All that sleep deprivation must be getting back to me. Yuan Zhen closed his eyes and clapped his cheeks. He fully believed that when he opened his eyes, everything would be back to normal, but nothing changed. He was still in the weird white place, with the same old man drinking tea in front of him.
"Have a seat," Li Changhe said, gesturing to the empty chair in front of him.
Yuan Zhen nervously looked around before reluctantly sitting down.
"Where are we? What do you want?" Yuan Zhen asked, dropping all previous formalities.
"Quite a fiesty one, are we?" Li Changhe chuckled and took a sip from his cup before continuing,
"This place is my personal pocket dimension. I don't like to beat around the bush, so I want to take you as my disciple."
"Disciple? Pocket Dimension?" Yuan Zhen cocked his head, unable to understand the senile old man's words.
"Huff, it would be quicker to show you." Li Changhe sighed and opened his palm. A small flame lit up in his palm, seemingly floating above his it. Li Changhe closed his fist and the flame instanty disappeared.
"W-what was that?" Yuan Zhen was left completely stunned and was unable to form any words.
"Heh, this is the power of cultivation. Those who absorb and refine the energy of heaven and earth , like me, are called cultivators. Now, do you understand my previous words? I think that there is sufficient literature in your world about cultivators for you to understand what a disciple is," Li Changhe explained, looking at Yuan Zhen expectantly.
Yuan Zhen was flabbergasted. Cultivation— soemthing he had only read from all those cultivation novels or seen in shows, and believed to be a product of mankind's imagination—is real? However, suspicion arose in his heart.
"Why me? What if I decline? Why have I never seen cultivators before? How can I confirm that you don't have any malicious intent?" Yuan Zhen asked and looked at the old man sternly.
"Let's go one by one, shall we?
The reason that I want you to become my disciple is because you possess the Sacred Yang Physique. That may not ring a bell for you, but there is no cultivator alive who hasn't heard it's name. It is the highest ranked Yang-attributed physique.
For comparison, only 1 in 100,000 people is blessed with an Earth-Ranked constitution—which is still significantly inferior to your physique," Li Changhe explained patiently, pausing to let Yuan Zhen absorb all the information.
Yuan Zhen lifted his face with a finger, wearing bewildered expression. Yuan Zhen nodded at the old man to continue.
"I am getting old and still haven't found a disciple to pass on my technique to. The caveat to my technique is that the practitioner must possess strong Yang qi, which you undoubtedly have.
And if you decline? Then, I will not force you. I'll walk away, and you can pretend that we never met.
But, I must warn you—things will not be peaceful in this place for long. There are things lurking in the shadows and this planet is bound to fall into chaos," Li Changhe said, glancing at Yuan Zhen to gauge his reaction.
Yuan Zhen was deep in thought and was just about to ask something when—
"The reason you haven't seen a cultivators before is that we live in realm separate from Earth. However, it would be wrong to assume that no cultivators live here. There are many who hides here and pretend to live an ordinary life. Our realms may be separate, but they are still connected." Li Changhe continued to observe Yuan Zhen.
"As for whether I have malicious intent—well, Isn't it quite obvious? If I had malicious intent for you, you wouldn't be sitting here will you?" Li Change said innocently and flashing a sheepish smile.
Yuan Zhen felt terrified for a moment as if a thousand needles were piercing his skin. Yuan Zhen was bubbling with anger—this senile old man had deliberately cut him off mid-speech and had even silenced him.
All this revelations had left Yuan Zhen with a tangled mess of emotion. He was unsure of what to do, still a bit skeptical. He gazed at the smiling old man sipping his tea and asked,
"What do you mean by 'things are not going to be peaceful for long'?"
"Well, I am can't tell you everything. But I can say this—those close to you may soon be in danger. If you want to protect them from the things lurking in the shadow, you need to get strength and you can achieve that by cultivating," Li Changhe replied, fiddling with a serpentine dragon figurine in his hand which he manifested out of thin air.
Yuan Zhen looked at the endless white landscape around him as he fell deep into thought. Could this old man be lying? Were the people around him really in danger? Something about the old man's words seemed genuine. Still, it was too much to process at once.
Li Changhe watched Yuan Zhen for a second before suddenly spreading and saying,
"Alright kiddo, you don't have to give me your answer right now. You can give me your answer tomorrow—same time, same place."
Yuan Zhen suddenly found himself back at the dimly lit exit of the park. It didn't seem like much time had passed. Yuan Zhen immediately headed back home—only this time, his steps were slightly more hurried.