Late spring in Qinglan City always carried a lingering dampness. Ye Fan stood at the doorway of the study, watching the raindrops dripping from the eaves while his fingers unconsciously rubbed the Jiuxiao Huanpei at his waist. Over the past two days, the phantom mountains and rivers on the surface of the pendant had become increasingly distinct, yet every time he circulated his true qi, he could sense a few wisps of pitch-black qi moving about deep within the illusion—traces left by someone who had marked him with a secret technique.
"Third Young Master, it is time for the evening meal." A young page boy trotted over from the corridor carrying a food box, raindrops clinging to the small braid on top of his head. "The mistress said you have been poring over martial manuals until the third watch these past few days, so you must nourish your mind."
Ye Fan lowered his head and gave a soft acknowledgement, his gaze sweeping over the pile of ancient texts stacked on the study desk. *Qinglan Fist Manual*, *Liuyun Sword Record*, *Shattering Star Essence*... These family martial arts had been committed to memory since he awoke to his past-life memories at the age of six, but now, facing the impending turmoil—Young Master Zhao's martial artists, Chǔ Hóngzhuāng from the Poison Sect, and perhaps other factions lurking in the shadows—he suddenly felt that these familiar moves always lacked a certain sharpness capable of breaking the deadlock.
After finishing his meal, he dismissed the page boy. The candle flame crackled softly inside the celadon lamp as Ye Fan opened the bottom-most volume of the *Ye Family Generations of Martial Treatises*, the scent of aged ink drifting from the yellowed pages.
When his fingertips touched the blank space on the very last page, he suddenly paused—as a mighty figure of the Inquiry Realm in his past life, how could he fail to see that this page had been sealed with a Soul-Locking Seal?
"Thump." The candle flame suddenly flickered, and an illusory figure emerged from the book pages. The old man wore a faded dark-brocade robe, with the three characters "Ye Wuhai" carved on his waist jade plaque. He was none other than the ancestor of the Ye Family from a century ago who had failed his attempt to break through to the Void Breaking Realm and had guarded the ancestral hall with his lingering soul.
Ye Fan sprang to his feet, the scabbard of the Dark Iron Saber striking the wooden chair with a crisp sound. In his past life, he had seen too many lingering souls of powerful beings, yet he had never expected that his own ancestor's lingering soul could retain such clear sentience.
"Do not panic." Ye Wuhai's voice seemed to come from a very distant place, clear light rippling within his turbid pupils. "When you flipped through the martial manuals over these past seven days, the pads of your fingers pressed seventeen times on the 'Qi Sea Circulation Diagram' in the *Shattering Star Essence*—and every single time, you lingered for three extra breaths at the 'intersection point of the Conception and Governor vessels'."
Ye Fan's spine stiffened. He had indeed been pondering how the family's Shattering Star Essence, though fierce and forceful, always left hidden injuries during breakthroughs due to obstructed qi and meridian flows. In his past life, he had practiced the *Great Evolution Scripture* of the Inquiry Realm, but his foundation in this body was the Ye Family's martial arts, and forcing a fusion would only lead to a deviation in cultivation.
"You wish to use the Ye Family martial manuals as a foundation to deduce a cultivation technique better suited to yourself." Ye Wuhai raised a hand, his fingertip pointing at the qi sea diagram of the *Shattering Star Essence*, the illusion condensing into golden light patterns between the book pages. "But you have made two mistakes. First, the 'fierceness' of the Shattering Star Essence is your foundation, yet you always try to supplement it with the 'gentleness' of your past-life technique; this is like cutting the feet to fit the shoes. Second—" His fingertips brushed across Ye Fan's wrist. "Although the Jade Bone Realm of this body is complete, you have never tried to nourish the 'bone apertures' between the jade bones and the golden body using the spiritual qi of your Inner World."
