Knock! Knock!

It's 10 pm at night when Zhu Da heard a knock on his office door.

"Come in." Zhu Da answered from his desk.

With a creaking sound the door opened and Zhu Furong silently walked in. Looking at his uncle, handling documents, he decided to wait in front of the desk.

"What is it?" Zhu Da asked without raising his head.

Zhu Furong didn't answer but stood silently.

Zhu Da didn't ask any more and completed the document he was working on before raising his head.

His lips instantly curved with a smile, "Nephew?" He asked, unsure.

"Long time no see uncle." Zhu Furong cupped his hands in salute and bowed.

Hahaha... Zhu Da broke into laughter before getting off his seat and hugging Zhu Furong tightly.

After letting him go he caressed Zhu Furong's head gently looking satisfied.

He spoke with a warm smile, "Why didn't you inform me if you were going to visit? It was only a few days ago when I got a letter from Elder Wu Hao, he didn't mention anything about your return."

Zhu Furong smiled back, "I wanted to surprise you."

Hahaha, Zhu Da laughed heartily, "Good, good." He patted Zhu Furong's shoulder.

He then asked, "Are you returning home? How did your Cultivation practice go?"

Zhu Furong nodded, "Yes, I miss Grandpa and Elder Sister. As for my Cultivation... I am at the early Foundation Establishment rank."

"Ah, great, great. early Foundation Establishment rank at the age of 14, really good." Zhu Da frowned, "I was really surprised when I heard about your talent in Cultivation from Wu Hao, it makes me want to curse that Royal Physician who diagnosed your dantian as defective." Zhu Da gritted his teeth.

"Hehe, well, mistakes happen." Zhu Furong passed it with a laugh.

Zhu Da snorted.

After that the uncle and nephew chatted for a while before Zhu Da sent him to a quarter for rest.

Arriving at the room, Zhu Furong met three fellow soldiers who fought along with him 4 years ago.

"Ah, Junior Brother, I still remember how valiantly you mascaraed those Wen bastards when you were only ten years old. Now after four years, your Cultivation must have improved by a lot. Are you going to create a blood bath again?" A soldier asked with great interest.

Zhu Furong smiled awkwardly, shaking his head, "It's not fair to the common people if Cultivators involve themselves in their war. It's a different matter if the enemy also has powerful Cultivators among them, but it isn't the case here, is it?"

The soldier agreed, "That's true."

The others nodded as well.

Suddenly a siren blared.

"Sigh! Seems like a battle broke again." The soldiers stood up in unison, "Junior Brother, rest well, we will talk later."

Zhu Furong smiled gently, cupping his hands in salute, "I will be waiting for your safe return, Senior Brothers."

The three soldiers nodded slightly before leaving.

Zhu Furong went to sleep.

After waking up in the morning, Zhu Furong had breakfast with other soldiers and they chatted about the past times.

Later Zhu Furong met Zhu Da in his office before taking his leave.

Zhu Da handed over an envelope to Zhu Furong, "Pass this to your grandfather."

"Also, watch out for assassins on your way back, especially when you are close to the Zhu manor. Be extra vigilant." Zhu Da warned.

Zhu Furong looked amazed, "The Nighthawk Assassins are still at it?"

"Ah, you don't know about it? The Nighthawk Assassins Organization was wiped out by Ming Zen and your Elder Sister." Zhu Da smiled.

"What? Really? Wiped out?" Zhu Furong looked surprised.

Zhu Da nodded, "Well you will hear more about it when you reach home. For now all I will say is watch out for people from the Thousand Arms Sect." Zhu Da made a serious look.

"They are related to the Nighthawk Assassins Organization right?" Zhu Furong inquired.

Zhu Da nodded.

"Understood." Zhu Furong nodded back before taking out a bundle of papers and passing it to Zhu Da.

"Lion-Tiger Fists? Iron Body Art?" Zhu Da frowned.

As he read through the papers his frowned turned into surprise which later turned into shock to excitement.

"Where did you get these? Don't tell me." Zhu Da looked concerned.

Zhu Furong comforted, "Don't worry, it has nothing to do with Sunlight Sect. I found these on my own." He then whispered, "It's a secret."

Hearing the last line, Zhu Da instantly rolled the bundle of papers acting secretive.

Zhu Furong took out several small vials of pills, "You are at the early Foundation Establishment rank too right? Use these, it will help you break through to the mid stage."

He took out some more vials, "These will help you to break through to the peak Foundation Establishment rank."

Zhu Da watched Zhu Furong with open mouth as he took out one vial after another decorating them on the desk.

"Stop, stop. You-" Before Zhu Da could say something he was stopped by Zhu Furong.

"These are all meant for you, so I am not hearing any excuses. I have better pills than these which I want to pass to you but unfortunately you have already passed the age to take benefit of those pills." Zhu Furong sighed.

