Divine Sense Communication

Early in the morning, Hu Mang held a large chipped porcelain bowl he had brought from his hometown in the northeast, slurping down porridge as he studied his "bargain dad" with curiosity.

After confirming that his "dad" still had power, Hu Mang had handed over the secret manuals he had snatched from the Azure Mysterious Realm almost immediately.

And so, the "dad three-piece set"-teacup, sofa, and "newspaper"-paired with the sun gradually rising outside, suited a middle-aged man's tastes quite nicely.

This time, though, "Dad" wasn't processing them quite so quickly.

By daylight, he was still "reading the newspaper," except that what he held this time was "Zen Divine Ability: Nine-Character Great Hand Seal."

Hu Mang finished his porridge in one go, wiped his mouth with his thumb, and couldn't resist asking, "Dad, let me ask you something."

"Father Hu" turned to him with a smile.

"Do you poop?"

"I do."

"Oh."

After eating, Hu Mang washed the dishes, then went to the bathroom to wash his hands again. While he was at it, he stared at himself in the mirror-

Aside from the features he had grown accustomed to seeing, his skin was as fair and tender as a baby's.

"Oh no, I've gotten another ten years younger. Now I really am a pretty boy."

"If someone I know sees me like this, won't they think I got hyaluronic acid injections?"

With a thought, Hu Mang activated his "Demon Race bloodline." Normally, dense blood markings should have surfaced all over his body.

But this time, there was nothing beneath his skin.

"Damn it all. Who knows when I'll be able to grow back my full coat of protected-demon-grade fur?"

"Forget it. It's summer anyway, so this keeps me cool."

After comforting himself a little, Hu Mang soon wandered back into the living room and looked at "Dad," who was still "drinking tea and reading the newspaper."

"I'm going downstairs for a stroll. If you need anything, like if you get hungry, you have to tell me. Do you know how to order takeout? Oh, you don't have an ID card. Well, carry on, I'm off."

After letting his "undocumented dad" know, Hu Mang tucked the fully charged Spirit Pivot No. 1 into his pocket and strolled downstairs.

The afternoon sun slanted across the mottled old white walls, and the pace of life in the old residential compound seemed frozen in a bygone era.

The vacant patch downstairs that the residents had "reclaimed" was now a thriving miniature garden: scallions and lettuce grew well in beds enclosed by bamboo fencing, while roses and sunflowers bloomed with abandon in discarded washbasins and clay pots.

Now and then, a few chickens and ducks came strutting out of the alley, pacing and pecking beneath the trees as though no one else were there.

The osmanthus spirit tree was lush with branches and leaves. It would be a while before it bloomed, but once September arrived, the entire shabby old "Foundation Establishment compound" would be filled with the fresh scent of flowers.

The osmanthus blossoms, which contained a little Spiritual Qi, were also one of the old lady's sources of income.

"No wonder these old folks don't want the place demolished. They've lived here for so many years. I wouldn't want it demolished either."

Hu Mang wandered over to the small entrance, where a conspicuous sign on the wall read, "Strictly forbidden to run unauthorized wires to undergo lightning tribulations." He had no idea which genius had pulled a stunt serious enough to make the whole neighborhood spread the warning.

The sun had risen a little higher, and its warmth on Hu Mang's body made him drowsy after the half pot of spirit rice he had just eaten.

Who could have imagined that just yesterday, he had been fighting for his life against enemies from all sides?

If not for the unmistakably real Heavenly Soldier Divine Office in his upper Dantian and the Mysterious Yin Devil Moon in his middle Dantian, he would have suspected that his experiences over those six days were an illusion caused by suffering Qi Deviation while cultivating.

Hu Mang fought the urge to go back to sleep and glanced at the time. It was only six thirty; calling anyone now probably wasn't a good idea, so he planned to wait until after eight to bother people.

After charging his device yesterday, he had glanced at his contacts and, sure enough, found a string of missed calls. His mother in particular had racked up a double-digit number.

"Can't sleep. I'll go for a stroll by the river."

Before long, he arrived at his usual strolling spot by the river in the south of the city and sat down on a familiar stone chair.

He didn't see the old cultivator practicing swordsmanship today, but a group of older ladies were practicing an ancient body-tempering technique unearthed from some tomb or other.

Ancient methods? I know them too, and quite a few at that.

His mother never took part in activities like these. As she put it, she might as well spend the time practicing a few more sets of Heavenly Gate Is Calling. It was far more reliable than ancient health-preservation methods.

After all, how many people in ancient times had lived long lives thanks to ancient methods?

Listening to the somewhat grating ancient music, Hu Mang began to feel drowsy again.

For some reason, he had been quite sleepy ever since coming back.

Was it the relaxing effect of having fought a major battle?

As Hu Mang saw it, it was better to wait until people had at least gotten up before bothering them.

But clearly, not everyone thought that way.

Less than ten minutes later, his mother's concern came charging in.

