Li Yuan's Top-Tier Comprehension

"Um... maybe take off the underwear later..."

Seeing Xia Zhao reach to undo it, Li Yuan quickly stopped her.

At the same time, he stepped closer and pressed a spot on her rear shoulder.

A stranger's touch, with no fabric in the way—the sensation should have been obvious.

But Xia Zhao found that patch of skin seemed to have lost all feeling, left only numb.

"There's a wound about a finger long, infected and inflamed, still spreading outward."

Li Yuan stated everything he saw.

His earlier guess was right—she really did have an unhealed injury, still infected and festering.

For a martial artist, infection and inflammation were extremely rare.

Let alone for a genius like Xia Zhao, who had broken through to Eighth-Rank in her early thirties with an exceptional physique.

For this to happen, it had to be the Mutant Beast's poison at work.

Severely weakening her immune system.

"Rest. I'll go find medicine."

Li Yuan said only that, then left the Observation Station.

Border Records documented many useful medicinal herbs. Li Yuan could only try to find them based on what the book described.

Watching Li Yuan leave, Xia Zhao's expression grew more pessimistic.

The state she'd just shown was already her forcing herself.

To find the right herbs in the wild required deep knowledge of them.

First, which herbs were suitable.

Second, where those herbs grew.

Third, how to use them.

Xia Zhao was an Eighth-Rank Martial Artist. Ordinary herbs that worked for Fourth-Rank or Fifth-Rank martial artists were completely useless at her level.

With all her field experience, even if she went looking herself, it would be hard to find the right ones.

Shaking her head, Xia Zhao forced herself not to dwell on it.

She wasn't dead yet, so she'd focus on how to survive.

She took off her undergarments and put on Li Yuan's clean clothes.

Loose, comfortable, and smelling nice.

From a physical standpoint, changing into clean clothes really did feel much better.

All she could do now was take it step by step and try to recover.

From nine in the morning until six in the evening, Li Yuan finally returned.

A full nine-plus hours later, he walked into the Observation Station clutching a bundle of herbs.

He looked even dirtier than before he left, utterly disheveled.

Who knew what he'd gone through to find those herbs.

Seeing this, Xia Zhao was stunned for a moment.

Then she immediately understood and lifted her clothes.

In the wild, lighting a fire for illumination was out of the question.

She had to finish applying the medicine before it got completely dark.

Li Yuan stuffed the gathered herbs into his mouth, chewed them into a pulp, and spread it over the wound.

The numb wound naturally still felt nothing.

No matter the herb, it needed time to be absorbed.

After applying the medicine, Li Yuan went back to the observation post to monitor the outside.

Another night passed.

At dawn, Li Yuan went to check on Xia Zhao.

She was awake too, looking much better than the day before.

Lifting her clothes, Li Yuan examined the wound.

The previously inflamed wound had begun to scab over in many places.

"It seems like... some feeling is coming back..."

Xia Zhao was also surprised. She hadn't expected it to actually work.

Li Yuan took her hand and guided it to touch the wound herself.

When she felt the scabbed-over spot, most of her earlier pessimism was swept away.

Then Li Yuan chewed up some more herbs and applied them to the injury.

After finishing this, Xia Zhao told Li Yuan to rest while she kept watch over their surroundings.

Within five minutes, Li Yuan was already asleep, leaning against the wall.

Looking at Li Yuan's sleeping face—though it was a bit dirty—Xia Zhao felt that this man was actually quite agreeable to the eye.

After sleeping for three hours, Li Yuan woke up on his own.

He told Xia Zhao to cultivate and recover while he continued observing the dangerous environment around them.

This was the third day of hiding in the Observation Station, and the two had clearly grown much more familiar.

During breaks, they would start chatting, and the conversation turned to martial arts cultivation.

Li Yuan didn't hold back—when an opportunity like this to seek guidance presented itself, why not seize it?

Taking advantage of this chance, Li Yuan began asking about various techniques for dealing with ferocious beasts.

Especially those techniques not recorded in any books.

Also, when one's martial realm was at the Fifth Grade, were there any methods for rapid improvement?

To have reached the Eighth Grade at this age was definitely not something that could be accomplished through resources alone.

Xia Zhao came from an impressive background and had ample cultivation resources—Li Yuan believed that.

But her martial talent was absolutely top-tier.

Throwing resources at someone couldn't produce a martial prodigy of this level.

As a teacher at Lingshan No.1 High School, he was even more certain of this.

Her guidance was definitely practical experience that had been tested and proven extremely useful.

Xia Zhao didn't hold anything back, laying out all the obstacles she had encountered when she was at the Fifth Grade.

She shared everything she could recall, without a trace of selfishness.

She even gave Li Yuan tips for breaking through to the Sixth Grade.

Between the Sixth and Fifth Grades, there was a fairly significant gap.

The difficulty of breaking through to the Sixth Grade was far greater than before.

As they talked, Xia Zhao casually asked which basic cultivation method Li Yuan practiced.

The improvement of martial realm was closely related to the basic cultivation method.

"The Zhou Tian Dao Yin Technique..."

"What I mean is, the basic cultivation method you're using now.

The entry-level technique from childhood doesn't have much impact."

Xia Zhao interrupted, indicating that Li Yuan should just talk about his current situation.

"Right now, I'm also mainly practicing the Zhou Tian Dao Yin Technique..."

As he answered, Li Yuan even circulated it to demonstrate.

Seeing this, Xia Zhao's face was full of confusion.

"The blade momentum you used that day reached that level, and your mastery of Cloud Treading Step far exceeds ordinary people.

And yet you're practicing the Zhou Tian Dao Yin Technique?"

To Xia Zhao, this was an extremely basic cultivation method.

Even in her childhood, she had looked down on it.

Yet the martial artist before her, whom she found quite impressive, was still using the Zhou Tian Dao Yin Technique.

"The basic cultivation method I use—unfortunately, I can't pass it on to you.

If we can get out of here, I'll definitely find a suitable one for you."

Unable to help in this area, Xia Zhao changed the subject.

She began explaining martial techniques to Li Yuan, along with methods for dealing with various common ones.

Xia Zhao recognized that Li Yuan used the Six Martial Chain Blade, and took this opportunity to give him pointers on blade arts.

But as she discussed it with Li Yuan, she suddenly noticed something was off.

It wasn't Li Yuan who was wrong—it was her.

Xia Zhao had originally thought she was guiding Li Yuan.

But as the conversation deepened, she realized Li Yuan was tactfully telling her that she had misunderstood.

The key point was that after thinking it over carefully, what Li Yuan said was indeed more reasonable.

The two of them delved deeper into their discussion.

As they talked, Xia Zhao discovered that whenever Li Yuan had studied a martial technique, her understanding of it never matched his.

She even brought out the techniques she used most often for discussion.

Just from hearing her describe them, Li Yuan was able to grasp the core points.

Including the difficult parts of the techniques and their subtleties.

All of this, simply from listening to her talk, he could pinpoint...