Sight-Roaming

[Divine Chamber]

[Divine Ability: Sight-Roaming (Ready)

One: Chen Lingxi

Two: Not Yet Bound]

[Divine Ability: Total Perception (Unavailable)]

[Divine Ability: Unknown]

[Divine Ability: Unknown]

Dense tadpole script hung in the void, then quietly faded away.

Chen Lingxi's consciousness hovered in the void of the Divine Chamber, yet he had no idea what [Sight-Roaming] and [Total Perception] meant.

"But... it seems that with a mere stir of thought, I can wield the power of the ready Sight-Roaming."

His thoughts shifted, settling on the line of tadpole script that read [Sight-Roaming—Chen Lingxi].

In an instant!

The Divine Chamber model illuminated in his mind was abruptly pulled closer, dropping into the northern courtyard, onto several rear-facing rooms, and then into the very one where he was.

His perspective began to change as well. He was no longer looking down from above, and the Divine Chamber was no longer filled with dense fog!

—His eyes were clearly shut, yet in his mind, he saw Zhao Changle. He saw the several battered old beds. Out of the corner of his eye, he even saw the falling snow beyond the window and that spindly locust tree!

The crucial thing was...

His eyes were clearly shut!

"The Divine Chamber is vast. It resembles a model, yet it cannot be taken in at a glance; it still needs a pair of eyes to explore it.

"The 'me' within the Divine Chamber has become those eyes.

"Only... I seem unable to control [Chen Lingxi] within the Divine Chamber. If so, what use is this divine ability, [Sight-Roaming]?"

As Chen Lingxi's thoughts reached this point, realization suddenly struck him.

His consciousness fell upon the [Sight-Roaming] column!

"There are two lines under Sight-Roaming. The first bears my name.

"The second says not yet bound. Does that mean I can bind someone else's vision?"

When his consciousness grasped the meaning of [Sight-Roaming], Chen Lingxi within the Divine Chamber seemed to receive a mandate from Heaven and suddenly spoke—

"Those who roam by sight first behold the roamings of others, thereby ride the true course of Heaven and Earth, command the distinctions of the six breaths, and wander without end!"

The words crashed through Chen Lingxi's mind like a great bell and mighty chime.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Lingxi instinctively asked, "I beseech the Divine Chamber to make clear: how do I bind a second candidate for Sight-Roaming?"

This time, Chen Lingxi within the Divine Chamber did not speak. Instead, the mist outside the window rose up and formed countless lines of tadpole script once more.

"Take an object that has passed through their hands, recite their name, recite their eight birth characters, and offer sacrifice to the Divine Chamber!"

"An object that has passed through their hands?"

Chen Lingxi looked around. The first thing he noticed was the medicinal herbs that had yet to be decocted.

"These herbs have passed through Wang Kong's hands, and Liu Changle's as well."

"Though Wang Kong is valued by Steward Zhao, he is still ultimately a household servant of low birth. Seeing where he roams would do me no good—or rather, not much good."

"Liu Changle carries secrets, but he shares a room with me and is likewise an official slave. Even when we report to the authorities every ten days, he goes with me! What he sees and where he goes seem to be exactly the same as mine."

Chen Lingxi's thoughts turned as he looked about again.

Suddenly, he spotted an incense burner on the table in the middle of the room.

The burner was rather unusual. Its bronze hue was deep as night, and faint ghost-face patterns rose from its surface.

A stick of incense was inserted diagonally within it, fine as a drifting thread. The dim red ember at its tip flickered on and off; from afar, it resembled an ancient eye glimmering faintly.

Smoke twisted its waist and curled into the void.

"This incense burner..."

Chen Lingxi's eyes lit up.

He had been reduced to an official slave for more than two years and had been assigned to the Baosu Marquis Residence a year and a half ago!

It had happened to coincide with the eldest young master's twenty-first birthday banquet.

At the banquet, the eldest young master, Lin Suri, had invited everyone in the residence, great and small alike—including slaves and maidservants—to feast and drink!

After three rounds of wine, he had invited Daoist priests to perform rites, then personally distributed numerous incense burners. His reason was that he wanted the fragrance to linger throughout the residence, never dispersing from day to day.

A year and a half had passed, yet the incense sticks were handed out more punctually than meals.

"This incense burner was personally distributed by Lin Suri. Naturally, it is something that passed through his hands."

Chen Lingxi's eyes immediately brightened.

Within the Baosu Marquis Residence, the Marquis spent all day in secluded cultivation. Over the past year and a half, neither Chen Lingxi nor Liu Changle had seen their master more than a few times.

The one truly managing the residence now was the eldest young master, Lin Suri.

Steward Zhao had also come from Young Master Lin's southern courtyard.

"Besides being the one who manages the household, Lin Suri is also a Court Commandant's Aide. He oversees patrols, public security, fire bans, and the like in Yuan River Prefecture. If I can see what he sees, perhaps... perhaps I can learn martial arts!"

A sharp gleam flashed through Chen Lingxi's eyes.

Struggling upright, he said to Liu Changle beside him, "Changle, it's too cold in here. Give me that incense burner. The ash should still hold a little warmth."

"It's the dead of winter. The ash has sunk to the bottom; I'm afraid it won't warm up." Though Liu Changle said so, he still handed Chen Lingxi the incense burner from the table.

The burner was icy cold. How could that tiny flame on the incense stick possibly give off any warmth?

But Chen Lingxi did not care. His freezing hands clasped the incense burner.

He closed his eyes as though he had fallen into a deep sleep.

Yet at that moment, his consciousness entered the [Divine Chamber]!

[Sight-Roaming!]

