Five-Day Countdown

Ran Qingmo couldn't exactly be called a good teacher.

The way she taught Xu Yuan was as cool and unhurried as her quiet temperament.

Fortunately, her formidable strength still allowed her to guide Xu Yuan, a newcomer to cultivation, with clear and accessible explanations.

From the most basic lessons on identifying acupoints and meridians to sensing the Source Qi hidden in the world under Ran Qingmo's guidance, everything fell naturally into place.

It was this process of sensing Source Qi that helped Xu Yuan understand the role of the Will Soul.

The more condensed and powerful a person's Will Soul was, the more Source Qi between heaven and earth they could sense.

With that pool of spiritual energy and the Spirit Locking Array in place, Ran Qingmo sensed that the Source Qi inside the cave dwelling had almost condensed into liquid. But Xu Yuan could only detect a few faint "clusters of qi."

The gap between their Will Souls was enough to leave a person breathless.

Of course, part of that was because Ran Qingmo's strength far surpassed Xu Yuan's.

The Will Soul could also be condensed and strengthened as one's cultivation improved.

Meridians determined how quickly a person could absorb and transform the Source Qi of heaven and earth for their own use, while the Will Soul determined how much Source Qi they could sense.

The two complemented each other in cultivation.

If someone had only the Innate Body, with all their meridians open, but their Will Soul was scattered and hazy, then no matter how quickly their body transformed Source Qi, they could absorb only the few "clusters of qi" they sensed.

The reverse was true for someone born with a soul-body alone.

As Ran Qingmo gradually taught him everything there was to know about cultivation in this world, Xu Yuan came to understand more and more just how terrifying the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art in his hands was.

A cultivation art that could artificially create an Innate Dao Body.

If it were brought into the outside world,

it would be no exaggeration to say that this art could spark a war.

For who knew how many times, Xu Yuan opened his eyes on the jade bed, only to find the same dim stone ceiling of the cave dwelling above him.

He sat up and glanced at the stone wall beside the bed.

There,

a neat row of tally marks stood out clearly.

Unable to see the sky and tell day from night, Xu Yuan could only keep track of how many times he slept to estimate the passage of time.

By the time he woke this time, the stone wall beside the bed was covered with six complete sets of tally marks.

He had been alone with the black-clad girl in the cave dwelling for about a month.

After these days of tireless study, he had more or less finished learning the fundamentals of cultivation in this world.

Xu Yuan had now completely mastered using his Will Soul to sense the Source Qi between heaven and earth.

Two weeks earlier, Ran Qingmo had also taught him an inner-sect Sword Sect art called the Lotus Sword Art, giving him a taste of drawing qi into his body to cultivate.

Now, two weeks later, Xu Yuan could cultivate on his own without Ran Qingmo's guidance.

As he thought about it, he instinctively glanced at her, seated cross-legged in the corner.

After watching her for a couple of seconds, Xu Yuan smiled faintly, shook his head, and looked away.

Though he had grown used to seeing her without her black veil, her flawless face still sometimes took his breath away.

It was a pity that even after the two of them had weathered so much together in this cave dwelling, this Big Ice Block surnamed Ran still hadn't changed her attitude toward him much.

Heh.

Fairy tales really were all lies.

Putting those jumbled thoughts aside, Xu Yuan focused and opened the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art once more.

The obscure words in the art that had once left him baffled were now clear as day; he could understand and connect every last one of them.

He had also memorized the entire art by heart over the past month or so. Even so, Xu Yuan still read it every day, going over it again and again.

His life depended on it.

With cultivation arts, even a single misplaced word could cost someone their life when Source Qi circulated through their body.

Don't ask. He knew from experience.

The circulation route in the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art was far more complicated than the one in the Lotus Sword Art Ran Qingmo had given him. To avoid being at a loss when he truly began cultivating, Xu Yuan had started trying a week ago to guide the faint Source Qi inside him along the meridian route described in the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art.

