After Zi Yuan and Zhou Qin woke up, they looked around in astonishment. They didn’t understand how they had arrived at such a place.
But after a moment’s looking, they saw Ao Wushuang and had a rough idea of what had happened and how things had developed.
Zi Yuan felt the changes of the Core Yin Zhenqi in her body and said with emotion, “I didn’t expect that we would get the Divine Aura of Elixir by accident and break through the Jinshen phase. We’ve been seriously lucky!”
Li Yundong smiled slightly and said, “Good people deserve good things. Look at Zheng Yuan and Spirit and Sky, they tried their best to steal the Diyuan Jindan, but they were destined to lose it.”
Thinking of Zheng Yuan doing things harmful to others without even gaining any benefit for himself, Zi Yuan shook her head and said with a rueful smile, “If Zheng Yuan knows that what he has done has been good for us, I’m afraid he will die of anger.”
Li Yundong snorted and said, “Next time I see that old guy, I will deal with him on behalf of heaven!”
Zhou Qin suddenly said, “Wait, I don’t know how Alba is doing!”
Speaking of Alba, the eyes of everyone in the room fell on Kris. At this moment, she slowly woke up and gently let out a long breath. This breath didn’t dissipate and it was like a sharp hail of arrows being sprayed at the wall.
Su Chan, Zi Yuan, and Zhou Qin looked at each other, and a thought came to their minds. “Kris has also absorbed some of the Divine Aura of Elixir. What about Alba? And Li Yundong? How will he deal with it?”
After waking up, Kris slowly opened her eyes and looked around blankly. But what she saw was no longer the scene of a terrible, bloody battle on Tiandu Peak. She was in a traditional Chinese-style room filled with ornate antique furniture. If it weren’t for her finding that Li Yundong and others were standing just beside her, she would have thought that she had been in her grandmother’s room all along and that the trip to China was nothing but a thrilling dream.
However, the reality was different and irreversible. Kris opened her mouth as if she had a thousand words waiting to tumble out, but in the end, she only said blankly, “Am I still alive?”
Zhou Qin, who had always been sympathetic toward her, said softly, “Kris, you’re still alive. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.”
Glancing at Zhou Qin, Kris’s eyes involuntarily fell to the Vulcan’s Whip that was wrapped around her waist. Then her eyes turned to Li Yundong and Zi Yuan. She remembered the horrible fighting she had seen in the Huangshan Cableway at Tiandu Peak. This blond-haired, blue-eyed, high-level student suddenly had a wild delusion. “Who, who are you? Are you aliens?”
Zhou Qin smiled slightly and said, “Kris, we’re just like you. We’re all ordinary people, but we also just so happen to be cultivators.”
In fact, Kris knew this already. But in her opinion, cultivators should only have a few special abilities. Even if she had just seen the scene on Huangshan Cableway, she would have been able to accept it. However, the earth-shattering fighting on Tiandu Peak had far exceeded the limits of her imagination. In her opinion, people like Li Yundong had almost inconceivable power. He was a superman, or even more than a superman!
“Is there really such a person on this earth?”
Kris looked at Zhou Qin in a daze. After a while, she couldn’t help but look at Li Yundong.
Li Yundong sighed softly and said, “Kris, do you now understand why I can’t accept you as my disciple so easily?”
Kris opened her mouth, as if she wanted to argue about something. However, she had a sharp mind, and she quickly understood what was going on. If this type of magic was passed on to an outsider like her, and she passed it over to her own people, what kind of result would it bring?
Kris was extremely unwilling to accept it, but she also bowed her head and murmured in English, “John, I’m sorry… I’ve failed to fulfill your last wish! Li Yundong… he won’t teach me. Although I have Chinese blood, I’m not a proper Chinese person with black hair and yellow skin. Li Yundong is right. This kind of cultivation method is the national weapon of China. He won’t teach a foreigner like me.
