Chapter Twenty-One: The Five-Day Countdown

Ran Qingmo could hardly be counted as a good teacher.

Her method of teaching Xu Yuan was just like her serene nature, neither warm nor fervent.

However, fortunately, her formidable strength still enabled her to provide Xu Yuan, who was just entering the path of cultivation, with simple yet profound guidance.

From recognizing the most basic acupoints and meridians to sensing the Origin Qi hidden in this world under the guidance of Ran Qingmo, everything fell into place naturally.

It was also during the process of sensing the Origin Qi that Xu Yuan understood the role of the Will-spirit.

The more condensed and powerful one's Will-spirit was, the more of the world's Origin Qi they would be able to sense between heaven and earth.

Because of the presence of that spiritual pond and the Soul-locking Formation, Ran Qingmo sensed that the Origin Qi within this cave dwelling had almost condensed into a liquid state, but in Xu Yuan's perception, he could barely sense the presence of faint "Qi clusters."

The gap between their Will-spirits was suffocatingly large.

Of course, part of this was also due to Ran Qingmo's strength far surpassing that of Xu Yuan.

The Will-spirit, too, could be continuously condensed and strengthened along with the advancement of one's cultivation level.

The meridians determine the speed at which a person can absorb and transform the Origin Qi of the heavens and the earth for their own use, while the Will-spirit determines the amount of Origin Qi one can sense.

Both are complementary in the process of cultivation.

If a person only has an Innate Constitution with all meridians unblocked, yet their Will-spirit is loose and hazy, no matter how fast their body can transform Origin Qi, they will only be able to absorb the few "Qi clusters" that they can sense.

The same is true for a person who only possesses a naturally powerful soul.

As Ran Qingmo gradually shared all of this world's knowledge of cultivation, Xu Yuan increasingly realized how terrifying the Blood Essence Meteoring Art that he held in his hands was.

A Cultivation Technique that could artificially create an Innate Taoist Body...

If it were to be released to the outside world,

it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that this Cultivation Technique could provoke a war.

...

...

Not knowing how many times it had been since he last awoke from the jade bed, the dim stone ceiling of the cave dwelling once again came into Xu Yuan's line of sight.

Getting up, he glanced sideways toward the stone wall at the head of the bed.

There,

a row of neatly inscribed "Zheng" characters caught his eye.

Since he couldn't see the sky and distinguish day from night, Xu Yuan could only roughly guess the time by counting the number of times he slept.

Until this awakening, the stone wall at the head of the bed had already been filled with exactly six "Zheng" characters.

He had been alone with the girl in black in this cave dwelling for about a month now.

Under these diligent days of learning, the basic knowledge related to cultivation in this world was nearly coming to an end.

Xu Yuan had now completely learned to use his Will-spirit to sense the Origin Qi between heaven and earth.

Moreover, two weeks ago, Ran Qingmo had taught him a Sword Sect inner gate Cultivation Technique called the Lotus Sword Art, which gave Xu Yuan a simple experience of the feeling of absorbing Qi into his body for cultivation.

By now, two weeks later, Xu Yuan was fully capable of cultivating on his own without Ran Qingmo's guidance.

Thinking this, Xu Yuan subconsciously glanced over at her seated cross-legged in a corner.

After staring at her for two seconds, Xu Yuan smiled lightly and shook his head, taking his eyes off her.

Even though he had grown accustomed to her appearance without the black veil, her flawless face still occasionally astounded him with its beauty.

It was just a pity that, despite sharing hardships in this cave dwelling for so long, the lady surnamed Ran's attitude toward him had not changed much.

Hah~

Fairy tale stories are indeed deceiving....

Discarding these chaotic thoughts, Xu Yuan calmed his mind and opened the Blood Essence Meteoring Art once again.

The confusing terminology in the Cultivation Technique that had once made his head spin now appeared clear and comprehensible.

And the content of the entire Cultivation Technique had already been thoroughly memorized over the course of nearly a month, yet Xu Yuan still looked at it every day, flipping through it repeatedly.

This was a matter of life and death for him.

Cultivation Techniques such as this, where even a single word difference could lead to fatal errors during the circulation of Origin Qi.

Don't ask, just experience it for yourself.

The route for practicing the Blood Essence Meteoring Art was many times more intricate than the Lotus Sword Art Ran Qingmo had given him, and to avoid being caught off guard when he would truly begin cultivation, Xu Yuan had started attempting to guide the faint Origin Qi within his body through the meridian routes outlined in the Blood Essence Meteoring Art a week ago.

