Chapter 135: Turning Back, Longing for Home

Zheng Lan knew full well that if Zhang Pu and Lin Zhifa’s forces truly joined hands to deal with his side, they would be utterly defeated.

As for Luo Binghui’s plan to use the higher-ups in the Jinmu region to pressure Zhang Pu and Lin Zhifa, Zheng Lan felt it would accomplish nothing.

What, then, were they to do? How were they to play the next move?

Later, Qingyuanzi, who was on Zheng Lan’s side, secretly told Luo Binghui that their best course was still to retreat for now. Once they returned to the higher authorities in Jinmu, they could consider how to deal with the situation and devise another plan.

Zheng Lan was helpless, but at least they had obtained samples of Jinmu.

Thus, the group withdrew the following day.

Zhang Pu had also obtained samples of Jinmu, and he felt it was time for him to leave as well. He gave Lin Zhifa his instructions: if more Jinmu was needed in the future, all Zhang Pu had to do was send him a thought, and Lin Zhifa would carry it out. Should anyone else come here to cause trouble, Zhang Pu would learn of it at once. He had planted a vast number of spiritual seeds in Lin Zhifa’s mind, so whatever Lin Zhifa knew, Zhang Pu could generally know as well.

Not long after Zheng Lan and the others left, Zhang Pu departed with Liu Yingde and the rest, leaving the Jinmu region and returning to his own territory of Qingwu.

Zhang Pu now understood the nature of Jinmu. Although it seemed to the people of Earth like nothing more than rotten wood beyond saving, he already knew that Jinmu could do far more than assist him in refining pills—it could even help him forge magical artifacts and treasured weapons.

Zhang Pu first returned to the Flower Sea Lodge. Many of the flowers he had planted there had already begun to grow, and the hillside was no longer the bare, ugly slope it had once been.

As for school, he planned to ask for a few more days of leave.

Having newly acquired the Essence of Wulong as well as Jinmu, Zhang Pu had barely returned to the Flower Sea Lodge when the scene that had once appeared in his dreams naturally rose again in his mind—

A young man of ordinary appearance, yet somehow possessing a cool, unrestrained air, carried a weapon resembling a staff of neither excessive length nor shortness over his shoulder...

The more Zhang Pu looked at him, the more he felt that the young man resembled himself.

Although he was a powerful cultivator reborn from the Immortal Cultivation Realm, he still could not understand why this image had been appearing in his mind lately.

After being reborn on Earth this time, could this thing truly be the weapon best suited to him?

For some time now, Zhang Pu had seemed to have found a fitting combat art from the Immortal Cultivation Realm for this weapon of his.

In his previous life in the Immortal Cultivation Realm, Zhang Pu had encountered many combat arts involving weapons similar to staffs and cudgels. In truth, staff techniques were plentiful—not only in the Immortal Cultivation Realm, but even on Earth.

For the moment, however, Zhang Pu’s first concern was how to forge the weapon itself.

Drawing on the knowledge from his former life, Zhang Pu had already determined that the Essence of Wulong and Jinmu would be the principal materials for the staff he intended to forge, supplemented by several other substances.

The staff was completed within a few days. Its body possessed a dark-golden hue resembling Jinmu, and whenever it was swung, a shimmering radiance would occasionally flash across it. Zhang Pu knew that radiance came from the Essence of Wulong.

Although the staff lacked some of the high-grade materials of the Immortal Cultivation Realm—such as ironwood, Cloud Essence Stone, and fallen fire-stars—Zhang Pu knew that on Earth it could still be counted among the finest cold weapons in existence. He even believed it could withstand bullets.

Liu Yingde praised it without end. After handling the staff several times, he still could not tell what it was made of.

Zhang Pu understood, however, that for magical artifacts and treasured weapons such as this to display their greatest power, what mattered most was the nourishment provided by their master.

The practice of nurturing weapons like these had originated in the Divine Realm. Many of the weapons favored by the gods there had been nourished by their masters’ cultivation over the course of countless years.

Now that the weapon had been forged, Zhang Pu wanted to give it a name.

Having seen many extraordinary things in the Immortal Cultivation Realm, he could think of countless strange and unusual names. In the end, however, he chose something very ordinary.

He had initially wanted to call it the Golden Crow Staff, but it might not be as long as Sun Wukong’s Golden Cudgel. After thinking it over, he decided that Golden Crow Rod would be more appropriate.

Using a certain technique from the Immortal Cultivation Realm, Zhang Pu could instantly coil the Golden Crow Rod into a loop like a belt. When he was not using it, he simply fastened it around his waist.

The Golden Crow Rod truly resembled a soft sword, a quality made possible by the extraordinary Essence of Wulong.

After summarizing staff and cudgel techniques from the Immortal, Divine, Demonic, and Monster Realms, Zhang Pu decided to create a completely original style belonging solely to this weapon of his.

He named it the Golden Crow Rod Technique.

Zhang Pu intended to refine it gradually. There was no need to hurry. Over the next couple of days, he planned to return to school.

After taking so much leave, the semester was already drawing close to its end.

He was not worried about his studies.

During the winter vacation, he planned to return to his hometown for a visit.

At the time, his trip to Wulong Town in the Jinmu region, as well as to Poison Dragon Pool and the place where Jinmu grew, had all taken place under urgent circumstances. Zhang Pu had almost forgotten about his hometown.

Only now, with everything settled and some free time at last, did he suddenly realize how long it had been since he had contacted his family. And it seemed that his family had not contacted him either. Zhang Pu remembered that the last time he had exchanged messages with his parents on WeChat had been before he went to Wulong Town. There had been nothing since.

During that period, he had been busy killing Wulong creatures and gathering Jinmu. Had his parents been busy as well?

Unable to restrain himself, Zhang Pu hurriedly sent them a message. After waiting for some time, he finally received a reply saying that everything was as usual.

Since they had replied, Zhang Pu did not pay it much attention.

His parents were busy with their business. They had leased a tract of mountainous land in Tu County to grow medicinal herbs.

When Zhang Pu had transferred from Tu County to the urban district of Qingwu City, he had not yet undergone any changes. It was only after he arrived in Qingwu City that his soul had been reborn from the Immortal Cultivation Realm.

He still did not know whether he had failed his tribulation and been reborn because he could not let go of the ties of his previous life.

When he left home back then, his parents had been running their own business, leasing a stretch of mountain to cultivate medicinal herbs. At the time, those herbs had been utterly unfamiliar to him.

But now, as the thought suddenly occurred to him, Zhang Pu immediately realized that he could finally offer his parents some guidance regarding that mountain of theirs.

Had he not already begun growing and refining medicinal plants himself? Had he not even cured the stubborn illness of Zeng Guoxing, the great figure behind the Qingwu region? His parents would never have imagined such a thing; even if he told them himself, they might not believe him.

But he truly possessed such abilities now. Even if they refused to believe him, he could return home and prove it to them in person.

A sudden warmth welled up inside Zhang Pu, as though a stream of heat had begun flowing through his heart.