Teng Shifang was in a sorry state. Half his beard was singed, his body was riddled with burns and wounds, but his eyes were unprecedently bright. As the tribulation clouds dispersed, majestic energy entered Teng Shifang's body and healed his wounds.
"Congratulations to the Patriarch for successfully overcoming the Soul Nourishing Heavenly Tribulation," Teng Wuba said. He wasn't the only one, as numerous other Teng Family members also congratulated Teng Shifang.
"No need to bow. I only have around seven days left before I have to leave. During this time, arrange a banquet so as to cement the Teng Family's status," Teng Shifang said.
The Teng Family immediately left to execute the patriarch's orders. The previous gloom from the robbing of the imperial treasury and kidnapping of Wang Meilin was all but forgotten. All except one.
"Grandfa—Patriarch, grandson's wife and child were kidnapped. Please reclaim grandson's family." Teng Wuba lowered his head, not daring to look his grandfather in the eye.
"Wu'er, you are I, Teng Shifang's, most outstanding descendant. You're already a late martial grandmaster before you're fifty. But your life was too successful, and you had that lass's constitution to aid you in your cultivation. That's enough. You should learn to persevere and carve out a path for yourself," Teng Shifang said.
Teng Wuba lowered his head. "Grandson is really unreconciled. My wife and child were stolen by another man."
Teng Shifang gazed into the distance. He pinched his fingers together and began to calculate. "That Leng Clan brat and Li Princess, I will catch both of them and eliminate the hidden dangers. As for the Gu Dynasty, it's still ultimately up to you."
"Thank you, Grandfather!" Teng Wuba said, elation filling his face.
Without using any artifact or techniques, Teng Shifang stepped onto the air. This was the innate ability of soul nourishing and nascent soul grandmasters. Once he was above the walls, the prime minister suddenly frowned and said, "Who is it?"
Pressure exploded from Teng Shifang's body, causing everyone within a hundred meters to kneel from the invisible weight. The worst was Teng Wuba, as he was the closest. His veins became pronounced as he tried to resist the pressure, and during the process, he heard a soprano, child-like voice.
"Congratulations, I'd thought my student would become the first to achieve the Soul Nourishing Realm in this era, but it seems that you aren't bad."
A young girl with fiery red hair wearing a white dress appeared in front of Teng Shifang. The space around her twisted, causing her presence to be murky.
"Juedai Fenghua," Teng Shifang said.
"Teng Shifang," Fenghua replied in kind, a knowing smile on her face.
"Do you want to stop me?" Teng Shifang asked.
"Do you think I can't?" Fenghua said in turn. "If you were a soul nourishing grandmaster from a high-rank or immortal-rank realm, I would have some misgivings. But you aren't."
Teng Shifang's brows furrowed. Fenghua's words revealed too much. "No wonder you had so many spells. You didn't inherit it from a legacy in the
Allfist Realm, but you fell into a low-rank realm."
"Correct." Fenghua easily admitted.
"Do you think I don't dare to capture and interrogate you? So what if you're from a higher realm? You're in the Allfist Realm now," Teng Shifang said.
Fenghua's smile deepened as her eyes became frosty. "Capture me? I said that you don't have the ability."
Teng Shifang didn't waste any words and charged at Fenghua. He frowned when he saw Fenghua's figure become blurry and split into eight figures around him.
"Parlor tricks." Teng Shifang punched out eight times, his qi wrapping around his fist, carrying his attacks, and struck all eight Fenghuas. However, all of his attacks phased through Fenghua's body.
"Since you've had your turn, now it's mine," Fenghua said.
Three foxtails formed of flame appeared behind each Fenghua. The core was red, but the edges were silvery-white, giving it an unusual aura. When Teng Shifang glanced at the three flames, he felt his head pulse. Sensing danger, he attacked the Fenghuas again.
