"The amount of medicinal water is considerable, but Dongshan Manor doesn't have that many farmhands... There's a group of people in the manor we don't know about."
"Could it be that those who leave stay at the manor for a while before going down the mountain?"
"But if so, why do they drink this medicinal water? What is its true effect when it isn't paired with Fierce Beast meat?"
"Perhaps the truth is that the sect really is behind Xuanming Manor..."
After returning from the Medicine Pavilion to the dormitory, An Jing was full of doubts.
An Jing possessed Past Life Wisdom and had studied diligently since childhood. He had seen and heard plenty over the years, and with the An Family's connections, he could certainly be considered well-read and widely informed in the Huaixu Realm.
On top of that, after several months of experience at Xuanming Manor, An Jing could actually tell that the forces behind it were probably not aboveboard.
But before now, he hadn't given much thought to just how bad things were.
Purely on an emotional level, he was willing to trust Xuanming Manor. For that reason, he'd rather ignore certain details.
But now those details were right in front of him. He could no longer ignore them. Once his doubts had surfaced, they were difficult to dispel.
Whatever happened, he had to investigate a second time and uncover the real secret hidden behind Xuanming Manor.
However, An Jing didn't plan to sneak out and investigate immediately. He wasn't strong enough yet, and it would be difficult to evade the patrolling instructors.
Besides, there was only one open, straight road from the main manor to Dongshan Manor. To get there without being spotted, he'd need a moonless, cloudy night.
An Jing stayed up past midnight not to investigate at once, but to push himself harder and master the "Mysterious Steps" of the Imperial Heaven Piercing-God One-Origin Qi-Nurturing Method as soon as possible.
Mysterious Steps Unwavering was a type of "movement technique" rarely seen in Da Chen.
Killing arts and cultivation arts were not uncommon in Da Chen, but even the simplest mental and movement techniques could serve as the core inheritance of a martial clan.
Just as An Jing considered the other two parts of the Imperial Heaven Nourishing Qi Method to be "assassination arts," Mysterious Steps truly upheld the central idea of being "as elusive as Heaven's Will, vanishing without a trace."
It wasn't particularly fast, but it could muffle sound and was exceedingly stealthy. Its essence was to arrive in silence, erupt without warning when necessary like thunder crashing down with Heaven's Will, then suddenly vanish and make a clean escape.
That was also the advantage of a complete set of martial arts.
Mysterious Steps wasn't fast under ordinary circumstances, but at a critical moment, it could accelerate by using "Piercing-God Unwavering" to unleash Armor-Piercing True Energy. The burst couldn't last long, but it would surely be enough when it mattered.
By contrast, the "Houtu Body-Nurturing Method" was probably a martial arts manual focused on body tempering and face-to-face combat—or perhaps on nourishing the sinews and channels to better unlock the body's potential.
At night, An Jing carefully studied the manual by moonlight, his eyesight sharpened by martial training. During the day, he pretended to study at an ordinary pace to conceal his progress.
Now that he was already in first place and could receive every benefit, there was no harm in keeping a few things to himself. He was mainly curious about where the medicine was going.
After all, lately he'd been feeling vaguely uneasy.
The beast bones marked with black patterns and suspected to belong to Demons, the medicinal water whose purpose was unknown, and Xuanming Manor's excessively mysterious origins—all of it left him at a loss.
That was simply An Jing's nature. If he couldn't get a handle on something, he'd work until he did.
He would never sit by and deceive himself into thinking "it's probably nothing."
Before long, more than ten days had passed.
An Jing's "Mysterious Steps" had reached minor mastery. When he used it, force pulsed beneath his feet as if he were treading on clouds and mist. Even when he snapped branches in the woods, he made no sound at all; every vibration was absorbed.
It could also be combined with other cultivation methods. With the heart of Abyss-Facing Fearlessness, practicing the standing exercise with Mysterious Steps could speed up the cultivation of qi.
Thanks to this effect, An Jing felt the Innate Qi within him growing increasingly abundant. He would soon be able to break through to Internal Breath.
But the time wasn't right. If he broke through to Internal Breath, the commotion would be astonishing, and afterward he would attract a great deal of attention. Then he wouldn't be able to explore Xuanming Manor.
By now, the number of people remaining at Xuanming Manor had stabilized at one hundred and eight.
Compared with the more than two hundred and forty who had started out, the remaining one hundred and eight were less than half. But those who remained truly had better talent and a stronger mindset.
That was the final number. No one else would be eliminated.
When the one hundred and eight boys and girls learned this, they looked happy, but didn't cry out in joy. Instead, they let out a long breath, relieved.
They hadn't been eliminated after all.
Nearly half a year of training and cultivation had made them more "composed" and "mature"—or perhaps... more "ruthless"?
Even Gu Yeqi and Cang Linzu were no exception. They had both grown increasingly composed, though their feelings for the friends they truly accepted had only deepened.
An Jing watched it all, too.
As he cultivated the Imperial Heaven Nourishing Qi Method, he felt his state of mind changing as well. It grew ever more lofty and distant, leaving him with a strange, detached feeling, as if he were looking down on everything happening before him.
An Jing knew he ought to feel something, but he was as calm as if he were controlling a character in a game, his heart unmoved.
At first, he hadn't thought anything of it. But one day, when he took a bowl of water from Gu Yeqi and unexpectedly said, "Thank you, Ye Qi," in a very polite tone, he saw the strange looks on Gu Yeqi and Cang Linzu's faces and suddenly realized.
For one thing, what was there to thank each other for?
Even if he really was thanking them, he shouldn't have been so formal. Something casual like "Thanks," or "Ah, much appreciated!" would have fit better. The more formal the courtesy, the more distant it sounded between them!
These cultivation methods... and the diet and training... were changing his temperament!
[Fearless and selfless, unwavering and doubtless]
Perhaps that was how the Imperial Heaven Method changed people themselves.
"Indeed, Abyss-Facing Fearlessness makes people hold their emotions in. Piercing-God Unwavering calms the mind, then makes it suddenly erupt with extreme emotion... And the more one cultivates Mysterious Steps Unwavering, the more distant one's thoughts become, as if looking down from the heavens."
An Jing grew wary. "If I cultivate the complete Imperial Heaven Nourishing Qi Method, the effects will surely be even stronger... In the end, what will it turn me into?"
It was hard to say that was a good thing.
Resisting the influence of the techniques wasn't difficult, but Xuanming Manor was changing, too.
After the final number was set, Xuanming Manor divided the one hundred and eight children into twelve groups, named after the Twelve Earthly Branches. An Jing was the leader of the first group.
The group An Jing led was called Xingji. Including him, there were nine members: five boys and four girls, most of them teenagers from around Mingshan City in the Northern Frontier.
Gu Yeqi and Cang Linzu were in the group, too. They were the two remaining members of the little circle that had first gathered around An Jing, and now they were his right-hand men.
Besides requiring the members of each group to be in perfect accord and meditate together, Xuanming Manor also had each group practice a strange battle formation.
An Jing had seen something similar during militia exercises back home, but the target of their drills probably wasn't human. It was some sort of creature far larger than a human.
The rolling, spear thrusts, and attacks aimed at the legs were all highly specialized.
"Is Xuanming Manor training the children to... hunt Fierce Beasts?"
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