The material of the white orb resembled jade yet also colored glaze, lying quietly inside a recess beneath the splintered wooden floorboards.
After his gaze flickered for a moment, Xu Yuan, based on its appearance and effects, pinpointed the orb's name from the vast catalog of heavenly treasures in *Cangyuan*.
A Source Crystal.
It was something akin to spirit stones in cultivation worlds—no, compared to spirit stones, a Source Crystal was more like a condensed spirit eye in traditional cultivation settings.
It was a treasure superior even to that entire pool of spiritual liquid currently sitting in Xu Yuan's Sumeru ring.
However, that was not the issue right now. The real question was: why would a treasure of this caliber be inside Xu Changge's aerial palace?
The rarity of a Source Crystal was on par with the Seven-Life Python's natal Snake Heart Lotus. Moreover, unlike the Snake Heart Lotus's specific efficacy, a Source Crystal was an authentic divine item capable of continuously boosting one's cultivation speed—priceless in the truest sense, impossible to find on any market.
As his thoughts reached this point, Xu Yuan's mind suddenly flashed to the purplish-black ring Xu Changge wore on his left hand.
His brother surely possessed a Sumeru ring of his own, so why would he leave such a treasure behind in this pavilion atop the Black Eagle?
Rising in silence, Xu Yuan recirculated his cultivation art that had been dispersed by the recoil and walked toward the break in the floorboards.
Reaching it, Xu Yuan stared at the Source Crystal for a long while, then leaned down and reached out to pick it up.
Yet when his hand came within roughly a foot of the Source Crystal, an invisible repulsive force—much like magnets from his previous life—gently pushed his hand away.
Xu Yuan frowned. He channeled Source Qi into his Sumeru ring while extending his intent-soul, intending to draw the item straight into the ring from afar.
Yet that same repulsive force pushed back his intent-soul just as easily.
"..." Xu Yuan stood speechless.
This had to be what had flung him backward earlier.
But what was this repulsive force?
A formation protecting the Source Crystal?
A thought crossed his mind, and his brow furrowed deeper. Channeling his cultivation art with all his might, Xu Yuan poured all the Source Qi in his body into his left hand, resisted that invisible repulsion, and pressed down once more.
His palm pressed down inch by inch, but after sinking barely two centimeters, Xu Yuan felt the meager Source Qi in his body run out of steam.
*Buzz—*
His left hand was flung back by the rebound. The powerful force caused the half-crouching Xu Yuan to stumble and land flat on his backside.
Xu Yuan stared silently at the Source Crystal in the recess for several breaths. Then he stood, dusted off his robes, and walked back to the bed with a wry chuckle.
Xu Changge clearly knew that he had an Innate Soul Body and could sense such things, yet he had deliberately placed the treasure right under his nose.
What was more, the formation shielding this Source Crystal was remarkably crude. With his current Innate Body, so long as he cultivated diligently, he would have every opportunity to break through the formation and take the treasure.
Heh.
His eldest brother was giving him a gift the roundabout way, wasn't he?
During the journey aboard the Black Eagle toward Jingjiang City, aside from the two or three shichen of sleep he needed each day, Xu Yuan devoted all his remaining time to cultivation.
Circulating his cultivation art day and night was dreadfully dull, but watching his Source Qi accumulate at a visible pace provided positive reinforcement that easily diluted the monotony.
The various limitations that usually hampered novice cultivators simply did not exist under the immense advantages of pay-to-win.
The ancients truly did not lie:
The reason someone isn't strong enough is often that they just haven't spent enough.
One precious medicinal pill after another went down his throat. Their special medicinal potencies not only accelerated his cultivation speed, but also ensured that prolonged cultivation would not damage his meridians.
Cultivation knew no passage of time.
The Great Yan Dynasty spanned vast territories; a single province could often stretch for ten thousand li. Yet the Black Eagle flew at immense speed and barely needed rest.
After an untold number of days, a magnificent, towering city appeared on the horizon within the Black Eagle's sight.
As the Black Eagle let out a long cry,
Xu Yuan, seated cross-legged at the head of the bed, slowly opened his eyes. He lowered his gaze to look at his hands, a hint of confusion in his expression.
Just now, while circulating his cultivation art to breathe in Source Qi, he seemed to have felt something inside him pierce open.
It ruptured cleanly with a crisp "pop."