After fighting for a short while, Teng Shifang's felt a head-splitting headache. Suddenly, the eight figures entangling disappeared, and a ninth Fenghua appeared in the distance. In her hands was a ball formed of silver-white flame. Without giving Teng Shifang a chance to compose himself, she launched the ball toward the soul nourishing grandmaster.
Alarm bells rang in Teng Shifang's mind. Disregarding everything, he used everything ounce of his effort to dodge, but he still couldn't prevent Fenghua's attack from grazing his arm.
However, despite Fenghua's attack only grazing his arm, Teng Shifang felt as if his soul was going to split from his body. It took him five seconds to recompose himself. During that time, he was wary of Fenghua taking advantage of his moment of weakness, but strangely, nothing happened.
A tense silence followed as Teng Shifang stared at Fenghua and no longer attacked. "What did you do?"
"That's why I said you won't be able to do anything to me. You don't even know about the existence of soul cultivators," Fenghua said.
"Soul cultivators?"
"Yes, you should have gotten the inheritance of an expert. So you know the two major paths, the spiritual and martial paths, but spiritual cultivation can branch off into the soul path. Martial cultivators focus on the fleshly body, spiritual cultivators focus on qi, and soul cultivators focus on the soul. And souls are the foundation of all living beings." Fenghua lightly said.
Teng Shifang stayed silent. Although Fenghua didn't say much, he wasn't stupid, so he could infer a lot. "But you can't do anything to me either, can you?"
Fenghua stayed silent with the same smile.
"Do you think you can escape all the martial practitioner's greed? I just need to spread the word," Teng Shifang said.
"Don't bother. In the immortal realm, there's a saying for soul cultivators. In the same realm, soul cultivators are invincible, and numbers are meaningless." Fenghua said. "But, you can try if you want. I won't guarantee the survival of the Teng Family after you leave, though."
'Not that I think Junfeng will allow your family to survive either.' Fenghua thought.
"Are you threatening me?" Teng Shifang asked with a darkened expression.
Fenghua released a bark of laughter. "Bumpkin, I'm just stating facts. What you said before was a threat. Actually, I honestly hope you can attain immortality. Then when we meet in the immortal realm, I will let you know your folly."
"You're just a mere core formation master. I'll show you your folly."
Fenghua's knowing smile deepened. "This isn't my real body, you know? I'm just a clone, I'm afraid if I said my identity, you'd be too afraid to ascend. Haha."
"Clone?"
Fenghua lost her smile; It felt like she was singing to a cow. She waved her hand. "Forget, I forgot you're lacking knowledge. Anyways, don't look for trouble with my student before you ascend. Otherwise... well, you know."
Saying those words, Fenghua disappeared. Or at least she seemed to have disappeared. Teng Shifang had been focusing on Fenghua, so he realized that Fenghua didn't disappear, but her presence became extremely low, making people subconsciously ignore her.
Teng Shifang's brows twitched a bit. His spirits had soared high after becoming the sole soul nourishing grandmaster of the Allfist Realm, but just as quickly, reality told him that he was still ignorant.
"Grandfather."
Teng Shifang glanced at his most promising descendant. "As you've seen, the teacher of the Leng Clan's sole survivor isn't simple. If I take action against him, she will most likely kill all of you. In the end, it's better for you to take her back yourself."
"How is that possible. You are a supreme master like Allfist. How can a little girl like her stop you?" Teng Wuba said, more to himself than Teng Shifang.
"Her background isn't simple. I will have to ascend in seven days. You should make some preparations." With those words, Teng Shifang left. Teng Wuba wasn't feeling good, but neither was he.
Six days later, the Teng Family held a grand banquet and invited every peak martial grandmaster, even the hidden ones. The Teng Family, under the gathering of so many experts, reigned in their arrogance and humbled themselves.
The feast that ensued lasted for a whole day and night. During the feast, many cultivators presented their problems to Teng Shifang, seeking enlightenment. Teng Shifang would explain to the best of his abilities. This wasn't because he was kindhearted, but tradition.