Initially, this attempt went smoothly, with Xu Yuan's weak Origin Qi moving orderly along the routes specified by the Cultivation Technique.

Unfortunately, after completing one-third of it, a moment of inattention caused the guided Origin Qi to deviate half a step from the description in the Cultivation Technique, sending him directly into qi deviation.

The feeling of qi deviation was not pleasant.

Because of a single lapse in concentration, all the Origin Qi in his body ran amok uncontrollably, wildly rampaging through his fragile meridians.

If it were not for the fact that the Origin Qi he had accumulated was exceedingly weak, he could even imagine those rampaging Qi shattering his meridians to pieces.

Thankfully, Ran Qingmo, a great expert, was right beside him at the time; she immediately took action to stabilize his raging Origin Qi before his meridians sustained any damage.

Even though it was just a close call, Xu Yuan still realized the difficulty of cultivating the Blood Essence Meteoring Art.

You should know, he went through the Lotus Sword Art, a medium-difficulty Cultivation Technique, in one go without any inclination toward qi deviation, yet the Blood Essence Meteoring Art caused qi deviation just after one-third of the practice.

However, this setback did not frustrate Xu Yuan but instead filled him with a tinge of excitement.

Because he discovered that even if he experienced qi deviation while cultivating, the lady surnamed Ran who was this Big Ice Lump could stabilize his condition before he suffered any injury.

In other words,

He could attempt it an infinite number of times, until he was completely familiar with the circulation route of this cultivation technique!

Having thought of it, Xu Yuan acted on it.

Ran Qingmo noticed Xu Yuan was practicing a very difficult cultivation technique, but perhaps due to her nature, she did not ask too many questions.

She just silently saved him from going into deviated cultivation over and over again....

.....

After going through the Blood Essence Meteoring Art once again, Xu Yuan silently placed it on the jade bed, slowly stood up, and walked toward her in the corner.

And at that moment,

Ran Qingmo's clear voice reached him from the corner first.

Very light, but distinctly audible.

"The formation outside is about to break."

"...."

Formation?

Hearing Ran Qingmo's sudden words, Xu Yuan's footsteps faltered slightly.

However, after a moment's thought, he realized what she meant by the formation.

It seemed consistent with his initial speculation when he first entered this cave dwelling; indeed, there was a formation capable of shielding against outside detection.

But, this formation was about to break.

This news made Xu Yuan's heart sink involuntarily.

He was not yet fully prepared to begin cultivating the Blood Essence Meteoring Art.

Thanks to Ran Qingmo's repeated rescues, he could now perfectly circulate Origin Qi following the pathways of the Blood Essence Meteoring Art while in a clear state of mind.

But doing so on the brink of death would undoubtedly be many times more difficult.

Gathering his spirit, Xu Yuan said in a calm low voice,

"Mm, about how long do we have?"

Ran Qingmo closed her eyes to sense for a moment, then said softly,

"About half a tenday."

Xu Yuan took a deep breath and asked softly,

"Can they, find this cave dwelling?"

This cave dwelling was clearly located inside the mountain, maybe...

"They can." Ran Qingmo's crisp voice directly shattered Xu Yuan's illusion.

"...."

This instant also made Xu Yuan's thoughts extremely complicated.

A five-day countdown to death had already quietly started.

He stood there in silence for a long time.

In the midst of this quiet,

she suddenly said softly,

"You, don't worry."

He slowly returned to his senses and looked over at her words.

Her pair of clear eyes were staring at him very seriously,

"I will take you and escape."

Looking at her serious eyes, Xu Yuan was silent for two seconds, then gave her a slight smile.

It was somewhat teasing, but more of it was helplessness.

If he nodded and accepted her suggestion,

Xu Yuan could already foresee,

how after five days, this stunning woman in black would be decapitated.

In this world, there are too many powerful beings.

If Ji Qingyue could be killed, Ran Qingmo could certainly be killed as well…...

Ultimately,

Xu Yuan did not respond to Ran Qingmo's words, but quietly sat down beside her.

After a long silence,

he suddenly asked in a low voice,

"Miss Ran, can you bring me to the brink of death?"

A look of confusion appeared in Ran Qingmo's eyes:

"What?"

Xu Yuan repeated softly,

"I said, can you bring me to the brink of death?"