Facing A Shui's kind reminder and admonition, Wen Chaosheng neither expressed his gratitude nor responded. His attention seemed to be focused on other, more important matters. After a moment of silence, he asked A Shui very tactfully and resolutely:
"Can I really not learn your martial arts?"
A Shui's shadow on the wall appeared very silent.
"You want to cultivate with me that badly?"
Wen Chaosheng answered sincerely:
"Very much, extremely much."
A Shui tilted her head slightly, her gaze flowing from her narrow eyes, passing through the flickering firelight, and landing on Wen Chaosheng's face.
"Why?"
This time, her question seemed a little more serious than the last.
Wen Chaosheng's answer was as concise as ever:
"Because you are strong enough."
"A Shui, someone as powerful as you, can you rank among the Jianghu of the Four Kingdoms?"
A Shui said lazily:
"I don't know, I am not a person of the Jianghu."
Wen Chaosheng opened his eyes and looked at A Shui. He initially thought A Shui was being perfunctory, but when he saw her eyes, Wen Chaosheng couldn't help but believe her.
The other party had no need to deceive him.
"So, can you teach me to cultivate?"
He asked again, but still received A Shui's indifferent reply.
"Wen Chaosheng, I cannot teach you."
She looked at the big boy beyond the fireworks and, in a slightly gentler tone, spoke a fact that made Wen Chaosheng despair:
"Not just me, most people in this world cannot teach you, not even those from the rumored Holy Lands of cultivation."
"Last time you asked me, I told you that you couldn't learn my martial arts because you were too old and your skeleton had set, affecting your Qihai, but in fact, that's not it at all."
"The fundamental reason you cannot cultivate... is that you don't have a Qihai at all."
Upon hearing this, Wen Chaosheng immediately sat up from the ground, all drowsiness gone.
"Are you sure?"
A Shui affirmed:
"I am sure."
"I can tell this kind of thing at a glance, but at the time, I wasn't certain, because people without a Qihai are few and far between; you might not even find one in a hundred thousand people. So, I deliberately felt around on you then, and finally discovered that you indeed have no Qihai."
"Because of this, I said you were the first unlucky person I’ve met."
Wen Chaosheng stared at A Shui in a daze for a long time, pressing his lips tightly together, unable to utter a single word.
A Shui continued:
"The reason that White Dragon Guard looked down on you so much just now is because he also saw that you are someone who is completely unable to cultivate. The Qihai is the way for humans to communicate with the natural world. The human body has seven hundred and twenty acupoints, all with marvelous uses, but only the refined power of the Qihai can activate the acupoints, releasing potential, making them move like a mysterious wind in the mountains, a surging tide on the sea, resonating with heaven and earth, blooming like divine thunder."
"No matter how ordinary people train their bodies, their muscle and bone strength can never contend with the forces of heaven and earth. Therefore, ordinary people are as weak as infants before a Martial Artist, completely defenseless."
"You are born without a Qihai; no matter how much effort you put in Acquired, your potential is ultimately limited."
"You are a good person. I didn't want to discourage you like this, but you will encounter this layer sooner or later, and keeping it hidden for too long might actually be harmful to you."
Wen Chaosheng's eyes appeared exceptionally hollow in the firelight, but soon returned to normal. He looked at A Shui lying on the ground and sincerely asked, unwilling to give up:
"Is there really... no way at all?"
A Shui shook her head.
"I have no way at all."
"This kind of thing is inherently very rare, and I am not a Spell Cultivator Grandmaster who specializes in establishing sects, so I have no experience in teaching disciples."
"If you insist on learning from me, I can only teach you a Daoist cultivation method for nourishing the body."
Wen Chaosheng hesitated for a moment, then asked:
"What martial art?"
A Shui:
"The Hokkaido people traveled the world back then and carved three self-created wondrous arts on the Jie Stone at the easternmost point of Zhao: Whale Dive, Wild Speech, and Immortal Spring."
"The wondrous art I know is Immortal Spring."
"This wondrous art is quite special; it can be practiced without a Qihai, but its effects vary from person to person, and it can only strengthen the body and prolong life, not give you the power to split mountains and shatter stones."
Wen Chaosheng was not discouraged at all, saying:
"Practicing is better than not practicing."
"You are right, I am the unluckiest person in this world, but even an unlucky person has a way of living. If I didn't want to live, I should have died three years ago; at least I wouldn't have to suffer so much."
"For the past three years, I have constantly been thinking about how to survive, how to live better. Compared to that, not having a Qihai doesn't seem like such a serious matter."
A Shui gazed at Wen Chaosheng's face. Only now did she realize that she had still underestimated Wen Chaosheng's belief in life.
An indescribable feeling slowly spread in her chest, as if the pain of her old wounds was gradually being covered up. A Shui turned her face, closed her eyes, and said:
"Go to sleep."
"Tomorrow morning, I will transmit the incantation to you and teach you the guidance method."
...
Ku Hai County, County Office.
The starlight and moonlight were obscured by the wind and snow. Chun Qiong stood in the room where Liu Jinshi's body was kept. Wu Xie still stood guard nearby with his saber, but his shorter arm was stitched with dense threads, and his elbow was suspended from his neck by a white cloth strip.
Liu Jinshi's body had only been moved once; other than that, there was no other anomaly.
After inspecting Liu Jinshi's body, Chun Qiong asked Wu Xie, who was beside him, with some disbelief:
"You said the limping woman who came today, her cultivation is even above yours?"
Wu Xie's lips were slightly pale, and the scene of their earlier fight appeared in his indifferent eyes. He replied:
"Far superior to me."
Chun Qiong's expression became much more solemn, and his gaze swept over Wu Xie's injured arm, saying:
"Can you tell the martial arts style?"
Wu Xie shook his head.
"No style."
"She used the guards' long sabers, all horizontal strokes, downward left strokes, and downward right strokes."
"But every move was an unstoppable killing blow. Fortunately, she was limping and her movement was inconvenient. I fought her for ten moves, exchanged one blow, and lost an arm."
"Moreover, she was injured, and not lightly. If her old wounds hadn't flared up at a critical moment, that saber strike would have cut off my head."
Listening to Wu Xie's description, Chun Qiong felt his scalp tingle.
"Wu Xie, you entered the Dragon Cry Realm Fifteen years ago... yet you couldn't block a single move from this person now?"