Chapter 474: Reuniting - 474
Inside the building, a Qi gathering realm cultivator led Zhu Yi to the top floor. Entering through a door, Zhu Yi saw Wen Si cultivating.
From the feeling he gave off, he was at the 1st level of the core formation realm. As Zhu Yi entered, Wen Si opened his eyes.
"Why are you here?" He asked simply.
"I want to know about the celestial ice sect." Zhu Yi responded.
Wen Si shook his head. "Do you have something to offer, or do you just expect me to tell you for free?"
"What if we sparred?" Zhu Yi asked. He found the current Wen Si unusual.
Wen Si thought for a moment and agreed. "Fine."
He took out his brush and paper without wasting a single second. As soon as he drew on the paper, he stopped. Zhu Yi held a sword to his throat.
"You of the writing sect aren't all that threatening if you don't have time to write."
Zhu Yi's comment clearly made Wen Si annoyed. "What do you want to know?"
Wen Si quickly accepted his defeat.
"I want to know everything."
Wen Si looked at him deeply. He seemed different from before.
"You think too much of our friendship. You don't get to know everything you want unless you want to fight the entire sect as well."
Zhu Yi somewhat expected such a response. They had both been younger back then.
"Tell me what you can."
"Alright. The celestial ice sect is powerful. Very powerful. They do not exist in this world. No matter how much I speak, I cannot accurately describe them. They are on a different level. If you wish to truly understand, leave this world." Wen Si said.
"And how will I find the celestial ice sect?" Zhu Yi asked.
"You'll understand in the future. Our world is just one of many. The world above can be considered a true world where the strong gather." Wen Si said.
Zhu Yi did not understand a lot, but that seemed to be a common theme. He could either accept it, or beat Wen Si until he shared more information. Unfortunately, they were inside the writing sect. He would probably die if he tried to do something like that.
Zhu Yi sighed in disappointment and walked away. All of his worries would be solved by increasing his strength, and gaining strength was what he planned to do.
He planned to go into seclusion and cultivate for a long time. Many cultivators did so.
There was only one thing remaining before he did so. He needed to visit his parents.
Cultivation was a long path, and they would die long before he did. it would be best to see them one last time.
Zhu Yi remembered where he lived and flew to the village. As a nascent soul realm cultivator, he had no issue doing so.
He soon returned and flew down into a valley. Waving his hand, the cave he had entered long ago was blown open. Zhu Yi waved his hand, and Zhou Fan's body was stored into his spatial ring.
Zhu Yi then turned around and, with a single step, arrived at the village. Looking around, both a lot and nothing had changed. The people had changed greatly. Many shops had shut down and been replaced, while others grew larger and had new owners.
However, the atmosphere remained the same. Mostly vibrant. Such was the life of mortals. There were a lot less worries.
Zhu Yi walked around. He spotted his house and knocked on the door.
An old lady opened the door, leaning on a cane. Seeing her, memories flew through Zhu Yi's mind. It felt like the time he had spent here was so short, yet so long.
The old lady paused and tears poured from her eyes. Zhu Yi seemed young, though much different from himself when he left. However, he was still easily recognizable, especially by his own parents.
The old lady dropped her cane and hugged Zhu Yi tightly. "I never thought I'd see you again! Look at you! You're a real cultivator."
Although Zhu Yi had not thought much of his parents, he still felt warmth from them. Perhaps he, more than many cultivators, had an appreciation for mortals.
As Zhu Yi's mother cried, his father soon came, joining.
Zhou Fan stood away from them. He didn't quite understand it all. He couldn't quite remember having such intense familial emotions. At most, he liked Leaf and the animals at the manor. It was hard to say if he truly loved them like this, however.
He couldn't help but think to himself. He had never even thought about crying after not seeing Leaf for so long.
Even if they met again, he would just smile.
'Have I ever felt love?'
Everything he thought was love seemed so fake in front of Zhu Yi's family.
It was at this moment that Zhou Fan finally realized a long obvious truth. He wasn't built for such emotions.
He remembered seeing someone's funeral and feeling somewhat sad. It was so long ago that he couldn't remember.
It must have been when he was younger and more emotional.
He thought back to the beasts. He hadn't even felt that sad when he found out that they were dead.
Even for Zhu Yi, he merely felt proud at some times. He would be upset if Zhu Yi died, but that's all.
Zhou Fan seriously looked back at every part of his life. Countless figures flashed through his mind. The beasts, the buddha, the animals at the manor, Heaven, Lu Wei, the old man from the library, Ying Xiong, Anna, all of humanity, all of his creations, all life within the universe.
He felt no love, neither kinship, familial, the love of a teacher, a mentor, a friend, a lover, nothing.
At most, he liked things.
And most interesting of all, he didn't care. Right now, he was simply curious as to why he had never felt things that all humans seemed to feel. Was he even human?
There was no doubt that he was. He had checked long ago.
'The time when I felt the most emotions? That would have to be when I fought the Cosmic Dao. That was fun.'
Zhou Fan seemed to be lost in his thoughts as Zhu Yi cried with his parents.
Chapter 475: Lifespan Issues - 475
No matter how much he thought about it, Zhou Fan simply could not grasp why he was different from normal humans.
