The Birth of a Genius

Looking at Lin Shuiyao as she bent down to question him, Xiao Yan gave a silly chuckle. This was a huge secret.

Lin Shuiyao did not press him for answers. She reached out and picked Xiao Yan up. "You spent half the day in your grandfather's room, and now you're drenched in sweat from playing. You need a proper wash."

Only then did Xiao Yan realize that this was why Lin Shuiyao had come.

Before long, a large steaming bath barrel had been placed in the room.

After settling Xiao Yan in, Lin Shuiyao removed her own dress and entered the tub in a halter embroidered with begonia flowers.

Soaking in the hot water, the exhaustion Xiao Yan had felt from nourishing Xiao Xun'er's meridians gradually faded away.

After resting for a while, Xiao Yan's dark eyes shifted slightly as he suddenly recalled one of the Medicine Spirit Sacred Body's greatest effects—

Not only could it prolong one's life, but prolonged contact could also improve one's cultivation talent. Even someone of mediocre aptitude could become a rare genius.

Though they were family, Xiao Yan found it difficult to deceive himself. Given his parents' cultivation aptitude, it would be hard for them to stand beside his grandfather in the future.

If the Medicine Spirit Sacred Body's effects were real, it was practically a humanoid super Primordial Origin Pill, capable of nurturing vast numbers of cultivation geniuses.

Xiao Yan did not know whether its life-extending effect could treat Lin Shuiyao's strange illness, but if it could raise her strength, it would certainly bring her considerable benefits.

Just like Medicine Elder—although he had lost his body, he still possessed a soul, and could even find a way to revive in the end.

On the Dou Qi Continent, even if one truly suffered from some incurable bodily illness, as long as one was strong enough, one could simply replace the body entirely.

Slowly lifting his head from Lin Shuiyao's embrace, Xiao Yan nimbly slipped free of her hands and easily moved behind her.

Looking at the rosy, lustrous skin beneath the mist, Xiao Yan recalled the technique he had used to nourish Xiao Xun'er's meridians. He mobilized his Dou Qi and reached forward with both hands.

Unexpectedly, Lin Shuiyao suddenly turned around, and Xiao Yan grabbed on tightly.

"There's nothing left for you to eat now." Lin Shuiyao's lovely face flushed as she raised a hand to stroke Xiao Yan's head.

What surprised Lin Shuiyao was that Xiao Yan seemed to possess an indescribable delicacy today.

At Lin Shuiyao's words, Xiao Yan's childish little face reddened, and his small hand moved from muscle memory.

After playing around for quite some time, Xiao Yan dried himself off. Having barely rested all day, he fell asleep as soon as he lay down on the bed.

Having changed into a loose sleeping robe, Lin Shuiyao sat nearby, rubbing dry her waist-length hair.

Perhaps she had been too tired these past two days, but after bathing today, Lin Shuiyao felt unusually light all over.

After tidying her hair, Lin Shuiyao sat cross-legged on a cushion nearby and assumed a cultivation posture.

Because she had been pregnant and caring for a child, she had fallen behind by quite a bit. Now, she had to work even harder.

Not long after Lin Shuiyao entered her cultivation state, she soon noticed a difference as she continuously circulated her cultivation technique.

Today, absorbing and refining the energy of heaven and earth was exceptionally smooth!

Lin Shuiyao cultivated a Low Xuan Tier water-attributed technique, slightly inferior to the Xiao Clan's highest-ranking Middle Profound Tier technique.

Although its cultivation speed was not slow, it had no particularly special effects.

Lin Shuiyao's delicate brows furrowed slightly. As she looked within herself, she made a startling discovery.

Today, as her gentle water-attributed Dou Qi circulated through her meridians, it emitted a peculiar warm vitality that passed through the meridians and affected her bones, flesh, blood, and skin.

Lin Shuiyao felt every pore of her body opening involuntarily, as though her body were undergoing some kind of transformation.

Am I about to break through? Lin Shuiyao guessed.

She was only one step away from breaking through to become a Four-Star Dou Shi, yet she had never known when she would cross that threshold.

It seemed that day was today!

Her willow-leaf brows relaxed as Lin Shuiyao began cultivating in peace, continuously devouring the gathered energy of heaven and earth around her. Refined by her cultivation technique, it transformed into Dou Qi.

In the end, it was compressed within her Dou Qi Whirl into drops of concentrated liquid.

As Lin Shuiyao focused on cultivating, she failed to notice that the entire room was gradually being enveloped by a faint, elegant fragrance.

As the amount of liquid within her Dou Qi Whirl increased, Lin Shuiyao broke through with remarkable ease.

Four-Star Dou Shi!

Her phoenix-like eyes slowly opened, and Lin Shuiyao was exceptionally excited. Since she had begun cultivating, she had never broken through so easily.

After waking from his sleep, Xiao Yan looked at the bright and captivating Lin Shuiyao. With his extraordinary soul perception, he instantly discovered that her strength had improved significantly.

She broke through...

Xiao Yan knew that Lin Shuiyao had been stuck at the Three-Star Dou Shi level for quite some time, but at her cultivation speed, she should have needed at least another month to reach Four-Star Dou Shi.

In the simulation, Lin Shuiyao had only broken through to Four-Star Dou Shi after more than a month, and only with considerable effort.

But now, she had broken through without seeming to exert much effort.

Was it because of the Medicine Spirit Sacred Body? Xiao Yan was rather shocked. After all, he had possessed the Medicine Spirit Sacred Body and spent less than a day with Lin Shuiyao.

Could it be because the Dou Shi realm is too low, making the effect appear especially outstanding? Xiao Yan guessed in confusion.

Unable to determine the answer, Xiao Yan decided to observe and investigate more carefully in the future.

Over the following days, because Xiao Lin needed to recover from his injuries, Xiao Yan studied under Lin Shuiyao in the mornings, cultivated in Xiao Lin's room in the afternoons, and nourished Xiao Xun'er's meridians at night.

Though he was in a special world, studying was unavoidable.

Of course, this was not the language arts, mathematics, and other subjects required in modern times. Instead, he needed to learn common knowledge related to cultivation.

In the Jia Ma Empire, where basic education had not spread, people of different backgrounds learned and mastered such knowledge in different ways.

Xiao Yan was relatively fortunate to have been born into a reasonably good family, where he received guidance from figures ordinary people could scarcely imagine.

A Four-Star Dou Shi was far stronger than Mu She of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group, who lorded over Qingshan Town.

After some time, Xiao Yan managed to obtain some medicinal herb seeds, and only then did the course of his life begin to change.

Although he had not known them for very long, Xiao Yan had already noticed obvious changes in the three people he interacted with most: Lin Shuiyao, Xiao Lin, and Xiao Xun'er.

With his simulated experiences as a reference, Xiao Yan's extraordinary soul perception allowed him to easily discover that Lin Shuiyao's cultivation speed was continuously increasing.

Since her cultivation technique had not changed, such changes were undoubtedly related to an improvement in her cultivation aptitude, and that was the effect of the Medicine Spirit Sacred Body.

Xiao Lin's change was the easiest to see. Compared to his simulated life, his injuries were healing much faster.

However, the extent to which he could recover in the future still needed to be observed slowly.

As Xiao Xun'er was continuously nourished, her growth rate also increased considerably. If this nourishment continued, she would certainly be able to begin cultivating earlier.