Qian Feng looked in surprise at the newcomer. Throughout all these years, his only visitors had been the same three maids coming interchangeably and his mother. The maids did not talk at all, and just came to bring his food and drink, of which there was as little as healthily possible. There was also an apparatus which was pointed to by his mother, but she did not elaborate on what it did. It was shaped like a modern toilet, but with none of the piping. After some deliberation and inspection, he had found a button on the construction that created a hot fire in the crevasse, what would be the toilet bowl. Qian Feng then reasoned that this would incinerate any waste.

However, while living was possible, Qian Feng had absolutely no idea how a normal infant would survive in such an environment. Based on that, Qian Feng reasoned that he was born to a clan which was not fully human, or if not that, very unusual. Maybe this had something to do with his bloodline?

But he turned his attention back to his surprise visit, the old man.

"Qian Feng, come with me."

Without saying a word, mostly because if he somehow knew how to speak, it would be extremely suspicious, given that he hadn't been talked to much. The following was explained by the universal gesture made for "come with me", but responding was too much of a hassle.

So, Qian Feng stepped out of his room for the first time in what would have been more than two years by then.

The hallway he was greeted by was just as dull as his room, made of a gray, smooth stone and spanning for seemingly 50 feet. Without another word, the old man led him down the hall and then made various turns, each subsequent hallway duller than the last.

Finally, they arrived at the end of an especially long hallway, as well as an especially dull one, with nothing but a brown oak door in front of them. So, what could they do? Surely not open the door, right?

Nope! The old man turned around and belted out a secret rhythm on the wall behind them, resulting in it opening up and revealing a strange room that served as a refreshing change of taste from the previous dull surroundings that had haunted Qian Feng for the last two years of his life.

With a complete lack of roof, Qian Feng was able to see that they were deep underground, surprising him quite a bit. His family was seeming less and less human...

But even that thought could not distract him from the beautiful surroundings of his location. With a crystal-clear pool in front of him, and shining multicolored crystals serving as the sole light source of the cave, the scenery was idyllic. Even the walls were beautiful, with them being made of a marble-like substance with little specks of gold in theme very here and there. It was, needless to say, incredibly refreshing.

"You should be able to understand my words, right? I asked Yushi to constantly talk to you when she visited... Combine that with the bloodline, it's even possible that he could speak our language..." The old man started muttering at the end, such that Qian Feng did not hear him fully, but he understood enough to respond.

"Hello. Where am I, and why did you lock me into a room for two years? Who am I? What am I? What is this talk about bloodlines? Can you -"

"Stop talking! Geez, I never thought your degree of bloodline condensation was so high... Alright, it looks like I should explain some things. Before that, though, please hold this stone."

After being interrupted in his constant inquiries, Qian Feng was made to hold a strange gem that seemed to absorb 90% of all light and reflect the rest in a resplendent manner. Without another word, Qian Feng took the gem in his hand and felt something strange.

It was as if the stone in his hands tugged at his spirit realm, which had already been Awakened.

At this moment, dozens of thoughts flashed through Qian Feng's head as he was distracted from the stone, since the old man took out a knife and slashed it towards him. Thankfully, he seemed to use very little force and be rather slow, allowing Qian Feng to dodge with ease. The old man followed up; increasing in power and speed by a bit. This continued for a time, where the old man increased in speed and power to points that should be impossible for a normal person, changing Qian Feng's battle tactic and convincing him that the strange old man was a cultivator. Eventually, Qian Feng, who did not excel in speed or dodging, had to relent, as the weapon was getting to the speed where he could track it with his eyes, but his body couldn't keep up. Of course, judging from its seeming power, Qian Feng's body could still block it easily. He was an existence over three times stronger than ordinary people at the peak of the Martial Refiner realm. Thankfully, the moment, Qian Feng was unable to block the knife, the old man stopped his attack before it reached Qian Feng's skin. Qian Feng was disappointed, but realized that having a metal dagger shatter as it touched him probably wasn't good for laying relatively low.

"Alright, kid, not bad. Now, let's do some explaining, since you do seem ready for it."

Out of nowhere, two chairs appeared, and, after the old man sat down and leaned back, Qian Feng(our lord and god) also deigned to sit.

