In the face of Naimu'er's doubts, Cynthia did her best to defend Wu Youren. "Not necessarily. It might have something to do with an ability master's powers."
The notion that youths from Jin had potential in this area wasn't something she was the first to propose.
Wu Youren smiled. "You two can get some rest. Leave the watch to me."
Previously, when the experience points entered his body, he had considered that gathering qi. Just now, guiding them into his dantian counted as successfully taking in qi.
At the same time, when he attempted to circulate the qi through his meridians, it had been unexpectedly successful.
With absolute ease, he completed a minor circulation, and the qi in his dantian grew a sliver thicker and richer.
*Could I be a cultivation prodigy?* To test this hypothesis, Wu Youren ran through several more minor circulations.
He could confirm that the qi indeed strengthened with his cultivation, but at the same time, a faint, swelling ache surfaced in his meridians.
Pushing so hard on his very first attempt at cultivating, having a few side effects was only normal.
On the bright side, with qi nurturing successfully achieved, his perception had improved across the board.
His vision reached farther and was sharper, and his ears could pick up more subtle sounds.
In some vague way, even his intuition seemed heightened. Although he lacked a status panel to verify it, he just had that feeling.
The only fly in the ointment was that with abilities soaring across the board so quickly, he wasn't quite used to it yet.
Still, it hardly mattered; he would grow accustomed to it over time.
Aside from that, his spirits were high, without the slightest feeling of fatigue.
Whether due to his raised cultivation or pure exhilaration, he genuinely felt no desire to rest.
What concerned him more right now was that his body still harbored a considerable amount of experience points—gathered qi.
Now that he could successfully nurture qi, he had to digest these gains as soon as possible.
Opportunities for him to cultivate this freely were truly rare.
Furthermore, there were still some experiments he needed to conduct, which also had to be done before the instructor showed up.
Hearing this, the two exchanged a glance, and Cynthia nodded. "With you on night watch, both of us can rest easy... Aren't you going to eat something?"
"Now that..." Wu Youren paused, then nodded. "Come to think of it, I really am hungry."
The next moment, a flash of lightning illuminated the night sky, followed by the rumble of thunder.
That night, Naimu'er and Cynthia rested in one cave, while Wu Youren stood guard at the entrance of another.
In an environment plagued by Guizu, there was no such thing as impropriety about an unmarried man and woman sharing a space; it was purely for the convenience of mutual coordination.
Certain Guizu could manipulate human emotions and amplify specific desires. Letting one's mind wander made one easy prey, so remaining focused and vigilant was the proper course.
Yet neither of them slept well. The drumming rain disturbed their sleep, and occasional claps of thunder would startle them awake from their dreams.
Groggy, Naimu'er spoke up. "Do you think he can hold out through the whole night on watch?"
He harbored a worry he couldn't voice: if the other guy slipped away under cover of the rainy night, the two of them would be finished.
They would serve as bait to draw the Guizu! And the Jin native's chances of escape would increase.
He hadn't considered this before, but after learning about the youth's origins, he couldn't help entertaining the thought.
"If he wanted to leave, the three of us could have withdrawn together a few days ago," Cynthia answered drowsily.
Then she yawned. "Don't overthink it, just get some sleep... Once day breaks, we two will be the main force!"
Yet getting proper rest truly proved impossible. After an unknown amount of time, Naimu'er sprang upright. "Something's happening!"
"What is it?" Cynthia sat up as well. In this kind of environment, everyone slept exceedingly lightly.
"Listen. The sound of weapons cutting the air." Naimu'er's expression turned solemn. "Go out and look?"
Meanwhile, more than two hundred meters away, Wu Youren was locked in fierce combat with a dark shadow, fighting while deliberately luring it outward.
This was a Guizu, and one at the level of a knight, which had wandered into the vicinity for reasons unknown.
Wu Youren had been circulating his qi when he detected the abnormality, quietly wrapping up his meditation and rising to his feet.
By rights, he should have sounded a warning, but... what if an intense battle drew even more Guizu?
Ultimately, it was also because his cultivation had progressed recently—and crucially, he had successfully begun nurturing qi—so he was eager to test himself.
Wu Youren first crept toward it without making a sound, extending his senses, and was largely able to confirm that there were no other Guizu nearby.
If his perception was flawed, any Guizu concealed in the shadows would possess strength far beyond his ability to resist anyway, so worrying was pointless.
Since that was the case, he released a wisp of his contained aura and moved further away, casually making a bit of noise.
Amid the rushing sound of the downpour, this tiny rustle was so faint as to be nearly imperceptible.
Yet a Guizu was a Guizu after all. The shadowy mass swayed several times, then followed soundlessly after him.
Wu Youren decisively picked up his pace, putting on the appearance of fleeing in panic.
The Guizu darted forward in a flash, giving chase at breakneck speed, and the battle commenced.
Wu Youren wished to test his combat capability, but he had no desire to blunder into disaster.
Thus, at the outset of the battle, he focused primarily on dodging, first striving to ensure he remained uninjured.
