Wen Lingxue fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She hadn’t gotten any shut-eye in two days. Add that to the full course of psychological torment she’d endured, and she’d long since become unbearably exhausted.
Even during her meal, she yawned continuously as she ate.
Cha Jin’s heart ached just watching her. She offered up her own room so that?Wen?Lingxue had a place to sleep.
As for Su Yi, he proceeded to the side of the pond, practicing the Pine and Crane Body Refining Technique over and over again.
As he cultivated, his vitality repeatedly boiled, as if he were on fire. This process relentlessly tempered his blood and qi.
Sounds like the forceful, sonorous cries of a crane resounded within his acupoints and meridians.
It was only after practicing the entire Pine and Crane Body Refining Technique nine times over that streaks of Astral Qi, each forceful as a sword, silently surged into being around him.
His Astral Qi was incomparably pure and sharp. As he moved, it sliced the surrounding air into fragmented air currents with a series of sharp wails and booms.
Afterward, the seemingly illusory streaks of Astral Qi “swam” around him like a densely-packed school of tiny fish. They shone as they moved, like countless flickering swords.
Suddenly, Su Yi stopped in place. He pressed his fingers into a blade, then casually sliced in the direction of the pond thirty feet away.
Slash!
A streak of sword qi formed of True Astral Power sliced straight through the air like a knife through cloth.
Meanwhile, in the nearby pond, a bead of crystalline dew dripped from the green leaf of a lotus flower. Before it landed, the streak of sword qi sliced it in two in midair.
Hss! Hss!?Both halves evaporated into nothingness.
A bang followed immediately afterward.
A perfectly straight rift appeared in the blue-green surface of the pond, splitting it in two with a splash/
A finger like a sword.
Severing the dew on the lotus leaves, splitting the surface of the pond!
The former was a vivid display of the extent of Su Yi’s fine control, while the latter demonstrated his despotic power.
Su Yi let out a long breath of turbid air, then gradually withdrew his power. His surging energy and the glinting “school of fish” whirling around him, his astral qi, disappeared. Everything returned to its former tranquility.
“Young Lord, have you already stepped into late-stage Qi Accumulation?” Cha Jin watched from not far away, her bright, beautiful eyes filled with unconcealable astonishment.
That last attack was an external release of his innate vitality.
This was a power that only those in late-stage Qi Accumulation, Astral Manifestation, could use!
Cha Jin clearly remembered that when she and Su Yi first left the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital, Su Yi was only in the middle stages of Qi Accumulation.
Then, after a few days of traversing the wilderness, during his battle with the Jade-Eyed Crimson Flamebeast, Su Yi reached the pinnacle of mid-stage Qi Accumulation.
Only five days had passed since then, yet his cultivation had already ascended yet another level. He’d entered the late stages of Qi Accumulation!
This cultivation speed was downright shocking and unheard of.
What would she have thought if she knew that it had only been a month or so since Su Yi reawakened his memories and began his cultivation anew, starting from the Blood Circulation Realm?
“Not bad.” Su Yi nodded. He could have stepped into the late-stage Qi Accumulation Realm a while ago, any time after condensing the peerless, practically unheard of “Hidden Meridian.”
Now, all he did was break through on the spur of the moment as he practiced the Pine and Crane Body Refining Technique.
“This…. This is really unbelievable….” Cha Jin watched in a daze. She suddenly recalled the “Seven Sons of the Moon Wheel,” who the Wheel of the Moon Sect saw as monstrous, peerless talents.
She did a quick comparison and discovered that not one of them could compete with Su Yi when it came to cultivation speed.
“Unbelievable?” Su Yi shook his head.
In the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, core disciples of prominent sects could reach the pinnacle of the Four Realms of the Martial Dao within a month, even as children.
That?was what it meant to be a monstrous genius. Every one of them was blessed with a grand fortune.
Take Qing Tang. When she first became his disciple, she was only seven years old, but her advance was smooth and rapid. She cut through obstacles like an ax through bamboo, polishing her foundations in the Four Realms of the Martial Dao to unprecedented heights.
At the end of the day, in the eyes of the giants of the Wilds, the Four Realms of the Martial Dao were still within the bounds of mortality. Its cultivators merely tempered their fleshly bodies and energy. That was just the start, a foundation for their true pursuit of the Grand Dao.
The true struggle for the Grand Dao began with dining?on the?light of dawn and drinking the morning dew, the “Grain Avoidance” stage of the Origin Dao.
Of course, no matter how monstrously talented someone was, without a strong will and sufficient boldness, they’d inevitably sink back into obscurity.
Both now and in his past life, Su Yi disdained dividing cultivators into “geniuses” and “the unexceptional.”
The way he saw it, even if one was dull and foolish, so long as they wholeheartedly pursued the Dao, their hard work and experience would accumulate. They, too, could one day soar into the heavens!
The core of cultivation ultimately lay in one’s “temperament.”
You entered the world to sharpen your heart.
You withdrew to cultivate the heart in tranquility. .𝒄𝒐𝒎
In other words, cultivators had to “nourish the heart as if it were jade and polish it as if it were a blade.”
Cha Jin hesitated for a moment, then whispered, “Young Lord, I…. I’ve made up my mind.”
“Hm?” Su Yi had already started returning to the pavilion, but when he heard this, he paused. “About what?”
“Uh…” Cha Jin lowered her head. “I hope I can… I can…. Stay… Hm…. at your side….”
