As Li Xingkong's flying speed increased, the bustling scene of the Li Xingkong Imperial Capital quickly flashed past behind him. Although the increase in mobility expanded the size of the Imperial Capital several times over, it still had its limits as a city.
Once outside the city limits, everything became quiet, and with no one around, Li Xingkong sped up again. After all, being eager to get home was no joke.
Before long, Li Xingkong, relying on his old memories, arrived above the village where he had lived for many years.
The city's nightlife was certainly very vibrant, but this vibrancy didn't seem to extend to the village. When Li Xingkong flew over the village, only a few lights were flickering, and most of the houses had already turned off their lights and gone to bed.
Although the villagers have also come into contact with cultivation, the problem in Divine Land before was that there were many elderly people and very few young people in the villages. For the elderly, cultivation is a very difficult thing, and even now, many elderly people cannot cultivate smoothly.
As people age, their energy wanes, their minds become easily confused, and they are prone to forgetfulness. The first hurdle—perceiving Spiritual Qi— is already quite difficult for them. Moreover, many elderly people face an even bigger problem: illiteracy.
Although Divine Land's education rate is very high now, in the past, education was a privilege enjoyed by only a few families. Most poor families had to work in the fields from a young age and simply did not have the opportunity to receive an education.
The trend of cultivation is almost fully formed, but the elderly people in these villages are even more desolate. When the electronic trend came, they regarded it as a crooked path and rejected it, so they had no feelings or regrets. But now that the trend of cultivation has risen, regret and resentment have appeared in their eyes for the first time.
The hope of immortality was right before his eyes, but because of his age, he could only watch it all happen. He wanted to reach out and do something, but it was like trying to Scooping the Moon from the Water —he gained nothing.
Li Xingkong could make out the location of his house from the dim light, but his house was dark and no lights were on.
He fell from the sky and landed on his own front door. The door was locked, and the lock was covered in a thick layer of dust; even pressing your finger on it left a fingerprint. It looked like no one had lived in the house for a long time.
"Strange, where did they go?"
Li Xingkong reached under the stone bench by the door and found the key to the front door tucked there. This was a secret key storage location known only to his family. When he was a child, his parents worked Heavenly Capital, and Li Xingkong would come home early, always retrieving the key from there.
The key had been there for quite a while; the keychain was even a bit rusty. Li Xingkong picked up the key and opened the door.
Pushing open the door, the weeds in the yard were incredibly vigorous, growing to about half a person's height. Only the brick path leading from the doorway to the house still had a trace of life; the rest of the area was completely overrun by weeds.
Li Xingkong quickened his pace, took a few steps forward, pushed open the door, and cleaned up everything that could be moved, leaving only a few old beds and pieces of furniture. It had been so long that dust covered the floor.
"They moved? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
Li Xingkong scratched the back of his head; he really hadn't received any news about his parents moving.
After leaving his house, Li Xingkong looked around. Some neighbors were still awake, their lights still on. So Li Xingkong went up and knocked on their gates before going inside.
" Brother Erniu, are you there?"
"Hey! Who is it?"
A loud voice came from the house, and soon a strong man came out. Since Li Xingkong started cultivating, his appearance and physique had hardly changed, so Brother Erniu recognized him at a glance.
"Oh, isn't this the Li family's boy? What brings you back? Come, come, come sit at my house for a while. Your yard hasn't been tended to in ages."
" Brother Erniu, I was in seclusion for a while recently, so why aren't my parents here when I come back?"
Li Xingkong followed Brother Erniu into the house, Brother Erniu took out a plate of nuts from the kitchen.
"Hey, you haven't just been in seclusion for a short while, you've been doing it for several years. Your parents moved to the city, they moved away 5 or 6 years ago, to Dragon City, which is right next to us."
The two sat down on the sofa in the living room and chatted while eating sunflower seeds.
"Sigh, they didn't even tell me. I came straight here as soon as I came out of the pass. Turns out I made a wasted trip."
Li Xingkong found it strange; logically, his parents should have at least told him beforehand.
"Aren't you working in some classified unit? Maybe you're not receiving their messages."
With a gentle twist of his Magic Power, Brother Erniu cracked open a handful of melon seeds. He then tossed the seeds aside, separating the kernels from the shells.
"Maybe."
Li Xingkong, thinking that since he was on the moon, the signal might really be weak.
"Hiss~"
Li Xingkong considered a possibility. He turned on his phone, which he hadn't used since leaving the country. After a quick glance, he indeed found the problem.
My phone went into seclusion and then ran into arrears. The arrears exceeded the time limit, and the number was taken back by someone.
Damn it, this is unbelievable. Who could have predicted this? Ever since he started cultivating, he's been intercepting information when he goes online, sends and receives messages, and makes and receives calls. This phone is just a receiving terminal. He hasn't used it in a long time and hasn't paid much attention to it.
No wonder I haven't been receiving messages; my situation has completely cut me off from the outside world. It would be a miracle if I were receiving anything.
My parents have never been in contact with Old Tang and his group, so they couldn't possibly pass on a message to me through them. They really couldn't get in touch with me.
Well, it turned out that Li Xingkong was a little anxious at first, but it was his own oversight. Once he realized this, Li Xingkong's previously anxious heart immediately relaxed.
It's really just scaring yourself unnecessarily.
Alright, now that he knows the news, Li Xingkong isn't in such a hurry anymore. He'll just call his parents when he gets to Dragon City.
"I'm sorry to bother you, Brother Erniu. I haven't been back for a long time, and there are indeed some things I don't know."
After eating some melon seeds, Li Xingkong prepared to take his leave.
"Hey, wait a minute, Xingkong, I remember you were presenting awards to them at the first Martial Arts Tournament."
Just as Li Xingkong was about to leave, Brother Erniu suddenly called out to him.
"Yes, Brother Erniu, you have a really good memory."
Li Xingkong turned around. Brother Erniu called him back, so there must be something he wanted to say.
"So Xingkong, you should be able to speak with those above now, right?"
Brother Erniu's eyes flickered slightly, and he asked a question in a mysterious tone.
"What's wrong?"
Li Xingkong found it strange. Why would someone ask such a question? Could it be that they wanted to pull some strings and get in through his back door?
Although it was just a matter of a word from Li Xingkong, he still didn't really want to do it.
"Well, what I'm saying is, if you have the chance, could you put in a good word for us and help us reduce our annual Magic Power Tax? We've been working really hard at cultivating, but it's really exhausting."
Brother Erniu was also a little embarrassed to ask for favors, after all, asking for favors was never something worth talking about.
"Huh? What's that?"
Li Xingkong heard a word from Erniu that he had never heard before.
What the hell is this called Magic Power Tax"?