“In the past, when I was studying Chinese history, I never understood why the same great ancient civilizations like in ancient India, ancient Egypt, and even ancient Babylon, which created the Resplendent Sky Garden, all declined, their societies fading from the world. Only China’s bloodline has never been cut off over its five thousand years of history. Now, I think… I understand! My grandma was right. There are hidden dragons and crouching tigers everywhere in China, and there are hidden masters everywhere. They don’t usually show up, but when you know more about them, you will understand the profoundness and greatness of this nation!”
Kris whispered gently, as if in a dream. At the end of her words, she couldn’t help but think of the high-spirited bickering she had taken part in on the way to China with John and Alba. But now, she was the only one who was safe and sound. John had fallen into the abyss, and she didn’t know whether Alba was alive or not after being kidnapped!
All of this was like a terrible nightmare! Not only had she failed to cultivate, but she had also failed to fulfill John’s last wish!
Thinking of this, Kris couldn’t help but feel sad and hot, heavy tears rolled down her cheeks. Between sobs, she choked out, “Li Yundong, can you promise me one thing?”
Li Yundong had been born with a tender heart for women. Seeing Kris crying so sadly, he couldn’t help but feel tender and said, “Tell me, what’s the matter?”
“John fell off the cliff. It’s very likely that he’s dead. Alba came to China with us. If anything happens to her, I really won’t be able to explain it to her family. Can you promise me that you will find her and bring her back safely?”
Li Yundong nodded slowly and firmly. “I promise you! But you also have to promise me one thing.”
Kris wiped her tears and said with bleary eyes, “What is it?”
Li Yundong said, “You mustn’t call the police! And you can’t tell Alba’s family anything about her or us.”
Kris stared blankly for a moment, and then hurriedly asked, “Why?”
“Zheng Yuan is cruel and ruthless,” Li Yundong said seriously, “and Ding Nan is not easy to deal with. Since they kidnapped Kris, it means that they must have some ulterior motive. If you call the police, they will intervene. At that time, in order to protect themselves, Zheng Yuan and Ding Nan will definitely find a way to kill Alba and silence her! If we don’t call the police, we can find a way to get her back through our own strength. Do you understand? The more you force them, the more danger Alba will be in. The more you relax, the safer she will be!”
Kris thought for a bit before saying helplessly and sadly, “Alright, I think I understand.”
With this, she wiped the tears from her face, smiled bitterly, and said, “In that case, I’ll leave first.”
Seeing she was about to leave, Zhou Qin couldn’t help but ask, “Kris, won’t you come with us?”
Kris looked at Li Yundong, Su Chan, Zi Yuan, and the cold and arrogant Ao Wushuang next to them. She clearly felt that she was out of place amongst them. She shook her head in disappointment and said in a lonely voice, “No, I have to go to Mount Huangshan again. Maybe I’ll find John’s body there. I have to take it back.”
Her words made the atmosphere in the room solemn and sad. Even Su Chan, who had rejected Kris, felt softhearted for a moment and could not bear to watch her leave.
When Li Yundong saw her turn around and walk to the door, he suddenly asked, “Kris, can you tell me why you want to cultivate?”
Kris stopped immediately, and only after staring blankly for a long time did she turn back around. With a bitter smile, she said, “At first, my only driver was intense curiosity, especially because of my grandmother, who told me that in the distant and mysterious China, there was a mysterious type of person who possessed immortality. At that time, I was extremely curious; was there really immortality in this world? With such doubts in my mind, I came to this land, but everything that happened afterward changed my mind. I no longer wanted to cultivate for the sake of immortality. I was just curious, wondering where exactly this type of power came from. How could a person be so powerful?”
Kris said softly, “The one who wants to cultivate the most is John. His desire for power is extremely strong, and he is even more eager than me to know what the mysteries of all of this are. However, now that he is no longer here, and his wish has fallen to my shoulders, I bear the responsibility and obligation to help him figure out what cultivation is. This is for myself, but even more so for him!”
Everyone in the room fell silent and had different expressions on their faces after hearing her words. Zi Yuan, Su Chan, and Ao Wushuang were born cultivators. They had been born into the cultivation world, so they took everything around them for granted.
