Suspicion

The door to the room opened, and Huo Hai walked out. Seeing Xiao Jin sprawled before his door, chirping away, he smiled faintly. "Heh, why did you come over here? All right, all right, aren't I fine?" After Huo Hai soothed it, Xiao Jin 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 peeking furtively inside. "Yun'er, what are you doing? Why are you sneaking around like a thief?" Huo Yuner had not expected the door to suddenly open and gave a startled jump.

"Ah, i-it's Brother Hai! Why did you come out? This morning, Xiao Jin suddenly flew away. I followed Xiao Jin all the way here. Ah, so Xiao Jin was here!" Seeing Xiao Jin beside Huo Hai, Huo Yuner's face lit up with excitement.

At that moment, Huo Yuner suddenly remembered something and asked with wide eyes, "Brother Hai, why did you come out of seclusion?" The girl had only just recalled it. She had probably been too busy looking at Xiao Jin just now. Really, was he not even as attractive as a bug?

After giving it some thought, Huo Hai understood what had happened. Gu Insects were pets bound to their masters through blood. Though the connection between them was not especially deep, it still existed. Especially in this world, for some unknown reason, Xiao Jin had developed rather advanced intelligence. It had even gradually begun to possess emotions that only humans should have had.

Sensing Huo Hai's pain while cultivating, Xiao Jin had been extremely anxious. Yet Huo Hai had not come out, so although Xiao Jin was worried, it had forcibly endured and refrained from coming over to disturb him. Only after Huo Hai regained consciousness did Xiao Jin return to normal.

Later, when Huo Hai cultivated again, Xiao Jin sensed it but did not come to disturb him. Huo Hai had instructed it before that whenever he was cultivating, Xiao Jin was not allowed to interrupt him. Then, when Huo Hai finished cultivating at night, Xiao Jin was put into a box by Huo Yuner. Unable to harm Huo Yuner, Xiao Jin could only stay quietly inside.

After waiting until this morning, when Huo Yuner released Xiao Jin, it flew here. Though Huo Hai knew what had happened, he did not explain it to Huo Yuner. There was no need for her to know such things.

"By the way, I gained a great deal from this seclusion and have already broken through to the Spirit Blood Realm. I plan to go to the Library Pavilion and look for some cultivation materials. Father won't stop me this time, right?" Huo Hai suddenly said.

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

Huo Yuner stroked Xiao Jin, 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 usually stayed in his study handling Lineage affairs whenever he had nothing else to do.

"Uncle, Uncle, I'm here! Hurry up and open the door!"

Upon hearing that voice, Huo Kai slowly opened the door with a smile on his face. "Heh, Yuner, why have you come to Uncle's place today? Did your father lecture you again? Don't worry, I'll go have a word with 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 did you come out after only two days? Cultivation requires enduring loneliness. How can you accomplish anything if you cannot even bear a few days?"

Huo Kai was somewhat dissatisfied. If one could not endure loneliness, how could one become an expert?

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

Huo Hai did not argue and simply said, "Reporting to Father, I have already met the requirements for leaving seclusion, so I came out."

Huo Kai's brow furrowed even deeper. "Met the requirements? What requirements? Could your standards be that low? Hm, no, that's not right. Why is your aura so much stronger? Let me take a look." As he spoke, he grabbed Huo Hai's hand.

At once, a stream of pure spiritual energy poured into Huo Hai's body. Before that force, Huo Hai's own spiritual energy did not have the slightest ability to resist. Such powerful spiritual energy, such pure power. Is this the spiritual energy of a Spirit Practitioner Realm Spirit Master? When will I be able to do this? Under that force, Huo Hai felt as though he did not even possess the strength to resist.

If he truly fought his father, he would probably fall in a single move. No, perhaps not even one move would be needed. Maybe the sheer pressure formed by his father's spiritual energy would be enough to make him unable to stand straight, let alone fight.