Ye Fan's pupils constricted slightly. His Inner World was his greatest secret, yet the ancestor had exposed it directly as if looking through a transparent person. Just as he was about to speak, Ye Wuhai continued: "I have guarded the ancestral hall for eighty years, and I have seen too many descendants trapped by the obsession of 'seeking novelty'. A true breakthrough is about practicing the old to the ultimate extreme, and then giving birth to the new from within that extreme."
The illusion raised a hand, and all the candle flames in the study suddenly went out. Yet Ye Fan clearly saw a wisp of cyan light condensing on Ye Wuhai's fingertip—that was the "Qi of Qinglan" recorded in the Ye Family martial manuals, legendary mountain spirit qi that the first patriarch of the Ye Family had comprehended on the peak of Qinglan Mountain.
"Watch closely." The wisp of light burrowed into the diagrams of the *Shattering Star Essence*, and the originally rigid qi-circulation route suddenly made a swirl at the "Zhangmen Acupoint". "The 'shattering' in the Shattering Star Essence is a collapsing force, but if you let the qi circulate for half a breath at the Zhangmen acupoint before unleashing your force, the collapsing force will gain an extra layer of 'vibrating' aftershock. The microscopic force-control you tested yesterday is just right for precisely controlling this half-breath of rotation."
Ye Fan felt as though he had received a divine enlightenment. In his past life, his deduction of cultivation techniques relied on his Inner World borrowing the Power of the Heavenly Dao, but the ancestor's guidance was like a key, directly shattering the cocoon in his thinking—he no longer needed to forcefully fuse techniques; he simply needed to wedge the "ingenuity" of the Inner World into the bone crevices of his original cultivation method.
For the next three days, Ye Fan rested by day and trained by night. By day he practiced fist techniques in the martial arts arena, outwardly still performing the Ye Family's Qinglan Fist, yet whenever his fist was about to touch the sandbag, a faint, ethereal wisp of qi would rotate across the surface of his fist. By night he sat cross-legged in his Inner World, guiding the spiritual qi from the clear spring to scour his bone apertures, until his originally cold and rigid jade bones began to exude a pale cyan halo.
On the seventh night, when he once again executed the family's "Three Rippling Waves of Shattering Star", the moment the first wave of force entered the sandbag, the second wave followed the micro-cracks of the first wave's qi and drilled right in, while the third wave drove into the center of the sandbag like a nail—the surface of the sandbag only tore a hole the size of a finger joint, but the inside had been churned into a chaotic mess.
"It is done." Ye Fan stood in the center of the martial arts arena, sweat trickling down his jaw and dripping onto the Blue Stone Slab. He could clearly feel that the edges of the small green bamboo dwelling within his Inner World had expanded outward by another three inches—this was the growth of the Inner World brought about by the renovation and creation of his cultivation technique.
Just as he was immersed in the joy of his breakthrough, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps coming from the Blue Stone Slab in the corridor. The page boy's voice carried a trembling note: "Th-Third Young Master! A group of saber-wielding martial artists has arrived at the city gates! The leader, Young Master Zhao, is brandishing the token of the City Lord's Mansion and claims he wants to... wants to search the Ye Family for the Jiuxiao Huanpei!"
Ye Fan lowered his head to look at the pendant at his waist, where the black qi within the illusory mountains and rivers had grown noticeably denser at some point. He reached out to press the hilt of the Dark Iron Saber, his fingertips rubbing the newly carved character "Vibration" on the scabbard—that was the mark of the "vibrating force" the ancestor had taught him.
"Go and warm up that twenty-year-old jar of daughter's red wine." He turned and walked toward the study, his voice carrying the steady composure that only a mighty figure of the Inquiry Realm from a past life could possess. "When guests arrive, one can never fight on an empty stomach."
The *Ye Family Generations of Martial Treatises* on the desk was still opened to the final page, and Ye Wuhai's illusion had quietly faded back into the book pages. Within the seam of the spine, a wisp of cyan light slowly drifted, as if waiting for the next opportunity.