Blood Worms Conceal Inner Force, Zhong Shou Vanishes, Old Friends Grow Suspicious

Time flew by, and several days passed in the blink of an eye.

Chen Duan's eyes were wide open.

On closer inspection, dense bloodshot veins covered the whites of his eyes, spreading like a spiderweb and looking rather frightening.

At the same time, he held a stance, his arms sweeping and fingers clawing through the air, setting off sharp whistles as he practiced the Rock Shattering Claw.

[Rock Shattering Claw +8%]

[Rock Shattering Claw (95%, Third Level)]

[Shadow Chasing Eyes +26%]

[Shadow Chasing Eyes (75%, Second Level)]

Feeling that he was nearing his current limit, Chen Duan slowly withdrew his cultivation and let out a long breath, his gaze unconsciously turning toward the corner of the courtyard.

A tiny ant was poking its head out from a crack in the wall. Every minute trace of its crawling path appeared crystal clear in his eyes.

This was the improvement in eyesight brought by the Second Level pupil skill, Shadow Chasing Eyes. It allowed him to discern the slightest detail and greatly enhanced his dynamic vision.

As the inner force accumulated in his eyes gradually settled, the savage bloodshot veins on the whites of his eyes swiftly faded as well, returning to normal.

He glanced through the other entries on the panel.

[Moon Grasping Leg (78%, Second Level)]

Over the past few days, aside from tempering his original Cultivation Techniques, the only additions to his cultivation system had been Moon Grasping Leg and Shadow Chasing Eyes.

It wasn't that he didn't want to study the Martial Arts of countless schools and draw more "potential" from them. Rather, the balance of inner force within his body had already reached a critical point.

Originally, the Vast Qi Nourishing Spirit Art's harmonizing effects had been enough to let Fuhu Fist and the Wood Element Art, his two main forces, coexist in peace.

Yet the addition of Moon Grasping Leg was like a stone tossed into a lake, cleanly shattering that balance.

Though Moon Grasping Leg had only reached the Second Training Realm, the nature of its inner force was wild, arrogant, restless, and extremely unruly.

The Wood Element Art appeared mild on the surface, but it contained fierce intensity within. As a superior Fifth Level true Cultivation Technique, it had pride of its own. How could it be willing to remain beneath another for long?

It had even begun to show faint intentions of competing with Fuhu Fist for dominance.

Although Fuhu Fist could still absolutely suppress the other two for now, Chen Duan couldn't possibly allow them to truly fight a great battle inside his body. After all, all three were his own strength.

All three were Cultivation Techniques that could clearly be cultivated to the Fifth Level. The quality of their inner force was far beyond the likes of Water Soft Palm and Void Inch Palm.

From this, it could be seen that the higher a Cultivation Technique's limit, the more unruly and difficult to control the inner force it produced became. At the same time, its consumption of qi and blood increased exponentially.

The human body wasn't a bottomless pit. Its capacity was limited, and even the generation of qi and blood would eventually run dry.

The energy consumption of a single Moon Grasping Leg was nearly equal to the combined total of several lower-tier Cultivation Techniques.

These three main Cultivation Techniques already required much of his focus to suppress and harmonize. He truly had no spare energy to cultivate other Martial Arts alongside them, and could only choose functional Cultivation Techniques like Shadow Chasing Eyes, which focused on support and had relatively little impact on the overall balance of his inner force.

Yet there was still too much inner force in his body. The progress of the Vast Qi Nourishing Spirit Technique was mysterious beyond measure, and simply suppressing everything like this wasn't a long-term solution.

Methods like using Tissue Regeneration to mutate extra arms were mainly meant to maximize the power of true Cultivation Techniques. They did not play much of a leading role in resolving the fundamental conflicts between different inner forces.

Moreover, Moon Grasping Leg centered on the legs, while the Wood Element Art affected the entire body. He couldn't possibly mutate a second pair of legs, nor could he indulge in the wild fantasy of creating another "himself" to share the burden.

The former would make movement inconvenient; the latter was even more of a fool's dream.

Thus, he was currently at a sensitive stage. If he couldn't find a fundamental solution and blindly cultivated more Cultivation Techniques merely for potential points, his body would only gradually lose balance and collapse at any moment. The gains wouldn't make up for the losses.

Fortunately, he had already felt out a few clues regarding this over the past few days.

With a thought from Chen Duan, the muscles in his arm squirmed and separated out a lump of flesh, revealing a Blood Worm.

He mobilized the inner force of his Second Level Gold Iron Palm and slowly injected it into the creature.

The Blood Worm swelled slightly like a ball, then quickly shrank back down and returned to normal.

At the same time, Chen Duan clearly sensed that the area in his body which had originally stored the Gold Iron Palm's inner force had become empty.

Yet that inner force hadn't vanished. Instead, it remained connected to the Blood Worm through a thin strand of inner force, ready to be recalled at any time.

