Xu Changtian

"Continue." "We can start again." "Time is running out." "Don't just stand there. I'm awake. Continue." "..." No other sound broke the silence; no conversation took place. Inside this cramped cave abode embedded deep within the mountain, the only recurring sound was Xu Yuan's calm, flat voice each time he awoke from the brink of death. Yet every time Xu Yuan spoke, his voice grew a fraction weaker. With Ran Qingmo waking him from his coma ahead of time, the duration required to revive him from the verge of death had shortened from about two shichen to less than half a shichen. Transferring qi to heal wounds allowed one to borrow another person's qi to mend one's own body. However, qi channeled into one's body by someone else was not one's own after all. Every instance of qi transfer left remnants of the other person's qi within one's meridians. Given ample time, this would actually be beneficial. By circulating his own art, he could refine those lingering traces of qi bit by bit for his own use, thereby bolstering his cultivation. Yet undergoing too many qi transfers within a short span would cause those residual foreign energies to undergo a qualitative change, leaving behind an almost incurable latent ailment. Ran Qingmo had explained the pros and cons to Xu Yuan, but he did not care in the slightest. Being able to shorten the time to reach the brink of death from two shichen to half a shichen was more than enough for him. It was a blessing; it meant he would have far more opportunities to adapt to the near-death state, making more thorough preparations for the final cultivation of the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art. Time slipped away quietly amidst these repeated brushes with death. Five times, Ten times, Twenty times, Thirty times... As his consciousness cycled endlessly before the boundless darkness of death, Xu Yuan lost track of how many times he had entered that near-death state with her help. He slowly opened his eyes. By the faint glow emitted by the luminous pearl on the stone wall, the first things that met his gaze were the woman's pristine, ethereal face, and the thin layer of ice radiating chilling frost over his own skin. "M-Mr. Ran." His voice was weak and trembling, yet this proved that Xu Yuan could now steady his mind and even speak under such a near-death condition. Ran Qingmo raised her eyes in silence, her quiet gaze complicated. "Speak." Covered head to toe in frost crystals, Xu Yuan fought to keep his tone steady. "The array outside... how much longer before it dissipates?" Ran Qingmo closed her eyes to sense it. After a long pause, she said softly, "About two days remaining." "Two days left..." Xu Yuan let out a faint sigh. Time was still far too tight. Even after disregarding any latent bodily harm and staking his life, it had still taken him roughly three days to complete the third step. Though little time remained, panicking served no purpose. The preparations had to be made, even if he only managed it once. Furthermore, Xu Yuan believed that once the Prime Minister's eldest son sensed he was cultivating, he likely wouldn't risk forcing his way through the wall and causing his younger brother to suffer qi deviation. At this point, he could only gamble. After a long silence, Xu Yuan managed to say in a trembling voice, "For the coming day, I... I will begin circulating the cultivation method. If I suffer qi deviation, I'll... I'll be counting on you." Ran Qingmo nodded in silence. Seeing the grave look in her eyes, Xu Yuan gave a faint smile. "Mr. Ran... in one day, I will officially begin cultivating. Remember to remind me." "Mm. Okay." Circulating his art in a near-death state for the first time proved far more difficult than Xu Yuan had anticipated. It was not because he couldn't focus his consciousness, but because Ran Qingmo had left far too much residual Source Qi in his body. Through countless qi healing sessions over the past few days, the meridians inside Xu Yuan had practically been reshaped into Ran Qingmo's mold. His body's natural aptitude had been poor to begin with. Every meridian was as choked and narrow as a winding sheep trail, and now these cramped sheep trails were further crammed with icy-blue Source Qi belonging to Ran Qingmo. That residual icy-blue Source Qi clung to the inner walls of every single meridian in his body. Under such circumstances, Xu Yuan found it an uphill battle just to guide what little Source Qi he had left along the cultivation pathways. Upon sensing this, Xu Yuan did not succumb to panic. He remained anchored to the conviction he had always held: when encountering a problem, solve it. If the meridians grew narrower, he would guide the Source Qi forward with even greater care. If one full circulation cycle took longer, he would force himself to maintain lucid consciousness in that near-death state for a longer stretch... A day flew past in the blink of an eye. Waking from unconsciousness once again, the first thing Xu Yuan saw was still her, watching quietly over him. Unlike before, he was now lying on the cave's sole jade bed. Sitting up in silence, Xu Yuan glanced to the side of the bed. Upon the pristine white jade bed, two cultivation manuals lay quietly stacked together, beside which stood two bottles of precious pills required for the cultivation. Gazing at them in silence, he felt a surge of emotion. After more than a month of struggle, he had finally reached the final step. "Um... I didn't look at your manual." Perhaps because Xu Yuan had stared for so long, the giant block of ice beside him suddenly made this out-of-the-blue remark. Glancing sideways at her, Xu Yuan smiled. "I know." There was nothing physically extraordinary about the two manuals; aside from the knowledge recorded upon them, they were mere ordinary sheets of paper. With Ran Qingmo's cultivation, had she wished to look, she could have probed them thoroughly with her intent-soul even from tens of meters away. Xu Yuan silently adjusted his