'Carry me,' Luna said, stretching out her arms. Huno looked at her and she added, 'please,'.

 

    He smiled, bent done and picked her up; she wrapped her hand around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

 

   'Sometimes you behave like a kid and other times like an adult,' Huno said.

  'I'm still a child,'.

 

  'A child that's a lot older than me?'.

 

  Luna kept quiet, staring at the side of Huno's face. Feeling something wrong, Huno asked, 'what's wrong?'. 'Will you abandon me one day?' Luna asked. 'Or will you be tired of me?'.

 

   'Don't let insecurity trouble you, I won't,' Huno replied. 'What if you got a family later? have kids and all. Will I still have this place?'. Huno thought and said, 'don't worry, if I have a family you'll be very important to me and them,' Huno said and walked into the bathroom. 'Okay,'.

 

  'What's bothering you?' Huno asked and put her down. 'No nothing,' Luna said. 'Alright Moonlight but if anything is bothering you, you'll come to me immediately, won't you?'. 'Yes I will, what should I do for you,'.

 

 'I hope so. I need you to feel the pool with the red stones,' Huno said, pointing to the empty pool. 'Alright let's do it,'.

 

  Huno took her in and brought her out. After several times, the pool was so filled that they fell out of the pool boundary. 'Thanks,' Huno said. 'Take some for Ma Lie, okay,' Huno said. 'Alright,' Luna said, picked some in her hands, and walked out.

 

   Huno dug a space in the pool and sat down. 'Wow, the energy in these is a lot, with these absorbing Qi energy will be a lot faster than absorbing from the surrounding,' Huno said to himself. He cleared his mind, moved the energies in his left hand back to the space, and then locked it up. He put both arms on the hip of stones and absorbed them.

 

...

 

~One Month Later~

 

  During the past month, Huno has been absorbing the energy on the stone none stop. Three weeks ago, he felt a strange thing growing above his dantian. At first, he was shocked and panicked, but after a closer look, he saw a bronze core in his body. He relaxed because from the information Lee Wei gave to him, Lee Wei said at the formation of the core means the breakthrough to the foundation realm.

 

  The core at the beginning will have only one opening, but as you absorb more energy, the opening increases to the maximum of a hundred openings. The number of openings represents the sub-ranks.

One to twenty-nine openings is Low-rank

Thirty to fifty-nine is Mid-rank

Sixty to eighty-nine is a High-rank

Ninety to a hundred is Peak.

 

  After his core formed, Huno realized the absorption of energy became faster. Soon there was one opening after another and another until three weeks later, when Huno had the fifty-ninth opening, he felt something spying on him. At first, he wasn't sure, but after a while; he felt two people observing him. Huno couldn't concentrate, so he dropped the stone in his hand and stepped out. When he stepped out, he found Lee Wei and Xue Li standing in front of him.

 

   'I apologize for disturbing senior brother's cultivation, senior brother please forgive me,' Xue Li said immediately after she saw him. 'It's alright,' Huno replied. 'Brother, we have good news,' Lee Wei said happily. 'Senior brother Lee and I are both in the True realm,' Xue Li said. 'Both of you? I thought you were in the high-rank foundation realm,' Huno asked her. 'It's all thanks to you, senior brother, the Qi stones you gave me,' Xue Li replied.

   'Xue'er is a core disciple who has a very high aptitude. Her cultivation is usually fast, then plus the huge amount of Qi stones you gave her, her cultivation will be faster,' Lee Wei said.

 

   'I now understand why the great families have lots of cultivators in the True realm. With the stones they have, they can get to the peak of the True realm in no time,' Xue Li said.

 

   'What do you mean?' Huno asked. 'The great families have a lot of peak True realm?'.

 

 'High rank and peak are too much to count,' Lee Wei replied.

 

 'If there are so many peak True Realm, why are there few legendary realms?'.

 

'When you reach the peak of True realm, every external force becomes almost useless, at the foundation realm you have a bronze core, when you get to True realm the bronze turns to silver and when you get to legendary it becomes gold, turning silver core to gold core is difficult and requires luck,',

 

'I see. Why is there a white glow on your body?'

 'Senior brother is at the mid-rank?' Xue Li asked.

'He is. We didn't check,' Lee Wei said.

'What?'.

'That glow shows we are in the True realm. The brighter the glow, the higher the sub realm, only those from the mid-rank foundation realm and above can see the glow,' Xue Li explained.

'It can be hidden though, but even when hidden if the difference of the lower person is not over two sub realms, the lower person may see if he or she truly concentrates,' Lee Wei added.

'Okay, what if the lower person hides it? Will it be hidden from the higher?' Huno asked.

Lee Wei nodded no and said, 'in front of a higher sub realm your realm is exposed unless you use a strong hiding technique or a good artifact,'.