Huo Kai's brow tightened further. "How could 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 tough, and the spiritual energy in your body is very pure. It does not look like you achieved this by taking medicine. Besides, there is no way you could have obtained a Body Tempering Pill. How did this happen?"

Huo Kai could not make sense of Huo Hai's condition. The body-tempering results were clearly excellent, but this speed was simply too fast. It had probably not even been a year since he broke through to the Spirit Body Realm.

And that incident had happened in the meantime, causing him to lose his memory for a period. Could being struck by a spirit beast have caused his cultivation to improve even faster? That did not make sense either. Far too many people had been attacked by spirit beasts.

"Wait." Huo Kai suddenly became stern. "Xiao Hai, did you find some spirit medicine outside and swallow it directly? Do you know what consequences that could cause? Do you no longer plan to become a true expert?"

Huo Kai was extremely angry. He had always been very strict with Huo Hai. To ensure that he laid a solid foundation, he had even forbidden him from using Body Tempering Pills to cultivate. The Huo Family's foundational cultivation technique was not some advanced technique to begin with. If it were further supplemented with Body Tempering Pills, his future achievements would be very 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 damaged one's Spirit Veins, advancing further in the future would become a problem. That was why few people would do such a thing.

Unless one was already extremely strong and consumed ordinary spirit medicine, in which case it would be harmless—but it would also have no effect. Otherwise, only people like them, who would never make any major progress in their lives, could use spirit medicine to forcibly take one more step forward.

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 didn't take any medicine.

That was not wrong. Huo Hai truly had not eaten any. He had directly used the Body-Refining Spirit Formation to consume Body Tempering Pills for cultivation. The medicinal power had seeped through his entire body from the outside; he had not swallowed the pills at all. 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 so quickly—let alone when he had never worked hard at all.

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

Now that Huo Hai said this, Huo Kai immediately flew into a rage. "You brat, have you learned to lie now? Do you not even respect me as your father? If you took it, then you took it. Why won't you admit it? Are you trying to anger me to death?"

Huo Kai's fury grew ever greater, and Huo Hai could not help clutching his head as he hid his entire body behind Huo Yuner. If he did not hide, he might get beaten. A wise man did not suffer immediate losses; if he could avoid it, he would avoid it first. Huo Hai knew that with his current strength, he was absolutely no match for Huo Kai. No matter how solid his foundation was, the gap in their strength was simply too vast.

"Father, Father, don't hit me. I truly cultivated my way to this. After I regained consciousness, I suddenly discovered that my strength had increased by a huge amount. And my cultivation speed seems to be faster than the normal cultivation speed you all described."

Having no other choice, Huo Hai began making things up. In any case, only that one incident had occurred during this period. Besides, his previous memories had all vanished, so Huo Kai could not ask 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 medicines did not have wildly violent medicinal power after being swallowed; instead, their effects slowly seeped out bit by bit. They often required a long time to be absorbed. Such spirit medicines had gentle effects and would cause no harm even if eaten directly.

Could Xiao Hai have obtained such spirit medicine before and swallowed it without understanding its value? If so, then Xiao Hai had truly gained a blessing in disguise. But was that possible? Such spirit medicine was usually very rare.

Those spirit beasts were not fools. Even if there was gentle spirit medicine, if a spirit beast encountered it, it would most likely swallow it directly. This was also an important reason why spirit medicines with gentle medicinal power were so rare.

"No matter what you say, you must undergo a test. I need to determine your current condition. If you refuse to be tested, I will not give you the next stage of the Huo Family Spirit Art. So, will you accept this test?" Huo Kai stared sternly at Huo Hai. He did not want Huo Hai to ruin his entire future because of some accident.

Huo Hai's expression also became unusually serious. "Fine, I accept the test." He had no choice but to accept. Huo Hai's heart was bleeding. He truly did not want to undergo a test. Thinking of those novel protagonists, 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 the situation was that 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 be too abnormal during the test.