posture and sat cross-legged upon the jade bed. He unstoppered the two jade bottles. A mingled aroma of medicinal fragrance and bloody tang instantly permeated the small cave abode. Laying the two pills flat in his palm, he saw ancient, intricate pill veins inscribed upon them. Xu Yuan cast a final glance at Ran Qingmo beside him, half-joking, "Mr. Ran, you'd better hope I succeed. Otherwise, this cave abode will become the burial ground for the both of us." "..." Ran Qingmo stared at him without a word. She remained just as reticent as the day they first met. Seeing this, Xu Yuan shook his head in slight amusement. Without another word, he tilted his head back and swallowed both pills in one gulp. The pills melted the instant they entered his mouth, transforming into two supple warm currents that flowed into his body. It didn't hurt. On the contrary, the two warm currents spreading continuously through his body even felt somewhat comfortable. Yet the moment that thought crossed Xu Yuan's mind, a sudden upheaval erupted! One of the warm currents turned violent without warning, transforming into roaring Source Qi that surged straight down through Xu Yuan's meridians! The abrupt, intense agony caused Xu Yuan's entire body to double over like a cooked shrimp. His clogged, narrow meridians couldn't withstand the impact of such massive Source Qi. For every inch this Source Qi surged through, an inch of Xu Yuan's meridians fractured. The excruciating pain of shattered meridians nearly tore his mind apart. Pain... it hurt so much! The bone-deep agony left him utterly unable to breathe, his vision blacking out in waves. Fortunately, having faced death countless times allowed Xu Yuan to forcibly steady his mind, keeping him from being knocked unconscious by the torment. A quarter of an hour passed. The wild medicinal power of the Doomfall Pill completed a full circuit through the one hundred and twenty-seven meridians in Xu Yuan's body. Amidst the bone-deep agony, Xu Yuan could feel that all one hundred and twenty-seven of his meridians had broken into shattered pieces. His physical body was no longer able to hold the cross-legged posture, collapsing limply onto the jade bed. The true despair of death began to creep across his heart, inch by inch... Yet right at that moment, the second warm current belonging to the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill began to diffuse between his shattered meridians. This warm current was thick and soothing; wherever it flowed, it brought a tingling warmth. Sensing this, Xu Yuan knew the moment had come. He immediately began guiding the medicinal power of the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill along the pathways of the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art. As the power of the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill spread through him, the broken meridians in his body began to knit back together bit by bit. However, this was only the beginning. The two distinct medicinal currents from the Doomfall Pill and the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill began to cycle repeatedly through Xu Yuan's meridians, one leading and the other following. The Doomfall Pill rushed ahead, demolishing everything in its wake, while the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill trailed behind, repairing the damage. The constant interplay of agony and comfort pushed his sanity to the brink. Meridians shattered and reformed, reformed and shattered again. Time after time, circuit after circuit. Cultivation knew no passage of time. As the hours slipped by, Xu Yuan discovered that his consciousness, far from blurring under the recurring brushes with death and blinding agony, had grown increasingly solid and clear. After an unknown stretch of time, Xu Yuan could even spare a portion of his mind to sense the ambient qi drifting between heaven and earth. Previously, he could only sense a few faint "qi clusters" within this cave abode, but now, as the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art continued to circulate, more and more appeared in his awareness. His pale face gradually regained its color, his thread-thin breathing steadied, and everything steered toward equilibrium. Beyond that, Strange images began trickling into Xu Yuan's mind like a gentle stream. It was like watching a stream-of-consciousness film. Fragmented, cluttered, yet somehow forming a coherent whole. Sensing them carefully, Xu Yuan soon realized something was amiss. Were these images... Xu Changtian's memories? As his intent-soul fused seamlessly with this body, the lingering memories buried within it began surfacing piece by piece in Xu Yuan's mind. There were mundane routines of washing and bathing, Incidents of throwing his family's weight around to bully men and seize women in the streets, Excursions hunting on horseback, And even the ridiculous spectacle of the Third Young Master taking aphrodisiacs to force an act of one dragon sporting with five phoenixes at the Zuixian Tower... The images shifted from hazy to sharp, endlessly multiplying. Yet to Xu Yuan's surprise, very few of Xu Changtian's memories involved his old man. Most of the time, his father was merely a solitary silhouette—a silhouette that inspired pure dread. Dread? Xu Yuan realized that when that silhouette flashed through his mind just now, even he had felt a faint tremor of fear. He was being influenced by these memories. Realizing this, Xu Yuan hastily reined in his thoughts, refusing to dwell further on that Chancellor. Yet in the next breath, those memories surged uncontrollably back into his awareness. Compared to his aloof and exalted father, the figure etched most deeply into Xu Changtian's memory was his eldest brother. As the memories flooded in, Xu Yuan discovered that the body's fear toward Xu Changge was even greater than what it felt for his father. It was a terror rooted in the very marrow of his bones. Just thinking of him made Xu Yuan notice that his