Waking up at the morning’s light coming from the window, Himo yawned loudly.
“Now that I reached the Meridian Strengthening phase, let’s see the status!”
§-----------------------------------------------§
[Shu Himo, 10 Years old]
[Hp: 100%] [Mp: 574]
§-------§
[Strength: 33.2][Endurance: 17.1]
[Agility: 52.4] [Dexterity: 46.2]
[Intelligence: 57.4] [Perception: 63]
[Realm: Body Strengthening] [Stage: Meridian Strengthening][Foundation%: 100%]
[The maximum stats points at this realm is 70]
[The average cultivator’s stats points(In the area close to the User) at this realm is 8.2]
§-------§
[Khenqi Quality: Low][Khenqi Amount: 0.026]
[???: Chaos][??? Grade: Locked]
[???: None]
[Skills: [Intimidation lv_1], [Hopper lv_1].]
[State: When will you stop being this weak?]
§-----------------------------------------------§
Himo’s eyes widened in shock. “My stats increased several times! Was the fight against Seji that effective? Like this, I bet that I can use stacked hopper even without the aid of the walls!”
With a smile on his face, he prepared quickly the necessities for the trip and walked to the dining room to have breakfast. As soon as he saw the rest of the family waiting there, he said, “Good morning!”
He waited for a few seconds for their ‘good morning’, but what came instead was his father’s stunned voice.
“Me-Me-Meridian Strengthening phase?!”
“Himo… are you going to advance a phase a day?” Ashey was dumbfounded. “You said yesterday that you will go to some remains… are you going to return as a Dantian Core Formation realm cultivator?”
Himo laughed awkwardly, he knew that no excuse would work anymore. Just as he was about to sit down to eat, his little sister ambushed him with a hug. Himo noticed a silver hairpin holding her hair's right side and smiled. He had gifted it to her the previous day.
“You’re going away?” She clutched his clothes with her hands. “Promise me that one day you will bring me with you!”
Himo was stunned for a moment, but he soon patted her head as a grin grew on his face. “As soon as I’m strong enough, I promise that I will bring you to visit every corner of this world.”
When he said those words, no one noticed that Eitha turned to look at the sky behind the window as a gloomy sigh left his mouth.
-----
During breakfast, Himo discussed with his family about the trip, reassuring them that he was ready. Soon, he walked outside of the manor, waving to his family as he left their sight.
He reached the north gate around an hour later, where he found Seji and his master.
“Good morning!”
“Good morning!”
Exchanged greetings, they walked toward the exit of the gate, where a guard stopped them.
“Please wait a moment. Give me your names, so that I can record them.”
“My name is Ro Jonhan, and he is my disciple Ru Seji.”
The guard wrote their names, then shifted his gaze toward the next, but wasn’t able to see the last as he was behind Jonhan. Just as he was about to ask again, a childlike voice reached his ears.
“Shu Himo.”
“Eh?” Hearing that name, the guard’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest. Why is he here?!
He was the same guard who had gazed Himo disdainfully when he first came to the kingdom. After finding out what happened the previous day in the arena, he got terrified of a possible revenge.
Cold sweat covered his back. Why did I look at him like that?! A guard like him was nothing in front of a noble family like the Shu.
“Hey! Are you alright?” Himo was startled seeing how the guard kept getting paler. Had the guard caught some weird disease?
“Huuk! Yes, yes, I’m fine!” Noticing that Himo didn’t recognize him, the guard sighed in relief.
“Ah, now that I think about it, you’re the same guard of two days ago, right?”
As if heaven’s will had just declared his death, the guard felt the world crumble around him. Please, don’t kill me! I’m just a guard! I didn’t mean to look you like that!
After a few interminable seconds, the guard slowly opened his eyes again, only to see Himo looking at him puzzledly.
In fact, Himo was baffled. Had this guard eaten something weird? “Calm down, there’s no need to act like that, breathe slowly.”
The guard, on the other hand, noticed that Himo didn’t plan to punish him and managed to calm down.
Himo sighed in relief when he saw that the guard regained his colours. He nearly gave himself a high five, seeing that his advice had managed to solve the situation.
“I apologize for my rudeness, it’s all ready, you can go anytime.” Praying for Himo to leave immediately, the guard stared expectantly at the child.
Startled by that gaze, Himo felt a shiver run across his body. He bid farewell to the guard hurriedly and walked away with the other two.
After the three walked a few hundred meters, Seji couldn’t hold back his curiosity anymore. “Ehm, Himo, did you do something to that guard? He seemed scared of you.”
Jonhan also pried open his ears, waiting for the answer.
“Scared?” Himo was dumbfounded. “This was only the second time we met each other, I don’t think I did anything warrant of his fear… unless… is my external aura strong enough to scare him?! So that’s why he was getting pale!”
Witnessing Himo getting lost in his delusions, Seji and his master were left speechless and gave up on receiving a proper explanation.
