“Peng, peng, peng, peng!” It was at that very moment that an urgent knocking was heard from the door.
Ling Han walked over and opened the door only to see a boy servant. He had already commanded that, if there was no urgent business, he was not to be disturbed; thus, he asked, “What happened?”
“The Clan Head has returned!” The boy servant hurriedly said.
Excitement instantly rose within Ling Han’s body, pressing him to meet with that man; this was an instinctive reaction of the body.
“Father…” he murmured. He had inherited this body, and had also inherited the blood and responsibility that belonged to this body.
He turned and smiled at Liu Yu Tong, saying, “Yu Tong, come with me to meet my father.”
A red blush immediately flew upon Liu Yu Tong’s beautiful face. She felt as if she was a daughter-in-law going to meet with her parents-in-law. ‘Pei!’ She hurriedly spat in her heart a few times—why would she have this kind of feeling? There was nothing going on between herself and this guy!
“Where is Father?” Ling Han asked the boy servant.
“In the Main Hall.”
Ling Han headed towards the Main Hall, and the pace of his steps increased from walking to running; there was a powerful longing in his heart. The moment he barged into the living hall, he saw a man of about forty years old, standing there proudly. He had a tall, broad figure, a handsome face, and exuded a powerful aura.
At that moment, Ling Han could not longer differentiate whether it was the instinctive reaction of the body, or the fact that he was an orphan in his last life and so thirsted for familial love. His eyes could not help growing wet, and the blood relation running through his veins caused him to easily call out, “Father!”
“Han’er!” Ling Dong Xing laughed heartily and quickly walked over to embrace Ling Han. However, he immediately put on a shocked expression and said, “Why are you still in the clan residence, aren’t you supposed to have gone to Hu Yang Academy?”
This was fatherly love, this was fatherly love!
Ling Han greedily enjoyed the embrace of his father. Although in his last life, someone with Ling Dong Xing’s cultivation level was not even qualified to enter his eyes, now he was shaken to the point that his eyes were brimming with tears. He had finally cast aside the identity of his last life to enjoy his new life.
He was no longer a loner without any family. He had a father, a good father who would risk his own life for him!
He rubbed at the corners of his eyes, shook his head and said, “I don’t want to go to Hu Yang Academy.”
“Why?” Ling Dong Xing asked. He knew that the quality of his only son’s Spirit Base was too poor. Even though he had expended various efforts, his cultivation still did not make any progress; this was something that could not be helped. And he too had worked very hard to send Ling Han to Hu Yang Academy, which was to make use of the various immeasurable resources on hand at Hu Yang Academy to forcibly raise Ling Han’s cultivation level to Element Gathering Tier. Only with that could he die without regrets.
But Ling Han actually said he did not want to go to Hu Yang Academy! This caused his anger to rise—there was no helping being born with poor talent, but if there was not even a tiny bit of desire to improve oneself, then there really was no cure!
Ling Han naturally couldn’t say that he had been a warrior of the Heaven Tier in his last life and there were countless high-level cultivation techniques and martial skills stored within his head, or that he had obtained the Indestructible Heaven Scroll that required him to spend ten thousand years just to comprehend the first layer. Even if he went to Hu Yang Academy, what was he supposed to learn?
If he had really said so, Ling Dong Xing might think that he had been possessed.
“Yu Tong, come, come, come, come, this is my father,” he said as he glanced at Liu Yu Tong, hurriedly beckoning her to come over with a wave of his hands, changing the subject. [1]
“Yu Tong hereby greets Ling Clan’s Clan Head!” Liu Yu Tong performed the greeting etiquette of a junior.
Ling Dong Xing was startled; he did not know who Liu Yu Tong was, yet he could tell that she was a martial artist of the Element Gathering Tier just like him, and that her cultivation didn’t differ much from his own—both of them were at the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier.
Most martial artists would be able to tell the cultivation level of those weaker than themselves. Ling Han was an exception—after all, he had brought along the amazing knowledge of a warrior of the Heaven Tier from his past life.
With this being the case, she could completely stand at the same level as he, and there was no need for her to perform the greeting of a junior.
Wait… could it be!
