Sheng Feilong and Jian Wang were dead tired. As they came out of the elevator, Sheng Lingtian couldn't help but laugh. Jian Wang was barely able to walk and had to rely on Sheng Feilong's shoulder, who himself was also struggling with the extra weight. Seeing Sheng Lingtian, the both of them walked up him, and he quickly helped them board the Purple Mecha before asking Jian Wang for his address.
In a medium sized house in the middle of Heaven Dou City's central district, Jian Wushuang was worried sick and angered at the same time. His son, Jian Wang, hadn't come home today and didn't leave any message for him or his wife. When he questioned his niece, Jian Shiguan, she also only knew that Jian Wang left with a classmate after school ended. He hadn't been seen since than and even worse, he wasn't answering his Soul Communicator at all!
This evening, Jian Wushuang was just about to inform the police about this matter, when he saw a Purple Mecha, adorned with the insignia of the Spirit Pagoda, land on the street in front of his house. Jian Wushuang was annoyed. He was a rank 7 Saint Blacksmith and high ranking member of the Blacksmith Association, so naturally many people asked him to forge for them. But for one of those wannabe big-shots from the Spirit Pagoda to come to his private house at night? Enraged, Jian Wushuang stormed out of his house to confront the owner of the Mecha.
When he just came out of the door, the Mechas lid opened and a middle aged man with yellowish brown hair came out. Even though he suppressed his Soul Power, Jian Wushuang was able to see that the middle aged man's cultivation was merely at level 51. A mere low ranking Soul King dared to pretentiously come to his front yard!
The man walked up a bit to the entrance before speaking up.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Jian? I-"
Before he could continue to speak, Jian Wushuang rudely interrupted him.
"Since you came here, you should know who I am. I don't have time for you. If you want me to forge something for you, go to the Association and make a formal request there. Now, get lost before I have you removed."
Sheng Lingtian was dumbfounded. He came to the address Jian Wang told him and was glad to see that someone seemed to await them already, as Jian Wang fell asleep on the way here and Sheng Lingtian didn't want to wake him. He definitely didn't expect a welcome such as this. Not wanting to cause any trouble, he quickly regained his composure and spoke to Jian Wushuang again.
"I think there might be a misunderstanding, Mr. Jian? I didn't come to make a forging request. I simply brought your son back."
Hearing this stranger mention his son, Jian Wushuang lost his calm. Releasing his Soul Power, he quickly pressured Sheng Lingtian before bellowing out.
"Where is my son?! What have you done to him?!"
Sheng Lingtian's countenance changed as the pressure bore down on him. Quickly releasing his own pressure to counter Jian Wushuang's, he did not even have the means to answer the latter, the pressure released by a Soul Saint was no laughing matter for him!
Jian Wang, by now, was wide awake. His father's shout had instantly woken him up and the latter's outburst of aura scared him senseless. Forgetting his own fatigue, he quickly jumped down the Purple Mecha, trying his best to pacify his father before something terrible happened!
"Dad, calm down! Senior Sheng didn't do anything to me!"
Sheng Feilong looked dumbly out of the Mecha and slowly climbed down. Jian Wang had already run over to his father, urging the latter to lift his Soul Power to help Sheng Lingtian, while Jian Wushuang did as his son beckoned and just looked back and forth between Sheng Lingtian and his own son.
A few minutes later, inside the Jian family's house, Sheng Lingtian, Sheng Feilong, Jian Wang and his father were seated around a table. The atmosphere had visibly relaxed. Jian Wang awkwardly laughed before speaking up.
"Eh, he, he... I'm sorry Senior Sheng, I should have warned you about my father's temper, he- ugh!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Jian Wushuang had already hit him on the back of the head.
"What do you mean, 'my father's temper', you blockheaded little brat! If you had told me that you would spend the day with a friend, none of this would have happened. I'm really sorry Mr. Sheng, I hope you won't take offence from my prior actions. I was simply concerned about my son's safety."
Sheng Lingtian slightly smiled and looked at the father-son duo.