Her voice gradually trailed off. By the end, her voice was as soft as a gnat’s.
“So that’s it.” Su Yi finally understood. He recalled giving Cha Jin two choices. The first was to leave, the second, to remain here as his servant.
“A wise choice.” As he said this, Su Yi was already strolling towards the pavilion.
“Why does that evaluation seem a bit strange….?” As she watched Su Yi’s back fade away, Cha Jin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.?I chose to stay here with him. Shouldn’t he express gratification or happiness?
But then, Su Yi’s casual attitude inexplicably calmed Cha Jin’s heart. Had he been too concerned or too polite, it would actually have made her uncomfortable.
Suddenly, Su Yi’s voice emanated from the pavilion. “Right, remember to go buy clothes for Lingxue.”
Cha Jin shook her head and laughed.?That’s the Su Yi I know!
She thought for a moment, then left without any further delays.?Right, while I’m at it, I can purchase some pretty new clothes for myself!
This thought improved her spirits immensely.
….
Su Yi stood in front of the bed.
Wen Lingxue was fast asleep, her long, jade-like legs trapping the blanket, her hair in disarray, and her lips slightly parted. She looked tranquil but not the least bit elegant.
When he heard her faint but even breathing, his heart softened. He smiled, then smoothed out the trapped section of the blanket. He gently tucked her in properly, then turned and left the room.
In this mundane world, there were few people he worried or cared about, but Wen Lingxue was undoubtedly one of them.
He would never forget the dark, gray days before awakening the memories of his past life. During the worst days of his life, this sunny, cheerful girl brought him so much warmth.
He left the room and entered his study. He then sat before the window lattice, thought for a moment, then took out his writing implements. His brush streaked across the page.
Shortly after, Su Yi set it down, stretched his wrists, and sank into thought.
The late stage of the Qi Accumulation Realm was called “Astral Manifestation.”
Upon reaching this stage, a cultivator could release their innate vitality externally and condense it into astral qi. This enabled them to walk on water and slay foes from afar!
The core of this was the ‘Astral Force’, a power refined from one’s innate vitality.
Astral Force’s quality was classified according to its strength.
In the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, Astral Force was divided into three levels: Earth Astral, Sky Astral, and Spirit Astral.
Earth Astral was the most common. Only the exceptional and talented could produce Sky Astral Force.
And Spirit Astral? Only chosen sons of heaven under the guidance of ancient masters could achieve this.
It wasn’t a simple matter of lacking secret cultivation methods. It came down to aptitude and foundations.
But in Su Yi’s eyes, above earth, sky, and spirit, there was still the Dao Astral!
What?was Dao?Astral Force?
Astral Force entered the Dao, and in turn contained traces of the Dao, manifesting its power!
Upon reaching the pinnacle of this level, one’s cultivation already possessed some of the formless charm of the Dao. In battle, you could call upon and alter the power of the surrounding air, much like the Edict of “Profound Gathering”.
And the precondition for achieving the “Dao Astral” was that you had to achieve full spiritual awakening of the acupoints and open the Hidden Meridian in the Qi Accumulation Realm’s earlier stages.
Only with foundations of this level was it possible to manifest Dao Astral Force!
Otherwise, everything was just empty supposition.
This meant that those who truly achieved this step were rare, far less than one in a million!
Throughout the entire history of the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, countless years, only a tiny handful had achieved this step. Each of them had gone on to become figures of legend!
Now, Su Yi had acquired “Dao Astral Force” of his very own. Although it was sparse, this was an enormous step forward.
His Dao Astral Force was indomitable as a sword and translucent as jade or colored glass. It contained traces of the Dao. Naturally, its power was extraordinary too.
At this pace, if I want to refine all of my innate vital energy into Dao Astral Force, I’m afraid it’ll take quite some time.
This was the downside of overly firm foundations; obtaining his Astral Force would take vast quantities of time and effort.
Some time passed before Su Yi rose and left his study.
It was noon when Cha Jin returned, carrying bags both big and small.
She was obviously in an excellent mood, but she didn’t forget to bring lunch with her.
“Young Lord, I bought new clothes for Lingxue, as well as rouge, hairpins, bracelets, and a jade pendant….”
When she saw Su Yi seated in the courtyard eating his meal, Cha Jin smiled and reported the results of her shopping expedition.
But Su Yi naturally was in no mood to listen to all that. He waved her away. “Set everything down, then call Lingxue down to eat.”
Cha Jin stuck out her little tongue, then scampered off.
That woman’s gotten quite a bit livelier…. It seems she’s quite happy about her choice to remain here as my servant….?Su Yi pondered to himself.
Before long, Cha Jin and Wen Lingxue emerged from the pavilion, side by side.
When he saw Wen Lingxue, Su Yi’s eyes lit up.
She’d changed into a pale blue floral dress. Her thick, ink-dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, revealing her stunningly beautiful, melon-seed-shaped face in its entirety.
She’d obviously recovered her energy. As she walked, her gait was light and graceful. Her ponytail swayed with each step, refreshing and neat—a stunning sight.
Cha Jin grinned. “Young Lord, what do you think of the clothes I bought for Little Sister Wenxue?”
“They’re just clothes. They’re only an accouterment; the really pretty thing is the person herself,” Su Yi said leisurely.
Wen Lingxue blinked her shining, star-like eyes and stuck up her thumb in delight. “Brother-in-Law, you’ve got good taste!”