letter to Zhu Furong like an irresponsible parent leaving Zhu Furong agape.

"Well, she is just six years old right now, there's a long time before marriage. Maybe her mind will change in the future. So if you don't want to get married to her, you can just look for ways to get her disapproval."

Zhu Bohai made a serious face. "Keep the matter of your engagement secret and keep this engagement letter hidden as well. Don't let anyone else know about this, not even the fishes in your pond. It's not the right time. News like this will bring turmoil in the whole dynasty." Zhu Bohai warned.

"Fuck!" Zhu Furong cussed aloud.

This time it is Zhu Bohai and Zhu Ling's turn to agape. They never expected such a reaction from Zhu Furong.

"Er... Sorry." Zhu Furong blushed and hung his head down.

"Pffft." Both Zhu Bohai and Zhu Ling couldn't help but chuckle.

"I say, it looks quite troublesome but it's not a bad deal, you know. Having the princess of the dynasty as your wife will secure your future and also bring political power. You will live quite lavishly." Zhu Bohai put out several favourable factors.

"That's only if we can get married in the first place." Zhu Furong said.

He continued. "I am just a normal person, while if I am not wrong the princess will definitely Cultivate Martial Arts."

"She will travel the world and live a long life. How can two people like us be together?" Zhu Furong reasoned.

Both Zhu Bohai and Zhu Ling's countenance became sad.

"You don't have to feel sad for me. Martial Arts is not everything, don't there are people out there living happily even without knowing any martial arts?" Zhu Furong consoled. He felt guilty to keep it a secret that he can Cultivate but he decided to do so to not attract any unwanted attention.

The techniques he is Cultivating right now  is from the Demon Race. The Human Race has prejudice against the Demon Race, they see them as malice. It will be bad if someone connects Zhu Furong to a Demon. Even though he has the bloodline of the Demon Race, he can still keep the fact hidden by suppressing it and keeping the Human Race bloodline as the dominant one. But it would still raise suspicions if someone scrutinized his Cultivation methods.

He will keep Cultivating weird methods and techniques in the future. Will people accept him? An oddball who doesn't belong to any particular race but belongs to all the races? Who knows.

...

With the engagement letter in his hands, Zhu Furong returned to his courtyard. He sat under the peach tree and read the letter. "It's too easy to get a husband these days. All you need is a father, who is an Emperor, sigh!... My peaceful days are over for sure." He shook his head.

He didn't take this incident to his mind. He knows this relationship is impossible. He will be walking a different path than others, the others may not like it.

Also, as Zhu Bohai said, princess Ming Lan is only six years old. Girls of this age don't know much about love and relationships. She must have just felt attracted to Zhu Furong, he is just a crush, not a true love.

Zhu Furong put the letter inside the Nine-Layers Pagoda and gazed at the fishes in the pond. Suddenly a tear rolled down his cheeks. He suddenly remembered about his little maid from his past life. He is supposed to ask her about the reason for her betrayal. Was it true that she doesn't love him anymore? Or was it just a conspiracy of the Ye Clan.

"Sigh!" Zhu Furong wiped off the tears. He is too weak to reach her. He is somewhere in the Lower Realm while she is in the Upper Realm.

"I have to become stronger. Stronger than anybody." Zhu Furong said resolutely.

After, he did some arduous exercises and meditated, letting Zhu Xingzuo soak his meridians with Chaos Qi to make them more flexible, strong and wide.

The days passed by...

** A Cultivation chart has been added to the starting of the novel.