A very strange sensation.
After a moment's thought, Xu Yuan deduced that this was likely a sign that he had broken through some sort of bottleneck.
However, because Ran Qingmo had only taught him the introductory steps of cultivation, he could not tell what realm he had reached after breaking through that bottleneck.
After all, the cultivation hierarchy in this world surely wasn't measured by the numerical levels in *Cangyuan*, was it?
Reining in his thoughts, he realized these weren't real issues. He could just ask anyone later; there was no need to waste time brooding over it here.
With that in mind, Xu Yuan turned his gaze back to the gaping hole in the floorboards.
Now that he had broken through the bottleneck, he could try taking that Source Crystal out once more.
Thinking this, Xu Yuan got off the bed, walked over to the recess, and crouched down.
Looking at the Source Crystal that seemed like both jade and colored glaze, Xu Yuan took a deep breath and circulated his cultivation art...
*Knock, knock, knock—*
The door happened to be rapped at that exact moment, and Ying'er's slightly raspy voice drifted inside:
"Third Young Master..."
"Get lost!"
Xu Yuan snapped back without a second thought.
Ever since this Ying'er had directed killing intent at him, Xu Yuan had maintained this exact attitude toward her.
Delivering a medicinal meal?
Not eating it. Get lost!
Passing a message from Xu Changge?
Not listening. Get lost!
As Xu Yuan gradually sifted through the memories belonging to the original host, he had come to completely understand the original host's pattern of behavior.
This was a noble young master who was exceedingly arrogant and insolent, yet at the same time crippled by an inferiority complex deep to the bone.
Simply because a pedestrian on the street teased to a friend, "Look, that's the Chancellor's Manor's Third Young Master, heh," he had beaten the man within an inch of his life right in the middle of the street.
In those memories,
Xu Changtian sometimes didn't want to be like that, but unfortunately, under the shadow cast by his two older brothers over the years, his personality had long since warped.
Things he could not achieve even after straining with all his might were mere trivialities his two elder brothers could pull off with a casual flick of the wrist.
Compared to his two dragon-among-men brothers, the original host was an ordinary mortal—worse, an ordinary mortal of below-average talent.
Everyone's expectations, everyone's disappointment, and everyone's mockery.
Had it ended there, years of deep-seated inferiority might have only produced a withdrawn child.
However, the original host had tasted the intoxicating flavor of power brought by his father's position as Chancellor far too early.
All because of a conflict at the academy when he was ten years old.
At the academy, the other children and youths loved to compare him mockingly to his two older brothers. After years of this, the original host finally got into an argument with them.
That day, after morning classes ended, physical violence erupted between him and the other boys.
Because the other side had the numbers, and because they had begun practicing martial arts early, the ten-year-old host was mocked as he was pinned to the dirt, his head stepped on, enduring a brutal beating.
Curled on the ground with his arms clutching his head in the mob, pain surged from all directions, drowning him in dazed despair.
After beating him, the pack of youths jeered, "Keep mouthing off, and we'll beat you every time we see you!" before sauntering off with laughter.
Returning to the Chancellor's Manor, the original host hid straight in his wing room.
He was terrified.
Terrified that if he went to the academy, those people would plunge him into that despair once again.
At dusk, while he was half-asleep in a daze, the old housekeeper suddenly knocked on his door, saying people from the academy were outside the manor looking for him.
Those words instantly banished all traces of sleepiness.
Panic and dread consumed his mind, and no matter what, he refused to step outside.
Yet the old housekeeper did not give up. After the old housekeeper's patient coaxing, he trembled all over as he walked to the main entrance.
Under the setting sun on the street,
what the original host saw
was not the demons who had pummeled and kicked him that morning.
Instead, it was
a row of quails kneeling on the ground, shivering uncontrollably.
Those culprits, who had been ferocious and roared about beating him again, were kneeling before the Chancellor's Manor alongside their parents, cowering in terror like quails waiting for the slaughter.
At that moment,
as the setting sun over the Imperial Capital gradually sank beneath the horizon,
the malice within Xu Changtian's heart
began to breed and spread...
*Snap—*
As his thoughts reached this point, Xu Yuan had already pushed past that colossal repulsive force and gripped the Source Crystal within the recess, a faint touch of complexity surfacing in his narrow eyes.
Chapter 29