This elixir can fundamentally shatter the shackles of one's innate talent, yet unfortunately, it only works once for any given person; taking it multiple times is no different from eating grass chaff.
It took him an entire afternoon to refine these elixirs, using ordinary fire after all, which was far from what he could truly control.
Xie Guannan placed the elixirs into a small jade vial and stored them away, naturally to prevent the medicinal potency from dissipating.
Deep into the night.
Xie Guannan entered a state of meditative cultivation, recalling the techniques from his past life. In this life, he would study an extremely mysterious technique just as he had before:
The Black Abyss Divine Scripture!
The peculiar thing about this technique was that it was intimately tied to the cycle of day and night.
During the dead of night, one's affinity for darkness increased drastically, boosting all attributes by one hundred percent. It allowed the user to unleash double combat power and recovery speed, while cultivation progress also proceeded at twice the speed of daytime.
By "the period of night," it did not mean simply being in a dark place; dark corners rendered no such effect.
He sat cross-legged on the bed, tossing a pill into his mouth as casually as if it were a sugary bean.
The Marrow-Cleansing Pill: a Tier 1 elixir that purges the meridians, remakes the mortal frame, and transforms the mortal into the extraordinary.
Its value was comparable to a celestial elixir.
The medicinal power entered his body, dispersing into his limbs and bones, unceasingly remaking every inch of his physique. Such changes usually took place imperceptibly.
"As expected of the Marrow-Cleansing Pill, there isn't even a sensation of pain," Xie Guannan mused, marveling at the heaven-defying nature of the elixir.
Before he knew it, the shackles on his innate talent had loosened significantly. What he had broken through were the limits of his physical body; how he progressed from here would depend entirely on his subsequent cultivation.
Furthermore, Xie Guannan possessed the experience of his past life, making this cultivation process as effortless for him as eating and drinking.
Not to mention the negligible shackles that remained.
For him, the Black Abyss Divine Scripture held no difficulty whatsoever. In just a few hours, he had re-comprehended the entire technique.
His cultivation realm, too, had made its initial step into Early-stage Qi Condensation, Level 1.
It was just that his physical body had yet to fully adapt, as the technique had previously existed only within his memories.
Now that his physical body had practiced the technique, his affinity for darkness grew even stronger. In the dead of night like this, Spiritual Power would naturally flow into his body.
In his previous life, possessing this technique meant he never needed to sleep even when night fell; meditative cultivation alone was enough to restore his physical strength.
This also minimized the probability of him dying out in the world. Feeling that all was well, he crossed his legs once more and gradually began to absorb the spiritual qi of Shenzhou.
As the spiritual qi entered his dantian, it underwent a subtle, minuscule change.
The pristine spiritual qi actually carried a wisp of turbid black.
Outside the window, a pair of eyes was staring fixedly at Xie Guannan.
"Young master, since when could he refine elixirs? No, wait, how can the young master cultivate like this? I must tell the madam!"
Ever since he began practicing the Black Abyss Divine Scripture, Xie Guannan's perception of the night had become exceptionally sharp. Under the effect of double combat power, even with a cultivation base of only Early-stage Qi Condensation Level 1, he possessed the ability to rival mid-stage practitioners.
Just as the maidservant was about to withdraw, Xie Guannan had already lashed out with a palm strike.
"What—when?!" The maidservant coughed up a mouthful of blood, her eyes filled with utter disbelief.
"Aren't you unable to cultivate? How could you seriously injure a Mid-stage Qi Condensation practitioner with a single palm?!" To her dying breath, the maidservant could not believe Xie Guannan was this strong.
"It doesn't matter; I'll tell you in your next life! As for Su Rongyue, I'll be sure to give her a proper accounting on your end." Xie Guannan dropped these words casually, and the maidservant expired while the terror still lingered in her eyes.
Xie Guannan had no intention of letting Su Rongyue off easily, so he simply disposed of the maidservant's corpse without fuss.
After a single night.
Level 1 Peak!
Every major cultivation stage was divided into twenty levels, with five levels each for the early, middle, late, and final stages.
