Foundation Realm

In his Qi sea, changes immediately started to take place which was a sign that he was about to break through from the Qi Gathering Stage to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The orb has fully been absolved by him and it rested at the center of his Qi sea rotating peacefully. Hao Ren noticed that his Qi sea is far thicker than the previous time he cultivated, it was almost ten times thicker than his previous cultivation.

Before, he rarely had opponents in the same stage and could even fight across stages with people whose foundation isn't that strong. But currently he was confident in fighting above tiers without any problems.

Usually, in each cultivation realm there are three tiers namely the early, middle and late tiers in a realm. Each realm has nine stages and its divided into three stages for each tier.

On breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, Hao Ren noticed pillars forming in his Qi sea and wasn't too surprised about it since this is what usually happens when one breaks through to the realm.

In the Foundation Establishment Realm, four pillars will form in the middle of Qi sea and after breaking through to a new stage, new pillars are formed on top of the previous ones. It'll continue like that until the Core Formation Realm where the pillars will then come together to form a core in the Qi sea of a cultivator.

After the four pillars formed in Hao Ren's Qi sea, he noticed something strange as a fifth pillar was also forming in his Qi sea and was stunned speechless

'This!, what is this?' thought Hao Ren with fright

He has never heard of anyone having five pillars in the Foundation Establishment Realm as it is only recorded to have four, not even the strongest experts had five they all had four

'Is it because of the orb?' Hao Ren asked himself

When he thought about it, he felt it was likely caused by it. After the fifth pillar formed, they were as firm as rocks and stood straight. The other strange thing about his pillars was that each pillar had a different colour from the other and the colours seem to represent the five elements respectively which are wood, fire, earth, metal and water, why others pillar are mainly golden in colour.

Hao Ren pillars colour represents the five fundamental elements of every thing in the world, Hao Ren has never heard of anyone ever being able to cultivate and use the five elements, at most the best genius will only have two or so. People rarely have three, but they do exist as his father was one of such people.

The orb was rotating comfortably in the middle of the pillars and images of dragons and phoenix could be seen dancing all around his Qi sea. Each of his pillars where full of dragons and phoenix tattoos and he doesn't know what it represents. Each pillar has ten of such tattoos, he guessed they'll have a meaning but he doesn't know about it for now.

'Forget it, I'll figure out what it represents as time goes on' Hao Ren thought and kept it at the back of his head

At the top of his pillars, a huge dragon-pheonix could be seen. When Hao Ren completed his breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment Realm an information appeared in his head. When he saw it at first he was shocked as he never expected something like this to be possible.

The information stated that he could easily refine beast cores for his own cultivation. He knew beast cores could be refined, but not directly as the characteristics of a beast is totally different from that of a human, so the beast core has to go through a lot of process to remove the impurities which are harmful to the human body out before it is used by people. Usually, they are either refined as pills to be taken or are used in creating weapons.

But with his current cultivation techniques he had no issues with refining them with no problems occurring. This was really a great boon to him as it will help in fasten his cultivation.

The information also told him he can't fully rely on this method as it will loosen his foundations if he is not careful and overused this method.

Hao Ren's aura continued rising and new pillars where in the process of forming, if the process completes then he will break through to the Second stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Unfortunately for him the pillars stopped and didn't completely form so he ended up staying at the peak of the First stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm and also eight of those tattoos formed in his new pillars.

'Well, I will settle with this. I didn't expect I will break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm this quickly, I thought I would have had to wait for another three years' Hao Ren thought with a heart full of emotions

'Hehe, I guess I have to thank Wu Chen greatly as without him I wouldn't have had such a lucky encounter' Hao Ren thought to himself with a wicked smile on his face while exuding thick killing intent from his body

When Zhao Huang sensed the killing intent, he was shocked as he never expected Hao Ren would have such a thick killing intent

'Seems like he's already planning on taking revenge, well he should take revenge as one shouldn't allow himself to be trampled on by others' Zhao Huang thought to himself

When everything was over, Hao Ren looked completely different from when he first came here. He was exuding a noble aura and he also had the visage of an expert. The only contrast to his current good description was that he was stark naked.

'Shit!, why the hell would this flame burn all of my clothes while it didn't even do anything to me' thought Hao Ren embarrassedly. Although there was only Zhao Huang and the little wolf there, he still felt a little bit embarrassed by his current predicament

'Luckily I thought of bringing extra clothes else I don't think I will be able to leave this forest for a while' Hao Ren thought while also praising himself for his foresight.

Hao Ren picked up his storage pouch from the ground and put on his new clothes, he then clearly remembered his situation.

