by Dragon King
Boom… All the nature essence dashed toward Zhao Yanzi’s head.
The gathered nature essence was smashed into pieces all of a sudden.
Her entire body softened, and she almost couldn’t sit straight. Hao Ren reached out his hand to help her lean into his arm.
All the nature essence in the surroundings poured toward her body, but there wasn’t nearly as much as the amount her body needed…
The nature essence of the Foundation Establishment Pill came into work at this moment and made up for the gap. It formed a stream of warmth and gathered near Zhao Yanzi’s dantian.
There was no making without breaking. To build up the foundation, she needed to give up all her nature essence and generate new nature essence.
If she held on to the nature essence she accumulated while she was in the Qi Refinement Realm, she wouldn’t be able to peek through the Heavenly Dao and obtain a Daoist Heart.
Now, she had given up her status as a mortal and finally stepped into the gate of the world of cultivation.
The difficult part of Foundation Establishment was to let go first and regain second. One needed to use up all the nature essence he or she had and immediately regain new essence. It would have been a failure if one didn’t get to the second stage. The Foundation Establishment Pill stored a massive amount of nature essence to make up for the hollow period. In this way, the cultivator could obtain a ‘brand-new’ body.
Zhao Yanzi lied in Hao Ren’s arms softly, blushing.
“Oh, I thought you didn’t mind.” Hao Ren looked down at Zhao Yanzi and laughed.
“You…” she gritted and tried to hit Hao Ren with her hand. However, she didn’t have the strength to do it.
“Should I transfer her more nature essence?” Hao Ren asked the twins who were standing beside him.
“That’s not necessary, Gongzi. The Foundation Establishment Pill could offer Little Zhumu the purest nature essence, and all she needs to do now is to recover slowly,” Lu Lili answered.
“Oh, that’s good…” Hao Ren lifted Zhao Yanzi and put her on the wooden bed. Then, he put the blanket over her.
“This girl has a nice figure…” Hao Ren thought to himself after he quickly peeked at her body.
Zhao Yanzi noticed Hao Ren’s surprised look, but she still hadn’t gained the strength to fight back. She couldn’t even roll her eyes at him.
Her face was blushing due to the frustration, though it seemed like she was acting shy.
“Fuma Hao, it’s time for the nighttime snack,” Premier Xia shouted from outside.
Hao Ren knew it was his cue, so he waved at Lu Linlin and Lu Lili and walked out of there with them.
“Rest well tonight so that you can strengthen your realm tomorrow morning when you wake up,” Hao Ren said to Zhao Yanzi as he closed the door for her.
“Bad guy, bad guy, bad guy…” Zhao Yanzi cursed at him a hundred times in her heart even though she couldn’t make a sound.
“Come on, let’s go back.” Hao Ren led the twins out of the little palace. Although he was still worried about Zhao Yanzi, he had to abide by the rules of the dragon palace.
“After the success of Foundation Establishment, Zhao Yanzi will be lively like a bunny all over again tomorrow. Now that she is more powerful, who knows how much harder it would be to deal with her…” Hao Ren slightly sighed.
“The good thing is that I am already at the Core Formation Realm, so I won’t be bullied by this future little wifey,” Hao Ren realized the importance of improving his strength at the thought of this.
“If she catches up, it would be hard to say who is going to be more powerful in the future… Um… um… Her skin is so soft…”
Splash… Hao Ren spread open the water and left the East Ocean Dragon Palace with the twins under Premier Xia’s gaze.
349 What? Not Zhao Yanzi?
After the three of them returned to the house, Hao Ren let Lu Linlin and Lu Lili stay in Xie Yujia’s room. Then, he headed to his room on the second floor to rest.
Hao Zhonghua knew that the twins were going to spend the night there, so he had already prepared two folding guest beds for them.
Since Grandma had already treated them as her own granddaughters, Hao Zhonghua could only follow her wish.
No matter how playful they were, they were still the granddaughters of the East Ocean University’s Vice Principal.
Hao Ren seemed to have tied his family, Zhao Yanzi’s family, Lu Qing’s family, and Xie Yujia’s family all together.