Shortly after.
The jade vial on the bed was tossed into his storage ring by Xie Guannan, ignored completely from then on.
He no longer had any use for it. A single pill of this talent-enhancing variety was enough to loosen the shackles of one's potential, and furthermore, consuming more was pointless—though they could be put to other uses.
Xie Guannan looked at the sunlight outside the window and smiled knowingly.
"The good show is about to begin!"
"Ah, ah, ah, ah!"
"Little bastard, what a vicious trick!" Su Rongyue's curses echoed throughout the Xie family courtyard.
Many people were jolted awake.
"Thud, thud, thud—"
A bout of violent knocking rang out. "Little bastard, I know you're in there, get your ass out here for your mother!" followed by Su Rongyue's curses.
Hearing this familiar voice, Xie Guannan slowly opened his eyes. His body still felt somewhat unaccustomed to things, having just snatched a quick catnap.
The aftereffects of cultivating that technique—a lingering drowsiness—were now on full display. Of course, his baseline physical constitution was rather poor to begin with; a body's endurance was not the same thing as innate talent.
"This frail body, it's about time I gave it a proper workout."
"Get your ass out here right now! You're going to drive me to an early grave one of these days!" Su Rongyue was growing frantic.
Xie Guannan simply refused to open the door. He spread his hands out in his room and said helplessly, "You're how old, and you're still bickering with me over this? Your mind is truly narrow."
"Who the hell has a narrow mind?! You really are that bitch's spawn through and through!" Su Rongyue loathed having others describe her that way, let alone Xie Guannan.
"Old woman, how about this: as an apology, I'll clear out of the Xie family and go spend a few days outside, how's that?" Now was not the time to have a falling out with this Su Rongyue; he had no choice but to endure.
"Good, good, good! If you've got the spine, don't you ever come back!" Su Rongyue was overjoyed; she desperately wished for Xie Guannan to run into some misfortune outside.
Xie Guannan stepped out through the main gates of the Xie family residence, vanishing from Su Rongyue's field of vision shortly after.
"Someone come here!"
The person who approached was a burly man whose cultivation had already reached Late-stage Qi Condensation.
"Su Han, go outside and teach him a lesson! Kill him if you can! If you can't kill him, don't bother coming back!"
"But isn't he your son? What will the master say about this?"
"Who gave you permission to ask so many questions? And I, Su Rongyue, have no such son!"
"Do as you're told and stop spouting so much nonsense!"
"Yes, Madam!"
－007 Incomplete Technique
"Lost track of him? Right under my nose?" Su Han looked somewhat baffled.
...
Before long, a pair of eyes quietly poked out from over the wall of the Xie family courtyard.
The Xie family armory. Seeing that there was no one around, he vaulted over the wall and slipped inside.
"Huh? Young master, you?"
"Shh, shh—"
Xie Guannan made a silencing gesture toward the manservant before him, upon which the servant whispered, "Young master, you don't need to be like this in your own home!" Xie Guannan could not afford to make a big fuss when coming to fetch weapons.
"Keep what happened today under your wraps, you hear? Not even to the head of the family, got it?" Xie Guannan whispered back.
The manservant nodded.
Xie Guannan stepped directly into the armory, and the manservant hurried in after him, quickly shutting the armory doors and letting out a long sigh of relief.
Taking everything in, the manservant hastily said, "Young master, what do you need? I'll get it for you!"
Xie Guannan had originally planned to look for things himself, but since the manservant offered, there was no need to do the legwork.
After all, whether in his past life or this one, he had never stepped foot in here before. Back when he was refining elixirs, he had even had to use a rice bowl!!
He didn't even know if the Xie family possessed an alchemy furnace. "I need a fine short blade, a bow and arrows, and oh—I also need a storage ring with a slightly larger space."
While the manservant went off to search for the short blade and bow, Xie Guannan wandered around the place. Calling it an armory was generous.
At best, it was a dumping ground for miscellaneous goods; it held items that were rarely used, as well as cultivation techniques and battle skills.
