68 Yan Guo's Inner Worries

After the five were finished eating, they lounged around the living room. They were slightly lazy to move after they had eaten but Ye Xiu decided to talk to the Shang Yang, Shi Die and Xiao Tu privately. He didn't mean to exclude Yan Guo but the matter that they were about to talk about was highly personal and was a big secret. Yan Guo didn't mind since he didn't know them that well so his feelings weren't hurt from being excluded from their secret discussion.

The four huddled around upstairs before Ye Xiu quickly pulled them into his Dimension. "Ok... now that I'm sure he can't hear us. Do you think we should tell him about the Dimension?"

The others quickly shook their heads to deny Ye Xiu's proposal since it was a stupid one because they had no idea how trustworthy Yan Guo actually was and they had barely known him for a few hours so it was foolish of Ye Xiu to even consider about telling Yan Guo such a big secret. The vehemence of Shang Yang's refusal could clearly be heard when she shouted loudly and shook Ye Xiu like a ragdoll.

"I really don't think you should just randomly consider about telling him about the Dimension! We haven't even told our mentors and we've known them for years, and you think that it's wise to tell such a big secret to someone you just met? I know it's your Dimension but please think about it logically!" She ranted on and on until she calmed down. Xiao Bai was lingering around them for a while, taking in the situation with amusement.

"Master, there's a way to have him use the benefits of the Dimension but it requires a lot of investment on your part. If you pour your Qi into this stone right here," Xiao Bai held out a stone in his hand as he continued to float, "then after two months of your effort of pouring Qi here would allow everyone to use the benefits of the Dimension for a single week. That's with your current strength right now, when you get stronger, the time it takes for you to charge the stone up decreases."

Ye Xiu's eyes lit up when the information registered in his mind. It not only meant that they would get more time to use the benefits in the Dimension but it would also mean that others could use it without anybody knowing about the Dimension itself. Xiao Bai saw Ye Xiu's enthusiasm so he continued his explanation of the stone. "The stone can only be recharged by the Qi of the owner of the Dimension, which is you."

Though Ye Xiu's enthusiasm was slightly deflated by that, he was still happy that it could be used. He decided to ask a question that had been bugging him. "Why didn't you tell me about the stone earlier?" His tone wasn't accusing since he knew that Xiao Bai would never do anything to harm his Master.

"There was simply no point in telling you about it since you can use the Dimension efficiently already, I was going to tell you about the stone once you got strong enough to refill the stone in a single month but circumstances rose and I decided to tell you about it earlier." Xiao Bai was giving his reasons for not telling Ye Xiu about such an important item since he didn't want his Master to hate him. Ye Xiu nodded, satisfied with the explanation.

"Thank you, Xiao Bai. The stone will definitely help us in the future and I won't have to tell Yan Guo about my Dimension." Ye Xiu smiled as he palmed the rock before placing it into his pocket.

Xiao Bai remembered to remind his master. "Please don't lose the stone. It takes a thousand years in the Dimension for a stone to be replaced. It's very valuable!" Ye Xiu waved his hand to signal Xiao Bai that he heard what he said.

They left the Dimension quickly in hopes that Yan Guo hadn't noticed that they had vanished from the house. They walked back downstairs, noticing Yan Guo taking food from the counter as he froze like a deer caught in the headlights. They simply laughed at his reaction as he sulked on the way back to the living room.

"What days are you free, Yan Guo? The four of us have the same schedule so it'll be easier for you to tell us when you are free so that we can make the plan for our training." Ye Xiu asked Yan Guo as he tilted his head in thought, trying to recall his own schedule.

"I'm pretty much free on a Tuesday and Friday. Other days, I have other commitments that I have to go to." Ye Xiu nodded.

"That's acceptable. From next week onwards, come to the residence during mid-day and we'll be here to start the training." He got up to show Yan Guo out of the house. Yan Guo waved goodbye to the group as he walked back to his own residence.

Ye Xiu turned back to see Shang Yang and Xiao Tu staring at each other. He shook his head in amusement since the two provided the comedic relief in the group when it was needed and unneeded. Without the comedic relief, Ye Xiu was sure that the group would probably too serious for their age.

Shi Die caught him smiling and gave a smile back as he could tell what was on his friend's mind easily. Ye Xiu walked back upstairs so he could change since he was going to leave the Academy grounds for a couple of hours to get some things that he was going to need for preparation.

