The Hidden Truth

Another half a shichen passed by…

Two shichens had just passed, but both Zheng-Fu and Tian-Qi did not show signs of giving up at all. Everyone at the courtyard wished to know what was going on in their mind dimension. They heard that the more the participants stayed in the mind realm, the more they would receive the energy from the place. But the catch was that the participants must be eight years old. If they were not, they would not be able to absorb anything…

“Gagh!”

All of a sudden, there was an ignition sound from within Zheng-Fu’s body. His face got slightly paler. Some blood came out from the corner of his lips…

“Zheng-Fu, son!”

“Zheng-Fu, boy!”

“Please don’t worry about him, Elder Kong-Shi and Elder Hai-Gu. He just broke through to another level. That’s all.”

“To another level!?”

“Does this mean that Zheng-Fu has gone to the seventh level of the Qi Gathering stage?”

“That’s correct. He has gone from the sixth to the seventh level.” Tong-Lang said and smiled at Hai-Gu to confirm his statement…

“Hahaha!”

“Great! That’s excellent! This nephew of mine has started to show his competency. If he continues to keep up the level, he will definitely be able to get into Deva Heaven Institution in a few years.” Hai-Gu laughed with joy and also wanted to look dramatic to mock somebody nearby…

Meanwhile, Kong-Shi could not stop smiling delightfully because his son could penetrate to another level. Lao-Chu, on the other hand, felt like this was a nightmare. This was all because he just offered the rare kind of reward to the competition. He thought his son would win this year’s test.

He knew that no matter how good the fighting techniques were, a martial artist could not defeat another martial artist if his Qi energy level was much lower than the competitor's. Lao-Chu’s mind went blank. He did not know what to do. However, all of a sudden, he came up with an idea, so he ordered the person next to him to get something done…

“Did he just break through to another level while being tested in the mind realm!?”

“It’s unbelievable. How did he do it? L…Look!”

While everyone was talking about Zheng-Fu, Tian-Qi had also successfully broken through to the next level. However, Tian-Qi’s success was not as exciting as Zheng-Fu’s because they kind of expected her to succeed that way…

“Whoa! Little martial arts miss, the daughter of the leader of the clan, could also go through to the next level. Like father, like daughter!” Tong-Lang complimented Tian-Qi after seeing her success…

Looking at the two participants in the test courtyard. One used to be looked at as a junk of the clan, while another had been praised to be a hope. Who would believe that the junk would turn out to be the new rising star of the clan? Things seemed to turn upside down…!

Another half a shichen passed by…

About two and a half shichen later, Tian-Qi’s face started to turn awful. It was like she was fighting with something serious, something that agonized her. It seemed like no one could even guess what she was dealing with. This was because no one could see what was going on inside her mind…

“Mother!”

At that moment, Tian-Qi destroyed her crystal ball while shouting out for her mother loudly. Her forehead was full of sweat and all of a sudden, tears came out of her eyes which were now turning red and watery…

Sob sob!

“Mother!”

Whoosh!

Thud!

Mo-Zi immediately soared off his seat to get to Tian-Qi after he saw what happened to her. He rushed to hold her with all his heart and warmth and stroked her head gently…

“Father!”

“I saw mother, father! She was about to…”

Sob sob!

Mo-Zi did not say anything but tried to dry the tears on his daughter’s cheeks. He held her close to him to calm her down. He knew well what his daughter was about to say because he had been suffering the same fear…

“You must toughen yourself up for her because she sacrificed herself to keep you alive. You must stay strong and be stronger, so her sacrifice would not be in vain.” Mo-Zi said while stroking his daughter’s head…

“Yes, father. I’ll become stronger and stronger!” Tian-Qi wiped off her tears and took a deep breath in and out to adjust her Qi energy level to maintain her balance because she had just gone from the fifth to the sixth level successfully…

“How is the test, father? How long has it been now?”

“Two and a half shichens!”

Tian-Qi was tremendously joyful to know that she could go as long as two and a half shichens in the mind realm. Then she noticed Dong-Chu who was standing not so far from her. It made her feel confident that she was the winner of this test. But she still looked around to check on Zheng-Fu…

“Where’s that freak, father? Or did he fail the whole three times?” Tian-Qi asked his father about Zheng-Fu because she could not see him anywhere…

“Right behind you, dear!” Mo-Zi did not know how to respond to Tian-Qi about Zheng-Fu being a freak because he did not seem to be one anymore. He could only point to Zheng-Fu who was behind her back…

When Tian-Qi finally turned back to see Zheng-Fu, she faltered the minute she saw him still sitting in the mind test. Zheng-Fu’s face turned pale earlier when he broke through to the seventh level of the Qi Gathering stage. However, the color of his face became healthy again as time passed by. His hair grew longer too. And the most interesting thing was his skin was so radiant, even more radiant than girls’. He could make a lot of girls jealous of him by this.

“How is that possible? I was defeated by this loser, Zheng-Fu?” Tian-Qi got rude with words because she was startled by the sight of Zheng-Fu who continued to sink deep in the mind realm. When she became aware of the surroundings, she realized that she called Zheng-Fu a freak very loudly, so her face got red out of embarrassment. She could feel that others could hear her calling him that because everyone was looking at her. It made her run away from the test courtyard instantaneously. She was very upset…

The test time was down to half a shichen left. At that very moment, everybody was cheering on Zheng-Fu and wishing for him to sit through the test, which would be a total of three shichens. If he could succeed, then he would be as great as the leader of the clan and other young martial artists who had achieved in the second test with the same amount of time before him. If he could do it, his success would be recorded in the book of the clan…

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Dear husband!”

