Approaching the entrance of Wu Jie's Office, Xue Chang used his fist to bang loudly on the old physician's door.
Wu Jie tended to be engrossed in his work and cultivation often and as such he rarely noticed when someone was knocking on his door.
That's why anyone who visited him was recommended to slam the door with their fist as hard as possible instead of a simple knock. And like usual, clangs and ruffling from falling objects can be heard from the other side as loud footsteps sprinted over to the door. And without warning, the door exploded from the inside in a loud explosion that knocked Xue Chang onto back!
Getting up from the awkward position, he couldn't help but give a wry smile as he saw the brilliant face of his uncle standing at what was once the doorway.
"You're finally here you brat! Get inside!"
Xue Chang laughed at the old man's words as he got up from the ground and sprinted forward, wrapping his arms around Wu Jie's neck for a hug. But instead of the joy and laughter most people would expect, Wu Jie face was a look of fear and despair.
Suddenly a sound similar to that of a man stepping on old dry branches rang out in the room, and Wu Jie immediately hunched over to a ninety degree angle!
"GAH! You little rascal! How many times have I told you not to do that! My back gets worse everyday because of you!"
What could cause the old man, who was already nearing the peak of the eighth level of Qi refinement, to act in such a way? To say it simply it was Xue Chang.
"Uncle you're in the eighth level of Qi refinement! How could something as simple as a hug possibly injure you so badly? Also, mother said that you finally finished your gift for me. Is it what I think it is?"
Wu Jie smiled ruefully as he cracked his back into place. Then standing up straight he said, "I swear I dote in you too much. But yes, what you asked for has finally been finished. Now you only need to do one thing now."
With a strange glint in his eyes, Wu Jie gave Xue Chang's shoulder a squeeze and said, "Strip for me!"
Fortunately this was not some weird forbidden relationship between man and child.
The gift Wu Jie had made for Xue Chang was a new robe. But it was not just any robe, but one specifically made for Xue Chang.
Four years ago when Xue Chang recuperated from his injuries, he discovered a few things about himself. Although his body was stuck in the same period of time forever on the outside, it seemed internally he was still changing.
His rate of healing was much quicker than the average person. And after Wu Jie performed a few examinations, they both discovered that, to their surprise, Xue Chang's muscles developed much quicker than usual. His strength could be constantly improved, yet it did not affect his outer appearance whatsoever.
Although he looked like a scrawny little ten year old boy, no one would suspect that the robes he was currently wearing actually weighed around fifty kilograms!
Yet he could go throughout his day casually without even breaking a sweat. That meant to him, those fifty kilos meant nothing! It was as if there wasn't any weight on him whatsoever. The level of power his body must've contained was shocking even for someone like Wu Jie.
Wu Jie was a body cultivator who used spiritual force to strengthen his body. But the way he strengthened himself was very different from Xue Chang. He used the energy to reform his body and purify it of all impurities. Then his body would be refined through medicine and his muscles would absorb more spiritual force from his dantian.
Rather than his muscles being strengthened like Xue Chang was, he was filling the empty vessels that was his muscles in order to use his powers instantaneously. Compared internal cultivation which would need to time activate the spiritual force inside of the dantian, body cultivation was much quicker.
The only down side was that body cultivation only gave him access to close range attacks. Wu Jie could not use the unique skills that other internal cultivators had access to and could only use his knowledge of and skills in martial arts to make up for it.
But Xue Chang was an absolute monster. Body cultivation was more like strengthening the body's natural abilities, but what Xue Chang was doing was equivalent to raising one's base power in general.
It was like Wu Jie having a level of one and using his body cultivation to boost it into two. But Xue Chang was already at a two. If it was possible for him to cultivate with body cultivation, he would've had a level of four!
One was boosting the body's weak stats while the other was raising those stats directly. Such a thing was inconceivable and few have done it to such an extent as Xue Chang had at his age, unless they used rare or profound treasures.
But the heavens were not so kind. Even something like body cultivation needed an obelisk to strengthen oneself. After all, the dantian was still needed for this cultivation method.
Internal cultivation might've been used to strengthen the dantian, which is different from body cultivation, but both methods still needed the dantian. Which in turn needed an obelisk to function. Yet for Xue Chang... that wasn't and option.
Say nothing about the destruction of his dantian, even his obelisk was gone. And there was no returning from that.
Still Wu Jie admired Xue Chang's hard work and dedication to this new method of training. Although he didn't believe he would get very far with his strength in their world which was full of immortals, he didn't try to stop the child. Whatever made him happy was good enough!
This new robe was a bit special though. Wu Jie spent months trying to find a way to properly weave a unique material into it. On Xue Chang's request, he made this robe quite a bit heavier than his old one. A total of two hundred kilos!
This was far greater than weight he had worn before. Xue Chang had gone through five, ten, twenty-five, and fifty kilos. But this was directly multiplying his old amount by four! An inconceivable amount of weight, especially for someone with the body of a ten year old child!
Yet he knew all to well about this child's stubborn personality. If he said he could wear such a heavy robe, then he would do it no matter what others say.
