"Can you see anything now?" Lu Xueqi asked again, looking into Zhang Yuan's eyes.
"Not at all."
"Right now my eyes are cloudy and unfocused, so I can't see a thing. I won't be able to see until my vision clears up," Zhang Yuan replied.
"Oh!" Lu Xueqi nodded.
"Let's head back then. I should go see Master Shuiyue first." Lu Xueqi felt a lingering worry for her junior brother. Her deep concern for Zhang Yuan perhaps stemmed from the fact that he was foolish and yet remarkably handsome, stirring an excess of sympathy within her.
"Alright."
Zhang Yuan nodded. Watching Lu Xueqi's receding figure, he felt his way back to his room step by step. A sudden thought struck him: if Master Shuiyue came to check on his eyes, and found them completely fine, what if she discovered that he was practicing the Taiji Xuanqing Dao?
Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment, finding no immediate solution to this dilemma. He would just have to take it one step at a time. Perhaps Master Shuiyue would never even bother to visit a nobody like him.
Back in his room, Zhang Yuan sat cross-legged on the bed and resumed his practice of the Taiji Xuanqing Dao. A faint sense of crisis now hung over him—the Seven Meridians Martial Gathering was five years away, and with it, Zhang Xiaofan, the Child of Destiny.
If he remembered correctly, Zhang Xiaofan would soon acquire the Fire-Cooking Stick—none other than the Soul-Eater staff, the ultimate cheat code on Zhang Xiaofan's cultivation journey.
Naturally, Zhang Yuan had no intention of sitting back and watching Zhang Xiaofan grow.
Even though they shared the surname Zhang and might have been brothers five hundred years ago, he simply couldn't bear to see a brother succeed, nor could he stand to see a brother driving a Land Rover.
The Soul-Eater staff, forged from the fusion of the Blood-Drinking Bead and the Soul-Capture Bead, was a demonic weapon of extreme evil.
Zhang Xiaofan simply wasn't capable of handling it.
By intercepting the Soul-Eater staff, he was actually doing Zhang Xiaofan a favor.
With this thought in mind, Zhang Yuan decided to seize the time to cultivate diligently. In a short while, he would pay a visit to Dazhu Peak to check on the progress of events; otherwise, he would hate to miss the trip to the lush green pool involving Zhang Xiaofan and Tian Ling'er.
Oh, right!
The Master of Dazhu Peak had a little princess named Tian Ling'er, who was as bright and sparkling as water.
It would be a terrible waste if she were ruined by Zhang Xiaofan.
Ah...
And the Dazhu Peak master's wife was quite a beauty too.
Lost in these thoughts, Zhang Yuan drifted deep into meditation. Backed by his Heaven-Defying Comprehension, his progress in the Taiji Xuanqing Dao advanced by leaps and bounds.
As the mainstream cultivation technique of the Jade Essence Sect—one that could rival the pinnacle techniques of both Buddhism and the Ghost Sect—it was only natural that he would practice it.
The greater the ability, the greater the daring.
And the heavier the responsibility on one's shoulders.
With his Heaven-Defying Comprehension, it would be an absolute waste of heavenly gifts to practice only the Taiji Xuanqing Dao. From the very day he acquired this heaven-defying talent, he had resolved not only to master Taoist arts but eventually to learn Buddhist and Ghost Sect techniques as well.
Then, he would fuse the strengths of all three schools.
Drawing upon the merits of the three traditions, he would forge an entirely new technique better suited to himself.
Zhang Yuan cultivated all the way until noon. He felt that his cultivation had improved considerably, yet he still hadn't touched the threshold of a breakthrough.
He frowned slightly. His cultivation speed was simply too slow, crawling along like a snail.
In truth, his rate of progress was already astonishingly fast, yet he was truly blind to his own good fortune.
To have advanced straight to the Jade Purity Realm Layer 1 right at the start of his cultivation—
this was already the equivalent of a whole year's work for an ordinary cultivator. What more could he possibly want?