As for weapons, Xie Guannan didn't need to worry about those since he had sent the servant to look, so he made his way over to the cultivation manuals section.
Let's see if there was anything he could use. In his previous life, he had frequently operated in the shadows.
Every offensive skill he used had to be understated.
If an attack skill was too flashy, it was far too easy to attract attention.
Were that the case, he wouldn't live long.
"Heaven-Splitting Slash: Saber technique. Reaching mastery allows one to cleave mountains, sever seas, and tear the firmament apart."
Xie Guannan pressed a hand to his forehead, muttering, "Powerful as it is, I don't use a saber. This won't do."
"Underworld Spirit Mind: Mental attack. Causes mental confusion, and at its peak, allows one to manipulate others."
Xie Guannan once again shook his head helplessly. "I don't use spiritual power for attacks, either."
"This won't do, either."
........
After searching for a long time.
He didn't even harbor the slightest doubt as to why his Xie family possessed so many heaven-defying techniques.
.........
Something suddenly flashed across his eyes—"Imprisoning the Firmaments"! It looked rather tattered and ruined!
"How could such an overbearing name appear in a barren wasteland like the Xie family?" Xie Guannan wondered. He reached out to take it down, just about to flip it open, when—
"Young master, that manual is an incomplete technique." The manservant's voice came from the side. He was holding a storage ring; the errands Xie Guannan had given him were already complete.
After handing the storage ring over to Xie Guannan, the latter asked, "Is there a story behind this?"
After pondering for a moment, the manservant recounted the tale to Xie Guannan. The gist of it was that this technique, "Imprisoning the Firmaments," had been brought back by his great-grandfather, Xie Yuan.
Only the first half existed; nobody knew where the second half had gone off to.
"Alright, go back to your duties. I'll study this myself." "Very well, young master." The manservant bowed respectfully and withdrew.
With that, Xie Guannan was left alone in the room.
He opened the "Imprisoning the Firmaments" manual once more.
*Initial entry into imprisonment: with a single thought, one can halt a person's steps. Reaching mastery: one can form a domain, imprisoning time and space.*
Imprisoning time and space?
How profound were the words "time and space"!
This was the existence of something approaching the supreme laws of the universe.
However, the contents detailing cultivation to the stage of mastery were all in the second half of the manual, which Xie Guannan could no longer see.
The first part, at least, didn't have quite so many restrictions.
It only achieved halting a person's steps.
Upon reading the final page, Xie Guannan could not help but knit his brows.
It was written there:
*To cultivate the second half of the technique, one's cultivation realm must be restricted to above the Saint Realm.*
*Spiritual power is still insufficient to support even the tip of the iceberg of the laws; as expected, higher-level battle skills consume an enormous amount.*
Xie Guannan's expression remained calm as he attempted to circulate the technique. Just how hard could it be to learn the preliminary chapter of this manual?
In his previous life, he was the Southern Emperor, a half-god! Half a quarter of an hour!
*Halt a person's steps!* The next instant, Xie Guannan pitched forward and collapsed onto the ground.
Failed? How could that be! Naturally, with no one else around, he had tested it on himself.
Moreover, the attempt drained more than half of his spiritual power directly, giving Xie Guannan a profound sense of shock.
Yet three seconds later, Xie Guannan scrambled up from the floor in a rather disheveled state, brushing the dust off his body as he muttered to himself:
"Can it only be used for three seconds?" Those three seconds were certainly on the short side, but even so, it would be enough.
An eye peeked out through a crack in the door, Xie Guannan's gaze scanning the situation outside.
With only the manservant keeping watch outside, Xie Guannan stepped straight out.
Seeing the young master emerge, the manservant hurriedly bowed.
"Young master!"
"Shh!!"
Xie Guannan waved a hand dismissively and said, "Make sure you don't breathe a word of this to anyone!"
The manservant looked puzzled. "What matter?"
"Naturally, don't tell the family head or Su Rongyue that I've been here."
The manservant smiled, wearing an expression that said *I understand*. Xie Guannan handed the few remaining coins he had on him to the servant.
