Revenge and Rebuild

The talisman turned to ashes in the cultivator's hand. From the ashes, a faint projection appeared of a person, from head to shoulders.

"Is that his master?"

Liu Feng squinted his eyes and tried to listen to as much as he could. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear anything even as the cultivator started yapping his mouth.

"Tsk, I can't get any closer than this."

In the end, he could only watch from afar as the cultivator communicated with the projection.

After a while, the cultivator started moving closer to the barrier carefully, as if he knew about its existence.

"This barrier, it should be invisible to those aside from me? Why does this random person know about it?"

The cultivator then struck the barrier with his palm, with the barrier fully absorbing its impact. He quickly shook his pained hand afterwards.

[Ding! Alert: The barrier has been attacked by a Lv. 25 Spiritual Energy attack. Time limit reduced by 0 seconds.]

When Liu Feng saw the alert, he figured out that the spiritual energy sense of the barrier was only limited to situations wherein it got attacked. At the same time, the cultivator was nowhere near close to Myriad Spirit Realm, so Liu Feng was a bit relieved of his anxiety.

"Is he testing its strength? Are they waiting for when it comes down?" Liu Feng had a bad premonition of what was to come.

He had predicted this situation long ago. It meant that he needed progress, and fast!

"It seems like there's more to the sect's destruction than I thought. It wasn't only a culling of the most powerful sect, there must be something within the territory that they desperately want."

As the black-robed cultivator walked away, Liu Feng headed back to his hut, deep in thought.

Before he could make it back inside, Shu Fanrong ran towards him with glee.

"Master!"

"Oh, you seem excited. What happened while I was gone?"

"I broke through again!"

"Naturally. The cultivation manual I gave you is perfect for your constitution."

"No, master. I practiced the combat manual that you gave me, and I broke through all of a sudden!"

"Ah, okay-- Wait, what?"

Liu Feng hurriedly opened the system.

———

Name: Shu Fanrong

Bone Age: 12

Level: 4

Realm: Attribution Form

Number of Spiritual Roots: 1

Spirit Root Attribute: Frostfire

Talent: 89

———

"Little Rong is already in the third realm?!"

Liu Feng felt like puking.

Sure enough, comparisons were the source of unhappiness.

No matter, Shu Fanrong's success can also be considered to be my success.

"Ahem, that much is natural. I've tailor-made the combat technique for you after all."

"Thanks, master!" Shu Fanrong was delighted.

Thanks to her master's guidance, what Shu Fanrong thought would be a boring and tedious process had gone by so quickly. She was starting to have fun with cultivation!

By the side, however, Liu Feng's cogs already started turning in an effort to find out why the combat manual helped Shu Fanrong break through.

"This can't be right. I've tailor-made it to be perfectly incompatible! Why did it not induce an adverse effect?"

"Could it be that the Frostfire attribute is just that powerful, able to assimilate even incompatible techniques?"

Of course, as even Shu Fanrong didn't understand clearly how the combat technique helped her break through, there was much less of a chance for Liu Feng, a first realm cultivator, to sense the change of state in his disciple's body.

Originally, the balance was very fragile—one wrong move and the scale would have tipped over, consuming the cultivator with either frost or fire. However, thanks to the Perfect Harmony Combat Technique, the two sides' balance became much less unstable. It was as if two powerful countries, who were at odds with each other, signed a peace treaty. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it stabilized the structure greatly.

As for the sudden breakthrough, it was a side effect of the greatly enhanced balance between frost and fire.

"Wait, I can check the system. It might tell me something I don't."

[Ding! One or more of host's Creations have been used. The system has graded them appropriately.]

———

Perfect Harmony Combat Technique

Grade: Middle Yellow

Characteristics: Suitable for those who aim to stabilize a chaotic spiritual root. Not recommended for those who have more than one spiritual root.

———

"Ah, so that's what happened."

Although Liu Feng still didn't fully understand the whole situation, just the fact that the system recommended it for those with chaotic spiritual roots already explained a lot.

"Nevermind, what's done is done. Might as well accept it."

After this failure to fail, he ended up with an egg on what was supposed to be his number of Disciple Points.

Zero!

Even with the knowledge that in two days, he would be restocked with at least 40 DP, seeing the zero made his heart wrench.

"Ah, I swear, I'll never let this happen again!"

As Shu Fanrong broke through, her senses became more and more acute. She finally sensed her master's cultivation—it was a lot lower than hers.

"...Huh?"

To Shu Fanrong, this didn't make much sense.

The master that guided her cultivation perfectly, was weaker than her?

No way!

However, her senses couldn't lie. As she extended her spiritual sense again, she widened her eyes.

Master is indeed weaker than me!

"Master!"

"Hm?" Liu Feng, who was busy trying to think of new disciple-ruining— ahem, DP making schemes, turned his head to look at Shu Fanrong with a smile.

Looking at her master, who had huge bags under his eyes, Shu Fanrong felt a bit embarrassed. But as a kid, shyness was a concept that she hadn't fully grasped yet.

"Master, why are you so weak?"

Liu Feng's smile froze stiff. He almost coughed blood from the shock this question gave him.

Even though he knew that sooner or later, she would discover it, the situation still made Liu Feng's heart palpitate.

Calm down, calm down. I've already made an appropriate excuse for this!

"Ahem, actually. This is a heavily guarded secret of mine, but I suppose I have to tell you about it."

"A secret?" Shu Fanrong's eyes sparkled.

"Yes. It's best to tell you now—I've been heavily injured. My cultivation, it regressed back to the start." Liu Feng feigned a heavy expression as he clenched his chest.

"Injured?!" Shu Fanrong turned sad as well.

"Yes, the sect was invaded, reduced to the ruins that you see now. I did my best to defend it, but in the end, only I survived the attack."

A bit of anger rose within Shu Fanrong's tiny heart. "Who is it that invaded the sect? Master, I'm strong now! I can take revenge!"

Liu Feng shook his head wistfully. "Alas, you are not strong enough, little disciple. Besides, revenge is not something I strongly yearn for. What I want the most... is the sect returning to its former glory."

At this point, Liu Feng let a bit of his true feelings out.

Of course, he had anger coursing through his veins every time he saw the crude tombstones of the people he once knew. However, he also knew that revenge was a one way ticket to despair. It was a powerful motivator, sure, but after the act, one would only be filled with nothing but emptiness.

Rebuilding the sect, on the other hand, would not only make for a great goal, it was also a fulfilling task that would grant happiness to him in the end. Revenge was something he would only ever think of doing as an afterthought.

Liu Feng sighed.

"Nevermind my state, Little Rong. You should be concerned with your own cultivation."

He walked off and entered the hut.

At that moment, Shu Fanrong thought that her master's figure was incredibly lonely.