Dragon King's Son-In-Law

by Dragon King

  “Whatever,” Hao Ren lifted his book as a shield and lowered his head behind it to avoid being looked at.

  Hao Ren was now well-known as Huang Xujie’s rival and Su Han’s “boyfriend”; any one of those titles would result in him being in the center of the attention.

  “We’ll watch a good show tonight.”

  “I guess Huang Xujie will teach him a good lesson!”

  The conversations continued.

  “Huang Xujie is a vicious guy. He called you out for a fight and then spread the news to everyone,” sitting next to Hao Ren, Zhao Jiayi commented with a fierce frown.

  “Ignore him. He thrives on attention,” Hao Ren rested his head on the desk and said.

  For some unknown reason, he felt tired and desperately wanted to take a nap after breaking through the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll. He was in a hurry when he left Su Han’s office and didn’t ask her if this was a typical reaction.

  Compared with the business of the Dragon Tribe, Hao Ren thought the incident with Huang Xujie was trivial and not worthy of his attention. It was like a man who had hundreds of millions of yuan wouldn’t care if he had lost 20 yuan on the street.

  “Su Han can easily destroy me if I don’t work hard on cultivating. That is the real danger…” Hao Ren sighed and clutched his head in his hands.

  They sat in the last row which was next to the windows at the back of the classroom. Hao Ren regulated his breathing and re-entered the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll as he carefully tried to understand the essence between the heaven and the earth.

  The nature essence which had been running around him was now being sucked into his body, and the parts that couldn’t be fully absorbed were tossed out. This process repeated continuously.

  Hao Ren found the Dragon Core that he had swallowed begin to respond to the circulation of nature essence flow. Under the repeated rush of nature essence, it started to automatically store the nature essence in Hao Ren’s limbs and other parts of his body.

  “The Dragon Core is indeed impressive…” Hao Ren was amazed.

  The nine main acupoints in his body were slowly absorbing pure nature essence, giving him an indescribable pleasure.

  “How can this guy fall asleep when there is trouble waiting for him tonight…” Zhao Jiayi felt resigned when he saw Hao Ren closing his eyes.

  “Auch!” Hao Ren yelled suddenly, and his head bounced up from his desk.

  Seeing the teacher and students sitting in front of him all looking toward the last row, he lowered his head in a hurry and pretended to act innocent. Luckily, most of them didn’t know who had yelled.

  The teacher paused his lecture and berated the students without a specific target. Without catching the troublemaker, the teacher had to resume the class.

  Seeing that everything had settled down, Zhao Jiayi reached out and touched Hao Ren. “Hey, why did you yell?” he asked.

  “I’m fine…” Hao Ren gritted his teeth and waved his hand at Zhao Jiayi.

  A moment ago, the nine acupoints in his body suddenly hurt like hell as if someone was piercing needles into him. Now, his whole body was in so much pain that he felt like he was being split apart.

  Seeing Hao Ren sweating in pain, Zhao Jiayi was alarmed. “Are you ok?” he asked.

  “I’m fine…” Hao Ren held his breath and pressed his clenched fists against the desk; he felt acute pain in every inch of his bones.

  Now he knew that the listlessness and sleepiness a moment ago and the tumbling of his organs and bones that happened just now were all parts of the process of cultivation.

  “So painful… Even cultivating the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll, which is the most basic cultivation technique, is so painful. Can I survive on the rest of the cultivation path?” Hao Ren gritted his teeth while those thoughts crossed his mind.

  The pain was finally over after a dozen deep breaths. Hao Ren looked down at his sweat-soaked shirt and then turned to Zhao Jiayi, Zhou Liren, and Cao Ronghua who were staring at him with astonishment and concern in their eyes.

  “I’m fine now. I had a cramp,” Hao Ren explained.

  “Man, it was an artistic cramp! Your whole body was twisting,” Cao Ronghua said.

  With a bitter smile, Hao Ren swept a palm over his sweaty face, thinking that the pain was not less excruciating than the cruel ancient tortures.

  He now understood why Zhao Yanzi, the only daughter of a Dragon King, was so weak in terms of cultivation. One reason was that she couldn’t focus her attention, and the other was that she couldn’t withstand the pain.