Zhu Da gulped a mouthful of saliva looking at these rank 1 and rank 2 pills. Without arguing, he instantly hid them inside his Spatial Bag.

After that he looked at Zhu Furong with hesitation, "Nephew..."

Zhu Furong raised his hand, "I know what you want to say— I am not interested in Cultivation and want to live a normal life so I can meet my mother and Second Brother sooner, right?"

Zhu Furong looked at Zhu Da lovingly, "You are being selfish Fourth Uncle. You want to leave us early, but we don't want to let you go. We also have the right to be selfish don't we?"

Zhu Furong teased, "Moreover, I have yet to meet my aunt. When are you getting married?" Zhu Furong nodded upwards.

"Er..." Zhu Da scratched his cheek, lost for words.

Pfft... Zhu Furong escaped a suppressed laugh, "I am just teasing you." He then made a serious face, "But still, Fourth Uncle, please take care of yourself."

Zhu Da is the youngest of the four brothers and also the one who has spent the least amount of time with his mother. His father, Zhu Bohai was always busy with the military, so his second brother Zhu Shi, Zhu Furong's late adoptive father, always took care of him. Zhu Da grew quite attached to his Second Brother, so much that he went berserk on the day of Zhu Shi's death. He killed quite a few officials in rage and was punished to be stationed at the Western Fort for the next thirty years.

Zhu Da doesn't have much attachment to this world, Zhu Furong had heard all about this from Zhu Bohai at Zhu manor. Zhu Da reminds Zhu Furong of his past life. They are quite similar, except Zhu Da has a caring father.

After convincing Zhu Da to Cultivate the techniques and consume the pills, Zhu Furong left the Western Fort. But before returning to the Zhu manor, he has a more important job to do.

With the help of the location of the Yin Doll found at the cemetery, Zhu Furong traced down four more Yin Dolls. After turning these dolls into powder, the unorthodox array was finally, completely destroyed. Though Zhu Furong didn't find a single clue of the perpetrators, it was still worth his efforts.

Now his next destination is the Sunlight Sect.

Yes, he did say he wants to return home but he still has things to take care of at the Sunlight Sect.

It's about five days of journey from the Western Fort to the Sunlight Sect.

...

Later that evening, Zhu Furong sat on a bed inside an inn, listening to Zhu Xingzuo. 

"Open Ascension rank have five stages. Body Cleansing, lower level Soul Tempering, middle level Soul Tempering, upper level Soul Tempering and Nascent Soul Formation— if you complete all these, your life expectancy will increase to 10,000 years." Zhu Xingzuo explained.

He continued, "That's what the human race Cultivators follow, but you are different. Unlike others, you already have a Nascent Soul. Though your Nascent Soul or to say your Spiritual Body is imperfect. Our task this time is to perfect your Nascent Soul while strengthening it in the process."

"For this, your master, Bian Chao prepared a special Cultivation method, which he named Nascent, which will also be the name of the Cultivation rank you will reach after the completion of this method." Zhu Xingzuo took a deep breath before continuing further.

"There are two stages of Nascent. Nascent Soul Tempering and Nascent Soul Perfection." "For the Nascent Soul Tempering..." Zhu Xingzuo hesitated a bit.

"In the Nascent Soul Tempering stage, you have to turn a part of your Spiritual Body into mist and reconstruct it. Each time your Spiritual Body heals, it will strengthen your Soul." Zhu Xingzuo paused for a bit, "I am warning you, it will be quite painful. More painful than your bones being crushed."

"Thanks to having the Spirit Race bloodline, it affects your physique. Your physique now has traits of the Spirit Race which allows your physical body to contain your ego in case your Spiritual Body is destroyed. Though it has a certain time limit." With this Zhu Xingzuo was done explaining.

After staying silent for a moment, Zhu Furong puckered his brows, "What about the second stage?"

"Second stage? It will be complete as soon as you complete the first stage. It's just that in the Nascent Soul Perfection stage you will be practicing a Soul Cultivation art, specifically developed by your master for you. It will help your soul to break through its own limits and your Spiritual Body Cultivation won't affect your Physical Body even if there is vast difference amongst them—Even I am quite jealous of this Cultivation art but unfortunately I don't have Spirit Race bloodline. Well I guess I can create a similar Cultivation art for myself after observing your practice carefully." Zhu Xingzuo spoke thoughtfully.

"Do we need some special materials for Cultivation? If not then let's start." Zhu Furong looked eager.

"Well we don't need any materials for this. All it will take is for me to strengthen my Spiritual Body with Chaos Qi and launch a Soul Attack at your Spiritual Body, turning parts of it to mist one at a time, while you focus on reconstructing your soul." Zhu Xingzuo replied.

"Since your Spiritual Body is roughly at the middle Revolving Core rank, I can easily break it. But the main problem is the Nirvana Life Seal protecting it. If I attack your soul, it will definitely defend it and I may also get hurt in the process." Zhu Xingzuo expressed his concern.

