Chapter 138: Folded Steel

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——(POV third person)——

Li Long was a little surprised that Huang deduced why the holy lands put this much importance on the [Eternal wail trial], but it wasn't much out of his expectation that he could see the connection given the sufficient clues.

"Yes, that is one of the main things that attracted the holy lands but the high-grade techniques and treasures are also tempting…" Li Long honestly answered Li Huang's inquiry.

"Oh yeah! Hu Anjing has the palm technique that we got for the sect in that formation." Li Huang said as he just now remembered about it as he had too many things on his mind.

"Good, we will check that later." Li Long said as he knew that they must have won something in that team trial, but he didn't ask at the time as he was too furious about that girl from the White Moon sect who put his grandson in danger.

Li Huang also nodded and put the matter aside for another time, as they had more important matters to discuss.

"Grandpa, from what we discussed I can assume that you have the information on Li Bao?" Li Huang asked. He wanted to know if he could figure out something about his physique this way. For some reason, Li Huang couldn't find any information on his physique using the peeping eye of heaven.

'It might be because you can't use the artifact on yourself or for some reason there is no information on this physique in the artifact's memories…' Li Huang speculated.

"It is better if you read them yourself, but from what I have understood this physique is like folded steel." Li Long said as he handed a couple of parchments to Li Huang. As these are notes written by Li Bao, it would create some problems if he were to give them to Li Huang, but as he had copied them himself it wouldn't create any problems if he were to hand them to Li Huang.

"Folded steel?" Li Huang said as he took the parchments from grandpa Long. He didn't know what could folded steel have to do with his physique, but he trusted grandpa Long enough to know that there must be a resemblance.

"Do you know how folded steel is made?" Li Long nodded as he asked his grandson a question. He wanted to know how much he knew before he starts explaining.

Li Huang thought a little and came up with an answer.

"I think it is made by the repetition of heating, hammering, and folding the metal over itself." Li Huang said as this was what he knew about this forging method.

"Yes, it is as you say." Li Long smiled and nodded.

"Now imagine that your body is the metal and this physique is the process for folding the metal. Each time that you train, you have fewer imperfections, just like a folded metal. Each time that you train, you are more powerful, just like a folded metal." Li Long explained. This was what he thought about when he read all those notes from Li Bao.

Li Huang easily understood what his grandpa meant by this but couldn't stop himself from voicing his doubt.

"But how is it any different from what you can normally achieve? Isn't anyone who trains fix their imperfections in that method and get stronger?" Li Huang said. He didn't see how his supposed physique made him any different from others.

Li Long shook his head.

"Of course there are differences, we just didn't pay attention to them until now." Li Long said. Li Huang listened intently to grandpa Long's explanation.

"When you were training on your sword as a child, you shouldn't be able to do what you did that fast, but you could as your physique made it possible for you to do so." Li Long said. He was talking about how Li Huang was able to produce the sword Qi in less than 3 years.

"You were even able to breakthrough 4 stages when you were in the trial. Normally it shouldn't be possible to do such a thing but you did it anyway." Li Long said. Li Huang broke through 4 stages in the span of half a day and even if you take the Qi quality into account, this is something extraordinary.

"Hmm, that makes sense, kind of…" Li Huang said. He knew that those examples could fit the description but he still needed to know more to come to a conclusion.

Li Huang went through some of the notes at the same time. They were mostly about how Li Bao has spent his day and how he trained. At a glance, this information could seem useless but can be used if you were to find patterns in his breakthroughs and his training intensity.

"I will read them later." Li Huang said and put the parchments into his storage ring. He didn't want to go through them when they are talking as it would distract him.

Li Long nodded and after a few seconds looked at Li Huang's eyes.

"There is also something else that I want to tell you." Grandpa Long said with a seriousness that Li Huang has seen very rarely.

Li Huang nodded as he too got serious.

'Anything that can make grandpa Long look this serious has to be important.' Li Huang thought as even the news about the higher planes didn't make grandpa Long like this.

"It is about your parents." Li Long said and Li Huang got all the wrong signals about this. Just when Li Huang was about to drown in useless thoughts, Li Long continued and didn't let him go down that rabbit hole.

"They are alive." Li Long said and closed his eyes as he was sure that Li Huang would lash out at him because he hid this fact from him.

"…Huh?" Li Huang's reaction was nothing like what he expected. To be fair, Li Long wouldn't have an idea that Li Huang was ready for a fucked up back-story and this was nothing like what he expected.

Li Long thought that Li Huang was shocked so he decided to explain further.

"We only know that they are alive but I have no idea where they are. I have searched all these years but I didn't find any clue about where they are." Li Long said. He didn't want Li Huang to think that he didn't try to find his parents.

Li Huang who now was out of his delusions thought about the matter seriously.

"How did that happen?" Li Huang asked. Of course, he knew that grandpa Long had looked for them so he had no question about that.

Li Long breathe a sigh of relief because Li Huang didn't lash out at him.

"Your father and mother were traveling the world in search of rare treasures that could help us improve faster." Li Long said. They were looking for something for Huang's sixth birthday as they told Li Long that it has to have a story behind it or else it wouldn't mean much if they just bought something for him.

Li Long didn't say the whole truth as he was afraid Li Huang might blame himself.

Li Huang put a palm on his face as he was thinking about this situation.

"They are alive so they either are in a separate space like the trial or they somehow found their way to another plane…" Li Huang thought out loud.

"…Is that why you are telling me about it now?" Li Huang asked his grandpa as he looked at his face.

"Yes. Now that you know about this possibility, there is no harm in telling you and I think you are mature enough to stop yourself from acting rashly." Li Long said. Now that Li Huang knew about the existence of other planes it made sense for him to also know about his parents.

Li Huang nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Li Huang asked the question that Li Long was waiting for. He wanted to know why he was led to believe that his parents were dead despite the fact that they were missing.

"*sigh* If I were to tell you sooner without telling you that they might be in a different plane, you would have tried to find them when you couldn't do anything as they might not be anywhere that you look." Li Long said. He didn't want to give him hope and let the unknown reality crush him. Now that he knew Huang wouldn't act rashly, there was no issue in letting him know about this.