18 Hide One’s Light Under A Bushel

Qin Feng gritted his teeth tightly together, enduring the pain that felt like his bones being melted away. Not even a peep escaped him as he continued circulating his spirit energy. He absorbed the medicinal properties of the bath, cleansing his essence, tempering his bone structure, and improving his aptitude.

The Great Mystery Origin Reversal cultivation method surged along as he circulated his spiritual energy, each time drawing in more of the medicinal properties. The spiritual energy within his body also increased steadily.

Originally, he was planning to wait until after the essence cleansing bone tempering session before finding another time to break through to the second level Qi Refinement Stage. When the time came, he could say the reason that he was able to break through so quickly was because the effect of his father's medicinal bath was too good.

However, while he was completely focused on absorbing the medicinal power, he forgot to suppress the spiritual energy in his dantian. With the movement of his cultivation method, he inadvertently expanded the meridian and acupoints within his body which allowed his spiritual energy to suddenly reach its limit. After that, it was only natural that his cultivation level advanced to the next stage.

When Qin Long discovered that his son had advanced to the second level of the Qi Refinement Stage, he froze in astonishment.

What had happened?

His son had only cultivated for a short time and he was currently taking a bath to cleanse his essence and temper his bone in order to elevate his aptitude. How was he suddenly able to advance to the next cultivation level?

Was it possible that his son was a cultivation genius that according to legend might only be found once every millennium? This must be it, how else could such a thing happen? Qin Long's heart started to thump rapidly. He was feeling quite emotional. If his son turned out to be such a genius, why should he worry about whether his son would achieve success in the future?

Perhaps, his son might even follow in the footsteps of the old family ancestor who founded the Qin family and become the second Gold Core cultivator in the family!

The founder of the Qin family, the first generation family patriarch was an inner-circle disciple of the Beastmaster Sect. Unfortunately, that family patriarch ancestor passed away at a young age and was not able to protect the family for many years. That was the reason the Qin family had always been stuck in Kun City. They were forced to develop in this small area and unable to move forward.

Qin Long felt that his son was the new hope of the family. Whether he could enter the inner circle in the future and whether he could lead the family towards prosperity all depended on his achievements from today onwards.

Inside the tub, Qin Feng was unaware that his father was pinning all his hopes and dreams on him. He was still clenching his teeth together as he tried to endure the suffering within his body. It was numbing and sore, itchy and painful. He did not have the headspace to process his advancement to the second level of Qi Refinement Stage.

He was currently relying on willpower to endure on. He had never imagined that using both the Essence Cleansing Liquid and the Bone Tempering Pill at the same time would be such torture.

However, aptitude was something that you were born with. If a person wanted to rectify any deficiencies and elevate their potential, how could that be easy? Of course, one would need to swallow a bitter pill to advance.

He did not know how much time had passed before the pain started to lessen and the medicine's effectiveness began to subside. Qin Feng felt like he had been to hell and back. Finally, he felt a sense of fresh coolness and his body felt as light as a feather.

That was because all the impurities within his body had been refined and cleansed.

Once Qin Feng opened his eyes, he immediately saw his father grinning; silently giggling outside to the point where he had not noticed that Qin Feng had roused.

Qin Feng was shocked, he did not know what had happened. He hesitantly waved his hand in front of his father's face a couple of times before Qin Long finally reacted, "Oh you're done? That was quick. My son is truly an incomparable genius.

Qin Feng grimaced as he thought inwardly, 'Quick? Why then did it feel like such a long time to me?'

Since he had just experienced such intense pain, his body was still a little weak and he stepped out of the tub with the help of his father.

Qin Long stretched his hand to cast a spell; summoning a jet of clear water to help him rinse off his entire body. If he still retained the strong smell of medicine, he would not feel comfortable.

"Feng'er," Qin Long waited until his son had finished dressing before he said with a face full of exuberance, "I never expected your aptitude to be so outstanding. With merely the assistance of these cultivation spirit items to cleanse and refine your body, you managed to break through into the second level of the Qi Refinement Stage.

"Haha, our Qin Family has prosperity to look forward to once my son has entered the Beastmaster Sect. In the future, you'll be able to lead our family out of Kun City to occupy a better spiritual vein. When that happens, even the Zhao family of Tieling will be nothing compared to us."

Qin Feng was speechless.

He did not expect that a small cultivation advancement could make his father this happy and cause him to inflate with so much pride that he could look down on the Zhao family.

However, it was also understandable because he was able to cultivate at such a high speed. Only a few people who had extraordinary natural talent or the sons of large families with limitless resources could advance so easily.

However, those people who advanced in their cultivation from the accumulation of resources could not be compared to a true genius. In the world of cultivation, close to 90% of cultivators were all the same, as they became more advanced in their cultivation, their cultivation speed will slow down. Only a true genius could continuously break through the stages. 

Qin Feng opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to say that he was not a true genius. However, he did not tell his father about the Demon Refinement Kettle in the end.

He was not worried that his father would not be able to help him keep his secret. If his dad found out, he would not be much help. Instead, it would make him worry that Qin Feng might be killed by treasure hunters.

Furthermore, there was still an 80-90% chance that the powerful person who damaged the Demon Refinement Kettle in one stroke was still alive. If the Demon Refinement Kettle was being mentioned too many times, it might trigger the senses of that demon king to its existence. When the time came, whether this kettle was a blessing or curse might need a rethink.

It's better to stay in awe of the existence that you do not understand and be careful. Due to this, Qin Feng felt that it would be better to not give his father an extra mental burden. Unless he achieved such a powerful state that he could protect this treasure in the future, there was no need to speak about it. There was no need to increase the risk of being discovered by people.

