Dream's Note: Will resume the bonus chapter trend for every 500 stones. Also will try to thrive and do 2 chapters a day coming next week. Please vote with power stones and golden tickets. I will be naming the top readers every week starting now.
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One week had passed and Hao Ren had been traveling the place on his feet. However, the growth he had accomplished was astounding. His speed was faster, and he had stopped stumbling completely. Yes, it was not as exaggerated as him running around like a cat, but the situation was not as bad as it was in the beginning as well.
At the moment, he was drinking the potion to recover his energy as last night he had to cross through a swamp and it consumed a lot of his energy. He removed the leeches that have been biting on him and the potion was healing him.
Tang Zen was following behind him, at some distance, the two of them had not conversed for even a moment in the past seven days. Tang Zen did not wish to bother him or help him with the training, as she has said before, the path of cultivation was not an easy one.
Hao Ren suddenly began to mumble as he walked through the woods, "I can sense vibrations through every inch of my skin, however, to increase my speed even more, I need to be able to perceive things at far greater distance."
Tang Zen smiled amusingly as she thought, 'Finally, he sees the crucial part of this training.'
Indeed, as a cultivator, knowing the situation around him was not enough. Hao Ren could now sense the vibrations from everything five meters away from his body. Heavens knew how it worked, but that was how it was.
Hao Ren needed to be quick and he could come across people who might block his vision or other senses using various means. He realized why his mother was so hard on him. While they trained Hao Mei, and did not pay him much attention, their goal had been to send the girl away to protect her.
These past seven days, he had been pondering over these things and could not help but empathize with them. If he was to be put in a place where his daughter could have been targeted by someone who held a significant backing and could create a lot of trouble for them, he might have done the same.
They had already left the Spirit Shimmer Continent, and this world was their last option. If they were to be chased even here, it would indeed cause a great deal of trouble for them. As he was thinking about these things, the knot in his heart was coming undone.
His knot was not caused by the fact that his parents did not love him or they lied to him. Many parents hide things so that their children does not feel troubled. They loved him, but they could not express it to him. Yes, his mother embarrassed him many times and seemed to be toxic, but probably that was because she was trying to hard to fit in the shoes Hao Mei left.
Hao Mei also teased him about things in the past. Probably, Tang Zen was trying to copy her daughter and failing at it too hard. A gentle gust blew through the woods, and caressed Hao Ren's skin. The young man appeared to be shocked, and he froze in his footsteps.
Tang Zen narrowed her eyes, and began to count down to ten. If the young man did not move, then she would not back off from her words earlier. After ten breaths, she took out a white stick from her space ring and walked over. The stick was glowing with light. Tang Zen appeared next to Hao Ren and she swung the stick, aiming for his buttocks.
Suddenly, his lips turned up. Earlier on the mountain summit, he had not only comprehended the Heart Of the Mountain, but also the True Meaning of the wind. This was something Tang Zen did not know. The gust of wind earlier, had triggered something inside him.
In his soul sea a character was glowing faintly, the character spelled 'wind'. Hao Ren was one with the wind, and he could not manipulate it. The gust that hit him illuminated the surroundings as it passed through them.
The stick was about to land on his butt, when the young man dashed forward as he said, "Ma, you are so slow."
Tang Zen was surprised to see the sudden change in his movement and could not understand what was going on. All she could see was the figure of her son dashing through the thick forest, jumping from one tree to the other, and accelerating even more. She chased after him but even after a day she could not understand what was going on.
It was night when Hao Ren was standing a few meters away from a herb that smelled like chili. However, the young man was not eager to harvest the herb. He waved his hand and located a wolf pack in his surroundings.
I set a barrier around her to prevent it from being discovered by anyone else. That barrier vanished three years ago, because I did not come to replenish it."
Hao Ren asked with a surprised expression, "If you planned things for me from such a long time, why didn't you show affection to me? Why did you force me away?"
Tang Zen revealed a bitter smile and said, "It was because we knew that someday we will have to go back with Mei, and fight there. We did not want for you to have any emotional entanglement with us that hinders your life."
Hao Ren was shocked as he heard these words. It turns out they really did all this so that he could sever his bonds with them easily when the time comes. His father and mother has always said the same thing, but due to his anger earlier, he never cared about it.
Now his temper had calmed down a lot and over the past few months, his parents had really been repenting their behavior sincerely. He had seen that his mother had never been able to look him in the eye and Hao Ren did not know why, until now. She felt guilty and ashamed of her own actions. However, she never stopped loving him.
Suddenly, all the burden that had been stuffing his chest seemed to have vanished. He said, "Can you take off this necklace?"
Tang Zen nodded and took it off as she asked, "How did you manage to accelerate so quickly? By my estimation it should have taken you three more days to reach this point."
Hao Ren smiled but did not say anything and Tang Zen also did not ask much because who in this world did not have secrets? After Hao Ren finished cleaning the wolves, he collected their pelts, and claws. Tang Zen said, "These things have no use in the spirit shimmer continent."
Hao Ren nodded and said, "I will give them to Xiao Mei, they will serve a security purpose for the company."
After he was done, he quickly called back Yin, who had finished absorbing the blood from the two wolves. The two humans then found a place to seat at the bank of a stream and Hao Ren set a bonfire to roast the meat. As the meat was being prepared, he asked, "I always wanted to ask you something."
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Tang Zen looked at his visage reflecting the glow of the flames and said, "Go on."
Hao Ren asked, "Why did you name us siblings in such a simple fashion?"
Tang Zen smiled and said, "Only you are named this way. Your sisters full name is Hao Ling Mei. Your father wanted to name you, Hao Hu Shan. However, when I found that your meridians were blocked, we only wished for you to grow up to be a good man. That aligned with the last name Hao, so we named you Ren."
Hao Ren chocked on his saliva, and said, "Thankfully, you did not name me Hu Shan. I cannot imagine the nickname, Xiao Hu, or Xiao Shan. Thank heavens."
Tang Zen mumbled the nicknames and said, "You would have been bullied by the people for such a domineering name."
Hao Ren nodded quickly and the two looked at each other before they began to laugh out loud. The knots in their hearts have come undone, and Hao Ren was very relaxed. After the meal, he was ready to go back home when Tang Zen said, "After fifteen days, the entrance of the guards in the DEHB will change and the array around the entrance will weaken. That is when you should enter. What do you think?"
Hao Ren thought and said, "Let me talk to Lingshi about it first."
Tang Zen nodded and the two of them sat around the fire looking at the starts and listening to the wind.