  He remembered her words about the dangers of cultivation, “The least danger was the loss of limbs and the worst danger was death.”

  Although the path of cultivation wasn’t as scary as she had described, the risks were indeed high.

  Then, he suddenly thought of Su Han who was also a female but had become a Heavenly-level Master in her twenties. That not only required unusual talent but great fortitude as well.

  In her office, Su Han looked up at the clock and murmured to herself, “Well, the pain should have passed. If he couldn’t withstand such small hardships, he will never make it through in the future.”

  Then she put away the bottle of small golden pills she had in her hand.

  In the lecture hall in Academic Building C, Hao Ren, who was hardly in the circle of cultivation yet, was oblivious to the fact that there were pills that could alleviate such pain.

  He stretched and found that every joint in his body was more flexible, and his strength had reached its peak level.

  “Don’t you think that Hao Ren is a bit taller all of a sudden?” Zhou Liren, who was sitting farthest from Hao Ren, asked Cao Ronghua in a whisper.

  Cao Ronghua turned to look at Hao Ren. He didn’t think Hao Ren had grown taller but believed that Hao Ren’s presence was different.

  His skin was smoother, his eyes were brighter, and even his hair was softer…

  “Damn! Am I into him now?” Cao Ronghua shivered in discomfort.

  “After careful considerations, I think tonight you should…” Zhao Jiayi turned to speak to Hao Ren and paused in the middle of his sentence.

  For a second, Zhao Jiayi thought the guy sitting next to him was someone else. He looked again and realized that the guy was indeed Hao Ren.

  “Am I hallucinating, or Hao Ren suddenly became more handsome all of a sudden?” Zhao Jiayi wondered and totally forgot what he was going to say.

  At that moment, Hao Ren’s mobile phone vibrated.

  He thought it was Xie Yujia calling to ask him about tonight’s fight, but when he answered it, he heard Uncle Wang’s anxious voice. “Ren! Your grandma’s blood pressure suddenly rose, and she has fainted!”

  54 An Emergency

  “What?!” Hao Ren froze and felt a surge of blood rush through his head, “What’s the situation?”

  “I called an ambulance, but it’s not here yet!” Uncle Wang said anxiously.

  “Zhao Jiayi, take my books to the dorm for me!” Hao Ren stood up and rushed out of the classroom.

  The teacher watched Hao Ren sweep past him with a blank expression. He was only enraged when Hao Ren was gone. “The students nowadays are so rude! They are so audacious that they think they can leave the classroom in the middle of the class without giving any explanations to the teacher!” he thought.

  Hao Ren dashed out of the Academic Building toward the main gate of the school while he spoke on the phone, “Uncle Wang, don’t panic. Did you call the hospital close to the cottage and ask them to pick up my grandma?”

  “I can’t find their phone number,” Uncle Wang sounded extremely agitated.

  Lamenting silently at the muddle-headedness of Uncle Wang, Hao Ren dashed out of the school’s main gate and tried to grab a taxi.

  Since the school was in the suburbs and it was almost 8’o clock at night, there were many taxis in the area.

  He stood there for a while before
spotting several taxis, but they all had passengers in them.

  In the half-minute that he tried to grab a taxi, Hao Ren kept talking to Uncle Wang. However, this half-minute seemed to be longer than a century!

  He even thought about jumping into the middle of the street and stopping a random car.

  While he was as agitated as an ant on a hot oven, he tried to calm Uncle Wang down over the phone.

  In the height of anxiety, he saw a red car driving past him and suddenly remembered the dashing sight of Zhao Hongyu in her red Ferrari.

  Zhao Hongyu! Hao Ren thought of a sudden idea.

  “Uncle Wang, I’ll hang up now since I need to call for help. Call me when the situation changes,” Hao Ren ended the call and fumbled through his contact list. After finding Zhao Hongyu’s number, he dialed it.

  When Hao Ren accompanied Zhao Yanzi up the mountain on that weekend trip, Zhao Hongyu gave him her number in case of an emergency. He hadn’t used it until now.

  Usually, he wouldn’t bother Zi’s parents. Since this situation was urgent and his parents were still abroad, the only people Hao Ren could think of now were Zhao Yanzi’s parents.

  The phone beeped six times, and no one answered. Hao Ren was so agitated that his palm holding the phone began to sweat.

