As Wang Yu's voice fell, every eye in the room snapped toward him.
Everyone already knew why Yan Xiangxue had taken up residence in the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor, and they knew Wang Yu had been practicing the Ice and Snow Divine Art with the intention of healing her once he mastered it. Even so, hearing his declaration left them utterly dumbfounded.
Good grief! Yan Xiangxue had taken Sun Wenzhu's medicinal pill and could easily hold out for a year. Counting every single day, you've been practicing the art for less than four months!
Meeting the varied, bewildered gazes of the crowd, Wang Yu calmly said, "I originally intended to consolidate my cultivation and wait until I was absolutely certain before saying anything. But since matters have come to this—"
"I won't hide it anymore. I'm laying my cards on the table." Wang Yu gave a breezy wave of his hand. "I've reached Xiantian."
"What?!"
During the Shangyuan Festival, Wang Yu had dispatched a Xiantian expert with a single strike, leading everyone to deduce that he was not far from crossing that threshold himself.
Yet a Xiantian master was no ordinary mortal. Wherever one went in the world, they were renowned figures, not cabbages to be plucked from the roadside. Breaking through was never as simple as eating a meal or drinking water.
Because Wang Yu was so young, everyone thought they were paying him an immense compliment by estimating he might advance within a year. But it had only been a little over a month!
Zhao Yingjie's eyes went wide with disbelief. "Brother Yu, you've stepped into Xiantian?"
Zhao Rong slightly raised a hand, instinctively tempted to test him, but he caught himself at once, realizing how improper that would be. Besides, Wang Yu would never lie about a matter of such gravity.
The most stunned of all was Li Yunxiu. She knew Wang Yu's background better than anyone. After all, it was she who had laid the foundation for his martial arts, and the scene from last year when she gave him the Lesser Restoration Pill to help him practice the first layer of Flowing Fire Reflection was still vivid in her mind.
His later feats—slaying Poison Hand Veda with a single sword stroke, turning the tables on the Xingxiu disciple in the Western Regions, and besting the Mount Tianshan disciple in swordplay—had certainly been shocking. Yet breaking into Xiantian within a single year was an impact almost too immense for her to process.
Ardai's eyes shone like glittering stars as she gazed at him. Yan Xiangxue was likewise momentarily stunned, though unlike Zhao Rong, who had refrained from testing him, she lacked the strength to muster internal qi even if she wished to try.
In the next breath, Wang Yu brought two fingers together like a blade and thrust into the empty air.
Two plumes of white vapor pierced forth—one emitting a faint haze of heat, the other congealing tiny specks of cyan frost. Both surged forward a full three feet before gradually dispersing.
At the same time, everyone felt as though they were standing amid swirling wind and snow, bathed on all sides by drifting sheets of golden glow.
Though Wang Yu had not consumed medicinal pills to strengthen his Seventy-Two Forms of Wind and Snow, his cultivation had now reached the requisite level. Having practiced swordplay alongside Ardai for months, he might not have attained the highest realm of perfection, but applying it in standard combat posed no problem at all.
Martial intent!
A Xiantian expert!
The onlookers were completely convinced. Wang Yu had truly crossed into Xiantian, harmonizing ice and fire into an extraordinary caliber of internal qi.
"Brother Yu!" Zhao Yingjie bounded over, nearly jumping out of his skin. "You're incredible!"
Wang Yu pushed his chubby face aside. "Coming from you, that sounds weird."
From that single finger-sword strike, Yan Xiangxue sensed a profound mastery of the Ice and Snow Divine Art that undeniably belonged to the Xiantian realm.
"I truly underestimated you," Yan Xiangxue said with an amicable laugh. "You didn't just have good prospects for Xiantian. In a few more years, you might not be second even to that Fang Shaobai."
Fang Shaobai was universally recognized as the foremost talent among the younger generation of the Seven Great Sword Sects, the one most likely to catch up to Sword Saint Liu Suifeng. He was already considered the pinnacle of the martial world's rising stars. For Yan Xiangxue to compare Wang Yu to him was an assertion that Wang Yu was destined to become a Xiantian Grandmaster.
Ardai piped up with flushed excitement, "Then can Big Brother Zhao heal Master's injuries now?"
