In the maintenance workshop of an abandoned factory, dim explosion-proof lamps cast flickering patches of light.
Fatty Wang had already curled up and fallen into a deep sleep amid a pile of torn burlap sacks, letting out faint snores.
Lin Xiao, however, felt no trace of sleepiness. With his back against the cold wall, the dull ache in his right arm and the -1.4 feeling of exhaustion from overdrawing his soul gnawed constantly at his nerves like two icy venomous snakes.
His left fist clenched as he savored the more solid, fluid power brought by the optimized Long Fist.
That strength gave him a sliver of confidence, but it was far from enough.
The hole in his Source Energy Points was like a bottomless pit. The bloody chaos of the black market and the shadow of Scarface Qiang made him desperately need more bargaining chips.
Where could he find them?
His gaze pierced through the workshop's dilapidated roof, as if landing on that aloof, icy figure—Su Qingxue.
Her breakthrough, her "Jade Balance Hidden Meridian," and the blockage that the modifier had forcibly cleared... everything was shrouded in mystery.
Perhaps unraveling that mystery would help him find a steadier, more powerful source of Source Energy Points.
Or at the very least, it might help him better understand the limits of this "Martial Arts Modifier" of his.
The opportunity came soon enough.
The next day, during the lunch break, on the school rooftop.
Some abandoned desks, chairs, and sports equipment had been piled up there. Few people usually came by. The wind roared, carrying fine dust from the outskirts of the city.
Lin Xiao held a blade of grass between his teeth and lounged against a peeling metal table, his right arm still hidden inside his oversized school-uniform sleeve.
His gaze seemed to sweep casually over the noisy field below, but he was actually waiting with complete focus.
Footsteps came from the stairwell, light yet carrying an almost imperceptible heaviness.
Su Qingxue walked up.
She had changed into a plain, light-blue martial arts training outfit that outlined her graceful curves. Her cool, aloof presence was completely out of place on the disorderly rooftop.
Sunlight fell across her jade-white skin, seeming to envelop her in a faint halo.
After breaking through to Martial Disciple, her aura had become even more restrained. Yet the imposing sharpness belonging to a martial artist still showed itself unconsciously.
Her gaze fell on Lin Xiao, and a complicated emotion instantly flashed through her cold eyes: wariness, apprehension, a trace of dependence that was difficult to detect, and the humiliation of having been forcibly bound.
"What did you call me here for?"
Her voice remained cold, like a frigid spring in a mountain ravine, but it had lost some of its ethereal quality and gained a hint of tension.
She deliberately kept more than two meters between them, as if even coming a little closer would contaminate her with some invisible force.
Lin Xiao spat out the blade of grass. His face wore his usual smile, three parts roguish and seven parts playful. "Miss Su, don't be so cold. We're 'friends,' after all. Isn't it perfectly normal to ask a friend about her breakthrough and exchange some martial arts experience?"
"Friends?" The corner of Su Qingxue's lips lifted in an almost imperceptible, mocking arc, while her gaze grew even colder. "Lin Xiao, drop the act. If you have something to say, say it." She clearly regarded Lin Xiao's excuse of "exchanging experience" with utter contempt.
"Fine. Straight to the point."
Lin Xiao shrugged, his smile unchanged, but his eyes sharpened as they stabbed toward Su Qingxue like probes. "I was just curious. Yesterday, when I helped you... well, 'clear' it, that blocked meridian inside you felt rather special. What was it called again? Jade something Meridian?"
"Jade Balance Meridian."
Su Qingxue answered almost instinctively, a subtle ripple flashing through her cold eyes.
Mentioning the hidden meridian that had changed her fate inevitably tugged at her thoughts.
But in the next instant, the wariness in her eyes surged!
Like an ice dragon whose reverse scale had been touched!
"How do you know its name?"
Her voice suddenly rose, carrying shock, anger, and disbelief!
The secrets of her family's bloodline were known to very few. Even many members of the Branch family might not have heard of it. How could this punk have named it in one guess?
"Just a feeling."
Lin Xiao spread his left hand, his roguish smile utterly matter-of-fact. "That thing was blocked solid. It felt dark and cold, completely different from the other meridians. It had to have some special name, right? I was just guessing. Looks like I got it right?"
He skillfully concealed the fact that the modifier had scanned it, pushing everything onto a mere "feeling."
Su Qingxue stared hard into Lin Xiao's eyes, trying to find a flaw behind his carefree smile.
But Lin Xiao's gaze was so open—or rather, so shameless—that she had no way to distinguish truth from falsehood.
Could he really have sensed it while "clearing" the meridian?
That terrifying perception that seemed to reach into her very bones and see through everything... A chill rose again in Su Qingxue's heart.
She inhaled deeply and forced herself to calm down.
There were too many incomprehensible things about Lin Xiao. Pressing him further would only leave her more passive and uneasy.
She looked away toward the densely packed buildings in the distance. Her voice turned cold again, though a subtle complexity lingered within it.
"The Jade Balance Meridian is a special hidden meridian that only a very small number of people in the Su family bloodline can awaken. It doesn't show on the surface. It lies deep beneath the Jade Pillow Acupoint, connecting the Dantian and the Sea of Consciousness. It is said to be one of the keys to communicating with the bridge between heaven and earth."
She paused, seemingly weighing her words—or perhaps recalling the vague records in her family's ancient texts.
