After Hermit Shan left the City, five days later the news about the discovery of the Lu clan and Zhao clan became the talk of the City.
At first, many people didn't believe it because the flood Dragon was so powerful than Hermit Shan himself. Hermit Shan, the guardian of Solitary Peak Academy was one of the strongest people in the Fire dredge city.
The city had four Connate Realm experts that ruled the Fire dredge city; The governor of the city, the guardian of Solitary Peak Academy, the First Sword of Sword Radiance Peak and the Glazen fairy of Glazen Fairy Peak.
But, as more stories of the flood dragon rolled out the news soon caught up blazing the Fire dredge city.
When Hermit Shan entered the groove he was greeted and welcomed by Lu Donghai, Lu Yehan, Lu Kong, Granny Nuan and Zhao Qinyang. As planned, the story was laid out accordingly and was bought by Hermit Shan. They even had to surrender a crystal containing a third of spiritual energy along with empty crystals.
Hermit Shan was also disappointed by the death of the flood dragon, but his main regret was the used up crystals. "If I had known about it earlier then I could have even gotten a chance to raise his cultivation to the Earthly Realm and become the strongest person in Fire dredge city," He thought with full disappointment.
Eventually, the agreement was struck between the two parties, it was decided that they have to give all the bones and the skin to the Academy and in return, they get to have 2 reserved seats for each clan to study in the academy and also to receive one Tribulation Realm level battle skill technique scroll. It was a one time bargain, the seats were not reserved for every year, nonetheless, it benefited both the parties greatly. The Hermit Shan also inquired about the Liu clan because they were from woodsman village but on hearing the story he soon lost his interest.
Then Zhao Qinyang took him to the Zhao clan and there too they played their role. To Hermit Shan's disappointment again he got only a fifth of energy left in one crystal.
With the news of the dragon's death ramping up everywhere he immediately departed the town and the Woodsman village with his people after fetching the things he was interested in. The following week also turned out to be a busy one for both the clans as they were visited by all the powers of the city but the visitors got nothing substantial, they only got the story of how the dragon was found and how they get to move inside the groove without any trouble with the help of their clan's secret methods. No big players were interested in their secret because for them moving inside the groove poses no problem at all. The actual threat was the Dragon which even the city's top powers feared. The city was protected by the empire and the dragon was aware of that too hence they left the Dragon undisturbed and likewise they in return were also left to themselves.
Meanwhile, during all these phases of visits from the top powers of the city to the Woodsman and Blooming Lily, Arthur spent his time planning how to open a boutique shop with his cousin and mother, discussing it in one of the courtyards of the Zhao clan.
Both the Lu and Zhao's heads, especially Donghai and Yehan wanted Arthur to stay far away from the Hermit Shan and other top powers because of his secret. Arthur was a great anomaly himself, a living treasure that even great power like a flood dragon would be interested in if he was still alive and given the circumstances, different. If the top city powers came to know about Arthur's energy source his life would be in grave danger.
Here inside the courtyard, Arthur would visualise a picture of a girl wearing different designs from his previous world and sent that live 3D picture to his mother mentally and then his mom would convey it to her niece. Then the two women would discuss which one they liked or which would work and which one would not, and then the designers would start to work on it. Arthur was very tired and bored because these two women never seemed to get tired of discussing it and kept on asking him about more ideas. The ideas he gave were already sufficient to make them occupied for a long time but these two ladies were greedy, It was just like a woman wanting to browse all the shops in the market without having any intention to buy them, thereby harassing the shopkeepers. They were surprised to find that Arthur's imagination was very realistic. Of course, it was realistic, Arthur just has to imagine the girls that he saw on earth. Most of the blueprints given were simple ones which would be appropriate for the present world. He cannot give jeans or crop-tops to the woman living in this world. He gave some designs on jewellery, accessories and shoes. The plan for a small boutique shop soon turned out to be a plan for opening a big clothing company on a grand scale because these girls even involved his aunt and grandmother on their team. The most annoying thing for Arthur was that these ladies started treating him like some kind of precious treasure which they cannot share with anyone. His grandmother even warned him not to share his ideas with another woman.
