The wind blew coldly against the skin of the young man, the sound of multiple footsteps rushing towards him, coupled with the bloody smell of the dead bandit had put him on edge. Fang Li didn't forget to take the glowing flower, he placed it in his back pocket to prevent it from getting into the hands of the wrong people, so it's best to take whatever the bandits want away from them, instead of letting them have the currently unknown treasured flower.

Woooooooooosh

Just then he felt his hair flying up by a fierce wind, all he could see was a blur before he felt a deep aching pain in his chest, he had only a second to look down just to see a palm pressed against him before he was sent flying off into the distance, and crashing into a tree. Fang Li went out cold instantly without even knowing who the culprit was, all he could do was despair as his vision went black.

'Meooooooooow'

The cat felt anxious quickly running off after the injured boy, the little cat stood before Fang Li while sending out a wave of noise, it only sounded like pleading in the ears of everyone present.

The person who sent the palm attack raised her eyebrows up while not taking another move.

"Toto, what are you doing over there, get away from that person"

Strangely the person who sent the palm attack was talking towards the little kitty cat in a familiar way, her coarse voice echoed throughout the forest as more people came in behind her, a dozen people who seem to look like ordinary villagers, one of the people that little girl who Fang Li saved, Ling Tong, she was panting out of breath from all that running around but one she saw the sight in front of her, she couldn't help but cry out.

"Wait elder! He was the one that saved my life!" She said while preparing to run out, but before she could, she was restrained by two older people who looks to be her parents, those two-people looked suspiciously towards the green stranger.

"Ling Tong, we don't know who this person is, he could had saved you out of malicious intent" Ling Tongs' father said with concern.

"No, he's not like that, and we do know him, that’s Fang Li, the grandson of that old man Fang, the medical doctor!" She said urgently.

'What?'

Everyone was shocked, the useless good for nothing who always accompanied the godlike doctor had became a cultivator, and even saved one of their own people ruthless bandits? But why is he wearing that strange green jumpsuit, and what's with his hair?

"Hurry, let’s take him back to the village, he needs treatment urgently" Ling Tong said hastily because Fang Li was left lying in the debris of a crushed tree, a palm shaped wound was seen on the chest of the boy which caved in and broke his ribs, that persons palm attack had burned through the clothes of the boy which made everyone able to see the heavy damage it made.

Soon everyone was voicing out their opinions, most of them were now saying that they should bring him back since they know him, even the parents of Ling Tong turned a 180 degree, because Fang Li isn't a stranger, over the years the village has gotten to know the duo, also his grandfather was a doctor who repeatedly saved their villagers life which sowed good karma among them.

"No, just take him towards his Grandfather" The 'elder' said with a neutral voice.

"Wait Granny Tzuki, we can't old man Fang has passed away, Fang Li told me this"

"What he's dead!" All the villagers felt a sense of lost, like a part of their village has been weakened, even though Old Man Fang didn't live inside the village, over the years the villagers unconsciously treated him as one of them, even the elder, Granny Tzuki couldn't help but be stunned, a brief sense of loss could be seen on her face before it went away.

"Ok let's take him back, I'll nurse him back to health" Granny Tzuki said while ordering everyone to head back, Ling Tong felt relieved, and also Toto, the cat followed along with the group back to the village, the old lady couldn't be blamed for attacking Fang Li, who asked him to dress so strangely?

The Village policy is to not accept strangers, in a world full of cultivators, what can commoners do to avoid any type of dangers? Over the countless hundreds of thousands of years, who haven’t heard of cultivators treating commoners as trash, expendables, people to be toyed with and experimented on. Granny Tzuki has protected the village from all these kinds of threats which kept the peace stable in the village.

..........

Inside a small courtyard Fang Li was laying across a stone slab, still unconscious, Granny Tzuki couldn't help but complain inwardly as she tries to find a solution to heal up the boy, she had a troubled expression on her face as she held the treasured flower.

"A one thousand year old whitefire rose!. Tsk tsk, if I hadn't met your grandfather, I would had kept this rose to myself" She sighed softly before forcing it down the throat of the young boy, a whitefire rose age can be told by the number of petals it has, one petal is formed per one hundred years and this rose had ten petals already.

As the flower dissolved into solvents, it was now hot liquid which burned in high temperature, this was because of its extreme yang potency, the whitefire in its name is not just for show. In the eyes of Granny Tzuki, the body of Fang Li was rapidly healing, but Granny Tzuki felt that is was strange that the boy hadn't awaken yet, she observed closely towards the boy for a few minutes before shouting out in shock.

In realisation, she quickly covered her mouth as to try and not make another sound, she sensed a huge amount of Qi rushing towards the boy’s head, this was something that she had seen once before, a long time ago, it was something that happens when someone undergoes enlightenment.

Fang Li's forehead started to glow, a bright orange embryo was taking form inside his mind, all the excess yang Qi from the whitefire rose was rushing towards that embryo, this was visible to Granny Tzuki, she didn't think that the energy of the flower could be used to fuel the enlightenment, this was a one in a lifetime chance that hundreds of thousands of people could only dream of, she expected the flower to dissolve into his flesh and bones to strengthen his body, raising his body realm up by a couple of level, she didn't expect everything to go differently.

She could only watch on in silence, going through an enlightenment this way is potentially dangerous, all the energy is rushing towards one area, his brain, his consciousness, if it overfills he could turn into a potato, all Fang Li has to do is successfully finish his enlightenment, so that he can wake up, and then be able control all that whitefire rose energy that’s gathering in his consciousness, spreading it down to the rest of his body so that he can properly absorb all the energy.

...................

"Where am I?"

Fang Li thought as he was very confused, he last remembered being at the forest, next moment he felt extreme pain, and then he blacked out.

"Is this the afterlife?" He said out loud, with his eyes wide open in shock.

All he could see was an endless orange ocean, no land to be in sight, just a smooth sea with no ripple, the sky was also bright orange, he could feel the intense heat coming from the sky and the ocean, the warm wind brushes against his body, he couldn't help but feel odd as he was standing on top of the water like he was stading on the earth, and each small step he took had created small ripples, this situation made him really uncomfortable.

But at the corner of his eyes, he saw the reflection of himself in the water, wearing the same Rock Lee uniform as him, but the strange thing was that the expression of the reflection was just neutral, no matter if he smiled, frowned or talked, the face of the reflection did not move.

Gasp!

He couldn't help but stumble backwards, dumbfounded as the reflection just moved on its own, a hand slowly reached out towards Fang Li, that reflections hand slowly came out of the water, and after a few moments, a full body was now seen in front of Fang Li, a carbon copy of himself was just there staring at him.

And before he could react, that clone had charged towards him.