Chen Lingxi within the Divine Chamber held an incense burner as well and silently recited—

"I beseech the Divine Chamber: let me behold Lin Suri's roaming, thereby ride the true course of Heaven and Earth, command the distinctions of the six breaths, and wander without end!"

"Jiawu, Bingyin, Renshen, Gengzi!"

At once!

A curling wisp of smoke rose from the incense burner in Chen Lingxi's hands in reality!

The smoke soared up, slipped through the narrow crack in the window, and flew toward the southern courtyard.

The same happened within the Divine Chamber.

And strangely, Chen Lingxi's perspective within the Divine Chamber changed once more. It detached from [himself], then followed that wisp of smoke into the sky, once again looking down upon the Divine Chamber and the Baosu Marquis Residence.

The smoke flew into the heavens, then began to descend. It entered the southern courtyard and drifted into the eastern hall!

It was now the hour of the Rooster, not long after sunset.

In any other residence, the offspring of a powerful and wealthy family would likely be out seeking pleasure at this hour.

Yet in the inner room of the southern courtyard's eastern hall, the young marquis, Lin Suri, was lying motionless on a warm chair in an exceedingly unusual posture.

"What is he doing?"

Chen Lingxi had no time to think before that wisp of smoke silently sank into Lin Suri's crown!

The void around him twisted again, and Chen Lingxi's perspective changed once more.

It became Lin Suri's perspective!

He saw the splendid inner room, the huanghuali canopy bed not far away, its curtains of silver-red cicada-wing gauze, and a red sandalwood writing desk...

None of that was strange...

What was strange was that Chen Lingxi saw thread after thread of exceedingly faint [qi]... drifting in from all directions before entering his own body!

"What is this?"

"Spiritual qi? Primordial qi? True qi?"

Chen Lingxi immediately regretted not having carefully memorized Lin Suri's posture from before.

With a shift of thought, his perspective changed again, and he was suddenly able to see Lin Suri's full body.

"It's become third-person?"

Greatly astonished, he nevertheless studied Lin Suri's posture closely.

His back arched like a bow. Only his tailbone and the occipital bone at the back of his skull rested against the chair, while his waist and abdomen hung in the air. His limbs dangled loose as willow branches, while his legs curled into an arc—his left heel pressed against his perineum, his right ankle hooked into the bend of his left knee. His entire body was like a bow wound tight, then released.

"This posture is far too difficult."

Chen Lingxi silently watched Lin Suri's body...

In the Sight-Roaming state, his powers of observation had increased enormously.

After a long, long while, he discovered that Lin Suri's breathing also seemed to follow a pattern. His chest and abdomen expanded and contracted rhythmically.

One inhalation, three pauses; one exhalation, five breaks.

Every time Lin Suri inhaled, it was drawn out like silk being reeled, divided into three pauses—first entering through the nose and pausing at the throat; then sinking into the chest and diaphragm, pausing at the stomach; and finally returning to the dantian, seeming to pause three inches below the navel.

Whenever the breath passed a point, that place rose slightly.

The whole process took roughly three times as long as an ordinary breath.

His exhalation was even stranger: a single breath was expelled in five sections.

The first was like a thread, too faint to hear; the second slightly swifter, barely there; the third suddenly became heavy and turbid, as though forcing all the foul qi from his organs; the fourth turned light and gentle, like a spring breeze rippling a pond; the fifth became utterly still, soundless and breathless, leaving behind a lengthy interval between breaths—an empty stretch so long that he seemed to have stopped breathing altogether.

The cycle repeated: inhale three, pause three, exhale five, pause five.

During those pauses, the rise and fall of his chest and abdomen were nearly nonexistent. Only his Adam's apple moved faintly, as though he were swallowing that strange qi mouthful by mouthful into his limbs and bones.

"Could this... be the legendary breathing method?"

Chen Lingxi secretly guessed.

Just then, Lin Suri finally ceased his breathing exercise. His bow-like body returned to normal, and he rose to his feet.

His face emerged from the shadows of the warm chair.

He was extremely fair, not with the pallor of powder and rouge, but like the finest mutton-fat jade steeped in clear water, carrying a chill to it.

His brows resembled distant mountains, their peaks sharp as if cut by a blade, slanting up toward his temples.

The ends of his eyes tipped faintly upward, and his pupils were exceedingly dark, like two ancient wells whose depths could not be seen.

"Lin Suri has grown more mature by the day."

The last time Chen Lingxi had seen Lin Suri was three months ago. The Lin Suri of then had been vastly different from the one today.

Having lived two lives, Chen Lingxi could see that Lin Suri possessed a composure that did not seem to match his age.

Just as he found this strange, a set of footsteps sounded.

Then someone appeared in Lin Suri's field of vision.

It was a woman with an oval face and peach-blossom eyes. Every lift of her brow and glance from her eyes overflowed with charm. Her figure was slender and curvaceous, and she moved with graceful swaying steps.

She was a beauty.

Chen Lingxi naturally recognized her. In fact, no one in the entire residence failed to recognize her.

Wang Chu, the stewardess of the southern courtyard, had also been born an official slave. Yet she had earned the Marquis Residence's favor, and thanks to her exceptional beauty, she was the dreambed companion of countless servants.

"Did Yunhe Commandery Princess come looking for Longyue again today?"

Lin Suri's expression did not change. He seemed utterly uninterested in Wang Chu's astonishing allure.

Wang Chu curtsied. "Same as the previous days. She arrived just as the hour of the Goat began and did not leave until the end of the hour of the Monkey. She and Miss Longyue spent the entire time practicing flower arrangement in the western courtyard garden. Other than that, there was nothing unusual."

Lin Suri nodded lightly.

And Chen Lingxi, seeing what Lin Suri saw, precisely caught two words.

"Flower arrangement?"