Xuanqing Guard

Unlike Wu Kai, who was still forced to run around ceaselessly on Beach Stone in hopes of increasing his chances for a breakthrough, Shen Hao’s own advancement went extremely smoothly. In fact, he had been deliberately suppressing it to the limit before finally having no choice but to break through.

While cultivating Qi Refinement in the middle of the night, Shen Hao realized his True Qi had reached its critical point. Both his meridians and Sea of Consciousness had hit an obvious growth plateau—they’d reached the highest ceiling of Gathering Spirit Realm Fifth Layer. If he wanted to go any further, he’d have to shatter that ceiling and break into the Sixth Layer.

Thankfully, Nie Yun had provided him with quite a bit of guidance earlier, especially in terms of solidifying his foundation, which made Shen Hao’s work yield twice the result with half the effort. Compared to before, it saved him a lot of time and energy, and the effect was even better.

Now it was May 21st, early morning. Shen Hao officially began preparing to break through the Sixth Layer bottleneck.

The method was the same as before: condense True Qi into drill bits, align them one by one in his meridians, then muster all his strength to start the Circulation. Guided by his Sea of Consciousness, he drove all those drills to smash into the Realm Barrier.

"Crack!"

A clear snapping sound echoed in the darkness, though it was only cracks, not yet a real breakthrough. Compared to his Fifth Layer, Shen Hao found this Sixth Layer breakthrough more challenging.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."

Actually, there weren’t really any "sounds," but inside Shen Hao’s Sea of Consciousness, every time he "saw" one of those True Qi arrows he’d formed shoot at the Realm Barrier, he’d happily fill in the sound effects in his mind. He watched as cracks appeared, slowly spreading across the barrier, until the lines linked up like a spider web and finally shattered completely.

"Crash!"

A surge of new power poured abruptly into his body from outside. The pleasant sensation made Shen Hao tremble involuntarily all over.

It felt as if a tight, thin film had been stripped off his body—a sense of liberation. Every pore seemed to breathe, and Shen Hao could distinctly sense energy from the outside world subtly infiltrating his body through those pores.

The sense of restriction in his meridians and Sea of Consciousness vanished, and he began once more to digest the energy channeled from the Black Beast Tattoo, gradually expanding and strengthening himself. According to Shen Hao’s estimation, with the strength of his meridians and Soul now, he was probably close to double that of an ordinary cultivator at his current realm.

What surprised Shen Hao even more was that the energy stored in the Black Beast Tattoo—accumulated from Soul Devouring—still showed no sign of depletion. The Pills in his hand remained untouched. He wondered if, through the whole Gathering Spirit Realm, he could rely entirely on the Black Beast Tattoo’s feedback to rocket forward like this?

By mid-3 a.m., Shen Hao’s breakthrough had already ended. According to the usual rules, instead of doing Qi Concealment and finishing the practice, he continued refining Qi, letting the newborn True Qi nurture his meridians. Several Circulations later, it would help repair any hidden weaknesses left behind from his rapid advancement.

When he opened his eyes again, dawn had already arrived outside.

He performed Qi Concealment and finished his practice, stood up, and stretched. His joints crackled like frying beans, then he exhaled a long breath of turbid air, his whole being radiating even more vigor.

The effects were most directly felt by Xia Nu. Each time Shen Hao improved she could sense it clearly, even though she herself did not possess cultivation. Maybe this was Xia Nu’s gifted ability?

Of course, Xia Nu simply thought her master’s skin had gotten even better after another night’s sleep, and she reached up, patting her own delicate face before sighing in relief: Fortunately, my skin is also smooth—smoother than the master’s.

Previously, Xia Nu wouldn’t have cared whether her skin was smooth or not—just having enough to eat was blessing enough. Only after following Shen Hao did she begin to consider such things. Especially after becoming friends with Lin Xin’Er. Under her patient instruction and example, Xia Nu started to learn how to dress up and care for herself.

For example, the light yellow floral dress she wore today was made especially for her by Lin Xin’Er, who took great care with it. In all of Fengri City there was only this one dress with such a print. Lin Xin’Er originally didn’t want Xia Nu to pay for it, saying it was a gift between friends. But Xia Nu remembered what Shen Hao said: never accept something for nothing. She insisted on paying in silver, and only then did she happily accept the dress.

Early in the morning, she put it on, showing it off in front of Shen Hao.

"What are you doing just standing around? So you got a new dress, does it grow legs or something? Why aren’t you helping Hong Chou and Brocade and Silk carry water?" Shen Hao called out as he hurriedly bathed, casting a sidelong glance at Xia Nu, who was carefully keeping her new dress dry. To be honest, he could see that the silly slave had really made an effort to dress up today—and it had worked. No matter her figure or looks, she wasn’t inferior to Lian Xiang at all, except that she lacked that seductive charm of Lian Xiang’s.

Of course, Xia Nu’s pointy ears and fox tail were another topic altogether. Anyway, Shen Hao found them pleasing to the eye.

"Hmph, Hong Chou and Brocade and Silk are plenty strong—just as strong as Xiaoma. Carrying water’s no problem for them; they don’t need me to help. Master, do I look nice today?" She spun around proudly, making her dress swirl out—a pretty sight.

"Alright, come over and scrub my back!" Shen Hao said with a grin, waving Hong Chou and Brocade and Silk away. Scrubbing and drying him off—he was still not used to having those two little girls do it; Xia Nu was the right fit. And besides, it was a good chance to see if this silly slave had put on any weight lately.

"Don’t go out much these days. Tell Hong Chou and Brocade and Silk, too—don’t let them keep running off to East Market. Can’t they ever get tired of watching those circus shows every day?"

Climbing out of the bath, Shen Hao held up his hand for Xia Nu to dry him as he repeated his instructions.

Now word about the military coming from the South was already spreading widely, and people’s emotions were running high—a good thing for some, but not for all. To the barbarian slaves it wasn’t so great; if they were unlucky, some zealous citizen might vent their anger on them, and if anything happened, Shen Hao would have a hard time handling it.

Standing in front of him, Xia Nu blushed as she dried him, her head lowered, wiping slowly, while softly asking, "Master, if we need to buy things, can we still go out?"

"You can. Just take two people with you when you go."

"Alright, I’ll go tell Hong Chou and Brocade and Silk soon. Hehe, if they can’t go watch the shows, they’re probably not going to be happy."

After his bath, Shen Hao ate breakfast and went out. Along the way, he saw many young people gathered in groups of three or five, running toward the Teleportation Array, each carrying a simple bundle, faces lit up with excitement, eyes shining bright.

"So full of youthful fire—how wonderful!"

These days, young people like this could be seen everywhere. Wang Yiming and Wang Jian had reported as much, saying that from three days ago, large numbers of young people started springing up all over—clamoring to enlist. Where local recruiting was insufficient or absent, these people would head south via the Teleportation Arrays.

They knew there would be war. Whether to defend home and country, or to earn merit and seek their fortune by slaying the enemy—this unspoken, invisible strength was powerful, a wave of intent that silently seeped out of every inch of the Jingjiu Dynasty’s skin...