Suspicion

The door to the room opened, and Huo Hai walked out. Looking at Little Gold, who was lying before his door and chirping, he smiled faintly. "Hehe, why did you come here? All right, all right, aren't I fine?" After Huo Hai soothed him, Little Gold finally stopped chirping. Just then, a thumping sound came from the main gate. Someone was knocking.

When he opened the door, Huo Hai saw Huo Yuner peering sneakily inside. "Yun'er, what are you doing? Why are you acting so furtively?" Huo Yuner had not expected the door to suddenly open and was startled badly.

"Ah, it's—it's Brother Hai. Why did you come out? Little Gold suddenly flew away this morning, so I followed him here. Ah, so Little Gold was here!" Seeing Little Gold beside Huo Hai, Huo Yuner's face lit up with excitement.

Just then, Huo Yuner suddenly remembered something and asked with wide eyes, "Brother Hai, why have you come out of seclusion?" Only now had the girl recalled it. She had probably been too busy looking at Little Gold just now. Really, was he not even as appealing as an insect?

After thinking it over, Huo Hai understood what had happened. Gu Insects were pets bound to their masters through blood. The connection between them was not particularly deep, but it did exist. Especially in this world, for some unknown reason, Little Gold possessed relatively advanced intelligence. He had even gradually developed certain emotions that only humans possessed.

Sensing Huo Hai's suffering while he cultivated, Little Gold had been extremely anxious. Yet Huo Hai had never emerged, and though Little Gold was worried, he had forcibly restrained himself from coming over to disturb him. Only after Huo Hai regained consciousness did Little Gold return to normal.

Later, when Huo Hai cultivated again, Little Gold sensed it and did not come to disturb him. Huo Hai had instructed him before that Little Gold was not allowed to interrupt while he was cultivating. That night, when Huo Hai finished cultivating, Huo Yuner put Little Gold inside a box. Unable to hurt Huo Yuner, Little Gold could only stay quietly inside.

After waiting until this morning, Huo Yuner released Little Gold, and he flew straight here. Though Huo Hai knew what had happened, he did not explain it to Huo Yuner. There was no need for her to know these things.

"Right, I gained a great deal from this seclusion and have already broken through to the Spirit Blood Realm. I plan to visit the Scripture Pavilion and find some things related to cultivation. Father won't stop me now, will he?" Huo Hai suddenly said.

Huo Yuner finally shifted her attention to Huo Hai. "Ah, Brother Hai, you actually broke through to the Spirit Blood Realm? So fast! Honestly, I don't even know when I'll be able to break through. Come on, let's go find Uncle."

Huo Yuner stroked Little Gold, grabbed Huo Hai, and started walking before he could even react. What was this girl thinking? Huo Hai smiled helplessly. Just like that, he let Huo Yuner pull him toward Huo Kai's study. As the family head, Huo Kai generally remained in his study handling Lineage affairs whenever he had nothing else to do.

"Uncle, Uncle, I'm here! Open the door quickly!" Huo Yuner's voice rang out before she even arrived.

Hearing that voice, Huo Kai slowly opened the door, his face full of smiles. "Hehe, Yun'er, why have you come running to Uncle today? Did your father lecture you again? Don't worry, I'll go talk to him."

After opening the door, Huo Kai suddenly saw Huo Hai being pulled along by Huo Yuner. The smile on his face froze, and he frowned. "Huo Hai, weren't you going into seclusion? Why have you come out after only two days? Cultivation requires one to endure loneliness. How can you amount to anything if you cannot even endure a few days?" Huo Kai was somewhat dissatisfied. If one could not endure loneliness, how could one become an expert?

Even he himself occasionally entered seclusion, sometimes for as long as one or two months.

Huo Hai did not argue and simply said, "Father, I had already fulfilled the requirements for seclusion, so I came out."

Huo Kai's brow furrowed even more deeply. "Fulfilled the requirements? What requirements? Could your standards be that low? Hm, no, that's not right. Why has your aura become so strong? Let me see." As he spoke, he grabbed Huo Hai's hand.

At once, a stream of pure spirit energy entered Huo Hai's body. Huo Hai's own spirit energy was utterly incapable of resisting that force. Such powerful spirit energy, such pure power. So this is the power of a Spirit Master in the Spirit Practitioner Realm? When will I be able to do this? Under that force, Huo Hai felt that he did not even have the strength to resist.

If he truly fought his father, he would likely be defeated in a single move. No—perhaps not even a move would be necessary. The spiritual pressure produced merely by spirit energy might leave him unable to stand straight, let alone fight.

Huo Kai's brows drew tighter and tighter. "How can this be? You actually broke through to the Spirit Blood Realm. How did you do it so quickly? Did you use some improper method? No, your Spirit Veins are exceptionally resilient, and the spirit energy in your body is very pure. It does not seem like you achieved this by taking medicine. Besides, you brat could not possibly have obtained a Body Tempering Pill. How could this be?"

