The next day, after resting well in bed for a full day, Yang Qingyuan finally recovered his energy.
Having sensed in the confinement room that the bottleneck of the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts had loosened, he hadn't even dared to rest, seizing every possible moment to cultivate.
Fortunately, his day-and-night ordeal of hard work had not been in vain. He finally broke through the first revolution and successfully stepped into the second.
Upon breaking through to the second revolution, aside from gaining a substantial boost to his physical constitution and soul strength, Yang Qingyuan unexpectedly discovered that the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts had automatically awakened a divine ability—the Five Thunder Technique!
The Five Thunder Technique was one of Erlang's divine abilities. As recorded in *The Investiture of the Gods*: "Yang Jian raised his hand and used the Five Thunder Technique; with a single crash of thunder and lightning, the sprite fled in panic."
This caused Yang Qingyuan's imagination to run wild.
If this momentum continued, wouldn't it mean that every time the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts broke through a revolution in the future, one of Erlang's divine abilities would awaken?
Could it be possible that Erlang's signature abilities in the future—such as the Samadhi True Fire, scattering beans to create soldiers, and the top-tier divine ability that only Erlang and Sun Wukong could use in *Journey to the West*, Land-Fleeing and Heaven-Reaching Form—might also awaken?
At this thought, Yang Qingyuan could no longer suppress the burning passion in his heart and immediately scrambled out of bed.
Before he even had time to brush his teeth or wash his face, Yang Qingyuan rushed anxiously to an open space and began testing the Five Thunder Technique he had just comprehended.
"The Five Thunder Technique: manipulates magic power to transform into lightning to attack and destroy opponents. When cultivated to an advanced realm, it can summon heavenly punishment from between heaven and earth to fight the enemy with infinite power..."
Just reading the brief description of the Five Thunder Technique made Yang Qingyuan's eyes burn with increasing intensity.
He had not opened his Heavenly Eye and could not learn other people's spells by observing the flow of magic power in their meridians like other members of the Yang family.
As for the magical treasures that human Taoist priests relied on for survival, given Yang Qingyuan's status in the Yang family, naturally no one would ever give him any.
Because of this, the only things Yang Qingyuan currently had to show were this physical body tempered by the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts and the powerful soul within him.
As for offensive methods, did fists count?
Now, with the Five Thunder Technique, it could compensate to a certain extent for the flaw of Yang Qingyuan's offensive methods being too singular and scarce.
Boom, boom, boom!
A few hours later, in the open space, bolts of white lightning erupted from Yang Qingyuan's palms, rapidly striking a large tree in front of him.
The next second, the tree actually blew apart from the middle, creating a large hole out of thin air.
Looking at the training results of his Five Thunder Technique at this moment, a satisfied smile appeared at the corners of Yang Qingyuan's mouth.
"Very good. Although the power of this palm thunder is barely moderate, its strength lies in being instantaneous, and the attack speed is fast enough. No matter how powerful a move is, if it can't hit the target, it's completely useless."
After taking a short rest to recover the magic power consumed during the practice of the Five Thunder Technique, Yang Qingyuan returned to his room.
He was going out later. The "pocket money" that Yang Yan had promised to give him yesterday had already been sent to his room by her servants.
Yang Qingyuan opened it and—goodness gracious—there were silver notes totaling a full thousand taels!
One had to know that under the difficult social conditions of the present day, a single tael of silver was enough to cover a common family's expenses for an entire year.
One could only say that as the apple of the eye of a top-tier wealthy family in the Taoist League, her generosity was extraordinary.
Looking at the massive fortune in silver notes in his hand, Yang Qingyuan could not help but shake his head.
"Sigh, as expected, the saying 'Behind vermilion gates wine and meat rot, while on the road lie frozen bones' is a common occurrence no matter which world you're in..."
Of course, Yang Qingyuan merely sighed slightly; he had no intention of pulling a Huang Chao and declaring, "When my flower blooms, a hundred flowers will be killed."
With his current strength, whether he could even protect himself in this cannibalistic Taoist League was a question in itself—where would he find the leisure to pity ordinary people?
After washing up and dressing himself slightly, Yang Qingyuan picked up one of the silver notes and, under the curious gazes of a group of Yang family disciples, stepped out of the Yang family residence.
Just as Yang Qingyuan had told Yang Yan yesterday, he needed to go to the street to buy some clothes and daily necessities.
As for why he still specially dressed up before going out, don't ask—asking means that no matter how badly off one's circumstances are, one must still maintain a certain poise, otherwise, wouldn't it waste this handsome appearance of his?
To say nothing else, what if he happened to have a wonderful chance encounter with a beautiful young woman while out one day, only to find the young woman dressed in an exquisite and captivating manner while he was disheveled and greasy? Wouldn't that be a huge loss of face?
Humans are emotional creatures, and first impressions are particularly important.
No matter how wonderful a romance might be, if the first glance is unsatisfactory, practically the vast majority of possibilities can be directly crossed out.
On this point, Yang Qingyuan had always maintained himself well.
In short, losing anyone's face was fine, but he could not lose Erlang's face!
As a top-tier family of the One-Qi Taoist League, the Yang family's home base was naturally located in the heartland of the entire One-Qi Taoist League's sphere of influence.
Dao City was the largest and simultaneously the most prosperous city within the sphere of influence of the One-Qi Taoist League.
Almost the vast majority of the wealthy and powerful families of the One-Qi Taoist League were garrisoned within this city, naturally including the Yang family.
As for the number one family in the world, the Wangquan family, and the Shenhuo Mountain Villa, which had suddenly risen to prominence in recent decades, they were not located in this city but possessed their own independent manors.
Walking on the bustling streets of Dao City, Yang Qingyuan's attention was quickly captured by the dazzling array of goods at the roadside stalls.
"Come, come, come, take a look! A top-grade Fire Spirit Sword! This was crafted by my master after fighting a fiery dragon demon for thirty thousand rounds, finally achieving a hard-won victory and severing the dragon demon's horn!
Now on a clearance super-sale! Not 998! Not 888! Only 88!"
"Heaven-Net Talisman! Has miraculous effects against brute-force demons; truly the best helper for staying at home, traveling, and subduing demons and eliminating devils!"
"Top-grade healing medicine! Can rapidly treat injuries! The raw materials are absolute conscience goods; the healing medicine from our shop this time is made entirely from the blood of the leech clan!"
...
Watching these small-scale vendors enthusiastically shouting their wares on the roadside, Yang Qingyuan glanced over them briefly.
One could tell just how severe the conflicts between the human and demon races were nowadays from the items sold at these small stalls.
To say nothing else, virtually none of the items sold here were daily necessities; the vast majority were magical treasures, talismans, or formations used to deal with demons.
However, none of these were things Yang Qingyuan currently needed, so he only glanced at them briefly before preparing to push past the crowd and head straight for his destination.
Just as Yang Qingyuan was about to leave, however, a familiar voice slowly sounded from ahead.
"I wondered who it was—isn't this the servant who ambushed the Yang family's son-in-law at the Yang family wedding last time?"