Hao Zhonghua didn’t know if it was a good thing or not, but at least the house was lively now. Zhen Congming had been running around in the house on weekdays, and it made Grandma happy.
“Goodnight, Gongzi!”
Lu Linlin and Lu Lili’s shout came in through the balcony on the second floor as they called out by the window of their room on the first floor.
Hao Ren smiled as he went into the room.
Yue Yang was going through her materials in the next room. She sighed at Hao Zhonghua, “Those two girls are here for Hao Ren as well, right?”
“Those two girls aren’t bad, and I feel like they are just fooling around. As long as my mom is happy, we can just let the kids be,” Hao Zhonghua, who was typing on his laptop, said.
“Let me just put it out there; I like Zi,” Yue Yang put her materials down and looked straight at Hao Zhonghua.
Hao Zhonghua pressed the enter key twice and looked back at Yue Yang. “I’ll put it out there too then; I like Yujia better.”
“Yujia isn’t bad, but I feel like she is too soft. Zi is energetic and smart. She will be able to help out in the family in the future. Since Ren is a bit nerdy, he needs someone like Zi,” Yue Yang pushed her glasses up on her nose and continued the discussion.
Hao Zhonghua closed his laptop and turned to Yue Yang. “Zi is cute, but Yujia is very clever as well. She will be able to take care of everything in their home for sure.”
Yue Yang stared at Hao Zhonghua, “Are you saying I can’t take care of our home?”
Hao Zhonghua was stupefied and explained immediately, “That’s not what I meant. Why are you dragging the topic around…”
Yue Yang pouted. “Yujia is your good friend’s daughter, and I personally like her too. But let me tell you, I’m sure Zi likes Ren…”
“Zi is just a middle-schooler, and what does a little kid know? My mom has always wanted to see her great-grandson, and I have always thought Yujia is great with Ren…”
“It will only be a few years until Zi grows up, and her family gets along with ours so well. You know that I usually don’t get along with others, but I can chat with Zi’s mom for two hours every time I see her. We even went shopping last time…”
“She will get a boyfriend after she grows up. It’s just fun for her now to be with Hao Ren, and it’s nothing about liking him or not…”
“Hao Zhonghua! You really want to argue with me, don’t you!”
“Listen to me, Yue Yang…”
“No! No! You are not sleeping in this bed tonight!”
“Aoy… why… I still need to go to work tomorrow…”
Hao Ren was trying to concentrate on cultivation in his room when he heard his parents arguing in the next room. He shook his head speechlessly.
He thought they were probably arguing about some new international scientific discovery… Hao Ren took a deep breath and closed his eyes to continue cultivating.
His lightning cultivation progress was impressive after Zhen Congming instructed him, so the cultivation he had on Fifth Heaven had been going very well. However, there was only a couple of weeks left until the Dragon God Shrine’s general examinations. He had absolutely no chance as a Zhen-level cultivator even if he could apply the power of a Gen-level cultivator with his sword array formations.
If Hao Ren couldn’t become an official inspector, it would affect not only the East Ocean Dragon Clan’s situation but also Su Han’s reputation.
If Hao Ren could
become an official inspector, then West Ocean Dragon Palace’s incidence would become an internal affair of the Dragon God Shrine. His status as an unofficial Fuma of East Ocean wouldn’t be so important after all.
The West Ocean Dragon Palace wouldn’t dare go against the Dragon God Shrine.
For Su Han, Hao Ren could still assist her once he became an official inspector. The East Ocean City would have two official inspectors in that case.
Su Han could prove that she still had as much strength as before, and Qin Shaoyang would have no chance to stick his hands in the city. The East Ocean City would fall back into Su Han’s control.
As the saying goes: pulling one hair would affect the whole body.
Either Hao Ren could reach Gen-level, or he could not change the entire situation.
The night passed quickly as Hao Ren combed his nature essence and circulated it with the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll. He was used to the high nature essence intensity at the Ethereal Summit on Fifth Heaven, so the thin nature essence here on the land seemed to be not enough for him. This so-called cultivation was actually just a habit rather than making real progress.
“Get up, Ren. You need to go to school!” Yue Yang shouted from outside.
