"A special encounter?"

Hearing Li Yang’s words, Li Guohai’s eyes narrowed slightly. He looked at his son, waiting for him to continue.

With his father’s eyes on him, Li Yang continued, "Dad, a while back, I stumbled upon a Cultivation Technique, like something out of a martial arts manual. After practicing it, I can actually walk on the ocean floor! The giant lobster, the rare seashell, the large yellow croaker—I found them all in the ocean. Catching the lobster and finding that shell wasn’t just pure luck. I had to search long and hard for them on the seabed."

Li Yang gave him a quick summary. Seeing that Li Guohai remained silent, he added, "It’s because of this ability that I’ve already made almost a hundred million in such a short time! Give me another month, and making a few hundred million more will be easy. So, two doses of the Anticancer Agent are no problem for me at all!"

When Li Yang was done, he had only given a brief overview, leaving out many of the details. His biggest secret, of course, was the mysterious small sword in his mind.

Deep down, Li Yang knew the small sword was too mysterious. He still couldn’t control it at all, so he wouldn’t tell another living soul about it.

At least, he wouldn’t tell anyone else until he had mastered it completely.

After he finished, Li Yang looked at Li Guohai and asked, "Dad, do you believe me?"

He watched Li Guohai, worried that his father wouldn’t believe him at all.

However, Li Guohai’s expression was very strange, shifting constantly as he took in Li Yang’s words. He finally spoke. "A Cultivator!"

"A Cultivator?"

Li Yang was taken aback. He hadn’t said a single word about being a Cultivator. For Li Guohai to say that seemed to carry a deeper meaning.

After a moment’s thought, Li Yang nodded. "Dad, I guess you could call what I am a Cultivator."

Looking at his son, Li Guohai slowly shook his head. "No, Yangyang. What I’m saying is... people like you, who can practice cultivation on Earth, are they what’s known as Cultivators?"

"’People like us’?" Li Yang froze, confused by what his father meant.

"Dad, are you saying there are other Cultivators besides me?"

He had always been cultivating discreetly. Even though he was now more than ten times stronger than a normal person, he had never shown it. He had no idea if there were other Cultivators in the world.

’Could it be that Dad knows something about this?’

Li Yang found this incredibly strange. His father had always been just an ordinary person.

Seeing Li Yang’s puzzled expression, Li Guohai nodded firmly. "Yangyang, there really are other Cultivators in this world!"

Seeing Li Yang’s obvious curiosity, Li Guohai decided not to hide anything. It seemed his son had stumbled into cultivation by chance and was completely in the dark about the situation.

"Yangyang, do you know why the Zhao family hates me so much?"

Li Guohai asked suddenly, taking a deep breath.

Li Yang shook his head. ’What century are we in? The days of arranged marriages and obeying parents’ commands are long gone. People are free to fall in love with whomever they choose.’

’Even if children go against their parents’ wishes and choose their own partners, the parents might get furious, but they wouldn’t completely sever ties.’

’And what about the Zhao family’s standing? Zhao Qianxing was once the richest man in the country, and even now, he’s solidly in the top fifty on the rich list, with personal assets of at least fifty billion!’

’With that kind of wealth, enough to last several lifetimes, his daughter could have married anyone and lived a life completely free of worry.’

’But when Zhao Rou got together with Li Guohai, Zhao Qianxing was so enraged that he disowned her. They haven’t had any contact in over twenty years, and even now, he hasn’t softened one bit.’

’That’s not just being old-fashioned; it’s being completely stone-hearted.’

Li Yang had never been able to understand what on earth Zhao Qianxing was thinking. If he had even an ounce of love for his own daughter, he couldn’t possibly have gone this far.

’And now, is Dad finally going to tell me the reason?’

As Li Yang watched him, Li Guohai finally said, "The reason the Zhao family hates me has to do with Cultivators." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

’I knew it.’

Li Yang thought to himself. The moment Li Guohai mentioned Cultivators and then immediately brought up the Zhao family, Li Yang had already guessed the connection.

Li Guohai continued, "Back in college, when I met your mother and started pursuing her, there was someone else after her too. His name was Zheng Qian."

"And that Zheng Qian was a Cultivator! What’s more, his father was a Cultivator too!"

Hearing this, Li Yang asked in surprise, "The Zheng family is a family of Cultivators?"

Li Guohai nodded. "In the world of Cultivators, strength is divided into levels: Yellow, Profound, Earth, and Celestial. Back then, Zheng Qian’s father was a Celestial Level Cultivator!"

"Yellow, Profound, Earth, and Celestial Levels?"

Li Yang’s mind was reeling as he tried to process all this. He had long suspected the world wasn’t ordinary and that other Cultivators must exist, but he had never imagined it was this insane. A whole Cultivation Realm existed on Earth, and even his own father knew about it.

After thinking for a moment, Li Yang asked, "Dad, how strong are those Yellow, Profound, Earth, and Celestial Levels?"

He had never actually tested his own specific strength, only made rough estimates.

Li Guohai continued, "To put it simply, a Cultivator at the peak of Yellow Level has physical prowess five times that of a normal person. At the Peak of Profound Level, it’s fifteen times. At the Peak of Earth-level, it’s fifty times. And at the Peak of Heaven-level, their physical prowess is over a hundred times that of a normal person!"

Hearing this, Li Yang was inwardly astonished. ’If an ordinary person can punch with two hundred pounds of force, then a Cultivator at the peak of Yellow Level, being five times stronger, could land a punch with one thousand pounds of force!’

’Mike Tyson’s left hook was said to generate a thousand pounds of force. A punch from someone at the peak of Yellow Level would be equivalent to a punch from the boxing champion himself.’

’And someone at the Peak of Earth-level could land a punch with ten thousand pounds of force! How terrifying would a fist like that be?’

For the first time, the cultivation system of Earth was laid out before Li Yang.

Shaken, Li Yang subconsciously began to compare this system to his own strength.

’According to Dad, physical prowess at the Peak of Profound Level is fifteen times that of a normal person. My current physical ability definitely exceeds that! This means my strength must be beyond the Profound Level!’

Making the comparison, Li Yang quickly pinpointed his current level of strength.

Earth-Level—somewhere between fifteen and fifty times the physical prowess of a normal person. He was currently in that stage!

’Do the four major stages of the Body Refining Chapter from the mysterious small sword correspond to the Yellow, Profound, Earth, and Celestial Levels?’ Li Yang couldn’t help but wonder.