Grandpa, I want to see the moon

"Break!"

Just before the second bolt of lightning struck, Zhang Hongxing let go of the wire in his hand and raced up to the roof.

The lightning struck him squarely on the head, yet failed to singe even a single strand of his hair.

With the power of that lightning, a crack suddenly opened at the top of the egg-sized Golden Core floating quietly inside his dantian, widening steadily under the current's constant stimulation.

Boom.

The third bolt struck. Zhang Hongxing pushed lightly off the roof and shot upward to meet it.

The moment the lightning hit him, the Golden Core inside his body burst apart.

A miniature Zhang Hongxing emerged from the shattered Golden Core and floated cross-legged at the very center of his dantian.

Beneath the miniature Zhang Hongxing floated a purple cloud that constantly released lightning.

His Nascent Soul had formed, and it even had a Thundercloud that had not been there in his previous life.

This development had already exceeded Zhang Hongxing's expectations.

The dark clouds overhead still had not dispersed, and lightning kept striking down.

"Aaah!"

Having broken through to the Nascent Soul Stage, Zhang Hongxing let out a mighty roar and flew straight toward the dark clouds overhead. With all that lightning striking him for him to absorb, he had no need to worry about running out of energy.

As he drew closer to the clouds, both the number and frequency of the lightning strikes multiplied.

Although Zhang Hongxing had only just broken through to the major realm of Nascent Soul, he used that immense power of lightning to keep breaking through in one relentless push.

"Nascent Soul Realm, break!"

"Soul Separation Realm, break too!"

"Divided Spirit Realm, break again!"

After he broke through four realms in succession, the dark clouds above deepened once more, and the lightning strikes multiplied several times over. Still, Zhang Hongxing did not stop. He kept flying upward.

"Fusion Realm, break!"

After another mighty roar, Zhang Hongxing officially entered the Tribulation Transcendence Realm and continued climbing higher.

The dark clouds turned as black as ink, while the lightning transformed into seven-colored bolts. Their power was already more than a hundred times that of the original white lightning.

Yet even this lightning could only end up as energy for Zhang Hongxing.

Poof.

The ink-black clouds suddenly scattered completely. The sky cleared in an instant, and sunlight shone down upon the earth once more.

Clearly, the rules of Earth's Plane had realized that ordinary lightning tribulations alone could not destroy this challenger who had suddenly appeared, so they retreated for the time being.

After this series of breakthroughs, Zhang Hongxing had reached the Human Immortal Realm.

At this realm, he could finally go out into the world and be respectfully addressed as an immortal master.

If Zhang Hongxing unleashed his full strength at this realm, his power could rival a high-yield hydrogen bomb.

His flying speed could even match a fighter jet.

Even in outer space, he could survive for a short time. Though he had never tried it, he reckoned that time would have to exceed seven days.

If he had a reserve supply of energy to absorb, he could extend that time even further.

With the ink-black clouds shielding him, Zhang Hongxing's flight into the sky had not been captured by the satellites orbiting Earth.

And because he had flown upward so quickly, no one near his home had noticed either.

Even his closest family members only knew that his strength had undergone another major breakthrough.

At four in the afternoon, Zhang Hongxing left home as usual and headed to Shimen Elementary School.

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

Seeing Zhang Hongxing at the school gates, Lele and Wenwen ran up to him together, making a group of children stop and stare.

Zhang Hongxing simply chose to ignore them.

"Grandpa, maybe you shouldn't come pick us up tomorrow."

"Yeah, Grandpa. The other kids all walk home by themselves. We can walk home on our own too."

Zhang Hongxing did not care, but Lele and Wenwen felt a little embarrassed.

"Of course. But Lele, as a young man, you have to protect your big sister."

"Don't worry, Grandpa. I'll definitely protect her."

"I don't need you to protect me. I'm older than you. If anyone bullies us, I should be the one protecting you."

"I'm a man. I should protect you."

"I'm your big sister. I should protect you."

Watching Lele and Wenwen start bickering again, Zhang Hongxing smiled faintly and offered a noncommittal reply:

"All right, you're both the best. You can just protect each other."

With Zhang Hongxing mediating, Lele and Wenwen's bickering soon died down. The grandfather and his two grandchildren held hands and began skipping home.

They had not walked far when Lele seemed to remember something. He suddenly stopped and said to Zhang Hongxing:

"Grandpa, our teacher taught us 'The Little Boat' in class today. Can I recite it for you?"

"Of course."

"Sometimes it hangs at the edge of the sky, sometimes it rests on the treetops, sometimes..."

"Sometimes it looks like a round plate, sometimes it looks like a sickle."

"Wenwen, what are you doing? I was supposed to recite it for Grandpa."

"Hahaha..."

Zhang Hongxing grinned and burst out laughing. Every time he watched these two little kids "bicker," he felt an indescribable joy.

"All right, Lele, Wenwen. Grandpa has a question for you."

"What question? I'll answer it."

"I'll answer it."

"You can both answer this question." Zhang Hongxing deliberately paused before continuing, "What were those four lines you just recited describing?"

"The moon!"

Lele and Wenwen answered in unison.

"Wonderful! You both got it right." Zhang Hongxing promptly praised them.

"It's not because we're clever. There's already a picture of the moon in our language textbook."

"Right. Our teacher gave us homework today too. We each have to draw a moon and hand it in."

A trace of embarrassment flashed across Zhang Hongxing's face and vanished. Only then did he finally realize that his grandson and granddaughter were no longer kindergarten children.

They were little first-grade grown-ups now.

If he kept praising them with his old ways of coaxing small children, he might well find himself on the receiving end of more unintentional mockery like this.

"So, drawing the moon. Lele, what kind of moon are you planning to draw?"

"I... don't know."

"Why don't you know? Have you not decided yet, or do you have so many ideas that you don't know which to choose?"

Having learned his lesson, Zhang Hongxing no longer dared to treat him like a little kid.

"Grandpa, do you think we could go up to the moon and take a look?"

"Go up to the moon and take a look? Lele, why do you suddenly want to go to the moon?"

Zhang Hongxing asked curiously.

"The moon is so far away from us. I can never see it clearly. If I could go up to the moon, I'd definitely be able to see it clearly."

Lele spoke with longing written all over his face.

"I want to go too."

Wenwen immediately chimed in. It was easy to tell from the look in these two little kids' eyes that they truly believed Zhang Hongxing could take them to the moon.

In their little hearts, Zhang Hongxing was someone who could do anything.

"All right. Since you both want to see the moon, Grandpa will take you there."

Before today, Zhang Hongxing truly would not have had that ability. But now, why couldn't he take them up there for a look?

At worst, he would exhaust the immortal energy that had only just formed inside him.

"Yay! We're going to the moon!"

"Long live Grandpa!"