[You searched for Xie Yuan in the Main Estate. Thanks to Madam Zhuge's instructions, you passed unhindered between the courtyards and headed straight for the depths of the rear garden.]
[Madam Zhuge had set aside a training ground especially for Xie Yuan. It was four or five times the size of your little courtyard, giving him ample room to train as he pleased.]
[You entered the training ground and saw Xie Yuan bare-chested, wearing only shorts, sweat pouring off him and plastering his hair to his forehead. He was moving slowly through his stance drills, his steps steady, utterly absorbed.]
[Xie Yuan had once told you that his talent for martial arts far surpassed his talent for Primordial Spirit cultivation. Most of the Xie Manor's descendants were the same. After all, Marquis Dingyuan Manor had risen through military merit and possessed a deep martial inheritance.]
[Not far from Xie Yuan, an old man reeking of wine lounged in a chair in the shade, snoring loud enough to shake the heavens.]
[One hurried glance was enough to tell you the old man was already awake. Ever since you had stepped through the courtyard gate, a faint thread of divine sense had lingered around you.]
[With a brief probe, you knew his Primordial Spirit cultivation exceeded your own. His martial cultivation was unfathomable as well; he likely had the strength of the Upper Three Realms.]
[Even in Bianjing, such cultivation marked him as exceptional.]
[He was more than qualified to teach Xie Yuan to establish his martial foundation and awaken his Primordial Spirit.]
[Xie Yuan had mentioned this master before, calling him a friend despite their difference in age. He had met the teacher in a shabby alley as a child; the man was, in truth, an expert hidden among the common