She got straight to the point-

"Hu Xiaoshe!! You little fox cub, where the hell have you been? Why didn't you answer a single call? Are you trying to make me die of anger?!"

"Mom, I haven't even held it against you that you left home without telling anyone, so don't hold a little thing like this against me," Hu Mang said lazily. "Besides, I've got good news for you, Mom. My cultivation has recovered."

On the other end of the line, Mama Hu's blazing anger was doused in an instant by those words.

"Your cultivation has recovered? Really?!"

"Of course it's true. The reason I didn't answer your calls these past few days was that I was getting 'body-tempering treatment' at the hospital. I had to give it my full attention during the treatment."

"The people at the hospital weren't reliable either. They didn't tell me this round of treatment would take a whole week. If I'd known it would take so long, I definitely would have called you beforehand."

Hu Mang spun his nonsense while shifting the blame.

But Mama Hu no longer cared about such a minor matter and immediately pressed him:

"Your cultivation really recovered? Wasn't your foundation badly damaged? It really recovered?"

"Not completely, but I've already recovered my Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation."

The hallmark of Foundation Establishment was Divine Sense, and Hu Mang had reactivated his Divine Sense back in Demon-Subduing City.

As for his realm, what a joke. The Mysterious Yin Devil Moon alone was not a State of Mind someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm could comprehend.

So in every sense, there was nothing wrong with Hu Mang calling himself a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.

But Mama Hu still found it a little hard to believe—or rather, she was delighted but hardly dared believe it.

After all, if he could recover his Foundation Establishment cultivation, her "Golden Core baby cultivation plan" could continue.

"...Turn on Divine Sense Communication. I'll check you myself."

Hu Mang froze. "What's Divine Sense Communication? Mom, we're thousands of li apart. How are we supposed to communicate with Divine Sense?"

"You don't know? It's the most popular communication app in Heavenly Gate right now. You're so young, so how come you don't pay any attention to national affairs?"

Mama Hu's tone said he was behind the times.

"I just had surgery, didn't I? Wait a moment, I'll look for it. Oh, there it is."

In the app store, the app ranked first, with tens of billions of downloads.

"That's insane. Let me take a look."

Hu Mang tapped download, then raised an eyebrow.

As it downloaded, he sensed not only a faint fluctuation of Law Power, but even a trace of Divine Sense.

The app soon finished downloading, and after fiddling with it for a while, he quickly added his mother.

After he tapped "Divine Sense Communication," faint strands of familiar Divine Sense soon came through the electronic screen.

In front of the familiar old courtyard, his mother was picking some kind of vegetable while staring wide-eyed at the screen, her excitement practically taking physical form.

Hu Mang grinned, showing eight white teeth in a textbook impression of a landlord's foolish son.

If this were the Liang Dynasty, he really would have been a genuine "landlord's foolish son."

Sure enough, after sensing "Hu Mang's" Divine Sense, Mama Hu sprang to her feet in excitement, abandoning the vegetables. Amid billowing Yao Qi, she immediately revealed her original form.

The sight of that glossy, sleek coat made Hu Mang green with envy.

"See, Mom? Why would I lie to you?"

"Th-this, this-" The humanoid old fox on the other end had a burning look in her fox eyes. "Good boy, your cultivation really has recovered."

"See? Heavenly Gate's medical care is so advanced now. I think we should trust science and stop turning to crooked methods at the drop of a hat."

Hu Mang spoke earnestly. He felt his mother had reached the age when people would start trying to sell her health supplements, so he had to take precautions in advance!

After that, Hu Mang chatted with his mother about this and that for quite a while, ranging from advances in Heavenly Gate's cultivation technology to how the spirit chickens Aunt Zheng raised next door had grown much plumper and more tender. Perhaps it was because no one had stolen them for many years, so they had all grown up.

After chatting for quite some time, Hu Mang finally hung up the phone—or rather, ended the Divine Sense Communication.

He also warned his mother in advance that he might need another two or three courses of "restorative treatment" and wouldn't return calls during them, so she should be prepared.

This was also a patch he had made for his "second transmigration."

He felt, however, that he had more or less grasped how the "fragment" worked, so he shouldn't suddenly "transmigrate."

He checked the time and found that it was already eight. Once again marveling at how much his mother could talk, Hu Mang called Doctor Sun.

Doctor Sun wasn't as easy to fool as his mother, that thousand-year-old fox.

"You say you've been in seclusion these past few days? You still have two courses of 'electrotherapy' left, so what the hell were you doing in seclusion for? Turn on Divine Sense Communication!"

"..."

Hu Mang repeated the process, and a moment later, a surge of Divine Sense nearly ten times stronger than his mother's came rushing at him.

Soon after, a soft exclamation of surprise came from the other end of the line.

"Divine Sense at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage. How did you recover so quickly?"

Divine Sense, Foundation Establishment Late Stage?!

Hu Mang finally understood what that earlier "warm and cozy feeling" had been.