Peerless Divine Art

After returning to the bamboo house, Han Shuangjiang and Chu Huai Xu parted ways.

The fox face walked inside the room, sat cross-legged on the bed, and began attempting to cultivate the "Sword Refining Art."

He was a bit curious—how much experience would he gain from just "idle cultivation" like this?

As of now, Chu Huai Xu had spent a total of 79 experience points, leaving 121.

Breaking through the second acupoint required 140 experience points.

Worth noting, his character panel displayed "freely allocable experience points."

Experience gained from cultivating the "Sword Refining Art" could only be used to level up that technique.

It couldn't be used to upgrade other techniques or skills.

After adjusting his state, Chu Huai Xu took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself.

"It should hurt a lot too, right?" he thought.

Using experience points to upgrade in one go was like compressing countless rounds of cultivation into an instant, letting you reap the rewards in a flash.

The pain earlier, like being run over by a motorcycle repeatedly, was because the total pain from all those cultivation sessions hit him at once.

Now, Chu Huai Xu was simply curious: "What does normal cultivation feel like?"

Yeah, it wasn't an addiction.

The "Sword Refining Art" began circulating in his body, and the world's spiritual energy surged toward him.

The reason the Aperture Opening Stage wasn't considered true cultivation was that you couldn't retain spiritual energy in your body, so you couldn't generate your own spiritual power.

At this moment, the only purpose of the spiritual energy entering his body was to help open his acupoints.

Only when all nine acupoints in the human body were unblocked could one open the Xuanhuang Secret Treasury within and step through the door of cultivation!

Throughout the entire Aperture Opening Stage, the most noticeable improvement was in physical fitness, which was why it was also called the Aperture Forging Body Stage.

Right now, as Chu Huai Xu began circulating the technique, his body couldn't help but tremble slightly.

He started to feel the pain.

"How to put it... it feels like countless hands are twisting my flesh?"

"Every single piece of flesh on my body!"

The hell, is this thing wringing out all the dampness from me?

Chu Huai Xu's wild thoughts had just begun when he immediately sensed the gathered spiritual energy starting to dissipate.

This made him realize why the "Sword Refining Art" had such a bad reputation in the comments—either "Don't Cultivate" or "Listen to Advice."

"So, during the whole cultivation process, I have to stabilize my mind?"

You had to endure it the entire time, or it was all for nothing!

Otherwise, all the pain before would be wasted.

Chu Huai Xu immediately pulled his thoughts together and adjusted as best he could.

As cultivation deepened, he clearly felt the pain index rising.

This agony—it felt like those countless invisible hands weren't just twisting his flesh.

After twisting it up, they were wringing it left and right.

Chu Huai Xu thought that as time passed, he would gradually go numb.

But strangely, he didn't!

Just one cycle of the technique, and it felt like a year had passed.

He started missing his days as a player.

Damn it, give me back my pain adjustment function!

As a result, his emotional spike made the surrounding spiritual energy start to dissipate again.

"..."

After he successfully completed one cycle and abruptly opened his eyes, he could only prop himself up on the bed with one hand, gasping for air.

"I really didn't pick the wrong nickname—this 'menstrual cramps' is killing me."

"I can't cultivate on the bed anymore. I'll put a cushion on the floor to sit on. Damn, I'm drenched in sweat, and the mattress is ruined!" This virtual male model was pretty particular about cleanliness.

He was even considering the possibility of cultivating naked, too lazy to wash clothes and afraid the sweat would make them stink.

Pushing aside these distractions, Chu Huai Xu checked the technique experience points he'd gained.

"9 points?" The corner of his mouth twitched.

That was with his 1-point Spiritual Embryo Attribute; otherwise, the cultivation speed would be even slower!

"Your 'Sword Refining Art' is really a piece of work!" he gritted his teeth.

He calculated that after two more sessions, his total experience would reach 139.

The experience needed to level up the technique was 140.