'Okay,' Huno said and looked at both of them. 'What sub realm is junior sister?'.

'Haha, she's higher than me now. She's in the mid-rank,' Lee Wei said.

'How is that possible?' Huno asked.

'The number of stones you gave each of us was huge, even among the great families. I don't think anyone receives that amount in one go,' Xue Li said. 'I thank senior brother again,'.

'Oh, was that why you refused to take it when I first gave you?' Huno asked.

'Yes brother, that was why we didn't want it at first,' Lee Wei said.

'If I give you the same amount, will your realm increase or do you need more than that to increase your realm?' Huno asked.

'Brother, the higher the realm, the more Qi energy is needed to advance,' Lee Wei said.

 

'Okay, with Qi stone advancing seems to be very easy,' Huno said.

'Yeah, but it's hard to find. The only place that has it in abundance in the cold region, but no one goes there,' Lee Wei said.

'Why?'.

'Senior brother, the cold region is not a good place for cultivators. Even the legendary realm can't go too deep and can't stay for too long,' Xue Li said.

 

  Huno stared at both of them blankly, wondering why the most powerful can't enter the cold region.

'In the cold region, cultivators are like a leaking bucket, releasing their Qi energy voluntarily and in the cold region there is a force that slowly blocks the core openings,' Lee Wei said. 'The longer you stay there, the more possible it becomes for your realm to drop. For those who don't cultivate, they can't withstand the cold,' he added.

 

'So me being able to survive in that place...'

'Was because of junior sister Luna,' Xue Li said, completing his statement.

 

  Huno looked at her and smiled, knowing Lee Wei must have told her about him.

 

'And I was planning on going back there,' Huno signed and said.

'Senior brother, no way. If you are going back to get more stones because of us, please forget about it,' Xue Li said. 'Brother, you don't have to do,' Lee Wei said.

'I'll have to go back. The stones aren't the major reason,' Huno said.

'Then what is?' Lee Wei asked.

'Brother, remember I told you there were three energies in my body. Well, I think one of them is similar to the energy in the cold region,' Huno said.

'Three energies?' Xue Li asked.

 

'Open,' Huno's voice was heard. With his eyes closed, a white and black glow intertwined on his left arm. He opened his eyes and said, 'these two energies are mixed, one is a cold energy and the other I don't know, I can't separate them and I can't move them around my body because when they come in contact with Qi energy their harmony is broken,'.

 

   'So I was planning on going to the cold region to better understand the cold energy,' he added. 'Oh, that's why,'.

'I'll wait till I'm in the True realm. By then Luna will be stronger, maybe she'll be able to help then,' Huno said. 'Oh, where is Luna?' he asked.

 

'She's in Ma Lie's room trying on some clothes I got her,' Xue Li said.

'Wait, you guys didn't come out today?'

'No, brother, we came out two days ago. We were worried about you so we spied to check. Your cultivation realm is high so you could notice it,' Lee Wei said.

 

Huno stretched his body and said, 'I'll go see her,'.

He turned to face Ma Lie's room when Luna rushed out shouting, 'senior sister!'.

'What's wrong?' Xue Li asked.

'Oh Huno you are out,' Luna said and faced Xue Li. 'Huno!' she screamed, holding Xue Li's hand and dragging her into the room.

 

  Seeing the door shut immediately, Huno turned to Lee Wei and asked, 'did I do something wrong?'.

 

'You didn't notice?' Lee Wei asked.

'Notice what?' Huno asked and thought for a while.

'Well, she seems to be taller than before,' Huno answered.

 

Lee Wei nodded and said, 'the energy coming from her is on par with mine and she has been growing, rapidly,'

 

'Oh,'.

 

'And she feels you won't like how she looks if she changed so she has been forcing the growth to stop and trying to shrink herself back, we told her not to but she didn't listen,' Lee Wei said and added, 'that was why we were checking on you, to know if something is wrong at your side,'.

 

'What?'.

 

  Huno tried to open the door, but it was locked from the inside. 'Luna, open the door,' Huno said. 'No, I won't,' Luna's voice came from the inside. 'Stop being stubborn. Open the door,' Huno said. Luna didn't reply, 'Luna, Luna,' Huno called out but no reply. 'Junior sister, open the door,' Huno said.

 

'Okay,' Xue Li's voice came from inside. Almost immediately Luna yelled, 'senior sister,'.

 

  Huno and Lee Wei felt cold energy coming from inside the room. 'Luna, what just happened? What did you do to junior sister?' Huno yelled.

'I'm fine, she just froze the door,' Xue Li replied from inside.

 

Lee Wei and Huno felt relieved, 'Luna come on open the door, if you don't I'll leave,' Huno said.

 

 Inside the room, Luna stared at the door, her eyes turned watery as she murmured, 'don't leave me,'.