The man poked at the rock and continued,
"I know you're there, wake up"
When nothing happened the man looked at the rock more deeply and spoke,
"Unless...you can't? I'll try to bring you back to normalcy then."
The man there the rock into the air and caught it, putting it into his robe. He then stepped into the air, walking into the sky. Every step, miasma formed steps for him to step on.
He got the the layer which stopped Hou previously and stepped through as if it didn't exist. He proceeded out towards the outside world. The miasma cleared and a bright blue sky with a golden sun shone down.
It was a clear sky with few clouds. There was a beautiful sea, a bluey-green water with fresh salty air blowing around.
Below the man standing in the air was a large dome of purple cloud. It was impossible to see what it was, but the cloud extended far beyond the horizon, a whole continent covered and controlled by this one man.
He floated upwards and into the clouds, it was not normal clouds but solid. He stepped onto the clouds walking towards a beautiful and magnificent palace. A grand palace, with an area of at least thousands of square meters.
It was made of clouds, pure white clouds. However they were compacted into bricks and logs which made up the whole building.
The man walked in and made his way to a cellar room. He held out his hand and a circle formation formed in the cloudy floor. The floor was made of slightly different clouds, darker and more mystical.
He put his hand into his robe and threw Hou, as a rock, onto the circle. Then multiples lights came out of nowhere and attached to the circle. Then he poured a light purple-pink qi into the circle.
Hou's small pebbles form then started to enlarge. The rocky surface started to becoming softer and more pale. Different parts of his body started to reform into a standard human shell.
At that time, Hou woke up and he felt his new body. It was a completely normal human body created by the man from the laws left on the rock. It had some similar characteristics to his previous body but distinctly different.
As Hou was looking at his hands the man spoke,
"And you are...?"
"I'm Hou, Hou Zhigong"
The man put his fist together and bowed,
"May I ask junior why he was sneaking around my farm? I don't intend to punish you, tell me which sect you're from"
"I'm not from a sect, well...I guess I am. But first tell me who you are, and where am I?"
The man furrowed his brows and took a step back,
"Who am I? There is no one who doesn't know me! I am Senior Nine Clouds Purple Miasma, I am getting annoyed now, who are you!?"
Hou looked at the Nine Clouds Purple Miasma and thought for a second. He awoke Yue and asked him if this might be who he was thinking,
"It is highly likely, that name is reminiscent of the ways of the outside world. I do not know of him but I do not know how long I've been dead for..."
Nine Clouds Purple Miasma saw Hou looking confused and not answering raised his voice and asked again,
"I said who are you and why were you here?"
"This junior greets Nine Clouds Purple Miasma, this junior was too foolish in not recognising your greatness" Hou used the style of speaking he had learnt from Yue.
"Hmmph, Junior still does not answer!"
"My name is Hou Zhigong, leader of the Hou sect. I was born in your amazing and glorious lands. This junior pays respects to senior for bringing me up beyond the miasma cover" Hou spoke hurriedly to imitate respect and anxiety, with a hint of reverence.
"You...are from my farm? How did you become a cultivator, and not a particularly weak one?"
"This junior merely saw a useless stone carving. It taught me everything I know, it was by pure chance I'm as strong as I am now, but merely an ant in your eyes"
"Yes yes, a stone carving you say... What did it tell you, say it without restraint"
Hou then started explaining some basic cultivation explanation, adding in some mistakes here and there. He did not really mention anything Yue had taught him about blood cultivation or Yue's name.
"Hmmm...yes that could be there. That's quite an old style of cultivation, we have far surpassed that in these modern ages. Do not speak so formal with me, I am still your senior though."
The man looked at Hou on the ground, inspecting him with his various methods,
"Hou, how would you like to be my disciple? I can tell you have some talent being able to get to your level with that outdated nonsense. How about becoming a modern cultivator under my tutelage?"
Hou consulted Yue and Araxis, his two other masters, and he put aside is hate and bloodlust for this man.
"I would be honoured"
"Good, good. Go to sleep today, tomorrow I'll start teaching you about modern cultivation. Take these"
Nine Clouds Purple Miasma threw a couple of objects out of thin air to Hou. It was a set of clothes, some kind of compass, a piece of paper and a box.
"Read that paper, it should display in whatever language you can read, and follow it's instructions for everything in the box. The compass should give you directions to your room"
None Clouds Purple Miasma then disappeared and a wisp of purple-pink miasma was left in his stead.
'He seemed so....normal. Could he be hiding his true intentions? Someone capable of trapping a whole continent with monsters and suffering, they had to be monsters themselves. I can't let my guard down despite his nice attitude.'
Hou put on the set of clothes, covering his new body. It was tall but not huge. It had light almost white skin with long pink hair.
'Reminds me of his miasma colour, it was a lot more light up here than in the continent."
Hou put the piece of paper and box away into his robe, it had large inside pockets capable of holding lots.
Then Hou took out the compass and started following it, walking into the direction it pointed.