Half a Year of Hard Training

Steward Yue acted quickly. Before long, he had picked out a residence—a two-courtyard compound in the inner city, spanning a full five or six hundred square meters. It was about the size of the homes where ordinary middle-class families lived.

Zhou Yan was very satisfied with the residence, but he didn't move in himself. Instead, he had Mother Zhou and his younger siblings move in.

As for him, he stayed in the courtyard in the outer city.

Although its conditions were inferior to those in the inner city, the environment was very suitable for his cultivation and corpse refining.

Unless he found somewhere with even stronger yin energy, Zhou Yan wouldn't easily leave such a feng shui treasure.

Compared to cultivation, a little hardship was nothing.

With the Prajna Heart Sutra in hand, Zhou Yan's cultivation became even more demanding.

Every day, in addition to the various arts and skills he had to practice, he added the Prajna Heart Sutra to his routine. He also had to squeeze out plenty of time to pore over cultivation texts in the Yue Mansion.

The collection didn't contain any powerful incantations or secret arts, but it did offer detailed records of the fundamentals of cultivation.

And these were exactly what Zhou Yan lacked.

With all this detailed information and knowledge, even without a renowned master to guide him, he could make up for one of his biggest shortcomings.

What's more, the system could help Zhou Yan choose the best way to cultivate and correct his mistakes. It was even more effective than studying under the finest master.

Perhaps because Zhou Yan's path had been so rough before, everything had suddenly gone smoothly for him after the Yue Mansion took him on as a retainer.

Not only had he made up for his shortcomings in cultivation, he was also making excellent progress with the Prajna Heart Sutra. He successfully resolved the flaw in Yakshas Meditation Method that came from Yaksha Ghost-Swallowing, sweeping away the whispers in his soul. It felt as if his entire spirit had been renewed.

This showed that Zhou Yan's guess hadn't been unfounded.

Of course, this was also thanks to the profound nature of the Prajna Heart Sutra.

In Buddhism, prajna meant "ultimate wisdom" and "discerning wisdom"—the wisdom to perceive all things and the origins of all creation as they truly were.

Any cultivation method bearing the name prajna was extraordinary.

After beginning to cultivate the Prajna Heart Sutra, Zhou Yan's qi and blood steadily grew, and he felt that the soul in his mind had become more resilient as well.

It truly was a Buddhist cultivation method, backed by a powerful legacy.

Even though it was an internal martial arts technique, it could still greatly benefit the soul.

From then on, Zhou Yan could go all out cultivating the Mystic Yin Art without worrying that his body wouldn't be able to keep up.

Meanwhile, Ma Yan had been bringing him several excellent corpses suitable for corpse refining. Zhou Yan had already begun working on them...

Time flew by.

More than half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhou Yan walked out of the Yue Mansion's study and lifted his head slightly to look at the sky. Sunlight fell upon him, its warmth spreading through him.

These past six months had been the most relaxing and fulfilling days of his life.

He had successfully made up for his lack of cultivation knowledge and learned a wealth of basic incantations. He was becoming more and more like a true cultivator.

Not only that, he had refined the Profound Yin Essence Blood within his body to seventy-eight drops, advancing his cultivation to the late stage of the Essence Blood Realm.

Most importantly, his physical strength and qi had caught up as well. His body no longer lagged behind the pace of his cultivation as it had before.

Now, Zhou Yan had no shortcomings in magic power, physical strength, or soul. He had no obvious flaws in other areas either, so he could barely be considered half a cultivator of the Orthodox Profound Sects.

Perhaps because he had started out cultivating unorthodox methods, or perhaps because of the suffering he had endured during his cultivation, an obsession had somehow taken root in his heart.

Deep down, Zhou Yan felt an inexplicable yearning for the Orthodox Profound Sects, along with a faint unwillingness to admit defeat.