There was a woman’s voice calling for her husband next to Kong-Shi’s seat. And it was Tang-Ling, Zheng-Fu’s mother…

“Ling, dear! You’ve come!” Kong-Shi could remember his wife’s voice, so he knew it was her. He then turned to smile at her and greeted her…

“How’s our Zheng-Fu, dear?”

Zheng-Fu’s mother would not wait to ask about her son as she approached the stands. Kong-Shi did not say anything, but smiled and pointed his finger to the test courtyard where Zheng-Fu was…

“Zheng-Fu is still in the test, sister-in-law. He is the only one that is lasting in the second test.” Hai-Gu who sat next to Kong-Shi smiled and added when he heard that Tang-Ling asked for her son.

“That’s right, aunty. Zheng-Fu is tremendously brave. I never thought that he could be this strong. He also achieved the seventh level of the Qi Gathering stage while fighting fear in his mind during this test. I can’t imagine what kind of surprising things we will see from him if he participates in the free sparing test in the third test.”

“He is too young for the free sparring test. His body is also not strong enough. I’m afraid that…”

“It would be too bad if he skipped the free sparing test, dear Ling, because one of the rewards is the body-strengthening ginseng. It can help Zheng-Fu boost his physical strength. But if you’re worried, you should take him home after this test. Hahaha.” Lao-Chu would not wait to make a comment after hearing that Tang-Ling did not want Zheng-Fu to participate in the last test. If she took her son home, the special ginseng would be available for his son like he hoped for. In fact, it would be fine if it was given to anyone at all, but Zheng-Fu…

“The body-strengthening ginseng!?”

Even though Tang-Ling was not so experienced in the martial arts world, she had knowledge about the special ginseng. It was the knowledge that she gained during the time that her husband sought ways to help strengthen Zheng-Fu’s physical body. She knew that the special ginseng was so expensive that her family could not afford it…

“Excuse me, the great elder, did you say that the reward is the body-strengthening ginseng?” After Tang-Ling got it together, she asked about the reward from Lao-Chu in a bid to check if she heard him correctly…

“That’s right. One of the rewards is the body-strengthening ginseng. You heard me correctly. But the thing is, your son’s body is weak, isn’t it? Do you think it’s a good idea if he…?”

“I actually don’t know if he should fight in the free sparing test or not, but I would support my son’s decision. Besides, it’s inevitable for Zheng-Fu to grow older, so he should be going out there to seek real-life experience as a martial artist. If he can really win this clan’s test, he will get the special ginseng, then he could strengthen his physical body successfully.”

“What!”

Lao-Chu gasped and felt like his words had come back and haunted him. Tang-Ling was supposed to be discouraged and took her son home after the second test. Instead, those words gave her more confidence in her son…

“Well! In that case, I wish your son very good luck.” Lao-Chu wanted to appear to be supportive. So, he pretended to sigh and made a considerate face…

The test continued and Zheng-Fu remained still in the same meditation position. In the eyes of his own mind, he saw himself standing in a distorted space of another dimension. In that dimension, he saw a collage of his memories from the previous world and this Xianxia world. Old and new memories took turns to show themselves. And since they were merely images of memories from both worlds, they had no negative impact on Zheng-Fu. He just stood there, confronting what appeared in front of him…

Zheng-Fu knew well that those images were just an illusion because he learned about them from many Xianxia novels and movies in the previous world. This kind of test was designed to challenge the mind with false images. He only had to keep his mind strong and it would be all right. What was interesting was he felt that his Qi energy got stronger and stronger because being in this dimension prompted him to absorb the Qi energy automatically. The Qi energy in this dimension was stronger than outside, so his energy level increased tremendously. There was some blood coming out of his mouth, but he knew well that it was because his body was only getting rid of some waste from within…

“This dimension is interesting. With this crystal ball, I can actually come in here anytime I need, can’t I? It’s so cool.” Zheng-Fu thought about how he felt towards this dimension. He thought that the crystal ball could help him slip into the dimension anytime he wanted. However, he did not know that the whole thing could work only for someone his age…

Zheng-Fu was trying to absorb the Qi energy as much as possible. He did not know how long he had been in this dimension. He guessed that if it reached three shichens, the crystal ball would break by itself, and then that would be the time that he slipped back out to the normal dimension. This thought helped him focus completely on energy absorption…

The sandglass showed that the time was almost up. Everybody fixed their eyes only on Zheng-Fu in the courtyard. They felt intensely excited, not knowing when the boy was going to open his eyes…

“Does he know that he is in a test? It’s like he comes to play. He seems to have some fun there?”

“He’s having some relaxing time, indeed. This is almost three shichens now. Do you think he will last until the end of the test like the leader of the clan?”

“If he could, then he must be a martial arts genius. He would be greater than the leader of the clan too because it was a long time now for the leader.”

“It seems like he is full of surprise. Do you think he has some more tricks to wow us?” Tong-Lang was also one of the people who got psyched up by Zheng-Fu’s performance. It seemed like he had a lot of questions about Zheng-Fu. He wanted to know if there would be more surprises hidden in him…

“Of course. I believe that he is full of surprises. We will definitely get to see some more if he participates in the third test.” Tong-Tieng interrupted Tong-Lang while stroking his beard, thinking…

“The hidden surprises!?”