Yan Xiangxue stroked Ardai's hair, her own heart stirring with excitement. "Indeed he can."
Li Yunxiu, however, could not help but caution Wang Yu, "We still have time, honestly. Do you want to spend a bit longer consolidating your foundation?"
That day in Mount Tianshan's Hall of Inquiring Swords, Li Yunxiu had been present and heard Ye Tianlin and Sun Wenzhu discuss the requirements for treating Yan Xiangxue: one had to manipulate both ice and fire true qi with total precision and control.
Otherwise, if the treatment triggered a violent riot in Yan Xiangxue's inner qi, or if the practitioner failed to separate the White Bone palm force from the ice-and-snow true qi within her internal organs and marrow, it would not be healing—it would be murder.
"There is no need," Yan Xiangxue said, shaking her head.
Unlike Li Yunxiu, Yan Xiangxue could tell from Wang Yu's single qi blade just how exquisite his command of true qi was. It was already more than sufficient to treat her.
Though that qi sword carried little destructive power, it revealed the full depth of his inner foundation.
Back when she taught Wang Yu the Ice and Snow Divine Art, she had never imagined he could ascend to Xiantian within a year; she had only hoped he would cultivate his ice and fire internal energies to a sufficient depth before attempting the procedure.
For a Xiantian expert, the delicacy of inner qi manipulation far surpassed that of an ordinary Houtian practitioner!
"No need to wait," Wang Yu said, waving his hand as he glanced at the sky. "There's no day like today. The hour of noon offers the strongest yang energy, so let us begin after lunch."
Gulanrena looked from Yan Xiangxue to Wang Yu, and finally to Li Yunxiu, whose composure had returned.
A problem that seemed utterly insurmountable just moments ago... was resolved just like that?
***
Three quarters past the hour of the Horse!
The yang energy was at its zenith!
The treatment took place not inside a room, but in the center of the courtyard before Wang Yu's main quarters.
Yan Xiangxue sat cross-legged in the yard. Seeing Wang Yu circling around her, she assumed he was nervous and laughed softly. "Just give it your all. There is no need to worry on my account."
Wang Yu grinned. In truth, he was utilizing the Star-Chasing Steps to calm his mind and steady the internal rhythm of his energy flow.
Without explaining, he walked up behind Yan Xiangxue and sat cross-legged, raising both hands to rest flat against her back. The two formed the classic posture of internal healing seen in martial legends.
A moment later, Yan Xiangxue felt a surge of ice internal qi from behind her, born of the exact same origin as her own. It entered her Ren and Du meridians, completing nine full grand heavenly circuits to roughly unify the scattered ice-and-snow internal energy lingering across those channels.
Because it stemmed from the same Ice and Snow Divine Art, the true qi in Yan Xiangxue's body offered not the slightest resistance. Like a scattered flock of sheep across a vast grassland meeting their bellwether, her qi fell into step and circulated without hindrance.
Yan Xiangxue's eyes lit up, and Wang Yu let out a quiet breath of relief.
The first step was a success!
Next, the true qi pushed onward, entering the Dai and Chong meridians before moving into the other four vessels of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.
Wang Yu drew a deep breath. Yan Xiangxue's meridians were extraordinarily vast, yet heavily congested with a massive volume of dense, disordered ice-and-snow internal energy. Merely clearing a path through them proved exceedingly taxing.
Was this the might of a Xiantian Grandmaster?
After several rounds of medicinal pill cleansing, Wang Yu believed his innate talent, aptitude, bone structure, and meridians were exceptionally robust. Yet compared to Yan Xiangxue, his foundation was still like a mountain stream set beside a surging river.
Well, perhaps the gap wasn't quite that vast...
Regardless, Wang Yu felt the profound chasm between himself and a true Xiantian Grandmaster.
If he relied purely on daily cultivation without medicinal pills, judging by his two months of consolidating progress, reaching Yan Xiangxue's current level would take him at least forty years.
Forty years? By then, even the daylilies would have gone cold!
Seeming to sense Wang Yu's astonishment, Yan Xiangxue chuckled softly. "Zhao Yu, you are losing perspective. This old woman entered the realm of Xiantian Grandmaster at forty-eight, and thirty-five years have passed since then."