He left the house as Shang Yang and Xiao Tu was still in their intense staring match and walked out into the city to get his ingredients for Alchemy. Ye Xiu was going to buy ingredients for Grade 3 pills and elixirs because he knew that he would need the extra supplies if Yan Guo was going to be joining them for their group training. He didn't want to worry Yan Guo about not having supplies because it looked like he was worried enough about his own life.

Ye Xiu also bought materials for some Grade 4 pills that he was learning to make. He had noticed that the difficulty for Alchemy had definitely risen to whole another level once he managed to get past the third rank. He could see why Lao Xiu and Lao Lan and many other Alchemy practitioners were stuck at the third rank.

The same could be said for cultivation since they had reached Foundation Establishment. Ye Xiu wanted to desperately ask San Guo why the average cultivation level of the teachers was stuck at Foundation Establishment. He knew that it wasn't possible for the teachers to be at such a low cultivation level if the majority of the older students were in that same realm.

He also bought different ingredients for food that he was going to use later on since they were running out of ingredients to cook. Even though Shi Die had plenty of ingredients that he had planted in the Dimension, Ye Xiu preferred to use different types of ingredients to broaden his horizons on the tastes and to improve his cooking level. Shi Die appreciated that and did the same as Ye Xiu thought not as frequently.

After managing to buy a few of his needed ingredients, he went to the Alchemist Association building in the city to collect some rarer materials that he had ordered and needed to buy. He was also going to sell some the leftover Grade 3 pills that the group no longer had any more use since they had long outlived the effects for those pills since they could only restore their Qi pool and no longer aid them in their cultivation.

They obviously kept quite a few of the said pills but not that many since Qi restoration pills simply did a better job than those that improved their cultivation since it only restored a certain amount of their Qi whilst Qi restoration pills could restore a certain percentage of any body's Qi pool. He left the Alchemist Association Building after getting what he needed.

He had finished buying the materials he needed and was heading home so that he could enter his Dimension to see how many of his plants and herbs were ready for harvesting. He didn't notice the people following him until his gut instinct told him that danger was nearby. He simply looked around as if he wasn't disturbed as he continued to walk but he was trying his best to see who would possibly follow him.

Thinking that it was probably just thieves that thought that he was extremely rich and wanted to rob him, he continued on his way back to the Academy. The figures had simply slipped out of his view once they noticed his casual glances to try and spot them. His stalkers were confused as to how Ye Xiu managed to even notice them stalking him but filed it away for later to report to their superiors.

Yan Guo arrived back at his home to see his father already waiting for him. He knew what his father was going to ask and he didn't like the reasons for why he was going to ask him how the meeting went. His father simply raised an eyebrow as he bowed respectfully to his father. "I'm back." Yan Shen nodded and led him into the house.

"What are your thoughts on the group that you just met? Don't leave anything out in your findings since I want to know everything that happened." Yan Shen quietly demanded his son for his observations and Yan Guo complied as he had no other choice. Yan Guo kept the bitterness out of his tone since he knew that he would probably be punished if he dared to be disrespectful towards his father.

"The four of them are all powerful, each of them has their own personalities and from what I have seen, I can guess that they are reasonably strong especially since they are some of the higher-ranked students in the academy. They probably have extremely strong bonds with each other since they seem to know what each others' thoughts like their own at certain times." Yan Guo had nothing else to say since he was having fun with the rest and just wasn't bothered to observe them.

"They sound like competent people, I'll allow you to continue to interact with them. Don't slack with your training when you hang out with them because if you fall behind the schedule that I have set for you then there will be consequences for you." His father dismissed him after he said his piece and left the living room to go to his office.

Yan Guo sighed once Yan Shen was out of earshot and jumped lazily onto the sofa. He hated how his father liked to control a huge portion of his life and it rarely gave him any room to breathe. His father demanded high expectations from him ever since his mother had died. His father didn't like him making friends with anyone that didn't have enough potential in his eyes which made him act like an introvert.

It was unknown to him why he was able to act and talk so casually in front of Ye Xiu and his friends though, it was confusing to him. He hadn't been able to act so freely after his mother's death. When he first saw Ye Xiu, it was a breath of fresh air that came into his life and he didn't know if it was a bad thing.

He stayed on the sofa, daydreaming about hanging around with the group, ignoring his father's complaints and becoming free from his control. He fell asleep after a few minutes.