Chapter 14: News
The next day arrived quickly and Zeng informed his grandfather of his upcoming seclusion.
"Hey Grandpa?" He said entering the kitchen.
"Yes?" He replied cooking some dumplings.
"I'm going into seclusion for a few weeks, I'll reach Hunter stage then come back alright?" Zeng said convincing the man.
"Hunter stage, You? Not even in college." He scoffed not believing Zeng.
"Yeah whatever I'm still going just so you know." Zeng said leaving the house exiting through the front door.
When college begins he would surely have little time to cultivate his own strength. The only option was to do his best now and In the next three months come prepared to the exams.
"Tell me a place now, cmon don't be stubborn." Zeng said repeating over and over annoying the heavens will.
"No, go find it yourself." She said instantly..
"Bruh..." Zeng said still walking through the streets.
Looking around the new infrastructure he took a deep breath. The huge TV screens suddenly changed simultaneously revealing breaking news..
"Defeated again! Master Kung and Master Greenblade perished. 40 million soldiers, lost and two frontlines to the dust.." The title read alongside a woman talking about the news.
Suddenly the casual civilians going about their day stopped in their tracks alongside Zeng gazing upon the large screen.
"How dangerous must the frontlines be to have lost 40 million soldiers alongside two master staged..." Zeng shuddered in thought. Never in his previous lives had so many people died in any frontline battle..
"This isn't such a good world as i thought, there are still dangers out there capable of completely suppressing us." Zengs fist suddenly clenched in anger.
"I need to wake up and face reality, this is but a mere lower dimension detached form the main ones. At this rate the Vrotekt Dimension will surely perish." He thought to himself seeing the now playing combat footage of the war.
Hundreds of thousands of ships, soldiers, enemies it was a disaster. The galactic battle seemed to be a movie however it wasn't.
Looking around again the civilians stopped for a moment before continuing.
"These soldiers fight for your wellbeing and you simply brush it off after a second?!" Zeng suddenly turned more aggressive watching them continue on their day.
Still looking at the screen his eyes stayed glued for about 20 minutes not moving an inch.
"Are these people not worried at all? We just lost 40 million soldiers and two frontlines!" He continued after finally snapping out of his daze.
Even he felt a sense of defeat seeing these numbers. With a reluctant sigh he ran back home to talk to his grandpa.
..
He soon arrived in the house and saw his grandpa packing his clothes.
"What are you doing back here boy?" He asked not batting an eye to Zeng.
"Are you going?" Zeng asked bluntly.
The man nodded still packing the bags.
"You will die you know." Zeng continued wanting to at least warn him.
"I know, however this is my duty." He responded with a solemn expression finishing packing the bag.
"Grandfather why is it these billions of citizens do not care? When I saw the news they kept walking by without a care in the world!" Zeng raised his voice a bit in anger.
"They are used to it." He simply said before grabbing his hat.
"Grandfather what should I do in the future?, I want to participate in the war however I'm not so sure about the various factions." Zeng said lastly before the man almost walked out the door.
"Our military is much more fair with a contribution system, however the casualties are higher and the danger is higher since we are in the frontlines. Those mercenaries, smaller organizations and associations stay back and let us die. I hope you understand what I mean." The man responded clearly before leaving.
"Goodluck grandpa, return safe." Zeng finally said wishing his best towards the man.
He nodded towards Zane before taking a seat in the futuristic spacecraft waiting for him.
Zengs future was set from now on, the military would be his choice.
Stepping back into the home he quickly called his mother.
Grabbing the phone he dialed her number with FaceTime.
"Mom?" He said seeing her pickup the phone.
"Sweetie how's everything going?" She said a bit worried after Zeng didn't contact her.
"Everything's fine, Grandpa is off now so it's only me and grandma alongside their newly adopted daughter." He said casually taking a seat on the couch.
"She is your sister now, not a adopted daughter!" She quickly reminded him sternly.
