Looking at Luan now, one would find it hard to believe that he had been sick for twenty years and only recovered some days ago.
The way his long hair and beards shone.
Even his skin was spotless.
Apart from the blood he coughed, nothing looked bad.
Romain scolded him for re-cultivating in a rush, however, seeing that he was alright, deep down she was relieved. She too had feared that her son wouldn't be able to cultivate again.
The elders asked Luan some questions as to how he achieved the peak of Qi Condensation stage in a few hours.
Luan returned the question back to them, asking if they had fed him elixirs when he was sick.
Upon confirming that they did, he spawn a lie of how the energies of those elixirs remained dormant in his body and flared up when he tried to cultivate.
Though they didn't buy this explanation completely, his family did feel like it was the most reasonable cause of his sudden growth.
But it still felt like a fever dream.
Cultivating qi has always been arduous thing. Many who have started this journey barely make it to the peak of the Qi Condensation stage in their lifetime.
Those with a bit more money use cultivation pills to boost their progress, subsequently making it to the next stage.
Unless one was truly talented, with a great spirit root, they're destined to remain stagnant in a stage.
But even with talent, combined with cultivation pills, no one's progress would be as ridiculous Luan's own.
At least that's how his family felt.
Luan tried getting up from his bed, standing on his two feet felt comfortable, but he felt like he had to downplay everything. He quickly fell to the ground.
His mother and sister rushed to his side.
"I don't think my legs are strong enough yet. There's no pain now when I stand, but it's still difficult to use my legs." Luan explained.
Seeing this, his family calmed down a bit. To them, it was more normal for his legs to be this way.
Their relief soon turned to guilt.
Wouldn't it be better if Luan was completely fine? Wouldn't that mean that his chances of relapsing would be less?
This guilt added on to their previous order to 'put him out of his misery' made them feel embarrassed to the point where they started making flimsy excuses and leaving his room.
Belan and Beldeen though, they still had their suspicions. But they didn't dwell on it.
Belan left and came back shortly with a walking stick in his hand. "Luan," He called out as he handed the stick over to him. "This stick is something one of our ancestors used to use during the final years of his lifespan. Use it till you're able to walk on your own."
"Thank you, Second Grandpa."
With that being said, the last of the elders left his room.
Luan was eager to send everyone away. He hadn't had the chance to inspect his growth and kept on feeling like the more delayed, the more secrets to forming his own art he was going to miss.
He spent some time convincing his mother and sister that he was fine, even suggesting that they take a walk.
As they went around the Khan family's land, Romain's condition started acting up and Luan convinced Liana to take their mom to rest.
Saying that he was going to out a bit before returning.
At first his sister argued, but Luan didn't budge. And so, she left.
Luan stood on a wooden bridge, built over a stream. It looked as if he was staring at the vast greenery to anyone who was watching, when in truth, he was marveling at the changes in his body.
Within Luan was a galaxy of qi, most of which seemed to be immaterial. They were present, but the same time, absent. This qi galaxy covered the area between his core and the crystal pearl, making it looked like a great expanse of distance.
The qi of this galaxy was a sort of qi that he couldn't absorb into his core.
Quite similar to the crystal pearl.
This galaxy of qi seemed to have laws of its own, as dots similar to stars shot through its skies.
How is this possible? …could the crystal pearl be the cause of this phenomenon or it's because of the fusion of inner strength and qi?
The answer to this question eluded him at the moment, he would have to test many other theories out in other to figure out the answer.
At the moment, his greatest worry had been dealt with. His body was still in the process of changing.
This change was what concerned him the most.
One of the major reasons why Luan was able to create a cultivation art of his own in Sorja was because he studied his body's reaction during every growth.
He studied his body down to the cellular level, hoping to find changes that he could exploit. And after reaching the peak, he realized that he needed a catalyst.
This was why he feared breaking through to the Foundation Building stage. Missing out on the changes his body would go through in this stage would have left holes in his future decisions.
Luan had no idea that what he was doing wasn't considered normal. To him, this was what people who had created or derived their cultivation arts had done.
Paying attention to his body, Luan noticed that Sixth Sense had somehow gotten stronger without his knowledge. Previously, he could actively sense whatever was going on within a hundred meters, but now, it had grown to over three hundred meters.
Time went on and Luan continued observing, and his patience soon paid off.
Within the qi galaxy, Luan saw a phantom core, similar to his core in every way. This core was immaterial, just like the galaxy, however, he found that he could affect it in a way.
Luan's senses rubbed over this immaterial core and it moved, as though its master called.
I need to find a secluded area to test out my strength.
Though he couldn't sense anyone watching him at the moment, he was still in an open space. His qi was several times purer than any cultivator in the Qi Condensation stage.
Luan didn't want to cause anymore commotions.
Moreover, he could tell that his elders had been looking at him like he was someone else.
I've given them enough shock for the day.
Luan tapped the bottom of his walking stick on the bridge. He wanted to infuse qi into this move, but decided against it.
Just when Luan thought everything was settled, the crystal pearl moved again.
Though it didn't rotate, this pearl moving filled Luan with so much anxiety.
Fortunately for him, its movement didn't affect his body, rather, he seemed to get this notion that it was trying to direct him somewhere.
Shaking this thought from his head, Luan began walking away, but that only agitated the crystal pearl some more. The farther he walked away from the direction it pointed at, the harder it vibrated.
At one point, Luan became scared that it was going to burst out of his chest if he didn't go where it wanted him to go.
Is the crystal pearl… sentient?
The possibility of that scared Luan even more.
With a worried sigh, he gave into the pearl's wants.
At first he walked like a normal person with walking cane in hand, moving towards the direction slowly.
Almost an hour went by before he stopped. The pearl had stopped vibrating.
In front of him was a grand canyon. With the evening closing in, Luan didn't plan on staying here for long.
This Grand Canyon was the border of his family's land.
The Khan's lived close to the outskirts of the Darke Empire.
"There nothing special here." He uttered after a while, feeling like he had been misled.
Well, this isn't a bad place to test out my strength.
Just he was about to begin, the crystal pearl moved, send out a wisp of immaterial qi into the air.
It moved so fast that Luan couldn't react.
The immaterial qi flew forward slowly, and then suddenly, it drilled into the void and vanished.
"What was that?"
As though to answer his question, the terrain in front of him transformed. A path through the void opened up, as though a door to another world had been open.
A wave of pure qi softly grazed Luan's face, making his body feel comfortable.
"Is this a Secret Grotto?" He whispered to himself in shock.
A Secret Grotto is no other world per se, it's a pocket dimension. A bubble of reality woven into the fabric of space by a power he couldn't comprehend.
Grottos are usually legacies of the truly mighty. When a cultivator reached a realm beyond mortal understanding, or when ancient sects faced extinction, they would sometime fracture space itself, creating these hidden realms.
From what Luan could recall from his childhood, Secret Grottos were sometime sanctuaries, a ground for testing the members of said sect, a tomb for their ancestors.
Sometimes, they are also natural wonders, not man made.
Possessing a Secret Grotto meant that one's wealth is bound to increase.
Many families in the Darke Empire would kill to own one of these pocket dimensions.
"Arty! There's a stalk of blooming Fire Flowers over here! Come quick! We have to take everything we can before reporting back to the sect!" A feminine voice urged.
This voice caused Luan to frown. This was a grotto by his family's land, to him, it had become a private property the moment he found it.
Only one thought crossed his mind.
Kill them…