Mission Complete

Qing Shan came to, lying on the grass inside of the Primordial Pocket Dimension. He felt like an entirely new person, and while he did feel some muscle fatigue and such, he also felt as though he was currently in the best condition he had ever been in. His emotions had freed themselves from their shackles during his rebirth. Because he was essentially a new being, his mind and body were restored to their most balanced state possible. This meant that Qing Shan's emotionally unstable mental state was resolved. Unfortunately, this fresh reformed state of body and mind could still be disrupted, which meant that Qing Shan had to take extra care of his mental state. While Qing Shan decided not to fully store away any of his emotions, he did resolve to keep a tight leash on his anger. Some anger was a great catalyst for growth, but too much would cause him to lose control.

After Qing Shan finished combing through his mental state, he stood and walked over to the Spring of Time.

Immediately, Qing Shan noticed a huge change in the fluidity of his motions. Instead of feeling like he was moving his legs to walk, and his arms to keep balanced, he felt as though his whole body was once collective object, that could be moved any which way according to his will. This did sound like a normal human's body, but was quite different when you look at the Qi that was now filling Qing Shan's Circulation Channels and flowing through his veins. Before his breakthrough, Qing Shan had to consciously direct Qi to one of his Qi Loops in order to increase the capabilities of that certain area of his body. However, now that he had Qi running throughout his nerves and just residing in his body, it was as though he was constantly in the enhanced state that had formerly been provided by his Qi loops. What's more, this state did not cause him to lose any Qi, or make him strain his thoughts at all. Qi was stored throughout his nerves and inside his skin, which meant that this enhanced state was now a part of him. Qing Shan knew that there was much more that he could find out about being in the Origin Realm, especially considering that these were just his observations from standing up and walking a short distance.

Once Qing Shan decided to move forward, he noticed that each step brought him three times as far as before effortlessly. This caused him to reach the Spring of Time at the same pace walking that he would have had running without enhancements before his breakthrough. It was truly amazing.

Once he was standing over the Spring of Time, Qing Shan looked through his body to see if there was anything harmful done to him during the breakthrough. Qing Shan soon found one thing that was unexpected, and the cause for his skin feeling as though it was warmer above his nerves.

Across his entire body, excluding his face, Qing Shan had a lightning-patterned scar that traced his nerves. It seemed like he should have somehow reinforced his skin with some sort of method before he broke through.

After soaking in the Spring of Time, Qing Shan was peeved to find out that the scar did not disappear. However, he could guess why it did not.

Ever since he had discovered the name the 'Spring of Time', Qing Shan had wondered why the body of water had this name. After quite a lot of pondering, Qing Shan had an idea for the reasoning behind that name. If he was not wrong, and it was quite possible that he was, then the Spring of Time did not 'heal', but instead restored the body of a person to a body in the past or future.

Following this theory, the Spring of Time could only use a body that is at the same level of cultivation. Because this scar was a necessary part of Qing Shan breaking through, it could not be healed. Instead, the Spring of Time had given Qing Shan a body that was probably for a few weeks in the future. This was why the scar had faded dramatically when Qing Shan soaked in the Spring of Time. Of course, this theory was not without flaws. Qing Shan would definitely be training his body in the following weeks, so why was that not carried over? Why was it that Qing Shan's muscles remained the exact same? Was only the injured part of his body restored?

Qing Shan had so many questions about the Spring of Time, but they did not need to be answered. It was just that Qing Shan was a very curious person by nature.

Once Qing Shan managed to pull himself out of his thoughts, he decided that he should leave his Primal Pocket Dimension. While he would use the Garden Keeper's gift at this moment to break through, he decided to save it for a time when he ran into another bottleneck. With his business done in here for now, Qing Shan went to grab his locket.

'What is that!?'

Just this thought flashed through Qing Shan's mind as he noticed something that he had never seen before. However, Qing Shan had already grabbed his locket and appeared in the Garden keeper's cave. Whatever he saw, he could look into after he guided his group back to Fallen Sky City.

"Huhu~ I see that you finally came back. It took a good amount of thinking, but I realized that you were in a pocket dimension under my nose all along. You should thank me. I have been taking care of your friends while you continued your breakthrough for a whole month! Those two girls did not even take ten days to breakthrough, so how could you keep them waiting for so long!"

"Wait, wait, wait… I must have heard wrong. Did you say that I have been breakingthrough for a whole month!?"

"Yup! Don't worry, I'll send you back to your friends now."