At first, everything went smoothly. The faint Source Qi inside Xu Yuan circulated in orderly fashion along the route laid out in the art.

Unfortunately, when he had completed a third of the circulation, Xu Yuan lost focus for a moment. The Source Qi he was guiding strayed half a step from the instructions, and he immediately suffered cultivation deviation.

The feeling of cultivation deviation was awful.

With one wrong thought, all the Source Qi in his body instantly ran wild, careening through his fragile meridians.

If Xu Yuan hadn't accumulated so little Source Qi, he could easily imagine the rampaging energy smashing his meridians to pieces.

Fortunately, the expert Ran Qingmo was right beside him at the time. She swiftly intervened and steadied the violent Source Qi before it could damage his meridians.

Even though it had been a false alarm, Xu Yuan still realized how difficult the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art was to cultivate.

After all, he'd managed the Lotus Sword Art, a moderately difficult cultivation art, on his first try without the slightest sign of deviation. Yet with the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art, he'd gone into deviation after circulating it for only a third of the route.

But this setback didn't frustrate Xu Yuan. Instead, it made him secretly excited.

Because he'd discovered that even if he suffered cultivation deviation, the Big Ice Block surnamed Ran beside him could still stabilize his condition before he got hurt.

In other words,

he could try as many times as he wanted until he knew the art's circulation route by heart!

Once he'd had the thought, Xu Yuan acted on it.

Ran Qingmo could tell that Xu Yuan was practicing some very difficult art, but perhaps it was simply her nature; she didn't ask many questions.

She just silently rescued Xu Yuan from his cultivation deviation, again and again.

After reading the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art through once more, Xu Yuan set it down on the jade bed, slowly rose, and walked toward her in the corner.

Just then,

Ran Qingmo's clear voice reached him from the corner before he could speak.

It was soft, but perfectly audible.

"The formation outside is about to break."

"..."

The formation?

At Ran Qingmo's abrupt words, Xu Yuan's steps faltered.

But in the next instant, he realized what she meant by "the formation."

It seemed his guess when he'd first entered the cave dwelling had been right: the cave really was protected by a formation that concealed it from the outside world.

But the formation was about to break.

The news made Xu Yuan's heart sink.

He wasn't ready to start cultivating the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art yet.

Thanks to Ran Qingmo rescuing him again and again, he could now circulate Source Qi perfectly along the meridian route in the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art.

But that was while he was conscious.

To circulate it perfectly on the brink of death would be many times more difficult.

Collecting his thoughts, Xu Yuan asked in a calm, low voice:

"Mm. About how much time do we have?"

Ran Qingmo closed her eyes and sensed for a moment before replying softly:

"About five days."

Xu Yuan took a deep breath and asked quietly:

"Can they find this cave dwelling?"

The cave dwelling was clearly inside the mountain. Perhaps...

"They can." Ran Qingmo's clear voice shattered Xu Yuan's hopes.

"..."

That answer sent Xu Yuan's thoughts into a tangled whirl.

The five-day countdown to his death had quietly begun.

He stood there in silence for a long while.

In the stillness,

she suddenly spoke softly:

"You don't need to worry."

He slowly came back to himself and looked at her.

Her clear eyes fixed on him, full of earnest conviction.

"I'll get you out of here."

Looking at her earnest gaze, Xu Yuan fell silent for two seconds, then smiled at her faintly.

There was a touch of amusement in it, but mostly helplessness.

If he nodded and accepted her suggestion,

Xu Yuan could already picture what would happen five days from now:

the beautiful black-clad woman before him, her head severed from her body.

There were too many strong people in this world.

If Ji Qingyue could be killed, then Ran Qingmo could be killed too.

In the end,

Xu Yuan didn't answer Ran Qingmo. He slowly sat down beside her.

After a long silence,

he suddenly asked in a low voice:

"Lady Ran, can you put me in a near-death state?"

A trace of confusion surfaced in Ran Qingmo's eyes.

"What?"

Xu Yuan repeated softly:

"I said, can you put me in a near-death state?"