“Absolutely not!”

“Please!”

“Not on your life!”

“Why!?”

“He’s an unlucky star, an unstable disaster!”

“This could allow the sect to rise!”

“The sect is dead! All that’s left is a dilapidated village built atop its bones!”

“But the boy is the key to—”

“The boy is a mental cripple!”

“But Shen Ling says he will be able to reverse our entire situation!”

“Ling’er!?”

At an undisclosed location outside of the village, were two figures arguing. Thought it would be more accurate to describe it as one begging for something, whilst the other refused to even entertain the idea.

Looking closely, one could see it was First Elder Di Yi Lingdao and Uncle Tian Lu.

“Speak! Tell me exactly what Ling’er said! Don’t leave out a single word!”

Right now, one could not see even a trace of the careless and lazy demeanour that normally accompanied the infamous drunk.

“She said that there is a very large amount of positive energy around him. She even went as far as to say that the negative energy around the village grounds lessened just by him being here.”

“Hhmm…” Uncle Tian Lu sank into his thoughts at that moment.

He was hesitant just permitting Long Di to stay here. Now he had to allow the latter to dip their hands in the muddy water that is their sect’s rise?

It isn’t that he didn’t want it to happen, it’s just that he lost hope over the years and he lost the drive to fight the powers that be to achieve this.

“The fire has gone out years ago, Di Yi Lingdao…”

Di Yi Lingdao’s expression sank when he heard the tired voice of Uncle Tian Lu. He appeared lost until he heard the last few words uttered by the old man.

“So I guess… it’s time to rekindle it.”

The first elder looked back to the old man with a look of surprise, “You mean…?”

“Bah! If you young ones are all willing to bet it all to revive the sect, then how could I still have the face to back down? This old man’s spine hasn’t bent just yet!”

Di Yi Lingdao was ecstatic. They could actually take affirmative action to bring their sect back into the world!

“Then… about the boy…”

Uncle Tian Lu waved his hand when he heard the first elder’s question. “Leave him to me. Believe me when I say you are unable to handle that little demon spawn.”

No matter how Uncle Tian Lu thought about it, Long Di’s sudden acquiescence to his request didn’t make sense.

Now, all of a sudden, here he was, agreeing to a plan that would have the brat staying here as if this was all part of the boy’s plan.

“Alright, go on and make preparations. I have a headache to get to,” saying this, Uncle Tian Lu turned around and left, knowing what he was about to get into.

The first elder had a broad smile on his face and was about to run off when something else came to mind, forcing him to stop.

Uncle Tian Lu saw this and appeared perplexed. “What is it?”

“When I went into the city a few days ago, I heard rumours about the Blood Crypt sect planning to make a move on tha—”

Before Di Yi Lingdao could finish what he wanted to say, Uncle Tian Lu waved his hand, cutting him off. “No one should be crazy enough to go after that thing. I’ve heard you brought this up many times and I’ve told you to stop thinking about it. Besides, no matter what happens, it doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

“Understood, Lega—”

“None of that!” Uncle Tian Lu shouted anxiously. “Go on now,” he said finally.

Di Yi Lingdao executed a bow before he departed, leaving Uncle Tian Lu to his own devices.

…

In the small and dilapidated house lay Long Di with his eyes still closed, studying the black lightning that ran around tyrannically in his body.

The pain would be nigh unbearable for most people, but Long Di’s face remained impassive.

It wasn’t that Long Di didn’t feel it at all, he did, however, its effect on him was small, mentally at least. You see, Long Di went through a lot with his alcoholic uncle, a lot of things most children shouldn’t have had to go through.

Of course, if you were to compare the pain at surface level, then the pain caused by the tribulation lightning would win hands down. However, one must realise that Long Di went through that pain from his uncle with a normal body and the sensitivity of a young child. The mental pain far outweighed what he was going through now.

The experience also traumatised him, a kind of trauma that the goddess’s blessing couldn’t remove since it was there before the blessing was applied.

With his experience, all he knew was that he had to bear and cope with the pain. His expressionless demeanour was a kind of protection he sprung for himself while it also symbolised his trauma as well.

“I know you’re there. I should let you know my spiritual force has already allowed me to sense you ages ago.” Long Di said with his eyes still closed.

As he said this, Uncle Tian Lu strode from outside. “Hmph! You’re already able to use your spiritual force to some degree as well. Heavens, what kind of monster are you!?”

Even though spiritual force was something that all cultivators possessed, its usefulness was normally seen mostly in alchemists.

“Well, I’ve been stuck at the ninth core formation stage for so long, I began delving into other areas and found talent in those as well. So I was like, what the hey.”

Uncle Tian Lu stared at him for a moment before he reacted to a shocking piece of news, “Wait, you’ve been stuck at the ninth core of the Core Formation realm for ages!? How!? Heavens! You didn’t destroy your foundation by blazing through the stages, did you!? I should have known that an eleven-year-old 9th core formation expert didn’t make sense! Well, even if you forced it, it is still amazing you came this far at this age. Listen to me, destroy your cultivation now and start over. You’re still young and with your speed, you can surely reach this realm again in a few years.”

“Uhm… my foundation is fine, actually,” Long Di stated.