  “Hello?” the phone was suddenly answered, and Zhao Hongyu’s gentle voice came through the phone.

  “Auntie! It’s me!” Hao Ren shouted urgently.

  “Oh, it’s you, Ren. Why didn’t you come here and tutor Zi today? I was going to call you to ask about it,” Zhao Hongyu said.

  “I have class tonight, and I skipped class to tutor Zi last week. I told Zi yesterday.” Hao Ren explained in his mind. Right now, he had no time to explain this to Zhao Hongyu. He said urgently, “It’s my grandma. She…”

  For some reason, Hao Ren was so moved after hearing Zhao Hongyu’s voice that he got choked up.

  “What happened? Don’t panic. Take it easy,” sensing the agitation in Hao Ren’s voice over the phone, Zhao Hongyu was alarmed.

  “My grandma fainted due to high blood pressure, and she needs to be taken to the hospital. However, Uncle Wang, the caretaker of my grandma, doesn’t drive,” Hao Ren exhaled and cleared his head before explaining the situation.

  “Give me the address, and I’ll go over now!” Zhao Hongyu said immediately.

  “Blue Sea and Golden Sand Resort in the southern suburb of East Ocean City. The number of the cottage is 16. It’s the sixth cottage on the right after you enter the south gate,” Hao Ren said. His heart latched in his throat, and his arm holding the phone shook violently.

  “Got it! I’ll be there soon. We will keep in touch!” Zhao Hongyu hung up, and it seemed like she had already run to the garage.

  Lowering the phone from his ear, Hao Ren stood at the main gate of the school, not knowing what to do next. The road ahead was dark, and the cars driving past him shined into that darkness.

  Buzz… His mobile phone vibrated. Hao Ren immediately answered it and heard Zhao Guang’s deep voice, “Are you at school? I’m on my way and will pick you up at the gate in about ten minutes.”

  Hao Ren said “Ok,” and the phone call ended.

  He stood on the empty place in front of the main gate, feeling the cold wind penetrate his shirt.

  Snap! Snap!

  Under the force of the strong night winds, the big banner hanging over the gate danced with a loud snapping sound.

  Hao Ren turned his head and looked at the banner with sudden resentment.

  Squeal! A black Chevrolet stopped before Hao Ren.

  Zhao Guang stuck his face out from the window and said, “Get in the car, and we can wait for the news at home.”

  Nodding numbly, Hao Ren got in the car and found that Zhao Yanzi was also there.

  She looked at Hao Ren with concern and sympathy; it seemed like she was worried about Hao Ren and came with her dad to pick him up.

  Steadily, Zhao Guang started the car and drove toward their home. It was not a long ride from their home to East Ocean University.

  Pale-faced, Hao Ren sat in the car and thought for a while before asking Zhao Guang, “How did auntie go there?”

  “She drove,” Zhao Guang answered.

  Hao Ren was a little disappointed since he had expected Zhao Hongyu to use her superpower and fly there.

  As if he had read Hao Ren’s mind, Zhao Guang continued, “Don’t worry. It doesn’t take much longer for your auntie to drive there than to fly. We have a lot of restrictions on flying. If she encounters an Inspector, a lot of time will be wasted on answering questions. Besides, if she flew there, she couldn’t bring your grandma to the hospital.”

  “Right,” Hao Ren nodded as he felt grateful for the help of Zhao Yanzi and her family. He just hoped that his grandma was ok.

  It took only a dozen minutes to drive from East Ocean University to Zhao Yanzi’s home. Zhao Guang parked the car and brought Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi into the house.

  The cozy and familiar setting slightly calmed down Hao Ren’s agitated nerves.

  He took out his mobile phone and called home again. Uncle Wang answered the call, and Hao Ren immediately asked about his grandma.

  “A woman just arrived and claimed to be your friend. She applied some first aid to your grandma and carried her into a car. She drove away less than a minute ago, and I was so agitated that I forgot to ask her name,” Uncle Wang told him over the phone.

  “Well, Uncle Wang, although good at cooking, is not someone you can depend on in an emergency,” Hao Ren lamented about Uncle Wang’s clumsiness in his mind as he comforted him over the phone and hung up.

