"Teacher, you met him ten years ago?" Yuxin asked innocently. The teacher simply nodded, and with that small gesture, her next question followed quickly.
"I heard from a senior of mine that, ten years ago, there was a powerful demonic beast roaming around. Is that the trouble you were talking about?"
"Ah, yes," the teacher replied with a faint sigh. "That's exactly the trouble I meant."
Yuxin shuddered a little at his confirmation. The memory of the disaster from a decade ago surfaced in her mind. Yuan, who had been quietly listening from the side, also recalled the records he had read about that time.
It had been a strange and sudden catastrophe, far from ordinary. A demonic beast reaching the Meridian Awakening stage was extremely rare in the Mortal Domain. The written records from back then were vague at best, lacking in detailed explanations.
All they mentioned were the heroic sacrifices, the chaos the beast brought, and the lives it had claimed.
"You want to hear more about the old times?" the teacher asked, noticing their curiosity. Yuxin, still a bit shaken, seemed ready to decline, but before she could speak, Haoran eagerly nodded, his eyes shining with excitement.
"Teacher, please tell us more about that demonic beast! My father never says much about it, only that it was a dark time for our entire family."
Hearing this, the teacher let out a long, weary sigh. He shook his head a few times, his expression turning grim.
"Your father is right. It wasn't a time worth remembering. Too much blood was spilled to bring that beast down."
He paused, eyes closed for a brief moment, then added, "But… I suppose I can tell you a thing or two."
The teacher leaned back, his voice softer now as he began to recall, "I only arrived near the end of the disaster, but I fought that giant snake twice. The first time was just before the final battle. I was in the group that discovered the beast's lair… and the second time, well, that was during the real battle, the one no one who was there could ever forget."
The teacher spoke with a dark undertone before opening his eyes and gazing out toward the horizon,"But during both battles… I couldn't truly harm it. At best, I managed to stall it briefly and paid a heavy price for even that."
He paused, voice heavy with memory,"In the end, only the Grand Elders of the Eighteen Allies could stand against it. And even they suffered losses. We all did. Our Loose Long Family, for example… we lost our former family head. And not just him, his son, the former heir of the loose long family, also died in that cruel final battle."
A heavy sigh escaped him as thoughts of the past weighed him down,"I knew the family head's son well. We grew up together, we were cousins, both from the same family faction. After his death, I was even offered the position of the next family head." He paused. "But I turned it down."
His voice grew quieter, tinged with sorrow.
"Ever since, our family has been in decline. Meanwhile, others benefited from the chaos, like that damn Mei Clan. None of their Grand Elders perished in the battle, and they used the opportunity to rise in strength. Now they stand as one of the strongest powers."
As he spoke of the Mei Clan, a snort of disdain escaped his lips. His mood darkened visibly. With an irritated wave of his hand, he dismissed the group.
"Go to sleep. Tomorrow's a big day for all of you."
The five youths stood and quietly walked back to their rooms. With that, Yuan finally found himself alone for the first time since arriving.
He exhaled a long breath of exhaustion and collapsed onto his bed, his thoughts immediately drifting back to his hidden schemes. After hearing the teacher's words, new pieces had fallen into place, small adjustments that could make his plans flow even better.
"Yes… this is better. But I'll need the perfect opportunity to put it into motion," he thought.
With that, Yuan sat up and began to cultivate.
He activated the Royal Dragon Breath Discipline, pushing his body to its limits through its intense breathing technique. Pain and heat coursed through him as his spiritual essence burned through every corner of his body.
"I'm close to finishing the first purification," Yuan thought, teeth clenched as the power surged within him.
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
The first stage of the Royal Dragon Breath Discipline was known as the First Purification. This stage involved stimulating one's inner spiritual essence and circulating it throughout the entire body.
It was the foundation of the technique and, compared to the stages that followed, the simplest, requiring only time, patience, and the ability to endure the pain of spiritual essence moving through an unrefined mortal body.
But the Second Purification was not so simple.
To attempt the second stage, one needed to be in a location rich in spiritual essence. Only in such an environment could the breathing technique stimulate a greater volume of inner spiritual essence. The Martial Cloud Sect's main mountain was the only known place in the Mortal Domain with a strong enough concentration of spiritual essence to support this stage.
For that reason, many cultivators chose to stop after the first purification. The requirements for the second were too difficult to meet, and most lacked the opportunity to train under such rare conditions.