"Yeah, anyways I want you to move back to Hui Country. It is much better here, no more degenerates." Zeng said hoping she would accept.
"Son.. you know we can't move.. there aren't enough funds.." she said worried about housing, tickets, school and a lot more.
"Mom I understand your concerns, I will enter the number one ranked college here and will then bring you okay?" He said not really caring about his bold claim.
"Okay...make sure to eat well and stay healthy." She responded not too confident in him however still decided to go with it.
"Hows Jenna?" He asked a bit worried.
"She has calmed down now.." She responded not really wanting to worry Zeng.
"Okay, goodbye mom I will go into seclusion for the next two weeks so we won't be able to talk until after okay?" Zeng finally concluded telling his goodbye before ending the call.
Standing up he immediately left the house with newfound motivation.
Leaving Shej City he ran into the wilderness to find more Qi Veins. Eventually he found one close by only around 20km away from Shej City the real outskirts filled with beasts.
This one was a tad bit weaker than the first one Zeng found. If the other was a Tier 2 this one was a Tier 3.
He dug the hole with his hands as usual and proceeded to sit on the Vein. Like this 4 hours passed and he finished draining the remaining Qi.
"55%...soon high." Zeng concluded and dashed to the next vein he found nearby. This one was also a Tier 3 vein.
And like this time passed, and around 3 days later he reached Awakened High stage.
"Good." He said with a casual expression clenching his fists feeling the strength.
[Stats]
Stage: Awakened Middle -> High
Health: 5470/5470 ->8920/8920
Strength: 232 -> 347 ( 3470 KG punch force)
Endurance: 227 -> 341
Agility: 231 -> 346( Max speed -> 513 kmh)
Energy: Qi
Note: Average person has 7 stats in everything.
..
Zeng was three times stronger than the normal awakened his level now.
Zeng continued pushing through finding Veins and draining them. Another 11 days passed until he felt the bottleneck.
"I need to fight to rid of this bottleneck." Zeng reminded himself feeling the similiar bottleneck sensations of his previous life.
With no weapons other than his fists he thought of something suddenly.
"I have been to complacent, I must train my body too." He suddenly realized.. being too focused on increasing his realm might hurt his foundation in the long run.
Getting down into the pushup position using his knuckles he trained. Pushup after pushup, time continued to pass his knuckles hardening, his endurance getting stronger.
Zeng did various different pushup variations challenging himself further, from the normal pushup he did 10,000 reps, then to the diamond pushup he did 15,000 reps, then to the archer pushup he did 20,000 reps. Until eventually reaching the one handed pushup doing 25,000 reps. And at last the handstand he finished with 30,000 reps.
Altough this didn't produce muscle or strength it did enhance his endurance. With the basics done he would now move towards tempering the body.
Like this two more weeks passed by and Zeng continued doing some simple workouts while drilling into the earth. His fingernails, fingers, hand muscles, wrists, bones everything strengthened.
With his fingers still aching from digging the earth he proceeded to punch it with all his strength digging further and further down until eventually reaching the core of the earth. The hottest part of earth.
The earth was hot, it stung Zengs body immensely feeling like one of those tempering baths of his former world.
Zeng focused working out in the stinging and now steaming ground. A day passed and he felt comfortable in the small spaces, continuing digging further down reaching dangerous levels of heat.
Continuing the body tempering he stood extremely still embracing the heat. In this position three days passed until he was satisfied. Zeng stood up and crawled out of his long narrow hole taking him to the surface.
Finally able to breathe after days he made sure to savor the scent.
Zeng now satisfied jumped around feeling the air on his stinging body cooling it down.
Quickly grabbing new clothes and his phone from the spatial ring Zeng opened it to find out four weeks had passed...
"Well damn, but it's alright I'll just breakthrough to Hunter quickly and return." He concluded tossing the phone back into his ring ignoring worldly distractions.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone