Shock

This was the first time King was seeing both his Mother and Father in person and not just in his memories, his father Dante was about 1.96 meters tall which was quite tall even amongst most men (6'5") brown skinned with black hair coming just short of his back, with hazel eyes and a sharp jawline who gave off the look of a refined scholar if it wasn't for his incredibly broad shoulders and large chest.

Whereas his Mother Vanessa was about 1.80 meters tall which was on the taller side for women (5'11") she was olive skinned with long purple hair nearly reaching her midriff with an oval face with green eyes and smooth skin that looked glistened in the sunlight giving off the appearance that an immortal goddess was walking amongst mortals.

Which made King realize he hadn't exactly seen how he looked in this life he made note to do that along the exceedingly long list of items soon to be on his itinerary in the near future, but right now it was time to deliver the news to his Father.

"Your Mother has been telling me vehemently for the better half of the day that you have some news that I must hear please do relieve me of my constant suffering of the unknown" Dante beckoned

"Haha as much as I'd like to Father I'm quite famished can I at least have you wait until we sit down and I've had my first helping, maybe a second as well" King said while smugly grinning and walking towards the dinner table along with his parents

The dinner table was a long rectangular wooden table refined with wood from the Dierose Forest with 9 chairs around it that rarely all got used considering how many members the family consisted of the three all took their respective seats.

While King admired the assortment of dishes on the table in which he noticed all of them were magical beasts of at least the 2nd stage or higher which was unsurprising considering it helped with body tempering cultivation one of the more conservative but costly ways of increasing that aspect of cultivation even more effective for hybrids where you can convert that heaven and earth energy from beasts to Essence if you didn't want to use it for body cultivation.

His father laughed boisterously "Hahaha I suppose it can wait a bit longer considering I am quite hungry as well although you better not disappoint me with the news" said whilst making a face which exemplified mock anger

"As I've told you all day it will leave you quite fulfilled and maybe even speechless" Vanessa urged once again

"Yeah yeah I know you've been saying almost non stop since getting back home with our son" his father said

The family spent the better half of the hour chowing down plate after plate of magical beasts, and Dante noticed that although it was quite normal for his and his wife's appetite to be as it was his son's was quite peculiar it was voracious as if he hadn't eaten in days or…

"Did you break through to the 3rd stage of body cultivation?" His father asked

Taking a break from his meal to respond "Yes Father I did it was shortly before returning to the house from the forest and running into Mother" King said

"As great as that news is It's a bit underwhelming with how much your Mother has been hyping it up" His Father sighed

Noticing his wife and son still making faces saying that was just tip of the iceberg and I'm never wrong and you know that he decided to use soul sense to inspect King and what he saw left his jaw agape

"No Fucking way not only can you cultivate Essence Gathering and Soul now you're already at the Mid 1st stage for qi cultivation and Mid 2nd stage soul cultivation what in the hell happened why you were in the Forest" His father shouted in surprise

Even his Mother was slightly taken aback it seemed even she got a bit of shock, she hadn't thought to inspect King with soul sense simply due to her being overwhelmed with excitement and intense joy for his recovery

"Well no fair cats out the bag now you spoiled the big reveal Dad, I had a whole dramatic reveal and everything" King fake pouted

"What cat, what bag I swear you and your mother always say the weirdest things can't you just tell me what happened I believe your mother now just please out with it" His father pleaded

"Hmph as I always am and you know that" His mother said while sticking her chest out

"Okay okay we've edged you on long enough Father, while I was in Dierose Forest I came across a Rank 4 Soul Nourishing herb and as I breathed it in initially I realized it was slowly helping my body feel something mysterious around me and then it dawned on me this was the Essence everyone was talking about it then I immediately sat down and started doing the breathing exercises I'd read about" King said

"That's wonderful but why was there a rank 4 herb on the outskirts of Dierose Forest and no rogue cultivators or nearby families/organizations acquired it nor heard about it?" His father questioned

His Mother furrowed her eyebrows up at him once again. "Oh please do tell your father where oh where you found that herb dear old son of mine" His mother said

"Well it was kind of in the Inner Region close to the ring of the Core region but as I told Mother you know how good my senses are Father I had everything under control" King said quite convincingly

His Father couldn't help but to erupt with laughter "Hahahaha that's my boy one must take their own future in their own hands at some point that requires risks to be taken that may even cost you your life, you remind me quite a lot of myself in my youth…."

Dante was about to continue until he had peered over to his wife seeing her scowling at him with the fury of what could only be the culmination of both of their ancestors combined.