“Nonsense! If your foundation was fine, how could you be stuck at the 9th core as you said? Come on now, you might feel indignant now, but you’ll thank me in the future. Are you going to disobey your master’s first order!? Hmph! What an unfilial disciple!”

“Wait, you’ll take me as your disciple?” Long Di asked with a bit of surprise in his voice.

Uncle Tian Lu shot an ugly smile in which the only victim happened to be his lone tooth which was doing its dance once again.

“That’s right! So destroy your cultivation base. We’ll rebuild it and make sure its foundation is sturdy. I have no idea how your parents had you cultivate so carelessly. As it is now, it’ll easily crumble. A good foundation is needed if you want to travel far on this path you know, and with yours, well it looks like you can’t go any further.”

“Au contraire,” Long Di retorted expressionlessly.

“Oh, contr—what…?” Uncle Tian Lu appeared confused at Long Di’s strange manner of speaking.

Long Di ignored answering that question and focused on the issue at hand. “My foundation isn’t weak. It’s really fine. I haven’t been stuck at the core formation realm for so long because I couldn’t move on, but because I chose not to.”

“Ha! Your foundation is sturdy!? Fine then, I’ll humour you. Let’s start with your cauldrons. What grade are they, basic grade, medial grade, high grade, or supreme grade?”

The cauldrons Uncle Tian Lu was referring to were not normal alchemy cauldrons. Instead, these cauldrons were something that Long Di himself had to create during his cultivation path, something everyone had to do.

It was the same cauldrons that appeared behind Ao Lan when her cultivation base exploded.

The first realm of cultivation was the vessel qi gathering stage. This stage allows a cultivator to collect spiritual qi.

As a cultivator draws in the spiritual Qi around themselves, they pour it into what is known as a vessel. Think of it as a container for the spiritual qi. Once a vessel is full, one then moves on to the following vessel. There are nine vessels in total.

In the beginning, the vessels will look like 9 spheres of darkness surrounding the dantian, which is effectively dead at this stage. The goal within this realm is to fill all nine vessels so as to attack the second realm.

If the energy within the vessels is inadequate and fails to fill the dantian in bringing it to life, then the vessels, being empty, would be depleted, and one must start all over again.

The second realm was known as tan’tien saturation. This realm is also used for the nourishing of the dantian after it is brought to life, since it is like a newborn baby at this stage.

One would saturate it with spiritual qi until it becomes a ‘mature dantian’ at the late stage complete immersion level.

Though Tan’tien is another name for dantian, this stage is given the name tan’tien saturation realm, because the dantian is effectively a newborn baby at this stage.

The tan’tien only becomes mature at the late stage complete immersion level. It is here that it is mature enough to be called a dantian. The name tan’tien is basically the name for a young dantian.

Once all the vessels are filled, shining like exquisite pearls, the cultivator would then pour out the contents of the vessels into the dantian, filling it with energy.

Once the energy is sufficient and pure enough, the dantian will then come alive. An independent circulation will then take place between the vessels and the dantian with spiritual energy.

This is also the level where one is able to learn a cultivation method and martial skills.

Now the third realm is where cauldrons come into play. This is the Cauldron Forging realm, and this realm is very important as far as the foundation is concerned.

Cauldrons are created by nurturing the vessels with the spiritual qi in the dantian. Once the vessels are nurtured to a certain extent, they would transform into cauldrons.

If the vessel could be described as a small water vase, then the cauldron could be described as truly a large cauldron with four stands for support. Nine cauldrons surrounding the dantian were truly a beautiful sight.

The cauldrons also had exquisite engravings covering them. The patterns and engravings became more complex the higher the grade of the cauldrons became.

Uncle Tian Lu thought that Long Di only nurtured a basic-grade cauldron, which is no different from trash to him. Only a medial-grade cauldron could be considered passable, while a high-grade cauldron was Uncle Tian Lu’s goal. He didn’t think about anything beyond that.

The cauldrons at those extremely high levels were something only the geniuses from those great sects could produce. He didn’t have the resources necessary to help Long Di in getting that far.

“My cauldrons? Well, my father had them appraised in secret. Apparently, they’re… of a high enough grade,” he said as he remembered back to his cauldron assessment from a few years ago.

Uncle Tian Lu shook his head. “Okay, tell you what, take out your cauldrons so I can take a look at them.”

“Meh.”

Long Di didn’t mind projecting his cauldrons to display. He took a deep breath and carefully circulated his spiritual qi.

Dum!

Nine cauldrons burst into existence and a terrifying pressure spread from them.

When Uncle Tian Lu saw the cauldrons, he sucked in a cold breath of air. He never saw cauldrons like Long Di’s before.

Cauldrons came in different grades and were easily differentiated. Basic-grade cauldrons were bronze, medial-grade cauldrons were white and high-grade cauldrons were red.

There were even higher grades above those. Uncle Tian Lu actually knew of some of those higher grade-cauldrons.

But nothing came close to what Long Di was showing him.

Long Di’s cauldrons were pitch black. All nine of them rotated slowly, and they emitted a quiet, powerful pressure as if they were slumbering beasts.

Even someone like Uncle Tian Lu who considered himself someone experienced didn’t know what to make of this.

“What grade cauldrons are these!?”