Chapter 5 Ultimate Perfection
An hour.
The medicinal tub of Bian Ruxue became completely clear, with not a single drop of medicinal fluid remaining.
The maids changed her into clean new clothes, and dried her hair, as they stood beside Li Hao's tub, unaware of the significance of all this, and just quietly waited for Li Hao to emerge.
On the other hand, under Lin Haixia's strong insistence, Li Hao could only obediently soak in his tub.
And the color inside his tub was still a piercing purple.
The female attendant accompanying Bian Ruxue took one look and was dumbfounded.
As another hour passed, other house servants and maids also heard the news, rushed over, and were all shocked.
They, living within the Divine General Mansion, naturally understood what this meant.
At this moment, they looked at each other, seeing the sky fall in each other's eyes.
The son of the formidable Marshal of Martial Arts, unable to practice martial arts?
This was the bloodline of the Li Family!
This matter was simply unbelievable.
But the truth was right before their eyes.
The whole courtyard was quiet, and soon, some servants reacted, running around in a panic, and before long, a large group of colorful figures streamed into the Mountain and River Courtyard.
The ladies of various courtyards had all arrived, they gathered around the tub and, from the nearby servants, learned about the duration of Li Hao's soak, all finding it hard to believe.
Liu Yue Rong stood in the crowd, her heart skipping a beat.
Could it be that medicine?
But she had not heard that the medicine had such a strong side effect!
Her heart felt uneasy, but her face still remained calm, immediately showing an expression of urgency and grief.
Meanwhile in the tub, Li Hao, with a face devoid of the will to live, also saw the superb acting of the Second Madam, and in her eyes, Li Hao even saw a trace of genuine panic.
The Second Madam, she must have been scared, right?
Li Hao chuckled in his heart.
As the courtyard grew louder, the Head Lady sternly ordered everyone to leave, only leaving the ladies of various courtyards behind, warning them that this matter must not be divulged!
Lin Haixia, seeing that the Foundation Establishment fluid showed no signs of weakening, also felt utterly disheartened.
This couldn't even be described as "slow."
He thought of a certain terrifying constitution, and shuddered. Could it be that this lord's child, the Qilin son, was truly completely unable to cultivate martial arts?!
Without further ado, Lin Haixia pulled Li Hao out of the tub.
Seeing that Li Hao's body was soaked to the point of being oxygen-deprived and pale, and his skin had shriveled and wrinkled, the expressions in the ladies' eyes varied.
They learned that Li Hao had already been soaking for six hours.
But the Foundation Establishment fluid showed no change at all, highlighting the seriousness of the matter.
Liu Yue Rong, seeing Li Hao's lips had also turned pale from soaking, was sure that this was not a hoax.
Her heart clenched, as she had only intended to suppress the child's Divine Blood, not to completely disable him!
After all, becoming completely useless would be too suspicious!
This was the powerful Li family bloodline, yet unable to cultivate?
If the cause were to be investigated later...
The first to regain composure was the Head Lady, who immediately instructed Lin Haixia to take good care of Hao Er and ordered her attendant to bring some warm reinforcing soup to nourish Li Hao's weak body.
...
...
The following day.
Lin Haixia prepared two tubs of Foundation Establishment fluid, letting Li Hao and Bian Ruxue soak separately.
Lin Haixia watched Li Hao closely as he bathed.
Li Hao felt helplessly aware that it was futile, a waste of medicinal materials, but unable to resist the other party, he had to comply.
He guessed it would not take long for the situation to become clear.
Then, the same font prompt that appeared yesterday surfaced.
[Unknown substance detected, analyzing…]
[Analysis failed, automatically isolated.]
Li Hao had anticipated this and wasn't too surprised; he obediently stayed in the medicinal bath, idly picking at his toes, utterly bored.
As time passed, with no change in the medicinal fluid, the army dwarf completely lost it, emitting a low growl.
"How could this be?!"
Lin Haixia, more emotional than Li Hao, seemed more incredulous.
He paced around the tub, tapping his head and muttering, "The fluid is right, it can't be wrong, could it be, the lord's child is truly unable to cultivate?!"
This was the Li family bloodline!
Li Hao was not too distressed, for he had the panel and could grow stronger without relying on these fluids.
But seeing his teacher so grief-stricken, he felt somewhat guilty and consoled, "Uncle Lin, it's okay, don't be so sad."
Hearing this, Lin Haixia trembled.
He looked at the young child in the tub, suddenly feeling tears welling up.
Child, you do not know the fate you are about to face!
Seeing the child's optimistic and clear eyes, Lin Haixia felt his heart tearing apart.
The sole son of the commander, would he have such a future?
Yet, he could do nothing about it.