"No need to apologize, Mr. Jian, I can understand how you feel, ha, ha. I would've made sure Jian Wang informed you, if the boys hadn't assured me that they'd already done so. (A/N: God, that sentence was a handful to write, ugh.) No offence taken, no harm done."
Jian Wushuang smiled knowing the other party wasn't resentful of his actions before he turned to his son and Sheng Feilong.
"Anyway, what had you two been up to that you spend the whole day away from home?"
Sheng Feilong and Jian Wang remorsefully smiled at each other before telling Jian Wushuang about their plan to look at a few artificial Spirit Souls for motivation, how they then trained with Song Weihan and lastly about the reservation of the Full Moon Axe Spirit Soul for Jian Wang. Jian Wushuang was naturally astonished, as he wasn't aware his son was already close to reaching rank ten.
"You're already close to breaking through? Didn't you just reach rank 8 a week before school started?"
Jian Wang smiled sheepishly before answering his father in a meek voice.
"Well, not that close, but I thought a bit of motivation would help. I'll definitely reach rank 10 within those three months!"
Jian Wushuang hit Jian Wang in the back of the head again and reprimanded him for his shameless actions. The four of them talked for a little while longer before Sheng Feilong and Sheng Lingtian said their goodbyes before heading home.
Sheng Feilong spent the weekend with his father and soon the next Monday came. Sheng Feilong met up with Jian Wang and the rest, while Xiao Yuewu kept his distance to them. In the blink of an eye, a bit over two months passed with the usual daily routine of going to school, training with Song Weihan in the afternoon and spending the evening his with father. Sheng Feilong spend the weekends either with his father or hanging out with his friends.
Nothing much happened in that time. Unsurprisingly, Sheng Feilong had reached Rang 15 after those two months, whereas Su Liyun and Jian Wang reached rank 8 and 10, respectively. Jian Shiguan only managed to reach rank 4, however, she didn't let her slow cultivation speed sour her mood and the others were also very supporting of her.
Today after school, Jian Wushuang was waiting for Jian Wang and Sheng Feilong, together with Sheng Lingtian, the four than headed to the Spirit Pagoda where Sheng Lingtian went to his job, as usual, and Sheng Feilong accompanied Jian Wang and Jian Wushuang to meet with Song Weihan. The latter was a bit surprised, not expecting to meet the other two today, however, after sensing that Jian Wang's Soul Power had reached rank 10, he knew what was up.
Song Weihan and Jian Wushuang left Jian Wang and Sheng Feilong alone for a while, probably discussing the price for the Full Moon Axe Spirit Soul, before they rejoined with the children, Song Weihan leading Sheng Feilong to their training area and Jian Wushuang heading to the laboratory with a receipt he got from Song Weihan.
Jian Wang and Jian Wushuang went to retrieve the artificial Spirit Soul from one of the employees and rented a cultivation room for Jian Wang to integrate with it. Before however, they had to go through the formal procedures, though. As they had reserved a Spirit Soul, Jian Wang merely needed the minimum of tests, consisting of the measurement of his Spirit Power, which after two months had increased to a total of 62, shocking his father, and a general health test to ensure nothing was wrong with his body, which Jian Wang easily passed with flying colours.
After that, they went to their rented room and Jian Wang infused his Soul Power into the strange metal ball holding the artificial Spirit Soul. I took him around one and a half hours to fuse with it, which can be considered pretty fast. He took another 15 minutes getting accustomed to his new Soul Power and tried out his Soul Skill a few times.
By now, Sheng Feilong was already around two hours into his own training and Song Weihan told him that they would now go to the training hall for hand-to-hand combat training. In the hall, they found Jian Wang and Jian Wushuang already waiting for them.
Sheng Feilong was glad to see his friend and, judging by his facial expressions, he had successfully integrated the Full Moon Axe Spirit Soul! Jian Wang could barely hold himself back. After his recent power up, he was really itching for a fight to test his powers out and who better for an opponent than the strongest child his age he knew, Sheng Feilong?
Jian Wang run up to the middle of the training hall's arena, staring at Sheng Feilong with an confident smile.
"Feilong, I'm a Soul Master now, as well! We'll see who's stronger now. Come, let's fight!"