Having experimented with magic and witnessed Li Xingkong's Body Tempering Grass, Wu Ting and Tang Cheng's journey into the mountains seemed exceptionally bizarre.
Even after they drove back to their hometown, they still looked on incredulously.
This is indeed a bit too far-fetched; I need to process it properly. At the very least, I need to come back and get a good night's sleep, and then see if it's true the next day.
Regarding his spiritual practice, Li Xingkong's current attitude is neither to publicize it nor to deliberately avoid it.
He didn't publicize it because he was afraid that people would come looking for him day and night, delaying his cultivation progress. The main reason he didn't deliberately avoid it was that he now had a certain ability to protect himself, or rather, he had enough strength to put himself in a dominant position.
Although he has never actually engaged in a head-on confrontation with modern weapons, he regularly follows news about military exercises both domestically and internationally, so he is not entirely ignorant of the power of modern weapons.
This makeover of her friend is also a signal.
On Li Xingkong's side, they were his friends and had a good relationship. On Divine Land's side, they were also comrades within the system, belonging to the official ranks. Their identities could be seen as Li Xingkong testing how Divine Land viewed him.
If everyone can get along peacefully and live their own lives, then there's naturally no problem. But if there are any conflicts or problems that can't be resolved, Li Xingkong can simply leave now.
Earth Star is so vast, with hundreds of countries besides Divine Land. He has shown sufficient respect and restraint towards Divine Land because it is where he was born and raised. However, if it were any other place, Li Xingkong would not hesitate to take direct action, crush it, and claim the territory as his own.
Not to mention that Li Xingkong resumed his leisurely daily cultivation after his friends left, it was only about a week after the transformation was completed that Wu Ting and Tang Cheng began to truly become familiar with their transformed bodies.
There were no changes in strength or speed; the biggest change brought about by the modifications was in their physical stamina.
Over the past week, they've been eating much less frequently, sometimes only once a day, and their diet mainly consists of replenishing fluids. Thanks to the energy absorption from the Qi Refining Method, their physical strength has remained at a very high level, even excessively so, to the point that they have no appetite at all.
The advantage of not eating is that there's nowhere to spend the money. My monthly salary wasn't much to begin with, just enough to cover my basic needs. Now that I've cut out food, it's wiped out a major expense.
This also gave them more time to learn the Hibernating Dragon Technique together.
This skill is indeed very complex, far more so than they imagined.
Reading a large amount of literature is only the first step. After reading through it, one must also visualize the visualization diagrams in the literature in one's mind, which is another challenge.
Li Xingkong was able to learn quickly because, on the one hand, he was at an age where he loved learning and had no other distractions, allowing him to devote himself wholeheartedly to his studies; on the other hand, he received systematic guidance that corrected his mistakes on the spot during visualization practice, resulting in a significant improvement in his visualization skills.
However, their learning was very difficult. They were busy with work and had little free time. Moreover, they lacked systematic support and didn't know whether their visualizations were correct or not, so they could only rely on their intuition.
After nearly a week of studying, there has been no progress whatsoever; I'm basically just going in circles.
After numerous attempts, their enthusiasm for the Hibernating Dragon Technique waned considerably, and they no longer devoted themselves to its study whenever they had free time, as they had at the beginning.
" Brother Wu, I'm planning to go back for a bit."
That day, after the two finished studying the visualization diagrams and were resting on the sofa, Tang Cheng suddenly brought up the topic of wanting to go home.
"Didn't you have a bad relationship with your family? Why are you thinking of going back?"
Wu Ting kept his eyes closed and frowned, as he spoke while mentally rehearsing the visualization he had just seen.
"I promised Brother Li, and after thinking about it, I realized this matter still needs my dad to handle. I don't think anyone else is very reliable."
Although Tang Cheng said that, you could still tell from his unwilling look that he was very afraid of his father.
"That's true. We can't just say things like that. If we anger Li Xingkong and he runs away to some secluded paradise, then we'll be out of luck."
They have kept their spiritual practice a secret ever since they returned, and have not told anyone about it.
"What does your father do for a living? I honestly have no idea."
The conversation turned to Tang Cheng, and Wu Ting was quite curious about him.
"Give me a hint, how awesome is your old man?"
Seeing Wu Ting's curious expression, Tang Cheng couldn't remain silent, but it was clear that the information about his father's identity involved some confidential details.
After thinking for a while, Tang Cheng said this.
"He can reach the ears of Heaven; you understand what I mean, right?"
Wu Ting's expression immediately changed, and he raised both hands to give two thumbs up.
"Awesome."
Besides this adjective, Wu Ting couldn't think of anything else to use to describe it.
"I couldn't tell."
After fully acknowledging the old man's awesomeness, Wu Ting glanced at Tang Cheng a few more times and patted him twice.
"Can't you tell what? What's with your eyesight? You look like someone from Nantong."
Tang Cheng felt a little uneasy under Wu Ting's gaze; the look was simply too intense.
"You don't look like a second-generation rich kid at all."
"What do you think? Do you think I have two more hands than you?"
Wu Ting's monstrous gaze truly troubled him. They were all ordinary people; what difference could there be? Even the emperor's son needed to use the toilet.
"Can you cover for me for the next couple of days? I'll be right back."
Unable to bear it any longer, Tang Cheng hastily gave a few instructions regarding the substitute's shift and hurriedly fled the office.
Seeing Tang Cheng flee in disarray, Wu Ting breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, he was quite curious about Tang Cheng's identity at first. Although they had the same goal of coming here to lie low, it was impossible for him not to feel a little unbalanced after learning that Tang Cheng's identity was not simple.
But after leaving Li Xingkong, he had completely let go of that distracting thought.
Having embarked on the path of cultivation, I am no longer an ordinary person. The issues of status and position that I used to worry about have become meaningless after leaving the mountain.
They have a new goal: to pursue greater strength and longer life.
On this goal, he and Tang Cheng are on the same starting line.
With this shift in mindset, the initial uncertainty about how to interact with others due to their different identities was put back into my heart.