Regarding Li Hao's condition, he could only think of one possibility, innate blocked meridians.
That was a standard martial arts invalid body!
If it had occurred in an ordinary family, it might have been normal, as eight or nine out of ten commoners were like that, not a particularly rare occurrence.
But this is the Li Family!
A family that generation after generation produces True Dragons!
Even those with the least talent among the Li family's children are superior compared to others.
Not to mention those Li Family True Dragons, each of whom is a renowned figure in the world?
And the child before her…
Lin Haixia was speechless and choked up, even she, who could look directly at a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood on the battlefield without changing color, now dared not look at this child any longer.
Those clean, pure eyes were heartbreaking.
"It's all right, it's all right…" Li Hao, seeing that this man was genuinely sorrowful for him and not pretending, also felt a bit warmed.
He stood up from the medicinal tub and tugged at his own trouser leg, trying to offer some consolation.
...
...
The second attempt at Foundation Establishment Elixir was declared a failure.
The news spread throughout the Divine General Mansion like a hurricane, solidifying the fact that Li Hao could not cultivate.
The ladies and house servants of the Li family were all shocked and could hardly believe it.
In the following days, Li Hao stopped soaking in the medicinal elixir, and people came one after another to check his body, but they all left shaking their heads.
Li Hao also took the opportunity to listen in and learned that in their eyes, his condition was considered a Martial Arts disabled physique.
This physique couldn't be said to be completely incapable of cultivation.
It would just be extremely difficult.
Unable to absorb elixirs or external energy, one could only rely on self-training to gain a slight achievement.
And one could only train up to the Second Realm.
To break through, one needed to communicate with the energies of heaven and earth, thus the Second Realm was the limit.
The news seemed to have even reached the Northern Yan battlefield, and not long after, an urgent family letter was sent back over a thousand miles.
The information in the family letter once again shook the Divine General Mansion.
The Lord of Martial Punishment had already reached the Three Immortal Realms!
The letter stated, urging the Great Lady not to give up on Hao Er, no matter how bitter or hard, they must make him pursue the Martial Arts.
Even if it was just starting out, in the future, with the awakening of the Divine Blood, he could still make a difference, though he would not have the potential to become a genius, but at least he could seek a position of a centurion in the army.
In this way, he would also live up to the name of a Li family's son.
The Great Lady was Ms. He, named He Jianlan.
He Jianlan, over sixty but appearing only in her forties, sighed softly after reading the family letter:
"Hao Er is unfortunate, all because of that despicable woman."
No one knew who the despicable woman she referred to was.
...
...
In the following days, Li Hao felt as though he had returned to the usual days.
Foundation Establishment was no longer necessary, and it was planned to attempt Blood Melting on him when he turned four.
That way, with Li Hao having nothing to do every day, he had even more time to secretly play chess, and his experience was swiftly soaring.
The news of Li Hao's disabled Martial Arts physique, somehow leaked, spread beyond the mansion.
In Qingzhou City, inside taverns and restaurants, suddenly there were additional topics of discussion, but most people took it as just a storyteller's gimmick, not really believing it.
After all, that was a Li family's son.
However, among some enemies of the Li family in the court, it immediately caught their attention.
Once they sent people to thoroughly investigate and found out the situation was indeed true, many inside the mansion were both happy and shocked.
Happy that the Li family, which had been glorious for a thousand years, finally had a crack in its bloodline!
But shocked that the Lord of Martial Punishment had hidden his strength so deeply, achieving the Three Immortal Realms and only now revealing it.
Luckily, his son had a disabled Martial Arts physique, otherwise, in the future, he might become another Li Junye!
...
...
In the blink of an eye, Li Hao turned four.
After a year of sneaky effort, Li Hao successfully entered the second stage in Chess Tao.
At the same time, he acquired a new Skill Point.
Without hesitation, Li Hao used the Skill Point on Sword Dao.
His Sword Dao thus advanced to the second stage as well.
Compared to the more complex and plentiful information overload when advancing from the first stage, now being four years old, Li Hao was barely able to withstand it, feeling only a slight swelling in his head.
As the Sword Dao advanced, the skills on his panel also changed.
[Name: Li Hao]
[Age: 4]
[Cultivation Level: Mortal]
[Sword Dao: Second Stage]
[Skills: Endless Sea·Tide (Ultimate Perfection) [Forbidden]]
[Mastered Art: Chess Tao]
[Chess Tao: Second Stage (0/1000)]
[Chess Manual Catalogue Collection: 0]
[Artistic Skill Points: 0]
However, now that Chess Tao had advanced into the second stage, Li Hao realised that he could no longer earn experience by playing against himself alone; he needed to find others to compete against.