Even if he cultivated unorthodox methods, he wouldn't be inferior to the disciples of the Orthodox Profound Sects. He might even surpass them!

These things, which he had once thought he wouldn't care about in the slightest, had gradually become an obsession...

[Name: Zhou Yan]

[Age: 17]

[Realm: Essence Blood Realm (Profound Yin Essence Blood: 78)]

[Methods: Mystic Yin Art (First Layer) (Great Achievement 902/1600), Yakshas Meditation Method (Minor Accomplishment 239/800), Prajna Heart Sutra (Minor Accomplishment 56/800).]

[Skills: Cart Pulling (Great Achievement 259/1600), Spring Leg (Great Achievement 897/1600), Five Animal Frolics (Great Achievement 377/1600), Shennong Health Cultivation Method (Great Achievement 17/1600), Corpse Refining (Minor Accomplishment 617/800), Corpse Controlling (Great Achievement 81/1600), Prajna Palm (Minor Accomplishment 159/800).]

[Corpse Servants: Black Zombies (Late Stage *1, Middle Stage *5).]

[Items: Soul-Fixing Lamp, Soul-Suppressing Bell, Corpse-Suppressing Stone, Cinnabar Rope, Lightning-Struck Peach Wood Sword, Coin Sword.]

Zhou Yan had spent a great deal of time not only on cultivation but on grinding away at all kinds of skills day and night. They had all reached at least minor or Great Achievement.

On top of that, he had grasped the Prajna Palm from the Prajna Heart Sutra, greatly enhancing his ability to protect himself.

It was a genuine internal martial arts palm technique. Even at minor accomplishment, it was more than ten times as powerful as Spring Leg at Great Achievement.

Paired with the breathing method from the Prajna Heart Sutra, it was even more powerful!

However, Zhou Yan hadn't revealed his martial arts abilities. He had made no effort to conceal his corpse controlling or soul-related abilities, though.

Even so, when Steward Yue learned of Zhou Yan's progress, he was secretly astonished.

He didn't say anything to Zhou Yan's face, but behind his back, he often told Yue Yuna how Zhou Yan was a cultivation prodigy and remarkably disciplined. Their Third Miss had truly gotten a great deal.

There was no denying that ever since Zhou Yan had begun cultivating, he had worked so hard that it could almost be called self-torture.

By rights, he had no enemies or old grudges to settle, so his urgency seemed rather inexplicable.

But Zhou Yan always felt a sense of unease, as if someone behind him were relentlessly pressing a knife closer.

Perhaps it was because of these turbulent times. Zhou Yan understood all too well that in a time of chaos, human lives were like ants and wild grass. He didn't want himself or his family to become sacrifices in this troubled age.

So he could only keep growing stronger if he wanted to feel even a little safe.

"Who doesn't want to enjoy life? But first, you have to be alive to enjoy it," Zhou Yan sighed to himself.

That was also part of why he had chosen to become a retainer of the Yue Mansion.

Only by becoming a retainer could he maintain his rapid pace of cultivation and gain a layer of protection.

Even if there might be danger, he had no choice but to focus on the present rather than the future.

Only because Zhou Yan had awakened memories of his past life did he think so much and have so many concerns.

If it had been any other independent cultivator, they would have eagerly agreed the moment they heard the Yue Mansion was willing to take them on as a retainer, afraid they might miss their chance.

His brother-in-law, Ma Yan, was a perfect example. When he heard Zhou Yan had become a retainer, he was practically over the moon.

If Zhou Yan hadn't told him to keep it quiet, Ma Yan would probably have shouted it from the rooftops.

Then there was Jin Mantang. He had been extremely envious when he learned Zhou Yan had become a retainer of the Yue Mansion.

But he hadn't made a fuss. Instead, he had advised Zhou Yan to keep as low a profile as possible.

This confirmed Zhou Yan's impression that, for all Jin Mantang's shrewdness and slickness, he was someone he could trust with his heart and rely on...