The clothing was a set of hanfu robes, specially made to fit Xue Chang's size. They colored pure white with blue outer garments and black trousers mostly hidden under the robe itself.
After helping Xue Chang put it all on, Wu Jie stepped back to see his creation. It suited Xue Chang and actually quite stylish. While it was plain, the movements of the robe whenever Xue Chang walked around flowed perfectly in tune with his actions, giving it a mysterious feeling. Which was a strange thing considering the appearance of the one wearing it.
"So, how does it feel?"
Xue Chang gave off a brilliant grin as he lifted both of his arms half way up, "Extremely heavy! More than I expected. But this much is still barely manageable for me, it is perfect uncle! How did you make the robes so heavy though? I've always been curious about the process you take to make these things."
Folding up the old robes Xue Chang wore, Wu Jie straightened his back and gave off an arrogant visage.
"You wish to learn this old man's way? Then praise me!"
"I think I'll just leave then uncle."
"A-a wait for a second! Fine fine I'll tell you! I used the silk extraction art found in the books your brother gave to us."
"Silk extraction?"
"That's right, under my careful observation, I discovered that the skill extract a special type of string made from all types of materials. It is usually used for silk cocoons because of the difficulty of extracting the string itself."
Saying this, he rummaged around behind his desk and brought out a scarlet pebble.
"This is called nether cleaved ore, found in the entrances of yin caves, it is a pretty powerful and heavy material. But the price of it is cheap since armor made from the ore is too heavy for people to wear, this is due to the ore's high yin density caused from years of being afflicting with cold winds from the yin cave."
Xue Chang picked up the ore and was surprised to find the peddle as small as his finger felt as if it weighed almost five kilos. If even this tiny pebble were to be added to a piece of equipment, the weight of the object would rise drastically.
"Of course some people tend to buy this since even with the heavy weight, it's defensive capability is fantastic. I spent months extracting a string of nether cleaved ore and worked even harder to find a way to sow this into the robe. Not only is it's weight immense, but that robe can even protect you from most normal injuries!"
This effect was a little lack luster considering how much the robe weighed, but for someone like Xue Chang, it suited his taste perfectly.
"This is incredible, maybe I should check out more of those other books if something like that can be discovered from some random skill like that."
Two years after Xue Chang recuperated from most of his injuries on his tenth birthday, Xue Hai actually returned to the family for the first time.
That day he brought back several dozen manuals filled with martial arts, skills, and even cultivation techniques from his sect.
This shocked and panicked Zhao Wei who thought these things were stolen from the sect he just recently joined. But Xue Hai claimed that the man who brought him over allowed him to take these back to share with his family because they were very simple and basic skills that no one ever gave attention to anyway.
As such they had a small collection of manuals with a number of different uses. Although most of them were just odd job techniques, the cultivation manuals was of great assistance to Zhao Wei and Wu Jie.
This was because as rogue cultivators, their entire cultivation was based on their own insights. Unlike big sects with long lineages, they didn't have cultivation techniques that could lead them on to a higher path in life.
Everything they learned was just the basics and their foundation was virtually nonexistent. As such reading over these manuals helped them solidify their foundation to some extent and even allowed Zhao Wei to actually break through to the ninth level!
They didn't care much for the combat skill manuals because they already had their own personalized combat arts and studying the manuals now would only lead to them ruining their old fighting infrastructure.
But these skills were as useless to Xue Chang. He discovered that he had incredible talents in combat. It took him less than three months to comprehend them all and only another month to completely master them!
Such prowess actually frightened Wu Jie who kept watch over his training. As he practiced more, the old man watched as Xue Chang slowly but surely became even more proficient in his skills.
Eventually he reached the point where he started to practice past the manuals instructions.
He had surpassed the manuals' instructions and began to create his own path in martial arts!
Watching this happen before him, a cold sweat formed on the back of Wu Jie's neck. Such comprehensive skills and such determination. Not to mention his endurance and ability to improve constantly without end.
If Xue Hai really was struck by the curse first, what type of monster would Xue Chang have become?
Thoughts like that popped up for a split second before Wu Jie pushed them away in shame. He loved the two kids deeply and treated them as if they were his own flesh and blood. The feeling of regret for Xue Chang being given the curse instead of Xue Hai made him feel pathetic.
How could he possibly favor one over the other? In fact watching the boy he dared called his nephew grow these last few years, Wu Jie's biggest regret was not stepping up himself to save Xue Hai all those years ago.
Although he wasn't sure whether or not he could truly succeed, the fact that he didn't even try was a huge source of guilt for him.
But he didn't wallow in his own guilt for long. No matter what, Xue Chang had made his decision. If he were to feel so conflicted about it, then he was just disgracing his sacrifice.
Wu Jie would never bring shame to the choice that eight year old child made seven years ago. As such, all he could do was continue to support Xue Chang in all that he did, no matter what.
"Hm tell me Chang'er, it's been almost three years since your last sparring match. Have you improved in any way since then?"