“Oh! I’m coming!” Hao Ren answered loudly before he got dressed. He opened the window and saw the sea tides in the distance.
When he walked downstairs, Lu Linlin and Lu Lili were already sitting beside the dining table in their pink pajamas.
Xie Yujia was in her white silk dress and a rose-red cropped long-sleeve jacket; she looked like a rosebud that was going to bloom as she sat straight beside the table waiting for breakfast to be ready.
Lu Linlin and Lu Lili waggled beside her as if they were complimentary flowers.
The Lu sisters both greeted Hao Ren as soon as they saw him, “Gongzi!”
They clear and melodious voices lit up the morning at the house immediately.
Yue Yang smiled as she said, “Have some bread and milk. Zhonghua will take you to school later.”
Zhen Congming yawned in his little black suits as he walked out of his room with Little White, who was also yawning.
Hao Ren was the only kid in the family before, but now his home was like a kindergarten. Everyone sat in a line, waiting for breakfast including Little White.
“Where’s Dad?” Hao Ren asked.
“He’s getting ready,” Yue Yang answered as she distributed the bread.
Dong, dong, dong…
Hao Ren looked back as he heard steps on the staircase.
Hao Zhonghua was walking down, looking exhausted. None of his shirt buttons were done properly.
“Uncle, your shirt is buttoned wrong!” Lu Lili reminded him.
“Oh, right…” Hao Zhonghua looked down and adjusted the buttons. Then, he said to Yue Yang, “I have an important meeting report to do today. Aoy…I didn’t sleep well last night. I won’t be back until later today. Make something to eat for mom…”
“Ok, I will make a smooth transfer and become an understanding wife and loving mother,” Yue Yang answered ‘obediently’ as she distributed the glasses of milk.
She was higher in position at work than Hao Zhonghua, but she had always respected her husband. She abided by his wish on many things when it came to the family.
However, they didn’t reach an agreement on whether Zhao Yanzi or Xie Yujia was better.
Yue Yang insisted that Zhao Yanzi was better partially due to Zhao Hongyu while Hao Zhonghua emphasized that Xie Yujia was better partly due to Xie Ming. This kind of disagreement was even more fierce than their disputes on scientific issues.
Hao Ren sensed something was wrong between his parents. However, he remembered when they didn’t talk to each other for a week when they disagreed on either Pluto should be a major planet or not. “Today’s issue between them might just be around a comet which smashed into some planet,” he thought.
“Yujia, I will be driving you to school after breakfast,” Hao Zhonghua poured himself a glass of milk after he sat down at the table.
“Ok, thank you, Uncle,” Xie Yujia said politely.
“Invite Zi over for dinner this weekend, Ren,” Yue Yang said to Hao Ren as she put the milk carton on the table.
“Oh…” Hao Ren nodded. He somehow felt the anger from his mom.
“We will go over to their house if it’s not convenient for them to come over,” Yue Yang continued.
“I plan to take you guys out on a trip this weekend, Ren. Zi is about to have her finals so we can go on this trip if she can’t come here,” Hao Zhonghua said calmly.
Hao Ren looked at Hao Zhonghua and then at Yue Yang; he sensed the hidden meaning of their words.
“I need to host Tsiolkovsky this weekend,” Yue Yang said coldly.
“Oh, but you have time to go to Zi’s house for dinner?” Hao Zhonghua asked immediately.
“Zhao Hongyu gave me a pearl necklace a few days ago, so I bought a gift for her,” Yue Yang said.
“I had a phone call with Yujia’s dad the day before yesterday. He knew that it’s hard to get blue ray disks in China, so he bought over two hundred of the latest games and movies and mailed them here. They must cost a few thousand dollars. I plan to mail him back some gifts too,” Hao Zhonghua continued.
Zhen Congming wasn’t paying much attention. However, his eyes lightened up when he heard about the gaming disks. His liked Xie Yujia even more than before when he heard they were from her dad.
In fact, both Yue Yang and Hao Zhonghua were talking about their friendships to make their point.
“It’s about time to take Zhen Congming to school, Dad…” Hao Ren interrupted their intense discussion.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Hao Zhonghua picked up his jacket and walked towards the door.