He suddenly looked both joyful and surprised—could it be because of Ling Han? This young girl liked his son? With this thought, he could not restrain his delight; this girl seemed to be only about seventeen or eighteen years old, yet shockingly, she was already at the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier! Her talent definitely had to be extremely high!
With such an excellent companion, so what if Ling Han’s own cultivation level was poorer?
No wonder this brat didn’t want to go to Hu Yang Academy, it must be that he did not want to be separated from her. Hei hei, this brat was actually an affectionate character.
“You little brat!” Ling Dong Xing first glared at Ling Han, then said to Liu Yu Tong, “Miss, where are you from?”
“The Liu Clan of the Imperial City,” Liu Yu Tong replied.
Ling Dong Xing was shocked. The Liu Clan of the Imperial City? Although there were many in the world with the surname Liu, there was only one Liu Clan in the Imperial City—one of the Eight Great Clans, with power which was only below that of the Imperial Family in the whole of Rain Country.
Such a great background?
“Wait, you should be the one sent from Hu Yang Academy to fetch Han’er to the academy, right?” He suddenly saw a flash of light. Otherwise, how could it be possible someone of the Liu Clan from the Imperial City would appear here.
“Yes, Ling Clan Head,” Liu Yu Tong said softly.
Ling Dong Xing could not help looking over at Ling Han, and in his heart thought that although his son was not capable and without talent in martial arts, his ability to pick up girls really took one’s breath away. The other was here only to fetch him, so how did he manage to capture the other’s heart? Moreover, he only needed several days!
Ling Han had inherited the graceful, charming demeanor of his younger days… yes, it had to be it...
But since Liu Yu Tong was someone from Hu Yang Academy, why wouldn’t Ling Han follow her then? The two of them would both be at the Yang Academy, so there wouldn’t be any worry about being in two separate places.
“Father, I would like to be by your side for a while longer. I can go to the Academy anytime later anyway,” Ling Han said. He did not want to scare his father, and thus planned to proceed slowly, and let Ling Dong Xing accept the change in him bit by bit.
Ling Dong Xing gave a hearty laugh, and said, “Good, good, good!” After all, the one who would be fetching him was still here, so Ling Han could go to Hu Yang Academy at any time he wanted.
He patted Ling Han’s shoulder and was just about to say something more on the topic, but made a shocked expression as he noticed, “Han’er, you’ve broken through!”
‘Finally there is someone to share the shock I have experienced,’ Liu Yu Tong thought.
“En, I broke through,” Ling Han nodded.
“I have only departed for ten days, and you did not just break through... you actually broke through two layers!” Ling Dong Xing’s surprise did not decrease any bit, this kind of progression rate was completely inconceivable!
If Ling Han had only broken through one layer, then it could be explained that Ling Han had been well-prepared, and had been at the same layer for too long a period of time and thus induced a one-time explosion using the accumulated Origin Power. But, two whole layers… this would practically shock others to death!
Was his son really a piece of trash? If this was still considered a piece of trash, then was there still any genius in this world?
Seeing the twitching corners of Ling Dong Xing’s mouth, Liu Yu Tong instantly felt comforted in her heart. She didn’t want to be the only one to always suffer this kind of great shock.
“En, it’s acceptable,” Ling Han nodded.
Ling Dong Xing and Liu Yu Tong both rolled their eyes. Only “acceptable”? However, Ling Dong Xing instantly laughed heartily, saying, “Hahaha, let’s see who would dare to say my son is a piece of trash in the future!”
Which father would not want his son to be successful in life? So far, Ling Han could only be a piece of trash due to the limitations of his Spirit Base, yet now Ling Dong Xing felt as if he had seen a spark of hope.
“Father, I obtained a fateful encounter,” Ling Han said.
Ling Dong Xing nodded. If there had been no fateful encounter, how would Ling Han be able to make such quick progress? However, this fateful encounter was indeed extraordinarily large!
[1] ED/N: The Chinese have a tendency to repeat the same word for emphasis or in emotion several times. The one most common in novels is when some guy is angry so he says “good!” thrice (with the meaning being sth along the lines of, “good job pissing me off”). There are probably some rules regarding what kind of words can be repeated (one of such rules is probably that only short 1-character words can be repeated like that) but I’m not Chinese so I don’t know about it too well.