Chapter 56- Pinkie Returned

The next day, Long Ren woke up at 6 am with the help of a very loud alarm, something he specially prepared for such important days. Yesterday, after dinner, Long Ren and Yun Ning decided to meet back up here at 9 as the trip to Star City will take one hour-ish.

Long Ren, with groggy eyes, got up from his futon and did his daily routine, just earlier and sloppier. He only slept for 7 hours yesterday! 7! Heresy!, his bible said.

Not long after, Long Ren left the room, greeting the maid standing in front of his door.

After confirming that he will come back once in a while, Diona gave him this room, and consequentially, She dispatched a maid here to take care of his daily needs and keep his room clean and fresh.

Her name was Celeste, but that didn't matter as he quickly head downstairs and greeted the master and student pair.

With xing lao being that lenient and all, it made Long Ren forget that he woke up 6 hours later than literally everyone else.

Now, Diona's hatred towards his laziness seemed a bit more passable, though, just this won't change Long Ren's sleeping habits.

They greeted each other and had breakfast together, nothing special, just around twenty to thirty variants of breakfast meals provided at the table.

Pancakes dripped with glowing translucent syrup-like substance, perfectly folded and juicy enchanted dumplings, some casual ascended-rank crab eggs benedicts, porridges made out of rank-8 rice, just normal everyday stuff really.

After enjoying such a normal breakfast, Long Ren decided to head home first. It had been a while and dust must have built itself up. He soon got there and sure enough, dirt and dust were everywhere.

He left abruptly after all, so his windows are still open, letting dirt inside, hence the current mess. Luckily! From his 4th dimensional white pocket, he took out a Roomba!!!

He took his Roomba out and let it do its work. Although he had never used one of them before, it seemed to be doing its job perfectly.

He got the Roomba from his daily pull a while ago, though it didn't include the charger. If there was, he might jumble up some electricity with some lightning runestone, but alas.

Thankfully, it came with a full battery, so he could use it for at least one time, and that time is now.

While it cleaned his house, Long Ren stashed his chest by taking out all the items and putting them inside his new ring. A ring from, you guessed it, Diona. A ring that had decent protection from probing.

The new ring helped in keeping prying eyes away by creating an illusion that shows trash items and some coins, hiding all the valuables. Although not foolproof, it is good enough to keep his items safe, at least inside the clan.

Long Ren leaned against his open window and noticed several cultivators running about the grounds. They seem to have been training rigorously as sweat completely covered their bodies.

All cultivators needed to work hard to obtain a strong body, strong enough to help defend themselves in battle, and yet, Long Ren barely did anything just to get it all the same.

As unbelievable as it is, Long Ren had actually read a couple of books, both from xing Lao's personal collection as well as Diona's library, just books he felt interested in. Mainly about special types of bodies, especially their origins.

A few mentions of unnaturally strong bodies exist yet none of them are even comparable to his.

Some may help in being bulkier, gaining more strength at the cost of one's body being gigantic, others might help in metabolism, gaining higher regeneration at the cost of higher intakes.

Long Ren's body seemed to combine every positive of those and discards the negatives. A cheat body, so to say.

It would be ideal if he could learn more about it, as he himself felt a potential inside him that he couldn't tap into yet.

Whatever that trigger might be, Long Ren had no clue. If only he had more clues about his origins, that'd be nice. Getting stronger is always better after all.

He then remembered about sparks of war igniting, Star clan's continent against another. He heard of it a few months ago, though its credibility is still left undecided. If war really happened, then his life could be forfeit at any moment.

And he doesn't want that, not after everything that had happened with Yun Ning. If it was before, he might not really care that much, though he had no memory of the death process, he was sure he had died once, what's another.

But now that he had something he treasures, something he had longed for a long time, he won't just let it go. He'd either die trying or survive together.

Though, he would need to confirm its validity first since he'd rather take it easy than be rushed by a deadline and all that.

After a few monologues, Long Ren felt a kick from his leg, the Roomba had finished its job. Its battery still showed half so Long Ren stored it for future uses and cleaned the room off of spots it missed.

One down, one to go.

He soon left his house and head towards xing lao's peak. He rarely went there before since the journey would take a while for someone of his rank, so xing lao came to his instead.

Long Ren could see that xing lao is busy with something, which only tilts into favor of the rumors of war being true. But then again, he could be wrong, hence why he would ask later on.

After traveling for a while, Long Ren arrived at xing lao's peak, in it, stood a house about three times bigger than his. xing lao and Diona lived quite different lifestyles, with Diona being extremely lavish while xing lao a bit frugal.

He quite liked both of them but staying in the middle, where his house is small yet contains extravagant kinds of stuff would be the best.

He knocked on the door and soon after, it opened, revealing xing lao. They greeted each other and went into his main living room. An extravagant wooden chair set sat there as they both made themself comfortable.

xing lao took out a set of tea and poured some while asking, "So, all settled with Yun Ning?"

Long Ren took the cup, thanking him, and said, "Yes, We've made up, thanks to you." He then laid his cup down and did a deep bow. A bow from his heart, as he felt genuinely grateful to ever meet xing lao as his first master.

xing lao laughed and stroked his beard, "It's fine, if anything, I just pointed you in the right direction, all else depends on you and her. But no matter, all well that ends well."

Long Ren's face soon followed as he smiled when he heard xing lao's words, bowing and thanking him once more. Though he felt like making him cut his pinkie was a bit too much, it was worth it.

Speaking of the pinkie, "Here, your finger." xing lao said as he handed Long Ren a rectangular small box, "You can attach it back easily right now, but wait until you've ascended, just in case you got all complacent and forgot,"

Long Ren nodded and stored the box. He didn't really miss his pinkie as even when sparring it didn't matter that much, but having five is always better than four, so he'll reattach them later, following xing lao's words.

Though, he wanted to know how easily it can be done, especially after waiting a long while. Is there a pill that attaches limbs? Or a special type of healer? How interesting.

…