6: Chapter 6: Smoke Keeps Rising from the Ancestral Grave

Swoosh—

The endlessly flowing Starfall Heavenly Cascade resumed its course.

The radiant light at the cave dwelling's entrance slowly faded, and the stone doors silently slid open to both sides.

Ning Yuan stepped out.

As soon as he emerged, the sight before him gave him a start.

Five heads—no, six—all crowded forward in unison, their faces etched with concern and anticipation, eyes wide as copper bells.

The Heaven Swallowing Beast, even more enthusiastic, leaped up and bounded right onto him, its furry head nuzzling insistently into his chest.

"Wang Zai, you're too heavy. Get down right now."

Ning Yuan wore a look of disgust, lifting a foot to give its Corgi-like plump rump a light kick, sending the clingy little creature flying.

Immediately after, his eyes lit up as he spotted a familiar figure.

"Grandpa! What brings you here?"

That stern-faced, white-haired Hua Tianchi, Hua Tianchi, broke into a brilliant smile the instant he saw his Grandson.

Since his wife's passing, only when facing this precious Grandson would he reveal such a heartfelt smile.

"My good Grandson, if your grandpa hadn't come, your other grandpa, that old coot, would have nearly ruined everything!"

As he spoke, he shot a fierce glare at Ning Jianghe beside him.

Ning Jianghe rubbed his nose, looking sheepish.

How could he have anticipated that his Grandson's first cultivation session would cause such a huge commotion?

Had he known, he would have insisted on finding a secluded Star Sea secret realm beforehand and setting up multiple concealment arrays.

Ning Yuan listened, utterly confused.

"Huh?"

It was his grandmother, the Bai Xiuning Bai Xiuning, who doted on her Grandson the most. Gently taking Ning Yuan's hand, she concisely explained the earth-shattering events that had occurred outside over the past three days.

After hearing it, Ning Yuan was completely stunned.

He couldn't help but click his tongue.

My goodness, the Star Sea trembled, startling the Ten Thousand Races, with hundreds of Alien Race Venerable Spirits projecting their forms?

brother tongzi, isn't that a bit too much!

He silently communicated with the system in his heart.

"brother tongzi, can we keep a lower profile next time? One should be humble like me, you know? Humility leads to progress, pride leads to fall!"

[...]

The system fell into a rare silence.

Ning Dashan could no longer hold back, stepping forward urgently to ask:

"Yuaner, while you were cultivating earlier, did you feel anything unusual?"

Ning Yuan was prepared for this.

The matter of the system was his highest secret, something he naturally couldn't reveal.

If such a heaven-defying secret were exposed, the Ten Thousand Races of the Starry Sky would likely immediately set aside all grudges and join forces to eliminate him.

It was best kept to himself alone.

He appropriately showed a hint of confusion, scratching his head.

"Nothing too special... Just when I started cultivating, I felt like my Star Bone underwent some change, as if some star chart was trying to form inside..."

Before he could finish, his grandfather Ning Jianghe raised a hand to stop him.

"Alright, there's no need to go into such details with us."

He cautioned with a serious expression, "This is your own great fortune. Remember, divine secrets cannot be divulged. If fortune is revealed, luck will wane."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.

Ning Dashan even received a loud knock on the back of his head from his father-in-law, Hua Tianchi.

Hua Tianchi glared at him with a mix of disappointment and frustration.

Back in the day, he had never taken a liking to this son-in-law. It wasn't that he thought Ning Dashan lacked talent or character; it was purely because he had only one daughter and saw every suitor as a pig trying to uproot his precious cabbage.

It wasn't until Ning Yuan was born that his attitude softened somewhat.

Hua Tianchi ignored his son-in-law and instead looked at Ning Yuan with eager anticipation.

"Good Grandson, tell your grandpa quickly, how did your first cultivation session turn out?"

At these words, everyone's eyes lit up in unison, their gazes burning as they fixed on Ning Yuan.

Seeing this, Ning Yuan smiled slightly but didn't answer directly.

He turned and beckoned to the Corgi that was still rolling on the ground, acting cute.

"Wang Zai, come here."

The Heaven Swallowing Beast immediately scampered over, wagging its behind.

"Show me your true form."

"Awoo!"

Accompanied by a fierce yet childish howl, the harmless-looking short-legged creature's body swelled violently in the wind.

