Without needing Chu Chengzhou to give an order, the Time Dragon summoned spirit Xiao Guang bloomed with a platinum radiance. A rippling, transparent stream of light surged out and shone onto Xiao Qing in Chu Chengzhou's hands.
In an instant, fluctuations of the law of time arose, and Xiao Qing's aura returned to its peak.
Seeing this, Chu Chengzhou nodded slightly and looked toward his mother-in-law, who was lying in the coffin, eyes now open and filled with confusion.
"Who are you?"
Staring at the youth before her, Feng Heng asked in some bewilderment.
In her memory, the last scene before she lost consciousness was a stranger of Titled Douluo rank in a black robe driving a blood-colored dagger into her chest.
If she had not died and had awakened healed, then the one before her would be, if not her husband Ning Fengzhi, at least the familiar bedroom she knew, not this cramped, narrow space filled with a rancid smell.
If she had died, then what should meet her eyes would be the netherworld of legend, not blue sky, white clouds, and a youth holding a three-foot-tall little tree, with a platinum dragon's shadow circling in the air behind him.
"Greetings, Mother-in-law. My name is Chu Chengzhou. I am Rongrong's boyfriend."
Chu Chengzhou gave a "well-behaved" smile.
"What?"
Feng Heng's eyes widened. She sat up in shock.
Rongrong's boyfriend?
Her daughter Ning Rongrong had only been born a few months and had not even been weaned. How could she have a boyfriend?
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded. Ning Fengzhi arrived.
"You brat, you called me here... A Heng?"
Looking at the figure sitting in a big red coffin beside Chu Chengzhou within his late wife's burial site, Ning Fengzhi froze.
An hour later.
"Here, Chengzhou, eat more."
At the table, after washing up and changing clothes, Feng Heng beamed as she kept piling food into Chu Chengzhou's bowl.
"Mm, Mother-in-law is the best."
Though the bowl was almost overflowing, Chu Chengzhou did not refuse her kindness.
Ordinarily, before a wedding, a future son-in-law is a class enemy in a mother-in-law's eyes. This is bad, that is wrong, picking bones out of eggs.
But Feng Heng was different. In her eyes, this prospective son-in-law was good in every way.
Looks, strength, about the same age as her precious daughter, and able to resurrect someone who had been dead for over a decade. Such an outstanding son-in-law could not be found twice in the whole world.
"Right, Fengzhi, where is Rongrong?"
Suddenly, Feng Heng turned to ask Ning Fengzhi.
"Ask this brat. More than two years ago our little cotton-padded jacket decided she did not want her father anymore."
Ning Fengzhi pointed at Chu Chengzhou in annoyance.
"Now that is not fair. Rongrong is your most considerate little cotton-padded jacket. How could she not want you?"
Chu Chengzhou hurried to refute, then added, "Mother-in-law, Rongrong has been training on Sea God Island recently. I just returned from there."
"Training? How is Rongrong's cultivation talent? What realm is her soul power now?"
Blinking, Feng Heng asked.
Having just been revived, Feng Heng knew very little about changes over the last decade.
"Rongrong's talent is naturally excellent. Not long ago she advanced to an eight-ring Soul Douluo."
"Eight rings? Did Rongrong awaken not the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda but my Fire Luan? But that does not make sense either. By nominal age she is only seventeen. How could she cultivate so fast?"
Confusion showed in Feng Heng's eyes.
Even with innate full soul power, reaching eight-ring Soul Douluo should take at least thirty to forty years, right?
Ning Fengzhi shook his head and said, "Rongrong awakened the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda. A few years ago this kid helped her break the martial soul limit and evolve it into the Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda.
"As for soul power rank, to be honest, I do not understand the youngsters nowadays. A Heng, ask this kid what realm he is and you will know."
With that, Ning Fengzhi poured himself a large cup of wine and drained it.
If he had known his son-in-law would be this formidable, at their very first meeting he should have dragged Chu Chengzhou straight back to the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and married him to their little cotton-padded jacket on the spot.
No, better yet, right after this kid was born he should have taken him back to the sect, forced a child betrothal for the two babies, and assigned someone to teach this brat the virtues of a husband.
That way, as long as Chu Chengzhou treated their little cotton-padded jacket with all his heart and was already a married man, other girls would not keep throwing themselves at him.
Now it was too late for regret. Such an excellent son-in-law was no longer just the son-in-law of the Ning family.
Hearing this, Feng Heng turned to look at Chu Chengzhou.
"Mother-in-law, your unworthy son-in-law recently cultivated to the peerless realm."
Straightening his back, Chu Chengzhou spoke with a "modest" expression.
"The peerless realm? Do you mean the rank-99 Limit Douluo I understand?"
Feng Heng paused, then asked.
As a seven-ring Soul Sage, she truly could not see what level Chu Chengzhou's soul power had reached.
Chu Chengzhou nodded.
Feng Heng: "..."
Is my son-in-law really this outrageous?
At once, a mother-in-law's gaze on her son-in-law grew ever fonder.
After lunch, Chu Chengzhou left the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and headed for the Star Dou Great Forest.
Star Dou Great Forest, core region, Lake of Life.
The mischievous Er Ming was not around, likely out bullying other soul beasts, but Da Ming was a homebody snake and stayed honestly in the Lake of Life, sleeping.
Chu Chengzhou did not go up to disturb them. He went on his own to a very simple, dust-covered little wooden hut by the lakeshore.
This little hut had been built by Xiao Wu's mother with her own hands while she was alive.
After taking human form, unlike when she was still a soul beast, she needed shelter from wind and rain, even if only something temporary.
Before entering the human world, after Xiao Wu and Da Ming and Er Ming gathered her mother's remains, they buried her beside the hut.
Though he had never come to pay respects, he had heard Xiao Wu speak of this.
Spreading out his spiritual power, Chu Chengzhou soon found, beneath the ground under a purple sandalwood tree behind the hut, a set of long-decayed bones in tattered clothing.
At once, spatial ripples rose in his hand, and Chu Chengzhou drew the bones up from the earth.
Just as he was about to summon Xiao Qing and Xiao Guang to perform the resurrection divine art, Chu Chengzhou paused, then put Xiao Wu's mother's remains back into his storage soul guide.
Because they had been buried directly in the soil, the clothing on the remains had long since turned to rags. It would be a bit awkward after the resurrection.
And since Xiao Wu was still on Sea God Island, after being revived, aside from having two godsons in the Star Dou Great Forest, she would have no relatives or friends at hand. Better to take her back to Sea God Island and revive her there.