"Hehehe, King. You know me well, Bye-bye." Zangetsu vanished, and Liu Zheng continued on his way.
...
Liu Zheng reached home and as usual before he could knock, the door was opened by Su Yan as she welcomed him with a smile on her face.
Though it was something very trivial and normal on her part, the small gesture caused a lot of images to resurface in his mind, making his eyes widen a tiny bit but quickly returning to normal as he comes to a realization.
'This.... this was probably my greatest wish, the strength is just a means to protect it.' He thought as he remembered coming back to a home with no one there to welcome him or any one to talk to. The only reason that apartment was still a home was because of the memories of his family.
He took her in his arms, making sure it wasn't an illusion and everything was truly real, which filled his heart with a warm feeling.
"Are you okay, Dear?" Su Yan asked after while when Liu Zheng didn't say anything, worried if something was troubling him.
Liu Zheng lightly kissed on her forehead and looked into her eyes with a wholesome smile forming on his face.
"I just realized how lucky I am to have you in my life so I was taking my time to feel the moment."
A very light blush appeared on her face, barely noticeable to the eye as she hugged him again.
"Took you long enough to realize it, huh?"
"Haha, wasn't the first time I did. These moments of enlightenment keep coming to me from time to time."
" I see. What made you gain enlightenment this time around?"
"Do I really need a reason for it? My wife is so good, my love for her continues to grow every time she is with me and even the times I am away from her, missing her presence all the time."
She didn't say anything but tightened her hug which was enough of a reply that Liu Zheng's words, smeared with honey worked like always.
They stayed there for a few more moments then went inside continuing their conversation with other things.
"So how was your day? What did you learn today?"
"It was nice. We mainly focused on the basics as the Old Man told me even if I can make some constructs, the method is crude and inefficient. He also helped me improve in a lot of things aside from the Quincy Abilities, helping with my cultivation speed and Qi circulation while using various secret arts."
"Yeah, he is very strict with foundations so bear with it, you will see the results in the future."
"I know, It will probably take a while before we move to the advance applications of Quincy Abilities and one more thing he pointed out was that even though my techniques are fine, my combat experience is not up to the par because I focus on fighting a lot less.
I don't understand, you have always fought people above your cultivation realm but you can't be taken as a standard, I have never had problems with people in the same realm or even one or two minor realms above so how could I be lacking in this regard."
"First of all thank you for the praise but you shouldn't just throw me out of the scale like that, wouldn't you want to surpass me one day?"
Su Yan squinted her eyes and looked at him as if he about something very absurd.
"W-Well, Equal to me at the very least..?"
She sighed and replied "Why would I ever cultivate with the goal of surpassing you or becoming equal to you. I cultivate so that I can be more free from such worldly things and transcend myself."
"hmm, a great mindset and that bring me to my second point which is about the Martial Dao.
The Martial Dao is everywhere and exist in various forms but if we were to talk about one of the key variation, it would be about comprehending the Dao through the struggles from the outside or finding the answers within. Both of them extend infinitely while also originating from the same point.
One can find all the answers in either of the ways and understand the Dao. You mainly focus on within, which is absolutely fine and will have no problems, but it sometimes gives you a few disadvantages like lacking in combat in the earlier stages whereas those who mainly focus on the outside might find some trouble within themselves and who they are or their emotions.
I am talking about the common scenarios that usually happens with cultivators which hasn't occurred in your case but Old Man's standards are very high expects you to experience both paths and excel in both."
"I see..." Su Yan said as she thought about it deeply.
"Long story short, he wants you to be strong, so that you will be able to control your strength when your body will be half filled with foreign Qi and compensate for the lack of experience."
"I understand now. I was going to go through it either way because it was good for me but now I am even more motivated." She said with a hint of determination on her face which Liu Zheng knew what it was truly for, even though she has walked the path of cultivation through inner discovery, after Yang Bai's revival she has an external reason too.
'Old man could have explained it himself but I guess he purposefully left for me to do it.' Liu Zheng thought to himself as they continued their conversation about the Dao for another hour before moving on to their daily tasks.
When they were about to go to bed, Liu Zheng remembered something important.
"Su Yan, you should skip tomorrow's training because you haven't yet taken the Medicinal Bath we talked about. The earlier you do it, the more benefits you will receive, especially in terms of your aptitude."
"But we have just started today, wouldn't it be better to do it after a week or so?"
"I'll talk to Old Man about this and after going through it when you train, you will get twice the results with half the efforts so its better to do it tomorrow only.
For now we have another important exercise to go through"
"Huh, Aren't we going to sl----" Su Yan couldn't complete her sentence as Liu Zheng sealed her lips with his.
....
Next Morning,
The first thing that Liu Zheng did after waking up was to set up the array for the medicinal bath and prepare some other herbs which could be used as a catalyst to increase the benefits.
It took about 2 hours and everything was finally ready, Su Yan took her clothes off and was ready to go inside. As soon as she put one of her leg inside the tub, she felt a weird warm energy course through her body which caused her goosebumps all over her body.
"You okay?" Liu Zheng asked.
"Y-yeah, I was just a bit surprised. You told me I will only feel a soothing effect when I go inside."
"Well, I used some herbs to enhance the effects, those were very high grade so that must be it. Don't worry, it's good stuff."
Su Yan went inside after a few moments she did have a very relaxed expression. The process was going to take more than half a day so he decided to leave and cultivate in the next room.
********************
Cultivation - Immortal Ascension 5th Stage
Body Cultivation - Top Rank Mysterious Grade
Combat Power:
- Immortal Ascension Peak (Base-Fused Shikai)
- Transcendent Realm 2nd Order (Bankai-fused)
Sharingan - Mangekyou Sharingan
-----------------------------------------
Sorry guys for the late chapter, very late chapter actually. I got caught up in some work then fell ill for almost the entirety of the week then was handed some more work. I will try to be more regular now with 3+ chapters a week.
Thank you everyone who still supported me through reading my chapters and giving power stones even when I wasn't able to write a chapter, especially @shell_shocked. I received notification of powers stones you voted even when I was ill which honestly motivated me quite a lot.