With that, Qing Shan felt the ground beneath him shift, and saw the walls flowing around him. Thanks to his perception, Qing Shan got to witness this amazing phenomena in slow motion. He was so absorbed in the experience that he did not immediately realise it when he popped out of the wall, back into the main room with the soul fragment of the Garden Keeper and his friends.

Qing Shan stumbled forward, and quickly took notice of the group's condition. Two of them were eating from a stone bowl full of fruits and vegtebles. Qian Shen had a disgusted look on his face, while Qian Yong was in the corner practicing moves with her spear. Ming Bai seemed to be the most enthusiastic of the group, and was practically stuffing her face with greens.

"Woah, Qing Shan! You're back!"

Qian Yong quickley traversed across the room and chopped her brother on the head.

"You don't need to state the obvious, dumbass. Now we can get out of here!"

Ming Bai looked up, her expression filled with longing.

"Do we have to leave? Miss Garden Keeper is so kind, and her food is great. She also has so much knowledge that is most likely invaluable to us."

Qian Yong rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Of course we have to leave. No one back at the sect knows where we are, and not all of us prefer to live on fruits and veggies. Plus, you and I need to stabilize our cultivation."

"Fine…"

Qing Shan walked over to the Soul Fragment of the Garden Keeper.

"Miss, now that we have finished our breakthroughs, may we leave?"

The beautiful voice of the Garden keeper rang throughout the room.

"Yes, you all have completed my trial and are free to go. However, I have one more gift for the three of you that actually finished it. Because one of you has shown me something interesting, something I have never seen before, you may take one of these fruits."

As the Garden Keeper was talking, the same golden sapling that was in the trial cave rose from the ground. The only difference was that this was no longer a sapling, and was instead a full-grown tree. Likewise, the fruits had increased from the size of a bean to the sixe of an acorn. There were three fully grown fruits hanging from the tree's branches.

"These fruits will increase the density of your bones, and make it easier for you to reinforce them with Qi, granted your modifications allow you to do so. The immature boy had eated an immature one of the fruits, and has gained half of the bone fortification effect, and not the other one.

"Good luck with all of your future trials, and stay safe in whatever you may do."

The branches of the tree bent, and dropped in fruits into Qing Shan and the two girls' hands.

"Goodbye."

After the sendoff of the Garden Keeper, the group found themselves once again engulfed in the earth with the surroundings shifting around them. After around thirty seconds, everyone was spit out of the ground, and were now resting in front of the tree that had allowed them to enter the Trial of the Garden Keeper.

*Sigh*

"Well that was a wild ride."

Amazingly, Qian Shen was absolutely right for once, and no one could rebuke his statement this time.

"Welp. Lets get going."

Qian Shen raised up his hand.

"Wait a minute. You guys are all in the Origin Realm now, right? So why don't we go hunt down that Fire Fox and show 'im whos boss!"

Qing Shan and the girls just stared at Qian Shen with blank looks on their faces. They then looked at each other, silently deciding who would dumb things down for the cllueless idiot in front of them. Qing Shan was silently nominated for this task.

*Sigh*

"Well. We all just broke through, and our bodies are unstable. Not to mention, none of us have a grasp on how touse our new abilites at all. With our enhanced bodies, there maybe a chance of defeating the fox, but we could all come out of this gravely injured. But rest assured, next time we are in this area, we will hunt down that damn fox. It sure as hell deserves a beating."

"Ahh~ So that's what it was. I guess I should have tried to think about it a bit more.

*Snort*

Qian Yong laughed before muttering a few choice words under her breath.

"What was that! Don't think that just because you are a bit older and a rank higher that you can still beat me! …Hey! That's not fair, you're in the Origin Realm! Qing Shan, help me!"

Qing Shan and Ming Bai stood at the side and laughed as they watched the siblings' antics. Once everyone settled down, the group began their journey back to Fallen Sky City.

It was a lively journey, and everyone had a good time. They had all pretty much forgotten the fear that they had felt when facing the Fire Fox, and that strong Golem. Well, most of them had forgotten. Qing Shan refused to forget this situation. He would make sure to turn that fear into fuel for his growth!

After about a day's travel, the group arrived back in Fallen Sky City.

"Sorry guys, I have to go report to my boss. I have been working at the Smith's Respite, and I told him that I would be back about a month ago. I hop I wasn't fired… Can you guys go and get the mission completion registered? Remember to keep the fangs and hides so that we can sell them."

"Sure thing! Do what you have to do!"

"Alright, Lets meet up for dinner later. I'll pay."

Qing Shan's head shot up at Qian Yong's words.

"I will be there!"

Qing Shan departed from his friends, before running toward the Smith's Respite.