(Author: Hello everyone! Now that introductions have been met, it is now back to training. As for the question of a harem: I honestly don't know. There is a time skip as a closed door practice will be introduced. I meant to do it earlier as it is the second volume, but I wanted to have the Great Dragon God make an appearance first. Enjoy the chapter.)

Chapter 17: Closed Door Training

"I see you have all relaxed and made yourselves comfortable," General Hui laughed as his guests and family ate their breakfast the next day. "Good. Very good. Tell me, how do you feel about the dragon god?"

Liao was forced to tell his friends last night as the light from the jade medallion was so bright and it mentally projected the Great Dragon God's voices not only to Liao and the people in the main house, even the guards, servants, and his friends heard the voice and learned of the dragon god.

"I'm glad it's on our side sir," Cao said as he grabbed some scrambled eggs. "When I heard it appeared in Wei, I thought it would destroy everything."

"Liao still had some secrets from his experience at the ravine," Richard smirked, trying to make Liao guilty with a smile.

"I don't think we can stop it if it chose to destroy the world," Yueying replied. "I've read about true gods and I can verify that a Primordial God wouldn't be able to stop him."

"The knowledge of the Bao clan is profound indeed," Lady Fei nodded, surprised. "Anyway, training has become your highest priority. You must be strong to defend what you hold dear. As I mentioned, I will teach Yueying for a while before she does closed door training like the rest of you."

"What?" Sakura asked. "Closed door training? We don't know a lot of techniques though."

"Closed door training is a necessity to break the bottlenecks and could last for days, weeks, months, and even years," General Hui explained. "Your fellow classmates will learn more techniques than you and break bottlenecks even faster with outside influence, but closed door training is the best. Why? As you meditate, you become one with nature. Spirit energy comes from nature and breathes life into it. Closed door training increases your foundations, allowing your body to contain more qi and use it more efficiently. You can also visualize the techniques you do know and study it, mastering it. What use is an abundant amount of techniques when you have not even mastered one of them? One martial artist with great mastery of a technique can overcome many others who have little mastery as they can simply overpower them."

"You will enter closed door training until you are fifteen years old," Lady Fei said. "You might be Spirit Lords while your fellow classmates might be Spirit Kings, but you will overpower them as you understand your power more than they do and have more spirit energy than they do. Training fast is all well and good, but understanding you element qi is much better. Them? Their potential will be dwarfed by your own. Power is not everything in martial arts. A true martial artist can overcome a stronger martial artist by controlling his strength and using it in bursts at the opportune moment. A true master is able to control the fight and end it on his or her own terms. That is real power. Spirit Kings? Spirit Lords? Is it not possible for a Spirit Knight to defeat a Spirit Sage? You saw my son fight that Guan Xu. He used his head and waited for the right opportunity to strike and killed Guan Xu. Don't think of ranks and levels of qi condensation as absolutes. You never know when you meet a powerful opponent who is able to hide his true power and end up dead by underestimating the enemy."

"As you enter closed door training, I will take your mythic beasts and train them in the wild," General Hui said. "Their growth is different and more savage than a human's. Take a moment to prepare and say your goodbyes as you enter your rooms. It is sound proof and no one will be able to disturb you from the outside. Good luck. This is YOUR future. Do not be lazy and persevere in your training."

The Knight Destroyers nodded and everyone said words of encouragement to each other as they left. Only Yueying and Liao remained as they walked over to one of the ponds with exotic fish to talk. They sat on a bench and Yueying rested her head on Liao's shoulder.

"So that's how you survived the fall from the ravine," she murmured.

"Sorry I couldn't tell you before," Liao said. "I was afraid of the dragon god and what he would do. I knew it was safe to tell you as I found out you all heard its voice. I guess it didn't care and I overthought it too much."

"The Xu family is not as powerful as your own family, but they have many relatives and connections," Yueying said, squeezing his hand. "My clan is definitely one of the most powerful clans, but we seclude ourselves most of the time. The Xu family are dragon slayers for a reason as draconic mythic beasts sell for a lot of gold for materials to craft pills of spirit energy and various medicine."

"And my Hunluan is an imoogi mythic beast and I was ordered to kill the Xu family," Liao sighed. "Honestly, I wish I could live secluded somewhere and cultivate in peace with you and both our families, never worrying about wars and killing. I fought in a war and I know it will never be possible. War only creates more enemies with pain and hate. The cycle of death never ends."

Yueying kissed him and said, "Then we can only make ourselves stronger to protect each other and our families. I'm sorry I can't tell you about the Bao clan but we have our rules. Only the people the Bao clan need are fit to know about us. You need to become more powerful to become needed and to get approval for dating me."

Liao laughed and held her in his arms and said, "Don't worry. I will definitely get stronger. No one will be our match in the Mortal realm and we will become the most powerful in the Immortal realms. I will not lose the people I love again. Never again."

Liao then told her the complete truth. From the origins of the Sundered Heaven Force to the fact that he was from another world. Yueying was shocked but she was touched he trusted her enough to tell her everything. Liao walked her to the main house where his mother would train Yueying for a while. He said goodbye to his family and Hunluan.

By the time he reached his room and began to meditate, he had a new resolve to get stronger. Now there were three entities who knew all that he was: the Great Dragon God, Hunluan, and Yueying. He lost his parents and the spirit beast attack in Roshalt was proof that he was not strong enough to protect his loved ones.

"I will never lose the people I love without a fight," Liao thought as he closed his eyes and began to meditate. "If any of my enemies even attempt to do so, I'll slaughter them and show the whole world what it means to cross me!"

Chapter 16: Meeting a God MAIN PAGE Chapter 18: Entering the Realm