However, Li Yundong and Zhou Qin felt a deep resonance with the words of Kris. In the past, they had also been like her, full of strong curiosity about the power of cultivation. In order to understand it, they had disregarded everything!
Li Yundong fixed his eyes on Kris. He nodded slowly and said, “Since that’s the case… then you can stay with me. I will explain to you what cultivation is over time. It can be regarded as a little compensation for John.”
Kris was stunned for a moment, and then her eyes widened, as if she had been snatched from the jaws of death. In her despair, she suddenly saw a glimmer of hope again. She said in a trembling voice, “You, you’re agreeing to accept me as your disciple?”
Li Yundong smiled slightly and shook his head. “No, I just promise you that I will slowly teach you about what’s going on with cultivation. But I can’t accept you as my disciple for the time being. You can be registered with my sect first, and you can be regarded as a titular disciple, not an official one.”
Kris was a China-watcher. She knew that there was only a small gap between titular disciples and entry-level ones. Since Li Yundong was willing to relent today, she thought that as long as she worked hard to cultivate with him in the future, there would be a day when she could realize her wish!
Kris was overjoyed. She was about to kneel down and kowtow, but Li Yundong quickly blocked her with his hands in mid-air and supported her body from a few meters away.
He said with a smile, “Don’t worry. If you are destined to be my disciple, then this kowtow can be done in the future.”
Seeing Li Yundong stopping her from kneeling, she felt both awe and admiration for him in her heart. She lowered her head and said, “Okay, master.”
Li Yundong waved his hand and said with a smile, “Don’t call me master. Li Yundong is fine.”
Kris thought for a moment before saying reverently, “Then can I’ll call you Master Li?”
Li Yundong saw that she was stubborn, but also willing to compromise. He smiled and nodded. Just as he was about to continue talking, he saw Su Chan gently tug the corner of his clothes and wink at him.
Li Yundong knew that Su Chan had something private to say to him, so he went to another room with her. As soon as he got through the door, Su Chan said anxiously in a low voice, “Yundong, how can you accept an outsider as your disciple? Aren’t you afraid that the cultivation skills will be taught to others?”
Li Yundong laughed and said, “Silly girl, didn’t you see that Kris has already absorbed the Divine Aura of Elixir? If I don’t accept her as my disciple today, and the people of other sects see it in the future, they will take her as their disciple and use her against us. What should we do?”
Su Chan was stunned for a moment, but then snorted again. “Are we really afraid of a non-Han barbarian?”
Li Yundong shook his head and laughed. “That’s not true! Our Fox Zen School has enemies from all sides. If our enemy sect sees her exceptional talent and takes her as a disciple, not only will it bring a risk of the secret methods of cultivation being leaked, but it will also set up a strong future enemy for us. Although her strength is weak now, western people are born with sufficient Qi and blood, which are good embryos for cultivation. With the transformation of the Divine Aura of Elixir, her cultivation speed will no doubt be very amazing.”
“But…” Su Chan was still a little unconvinced, but she had to admit that what Li Yundong was saying was reasonable. She wanted to object, but she couldn’t find a good enough reason at that moment.
Li Yundong said with a smile, “Don’t say ‘but’. Instead of letting others grasp her fate, why don’t we control this uncertain factor ourselves?”
Only then did Su Chan stop talking. She smiled and said, “Alright, what you’ve said makes sense!”
Li Yundong and Su Chan smiled at each other and walked out hand-in-hand. What the little girl didn’t know was that Li Yundong had another hidden, evil idea which he hadn’t told her.
For nearly two thousand years, all the outsiders who had integrated into China had been assimilated without exception. Almost all the other countries in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia were also affected by the spread of Chinese civilization.
But in modern times, the western culture had been dominated by the United States, was spreading everywhere, and had even eroded and affected oriental culture.
In Li Yundong’s view, if Wan Zhenyuan could be transformed into a complete “Han man” by his master, couldn’t he change an American girl like Kris into a complete “Han woman”?
