Chapter 7 Father's Relics

Xu Mansion.

After Jiang Fan returned, he immediately shut the door and clenched his fists tightly.

"Lu Zheng, I don't believe that I am inferior to you!"

He opened the "Pure Wind Scripture" and carefully read it.

Perhaps it was because his body had been baptized by the Void Ancient Tree, but this rather esoteric Yellow Level high-grade mental method suddenly became much easier for him to understand.

A two-hour period later, his eyes shone with wisdom as he sat cross-legged and began to cultivate.

"Letting the qi flow through the dantian, focusing the mind and forgetting the self, neither wind nor self..."

He silently recited the mantra, and the transparent spirit root within his body, like vast root tendrils rooted in nothingness, slowly absorbed the spiritual energy from the air.

The stronger the spirit root, the faster the absorption speed.

The more advanced the mental method, the faster the absorption speed as well.

The combination of both produced a synergistic effect.

Soon, strands of invisible spiritual energy gathered from all directions, blending into his dantian and transforming into threads of pure spiritual power.

He cultivated tirelessly, losing himself in it.

So much so that when dawn broke and a ray of glaring sunlight hit his eyes, he was woken up.

He slowly opened his eyes.

With a glimmer of anticipation, he jumped off the bed, circulated his dantian, and threw out his fists.

Poof—

The faint sound of compressed air bursting entered his ears.

"Second Layer of Qi Cultivation! In one night, I reached the Second Layer of Qi Cultivation!" Jiang Fan was overjoyed.

"It took Xu Yining three whole days to break through to the First Layer of Qi Cultivation, didn't it?"

Though he rejoiced for a long time, he did not become arrogant or complacent.

"But just reaching the Second Layer of Qi Cultivation is not enough. To protect myself and Xu Youran, I need to become even stronger."

Jiang Fan muttered to himself. He tried to continue cultivating but found that the speed at which he absorbed spiritual energy had slowed significantly.

"In the Qi Cultivation Realm, the further you go, the slower the cultivation becomes. You need Qi Cultivation Liquid to assist."

"But Qi Cultivation Liquid is very expensive, and Qin Changsheng won't sell it to me!"

He frowned slightly.

Suddenly, a spark flashed in his mind, and he muttered, "Before my father passed, he asked me to bury the box he had carried with him for ten years in front of his grave."

"He cautioned me not to dig it up until the seed had sprouted."

"Is there any cultivation resource left for me inside?"

Since his father could leave him such a miraculous seed, there must be extraordinary items inside the mysterious box as well.

He got up and opened the door.

Yet he heard Xu Youran's pleading voice from the neighboring courtyard.

"Aunt Wang, these are the resources the clan allocated to me this month, please don't take them away."

Wang Yingfeng, with two personal maids, had driven Xu Youran into a corner against the wall.

The maids held her hands down, while Wang Yingfeng retrieved a bottle of Qi Cultivation Liquid from her bosom, her face icy as she said, "Don't think I don't know, you want to give this to that useless Jiang Fan!"

"You want him to win? Haha, dream on!"

Bang—

Wang Yingfeng ruthlessly smashed the Qi Cultivation Liquid onto the ground, spilling the precious liquid all over, mixing with the soil.

Xu Youran anxiously broke free from the two maids, threw herself to the ground, and tried to scoop up the mud soaked with the spiritual liquid, hoping to salvage some of it.

But the liquid had already mixed with the soil, becoming impossible to separate and thus useless.

"Aunt Wang!" Normally calm, her eyes filled with tears in anger: "Fan is already pitiful enough, why do you bully him like this?"

"You make it so difficult for him even for a single bottle of Qi Cultivation Liquid!"

Wang Yingfeng nonchalantly clapped her hands and said, "Who bullied him?"

"The Qi Cultivation Liquid belongs to our Xu Family, if he has the guts, let him get it himself, relying on a woman to give it to him secretly, not only do we in the Xu Mansion look down on him, even the beggars on the street would spit on him."

"Let's go!"

She swayed her hips, satisfied, and left.

Jiang Fan doesn't even have a bottle of Qi Cultivation Liquid and wants to beat her nephew, keep dreaming.

Xu Youran crouched helplessly on the ground, hugging her knees and sobbing in self-blame.

At this moment.

A hand rested on her back, gently patting her.

Startled, she turned her head to see Jiang Fan, and her self-blame deepened. She collapsed into his arms, crying out, "I'm sorry, Fan, I'm so useless!"

"I should have been more careful, then Aunt Wang wouldn't have discovered it."

Jiang Fan gently patted her thin back, his heart full of tenderness: "Silly girl, I should be thanking you, how could I blame you?"

Xu Youran's eyes were red, filled with endless self-blame: "But that was the only Qi Cultivation Liquid I could give you."

How am I worthy of having such a fiancée?

Jiang Fan became even more gentle: "Wang Yingfeng said one thing that I do agree with."

"A man who only wins by relying on a woman's help, not only do outsiders look down on him, but I would look down on myself too!"

"Don't worry, I'll figure out a way to get the Qi Cultivation Liquid myself."

"Go back and rest, wait for my news."

Xu Youran was silent for a long time, then suddenly nodded: "Okay, do your best, no matter the result, I won't blame you."

With that, she left the backyard and the Xu Mansion.

She headed toward Cloud Mist Mountain on the outskirts where Spirit Grass grew abundantly.

Unable to bear Jiang Fan's isolation and helplessness, she still wanted to help him as best as she could.

Although Spirit Grass was far less effective than Qi Cultivation Liquid, it was better than nothing.

Meanwhile.

Jiang Fan also left the Xu Mansion and came to the cemetery outside the town.

"Dad, your unfilial son has come to see you."

He knelt in front of the grave, burning many paper offerings and candles, his mind recalling the years spent with his father.

His father was silent and taciturn, liked to drink.

When drunk, he would curse the heavens in rage, as if venting some injustice.

When sober, he would gaze at the moon, tears streaming down his face.

Regardless of whether he was drunk or sober, his gaze toward Jiang Fan was always gentle.

"Dad, I'm going to get married, but not to Xu Yining, to the one you liked more—Xu Youran. You once said she was actually more suitable to be my wife, gentle and understanding."

Jiang Fan laughed, but tears flowed as he spoke: "If you were still alive, you would certainly be grinning from ear to ear, wouldn't you?"

"When we're married, I will surely bring her to meet you."

Wiping his tears, Jiang Fan said with a bit of guilt: "But I've run into some trouble and need to open the box you left behind."

"Disturbing your peace, I beg your forgiveness."

After kowtowing several times, Jiang Fan picked up a hoe and began digging the earth in front of the gravestone.

He dug three feet deep before finally uncovering a black wooden box.

"Hmm, it hasn't rotted." Jiang Fan lifted it, a look of surprise on his face.

Since he could remember, this wooden box had always been this way.

Neither damaged nor showing any signs of age.

Even after being buried underground for three years, there were no traces of insects or vermin gnawing at it, nor was it corroded by the damp soil.

It seemed the box itself was anything but ordinary.

With his heart slightly pounding, he turned the latch of the box, and with a click.

This box that his father had guarded for fifteen years, never leaving his side, never once opened.

Finally, after Jiang Fan's seed sprouted, saw the light of day again.

Creaaak!

As the box opened, some items that caused Jiang Fan's pupils to contract sharply came into view.