"Those who possess the Jade Balance Meridian usually cultivate far faster than ordinary people during the Martial Disciple stage, and their foundations are also more stable. But..."
Her voice lowered, carrying confusion and a restrained, resentful frustration. "Most people who possess it encounter an insurmountable obstacle when attempting to break through the Martial Disciple bottleneck. Just like me. No matter how many times I tried or how much I accumulated, I was always locked down by an invisible, cold, sluggish force! The family studied it for a long time and tried all sorts of methods—pills, secret arts, even having grandmaster-level elders forcibly attack the blockage... But all of them failed. That obstructing force was like a parasite attached to the bones, as though it had been present from birth and could never be eradicated."
Could never be eradicated? Lin Xiao sneered inwardly.
The modifier could turn even a sandbag into dust, erasing its very existence. What did a mere blocked meridian amount to?
Still, the information revealed by Su Qingxue made his heart stir.
"Present from birth? Impossible to eradicate?"
Lin Xiao deliberately put on an exaggerated look of surprise. "Doesn't that mean all of you in the Su family who possess the 'Jade Balance Meridian' are born unlucky? The faster you cultivate, the harder you get stuck?"
"You!" Lin Xiao's flippant tone enraged Su Qingxue. A flush once again surfaced on her cold face, only to be replaced by profound helplessness.
She could not refute him. This was practically the fate of every member of the Branch family who possessed the Jade Balance Meridian!
She had once thought she would remain stuck at the Martial Disciple peak forever, until...
Her gaze returned to Lin Xiao, filled with indescribable complexity.
It was this punk who had forcibly torn apart that so-called "fate" by a method she could not understand and even found terrifying.
"What happened after it was cleared?"
Lin Xiao changed tack, his eyes carrying a hint of playfulness and inquiry. "How does it feel? Aside from becoming stronger, have you noticed anything else? Is your mind clearer? Or do you feel as if you can 'see' something?"
His question was subtle, but its direction was clear—the Martial Arts Modifier had forcibly cleared the Jade Balance Meridian. Had it touched something deeper?
Perhaps mental perception—Spiritual Sense? Or sensitivity to the energy of the Spiritual Tide?
Su Qingxue was slightly stunned.
The exhilaration of breaking through and the pressure that followed had left her no time to carefully experience the deeper changes in her body.
Prompted by Lin Xiao, she instinctively sank her mind and sensed herself with care.
A moment later, shock clearly surfaced in her cold eyes for the first time!
"My Sea of Consciousness seems clearer and more stable."
She described it uncertainly, her voice carrying an excitement she herself did not notice. "In the past, my thoughts were chaotic whenever I meditated. Now it's easier to gather my mind. And..."
She raised her hand and looked at her fair palm. A wisp of pure ice-blue True Qi coiled and leaped like a docile spirit snake. "I seem to have finer control over my True Qi. I can even vaguely sense some kind of cold energy factor drifting through the air, faintly resonating with my True Qi..."
What she described was precisely a sign that Spiritual Sense had begun to condense and that she had developed a faint sensitivity to Spiritual Tide energy!
This usually only appeared gradually after a Martial Disciple stabilized their realm or began charging toward a higher level.
Yet she had only just broken through!
This was undoubtedly an additional benefit of opening the Jade Balance Meridian!
The immense surprise instantly washed away her earlier humiliation and wariness!
When Su Qingxue looked at Lin Xiao, her eyes held, for the first time, unmistakable shock and a genuine longing for power!
Not only had he helped her break through her bottleneck, he seemed to have opened a door for her leading to a higher realm!
Lin Xiao took in Su Qingxue's shock and understood.
The modifier's effects were indeed not limited to simple "clearing."
The Jade Balance Meridian truly seemed connected to some deeper force—perhaps the Spiritual Tide!
This confirmed his earlier guess.
"Looks like the effect isn't bad?"
Lin Xiao's roguish smile held the smugness of someone in complete control. "Miss Su, don't forget our 'deal.' As for this 'friend' status, I paid quite a hefty 'price.'"
He deliberately emphasized the word "price," his gaze sweeping over Su Qingxue's chest as it rose and fell slightly with excitement.
The excitement on Su Qingxue's face instantly froze, as if a basin of cold water had been poured over her.
The trace of goodwill that had just arisen was crushed by cold reality and humiliation.
She abruptly withdrew her hand. The shock in her eyes was replaced by deeper wariness and anger.
This punk! He always knew how to remind her at the most critical moment, in the most frivolous way possible, that what existed between them was nothing but a filthy transaction!
"Price? Hmph!"
Su Qingxue snorted coldly, her voice once again carrying a chill that kept others at a distance. "I already gave you the 'friend' status you wanted! I even helped you deal with someone like Zhang Kun! Lin Xiao, don't push your luck!"
She paused and looked at Lin Xiao's insolent smile. A nameless fire rose in her heart, and she could not resist asking in a probing, vengeful tone, "Speaking of which, why did your eyes turn into that yesterday when you were 'clearing' it?"
"Eyes?" Lin Xiao was slightly stunned.
"Yes! Your eyes!"
Su Qingxue's voice carried a tremor she herself failed to notice, born from a terrifying memory deep within her soul. "Those deep blue eyes reflecting swirling stars... They didn't look human at all!"
The smile on Lin Xiao's face instantly froze!
A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head!
Blue eyes? Reflecting swirling stars?
Had she seen the phenomenon that occurred when the Martial Arts Modifier activated?
Before you continue