Li Shen stepped outside and saw the boys of the group.
“Hey guys, you finally decided to leave seclusion?”
He said with a smile, but as soon as the others heard him they visibly flinched.
Mu Fan who was in Jun’s face quickly turned to look at him with an apprehensive gaze. The others also had similar looks on their faces.
“Hey hey, you aren’t going to torture us, aren’t you? We just came out of seclusion!”
Mu Fan slowly backed away and looked as if he was ready to run away at any moment.
Li Shen only looked at him casually and said.
“You think you could escape if I wanted to catch you?”
Hearing that, Mu Fan’s skull went numb and like a veteran that came back from a brutal war, he had PTSD images of Li Shen’s “training” flash across his mind in horrific fashion. And so did the others.
However, Li Shen only shook his head and then said.
“So? How did your seclusions go? Have you all broken through your current cultivation bottlenecks?”
Mu Fan scowled at and then said while pointing at Li Shen.
“Brat! Do you think breaking through a cultivation bottleneck is as easy as cooking rice or something?!”
“Jun,” Li Shen said.
Hearing that, Jun flipped over his hand and quickly took out a small metal pole.
A somewhat malicious expression was present on his face as he looked at Mu Fan.
He was quick to approach him and Mu Fan seeing this was furious, but with Li Shen here he could only take it.
Jun didn’t hold back and began hitting Mu Fan with the metal pole like he was beating a sack of rice.
For the past four months, Mu Fan had been running his mouth and he had been waiting for a time like this when he pissed off Li Shen with his big mouth and was tasked to deal out the punishment.
To Jun, this satisfying but fleeting moment was the highlight of his life. He and Mu Fan didn’t get along but it was worst when Li Shen wasn’t there.
Hearing Mu Fan's pitiful screams a rush of excitement ran through his veins. He was prepared to get as many hits in as Li Shen said to stop.
Meanwhile, Yang Su, Fei Yin, and Fang Chen tried to tune out Mu Fan’s screams in the background as Li Shen continued.
Turning to Yang Su, Li Shen asked.
“How about you guys?”
As his disciples, he was more attentive to their cultivation progress.
“I improve on the cultivation method I gave you to better absorb the Six Elements, but aside from Fire Qi, Water Qi, Earth Qi, and Wind Qi along with the subsidiary element Lightning, you haven’t formed the others to have tribulation. Instead, it looks like your Fire Qi is drifting away from the others in strength.”
Li Shen with a frown patted Yang Su’s hair which had a deeper shade of crimson than two and a half years ago. He had cut it to shoulder length some time ago and decided to keep it that way.
He had become so conscious of it that he would wear a veiled hat when going out.
“Your cultivation path is different from others. With your Six Elemental Qi Dao Foundation, you can develop several Qi Seas while in the Sea Expansion Realm. This is an incredible opportunity, and the potential you’ll have in the later stages of cultivation would be limitless.”
Li Shen then sighed.
“But now I’m wondering if I had put too much pressure on you. If you want to break through with the elements you have now it’s fine. The others have all reached the Foundation Realm so I understand if you feel like you've been left behind.”
Li Shen looked at Yang Su who was lowering his head.
After a moment Yang Su said.
“Master, you gave me this opportunity, how can I just throw it away by not taking advantage of it?”
“Even when that hinders you from accomplishing your personal goal? Ling Xia probably thinks you’ve forgotten your promise.”
Yang Su visibly flinched upon hearing the mention of Ling Xia.
Looking up at Li Shen, complicated emotions could be seen in his eyes.
Yang Su didn’t want to break through now and let down Li Shen’s expectations when he could accomplish so much more in the future if he developed all Six Element Qi Sea. But then there’s his promise to himself about Ling Xia, that he would get stronger to stand before her again.
However, he couldn’t even face her as he’s now.
Li Shen saw the struggle with the decision in his heart and said while patting his shoulder in assurance.
“I said this numerous times, no matter the choices you make in the future you’re still my disciple and I’m still your Master, okay?”
Yang Su nodded his head, but Li Shen could still see that the knot in his heart hadn’t loosened. This was something he couldn’t convince Yang Su to be comfortable choosing, he could only come to a conclusion on his own.
After sighing in his heart, Li Shen turned to speak with Jun but saw that he was still beating Mu Fan senseless.
Mu Fan’s cries were so pitiful they could bring tears to a rock.
“Jun enough.”
Li Shen wanted to stop him but Jun seemed as if he didn’t hear him. His swings only became more vicious.
“Someone stop him, he’s going out of control.”
Fei Yin quickly head over to Jun and tried to pry him away from Mu Fan, but even as he was pulled away he continued to try and hit his sack of rice.
“Jun stop, you're going to kill him at this point!”
Fei Yin said in an attempt to calm Jun down while Mu Fan was twitching on the ground, eyes white with froth at the corner of his mouth.
Seeing this, Li Shen wondered if his decision to put Jun in charge of punishment was right.
Soon after things calm down, Jun cupped his fist towards Li Shen, bloodied metal pole in hand.
“Master, the punishment has been dealt out with.”
Li Shen gave him a strange expression before he asked.
“How was your cultivation?”
“Master, I was unable to break through my bottleneck and enter the Mid Foundation Realm.”
Jun said that with a downcast expression.
“You’re cultivation speed is already fast. Using no more than three years to reach the Early Foundation Realm from zero cultivation? You’re the fastest among the group in terms of cultivation speed.”
After saying that Li Shen turned to Fei Yin and he saw him shaking his head.
Seeing that, Li Shen sighed in his heart.
Even after nearly three years, Fei Yin’s cultivation hadn’t moved an inch. He seemed to have used up all of his potential after going all out trying to avenge his family by killing Bai Shin.
He then turned to Fang Chen, and he shook his head as well.
He had successfully created his Nine Qi Seas, making his master’s sword formation, Nine Swords of Slaughter, bloom with immense lethality. But his next step was cultivating each Qi Sea to enter the 9th stage of the Cultivation Realm in one go.
Li Shen helped him in any way he could, teaching him a few Soul Cultivation methods to improve his Soul Sense. That way he could manage his Qi Seas more easily and increase his chances.
But Li Shen warned him to not force it. Creating one Divine Platform was already difficult and extreme focus was necessary. Fang Chen trying to form all Nine at once was fraught with dangers at every turn.
After getting the results of their cultivation progress, Li Shen nodded a few times before he said.
“See? I told you all to focus more on your martial arts as each of you have reached bottlenecks after steamrolling through your cultivations over the years. I was even willing to take time out of my self-training to help you guys.”
All of them flinched at that, and even Mu Fan who was recovering looked at him as if two horns were protruding from his head.
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