"Haha! I've finally opened all eighty-one meridians!" A booming laugh suddenly echoed from the cultivation grounds.
Five months had passed since Wu Tianjun began focusing on alchemy. The guardians and the eight great spirit bodies had also dedicated themselves entirely to their cultivation, and now, someone had finally achieved the first breakthrough!
"Hmph! Feng Daoling, you're not the only one!" a cold voice rang out.
"Haha! Huo Yunfeng, you're still missing one meridian. Don't even dream of succeeding within three days!" Feng Daoling immediately retorted.
"You two are far too noisy," Mu Xingshi grumbled reluctantly, having been jolted awake.
*Boom...* A dull thud resounded.
"I've also opened all eighty-one meridians! What are you all making such a fuss about?!" Lu Yunzheng had also reached the absolute limit of the Meridian Opening realm at this very moment.
"Ugh... Why is this last meridian so difficult? I still can't force it open after six hours!" Mu Li huffed, her eyes wide and her face flushed with frustration. How dare those guys break through before her! *Big Brother won't like me as much if I'm lagging behind.* "You guys interrupted my cultivation! I'm going to tell Big Brother!" she threatened angrily.
"Uh, Xiao Li, I wasn't the one who woke you. It was Feng Daoling!" Huo Yunfeng quickly defended himself.
"Ah! Xiao Li! I didn't wake you either, he's talking nonsense!" Feng Daoling chimed in hurriedly, cold sweat trickling down his back. This girl was the Young Master's absolute favorite; if she complained to him, they would all be in deep trouble.
"Sigh... So this is what eighty-one meridians feels like? Incredible!" Hu Yu also roused from his cultivation at that moment. "Have you all forgotten the Young Master's words? Hurry up and open your meridians! Why make such a fuss over this? The Meridian Opening realm is nothing in his eyes." Hu Yu held a healthy fear of Wu Tianjun, so his tone grew remarkably solemn whenever he spoke of him.
"Hmph! Everyone needs to work harder. We must not disappoint the Young Master!" Yan Ling'er said, opening her eyes and addressing the crowd.
"Sob... I still can't open the last meridian..." Chen Xiaoling opened her eyes, her face falling into a pitiful pout. She and Mu Li were the two who most frequently clung to Wu Tianjun and acted spoiled. After all, they were closest in age to him, with Mu Li being the youngest of them all.
The old monsters, who had also been roused by the commotion, stared at them as if they were freaks, utterly speechless. These "monsters" were indeed as terrifying as they had suspected. Ever since Wu Tianjun activated their spirit bodies and bloodlines, their progress had soared to the heavens. Combined with the Thunder Tribulation Fluid he had given them to strengthen their souls, cultivation had become as effortless as eating and drinking. Every single one of them aimed to open all eighty-one meridians—a feat the old monsters had only ever heard of in legends. Now, eight such geniuses had appeared all at once... no, ten! If one counted Wu Tianjun himself and the slumbering, cultivating beast, Little Qing!
"Alright! What is all this racket? Get back to cultivating! After Meridian Opening comes Qi Gathering, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul! You all must solidify your foundations," Ma Lian barked sternly. Although these youths possessed terrifying talent and unique physiques, they could not be coddled or praised too much. A complacent cultivator carried a fatal weakness.
"Understood, Second Guardian!" The eight immediately fell silent at Ma Lian's words. His prestige among them was the highest; they truly could not comprehend why the Young Master had ranked him second. The spirit bodies were also deeply curious about this.
"Second Brother! Do you think the Young Master has forgotten something?" Chi Danzi asked Ma Lian at this moment. They had gradually changed how they addressed each other.
"Huh! You mean Wu Zixuan? The Young Master said he would pick him up in three months, but now it has been five..." Ma Lian said, his face darkening slightly.
"..." The Protectors looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
"Do you think the Young Master expects us to go pick up the Boss ourselves?" The one who spoke was the Eleventh Protector; he had only recently broken through to the Saint God realm.
"This..." As the Eleventh Protector spoke, the faces of all the powerful experts stiffened. If that were the case...
