"He doesn't remember?"
Zhou Chen's eyes, hazy from alcohol, instantly cleared. He muttered under his breath, "Someone used memory-interfering methods against the Third Young Master?"
That Marquis Wucheng was a staunch loyalist to the imperial family and had always clashed with the Chancellor in court. With this incident driving a wedge between them, the conflict was bound to escalate.
Yet no sooner had he spoken than Zhou Chen whipped his head around to stare at Si Ziyu, his expression odd and bewildered.
"Wait, that doesn't add up. Didn't you just say that back then, you were in charge of the Third Young Master's safety? Even if he doesn't remember, could a Grandmaster like you forget as well?"
"......"
A bleak wind swept in from the horizon, snapping their robes in the gale.
Si Ziyu quietly met Zhou Chen's gaze for a couple of seconds before giving a gentle shake of his head.
"That's right. I don't remember either."
"Someone from the Origin Realm?"
"Unclear. It's said the Chancellor already had the Shadow Guards investigate for over a year, but they still came up empty."
Zhou Chen remained silent for a long while. He took a massive swig of the pungent liquor, gulping it down before letting out a long sigh.
"Tsk, turbulent times. Good thing I was reassigned to Jingjiang City to protect the Third Young Master."
"Don't forget the task the Eldest Young Master gave us," Si Ziyu reminded him.
Hearing that, Zhou Chen lazily tousled his unkempt hair, waved a hand, and said casually, "Isn't it just teaching the Third Young Master how to cultivate? I know, don't worry."
***
Inside the master wing room of the pavilion, Xu Yuan was panting heavily.
By now, every piece of valuable furniture in the wing room had been completely trashed by him.
Except, of course, the bed he had woken up in.
After all, if he smashed that, he would have to sleep on the floor.
Still, being exhausted to this extent just from wrecking a room meant his physical stamina was probably worse than the Siberian husky he had kept in his previous life.
This frail body hadn't undergone any dramatic improvement merely from acquiring an Innate Body; it was just as chronically depleted of stamina as ever.
Cultivating, breathing, and gathering Source Qi would indeed gradually improve and strengthen his physique, but Xu Yuan had only just stepped onto the path, so the changes were not yet obvious.
Standing in place, he took two deep breaths before retreating to the bed, sitting cross-legged to regulate his breathing.
As the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art began to circulate, Xu Yuan's ragged breathing swiftly stabilized.
Now that he had officially stepped into cultivation, Xu Yuan had actually discovered quite a few interesting things.
For instance, a complete cultivation art contained multiple different meridian circulation pathways suited for various situations.
There was one for healing, one for cultivation, one for combat, and so forth.
These circulation pathways complemented one another while remaining distinctly separate.
Another example was that every cultivator's strength could effectively be divided into two states.
The first state was the standard baseline—in plain terms, when the cultivator was not actively circulating their cultivation art.
In this state, a cultivator relied entirely on the raw strength accumulated through past training.
Just like the few scabbard strikes Ran Qingmo had used earlier to tame the great white tiger, Xu Yuan estimated she had relied purely on her accumulated cultivation foundation without drawing upon any amplification from her cultivation art.
The second state occurred when the cultivator began actively circulating their internal art.
The circulation of a cultivation art granted a massive boost to the practitioner's strength.
The specific degree of amplification increased in proportion to how efficiently the practitioner drove the circulation.
It was just like when he had faced the vine whipped by Xu Changge.
For the first two strikes, he had only needed partial circulation to evade them, but for the third strike, he had been forced to circulate with everything he had just to withstand it.
Furthermore, Xu Yuan deduced that different types of cultivation arts produced different amplification effects.
The more powerful the cultivation art, the stronger the boost it provided.
Since transmigrating, Xu Yuan had cultivated two arts in total, so he was able to make a direct comparison.
One was the Lotus Sword Art taught to him by Ran Qingmo, and the other was his current, blood-red-tier Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art.
The amplification provided by the two was on entirely different levels.
Empowered by the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art, Xu Yuan's endurance, reaction speed, and physical strength had all subtly begun to surpass the boundaries of ordinary mortals.
Naturally,
the benefits of a cultivation art went far beyond mere stat boosts; they also included unique techniques innate to the art itself.
Such as his blood-red flames, or Ran Qingmo's Ice Cloud Steps.
The more he cultivated, the more Xu Yuan marveled at the cultivation system of this world.
As for why a cultivator couldn't simply maintain their cultivation art in an active state at all times to preserve maximum combat readiness against ambushes, there were two reasons.
First, meridians were fragile structures. Barring certain special physiques, cultivators could not maintain full-throttle circulation for extended periods; running under high load for too long would inevitably damage the meridians.
Second, the meridian circulation route used for combat constantly drained the Source Qi within the body.
Having adjusted his physical condition to its peak, Xu Yuan retrieved two pill bottles from his Sumeru ring.
One bottle of Qinglin Pills, one bottle of Meridian Protection Pills. He tipped out one pill from each, tilted his head back to swallow them, and closed his eyes to enter a state of cultivation.
The medicinal properties of both pills diffused through his body.
A thin medicinal film formed over the inner walls of his meridians. At the same time, Xu Yuan felt his intent-soul receive a subtle stimulation, growing far clearer and sharper.
The effects were remarkably pronounced—fitting for early-game godly medicines that Xu Yuan had rarely even consumed when playing Cangyuan.
Wasting no more time, he extended his intent-soul outward and immediately sensed the dense, viscous Source Qi in the surroundings, already condensed into liquid form.
A flicker of surprise arose in his heart.
Back in the cave dwelling with the pool of spirit spring, he hadn't felt Source Qi this dense.
As Xu Changge's aerial carriage, the black eagle pavilion was naturally covered in various formations, among which would certainly be Spirit-Gathering Arrays to aid cultivation.
The effects of a Spirit-Gathering Array encompassed the functions of a Spirit-Locking Array, yet the two were deployed in very different settings.
A Spirit-Locking Array was covert, preventing the Source Qi within a bounded space from leaking out, and was typically used around spirit springs or spirit eyes.
A Spirit-Gathering Array drew in surrounding Source Qi and was generally set up in open terrain; once built, the fluctuations of concentrated Source Qi could easily be detected by another person's intent-soul.
Yet looking at this Source Qi that had already condensed into liquid form, no mere room equipped with a Spirit-Gathering Array could possibly achieve such an effect.
Mulling it over, Xu Yuan refrained from cultivating immediately and instead began tracing the ocean of liquefied Source Qi to find its origin.
He reasoned that there had to be some sort of treasure in his elder brother's wing room.
The natural gift of his Innate Soul Body shone once more. Following the subtle currents of Source Qi, Xu Yuan ultimately traced the source of the liquefied energy.
Opening his eyes, Xu Yuan strode slowly to the very center of the wing room.
After a second of silence, he circulated his cultivation art. Blood-red flames erupted from his fist, and he slammed it straight down toward the floor.
Boom!
Wood splinters flew into the air, and a tremendous counter-shock blasted Xu Yuan straight backward.
Thud!
With a dull crash, he slammed hard against the wooden wall.
Xu Yuan's head spun with dizziness, and even the cultivation art actively running in his body was shattered by the immense recoil.
When he struggled to his feet and looked up once more, he saw a white orb half a foot in diameter resting beneath the shattered floorboards!
Chapter 28