physical body was faintly trembling. Just how terrified did one have to be to produce such a visceral reaction? Soon, Xu Yuan found his answer in those memory fragments. Scene after scene unfolded before his eyes. "Useless trash! You can't even handle a simple thing like this!" "If I ever catch you embarrassing us outside again, I'll beat you to death in Father's stead." "Bastard, look at the mess you've made in the Imperial Capital!" "You're useless at cultivation and hopeless at the imperial examinations! Xu Changtian, can't you learn anything from your second brother and fourth sister?!" "Hahahaha... Xu Changtian! It's true what they say about seeing someone in a whole new light after three days apart! I served as envoy to the Northern Barbarians for a mere three months, and the moment I get home, you pull a stunt like this? Well done! Now you even have the nerve to touch Marquis Wucheng's granddaughter?! Ying'er, bring me the cane—the thickest one!" "..." Xu Yuan was speechless. As these scenes played out in his mind, Xu Yuan had nothing to say. Xu Changge was ten years older than Xu Changtian. With their father occupied by court affairs, the eldest brother, Xu Changge, had practically raised him from childhood. Except this eldest brother's educational methods were remarkably crude and violent. When he said he would beat him, he genuinely did—and beat him within an inch of his life. Memories belonging to Xu Changtian continued to emerge, and Xu Yuan clearly felt his emotions swaying under the other's influence. He didn't want this, Yet right now, he had no choice but to accept it silently. The memories stretched on. Just as the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art neared completion, Xu Yuan's mind suddenly went blank. Those sprawling memories seemed to vanish in an instant. Just as Xu Yuan was feeling bewildered, A sword appeared in his consciousness. A sword that seemed capable of piercing through the entirety of Tianmen Mountain. Yet this sword vanished as quickly as it had appeared, dissipating from his consciousness in the blink of an eye... The cultivation method was complete. Xu Yuan slowly opened his eyes. The memories remained, but those lingering emotions had entirely dissipated. Yet what was that sword that had appeared in his mind at the very end? His eyes flickered as Xu Yuan suddenly recalled the sword intent he had sensed while gazing out toward the Heavenly Gate beside Xuantian Cliff. Back then, the urgency of the situation had kept him from pondering it deeply, but thinking back now, many things seemed unusual. The appearance of that sword in his mind had to be linked to that distant gaze. But why? The Heavenly Gate atop Tianmen Mountain had stood for at least ten thousand years, seen by tens of thousands of people. Why had this opportunity manifested for him? Pondering it back and forth, the only difference Xu Yuan could find was that he did not belong to this world. Could it be that only a transmigrator's intent-soul could sense that ten-thousand-year-old sword intent? That explanation felt a bit abstract. Unable to figure it out, Xu Yuan temporarily set it aside. Just then, Ran Qingmo's soft voice came from beside him: "The array outside has vanished. They are coming." Xu Yuan glanced at her, reached out to pick up the manual of the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art from the jade bed, and said flatly, "Understood." As he spoke, He circulated his art. Wreaths of crimson Source Qi seeped from his fingertips, coiling around the text. The next instant, Wreaths of flame caught fire, and the sole surviving copy of the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art along with its secret technique vanished from the world forever. Just like the Ice Cloud Steps in Ran Qingmo's art, the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art included many practical applications, and this flame was one of them. Having dealt with the illicit goods that might reveal his identity, And changing into the blood-red Blood Jade Glazed Robe, Xu Yuan methodically began stripping the cave abode of everything useful. He slipped the Sumeru ring from the bedside onto his index finger, storing both the jade bed and the pool of spiritual spring inside it. After a brief pause, Xu Yuan glanced at the luminous pearl on the stone wall and swept that into the ring as well. In an instant, The cave was plunged into total darkness. With nothing else to do in the dark, Xu Yuan sat cross-legged and began attempting to cultivate. He looked forward to seeing the cultivation speed of an Innate Dao Body. And the moment his intent-soul reached outward, he immediately noticed the difference. Unlike the few faint "qi clusters" he had sensed previously, Xu Yuan now felt, under the perception of his intent-soul, as though his entire being were submerged in a boundless ocean of qi... What Xu Yuan did not realize, However, was that beside him in the darkness, Ran Qingmo's quiet eyes had been watching him silently, a look of hesitation lingering on her face. Time drifted by quietly. Suddenly, "Um..." Hearing her voice, Xu Yuan slowly opened his eyes and looked toward Ran Qingmo. "My name is Ran Qingmo," Ran Qingmo said. "..." Xu Yuan found it strange that she would suddenly say this. Though he had always addressed her as Mr. Ran, he remembered having spoken her name back in that Buddhist shrine. He gave a faint nod. "I know." With that, he closed his eyes again. After ten or so seconds, Xu Yuan opened his eyes once more. Channeling Source Qi into his vision, he saw the woman beside him still staring at him without blinking. Startled for a moment, he quickly realized she was asking for his name. Having spent day and night together for so long, she still did not know his name. He instinctively started to give his own name, but the words caught on his tongue. His eyes flickered for a moment. Xu Yuan slowly lowered his gaze, exhaled, and curled his lips into an ambiguous smile. "My name is... "Xu Changtian."