At the same time, he put his full effort into reading and sensing his opponent—exerting full effort beforehand might have startled it off, but once the fight had started, it no longer mattered.
To his surprise, he found that this Guizu... shouldn't pose much of a threat to him.
There was no hard proof; it was purely his intuition, or one could call it a sixth sense.
Did that sound overly subjective? Not really; within the knight cultivation system, a similar concept existed—warrior's instinct.
Realizing the foe was nothing exceptional, Wu Youren began ramping up his output.
The broadsword in his hand sped up, its force increasing considerably, and even his footwork grew swifter, taking on the tone of shifting from defense to offense.
The Guizu's attacks also ramped up in force and its movements grew nimbler; at one point, it nearly brushed his body.
A cold sweat nearly broke out across Wu Youren, but fortunately, the biguijue on his person functioned in time.
Just as they were about to collide, the jade pendant warmed slightly, and the shadowy mass abruptly lost a good deal of its speed.
This failed ambush seemed to enrage the Guizu, and its attacks grew all the fiercer.
Wu Youren felt rather helpless. The enemy was merely an illusory shadow, immune to most physical attacks.
His strikes were coated in battle qi, yet they failed to produce a pronounced effect.
Even when he managed to slash the dark form, it only inflicted minor damage and forced it back slightly, unable to even elicit a wail of pain.
This was indeed related to cultivation; the quality of his battle qi truly couldn't compare to a knight's.
Yet even so, he continued trading blows back and forth with it, putting on quite a lively clash.
To avoid alarming his two companions, he intentionally steered the battle farther away as he fought.
Unfortunately, before long, his two companions still crept closer.
Cynthia was in front and Naimu'er behind, both approaching with great caution on tiptoe.
Having already noticed the fighting here, their movements were naturally disciplined.
Normally, Wu Youren might not have detected them from so far away, but this time, he perceived them with absolute clarity.
After trading another five or six blows with his opponent, he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "Ghost-vanquishing bullets! Cover the area!"
The next instant, an extraordinary vibration surged through the greatsword in his grip, causing the moisture surrounding the blade to quiver along with it.
The shadow's movements hitched slightly, turning noticeably less elusive.
In that exact split second, the greatsword in his hands struck the creature squarely.
"Wuu-aaooow!" The shadowy figure couldn't help letting out a howl of agony. Evidently, this blow had truly hurt.
Wu Youren, however, gave it no room for regret, unleashing three blindingly fast slashes in succession.
Previously, when the shadow was cut, the severed sections would draw back together, restoring themselves as before.
Yet beneath these slashes, the shadow was cleaved into seven or eight clumps, completely unable to re-fuse in the moment.
At first, the Guizu was reluctant to yield, attempting to force itself back together—after all, it had done so many times earlier.
Yet the several dark masses squirmed and twisted, stubbornly unable to close the distance between one another, and could not help letting out a series of whimpers.
Even against the patter of rain, the sound was distinctly audible, lending an extra touch of mournful creepiness to the scene!
Wu Youren remained unfazed. Shifting the two-handed greatsword to his left hand, he flicked his right hand repeatedly, sending small daggers flying one after another.
All of them were of the slightly yellowish variety, coated in ghost-dispelling powder, flying straight into clump after clump of the shadowy masses.
The next moment, wails of anguish rose one after another.
Cleaved into seven or eight pieces, the Guizu—roughly equivalent to a knight in strength—could no longer withstand even this minor damage.
The stronger black vapor clumps faded considerably, some turning nearly transparent, while the two weakest vanished entirely!
"I'm here!" Cynthia charged forward, scimitar in hand, slashing ferociously at one of the dark masses. "Die!"
Along the curve of her scimitar, there were surprisingly also faint, peculiar ripples.
Yet any martial artist could sense that this was merely battle qi infused into the weapon—nothing particularly rare.
"Don't let a single one get away!" Wu Youren swung his greatsword again, cleaving toward the strongest cluster of darkness!
Having taken the measure of the creature's threat, his only concern was failing to wipe it out completely.
This had a bit to do with experience points... but not much.
The crucial point was that Guizu harbored intense resentment; if not eradicated entirely, it was highly likely to bring a large horde of its kin for revenge!
Though he had successfully begun nurturing qi, taking on a single Guizu at the knight realm was his limit.
If a massive swarm of Guizu descended, he would consider himself fortunate just to escape with his life; he dared not contemplate anything beyond that.
"But ghost-vanquishing bullets... there are barely any left," Cynthia shouted as she dispersed that dark mass and swung at a second. "You know that!"
"I was only bluffing just now!" Wu Youren struck again, extinguishing another dark cluster.
Striking together, the two quickly obliterated all the dark shadows.
Wu Youren glanced around, then said quite naturally, "You two head back first. I'll go check if there are other Guizu."
"The way you talk..." Cynthia remarked that she was slightly taken aback. "It feels like you're stronger than both of us?"
"It's not about that," Wu Youren replied crisply. "Go back, unless you want us surrounded by Guizu tomorrow."
Chapter 64