"The missing one point is the most infuriating! I'm fucking sick of it!"

Fuming, Chu Huai Xu snatched up the booklet and started venting.

He flipped to the third page and, after his own note of "Peerless Divine Art," added a huge exclamation mark for emphasis.

"Whoosh—!"

In the neighboring Bamboo House, Han Shuangjiang, who was also diligently cultivating, opened her beautiful eyes and let out a long breath of stale air.

Her rather ample chest rose and fell slightly as a result.

At the moment, she sat cross-legged on the bed, her long, shapely legs crossed over each other, a sight to behold.

This woman was naturally broad in the hips, with a golden-ratio waist-to-hip curve. Her entire backside was pert and full. Sitting on the bed now, her flesh pressed outward slightly, straining against her robes as if the plump softness might spill over.

The Joyful Sect's leader, that woman with the big, fat rear, admired Han Shuangjiang most for this very trait, believing she had found her true successor.

—Able to teach Guanyin Sitting Lotus, to Enlighten All Beings.

Right then, a hint of joy flickered in Han Shuangjiang's eyes.

Every time she cultivated, she felt an extraordinary comfort and ease throughout her body.

More importantly, she had effortlessly broken through her second Acupoint.

Opening Acupoints was, for her, almost too easy.

"It's just a pity that after each Acupoint is opened, the body needs some time to adapt."

"Maybe I'll have to wait until tomorrow to strike at the third one," Han Shuangjiang guessed to herself.

Today, she had already made an agreement with Chu Huai Xu to live and cultivate together for now, striving to break through the Aperture Opening Stage as soon as possible and become a proper cultivator.

"I thought that with the Outer Sect's outrageous prices, a hundred silver taels wouldn't be enough and time would be tight," she mused.

"But it seems I was overthinking it."

From start to finish, she never considered Chu Huai Xu's cultivation progress.

In her view, since he'd been brought up the mountain alongside her by the Sixth Elder, he was probably no slouch either.

"Still, I need to be frugal with the money."

"Cultivation relies on wealth, methods, companions, and location."

"There'll be more ways to earn money later, but even more places to spend it." Han Shuangjiang had at least this much common sense.

After some thought, she figured it'd be better to just light her own fire, buy groceries, and cook.

"Walking over there to eat takes a lot of time too. With that effort, I could've made a meal myself," she reasoned.

Other people's money needed to be saved even more.

From Chu Huai Xu's clothes and demeanor, Han Shuangjiang could tell his family background was probably average too—he just had an otherworldly aura.

"This hundred silver taels—could it be his parents' savings?" she could only guess.

The hard-earned money of someone else's parents deserved even more care.

Every copper and silver piece was pieced together from their earnest hopes for their child.

At that thought, her eyes dimmed a little, remembering how she'd been sold to a Brothel by her parents as a child.

She looked down at her ankle, pale as jade, bare and empty.

Han Shuangjiang knew that some of the Sisters in the Brothel would tie a red string around their ankles.

Many patrons, in the throes of pleasure, found that red string utterly captivating, adding a touch of allure to the delicate foot.

But only insiders knew that a red string on the ankle meant there was still someone to miss.

Because some courtesans had been abducted or kidnapped, or their families had fallen from grace.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Tie a red string to the foot, and never forget the way home.

But what about her?

She didn't even have such a simple keepsake.

Around noon, Han Shuangjiang stepped out of her Bamboo House and decided to have a proper talk with Chu Huai Xu about her money-saving plan.

Chu Huai Xu opened the door at the knock.

He glanced at her, feeling like something about her had changed.

He tossed an Information Scan her way, and the system showed that Han Shuangjiang had already opened her second Acupoint.

"You broke through?" he asked.

"Mm." She gave a slight nod, unsure how he could see through her, as if she had no secrets before him.

"Funny, I just broke through too." Chu Huai Xu leaned against the doorframe, his expression utterly casual.