He looked discouraged as if his delicately structured scientific assumption had been proven wrong. He slept on the floor the entire night, hoping Yue Yang would change her mind after some consideration. However, she still believed that Hao Ren should be with the middle-schooler Zi.
He knew that Yue Yang had been transferred to the laboratory downtown lately, and it was only two blocks away from Zhao Hongyu’s studio. They would grab lunch and shop around if they had a long lunch break. Even though that was the case, he didn’t expect that Yue Yang would lose her senses and want to have Zhao Yanzi as her daughter-in-law.
Lu Linlin and Lu Lili rushed to their room to get changed before they got into Hao Zhonghua’s white Ford.
“Congming, Ren, I’ll give you guys a ride!” Yue Yang quickly picked up her car key and said to them.
Due to the transfer from Beijing, she bought herself a small vehicle, so Hao Zhonghua wouldn’t have to drive her around.
Zhen Congming couldn’t care less. He hopped into Yue Yang’s car immediately. Hao Ren sat in her vehicle after thinking for a bit as well.
“Get in the car, Yujia!” Hao Zhonghua said.
Xie Yujia looked at Yue Yang’s car and hesitated for a few seconds at the door before she went into Hao Zhonghua’s vehicle.
Boom!
Yue Yang stepped on the gas pedal and left the house first.
She was pretty mad at Hao Zhonghua since he had always let her have her way before. However, he insisted on choosing Xie Yujia over Zhao Yanzi without any compromise, which really set her off.
She agreed without any hesitation when Hao Zhonghua first wanted to have Xie Yujia stay with them. Thinking about it now, Hao Zhonghua was trying to set Hao Ren and Xie Yujia up on purpose!
It would be ok if they let Hao Ren make his own decision as well. However, Hao Zhonghua leaned towards Xie Yujia, and he arranged for her to stay in their house. That was too sneaky!
“He advocates for fairness, yet he is being all sneaky, secretly hoping for things to turn out his way…” The more Yue Yang thought about this, the madder she got.
“Slow down, mom!” Hao Ren couldn’t help but say in the car.
He knew Yue Yang�
�s driving skills well. She was even scared to drive over 60mph, but she speeded up to 80mph as soon as they left the house.
Yue Yang looked down at the meter at Hao Ren’s words. Then, she lifted her foot a bit from the gas pedal.
“Are you ok, Mom?” Hao Ren was a little worried about her.
He turned back and saw his dad’s white Ford right behind them.
Hao Zhonghua his distance; neither catching up nor dashing over.
“I’m ok! Ask Zi to come to our house on weekends as much as you can! Or you guys can hang out outside,” Yue Yang thought for a bit and said.
“She is busy with her school work,” Hao Ren said.
“You can tutor her during the day, and you don’t have to spend all day with Yujia even if she lives at our place.”
Hao Ren had been going out with Yujia both days this weekend. They left early in the morning and didn’t come back till later in the evening. This made Yue Yang suspicious.
Xie Yujia was good in all aspects, and she thought of having Xie Yujia over before as well. However, she was worried about Hao Ren and Xie Yujia getting along because it would interfere with the relationship between her and Zhao Hongyu and the communication between the two mothers.
Whoosh… Hao Zhonghua’s white Ford sped up and caught up from behind. They went side by side on the road.
“I don’t want to fight with you, Yue Yang! Let’s talk about it tonight!” Hao Zhonghua finally shouted after following after her for over ten minutes.
Yue Yang had a completely different perspective than him, which surprised him as well. He thought she would be as realistic as him and treat Xie Yujia as their future daughter-in-law.
“Humph!” Yue Yang suddenly stepped on the gas pedal and left Hao Zhonghua’s vehicle behind.
She drove towards downtown and separated ways with Hao Zhonghua’s white Ford. Yue Yang headed towards Zhen Congming’s LingZhao Elementary School.
“Congming! Congming!”
As soon as Zhen Congming stepped out of the vehicle with his backpack, many little girls surrounded him.
Zhen Congming stuck up his chest with pride and headed to the school gate in giant steps, ignoring the girls following him.