In the hospital room, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment—you looked at me, and I looked at you.
They suddenly realized
that the delicate and shy boy in front of them had revealed a hint of the ruthless demeanor unique to high-level cultivators, which made them quite uncomfortable.
"Grandpa, what's wrong with you all?"
Jiang Ding, puzzled, rubbed the back of his head, "Why are you all just staring at me without saying anything?"
Lin Wanqiu wasn't a bit awkward; he stepped forward, touched the boy's head, and laughed aloud, "The way you just patted Jiang Yuan on the head was so funny, acting like a little adult while cheering someone else up."
The others also laughed, and that hint of ruthlessness was instantly swept away completely.
Jiang Ding sat down by his grandfather's hospital bed, placed his hand on his wrist, and carefully sent out a slender thread of his Divine Sense and mana to probe inside.
After a while, his heart sank.
There were no diseases, just plain aging, insufficient vitality of the cells, telomere replication nearing its end, with only about twenty more years of lifespan left.
"Grandpa always thought Dingding was so introverted and shy, he might be bullied by other cultivators out there."
Elder Lin Gang didn't care much for his own physical condition, having expected it, and he laughed heartily, "Now it seems that certainly no one bullies our Dingding, maybe he is as imposing as the high-level cultivators on television."
"I also think that no one bullies him."
Lin Yuanwang swallowed hard.
Just now, just from the faint aura that had leaked out, he had felt frozen stiff; he dared not imagine how terrifying it would be to directly face that pressure.
"There still are some who have bullied me, all I could do was endure it."
In his heart, though, he thought of Patriarch Hua Xue, Mu Tiansnow, Xu's Transmutation God, and An Tuzi.
Lin Gang comforted him, "I think this cultivation is like my job at work, one has to put up with quite a lot. But what can we do? We just endure and get through day by day, don't we?"
The elder's experience was indeed valuable.
"That's right, I recently acquired something, and I was thinking of giving it to Brother Yuanwang. You're in the late stage of Qi practicing now, so it should come in handy. There's no need to rush with cultivation."
Jiang Ding remembered something and took out a green jade box from his Storage Jade Pendant.
He had refined six of them and kept them in the Storage Jade Pendant for nearly ten years.
Today, at last, he got to see him and could give it away.
Lin Yuanwang's breathing stalled, his eyes revealing fervor, realizing what it was.
He trembled as he took the jade box and opened it.
A plump, pigeon egg-sized elixir with three green patterns emerged in front of them, its dense and pure potency spreading in all directions, causing the faces of the surrounding people to quickly flush with an unhealthy red.
"Premium Foundation Building Pill!"
Lin Yuanwang quickly closed the jade box, trembling as he spoke.
"Yes, is that, the Premium Foundation Building Pill that can increase the success rate of foundation building by forty percent?"
Uncle Lin Yong, who had been teaching for many years and knew his stuff, diplomatically said, "Wouldn't this be too precious? If it affects your cultivation, Dingding, that wouldn't be good."
"Haha, It won't affect me,"
Jiang Ding smiled, pretending to be stern, "Uncle, that's not right; when I was little and you gave me lucky money, I just took it and walked away, sometimes too lazy to even say thank you."
"How come when it's your turn to receive something, now that I've finally gotten something for Brother Yuanwang, you become all courteous?"
"Haha, that's true, too,"
Lin Yong chuckled, setting aside his societal habits of many years of implicit false politeness.
With no outsiders present, the family in the hospital room was filled with happiness and laughter.
Even the grandmother, who had been troubled for many days, now had a smile on her face.
Unknowingly, their conversation lasted into the evening.
After dinner, Lin Wanqiu and Lin Yong divided the responsibilities, with Lin Yong taking the first week to watch over their grandmother, while Lin Wanqiu would take over the following week. They then headed back to their respective homes with their grandmother.
The grandmother was also getting older, and staying up late was never good.
After getting out of the taxi, the siblings and their mother walked together on the familiar street near their neighborhood.
Just like a certain evening more than twenty years ago,
They would take a customary walk after dinner to aid digestion.
"I'm telling you, the guy from the factory next door..."
"You little rascal! Don't run off, you hear me..."
On the basketball court, children played and frolicked; young mothers gathered to gossip, and fathers smoked and bragged.
Everything was just as it had happened over twenty years ago, only the people were different.
"I just remembered something."
Lin Wanqiu suddenly said, "A few days ago, a child called me 'Grandma Lin.' At the time, I was stunned and felt like something was off. But then I thought about it carefully, and at over sixty, I really am at the age of a grandmother."
"It's time to hold a grandchild."
She looked at the siblings with a dangerous gaze, "You two aren't getting any younger. When are you going to give me a grandchild? Although I am cultivating, I can hire someone to take care of the child, and I can come by to visit from time to time."
Jiang Yuan gave a sheepish smile, instinctively hiding behind Jiang Ding.
"Mom, you're mistaken."
Jiang Ding replied calmly, "I am only sixteen this year. How could I possibly have a child at sixteen? It's preposterous."
She appeared to be at the fourth level of Qi cultivation, with the aura of the "Ancient Tree Samsara Technique" flickering in and out of visibility around her, exuding an extremely faint sense of eternal youth.
Jiang Ding felt relieved.
After five years of studying cultivation methods and seven years of cultivating, in an environment supplemented by numerous elixirs and a first-order premium Spiritual Vein cultivation room, her progress could be considered slow.
But slow was fine; making progress was what mattered.
"If Jiang Yuan is considering it, you could think about having a test-tube baby."
Jiang Ding thought for a moment and said, "Test-tube baby technology is very mature now; it just requires the genes from the father and mother to create an artificial embryo, which can then be cultured and born. As for childcare, you can buy an intelligent child-rearing robot."
"I don't want kids right now,"
Jiang Yuan flatly refused.
Lin Wanqiu said disappointedly, but she couldn't force the two of them to have children.
"What about Qi Qingshi, what do you think of him?"
Jiang Ding diverted the topic to that young man from earlier in the day and asked.
Jiang Yuan glanced at him warily and replied without hesitation, "Charming, handsome, humorous, hardworking, and also excels academically. The only flaw is his lackluster Martial Dao Aptitude, otherwise there are no shortcomings."
"Is that your own opinion?"
Jiang Yuan emphasized again.
"Well, you know I'm not good at socializing and don't have much talent for reading people."
"But with my Divine Soul and Divine Sense far surpassing those of mortals, I can still clearly sense the general thoughts of ordinary people."
Jiang Ding replied seriously, "This person is extremely selfish; the sort who would abandon everything for personal gain. That's the judgment of a Foundation-building cultivator, and you can take it into consideration."
"Of course, whatever decision you ultimately make, I cannot interfere with."
Jiang Yuan fell silent.