Next, he tried guiding the inner force of Water Soft Palm into the Blood Worm, only to encounter an invisible obstruction.

It wasn't that the Blood Worm had reached its limit. It simply refused instinctively.

This was one of the uses Chen Duan had recently discovered for Blood Worms, as well as a method of resolving the problem of inner force balance.

These little things were like living "inner force containers." Some kind of mutated space existed within them, allowing them to store inner forces of different natures without taking up any of the host's own capacity, completely resolving conflicts between inner forces.

Whenever needed, he could extract it at will, as easily as moving an arm or finger.

This line of thought had come from his study of the remaining memory fragments of "Feng Qu Xian."

Though the specific details Feng Qu Xian knew about "the extreme" remained vague, he did know some of the basic traits of Blood Worms.

One of their core known uses was "storing qi and blood" in preparation for the demands of breaking through to "the extreme."

Chen Duan had simply let his thoughts wander from there.

Since they could store qi and blood, could they store inner force as well?

With the attitude of giving it a try, Chen Duan began experimenting with the inner forces of some lower-tier true Cultivation Techniques.

After repeated attempts, he finally reached a conclusion: it worked!

Just then, with a whoosh, the Blood Worm spat out that strand of Gold Iron Palm inner force, and it retreated back into him on its own.

The duration and stability of inner force storage depended on the degree to which one had tamed and controlled the Blood Worms. Yet how to effectively tame these little fellows was still being explored, and there were still many problems overall.

But since he had found a clear direction, the road ahead would ultimately be bright.

Chen Duan gathered his Cultivation Techniques and looked up at the sky. It was afternoon, yet the sky was unusually gloomy, with low-hanging clouds seeming to weigh upon people's hearts.

As the season deepened, the chill grew stronger, and the sun appeared less and less often.

He was preparing to head to the Yuanxiang Sect when a knock suddenly sounded outside the courtyard gate.

"Hm?" Chen Duan raised a brow. "Who would it be at this hour?"

He pulled open the courtyard gate and found an old acquaintance standing outside.

"A Shui?"

"Duanzi!"

Chen Duan swept his gaze over them and discovered that Steward Lu of the Zhong Residence was standing beside Luo Sanshui.

Both wore grave expressions, a layer of worry hanging between their brows.

Chen Duan knew something important must have happened and immediately stepped aside to let them into the courtyard.

After the two explained themselves, Chen Duan understood the problem.

Simply put, Zhong Shou had gone missing.

He hadn't returned home for several days, and there had been no word from him at all.

"We went to the Mountain Gate of the Yuanxiang Sect and reported Lord's name to request an audience, but we haven't received any response for a long time," Steward Lu said hoarsely, his face full of exhaustion and helplessness.

"Didn't you try contacting Steward Qi Baorui? He seems to have a good relationship with Zhong Shou," Chen Duan asked.

"We did. The result was the same." Steward Lu shook his head with a sigh.

Qi Baorui was busy with sect affairs and stayed within the sect most of the time.

Outsiders like Steward Lu couldn't enter the sect. Their only means of contact was passing messages inward through outer sect disciples, but so far, every message had sunk like a stone into the sea.

"It's already time for us to leave according to the plan, but the head of the household suddenly vanished," Luo Sanshui said, his voice carrying some frustration as well.

After all, this wasn't merely a matter of one person going missing. Zhong Shou had an entire household behind him, and the whole Zhong Residence could be said to rely entirely on Zhong Shou's support.

Luo Sanshui wished to help, but he himself was living under another's roof and had limited ability. He truly could do nothing.

His friendship with Chen Duan was as close as it could be, and he hadn't wanted to trouble his brother. But with matters having reached this point, he had no choice but to bring Steward Lu and, after asking around several times, find Chen Duan here.

Chen Duan had previously made it clear that he didn't want Luo Sanshui becoming too deeply entangled with him. Luo Sanshui had always kept proper boundaries and hadn't investigated Chen Duan's whereabouts too much. He had only learned by chance from Zhong Shou that Chen Duan was also a Yuanxiang Sect Disciple, and only now had he put in the effort to seek him out.

Hearing this, Chen Duan raised a hand to stroke his chin, his brows sinking into thought.

Luo Sanshui and Steward Lu might not understand what was going on, but he knew perfectly well.

This Yuanxiang Sect was going to swallow people whole~

"I happen to be heading to the sect," Chen Duan said after pondering for a moment. "I'll find a way to inquire into this matter."

Steward Lu immediately revealed a grateful expression and gave a deep bow. "Many thanks, Master Chen."

Luo Sanshui didn't react as strongly. He recalled something, thought for a moment, then stepped forward and leaned close to Chen Duan's ear, lowering his voice with concern in his tone.

"Brother, I've already troubled you with this matter, but if it puts you in a difficult position, don't force yourself. No matter what, keeping yourself safe must come first."