The Third Purification, however, was even more demanding and far more dangerous.
It required a combination of both the breathing technique from the First Purification and the environmental support from the Second. Using the foundation built from the previous stages, a cultivator had to endure the final, most painful trial, a complete circulation of spiritual essence throughout the body at full intensity.
Unlike the first two purifications, where one could pause, rest, or adjust gradually, the third stage had to be completed in one sitting. If a cultivator failed, their organs would be torn apart by their own uncontrolled essence, resulting in a slow and agonizing death.
Yet, the pain came with enormous rewards.
First, all five spiritual senses would become vastly more refined, tripling or even quadrupling in sensitivity once a cultivator entered the early Blood Purification stage. Second, the body would develop an enhanced ability to absorb and handle spiritual essence, making future cultivation far easier and more efficient.
These were the hidden benefits of the Royal Dragon Breath Discipline. Benefits that Yuan had only uncovered after modifying and correcting the technique himself. Originally, the manual didn't even mention a third purification, it existed only as subtle hints, buried between the lines.
No one before him had ever discovered them, atleast it wasnt recorded.
"Haah…" Yuan sighed as his thoughts circled back to the Royal Dragon Breath Discipline and his current progress in cultivation, but instead of dwelling on it, he shook his head and muttered to himself:
"Slow and steady."
With that, he closed his eyes and resumed practicing the breathing technique. He trained deep into the night, pushing himself to endure the painful circulation of spiritual essence through his body. Eventually, his face turned pale from overexertion, and his body collapsed onto the bed, drained of strength.
He lay there panting, each breath ragged. Slowly, color returned to his cheeks, and his breathing began to even out. The pain was still present, but it had dulled, something he could silently endure.
Settling into a more comfortable position, Yuan closed his eyes again and drifted off to sleep. The night passed quietly and uneventfully.
As morning arrived, golden sunlight streamed through the window and warmed Yuan's face, gently waking him. He yawned and stretched his arms and back, shaking off the last remnants of sleep. After freshening up, he stepped into the living room, finding it empty.
It seemed he was the first one awake.
Without much thought, Yuan made his way to the balcony and sat down to meditate, letting the peaceful atmosphere wash over him as time passed.
It wasn't long before the others began to stir.
Tianyu woke next and greeted him with a quiet "Good morning," but Yuan said nothing in return, still deep in meditation.
Then came Yuxin, followed by Meilan, and finally Haoran, who arrived with a loud yawn and an infectious excitement. Among them, he looked the most energized for the day ahead.
Yuan, however, remained silent and focused. None of them were surprised by his aloofness, it had become normal.
Only when the teacher's voice rang out did Yuan finally open his eyes.
"Alright, brats—are you all awake? You lot sleep well?" the teacher yawned, not bothering to hide his fatigue. He looked like he could've used a few more hours of sleep himself, but none of the students commented on it.
They simply nodded while quietly eating their breakfast.
Yuan stood up without a word and walked to the kitchen, where a small spread of bread and vegetables had been laid out. But he ignored the food entirely. In the corner, separate from the rest, was a small pill, left there by the teacher.
Without hesitation, Yuan picked it up and swallowed it dry.
The others gave him odd looks.
"How can he eat those pills every time?" Haoran asked, scrunching his face. "They taste so awful."
No one answered him. They just kept eating their bread in silence. Only the teacher chuckled from the side, shaking his head a few times in amusement.
"Alright, finish eating. We're expecting a Martial Cloud Sect disciple to come guide us soon. Until then, stay here and don't wander off," the teacher said, already walking toward the balcony.
He sat down in his usual chair, gazing at the sky. "Hmm… not great weather today. Looks like the sun won't be showing itself much," he added as he watched the clouds rolling in.
But no one paid him much attention. Unlike the teacher, none of them really cared about the weather. They had other things on their minds.
So they waited, quietly, patiently, until the Martial Cloud Sect disciple finally arrived at their small peak on the mountain.
---
Hey, Lazyredmoon here.
It's been nearly two weeks since I released the last chapter. It's been a rough stretch, not because anything major happened, but mostly due to the intense heat these past few days. It really drained me.
I also had some lingering doubts and a bit of a slump about the novel, but I've taken the time to gather my thoughts and now, here we are, with a new chapter ready for you all.
Anyway, starting from now are coming daily chapters, as usual.