Of course, he didn't particularly care, but he was quite curious. There were many types of humans, some of which actually seemed similar to him.
However, that was because they were weak or had suffered some sort of trauma. For him, however, he was just like that.
Zhou Fan's thoughts soon came to a conclusion. 'I've been holding onto humanity for so long, but I don't have to be a human. Perhaps I should change myself?'
The only way he seemed to be human was in terms of looks, but he could still look the same after changing his race.
It also seemed like it would increase his powers as long as he created the race correctly. He still had some lingering attachment to humanity, which was to be expected after being human for so long. He was the oldest human, and it was hard to think of someone who could replace his status within the human race.
As Zhu Yi walked inside, Zhou Fan decided to save his thoughts for later. Once he fully healed and regained his power, he could think about such things.
Zhou Fan went inside of the house and sat on the couch while Zhu Yi experienced the happiness of meeting his parents.
Zhu Yi stayed for nearly an entire year. Zhou Fan found it a waste, but it was only a year.
Zhu Yi left the house with tears, knowing he would never see his parents again.
After a few hours, Zhu Yi seemed to return to his old self and put all of his thoughts behind him.
"Where to next, Master." He asked.
"Cultivate."
Zhu Yi nodded. He flew into the air and only stopped once he was deep inside of a forest. There were some powerful beasts here, but he would be fine.
He set up the array and cultivated within the time bubble under Zhou Fan's assistance and spirit stones. Now, the time bubbles time had a 5 times time difference.
After spending 100 years within the time bubble, equivalent to around 20 outside, just to get to the 2nd level of the nascent soul realm, Zhu Yi looked at Zhou Fan with wide eyes.
"Shut up and cultivate."
"Master, I hate to defy you, but what the hell is this?"
Zhu Yi was genuinely flabbergasted.
"I'll break it down for you. First, you have king rank meridians. Ignoring bottlenecks, a cultivator with king rank meridians would usually take about 25 years to advance 1 level. You, however, have my help and top grade spirit stones. In a normal situation, you would only spend about 10 years per level. Unfortunately for you, the low density of Qi in this world causes you to cultivate 10 times slower. Hence the hundred years it took, though only 20 in the outside world."
Zhu Yi still looked at him like everything was crazy.
Zhou Fan was annoyed. "I'm helping you break universal laws here brat. If you consider the fact that it took 20 years for you to reach the second level of the nascent soul realm in an environment where you cultivate ten times slower, it means that without that, you would have done such a thing in merely two years, three years faster than universally allowed. Stop staring and get to work."
Zhu Yi understood and sighed.
He continued to cultivate within the time bubble.
Time passed, and though Zhu Yi desperately wanted to stop, Zhou Fan kept pushing him on. After a thousand years in the time bubble, Zhu Yi finally lost it.
"I've been cultivating for a thousand years straight and I'm only at the 6th level of the nascent soul realm! Can I now just go spend some time outside?"
"And do what?"
"I don't know, fight a Chaos Beast! Socialize! Do anything besides sit in a bubble and cultivate! Please master!" Zhu Yi was truly desperate.
Zhou Fan sighed. "Fine. You can go outside. Find someone with talent and give them the wooden ring since you don't wish to cultivate."
Zhu Yi finally paused. He looked at the wooden ring on his finger and fell into his memories.
In the first few years of his life, he had been a much different person. He had assassinated people and felt that cultivating any amount of time was nothing.
However, after meeting his parents and going into seclusion for more than a thousand years, everything had worn away.
Zhu Yi sat down and sighed. "I'm sorry master. I'll work hard."
Zhou Fan shook his head. To be honest, something was off about this world. Zhu Yi's king rank meridians were rare. Very few in this world had them. Yet still, there were soul formation realm and nascent soul realm cultivators everywhere.
Usually, this wouldn't be weird, but a nascent soul realm cultivator only had a lifespan of 3000 years. Zhu Yi himself was already more than a thousand years old. How could there be so many nascent soul realm and soul formation realm cultivators when even Zhu Yi's talent might barely allow him to reach the soul formation realm before his lifespan ended.
In fact, he probably wouldn't even make it.
Although the time bubble sped up cultivation speed, it had an effect on lifespan as well. From the looks of it, Zhu Yi would die before reaching the soul formation realm, and it was not due to a lack of talent.
After a while, Zhou Fan spoke up. "Zhu Yi, stand. We are going to find out the truth of this world."
Zhu Yi was surprised. "Didn't you say I needed to cultivate?"
"I wanted you to be a bit stronger before finding it out, but it is not unreasonable to leave now. Have you felt yourself aging?"
Zhu Yi looked down. Unknowingly, he had become a middle aged man.
"Your lifespan will very likely end before you even reach the peak of the nascent soul realm. Something is wrong, and you need to find out."
Zhu Yi finally felt a spark of excitement. He could leave and find out the truth.
However, he had a question. "If there is a truth to the world, wouldn't Wen Si know it? Would he really hide it from me?"
Zhou Fan explained. "It may not be that simple. However, he could have indeed hidden it from you. It's hard to tell since I wasn't paying much attention back then."
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