"First off, this is the world of Heidas. Here, the strong rule the weak, and there are no rules as to how they do so. You are currently in the Jade Sun county, one of the weakest in the Astral God continent. The Astral God continent is in the middle echelons of power in Heidas. As for how the strong become strong, well, naturally, that is through cultivation. Cultivation is absorbing the Qi of heavens and earth with various methods into the body and tempering oneself following the classic system of cultivation. There are five known stages in cultivation; and when one reaches the peak of the fifth stage, they become unrivaled within the world and cannot be challenged. We call these experts Transcendent Experts. The first stage is the Martial Refiner stage. In this stage, one uses Qi to temper their body and become stronger. After this is the second stage, the Martial Warrior stage. In this stage, one builds up and strengthens their Qi. After this is the Martial King stage, in which the aura is cultivated and a domain can start to be formed. The fourth stage is Martial Emperor, where the mysteries of Heaven and Earth can be pondered upon, giving access to natural laws, which have many mystical uses. The final stage is the Martial Saint stage, in which the mind is cultivated. Not much is known about this stage, but we do know that reaching it is incredibly difficult. Even now, our county does not have any Transcendent Experts.

You are a child of the remnants of the Gong clan. We were attacked and killed, to near extermination, several thousands of years ago, and have thus fled underground where no one has found us. All of our members are completely loyal to the clan and have never revealed its existence; a miracle in itself. We were attacked when we first came to the Jade Sun county. We are an ancient clan, one not even native to the Astral God continent, but instead, if our ancestors are to be believed, the most powerful continent, the Heavenly Scepter continent. We were forced to come here for unknown reasons, and our drastically weakened clan was treated with hostility when it arrived at the Jade Sun county. Why? Because we are not fully human.

We contain part of the bloodline of the Spiritual Fox, which means that we are not accepted in either the human society or the Spiritual Fox society. The Spiritual Fox has low combat power, but compared to humans without a bloodline, our combat abilities are indeed marginally increased. However, this is not where our main advantage lies. Instead, it is in our natural intelligence that has been granted to us by our Spiritual Fox bloodline. The denser our concentration of the bloodline, the faster our mind matures and the more powerful it is. You seem to have quite a high density, given that you are already able to understand my words.

As for who I am, well, I'm an elder of the Gong clan. I'm in charge of awakening and educating those with a high bloodline density. You can call me Elder Yu.

Oh, right, although you're two, you do have exceptionally high intelligence, so you are probably wondering as to why we kept you locked in a room and secluded for so much time.

Well, that is part of our test to find out the bloodline density of our children. It hurt every parent's heart, but in order to test the innate intelligence, we have inscriptions hidden in the room that slowly measure the extent of the intelligence of its habitants. And we found that your bloodline is the purest of the clan children born within a span of at least a thousand years. Normally, a child with average bloodline density would only stay for 1-2 months; but the higher the intelligence, the longer it takes. Thankfully, the time required to measure a given intelligence matches up with the ability that mind has to stay inside a room like that with that amount of contact, meaning that if it takes a day to measure the intelligence, the baby can only stay inside a room like that before a day before being permanently affected.

The contact each child receives is carefully monitored too. An excessive amount of influence on a growing child can affect the results of the test, so we have to be very careful. This is why those maids did not say anything when they gave you your food, and why your mother talked to you so little. Oh, it always hurts the parents to not be able to talk to their children once they are born.

But, look at me, I'm getting ahead of myself! It's as I'm talking to one of my colleagues, for goodness sake! Any questions?"

Silence reigned in the room for a second after that huge information dump. Upon further though, it made sense that such a weak county only had records of the first five cultivation realms, so it looked like Qian Feng would have to move if he wanted to grow further after attaining the fifth level. He'd probably move before then, though... Anyways, the info dump indeed answered most of Qian Feng's questions, all but one. He presumed he already knew the answer, but he wanted to confirm it.

"What was that stone you gave me?" Qian Feng asked, curious. "I felt a tug at my inside world when I held it." Qian Feng decided to deceive the elder. Telling the elder his spirit realm was already awakened would prevent any more possible probing, and he didn't want his triple spirit realms to be discovered. Of course, a two-year-old child without any proper education wouldn't know the name of the Spirit Realm, so Qian Feng came up with his own term on the fly. He wanted to reveal some genius - this was where the already-awakened Spirit Realm part came in - but not too much, lest something be suspected - hence not revealing that he knew the proper term for the Spirit Realm.

After a second, the elder responded.

"You... You already awakened it?" With wide eyes and a slightly shaking body, Elder Yu responded in a shocked sort of excitement, before concealing his feelings again in an impressive act of self-control and explaining. "What you call your inner world is actually your Spirit Realm. It is what the whole of cultivation centers around, and the stone I gave you was supposed to awaken your Spirit Realm and bring awareness to it, allowing you to cultivate. However, I suppose it was obsolete.

I'll have to tell Gong Nian to just give him a cultivation technique and make him make his own insights. With this level of talent, it would be a waste to just go through the ordinary education system." The final part was muttered once again, as Elder Yu seemed to do a lot, but he perked up and led Qian Feng out of the room, saying to him, "Yeah, let's go talk to Elder Nian... Hehe..."