"You don't have to worry about it. After that incident at the Unknown Ruins, I can control a part of the Nirvana Life Seal. I will create a gap in the seal for you to attack my Spiritual Body." Zhu Furong affirmed.

"Then there are no issues. We can proceed whenever you want." Zhu Xingzuo relaxed.

"Let's do it now." Saying this, Zhu Furong stood up and took out some materials off the Nine-Layers Pagoda and set up a sound barrier array inside the room. With the materials in his hand, he can easily arrange a rank 2 array which is more than enough for now.

Sitting in the lotus posture with his eyes closed. Zhu Furong converged all his attention to the Nirvana Life Seal.

Slowly a hole punch appeared on the Nirvana Life Seal. Starting with this Zhu Xingzuo's Divine Sense followed Zhu Furong's nerves and veins entering the tiny hole. After a while a cry of pain rang throughout the room.

Zhu Furong's whole body instantly covered in sweat as he rolled on the bed holding his head flailing like a fish out of water.

It took about an hour for Zhu Furong to calm down. In this one hour he was visited by the Yama thousand of times. The pain was really unbearable. His agony could especially be noticed from how Zhu Furong's teeth have pierced through his skin on the mouth making it bleed profusely.

Surprisingly, this time, Zhu Furong didn't even utter a single word during all this painful process. If it was like the past, Zhu Xingzuo would have been able to learn some new curse words.

Shaking as if he had lost all his strength, Zhu Furong struggled to sit back in the lotus posture before proceeding with the treatment of his Spiritual Body.

As he concentrated on his Spiritual Body, he could see his own hazy Spiritual Body surrounded by red flames. Upon closer inspection, his Spiritual Body is missing an arm. In its place there is mist.

Using his Divine Sense and borrowing a teeny bit of Chaos Qi from Zhu Xingzuo, Zhu Furong started reshaping the arm.

After three hours, Zhu Furong opened his eyes, extremely tired. There are large bags under his eyes. Looking down he noticed his shirt is drenched in red blood. He touched his mouth and observed the blood on his hand. It's sticky.

Zhu Furong took out a large wooden tub out of the Nine-Layers Pagoda and filled it with water before plunging into it.

Truly efficient use of Spatial Storages.

"Sigh! How long will it take to complete this stage at this pace?" He murmured.

Looking at his Spiritual Body, even after three hours the mist is still present. It's as if Zhu Furong didn't do anything to it at all. But in fact, the change is so minute it is hard to catch.

"Well, a Spiritual Body automatically heals with time which will cut your work by a tiny bit. Also, you can use this opportunity to train your perception. Rather than sitting in meditation, try to divide a part of your consciousness to focus on meditation while you carry on with your daily activities." Zhu Xingzuo suggested.

"It sounds ridiculous. How can someone Cultivate while moving? It's too inefficient." Zhu Furong instantly denied.

"Maybe for others, but for you who have the Heavenly Innate Body it's extremely beneficial. Even if I didn't tell you now, you would have sooner or later started working on a method to Cultivate while moving—else it would be a complete waste of such a unique physique." Zhu Xingzuo pointed out.

Zhu Furong went into deep thought. What Zhu Xingzuo said makes complete sense. He has to learn multitasking. Leaving the Cultivation while moving aside, he can also use his improved perception in battles. He couldn't find a single negative point after thinking about this.

After getting out of the tub, Zhu Furong tried to focus a part of his consciousness to mend his Spiritual Body while he wore his clothes. But before he knew it he was standing still holding his pants.

All his consciousness diverged towards the mending of his Spiritual Body making him forget about wearing clothes.

Zhu Furong got out of this peculiar condition after a few minutes and shook his head vigorously. "It is quite hard."

Zhu Xingzuo snorted. "Of course it is. It is the same as rotating your one arm clockwise while moving the other anti-clockwise at the same time. It sounds easy but is extremely difficult to achieve."

Zhu Furong wore his clothes and walked out of the inn, walking in the market at night.

After passing every store he stopped for a moment, closing his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Zhu Xingzuo asked, confused.

"Training my perception. I am trying to remember everything I saw through the far end of my peripheral vision. If I can remember it clearly, it will mean I can successfully divide the focus of my attention and as it develops it will soon evolve into my ability to divide my consciousness." Zhu Furong replied.

"Wow, that's a great method. How did you come up with it?" Zhu Xingzuo asked with amazement.

"Well, it just came to mind." Zhu Furong replied nonchalantly before proceeding with his training.

Zhu Furong roamed the market for about 40 minutes before he reached his limit. He is so exhausted that he may fall asleep anytime, anywhere.

Staggering from sleep, he returned to the inn and went back to his room. He plopped on the bed and went to sleep.