Arthur thought, "Madwomen, these women are completely mad. I just wanted Niu to stop trying to doll me up so I gave ideas to open a small boutique shop. I just thought that if she would be busy in her shop she would stop pestering me. Aaah! Who would have thought that I would be digging my own grave?"
He never understood women, never in his past life nor in his present life. In his past life he never had women except for one, he was only after power and money. All his life he had studied in a boarding school for boys only, then he went to Army. After that, he was busy earning money. When he became a billionaire he married one girl but because of his unavailability at home, she divorced him taking a fourth of his money. Later, he went through scandals after scandals, entangling on spending life in courtrooms or serving sentences in prison. He really never enjoyed the money he earned nor earned the love of a woman.
He could recall all the girls he met or seen somewhere from his past life only because of his super sharp memory which he gained after coming to this world and also from the heightened omniscience dreadful experience that he underwent after he died. He was truly a bad person and given this chance to live again he wanted to make it good and experience the love of a woman, have a lovely family like his parents and have a blissful life.
Time went by without any major happenings.
At this time there was no substantial risk of leaking out the secrets regarding the blood of the flood dragon because they gave out only the diluted dragon's blood according to the requirements of one's cultivation rank and respective stages with differed concentrations. Even the Dragon's meat was mixed with other foods discreetly while preparing or distributing rations. So most of the clan members of both the Zhao and new Lu clans members were unaware of what they were receiving. They had contacts with the city and every kind of clan's business progressed therefore there were no doubts raised about receiving better cultivation supporting items.
One fine morning when Arthur was fishing peacefully with his grandfather his mother came running toward him calling out his name hysterically.
"Mother, calm down. Breathe first and then tell me what's going on," urged Arthur.
After taking a breath or two Zhao Mei happily exclaimed, "Sansan, come here. You need to go to town, the city governor's daughter wants to meet you."
By this time Arthur was already six and half years and his cultivation Rank was already at the Proficient Practioner Pinnacle stage. Even city children were not equal to his standards, the junior prodigies of the city's teenagers equalled his progression. Therefore he avoided going out or meeting anyone. He was truly an anomaly, either blessed too much or cursed very badly. All he wanted was to spend his life normally like any other child but here he had been hiding from everyone afraid to get his secret exposed.
Two of Lu Ping's grandsons and Arthur's two older cousins had been sent to Solitary Peak Academy to study there. There, Zhao Niu had become too famous due to her beauty, successful business and her cultivation. She was much richer compared to the children of the nobles because of possessing a clothing business, while most of the children studying in the Academy only depended on the allowances given by their parents. The stipends that the city children got were not small but it was meagre compared to Zhao Niu as she was earning even more than the parents of some of them. Her cultivation also rose because of the treasures and pills she bought from the academy and the Alchemist association. Even the governor's daughter started associating with her and after becoming closer to her the city governor's daughter started nagging and demanding for a design to be crafted for her particularly to be worn on her birthday. Zhao Niu gave all the discarded designs but everything got rejected by her bosom friend. She sent messages to the clan asking for help from her mother and grandmother but they were not reached because of some reason. Hence, one day, unable to evade her friend's request as the date of her friend's birthday approached she spilt the beans. She didn't know about Arthur's secrets, she was only warned sternly by her grandmother and aunt not to tell anyone that the ideas were from Arthur.
Forget Niu, even her grandmother was also unaware of Arthur's secrets inside his body, it was Zhao Mei who warned Qinyang.
Zhao Mei knew Arthur's secrets but on hearing that the governor's daughter wanted to meet Arthur she became very excited because she was a little jealous of how Zhao Hein boasted in front of her every time about her daughter becoming bosom friend with the governor's daughter. She thought that since everything came from Arthur, so Arthur should get full credit for it and satisfactory recognition.