Even Huo Kai could not make sense of Huo Hai's situation. The effects of his Body Refinement were clearly excellent, but this pace was simply too fast. It had probably not even been a year since he broke through to the Spirit Body Realm.

Moreover, that incident had occurred during that time, causing him to lose his memories for a while. Could it be that after being struck by a Spirit Beast, his cultivation had instead advanced more quickly? That did not make sense either. Too many people had been attacked by Spirit Beasts before.

"Wait." Huo Kai suddenly spoke solemnly. "Xiao Hai, did you find some Spirit Medicine outside and eat it directly? Do you know what consequences that could bring? Do you no longer intend to become a true expert?"

Huo Kai was extremely angry. He had always been very strict with Huo Hai. He had even forbidden him from using Body Tempering Pills in cultivation so that he could build a solid foundation. The Huo Family's foundational cultivation technique was not some advanced technique. If he also used Body Tempering Pills as an aid, his future accomplishments would be extremely limited. He would absolutely never reach the Spirit Practitioner Realm.

Furthermore, taking medicine recklessly—especially Spirit Medicine that had not been refined into pills—could cause severe harm due to its violent medicinal power. If it injured one's Spirit Veins, even taking another step forward in the future would become a problem. That was why few people did such things.

Unless one was already extremely strong, consuming ordinary Spirit Medicine would be harmless, but it would also have no effect. Otherwise, it was only people like them, who would never see major advancement in their lifetimes, who could use Spirit Medicine to forcibly take one more step.

Huo Hai helplessly spread his hands. "No, absolutely not. I have never taken any medicine. I reached the Spirit Blood Realm through my own cultivation." Huo Hai muttered inwardly, I'm not lying to you. I really haven't taken any medicine.

That was not wrong. Huo Hai truly had not eaten any. He had used the Body-Refining Spirit Formation to consume Body Tempering Pills for cultivation. The pills had seeped through his entire body from the outside; he had never swallowed them. But how could Huo Kai believe him? Did they not know what Huo Hai was like? No matter how hard he worked, he could not possibly have advanced this quickly, much less when he had never worked hard at all.

During this period, he had either been outside eating grass or catching insects. Huo Kai had even wondered whether Huo Hai had some kind of mental illness.

Now that he heard Huo Hai say this, Huo Kai flew into a rage on the spot. "You little bastard, have you learned to lie now? Do you not even respect me as your father? If you ate it, then you ate it. Why won't you admit it? Are you trying to anger me to death?"

Huo Kai's anger mounted higher and higher. Huo Hai could not help clutching his head and hiding his entire body behind Huo Yuner. If he did not hide, he might get beaten. A wise man did not fight when the odds were against him; if he could dodge, he would dodge first. Huo Hai knew that his current strength was no match for Huo Kai's. No matter how solid his foundation was, the gap in strength was simply too great.

"Father, Father, please don't hit me. I really cultivated it myself. After I regained consciousness, I suddenly discovered that my strength had risen by a great deal. And my cultivation speed seems to be faster than the normal rate you described."

With no other choice, Huo Hai began making things up. In any case, only one thing had happened during this period. Besides, all his former memories had vanished, so Huo Kai could not question what exactly had happened before.

Perhaps he had hidden something before losing his memories, or perhaps he had encountered some special opportunity before that. No one knew. Some Spirit Medicine did not release its medicinal power so violently after being consumed; it seeped out slowly, bit by bit. It often took a long time to absorb. Such Spirit Medicine had mild medicinal properties, and even if eaten directly, it would not cause harm.

Could Xiao Hai have obtained such Spirit Medicine before and eaten it without understanding its value? If so, Xiao Hai had truly turned disaster into fortune. But was that possible? Such Spirit Medicine was usually exceedingly rare.

Those Spirit Beasts were not fools. Even if mild Spirit Medicine existed, if a Spirit Beast encountered it, it would most likely swallow it directly. That was also an important reason why Spirit Medicine with mild medicinal power was so rare.

"No matter what you say, you must undergo testing. I need to determine your current condition. If you do not take the test, I will not give you the next stage of the Huo Family Spirit Art. What do you say? Will you accept this test?" Huo Kai looked at Huo Hai sternly. He did not want Huo Hai to ruin the rest of his life because of some unforeseen incident.

Huo Hai's expression also turned unusually serious. "Fine, I accept this test." He had no choice but to accept. Huo Hai's heart was bleeding. He truly did not want to undergo testing. Thinking of the protagonists in those novels, whenever they took a test, something was bound to go wrong.

I won't be that unlucky too, will I? Huo Hai did not want to stand out, but if he refused the test, he would not obtain the next stage of cultivation Spirit Art. Without a Spirit Art, he could not continue down the path of a Spirit Master. It was a dead loop. Huo Hai could only hope that he would not prove too abnormal during the test.