Wang Yu understood at once.
After achieving the rank of Xiantian Grandmaster, Yan Xiangxue had continued to refine her inner cultivation. Moreover, stepping into Xiantian brought fundamental changes to one's meridians, organs, bones, and blood. Her channels had continuously broadened over the decades, accumulating inner strength along the way.
It did not mean one had to possess meridians as tough and expansive as Yan Xiangxue's current channels merely to enter the Grandmaster realm.
Wang Yu nodded. Channeling his internal power, he cautiously navigated Yan Xiangxue's Eight Extraordinary Meridians, fusing his ice-and-snow internal qi seamlessly with hers.
It took two full quarters of an hour before Wang Yu thoroughly linked his qi through all eight vessels.
By now, wisps of white steam curled above both of their crowns, showing that they were channeling their energy to the utmost limit.
The onlookers watched with bated breath, terrified that Yan Xiangxue might suddenly cough up a mouthful of blood.
Yet no such disaster occurred. Instead, color gradually returned to her cheeks, and her breathing grew steady and deep.
Everything was proceeding smoothly!
Next, Wang Yu finally extended his internal power into Yan Xiangxue's Twelve Standard Meridians. This phase progressed even faster than the eight extraordinary channels; in about twenty minutes, he had cleared and linked all twelve.
With that, Wang Yu's internal power had organized the energy across all the meridians in Yan Xiangxue's body, bringing the preparatory stage to completion.
Tracing the residual qi deeper inside, Wang Yu probed into Yan Xiangxue's internal organs, dantian, and bone marrow, merging his power with the ice-and-snow qi corrupted by the White Bone palm force.
At last, the most critical moment had arrived.
Taking a deep breath, Wang Yu summoned a wisp of fiery energy from within his ice-and-snow qi. Like a tiny flame, it intersected with the ice-and-snow energy inside Yan Xiangxue.
A muffled rumble stirred within.
The instant the Flowing Fire internal qi met the ice-and-snow energy, Yan Xiangxue seemed to hear a faint sizzling within her own body, which Wang Yu swiftly enveloped using the ice-and-snow qi of identical origin.
Wang Yu felt little change, but a flash of excitement crossed Yan Xiangxue's eyes.
Though subtle, the reaction was momentous: it proved Wang Yu had begun successfully isolating her ice-and-snow energy from the White Bone palm force without provoking a backlash from her own cultivation.
Though her injury was not yet entirely healed, complete recovery had now become merely a matter of time.
As time passed, the spectators witnessed Yan Xiangxue's relaxed smile set against Wang Yu's grave, focused expression.
Even though Yan Xiangxue had spoken earlier, no one dared utter a sound now. Zhao Rong waved his hand to direct Zhao Shan and Zhao He to post elite guards around the perimeter of the main courtyard, forbidding any disturbance.
By the end of the Shen hour, the sun sank low in the west.
The white vapor above their heads began to thin and disperse, signaling that the cultivation cycle was nearing its end.
Suddenly, Yan Xiangxue's expression hardened. She raised both hands and struck outward!
A fierce gust swept through the courtyard. A large tree ten feet away emitted a crisp crack, and half of its bark withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, the decay spreading upward toward the branches and leaves.
A collective gasp rose from the onlookers.
"The White Bone palm force!" Zhao Rong said in a grave, shaken voice. He glanced at the withered tree, then back at Yan Xiangxue, dread filling his eyes.
Such a terrifying palm force had been trapped inside her all this time?
Had it been anyone else, they would have perished long ago!
Wang Yu exhaled a long breath. As his strength slackened, he fell backward.
"Big Brother Zhao!" Ardai flashed forward like lightning, catching Wang Yu and letting him rest against her shoulder.
Li Yunxiu's eyes flickered, her expression turning unreadable.
"Master, how do you feel?" Ardai asked anxiously.
Yan Xiangxue turned around and smiled gently, nodding under the hopeful gazes of the crowd. "Grant this old woman three days of rest, and I shall return to settle scores with Shi Mo."
Li Yunxiu withdrew her gaze and smiled as well. "If Senior Yan is able to take the field, our plans will have to change."
Chapter 108