He coughed "Hmm hmm I mean how could you have been so reckless If you've informed us about what happened and your need for the herb your Mother and I could've acquired it for you, don't mistake stupidity for bravery son" His father said while making a dignified face as if he hadn't just called him essentially his pride and joy for the very same actions

"That's exactly what I said I'm glad it worked out but cultivation isn't more important than your life" His mother said

"Absolutely I can understand not wanting to rely on others I was the same way but remember your Mother and I are and always will be the exception to that sentiment, do you understand?" His father questioned

"Yes Mom and Dad I understand wholeheartedly I won't be so reckless in the future you can count on me" King swore

"Good remember we've always raised you to be a man of your word if you stand for nothing you'll fall for anything" His father said

"I'm glad to hear that but you still left out how your Essence Gathering and Soul cultivation increased so much in such a short period of time Mister" His mother said

"Oh yeah I was actually going to ask you guys about that it was quite peculiar after all when I started to cycle the Essence through my body I became almost entirely absent minded and went into a trance for a long period of time without even noticing it and when I came to my body was the way it is now" He said portraying a face of pure confusion

It's on a small white lie although I did reach the 2nd Soul cultivation stage right after merging our souls on the way back after using my Soul Devourer technique on the beasts I encountered I broke through in both Essence Gathering and Soul before arriving back here. He inwardly thought

"Heavens honey doesn't that sound like enlightenment?" His father asked

"It does really sound like enlightenment that would explain the rapid progress and him not even noticing it himself" His mother said

"What's enlightenment?" King asked once again showing a face of pure confusion

"It's a state where you can comprehend the vicissitudes of life and come close to how we believe the Immortals viewed and perceived things, to put things simply when this happens to cultivators it becomes easier to comprehend things and often times even can help you cross bottlenecks as if they didn't exist" His mother said

There it is again King often heard that term Immortals in his previous life but he didn't pay it a lot of attention to cultivators just starting their journey him at his peak would seem like an Immortal strictly due to the vast chasm between a 1st stage cultivator and 6th stage cultivator especially a peak one at that. So he simply viewed it as filler talk between the weak masses, but his mother wasn't quite as strong as him in the past but she definitely was much closer to the peak and more well connected than people he'd previously heard it from.

"What are immortals Mom" King asked

"They are very strong cultivators who are believed to have surpassed the 9th rank of cultivation and reached what we've heard is called the second step of cultivation although it very well could just be baseless rumors or simply a myth but that is what has been passed down by our Ancestors for millenia among my.. no The Phoenix Clan and any of the other 3 Divine Beast Clans as far as I know" His mother said

King was genuinely taken aback by this information although to most people hearing this it would sound at least plausible albeit a bit far-fetched to him it's more than a possibility or plausible it's likely to be the truth or if not very close to it, he knew the man who had delivered him here was much stronger than him and at that point of time he'd been at the peak of the 6th realm in Essence Gathering and Soul cultivation so that meant either that man was perhaps a 9th realm cultivator or perhaps even an Immortal.

King found it hard to contain the surprise and excitement on his face if that was the case maybe the man he had felt like an ant in front of even though he couldn't even detect a bit of cultivation from wasn't even the strongest there was, adding one more reason to his pursuit for power.

"Why do you look so excited you've always been one to tell me that's unrealistic or been more cynical when it comes to things I share about myths and other knowledge passed down from my Ancestors, you have always been a peculiar child after all most would just be excited like you are now it's actually quite refreshing to see you make a face like that after all these years" His mother said

"I wasn't peculiar mom at least say unique, and honestly I think it might have been me just being down about not being able to tri-cultivate I mean I know you two always tell me that there are others like me who can't cultivate Soul and Essence Gathering but I've never met any else like me so it was quite discouraging especially when legitimately everyone but me can cultivate even if not everyone could reach the peak just having the ability to felt like something I'd never get to do," King said feeling a bit dejected

"Sorry I didn't mean to make you feel bad about it or bring up bad memories I was genuinely just excited to see such you making such a face my charming baby boy looked so beautiful with that huge smile I couldn't help but comment" His mother said

"Mommm I told you I'm not a baby anymore" King said

"I know I know you're a big boy now right, but you'll always be Momma's baby boy for the rest of your life"' His mother said while gleaming

His father couldn't help but chuckle "There's no escaping it son my Mom treats me the exact same way I thought it would get better once I had you but it just got worse, speaking of your grandmother I can't wait to tell her" His father said

Dante looked at King who seemed to be making a rather uncomfortable face.

"What you don't want to go see your Grandmother or something why the long face she dotes on you so much you can't possibly not want to go or wait is that why you don't want to go?" His father questioned

"Actually it's probably because he was asking me earlier if we could keep things under wraps at least until he was both a bit older and stronger he didn't really expound on it too much but I'm sure it's not because of his Grandma he is making that face" His mother said

"It's like Mom said I really would prefer to keep everything a secret for the time being, I think it would be the perfect opportunity to see people for who they really are and find out who I can really trust" King said

"That's an interesting point but I don't see why that's worth keeping everything a secret until your to be determined timetable to stop doing so" His father replied

"Well Actually...