Owen helped Ah Dai sit up and brought the prepared ginger soup to his lips. Upon seeing Owen, Ah Dai’s eyes welled up, and without caring about the soup, he gave Owen a tight hug, crying, "Uncle, uncle, Ah Dai is dead, Ah Dai is dead."
Owen’s eyes reddened too. He put the ginger soup aside, patted Ah Dai’s back, and comforted him, "Ah Dai isn’t dead. Your uncle has brought you back from the sea. Be good; drink so ginger soup first."
Ah Dai choked and let go of Owen. In Owen’s caring gaze, he asked, "Uncle, I really didn’t die?"
Owen gave a faint smile, pinched Ah Dai’s arm and asked, "Did that hurt?"
Ah Dai grimaced and nodded, "It hurts."
Owen laughed, "If it hurts, that’s right. If you feel pain, you haven’t died. You really gave your uncle quite a fright. Be good, drink so ginger soup first, then rest well, and you’ll be fine tomorrow." Owen picked up the ginger soup, blew off the steam, and gently spoon fed Ah Dai.
With a bowl of ginger soup in his stomach, Ah Dai felt warm all over. Seeing Owen’s concerned gaze ward his heart, and it was at that mont, that he genuinely grew fond of his handso uncle.
Owen put the bowl aside and helped Ah Dai lie back down. He covered Ah Dai with the blanket and advised, "Ah Dai, it was way too risky this ti. If your body didn’t have such an indomitable life force, you might have already died. Don’t be so impulsive in the future. Saving people is good, but you need to know your limits."
Ah Dai struggled to sit up again and urgently said, "Uncle, uncle, hurry and save Fei and Feng. I couldn’t find them in the sea, they’re in danger!"
With annoyance, Owen replied, "You silly boy, why do you value other people’s lives more than your own? They’re excellent swimrs; they returned a while ago. Now lie down."
Upon hearing that both Si Fei and Si Feng were out of harm’s way, Ah Dai sighed in relief and lay back down, muttering, "That’s good, that’s good."
Owen asked, "By the way, Ah Dai, what happened to the wound on your leg? It looks like it was caused by a sharp weapon; the muscles in your thigh are all punctured."
Ah Dai answered, "It was caused by a strange fish, ..." He then related in detail how he encountered the strange fish and let it go.
Owen seed to understand, "No wonder when I was looking for you in the sea, I saw a glint of gold. It led to you. It turns out, that strange fish saved your life! Really, you do good deeds, and you are rewarded. You saved yourself through your kindness."
Ah Dai suddenly rembered sothing and lifted his left hand, "Uncle, look, this is what the strange fish gave ."
Owen looked closely and saw a white jade ring. The surface of the ring seed ordinary, but Owen had a vague feeling that there was unusual energy within the ring. He carefully removed the ring from Ah Dai’s hand. The jade was warm and as he channeled his True Qi through it, it felt like there was an energy constantly turning inside the ring, resisting Owen’s True Qi. After examining it for a while, Owen put the ring back on Ah Dai’s hand, "Keep this ring, it might co in handy one day."
Ah Dai nodded. He liked the white jade ring a lot.
Owen urged, "Go to sleep. You can’t eat anything right now. Tomorrow morning, your uncle will prepare porridge for you."
Ah Dai protested, "But uncle, I haven’t ditated today." Ever since he arrived, Ah Dai ditated every night. The sudden stop made him uncomfortable.
Owen chuckled, "Let’s skip it today. You can’t rush training, we will talk about it tomorrow. Your uncle is going to rest now too. Saving you really wore out." After that, he blew out the oil lamp and left. The wind and rain outside had stopped. Knowing Ah Dai was alright, Owen felt an indescribable delight.
After Owen left, Ah Dai struggled to sit up. The wound on his leg twitched, causing Ah Dai to spasmodically cringe in pain. Although Ah Dai was slow, he understood that Owen had high hopes for him. With the kindness that his uncle had shown him, how could he disappoint him? After spending more than a year together, the kind-hearted Ah Dai had long forgotten his initial hatred. Taking a deep breath, Ah Dai began to circulate the small amount of remaining True Qi in his body.
It took a full 10 days for Ah Dai to recover. Except for Si Ley, Si Fei and Si Feng no longer played with him. They claid that because of Ah Dai, they had been severely punished by their grandfather. Ah Dai felt sad, but there wasn’t much he could do. He decided to devote all his ti to training.
Spring turned into autumn, and another two years passed. Ah Dai had practiced his Life-Life thod to the fourth realm. Advancing up each level of the Life-Life thod was extrely difficult. If Ah Dai hadn’t eaten the Fruit of Past Life, it would have taken him a decade to reach his current realm. Despite achieving the fourth level, the true power of the Life-Life thod’s True Qi had not shown itself yet. Owen told Ah Dai that significant changes would be noticed once the Life-Life thod was practiced to the fifth level, which Owen himself had achieved at the age of 28. Even so, Ah Dai could now emit his True Qi as fighting energy out of his body. Each day during his training, Ah Dai would be surrounded by a faint white light. Fifteen-year-old Ah Dai, although he scarcely did any heavy physical work, had an incredibly robust body from consistently practicing the Life-Life thod. In the three years, albeit only having a few hours to ditate each day, Ah Dai’s Fla Spell could now conjure up blue flas. He once secretly tried to cast the teor Fire with the resulting fireball being three centiters in diater, and entirely blue. In addition to ditating and practicing each day, Owen would tell him about the situation on the mainland, stories about different countries, and unique customs in those places. Ah Dai’s Church language had gotten so good that he could converse fluently with Owen. In these two years, he also started learning the Huasheng language. Slow-witted Ah Dai had now mastered four languages: Church, Empire of Tian Jing, Empire of Huasheng, and the Federation’s languages. Due to the consistent practice of the Life-Life thod, Ah Dai’s mory had noticeably improved.
Ah Dai would often think of Goris and miss his distant teacher, but he was deeply touched by Owen’s care. He already considered Owen his real uncle.
Sacred year 992, Spring.
"Let’s go, Ah Dai. Uncle will take you to a place. Starting from today, you will start learning so new things," Owen told Ah Dai solemnly after he had finished breakfast.
Ah Dai was startled. "Uncle, are you going to teach that flying skill?" he asked.
Owen gave a faint smile and replied, "Uncle doesn’t fly; he just jumps a bit higher, which you will be able to accomplish in the future. You’ve been here for three years and have made progress faster than I expected. I thought it would take you at least five years to reach your current level. Since you’ve already practiced the Life-Life thod to the fourth level and have developed a solid foundation, you can start the next step of your training. Now, you need to train your basic constitution and combat skills. I’ve co up with a good idea and prepared everything a few days ago. Now, let’s go."
"Sure!" Ah Dai agreed cheerfully. For the past three years, ditating and practicing every day had beco monotonous. While Ah Dai was determined and ditating and practicing brought him a sense of comfort, it was too mundane, and he was still a child, eager for new things. He, of course, agreed to try sothing new.
Leaving their house by the sea, Owen led Ah Dai along the coastline, walking south. After walking for half an hour, they arrived at a large swathe of rocky reef.
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