In the blink of an eye, a majestic beast, thirty meters tall, resembling a giant dog with four towering dragon horns on its head and clad in pitch-black scales, appeared before everyone.

Its ferocious maw was filled with interlocking fangs, exuding a heart-palpitating aura of ferocity.

Only its eyes remained filled with fawning adoration for Ning Yuan, creating a strange sense of dissonance.

Seeing this, Hua Tianchi said in surprise, "Isn't this the little one I gave you back then? It seems its nurturing period went well. It could become a great asset for Yuaner in the future."

As soon as he finished speaking.

Ning Yuan moved.

He suddenly crouched down, arms exerting force, the dragon-elephant particles within his body instantly erupting!

Under the stunned gazes of the onlookers, he actually lifted the small mountain-like Heaven Swallowing Beast onto his shoulders!

Then, he began doing squats.

One, two, three...

After finishing the squats, he effortlessly hoisted the Heaven Swallowing Beast onto his back and began doing push-ups.

Next, he even grabbed the Heaven Swallowing Beast's two hind legs, swinging it through the air like a sack, before finally carrying it on his back and frog-jumping back and forth across the mountaintop.

Throughout it all, his face wasn't flushed, and his breathing remained steady.

Only the corner of his clothes got slightly dirty.

By the time the thoroughly disoriented Heaven Swallowing Beast was tossed to the ground, it was foaming at the mouth and trembling.

Meanwhile, Hua Tianchi and the other big shots were completely dumbfounded.

What the hell? This is something a human youth who just completed his first cultivation session can do?

With every move, his qi and blood surged, faint roars of dragons and elephants echoing within!

Even the famed young geniuses of the Golden God Clan, renowned for their formidable physiques, could never be this exaggerated, could they?

No, they were far inferior!

They weren't even fit to carry Ning Yuan's shoes!

"Hiss—"

Ning Dashan sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

Hua Qingyue subconsciously pinched Ning Dashan's arm and sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

Everyone collectively sucked in sharp breaths of cold air.

For a moment, the temperature on Thunder God Mountain dropped by several degrees.

"Yuaner... it seems he wasn't cultivating the Star Immortality Technique," Ning Jianghe was the first to react, his voice dry.

Hua Tianchi added, "Carrying the Heaven Swallowing Beast in its thirty-meter true form and running... that qi and blood strength must be well over a million jin!"

The two Hua Tianchis exchanged a glance, seeing unparalleled excitement in each other's eyes.

They understood better than anyone what this meant.

His first cultivation session had far surpassed the limits of a normal high-level Qi and Blood Warrior!

In short.

To sum it up.

It was absolutely fucking incredible!

Their descendant had the potential to reach the pinnacle of strength among the Ten Thousand Races in the future!

A moment later, Ning Yuan patted his hands, though there was no dust to begin with.

The Heaven Swallowing Beast also reverted to its Corgi form and continued to fawn over him at his feet.

Hua Tianchi could no longer restrain himself, eagerly asking:

"Yuaner, just how much qi and blood strength do you have now?"

Ning Yuan smiled modestly, extending five fingers.

"Not too much, not too little. Exactly five million jin."

As his words fell, the scene plunged into dead silence.

You could hear a pin drop.

Everyone stood frozen in place as if under a paralysis spell.

How much?

You said how much?

A few seconds later.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Hua Tianchi was the first to erupt into earth-shaking, uproarious laughter, the sound causing the heavenly cascade to churn backward.

"Excellent, excellent, excellent! Truly worthy of being my Grandson, Hua Tianchi!"

He glanced smugly at Ning Dashan and Ning Jianghe.

"You're stronger than your useless father! And far stronger than that old ghost of a grandfather! Their first cultivation sessions probably didn't even reach a fraction of yours!"

Hearing this, Ning Jianghe snorted disdainfully.

"As if he's not stronger than you too? Back in the day, I had you firmly beaten!"

Then, his wrinkled face also broke into a wide smile.

"It must be the seed of my old Ning family! The blue smoke over our ancestral grave just keeps billowing, one plume after another. We must return to our ancestral star someday to properly pay respects to our forefathers!"

After the initial frenzy of joy, everyone gradually calmed their excited hearts.

A practical question now lay before them.

With a Prodigy like Ning Yuan, where should he go to continue his cultivation next?