The world of cultivation had countless mysterious and magical ways. There might be people who would discover that he had a treasure on him with the faintest of clues. In any case, he needed to be extremely careful.

Qin Long jubilantly tugged at his son and talked his ear off for at least half a day; talking about everything from past to present. Imagining the future, he chatted to him about the time when he would enter the Beastmaster Sect and told him about the things that he would need to pay attention to in the outer circle. He taught him about the type of people that he should not easily offend and how to gain better advantages.

Even though there were some things that he had mentioned more than once, Qin Feng was not annoyed at all. On the contrary, he was engrossed in listening to his dad.

His father was only repeating himself because he was worried about Qin Long's future and safety. At the same time, he was imparting to Qin Feng the knowledge on how to obtain more resources for cultivation once he entered the sect.

He kept talking until the moon was high in the night sky. Once he realised that it was already late at night, Qin Long finally stopped his neverending instructions and advice. He urged Qin Feng, "Do not go out during this period of time. Stay within the courtyard to cultivate. Wait until a couple of weeks have passed before you head out. At that time, even if people did find out that you have advanced to the second Level of Qi Refinement, it would not create as much of a stir as it would if you were discovered now.

After all, I did bring back a lot of pills and elixirs from the county city for you. If people asked how you managed to breakthrough so quickly, you should tell them that it was because you had consumed a large number of elixirs and medication."

Qin Feng nodded his head and replied, "I understand, I won't head out for the next couple of days." Of course, he understood the concept of hiding one's light under a bushel. Even though the other elders in the family would not use dirty tricks to steal the number one spot from him. Instead, they would pay special attention to him and nurture him; treating him like the one carrying all the hope and dreams of raising the families' fortune.

However, if the news about his unnatural high-speed breakthrough got out, it would not be a good thing. The Qin family was merely a small family and might not be able to protect him. It was impossible to say whether an enemy of the Beastmaster Sect might kill a potential prodigy of the enemy sect before he reached his full potential. Hence, even in this tiny Kun City, he was not truly safe.

Among the three cultivator families in Kun City, their power was well-matched. There was cooperation between the families as well as competition. The Wang family in the West should be no issue. They were only a vassal family to the small HIdden Mist Sect, which had no enmity with the Beastmaster Sect

As for the Huang family in the North of the city, they were disciples of the Taiyi Golden Grotto Cect. It was the main rival of the Beastmaster Sect and they were descendants of the inner circle disciples.

Taiyi Golden Grotto Sect was a swordsman cultivator sect. The Golden Grotto was a famous blessed land. That was a pretty powerful sect that was not weak when compared to the Beastmaster Sect. It might even be slowly advancing to become the top sect.

Qin Long wanted his son to remain cultivating at home for a period of time before heading out in order to avoid the Huang family. If the Huang family heard the news, they might send someone personally to harm his son in secret or send disciples from their sect to kill Qin Feng. It did not matter, either outcome was unacceptable to Qin Long.

...…

Qin Feng was more patient than Qin Long had expected in terms of coping with the loneliness. He shut himself at home to cultivate for more than half a month in one go before finally leaving the house. He headed to the family-owned forest nearby to take a walk and catch a break.

On the road, he encountered a couple of cultivators from the Qin family but all of them did not have high aptitude. They were ordinary people who spent a large portion of their energy cultivating the family spirit land. These people would not have the time or energy to investigate Qin Feng's cultivation level.

Hence, it was more than a month before some family members discovered that Qin Feng had advanced to the second stage of Qi Refinement. Once the news got out, there were heated discussions among the descendants of the three cultivator families of Kun City.

Since Qin Feng had advanced to the second level of Qi Refinement Stage within two months, when compared to their mediocre ability, he was a prodigy. If he did not die, he had the potential to become a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator and be one of the future pillars of the Qin family.

However, even Qin Feng had claimed that the reason he could cultivate so quickly was because of the magical pills and elixirs that his family had obtained for him. Hence his cultivation speed was still not enough to attract the special attention of the elders in the other two cultivator families. After all, their own families had descendants like him.

Within the Qin family, the few youths of the family who carried hopes of competing against Qin Feng for a spot in the year-end sect selection ceremony were extremely dismayed. Based on Qin Feng's performance, he would almost definitely have one of the spots. The intensity of the competition between them would surely increase now.

The few young boys and girls often secretly thought it was a shame that their own father was not Qin Long. Their own fathers had not contributed much to the family. If they also had those pills and elixirs to assist their cultivation, there was a chance that their cultivation speed might even surpass that of Qin Feng.

Third Granduncle who guarded the family scripture library was even more anxious. His grandson originally had some hope of success. However, after one of the spots had been taken by Qin Feng, the chances of his own grandson taking the spot were slim.

He also hoped to get some pills and elixirs for his grandson but even though he had lived for such a long time, the spirit stones and treasures that he had accumulated were nothing compared to those accumulated by Qin Long.

Since Third Granduncle had advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage when he was already advanced in age, he did not have an adventurous danger-seeking spirit. He spent most of the year guarding the family scripture library, safe as he can be. Hence, he would not be able to obtain too many resources in this manner.

Qin Feng had recently been to the scripture library frequently to find a couple of cultivator travel notes. He had searched high and low to find books on cultivating. It meant that the Third Granduncle frequently saw this little kid wandering around him.

Each time he saw him, Third Granduncle's expression always appeared a little gloomy. However, there was nothing that he could do.

His own grandson had mediocre abilities and assets. It would have been a fair fight, now that Qin Long who was willing to spend resources and consume spirit stones, there was no way to compete any longer.