Mu Ye: I Want Some Peace and Quiet

The Soul Guidance Array Patterns on the four walls of the stone chamber emitted a steady dark-red glow, casting the medicinal pool's surface in a deep amber hue.

Fine bubbles rose from the pool. Each one drifted up from the bottom and burst at the surface, releasing a wisp of dark-green medicinal mist almost invisible to the naked eye.

Rather than dispersing, the mist was drawn in by the array patterns on the walls, forming a slowly rotating ring of fog within the chamber before eventually settling back into the pool.

The entire stone chamber resembled a sealed alchemical furnace, and Li Chen was the raw material being tempered at its center.

He sat naked in the medicinal pool, the water reaching his shoulders. Several consecutive days of medicinal baths had given his skin a healthy bronze tone. Faint, dense dark-gold lines could be seen slowly flowing beneath his skin—the traces left by the medicinal effects and the origin of the Law of Life and Death merging within his meridians. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was slow and steady. With every inhale, the medicinal mist in the pool seeped into his body through his nostrils and pores. With every exhale, impurities tempered from within his body emerged from his skin as gray-white mist, immediately cleansed and purified by the pool water.

He had been practicing the Guiding Technique for two and a half hours. He drew the power of his martial soul's origin out of his soul ring strand by strand, guiding it through his meridians toward his limbs. The infusion into both arms and legs had stabilized. Next, he would attempt his torso.

He drew out a thread of law power from his dantian and slowly pushed it toward his abdomen. Wherever the law passed, a faint layer of gray-white patterns appeared on his skin. Under the continuous washing of the medicinal power, those patterns flickered endlessly. Every time they threatened to spread into a backlash, he forcibly pulled them back. After repeating this ten times, the gray-white patterns stopped spreading and instead steadily adhered to the surfaces of his meridians, forming a faint protective film.

The first layer of the torso is complete, he noted silently.

He slowly rose from the medicinal pool. A faint gray-white pattern lay across his chest and another across his abdomen, both flickering gently with his breathing. He picked up a towel and dried himself, then sat cross-legged before the stone platform and began silently reciting the Guiding Technique mantra Mu Ye had left behind.

Footsteps suddenly sounded outside the stone door.

They were not Mu Ye's. Mu Ye's footsteps were steady and powerful, each step on the stone stairs carrying a solid sense of force. These footsteps, however, were light and quick.

The stone door slid open, and Leng Yaozhu stood in the doorway. Today, she wore a formal dark-blue-green outfit, her long hair draped behind her shoulders. She seemed more formal than usual. Behind her stood a golden figure and a silver figure side by side.

Na'er was the first to poke her head in. She wore a light-gold short shirt, her golden ponytail tied high, and carried two bulging paper bags in her hands. The edges of the bags revealed the ends of bamboo skewers. The moment she spotted Li Chen, her eyes widened slightly. She hurried in, crouched beside the medicinal pool, and reached out to test the water temperature.

"This water is hot enough to nurture Battle Armor. You soak in it every day?"

"I'm used to it."

"Used to what? Your body—" Na'er reached out and poked the gray-white marks on his shoulder. The moment her fingertips touched his skin, she clearly felt an unusual chill. "What is this? Don't tell me it's law power or something. Gu Yue, come take a look."

Gu Yue stepped forward from behind Na'er. She bent down, her purple eyes examining the patterns across Li Chen's chest and the marks on his arms that had yet to completely fade. She lifted his left wrist and turned it over—on the inner side was a mark darker than the others, a dark purple like congealed blood.

"The Guiding Technique backfired?" She released Li Chen's wrist. "Your initial guidance deviated. The law power overflowed your meridians. This dark mark follows the route of the three yin meridians of the hand. If it had deviated another half inch, it would have damaged your heart meridian. How did you correct it afterward?"

"I lowered the angle by three parts and slowed down," Li Chen replied.

Gu Yue nodded and took a ceramic jar from one of the paper bags. When she opened it, a crisp scent of mint mixed with herbs spread through the room. Inside was a pale-green ointment.

"This is a secret medicine from my family, made with Life Spring and various precious herbs. Apply it to your joints after your medicinal bath. It can ease the buildup of medicinal power."

Li Chen looked at the ceramic jar and thanked her.

Leng Yaozhu stood at the doorway and swept her gaze around the stone chamber, lingering on Li Chen for a moment. "You've started training your torso as well. Your progress is faster than I expected. I'm returning to the Spirit Pagoda today to handle some matters. These two insisted on coming to see you—more accurately, Na'er dragged Gu Yue along."

"Aunt Leng, don't worry about your work. We'll help out here." Na'er took a small cloth bundle from a paper bag and stuffed it into Li Chen's hands. "This is for you—grilled skewers from that barbecue place in Heaven Dou City. This training room is warm enough, so they'll heat up soon. You can eat them directly."

Li Chen accepted the bundle and opened it. The skewers had already gone cold, but the charred brown grill marks and seasonings on the bamboo sticks showed that they had been cooked properly. He picked one up and took a bite. The meat was cold, but not tough in the slightest.

"Not bad," he said.

"Don't focus only on eating." Leng Yaozhu took a Fire Spirit Stone from her sleeve and placed it on the stone platform. "The Phoenix Family traded for this from the Fire Host Clan back then. It is extremely useful to fire-attribute soul masters who control and use flames. Now, it can also be used to regulate the medicinal water's temperature and keep it at its optimal level. After I leave, contact me once a day and report your training progress." She then turned to Gu Yue and Na'er. "You two can do as you please. Stop coming here all the time to disturb Li Chen, and remember to rest on schedule."

"Got it, Aunt Leng." Na'er had already sat down cross-legged and dumped everything from the two paper bags: grilled skewers, pastries, fruit, chicken cartilage, and Wumi Rice Cakes. As she sorted them, she kept talking. "Gu Yue and I discussed it already. You still have several days of training ahead, so we'll come by during the day. You soak in your medicine and cultivate your laws. Don't mind us."

Li Chen wanted to say there was no need, but the words reached his lips and were swallowed back down. Na'er had already finished arranging everything and started reheating the food. She gave some to Gu Yue, some to Li Chen, and kept a huge pile for herself.

Gu Yue sat before the stone platform, took out a book, and quietly read. Every so often, she looked up at Li Chen.

Li Chen immersed himself in the medicinal pool once more, closed his eyes, and focused. He drew the power of his martial soul from his dantian and continued pushing it deeper into his torso. This time, he discovered that he entered meditation much faster than before. It was not because the medicinal power had weakened, but because two familiar breaths had been added to the stone chamber.

The sounds of Na'er grilling and eating, Gu Yue's soft page-turning, and her occasional footsteps as she rose to adjust the medicinal bath's temperature blended together. Those tiny sounds became like an invisible protective barrier, shutting the loneliness of cultivation outside.