TIAN LUO FOREST

Anthony knelt before Huo Fu, a nervous smile on his face. The old man wouldn't even talk to him, his eyes shut, busy with cultivation.

"Old Fu, I have made dinner, look, there are even fishes and immortal ginseng in the soup." He said nervously, but the old man kept silent. Just as Anthony frowned, considering what to say to help his cause, a sudden attack was launched towards his head.

He quickly avoided it, rolling to another side. The old man raised an eyebrow. Anthony didn't make use of spiritual power or soul power just now, he just rolled away and only used his physique art, to improve flexibility.

"You, boy, you have been gone for sixty hours, what have you been doing?"

The smile on Anthony's face froze on hearing the long awaited but unwanted question.

Anthony swallowed a lump in his throat. He broke out of the mysterious valley six hours ago. However, he wasted time before he returned for various reasons. First was sealing the carnivorous demonic vine to prevent it from tainting the entire forest, then absorbing the dark energy, and finally destroying the vine and its roots to prevent a recurrence. Restoring life energy to the areas scorched by the vine's poison took some time too. And he had to seal parts of his cultivation, and use his new skills to mask his soul power and spiritual powers. Once he was done, came the hunt for food and the rush to get the chores done. So he only got around to cooking less than an hour ago.

"Old Fu, the thing is that I got lost. The forest is so vast, I just found my way out a while ago. Look, I even discovered a river connected to a lake with lots of spiritual fishes in it. I also found an ice deposit and used the honey I found from a hive to make a sweet dessert. I even got stung by bees while getting the honey from the hive. And why did I go through all this trouble? It's to make the old master satisfied. The honey was processed from nectar of flowers with spiritual essence, making them equivalent to spiritual herbs, and amplifying their natural properties. See I made a variety of desserts from the egg, cream, honey and goat milk combination. Crème brûlée, honey panna cotta, milk and honey pudding—remains the best. As for the main dish, carrot and pea fried rice, fish and egg scramble, grilled fish, potato and pea pancake. I also brewed the best tea. All for you, old master." Anthony replied, rubbing his sweaty hands against his pants.

It's not as if the old man would beat him, but letting him get curious enough to investigate and find out the amount of herbs Anthony had harvested would be real trouble, a very unnecessary and unwanted one.

The old man opened his eyes and looked at Anthony.

"Have you eaten?"

Anthony was stunned for a moment but quickly shook his head. With an exaggerated look of sincerity and suffering, he placed his hand on his chest and began his sad tales.

"How could that be? The moment I was done with the dishes, I hurried to serve you first. When I thought about you starving for two days, my heart hurt a lot. And I came running to feed you, look…"

"Enough!" The old man snapped, interrupting Anthony.

"Your sincerity is so fake that my toes are curling from the cringe."

"Old master, how can you say that? I'm truly devoted to you even though we got off on the wrong foot. My heart is really pure towards you. Look, haven't I been taking good care of you for the past month?" Anthony said, moving closer to the old man.

Huo Fu cleared his throat and looked away.

"How come I never realized you could be so shameless?"

"It's not shamelessness, it's knowing when to compromise. One more friend is always…"

The old man cut him off with a hand signal, and pulled the table closer.

"You made so many dishes, and they all look good as if a lot of thought was put into their preparation."

Anthony slowly nodded, with a funny expression of agreement on his face. Huo Fu suddenly looked at him as he picked up the tea cup.

"You couldn't have poisoned these dishes, right?"

"How could that be? What do you take me for? Food is sacred, I will never desecrate it. You might be used to taking the underhanded way out, but I'm not like that." Anthony began, his face burning with 'righteous indignation'.

"Alright alright. Get lost already. Your poor acting can't deceive anyone. I know you're hiding something, but I won't bother asking about that. I won't investigate what you do in your free time as long as the chores are done. Don't forget to come for your daily training." He said, dismissing Anthony with a wave of his hand.

******

Anthony arrived at the training ground, after carefully locking away his powers with a minor seal that could be unsealed in an instant. He met Huo Fu standing with his legs apart and axe in hand like some ancient giant.

Anthony flashed him a confident smile, earning him a disdain filled scoff from Huo Fu. He rolled his eyes, not taking Huo Fu's attempt to humiliate him seriously. He pointed to a spot and Anthony saw four trees that seemed like they were uprooted from their roots. His eyes widened in shock and he barely held back a gasp. They were all hardwoods. How could someone have uprooted them easily and even transplanted them to the training ground within such a short period?

"This is your training for today." He said and threw two blunt kitchen knives to him. Anthony picked them up, wondering what such blunt and flimsy knives could achieve.

"You have till morning to thinly slice these four trees into little splinters. The sizes should be small enough for a five year old kid to play with. And don't bother trying anything funny, I will know if you used soul power or external help to do it. Remember, it must be these exact same knives. Cut the four trees into small pieces."

Anthony looked at him, his eyes wide with incredulity at the ridiculous request. He looked at the tiny knives, then the gigantic trees, and the old man.

"What kind of sick joke are you making? How can a tree be chopped with kitchen knives?"

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