Xue Ren's mother warmly greeted the cute-as-a-button Mei Mei before sparking up a conversation with Ji Ya, Mei Mei's mother.
Linghua chewed on her collar while watching that cutsie cutsie girl strut over to her Xue.
'Her whole act is fake! I can see right through it, humph!' Linghua thought. 'She isn't worthy of my Xue! No one except for me is!'
As her eyes gradually darkened, Mei Mei finally made it within talking distance of the brother-sister pair. But completely ignoring the latter, Mei Mei hopped on over to Xue Ren and… hugged him!
"YOU!!"
Linghua had murder in her eyes, barely stopping herself from unleashing the full extent of her cultivation and burning this mortal girl to death!
"Been a while, Xue…" Mei Mei said in a childlike voice while smugly glancing over at the fuming Linghua. "You wanna play?"
"No, I don't."
"Really? What game do you wanna play??" Mei Mei said smilingly, hugging him even more. "Can try jumprope."
"I'm good."
"Mhmkay! Will go and get the rubber rope from mother right away; just a sec, Xue!"
"...."
'Why does no one ever listen to me…?' Xue Ren bemoaned while holding Linghua's hand to stop her from obliterating everything in a hundred-meter radius.
For the remainder of the day, he spent his time entertaining his supposed playmate. Only when the sun fell was he finally able to get away.
"I really want to train already…"
At 3 years old, Xue Ren's body was far too weak and fragile. It couldn't even handle doing a single push-up, let alone the grueling regimen he had in mind to kickstart his journey of Character Development.
Fortunately, 2 years later, sometime after his 5th birthday, Xue Ren's body matured enough to begin building real amounts of muscle.
Some months into his training journey, he learned from his parents that taking Body Refinement Pills would speed up the muscle-gain process even if he wasn't yet a Cultivator. However, with his strict policy on no external factors affecting his training, he denied all temptations.
Only with pure, untainted hard work could one achieve great things!
Relying on external sources was for the weak-willed!
But even with an unshakable resolve pushing him to the limits of his body and mind, Xue Ren quickly realized that training without using external resources was far slower than with them.
Other children from similarly affluent households who were forced to take supplements on order of their parents saw twice the results with half the effort!
The only reason they were doing any training at all was because their parents wanted them to succeed when it came time to awaken and choose a Cultivation School or Sect to attend. And yet even with such fickle determination, they still achieved nearly as much as Xue Ren, who was working many times harder than them.
But for him, who had always been the underdog, this wasn't even a minor setback.
He simply resolved himself to work twice as hard, going at it 12 to 14 hours a day!
The Grind waited for no one!
Between increasing his knowledge and training his muscles, Xue Ren barely had the time to sleep. But with his 7th birthday fastly approaching, his gains truly began to show.
*Pow!*
Unleashing a strong blow that conjured up wind, Xue Ren pushed a wooden dummy back several meters. A splintered hole could be seen in its center, exceeding even the already high expectations of his father and sister who were watching off to the side.
Xue Ren stared down at his steaming fist, his mind stirring.
'With the addition of the 1st Move 'One-Inch Punch' of the Martial God Series that I developed in my previous life, even a dummy that can block the full force of a Bone Refinement Realm Cultivator was destroyed,' he thought. 'And that was while utilizing only 10% of my strength.'
Looking at his physique, Xue Ren had defined muscles all over. His height was multiple inches above what it should be at his age, and his skin was both tanned and scarred.
His journey thus far had not been easy.
'However, normally, even what I did wouldn't be enough to actualize gains like this,' Xue Ren thought. 'It would appear that the atmospheric Spiritual Energy that exists everywhere in this world assisted in speeding up the training process. That's likely also why my muscles regenerate so quickly as well, allowing for back-to-back-to-back gains—'
"Wow, Xue!" Linghua jumped him, rubbing all over him a couple of 'things' that were also growing abnormally fast. "You're so awesome! Even while unawakened, an average Bone Refinement Realm Cultivator is no longer your match!"
"Indeed, Little Xue's progress is immense," Fang Ren said proudly. "When he awakens, he's sure to shock the entire world right alongside you, Little Linghua."
"Hihi, that's my dream~" Linghua got lost in delulu land while hiding Xue Ren in her bosom.
'Actually, I can probably take on a Half-step Qi Condensation Realm Cultivator, which could be the Sect Leader of a weak Sect,' Xue Ren vacantly thought to himself. 'However, there's no point in showing them all that I've got. Especially not when I have a sister as exceptional as mine…'
In just a few short years amounting to a little over six and a half, Linghua ascended from cultivationless all the way to the 3rd Layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm!
She was already almost as strong cultivation-wise as their parents, who were hundreds of years old and Core Elders!
And that was without even factoring the addition of her Unique Spiritual Root Effects, Innate Skills, and Ultimate-Type Space Element.
If used all at once and at maximum efficiency, Linghua could very well be considered the most powerful in the whole Bluemoon Sect...