On hearing the dreary story from his mother he just conveyed to her some designs and said, "Mother, I'm busy right now. Tell the governor's daughter that I'll meet her another time."
After that, he turned to his grandfather and said, "Grandpa Ye, let's head out to the forest to train, I need to practice shooting today." He ran towards his room coming out with a bow and arrows, then left the groove with his grandfather. He didn't even ask the name of the governor's daughter nor was excited like his mother which left Zhao Mei very perplexed and a little dissatisfied.
She shrugged helplessly, banged her head with her hand and said aloud, "Aah! My son who doesn't understand women." At this point, she didn't even consider that Arthur was just a child.
Arthur was frustrated and he hunted too aggressively without caring for his life. The Battle skills manual which they received from Hermit Shan was called 'Wind Blasting Corporal Technique'. It was the highest level battle technique they currently had within their clan that only Tribulation Realm could master. Arthur had already reached the mastery level of this technique. The proficiency of battle skills differs in three stages namely novice, skilled and mastery.
Beyond the mastery level, there is still one more stage but they were not aware of it. Even reaching the 'skilled level' in the proficiency of the technique is completely difficult. His grandfather has barely reached the 'skilled level' in the proficiency of the technique.
Seeing Arthur executing the 'Wind Blasting Corporal Technique' at a mastery level, Lu Donghai was very shocked. First of all, it was a Tribulation Realm battle skill technique thus executing it by lower levels was very difficult and unheard of. In the Lu clan, below Tribulation Realm Arthur was the only person who could practice this technique, and doing it to the highest level of proficiency took Lu Donghai completely that he missed seeing Arthur's current emotional distress. Thus, without any interruption from his grandfather Arthur combated wildly and unruly thoroughly exhausting himself.
After realising his negligence over Arthur Lu Donghai instantly leapt forward and lifted Arthur from the battle area. By this time the wolves surrounding Arthur were all dead but Arthur was extremely weak and vulnerable. Lu Donghai poured his battle Qi energy into his grandson's body and embraced Arthur apologising for his negligence. There was no need to reinforce the spiritual space because Arthur had an unlimited energy supply of spiritual energy. Arthur felt completely relaxed after jetting out all his bitterness and emotions in battle.
A while later Lu Donghai asked, "Sansan, are you alright? What happened?"
Arthur replied, "I'm alright now, don't worry grandpa Hai." He hesitated and tried to brush it off like nothing was wrong.
"Sansan, tell me, tell me what troubles you and we will find the solution to solve it. Tell your grandpa everything that is in your mind, if you don't say, your grandfather will be worried for a long time," pleaded Lu Donghai.
"Ahh! Grandpa Ye, it's nothing much. It is just that I cannot be free like others to do whatever I like...I have been hiding from my other Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt and Uncle ever since my cultivation shot up, it's not that I want to meet them but avoiding them is very difficult. At first, we showed them the crystals but now we don't have any other reason to explain. Building skyscrapers of lies over lies will ultimately crush one day and hurt those living inside it, you know. And if we tell them our secrets they'll worry for me every time as you do now. They have also reached the Tribulation Realm so they will know that my future is not too bright and completely filled with uncertainty," explained Arthur.
Donghai groaned and said, "Sorry, Sansan I should not have told you about the problem of using too much external energy. I forgot that you are only a child who needs to play around and be happy. Grandpa has given you lots of burdens. If I can remove it then I would surely help but it is too vicious and I cannot harness it."
Lu Qinghai was unsure himself but asked, "Sansan, shall we tell Hermit Shan to remove it? He might have a solution."
Arthur replied, "Grandpa Ye, forget it...I don't want to become a subject of their experiments. The energy can even kill the flood Dragon so I'm not quite positive about Hermit Shan having any solution."
"That is also a valid point. Sansan, promise me that if you ever find a way, tell me and I'll help you solve it...By the way, what is a skyscraper?" Asked Lu Donghai.
Arthur laughed and explained.