Good Brothers

That was right. The Heaven Suppressing King was furious, but that was no excuse for the God Forger to mock him. The God Forger's screams rang out once more through the little space. After beating him to his heart's content, the Heaven Suppressing King clasped his hands behind his back and left in a good mood.

A few days later, with the help of Indestructible Substance, Li Zhen quickly broke through to Rank 7 and became a powerhouse in the Rank Eight Golden Body Realm. He then left Zhenxing City to find Zhang Tao.

When Li Zhen arrived in Kyoto, he went straight into Zhang Tao's house without so much as a by-your-leave and called out loudly, "Zhang Tao, I'm here to see you!"

Zhang Tao, who had been cultivating in his room, stopped and told Li Zhen to come up. If Li Zhen shouted from downstairs, he might disturb the cat—and that would bring him bad luck.

Li Zhen jogged all the way to Zhang Tao's room and grinned. "Zhang Tao, you'd better thank me this time!"

Zhang Tao stared at him. Thank him? For what? He had no idea what Li Zhen was getting at. The man had come out of nowhere with this, and Zhang Tao couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Take a look at this!" Li Zhen pulled out the Indestructible Substance the Old Ancestor had given him and waved it in front of Zhang Tao like he was showing off.

Zhang Tao raised an eyebrow. That was quite a lot of Indestructible Substance—almost as much as the Grey Cat had given him. Where had this guy gotten it?

When Zhang Tao said nothing, Li Zhen assumed he was stunned. He chuckled. "The Old Ancestor gave it to me. Here, don't say your brother doesn't look out for you. We'll split it down the middle. It'll save us a lot of time on the path to Rank 8!"

Watching Li Zhen actually hand over half of it, Zhang Tao was taken aback. Then he smiled. Li Hanhan was pretty endearing. And whenever something good came along, he really did think of Zhang Tao. He truly was a good brother.

After all, the Old Ancestor had originally planned for Li Zhen to walk the Human Emperor Path as part of his arrangements for humanity.

But then Zhang Tao had burst onto the scene and stolen Li Zhen's spotlight. Even so, Li Zhen was still willing to give him half the Indestructible Substance. Now that was a friendship forged through thick and thin.

So Zhang Tao pushed the half back toward him. When Li Zhen saw that Zhang Tao wouldn't accept it, he started to panic. He thought Zhang Tao was too embarrassed to take it and was about to say something when a golden orb appeared in Zhang Tao's hand. It was about the same size as his own. Li Zhen's eyes went wide.

Then he understood. No wonder this shameless bastard didn't want it! He'd been wondering what had gotten into Zhang Tao, of all people, to make him act so uncharacteristically generous. So that was it: the guy already had some. But where had he gotten his Indestructible Substance?

"You... Who gave you that? Don't tell me you found it lying around!" Li Zhen asked at once. He had no choice. Zhang Tao's luck was downright uncanny; sometimes he really did find things just lying around.

"The cat gave it to me. Otherwise, how could I have cultivated so quickly?" Zhang Tao said with a smile.

Li Zhen understood. That cat was incredibly powerful. He hadn't expected it to give Zhang Tao so many good things. Tsk. Why was he feeling a little jealous? Remembering how the cat had bullied him that day, Li Zhen fell silent.

Li Zhen didn't hesitate. He put away his Indestructible Substance and said, "Now that we're both Rank 8, we can't just cultivate every day. I feel like I've been improving too quickly lately, and my control over my strength has gotten worse. How about we go train in the Catacombs?"

Zhang Tao shook his head. "For now, our priority is to strengthen our Golden Bodies. As for going to the Catacombs—heh, how would we train there? Unless the Catacombs start a war, we can't just have high-rank fighters throwing their weight around. That would cause trouble."

Li Zhen nodded. That made sense.

"Li Zhen, don't worry about all that yet. While there's no war, do your best to improve your strength. As for controlling it, we can think about that later, once our progress slows down!" Afraid Li Zhen hadn't taken his advice to heart, Zhang Tao quickly added this.

After hearing Zhang Tao out, Li Zhen agreed. Zhang Tao had a point.

Just then, Nan Yunyue's voice came from downstairs.

"Hey, Zhang Tao, come out! I've already achieved Essence Blood Unity, and I'm about to reach Rank 7!"

Hearing the excitement in Nan Yunyue's voice, Li Zhen asked in confusion, "How is she cultivating so quickly?"

Back when he'd been at Rank 6 for two years, he'd made hardly any progress. How long had Nan Yunyue been at it? She'd already achieved Essence Blood Unity!

Zhang Tao just smiled. "What do you think? The Academy Head must have been giving her special treatment!"

Just as Zhang Tao had said, after he gave Li Xianling what he'd gained in the Land of King Battles, Li Xianling found Source-less Mental Power and invited Nan Yunyue, Nan Yunping, and the other young experts from Kyoto to cultivate with it. Naturally, they made rapid progress.

Nan Yunyue in particular had sealed off her Gate of Spirit, and the Energy Fruits Zhang Tao gave her had even helped her seal off her blood and qi. In just a few days, she'd covered ground that had taken other people years.

Now that Nan Yunyue had achieved Essence Blood Unity, she was only one step away from materializing her mental power.

After they called Nan Yunyue upstairs, she saw that Li Zhen was there too and smiled. "Li Hanhan, you're here too. You two really are joined at the hip. Just you wait—I'm going to catch up with you both!"

Nan Yunyue had come to make an announcement today: she would not let those two leave her behind.

Li Zhen's face darkened as he glanced at Nan Yunyue. A golden light suddenly shone from his body.

The sign of the Rank Eight Golden Body Realm was plain to see.

Nan Yunyue's mouth fell open. She stared at Li Zhen in disbelief. She'd already been making progress at an incredible speed—she'd even cheated—and yet what had she just seen? Li Zhen had actually reached Rank 8. Rank 8!

Nan Yunyue's thoughts roared in protest.

Zhang Tao silently made a golden light appear around himself too. Nan Yunyue was numb. Li Hanhan was already Rank 8, so how could Zhang Tao, that shameless bastard, not be? But this made no sense! She'd worked so hard at cultivating, and had even resorted to cheating, so how were the two of them still pulling further and further ahead?

Sure, Rank 7 was a transitional stage for Grandmasters, and now that everyone had mental cultivation techniques, most Rank 7 Grandmasters would soon advance to Rank 8.

But that still took time! Weren't they moving a little too fast? Did their mothers even know they were advancing this quickly?

Nan Yunyue was at a loss for words. But the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. It was so unfair! Why?

"Ahhh! You two bastards, how are you cultivating? I refuse to believe you're making this kind of progress naturally!" Nan Yunyue lunged at them.

At that moment, Nan Yunyue couldn't care less about the difference between men and women.

Nan Yunyue knocked them both to the ground. Li Zhen and Zhang Tao were speechless. Was this woman really a woman?

Well, judging by what they felt against their chests, there was no doubt.

"Um, get up first. I have a Heaven Gold Lotus here. It'll help you reach Rank 8 pretty quickly too!" Zhang Tao said helplessly.