"Hao Ren pays respect to Senior for Seniors life saving grace" Hao Ren said respectfully while bowing. Although he can't see Zhao Huang he knew he was still here

"Its alright, it mainly had to do with your luck a and also fate" Zhao Huang said

"How did you come to know the wolf?, I noticed that when it brought you here you were unconscious and it was also gravely wounded" Zhao Huang asked Hao Ren the question he has wanted to ask

"I came to this forest because a Silverwing Earthspirit Fruit was seen in the forest, I wanted the fruit because my dantian was cracked and I had to heal it else I wouldn't be able to make any other advancements. When I heard of the fruit I rushed here immediately and also decided to train in the process before the fruit reaches full maturity. I saw both mother and cub in a part of the forest, the mother wolf was caught in a trap so I saved it since it had a young one to take care of" Hao Ren said

"I really didn't expect it to save me when it saw that I was being attacked by Wu Chen and Yun Lu, if not for it I would have died. I'm eternally grateful to it as it not only saved me but also brought me here" Hao Ren felt sad when he remembered the way the wolf ended after it saved his life. Hao Ren also told Zhao Huang about his enmity with Wu Chen and his father

"Oh, so that's how it is" Zhao Huang said

'Is it truly fate' Zhao Huang thought to himself baffled by how things went. He is old and have also seen a lot of things so he is not that shocked.

"Well, whatever it was that brought you here is good" Zhao Huang said to Hao Ren solemnly

When Hao Ren noticed the change in the voice of Zhao Huang, he knew he was about to tell him something serious

"Hao Ren, you know about the story of the battle between I and Goku right?" Zhao Huang asked Hao Ren

"Yes I do senior, senior defeated Goku and his followers with the help of the other experts of the continent. After senior killed him peace was brought back to the continent" Hao Ren said respectfully. Hao Ren has always have respect towards this saviour of the continent as without him the continent would not have been how it currently was.

When Zhao Huang heard what Hao Ren said, he felt sad inside 'If only that was what happened' Zhao Huang thought

"Well you are particularly right about the story, but its not entirely the truth" Zhao Huang said sadly

"What, something different happened from what was written in the history books?" Hao Ren was shocked from this small reply of Zhao Huang, as this reply represents a lot of things.

"I defeated Goku, yes. But I was unable to kill him" Zhao Huang said

"Senior you mean..." Hao Ren said as he couldn't complete his statement because of the fright the thought brought to him

"Sigh, yes. Goku is still alive" Zhao Huang said after sighing

"After I found this legacy, I was able to overpower Goku, but that was it. I couldn't kill him as he was too strong, I was only able to defeat after battling for almost nine days. I couldn't kill him so all I was able to think of was to seal him up. He is still alive till this very moment" Zhao Huang said to Hao Ren telling him about the battle and the result of it

Hao Ren was shocked by all this information as it was hard to take in. He was scared by the thought of Goku still being alive. He could already see that Zhao Huang is already dead and would soon disappear from the world completely. So who can save them now from Goku

"His name has never been Goku, he was once called Chan Shena. But after he disappeared he returned and changed his name and also his personality changed. He started killing people indiscriminately and he was even said that he was cultivating a technique that he used to absolve the blood of people" Zhao Huang said to Hao Ren

Hao Ren was surprised by all this. "Senior, so what are we going to do about him now?" Hao Ren asked

Zhao Huang was quite surprised by Hao Ren's personality and courage as he was able to quickly recover from the news of Goku still being alive

"Well, I'm already dead so there's nothing I can do about it anymore. This was the reason I was looking for a successor. If only you came a hundred years earlier, we would have been able to defeat him. But now, it will all be on you" Zhao Huang said regretfully

"Me" Hao Ren said shocked

"Senior I'm just at the Foundation Establishment Realm and I don't even know if or when I can get to the greatest realm of the world" Hao Ren said

This was a big responsibility for him as he never expected to have such a responsibility. It was just too big for his current self

"I can give you some time but it won't be much, at most I can keep him sealed for another five years without any unforeseen events. It will also take him about three to five years to fully recover, meaning you will have ten years to grow and stand at the peak of the world" Zhao Huang said solemnly towards Hao Ren

"Senior what about the people from the older generations in this current era, can't I go to them for help about this issue?" Hao Ren asked

"No, none can be trusted as Goku still has some followers who went into hiding from that battle. They must have died by now but they also groomed people for helping Goku as they knew he is still alive" Zhao Huang said

Hao Ren felt his heart throbbing at the thought of everything happening to him right now