A month is already over?

Lingyun had asked his master if there was a better weapon suited for him but any that she had had since been misplaced when she failed to ascend. He used his exit key to leave the cavern expecting to come out at the stream but instead, they found themselves in the middle of a cliff overlooking a section of the forest they had not seen before.

"Which way is home?" Linghua asked to which Lingyun shrugged.

At Xiao ya's prodding, they jumped straight down which was something they would never have guessed to do. Immediately they got down Lingyun sensed several beasts at least a few kilometres away. He immediately concealed himself and ran towards the closest one. Luckily for them, it was a Golden-tailed eagle family.

These were huge creatures on the same level as an Opening Mortal realm cultivator. The eagles didn't sense the two boys until it was too late. Lingyun slapped one so hard it fainted and mounted the other. It couldn't fight back and its only option was to take to the sky as it was beckoned.

The goal was to allow them to see any recognizable feature that would guide them home. They had only flown for about an hour and a half when they sensed some people below them. They landed quietly and Lingyun dismissed the eagle which flew back without a second thought. The people were in a camp in a small clearing.

They wore Ling family guard attire. As they approached they could clearly hear what they said.

"I wonder if those two young masters are dead?" one guard asked

"We wouldn't be here if they were. Don't you know the ling family had life tiles for each member, if one dies it sends a soul imprint to the family life hall allowing the elders to see what happened?"

"It has been nearly a month and a half since we were dispatched, can two mortal level eleven-year-old boys survive here for that long

Linghua looked and Lingyun and nodded. They had both agreed on the best way to approach the family. Lingyun ran into the clearing feigning fatigue. His clothes were tattered and he must have looked a mess.

The guards looked at his clothes, his dirty face and his nearly shattered spear and knew what to do. A few moments later Linghua ran in panting as well and he even fell to the ground as if collapses.

"We made it, brother, we are safe now," Lingyun said sounding relieved, "that elder was right."

The sun was almost setting when the Matriarch, Lingfeng and Lingman arrived at the clearing. The matriarch was both relieved and glad when she saw the two since she immediately realised that they had broken through and become true cultivators now. She was also glad that her nephews were alright since she had grown fond of them in the time she spent feeding them.

The boys' fathers were too relieved to notice these details and just stood there laughing finally relieved. They asked what had happened and how they had disappeared like that without a trace and Linghua jumped into the well-rehearsed tale.

There happened to be a formation in the stream which transported them to a large cavern where they found an old master. He helped them break through and told them which direction to go. The journey had not been easy and even their weapons had broken but they had made it and they could finally return to their carefree lives.

Their fathers looked at them and only then realised that they were now Opening Mortal Realm warriors.

"Rest up for the next few days, then we shall go to the city for some gifts to celebrate your breakthrough."

The matriarch who had been listening silently turned around to face them. She looked at them long and hard which made Lingyun nervous.

"Third elder, auntie, is something the matter?" Lingyun asked fearing they she had sniffed out the lied.

"Both of you come to see me before you go into the city, I should also reward you," and just like that she disappeared into thin air.

Both boys sighed deeply as the guards brought some meat that had been roasted. "This is the meat of that metal-horned deer. " Lingfeng said proudly. It was only now that the boys realised that they hadn't seated in over thirty days.

Xiao ya had been pleasantly surprised by the level of strength that Lingyun had attained. The Heavenly god body composition was incredible. She had heard about it but had never seen anyone who was born with it naturally.

One could cultivate the heavenly body composition but it was different from a heavenly god body. From that moment when Lingyun had awakened his body and become an Opening mortal realm, she had already decided on the best path of cultivation for him. She was now thinking about would cultivation techniques for him, it would be pointless if the body was strong but the soul was weak.

Lingyun just wanted to sleep when he got home but XiaoYa didn't let him.

"You don't really need to sleep now," she said," there are things we need to do and discuss."

Reluctantly he sat up and focussed on his inner sea(1). He found XiaoYa sitting on an illusory chair under the tree.

"Master," he said sitting down cross-legged.

"With your natural composition cultivating yuan qi from the environment is easy enough but there are other things you need to do. Have you ever heard of soul cultivation?" she asked even though she knew the answer. In the lower worlds, very few martial artists focused on soul cultivation.

"Your body is strong but your soul is weak, cultivating your soul will improve your mental power and allow you to comprehend various things more easily. You will need to find some materials to craft a Soul Gathering PIll which will allow you to enter the Soul Nurturing stage of Soul cultivation arts.

*sea of consciousness = inner sea