The manservant was overjoyed, though his face immediately twisted into a helpless look.
"Young master, let's not climb over the walls when you go out, alright?"
"Remember, never mention that I came here," Xie Guannan warned as he dropped down behind the wall.
The manservant hurriedly clamped a hand over his mouth.
Thinking to himself: *The young master has actually started cultivating in earnest!*
.....
"So he snuck back in again. Let's see where else you can run." In a dark corner, Su Han wiped the blood from his blade.
Then, he trailed after Xie Guannan.
Xie Guannan's destination this time was the Beast Forest adjacent to Jianghai City. This Beast Forest was the largest gathering place for fierce beasts in the entire Liuyun Dynasty.
Jianghai City was situated in a remote corner of the Liuyun Dynasty, directly connected to the Beast Forest. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Jianghai City was a completely dispensable place within the dynasty.
The Beast Forest was divided into the core circle, the buffer circle, and the outer circle.
The outermost area was the fringe zone, which was the safest region, mostly populated by ordinary beasts and Tier 1 fierce beasts.
The outer circle harbored mostly Tier 2 creatures and above.
As for the core circle, rumor had it that there were grand beasts comparable to the sixth stage—the Nirvana Realm.
Yet Xie Guannan had never laid eyes upon them, nor did he know if the rumors were credible! Naturally, that was not a place where he could set foot at present.
Rebirth did not make one invincible across the world.
It simply meant the difficulty of walking the path he had already traveled was reduced—it went more smoothly, allowed him to avoid greater risks, let him stay a step ahead, or choose an alternative route!
Xie Guannan strode out of the city amidst the crowd. The guards didn't find it strange at all; heading out of the city during the daytime was the most normal thing in the world. With so many people around, who would pay attention to a mediocre, unremarkable person like Xie Guannan?
"Why did this brat head out of the city? Should I report to the madam first? Oh well, I'll just follow him first. Out in the desolate wilderness—now that's a fine resting place!" Su Han chuckled sinisterly.
－008 Su Han Rearguard
The Beast Forest.
The fringe zone was mostly populated by cultivators in the middle and late stages of Qi Condensation.
It was rare to see someone like Xie Guannan—a mere Early-stage Qi Condensation Level 1—daring to venture out here, let alone coming to such a relatively dangerous place.
Many people looked at Xie Guannan with eyes full of astonishment, though some were filled with sheer disdain.
"He's only at the Qi Condensation realm and he dares to come out here? And all by himself, too!"
"Why bother minding other people's business? If he dies, it's got nothing to do with you!"
"What is this brat doing in the Beast Forest? Could he have figured out I was tailing him? Impossible, how could some piece of trash notice me?"
"If not, then coming to this forest all by yourself is just looking for death anyway. Ridiculous!" Su Han chuckled with a sinister undercurrent.
Xie Guannan strode quickly through the trees, naturally paying no mind to these uninteresting remarks.
Before long, a middle-aged, rough-looking man patted the bamboo-pole-thin man beside him, pointing at Xie Guannan with a half-smile that wasn't a smile. "This greenhorn is barely at Early-stage Qi Condensation Level 1, yet he dares come to a place like this. There's got to be something wrong with his head."
Xie Guannan ignored him.
"Careful you don't die in there, with nobody left to collect your corpse, hahahahaha." The middle-aged ruffian laughed, his tone carrying a trace of mockery.
It sounded like a warning, but in truth, it was ridiculing Xie Guannan for not knowing his own limits.
One had to realize that further in, where the outer zone and the fringe zone blended together,
Tier 1 and Tier 2 fierce beasts were mixed into a chaotic mess.
The two middle-aged ruffians, despite being at Late-stage Qi Condensation, only dared to stop right here.
Let alone someone as weak as Xie Guannan at Early-stage Qi Condensation Level 1?
Xie Guannan looked back at the two of them, casting them a single, casual glance.
He had already mentally noted down the pair. With a couple of swift bounds, Xie Guannan leaped onto a tree trunk and vanished into the crowd, leaving the two men standing there in a fluster.