Using his Mind's Eye, Zhang Yuan scanned his surroundings for a moment. Lu Xueqi had not yet returned from Master Shuiyue's place, which naturally meant his own lunch was nowhere in sight.
However, having eaten a rather filling breakfast, he didn't feel particularly hungry at the moment.
He stood up from the futon, pressed his fingers together into a sword gesture, and began practicing the swordplay of the [God-Level True Thunder Execution Technique]. For some reason, the more he practiced this sword form, the more awkward it felt, as if something fundamental was wrong with it.
At first, Zhang Yuan paid it no mind, but as this sensation recurred time and again, it gradually demanded his attention. Possessing Heaven-Defying Comprehension, he could master any technique without a teacher, advancing a thousand miles in a single day.
Even if he were given a fragmentary manual, his heaven-defying insight would allow him to deduce the complete technique, surpassing even the original in excellence.
Perhaps the very method Lu Xueqi was using to practice was flawed.
Yet where, precisely, did the awkwardness lie?
Zhang Yuan quieted his mind to ponder, but no answer came for the moment.
"Junior Brother, I'm here." Suddenly, an ethereal voice drifted in from outside. It remained as lovely as ever, and after hearing it for so long, Zhang Yuan never grew tired of it.
"Senior Sister."
Maintaining a calm demeanor, Zhang Yuan sat back down on the stool. He cast his cloudy gaze toward Lu Xueqi—that is, if he could actually see. Then, he put on a rustic, honest smile. In his past life, he had been a slacker who survived nine years of compulsory education; when it came to sweet-talking people, nobody could out-bluff him.
Lu Xueqi walked in carrying a food box and immediately approached Zhang Yuan to examine those cloudy eyes. The distance between them was less than thirty centimeters.
This was because Zhang Yuan was seated on a stool,
while Lu Xueqi was standing.
Zhang Yuan had a clear, unobstructed view of Lu Xueqi's fair skin, which seemed almost unnaturally pale. *You really don't treat me like an outsider, do you?* After all, what kind of evil intentions could a blind man possibly harbor?
He forcibly restrained the urge to activate the perspective of his Mind's Eye.
Reborn into this world, he had plenty of time to nurture a romance. Some things were better left wrapped in mystery; once that veil of secrecy was lost, perhaps this raw, youthful feeling would change its flavor.
Lu Xueqi observed him for a moment, found nothing out of the ordinary, and then turned around to place the food box on the table right in front of Zhang Yuan.
She took a seat beside him,
tilting her head,
looking somewhat troubled.
Zhang Yuan acted as usual, fumbling around for a moment before picking up his bowl and chopsticks to partake in this token of his senior sister's deep affection. Yet he found it somewhat strange: hadn't Lu Xueqi gone to fetch Master Shuiyue to examine his eyes? Why was Master Shuiyue nowhere to be seen now?
However, he wasn't curious enough to ask.
He knew Lu Xueqi very well; she was merely a young girl in her early teens, bursting with a strong desire to share. It wouldn't be long before she volunteered the information herself.
"Junior Brother."
"Just now, I went to see Master, but she said she didn't have time to come check on you because she has to go into secluded cultivation."
In secluded cultivation? Secluded cultivation was wonderful!
That saved him from having to come up with a bunch of explanations.
Zhang Yuan smiled a simple, honest smile. In truth, his emotional intelligence was high; how could he fail to see that this was simply an excuse Master Shuiyue had concocted because she didn't want to visit him?
After all,
he was just an unremarkable blind person.
So what if his vision recovered? With mediocre cultivation talent and no prospect of going far on the path of immortality, what use was he? Most likely, the moment Master Shuiyue brought him back to Xiaozhu Peak, she had simply resigned herself to keeping him around as a freeloading mouth to feed.
That was simply how the world worked.
Without strength or talent, one did not deserve attention.
Seeing that Zhang Yuan remained silent, Lu Xueqi assumed he was upset and quickly added, "However, Master said she can pass down a cultivation technique for you." She gazed at Zhang Yuan's profile, wondering why she didn't want her junior brother to be unhappy.