Every time an acupoint opening master ascended to a soul nourishing grandmaster, they would enlighten the cultivators before ascending to a higher realm. It was a tradition started by Ancestor Allfist. Teng Shifang could have chosen to ignore this tradition, but if he did, he would incur the enmity of every martial practitioner in the realm.
Once the banquet was over, every martial practitioner respectfully sent off the soul nourishing grandmaster. A coercion that no mortal could resist arrived above Teng Shifang, everyone except himself. Under the eyes of everyone, a giant hole appeared above, and Teng Shifang began to float into it. Simultaneously, the spiritual qi around the Teng Family increased. This wasn't a temporary effect but a permanent one.
This was the reason why many Heavenly Daos of realms wanted cultivators to ascend. The more people that ascended, the higher their chances of evolving to a higher realm. Compared to when Ancestor Allfist first ascended, the spiritual qi density was at least a hundred times greater.
Fenghua was also present, but she was observing from a distance. Even her main body had never seen someone ascend since he inhabited one of the two immortal realms, the highest realm in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System.
"Meilin!" Leng Junfeng said as he hugged his childhood friends that he hadn't seen for five years. However, after he hugged her, he immediately felt something wrong. "Meilin, what happened to your cultivation?"
Leng Junfeng felt that if he wasn't careful, he could snap Wang Meilin's body in half. She was even worse than a regular mortal who had never practiced martial arts.
Wang Meilin gave a bitter smile, and tears started to gather at the corner of her eyes. "Big Brother Junfeng, I...I...I!"
Wang Meilin wanted to vent her frustrations and tell everything to Leng Junfeng, but she couldn't. Would Leng Junfeng still look at her the same way as before when he understood what happened to her? Caught between telling and not telling Leng Junfeng, Wang Meilin's expression became uglier.
"Stop, what're you doing to my mom!"
At this time, a child around three or four ran out and pushed away Leng Junfeng. Leng Junfeng looked at the child in surprise. "You're Mei'er's son?
He glanced at Wang Meilin to see her head hung low in shame.
Afterward, he learned the nature of the matter. He had always known that Wang Meilin married Teng Wuba, but he had selectively ignored what that would entail. However, that wasn't all.
There was a reason why Teng Wuba would marry the daughter of a loose cultivator. Wang Meilin had a special physique that allowed those who dual cultivated with her to increase their cultivation at the expense of her foundation. In the Huang Realm, Wang Meilin's physique would be known as the Living Pill Physique. Additionally, she possessed a water spiritual vein, increasing the power of her physique in all the worse ways.
As a result of five years of living with Teng Wuba, Wang Meilin had returned to being a mortal. Naturally, the reason Teng Wuba wanted to chase her back wasn't that he loved Wang Meilin but the benefits he brought her. He still had some affections for his son, Teng Jun.
Leng Junfeng had left after discovering Wang Meilin had a son. Now he was sitting in the courtyard with a dazed expression.
"Junfeng, how are you feeling?" From the side, Li Qiu'ai asked as he walked forward.
"How am I feeling? What do you think?" Leng Junfeng asked with a self-deprecating smile.
Li Qiu'ai sighed, but inside, she was a bit happy. A man could be very possessive. Once he discovered that his woman was defiled by another man, a rift would likely form. She pitied Wang Meilin, but all's fair in love and war.
"If it weren't for the scoundrel Wang Ming, Meilin wouldn't have fallen to this point," Li Qiu'ai said.
"Wang Ming?" Leng Junfeng said. After repeating his name for a second time, a torrent of killing intent appeared. "It seems that the time for his retribution for betraying the Leng Clan has come."
Li Qiu'ai gently patted Leng Junfeng's shoulder. "Now's not that time. After Prime Minister Teng ascended, his prestige reached a new peak. Many martial practitioners will likely come forward to protect the Teng Family."
She was also distressed. With the Teng Family's current reputation, reviving the Li Dynasty seemed almost impossible.
"There is always hope. If we can find my teacher, she might have a way."