"I'll go pick him up!" Ma Lian said hurriedly, then vanished. "Spirit, quickly send me outside!" he shouted loudly into the air.
*Boom... Boom...* Outside the Primeval Wood Star Forest, the ground cracked open. Ma Lian leaped out, his spiritual sense unfurling into the air.
"Huh! Wu Zixuan! It seems you made the right choice!" Ma Lian muttered to himself. It wasn't that he was wrong not to pick up Wu Zixuan three months ago; rather, he believed that Wu Zixuan choosing not to stay at the Martial God Academy but coming here to join them was the correct decision!
Ma Lian shot off in a certain direction, where he sensed Wu Zixuan's aura.
"You've arrived..." Wu Zixuan, who had been sitting there for five months, opened his eyes upon sensing Ma Lian's aura and spoke. "How does the Young Master intend to deal with me?" Wu Zixuan said helplessly; he no longer had any say in the matter.
"Haha! You know how magnanimous the Young Master is, don't you? He doesn't really blame you that much. Consider these five months you've spent here as the Young Master testing your perseverance," Ma Lian said shamelessly, without a blush or a tremor in his heart.
"So... he forgives me?" Wu Zixuan asked, looking at Ma Lian with a mix of disbelief and surprise.
"Mhm! He sent me here to pick you up!" Ma Lian said with certainty. "Let's go!" After saying this, Ma Lian turned and flew toward Demon Dragon City.
"..." Wu Zixuan was a little slow to react, but he quickly snapped out of it and rushed after Ma Lian. As long as Yu Tianjun forgave him, everything else would be easy.
Ma Lian and Wu Zixuan quickly arrived at Demon Dragon City.
"Has the Young Master come out of the alchemy room?" As soon as they entered the cultivation grounds, Ma Lian immediately asked.
"Alchemy?!" Wu Zixuan asked, bewildered.
"Not yet! I wonder if the Young Master has refined a Heaven-grade pill yet. If he has, he'll probably come out of seclusion. It shouldn't be too long!" Chi Danzi sighed, saying, "Given Yu Tianjun's previous performance, it probably won't be long until he refines a Heaven-grade pill. At most, another year, and he'll have refined it. Very quickly."
"Heaven-grade pills?!" Wu Zixuan's eyes widened. What were these two talking about? The Young Master didn't know anything about alchemy before. The total time he hadn't been by Yu Tianjun's side was less than eight months. In less than eight months, he wanted to refine Heaven-grade pills?
"Haha! Boss Wu, you don't know what kind of comprehension the Young Master has! His very first attempt at alchemy resulted in an Earth-grade pill, and by his third attempt, he already had a finished product!" Chi Danzi said with a laugh. They weren't too surprised to see Wu Zixuan.
“Greetings, Great Protector!” The Eight Great Spirit Children, who had not yet seen Wu Zixuan, now respectfully greeted him.
“Great Protector…” Wu Zixuan was a little surprised but quickly regained his composure. Previously, Yu Tianjun had designated them as the Twelve Protectors.
“I’m the Second Protector!” Ma Lian said with a smile.
“I’m the Third Protector!” Chi Danzi also said. “Jiang Yu is the Fourth!” He added, since Jiang Yu hadn’t returned yet.
“Kuang Yu! Fifth Protector!”
“Xie Feiyun! Sixth Protector!”
“Nie Shi! Seventh Protector!”
“Wang Qianqian! Eighth Protector!”
“Lin Xia! Ninth Protector!”
“Yun Jiutian! Tenth Protector!”
“Xiao Feng! Eleventh Protector!”
“Chu Yu! Twelfth Protector!”
Everyone here told Wu Zixuan their designated order. Later, they rarely used their real names, instead employing these designations which made even the strongest experts in the starry sky tremble. Their true names were known to very few.
“…” Wu Zixuan was a little stunned. The Young Master had already established his own power! Although he currently didn't know how powerful the Eight Great Spirit Children were, just the Twelve Protectors alone were enough for Yu Tianjun to carve out a piece of the starry sky.