  Uncle Wang panicked when Hao Ren’s grandma got sick. He couldn’t find the hospital’s phone number and didn’t know how to deal with the crisis. He even needed Hao Ren, who was far away at school, to direct him, and he didn’t even ask for the stranger’s name before letting the stranger take Hao Ren’s grandma away…

  Hao Ren became more and more agitated when thinking about this. He thought it was quite unsafe to let Uncle Wang continue taking care of his grandma alone, and he berated himself for not being able to help his grandma when she was in danger.

  With a frown, he looked up at the clock, thinking that it was quite fast for Zhao Hongyu to get to the cottage at the seaside in just 20 minutes.

  Zhao Guang and Zhao Yanzi sat together with Hao Ren in the living room instead of tending to their own businesses.

  About another 20 minutes later, the phone in the living room rang abruptly.

  Zhao Guang picked up the phone and listened. He turned to Hao Ren and said, “Hongyu has taken your grandma to the Eastern Hospital in the city, and she is being treated. The doctor said she would be fine.”

  55 Life-Saving Grace

  Hao Ren was slightly relieved when he heard the news.

  “Come on, I’ll take you to the hospital,” Zhao Guang picked up his keys and said to Hao Ren.

  “Ok!” Hao Ren stood up from the couch immediately.

  Zhao Yanzi also followed him to the door.

  Zhao Guang drove smoothly, and they reached Eastern Hospital in 20 minutes. He got in touch with Zhao Hongyu and found out that Hao Ren’s grandma was in stable condition and was placed on a hospital bed.

  They walked along the stairs and through the quiet corridors. Then, they reached the room Zhao Hongyu mentioned.

  There were four beds in the room, and three of the beds were taken by other elderly patients as well. Zhao Hongyu didn’t want Zhao Yanzi to get noisy, so she made shushing gesture to her before they entered.

  Hao Ren’s grandma was lying flat on the bed, and she had an intravenous drip in her arm - it was the saline solution. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing seemed regular. The wrinkles on her face were like the valleys between the hills.

  “The doctor says she will be fine after resting for two days,” Zhao Hongyu stepped forward and said to Hao Ren softly.

  “Thank you, Auntie!” Hao Ren was r
elieved and walked over to take a look at his grandma.

  “Since this was an emergency, she was put into a standard ward like this. I will talk to them tomorrow and see if they can transfer her into a single room,” Zhao Hongyu whispered to Hao Ren from behind.

  “It’s ok,” Hao Ren turned around, having no idea how to thank her.

  “I need to pay for a bunch of speeding tickets tomorrow, but I have an appointment with Phillip Stark because he wants to visit my studio. So, I won’t have time to pay…” Zhao Hongyu whispered into Zhao Guang’s ear.

  Hao Ren sat beside the bed and looked carefully at his grandma. He caught what Zhao Hongyu was whispering about, and he thought about how she helped him out even though they were not related. He was incredibly grateful towards her.

  “Let me pay for the tickets, auntie,” he turned to Zhao Hongyu and said.

  She was surprised at how sharp Hao Ren’s hearing was. After a short moment of pause, she shook her head and smile, “It’s alright. There are only two or three of them.”

  Zhao Guang looked at Hao Ren and thought for a bit. Then he asked, “Did you break through the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll, Ren?”

  Hao Ren nodded. He was so worried about his grandma that he forgot to mention the good news to Zhao Guang.

  “No wonder I sensed something different about you. Your five senses have gotten sharper too,” Zhao Guang suddenly understood.

  “Five senses?” Hao Ren was confused.

  “Yes, five senses - seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching,” Zhao Guang explained.

  Hao Ren didn’t feel anything special, but since Zhao Guang said they were enhanced, then that must have been the case.

  Zhao Yanzi, who was beside Hao Ren, looked at him in surprise. She thought, “It hasn’t been long, and he has already broken through the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll? I ate elixirs at home as if they were candy and barely got to Kan-level.”

  “You should keep your grandma company since she is alright. Zi has school tomorrow, so I’m going to take her back home. Oh, I have already paid for the hospitalization and treatment fees, and I also paid 6000 yuan in additional deposits. She can take her time to recover here, and I’ll come by tomorrow if I have some time,” Zhao Hongyu said to Hao Ren.