Meng explained what has happened in the last 3 weeks, obviously, he didn't mention anything about his meridians getting damaged.
"What?! You should have come to me for help much sooner!" Xia Hongyi almost shouted after hearing Meng's story, it was visible that he was quite worried.
"I know, however, I have been too foolish and tried to find them on my own and that is when I encountered trouble" Meng replied while keeping his head down in "shame"
"Well whatever, I will organize a searching party, your parents shouldn't be too far away." Xia Hongyi calmed down a bit before he tried to calmly resolve the matter however before he could call anyone, he was stopped by Meng.
"Please don't trouble yourself with this..." Meng said, trying to hold back his pained expression.
"What are you saying?! They are your parents..." Xia Hongyi was confused by his request.
"Lord Xia, you must be aware of dangers inside the forest. My parents have been missing for 3 weeks already, there are only 2 possible outcomes right now, first, they were used as a supplement for strong profound beasts. The second, they were able to make it alive which would mean that they should come back sooner or later. 3 weeks had already passed since their disappearance, trying to find them right now is just a waste of manpower plus it's too dangerous. Even my parents wouldn't want Lord Xia to send a search party when it has been for so long, I beseech Lord Xia to listen to my words, I will take whole responsibility for this." Meng said and politely bowed with closed eyes.
His words did not only surprise Xia Hongyi but also Xia Qingyue.
"...*sigh* All right, however, this is all sudden...Meng, what do you want to do now?" Xia Hongyi had to sit down before he asked with a tired expression before it changed to a worried one since he was aware of Meng's situation with his meridians.
'What do I want to do? First, complete the quest and then get stronger. For now, I will probably try to stay as their "servant", although I still have no idea what kind of relationship he had with my parents.
"Well, first of all, we should get to the business" *Thud* Meng said before placing 2 bags on the table.
"50 Herbs and 30 remains of weak profound beasts. Lord Xia may inspect the contents if he doesn't trust me" Meng explained with a faint smile when he noticed Xia Hongyi's questioning gaze.
[+ 1.000 skill points for completing the first quest]
[Skill points: 1.576]
[Does the host wish to view the reward right now?]
'No' Meng immediately rejected.
"What? How? Did your family had this much stored at home? I can't accept it, definitely not what happened to your parents."
"Feel assured Lord Xia, all of this stuff came from me. I haven't been slacking off while searching for my parents. And don't worry, I have collected more even when I damaged my meridians. I can continue working for Lord Xia as usual" Meng said which once again shocked Xia Hongyi.
"If there isn't anything else to discuss, I would like to take my leave so I can get back to work as soon as possible" Meng waited a while but when he heard no words from Xia Hongyi, he decided to leave.
"Eh? Wai-" When Xia Hongyi realized that Meng is leaving, it was already too late to call him unless he chased after him.
Xia Qingyue approached her father, observing his tired and troubled expression with a slight of worry.
"What do you think of him?" Her father asked.
"He has definitely changed, maybe too much."
"Maybe he already accepted his parent's death and this caused the change we have witnessed today." Xia Hongyi said.
"Or maybe he already found his parents...That way, it would make sense for his request not to look for them." Xia Qingyue said while looking towards the door.
"You mean...*sigh* I am thinking about taking him in and letting him stay here. It's too dangerous for a young boy to stay in the forest all alone, not to mention without cultivation." Xia Hongyi said however his daughter didn't respond and only kept staring at the door, it was unknown what was going on inside her head.
.
.
.
When Meng arrived near his house, it has already been afternoon.
'Quickly, show me the reward, Vista.'
[The host has completed the first quest without any cultivation whatsoever, thus completing an extremely hard quest. The host will be given permission to choose from 3 powerful Physiques.]
[Void Physique - Offensive techniques won't be able to hurt a cultivator with this Physique and defensive techniques wouldn't be able to stop its attacks. Grants immunity to ailments like poisoning. The host shouldn't get tempted just by the words, the description is meant for the highest trained stage of this Physique.]
[Hell Suppressing Physique - Can increase the weight of one's body to unimaginable weights. One can even destroy the planets with just one stomp. Vista's friendly reminder- Requires at least Intermediate Nimbleness (Lv. 1)]
[Soaring Physique - The fastest Physique in existence. When cultivated to the highest level, the time can be stopped for the one traveling with this Psyhique.]
'Ouch, this is too cruel, the speed is something that is always desired, as long as one is fast enough, he can't be killed, however, if he is trapped in some kind of formation that doesn't allow the users leave the area, he will be fucked even if he is the fastest cultivator. The strength of using one's own weight is also appealing but that would definitely mean that my own speed would suffer. And for the last, Void, if one can resist most profound techniques and also get past formations without any limitation, it makes them almost invincible, however, I doubt it can also defend against physical attacks.'
'...That Hell suppressing physique should also increase my defense. After all, if someone were to attack a human who weighs thousands and thousands of kilograms, they might even kill themselves with that attack. I guess this one is the most tempting for me right at this moment, I just hope I will be able to get the other 2 later. However, first...' Meng thought before he looked at his skill points and one specific skill.
[|Elementary Nimbleness (Lv. 6)+|]
[Skill points: 1.576]
.
.
[|Elementary Nimbleness (Lv. 7)+|] (-150)
[|Elementary Nimbleness (Lv. 8)+|] (-200)
[|Elementary Nimbleness (Lv. 9)+|] (-400)
[|Intermediate Nimbleness (Lv. 1)+|] (-800)
[Skill points: 26]
"Shit, that was close...I would have no idea how else to obtain the points, I need to increase my strength so I can hunt stronger profound beasts." Meng wiped the sweat off his temple.
[Intermediate level of Nimbleness will not only increase the host's reaction time, flexibility but it will also significantly increase the host's speed. The speed increases further with the host's base speed.]
'Hmm, I really feel lighter and I also feel like going for a run but right now isn't the right time.' Meng thought and selected his reward.
[Is the host absolutely sure about the Hell Suppressing Physique?]
'Yes'
[Then the process will begin, please don't faint or the process will fail and the host will get nothing. Vista can also mute the host in case he doesn't want to attract too much attention]
"What the fuc-?!" Meng felt a shiver down his spine when he read the text however before he could ask, he has fallen down to his knees.
*THUD* *CRACK*
"AGHHAA MUTE ME FUCKER!"
[As the host wishes]
Meng was only able to open his mouth, mimicking the screaming in pain as the ground under him started cracking from the weight of his body.
'What's up with this gravity?! No...It's just me weighing too much!' Meng's arms were slowly giving in and soon enough his entire body was pressed against the ground. If anyone saw him right now, they would think he is just fooling around, well, that is if they didn't see those big cracks on the earth beneath him.
Meng had to bite the tip of his tongue whenever his eyes were closing on their own. Soon enough, he started biting even his lips.
His blood was gaining weight each second and just a drop of his blood was beginning to weight an unimaginable amount. It was quite miraculous that Meng's body still didn't vaporize from the pressure however the cause of this was also the Physique that was strengthening his muscles, bones, and skin. To him, it felt like he was shedding his skin to gain a new one, the same could be said about muscles and bones. His bones were constantly being crushed by the pressure just to be repaired, newer and better, in case they wouldn't hold on anyway, they would get repaired again. The fibers in his muscles were getting torn apart just to get repaired and the process repeated the same way as his bones.
'This is too much...Even with my old memories, I have never experienced such pain!' Meng just lied down on the ground, half-dead, desperately grasping onto his consciousness. He almost couldn't feel the pain anymore, however, when the life returned to his red dull eyes, thinking that the process was over, he started feeling the same pain over and over again.