“They are called the Eight Great Spirit Children! The Young Master spent no small amount of effort on them. From now on, we will take turns each month answering their questions!” Ma Lian said, pointing at the spirit bodies.
“Eight Great Spirit Children…” Wu Zixuan immediately widened his eyes when he saw Yan Ling'er’s Water Spirit Body. The Young Master truly gathered the Eight Great Spirit Roots and brought them back to nurture! He immediately released his spiritual sense to investigate them, but strangely, he only saw a cloud of mist.
“Haha, no need to investigate. They possess the Eight Great Spirit Roots, but we don’t know what the Young Master did to them, so we fundamentally cannot investigate them!” Ma Lian said with a laugh, seeing Wu Zixuan frowning at the spirit bodies. They had tried before too.
“So that’s how it is…” Wu Zixuan nodded, but was even more astonished by Yu Tianjun’s methods. He was only at the First Level of the Divine Realm, yet his methods were endless!
“Boom!!!” Suddenly, a loud explosion rang out from the alchemy room, and then a somewhat disheveled white figure ran out. It had been five months since the first two batches of pills exploded, and this was the third explosion.
“Cough cough! As expected, it’s dangerous!” Yu Tianjun said with a hint of fear. Fortunately, he had let Ma Ying control his body to avoid a calamity; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so simple just now! It truly was dangerous! Yu Tianjun wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Huh?!? Why aren’t you cultivating? What are you doing out here?” Yu Tianjun asked in surprise, seeing everyone present. These guys weren’t cultivating, but ran out here to watch him in a sorry state? His face immediately darkened.
“Ah! Big Brother, I’ve been cultivating very diligently!” Ma Li immediately ran over excitedly when she saw Yu Tianjun.
“Hey! I’ve been very diligent too.” Chen Xiaoling also ran over, wanting to act spoiled.
"Hmph! Eighty meridians..." Wu Tianjun was slightly surprised, then tapped the foreheads of the two girls. "You've worked so hard, yet why haven't you successfully opened your meridians like the others...?" Wu Tianjun said sternly. "Back then, this Young Master opened eighty-one meridians in nine days, and I wouldn't even dare call myself diligent! Five months and you still haven't succeeded, yet you dare to say you're diligent? Go cultivate on the side. If you dare to come out before you've finished opening your meridians, I'll show you what a mistake is!"
Wu Tianjun's words startled everyone present, especially the old geezers. Opening meridians in nine days... What kind of cultivation speed was that? No wonder he had reached such a realm at his age. Not to mention Wu Tianjun himself, just those spirit bodies alone were enough to make countless people in the outside world die of envy!
"Hmph! What's with those expressions? My big brother didn't cultivate from childhood until he was eight, and then he reached the Human Core Realm in ten days. What's so special about that? A bunch of country bumpkins!" Wu Tianjun delivered another heavy blow.
"..." Everyone gasped, sucking in a breath of cold air! What kind of cultivation speed was that? Did he even want others to live?
"Hmph! I have to go out and undergo my tribulation now, Chi Danzi! Later, you can explain how your Young Master failed to refine a God-Lord level pill, causing the cauldron to explode. Good thing I ran fast..." Wu Tianjun said nonchalantly, then walked out to face his tribulation. He found it incredibly strange that over the past few months, despite refining pills, his cultivation speed hadn't decreased; in fact, it had even increased.
"Undergo tribulation?! Why is he undergoing a tribulation already? Isn't the Young Master only at the first stage of the God Realm?" Normally, one would only face lightning tribulations after reaching the God-Lord stage within the God Realm. The others immediately looked bewildered, while only Chi Danzi remained stunned.
"Failed to refine a God-Lord level pill?!" he muttered. Only then did the others remember Wu Tianjun's latter statement... "Explain how your Young Master failed to refine a God-Lord level pill..."?!
"He..." The others looked at each other, dumbfounded. Five months, it had only been five months! Not five years, not fifty thousand years, but five months! They truly felt like "a bunch of country bumpkins," just as Wu Tianjun had said!