Change

In Danyuan City's Market Quarter, after Zhao Li and the others bid farewell to Wang Chen, they headed toward the Zhao Clan.

"Little brother, you really were too reckless this time. Ever since we started cultivating as children, the clan elders warned us more than once that cultivation requires a quiet environment. If you're disturbed while cultivating, one careless mistake can lead to Cultivation Deviation," Zhao Ning said to Zhao Li.

Zhao Li was helpless.

"When opportunity comes, you can't stop it. I didn't expect to break through to Dou Zhe just like that. I don't even know what happened."

Zhao Li spread his hands, looking completely innocent.

Zhao Li's words made the others feel an urge to beat him up. Zhao Ze said faintly, "As expected of you. Impressive. I imagine Third Uncle already knows what happened in the Market Quarter. Who knows what he'll say later? Great Genius, you'd better think carefully about how you're going to survive this 'tribulation.' Heh heh!"

"Uh..." Hearing Zhao Ze's words, Zhao Li cast a pleading look at Zhao Hongyu.

Zhao Hongyu acted as if she hadn't seen it, simply holding Zhao Zhenzhen's hand without saying a word.

After the group returned to the clan, they parted ways.

Zhao Li, however, stood in front of his own door for a long while. Just thinking about the criticism session his father and mother were about to unleash gave him a headache.

"What a sin. Even if I had at least a ninety-eight percent chance of breaking through safely, Father and Mother won't care about that. What is this even supposed to be?"

Zhao Li sighed inwardly, then pushed the door open and went in.

In the small courtyard, beneath an ancient tree, beside a stone table, sat a middle-aged man and a beautiful woman.

"Oh my, who's this?" Han Xiangyu glanced at Zhao Li and said to Zhao Lingxiao.

"He's an extraordinary prodigy who can break through whenever he wants in front of a crowd. Who knows what business he has coming to a backwater place like ours?" Zhao Lingxiao replied.

Hearing his father and mother's sarcastic words, Zhao Li knew at once that they were still angry. He hurried behind his mother and began kneading her shoulders. "Father, Mother, your child knows he was wrong. I'll never be this careless again."

As for his father, given his low family status, there was no need to bother with him.

"Li'er, come over and let Mother take a look."

Han Xiangyu's initially cold expression could no longer hold. Instead, her face filled with worry and urgency. She quickly pulled Zhao Li in front of her and carefully examined him several times. Only after finding nothing wrong did she finally relax, then her face turned cold again. "Li'er, do you know that in that kind of situation, if someone had harbored ill intentions, perhaps we wouldn't be able to see you anymore? What would you have your mother do then?"

"Listen carefully and remember this well: one must never be without a heart that guards against others. There aren't that many good people on the continent. This time, you were lucky. Your Grandpa Wang Chen happened to be present and deterred the villains."

Seeing his wife let out a breath of relief after examining their son, Zhao Lingxiao understood that there was nothing wrong with him, and the heart he had been holding up finally settled. With a stern face, he gave another warning.

Hearing this, Zhao Li silently noted the favor he owed Senior Wang Chen. After that, he obediently listened to his parents' lecture, agreeing from time to time to show that he understood.

When he heard his parents talk about the things that happened on the continent—murder for goods, strangling Geniuses in the cradle, and so on—Zhao Li finally felt a lingering fear.

For more than ten years, he had never gone out anywhere to train, never experienced those things, and had never truly integrated himself into this world. He had forgotten that Dou Qi Continent was a world where the strong were respected. It was not like Blue Planet in his previous life, where there were many laws to restrain people. Even on Blue Planet, there was no shortage of people who harmed others without benefiting themselves. Zhao Li had not forgotten that in an era of developed internet, countless incidents had been exposed online...

"Your child will remember. I won't do this again. Don't worry. Mother, I'm hungry. I've been out for half the day and still haven't eaten anything..."

After being criticized by his father and mother, Zhao Li put on a solemn expression, expressing that he had already recognized his mistake and would definitely correct it. Then he found an excuse, preparing to skip over the topic.

Seeing their son like this, the husband and wife shook their heads in unison. Then Han Xiangyu got up and walked toward the kitchen, evidently preparing to cook personally.

"Li'er, this time was still a close call without danger, and you've also completed Condensing Qi Cyclone and advanced to Dou Zhe. This is a Mid-Grade Profound Tier Fire Attribute Cultivation Technique. Take it and look through it first. Whether you practice it or not is up to you. Perhaps your teacher has other arrangements."

Seeing that his son wanted to slip away, Zhao Lingxiao pointed at the black Scroll on the stone table.

Hearing this, Zhao Li picked up the Scroll and put it into his Storage Ring. "Thank you for taking the trouble, Father."

Seeing his son's calm reaction, unlike yesterday when he had been so eager for a cultivation technique, Zhao Lingxiao thought that his earlier words had been too harsh and that his son might not be able to accept them for the moment. "Your mother and I said all this not to force you to do anything. We just hope that in the future, no matter what you do, you first ensure your own safety."

"Your child understands," Zhao Li replied.

The bright moon hung high, and stars flickered across the sky, illuminating the summer night as if unwilling to let people miss the scenery of the season because of the darkness.

On the Zhao Clan's Back Mountain, as the moon scattered strands of silver light, it draped the Mountain Forest in a layer of silver gauze.

A young man lay on his back on the grass between the mountains, his right hand stretched forward, as if trying to touch the moon in the sky that seemed so near yet was truly so far, unreachable.

In truth, what his parents said today had impacted Zhao Li far more greatly than they imagined.

Although Zhao Li had never personally experienced the incidents his parents spoke of, one after another—those dark sides that in his previous life belonged to places that could not see the light—he knew very clearly that on this continent, which followed the most ancient law of the jungle, where the weak were prey to the strong and the strong were revered, those things were real. They might even be happening right now in some corner of the continent.

On this continent, those things did not even need to be hidden, because since a thousand years ago, ten thousand years ago, or even farther back, the people on the continent had long since grown used to them...

Zhao Li was different. He had once lived for twenty years on that miraculous watery-blue planet, in that miraculous nation with a heritage of no more than five thousand years. During those twenty years, though Zhao Li had still been in the Ivory Tower and had never suffered life's beatings, he had gradually formed his own worldview.

In the more than ten years since he had been born on this continent, perhaps because he had never gone out to experience anything, Zhao Li had always upheld the worldview gradually formed over those twenty years on Blue Planet. Aside from his curiosity toward Dou Qi and cultivation, Zhao Li always kept an intentional or unintentional distance from the people around him.

For the past dozen or so years, it was as if he had moved from the extremely fast-paced cities of Blue Planet to this antique Mountain Forest, living together with a group of strangers and gradually making a few close friends and relatives. Everything else seemed no different.

But when Zhao Li truly began to integrate into this world, that worldview, which had only just taken shape, was slammed hard and nearly collapsed.

"I raised my head to gaze at the bright moon, lowered it and thought of home. So this is what it means to miss one's homeland."

Zhao Li murmured to himself, and the hand he had stretched out slowly drew back.

For no reason, Zhao Li felt stifled and upset, as if something were pressing down on his chest. "So I was already far, far beyond reach of that kind of life."

The instant tears slid past the corners of his eyes, Zhao Li thoroughly understood.

Under the moonlight, in the Mountain Forest, the young man curled up on the grass. Amid the chirping of insects on the summer night, the young man's sobs sounded from time to time. Before long, he began crying loudly.

"Zhao Li, I miss you..."