Chapter 43: Expectation

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Expectation

"WHOOSH!"

Su Han had just felt a draft between his legs when the sound of something tearing through the air came from the courtyard wall.

The first to appear on the wall was Feng Muxi, who lived in the courtyard to Su Han’s left. Standing on the wall, Feng Muxi’s first sight was a stark naked Su Han. His mouth twitched, and he instinctively averted his gaze.

Hearing another whoosh coming from the right, Feng Muxi seemed to realize something, and his expression changed slightly.

"Go back!"

As he shouted, Feng Muxi tapped his toes against the wall, darting across Su Han’s courtyard to land on the right wall. He arrived just in time to block Miss Feng and Su Muyan, who had also heard the commotion of Su Han crashing through his house and were coming over to see what had happened.

"Brother?" Miss Feng looked at him, utterly bewildered.

Feng Muxi shook his head without explaining. "Give it a moment. It’s nothing serious."

While Feng Muxi held off Miss Feng and Su Muyan, Su Xiao’Er and the two maids, Xi and Qiao, who lived in the same courtyard as Su Han, had also figured out the situation.

Xi stepped forward and draped an outer robe over Su Han’s shoulders. Together with Qiao, she led him to another room that hadn’t been collateral damage in his accident. They helped him wash up and change into clean clothes.

When Su Han walked out of the room again, it wasn’t just Feng Muxi, Miss Feng, and Su Muyan waiting for him. Even Prince Jing and the Princess Consort, who lived much further away, were already standing in the courtyard.

"Han, what is..."

Seeing Su Han reappear, Prince Jing first grabbed him and inspected him from head to toe. Only after confirming that he wasn’t injured did the prince finally voice his confusion.

"Uh..." Stared at by so many pairs of eyes, Su Han felt a bit bashful and scratched his head in embarrassment. "It’s just... I gained some insights while cultivating just now, and accidentally... made a tiny breakthrough."

Everyone looked at him in bewilderment. "A tiny breakthrough?"

"Well..." Su Han quietly raised his aura a bit, pushing it from the early stages of the Spirit Platform Realm to the appearance of having just broken through to the mid-stage. "I just accidentally broke through from the early Spirit Platform Realm to the mid-stage."

Everyone was speechless.

Prince Jing and the Princess Consort exchanged a glance. The Princess Consort pulled Su Han over and grabbed his hand, sending in her Spiritual Power to investigate his condition. After her Spiritual Power circulated through him and withdrew, the strange look on her face only deepened.

"So... you’re trying to tell us that you simply gained some insights during your morning cultivation, and accidentally broke through from the early Spirit Platform Realm to the mid-stage?"

Su Han gave his mother a meek look. He knew this still sounded absurd, but it was far easier to swallow than the truth. If he told them he had likely unlocked the Immortal Platform Secret Realm, undergone a metamorphosis in his life tier, and vastly strengthened his physical body, it would be too much. Otherwise, what was he supposed to say? That he had already shattered the limits of Foundation Establishment, possessing an immense physical strength of 999,999 catties in the Foundation Establishment Realm alone? That today he had accidentally fortified himself again, enhancing his physical body by another hundredfold?

If he said that out loud, he worried he would accidentally scare his parents out of their minds.

"Phew." Receiving Su Han’s confirmation, the Princess Consort and Prince Jing exchanged another look. Both recalled that Su Han had gone out last night and only returned at the crack of dawn. By silent agreement, the two of them attributed this breakthrough to his nocturnal outing. However, seeing that Su Han didn’t want to make it public, neither of them exposed him.

"You make such a huge ruckus just from breaking through. Are you planning to dismantle the entire Prince’s Residence the next time it happens?" The Princess Consort glared at her son, turning to order the servants to clean up another courtyard. "You can’t live in this courtyard for the time being. I’ll have someone prepare a new one for you to stay in.

"Seeing as you’ve just broken through, your realm seems a bit unstable and your aura is fluctuating. Once your new place is ready, go into seclusion and stabilize your cultivation."

Su Han nodded hastily and buttered them up with some sweet talk until he finally managed to send his parents off.

Once Prince Jing and the Princess Consort were gone, Feng Muxi and Miss Feng both congratulated Su Han.

"Congratulations on your breakthrough, Su," Feng Muxi said. "To reach the mid-stage of the Spirit Platform Realm at the young age of sixteen—such innate talent makes even me feel ashamed of my inferiority. Given time, your achievements will surely be limitless."

Su Han offered a few polite, modest words in return and looked up at Feng Muxi.

Under the Eye of Truth, the other party’s cultivation base was naturally laid bare. Feng Muxi, who appeared to be only about twenty years old, actually possessed the cultivation of the Divine Sea Realm at Perfection. This was much higher than that of his own father and mother. Even Miss Feng, standing beside his sister, seemed to have already opened her Sea of Consciousness.

This realization left Su Han secretly astonished, and he couldn’t help but grow even more suspicious of the Feng siblings’ true identities.

Recalling the information Liu Ming had revealed the previous night, and combining it with the recent influx of unfamiliar faces in Lingzhou City, Su Han secretly guessed that the siblings’ objective was likely also the legacy left behind from the era of the Immortal-Demon War. Especially since he still remembered the faint scent of blood that morning.

However, Su Han wasn’t foolish enough to confront them directly. After chatting with the three for a while, he excused himself under the guise of needing to consolidate his cultivation and moved into his newly prepared courtyard.

Closing his door tightly, Su Han used Introspection via his Divine Thought to examine himself.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, his Divine Thought Power had increased by more than threefold. In his Dantian and Qi Sea, the Spirit Platform—which had previously been forged under the control of his Divine Sense and could be considered flawlessly perfect—seemed to have become even purer. Even his cultivation, having just broken through to the mid-stage of the Spirit Platform Realm, had refined further, placing him not far from the late stage.

Of course, none of this was the main point.

The crucial point was that under the observation of his Divine Thought, within the previously fog-like gray matter in his body, a bright spot was shining like a star. It was constantly altering Su Han’s body, causing his life tier to evolve to a higher level.

He wondered if this was the ball of light released after he broke through that patch of gray fog.

Looking at that bright spot, which shone eternally like a star, Su Han couldn’t help but feel amazed. Just releasing a single point of light had brought such a tremendous change to his body. If he remembered correctly, during his first Introspection, he had seen over three hundred such bright spots scattered throughout his body.

If the day ever came when he could completely release all three hundred of these spots, what kind of astonishing transformation would that bring?

Furthermore, he recalled that it hadn’t just been those three hundred-plus bright spots; there were also dozens of things resembling seals, radiating energy many times stronger than the bright spots themselves.

Faintly, Su Han began to feel an eager anticipation for the day he could release every single one of those specks of light.

After locking himself in his new room for the entire morning, Su Han finally pushed open the door. He called for Su Xiao’Er and the two of them headed out of Prince Jing’s Residence.

He had come straight back yesterday after dealing with that habitual scammer from the Central State, Liu Ming. He wondered what kind of reaction the Liu Residence would have the next morning when they realized their "esteemed guest" from the Central State was missing.