"That brat actually dared to look at me like that. The next time I see him, I'm going to tear him limb from limb!" the middle-aged ruffian said angrily.
"Why don't you think about whether he's even coming back?" the thin man said with a chuckle beside him.
"True, true!"
......
"Big Sis, hurry and keep it under control! Little sis, quick, quick, stun it! Little bro, hurry up and deal the fatal blow, hurry....."
As Xie Guannan maneuvered through the trees, he couldn't help laughing out loud at this sight.
The strategist never goes to the battlefield, yet back in the day they too had wept bitter tears.
.......
"Big brother, stop chasing me! I just relieved myself by the side of the road, it's not worth chasing me this far!"
A man was pulling up his trousers halfway while a Tier 2 hound beast pursued him from behind.
The man and the hound ran half the map.
Naturally, Xie Guannan couldn't do anything to help. The person being chased had a higher cultivation base than him, and he wasn't some kind of blind do-gooder either.
Besides, he might not even have had the spare energy to help.
He could certainly use "Imprisoning the Firmaments: Halt a Person's Steps."
But used on a Tier 2 fierce beast, under the condition of consuming half his spiritual power, he probably wouldn't even be able to trap it for two full seconds.
In a place where human hearts were treacherous, it was better not to be overly kind-hearted.
Anyway, the man and the dog were evenly matched, so why should he worry? He might as well just treat it as a show!
......
Along the way, Xie Guannan witnessed quite a few things, but they all passed like fleeting clouds, not worth remembering.
They were merely amusements on his journey. Having jumped around for a while, Xie Guannan began to feel somewhat tired.
Since he was only at Early-stage Qi Condensation Level 1, managing to run this far hadn't been easy. Finding a suitable spot, he sat down on a tree branch, leaning against the main trunk, and slowly began to recover his physical strength.
"The brat has stopped moving. This really is a fine time to kill him!"
.......
"I should probably just look around nearby. Any further forward and I'll hit the outer zone, where there are only Tier 2 fierce beasts and above; the danger coefficient is simply too high," Xie Guannan muttered to himself. The next instant, a rustling sound came from the bushes.
Xie Guannan instantly grew vigilant. Just a moment ago, he had merely been resting here to recover his strength.
To approach without making a sound meant this fierce beast was likely no simple matter. Xie Guannan pulled a bow and arrows from his storage ring, abruptly drawing the bowstring back to a full moon.
It felt as though the arrow could leave the string at any microsecond.
Just as Xie Guannan had anticipated, a wolf beast slowly walked out from the foliage.
The look in its eyes as it stared at Xie Guannan was as though it were eyeing its dinner.
"A Tier 2 wolf beast!"
Xie Guannan felt his luck was abysmal to the extreme.
At the same time, an explosive roar came from behind: "Go to hell, you scum!"
With a Tier 2 wolf beast in front and Su Han behind him, anyone else would have just laid down and given up.
Though he was no match, he wouldn't let fear consume his mind!
"Whoosh—"
A piercing sound suddenly rang out.
The arrow at full draw in Xie Guannan's hand was instantly released, flying swiftly toward the wolf beast.
As if anticipating it long ago, the wolf beast merely tilted its head slightly.
The arrow grazed past its neck, failing to even touch a single hair of the beast's fur.
Contempt colored the wolf beast's eyes—manifestly disdainful of Xie Guannan's provocation.
*Can't even hit a target this close; humans really are useless.* But right where it stood, Xie Guannan's figure was already gone.
Leaving only Su Han suspended in mid-air, slowly dropping down. As for Xie Guannan, there was no trace of him left in this spot; he had turned around and slapped Su Han with a "Halt a Person's Steps"!
Su Han's pupils were filled with shock.
*Oh no, this brat actually has tricks like this!*
The wolf beast directly pounced upon Su Han. Since the latter had been frozen by Xie Guannan, he had zero room to resist. The outcome can be imagined: he was torn to shreds by the wolf beast and served as its dinner.
*Why did Su Han come after me, and even want me to kill me? It must have been sent by that Su Rongyue.*