Talent: Nine Breaths Assimilation

The county yamen dungeon was dark and damp.

The air was thick with the stench of decay and despair.

A dim oil lamp swayed with feeble light, barely illuminating the mottled stone walls around it and casting light upon a figure curled up in the corner of the cell.

The figure clutched his head as countless fragments of memory surged into his mind like a tide, gradually revealing his new identity.

"Have I transmigrated?"

After an unknown amount of time, Zhou Qing finally recovered.

The original owner of this body was also named Zhou Qing. Several years ago, his father had met with misfortune while traveling at someone's invitation to make a medical consultation. His mother had also died from overwork and illness half a year ago. That left him alone to run the family's ancestral medical clinic. He would not starve to death, but he eked out a difficult living.

But three days ago, a finely dressed young man and woman had come to seek treatment. After taking the woman's pulse, Zhou Qing diagnosed her as pregnant.

So he prescribed several doses of medicine to calm her nerves and protect the fetus.

Yet unexpectedly, the next day, yamen officers came to his door, claiming that Madam Liu, the concubine of Master Zhou from Zhou Manor, had died suddenly after taking the medicine he prescribed. He was then thrown into prison, tortured into confessing, and sentenced to execution after autumn.

The original owner had ultimately failed to pull through.

"Obviously, the original owner was set up."

Zhou Qing had read countless novels and watched countless dramas. He could tell with his toes that the young man who had accompanied Master Zhou's concubine for treatment was definitely no ordinary person.

Most likely, he was the young master of Zhou Manor.

Young masters from wealthy families having affairs with their fathers' concubines was hardly unusual.

But after the original owner had been thrown into prison, he was not given any chance to explain himself. He was immediately tortured into confessing, made to sign and seal the confession, and sentenced to execution after autumn.

From arrest to conviction, it had taken only half a day.

There had to be money power at work behind this.

"This is practically a hellish start!"

After learning of his current situation, Zhou Qing felt somewhat despairing.

He was now in prison, with only one month until the autumn equinox, when he would be executed. On top of that, he was badly injured. Whether he could even last another month was uncertain.

Without a cheat, how was he supposed to turn around such a hellish start?

There was no one at home and no connections to pull. No one was willing to overturn his case and uncover the truth.

Without strength, escaping prison was impossible as well.

Death was his only path.

"God, since You let me transmigrate into this world, shouldn't You give me a cheat? I can't disgrace the vast army of transmigrators."

Zhou Qing prayed silently.

Whoosh!

At that moment, a panel popped up before Zhou Qing's eyes.

Name: Zhou Qing

Realm: Unranked

Martial Art Mastered: Spring Return Technique / Level 3

Talent: Nine Breaths Assimilation (As long as one breathes and circulates breath for nine breaths, an inexplicable divine power will grant its blessing, automatically refining the power of the Great Dao of heaven and earth into Dao Source. One point of Dao Source can be automatically obtained every day. Each point of Dao Source is equivalent to a year of arduous cultivation.)

Dao Source: 1

"It's here—my golden finger is here!"

Seeing the panel before him, Zhou Qing could no longer control his expression, and wild joy burst across his face.

Nine Breaths Assimilation was one of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits from myth and legend. Every divine power was an innate supernatural ability nurtured by heaven and earth, pointing directly toward the Great Dao.

Nine Breaths Assimilation was, moreover, a supreme divine power for refining qi and cultivating the Dao.

Once mastered, it would operate automatically and become instinct.

Zhou Qing did not need to learn it. Nine Breaths Assimilation had directly become his talent.

What was talent?

Being born already knowing it—that was talent.

With the Nine Breaths Assimilation talent, he could obtain one point of Dao Source every day at midnight, and Dao Source could be used to raise his martial arts realm.

One point of Dao Source could equal a year of arduous cultivation.

The only martial art Zhou Qing currently possessed was the Spring Return Technique.

It was a health-preserving cultivation method. Its main functions were clearing the meridians, strengthening the body, preventing illness, and regulating the five viscera and six bowels. Cultivated to a certain realm, it could prolong one's life, but it possessed little killing power.

Zhou Qing had cultivated alongside his father since childhood, yet he had only brought the Spring Return Technique to the third level. He could regulate his breathing and circulate the qi and blood within his body, but he had not cultivated internal energy.

"Upgrade the Spring Return Technique!"

Zhou Qing had no other choice. He could only use the one point of Dao Source he possessed to improve the sole cultivation method he currently knew.

In an instant.

Zhou Qing felt his consciousness drawn into an abstruse space, where he began cultivating day and night without end.

Within that cultivation space, he never grew tired, never felt hungry, and never developed the negative emotions of growing sick of cultivation.

All of his time was devoted to cultivating the Spring Return Technique.

This was true arduous cultivation.

One year passed.

Zhou Qing meditated every moment, never stopping for even an instant.

After a year of arduous cultivation, your Spring Return Technique has broken through from the third level to the sixth level. You have opened the twelve primary meridians and broken through to the Acquired Realm.

Name: Zhou Qing

Realm: First Level Acquired Realm (Third-rate Martial Artist)

Martial Art Mastered: Spring Return Technique / Level 6 (Traits: Internal energy healing, prolonged life)

Talent: Nine Breaths Assimilation (As long as one breathes and circulates breath for nine breaths, an inexplicable divine power will grant its blessing, automatically refining the power of the Great Dao of heaven and earth into Dao Source. One point of Dao Source can be automatically obtained every day. Each point of Dao Source is equivalent to a year of arduous cultivation.)

Dao Source: 0

A year had passed in the arduous cultivation space, but only an instant had passed in the real world. Zhou Qing came back to his senses with a single blink.

In the blink of an eye.

The Spring Return Technique he cultivated had reached the sixth level. Within his dantian flowed strands of air—that was internal energy.

For a martial artist to break through from the Unranked stage to the Acquired Realm, they needed to open the twelve primary meridians.

Once the twelve primary meridians were opened, the qi and blood could circulate through them, completing a minor heavenly cycle. The qi and blood would then transform into internal energy of a higher quality.

With internal energy empowering them, strength, defense, explosive power, and every other aspect would rise dramatically.

Of course, these were merely the most basic abilities.

Different cultivation methods produced internal energy with different traits.

The Spring Return Technique was a health-preserving art, so it did not significantly enhance strength. However, upon reaching the sixth level and cultivating internal energy, not only could it prolong Zhou Qing's life, he could also circulate internal energy to heal his wounds and accelerate his recovery.

"The Spring Return Technique actually broke through directly from the third level to the sixth."

Zhou Qing could not help but feel secretly astonished.

The original owner had begun cultivating at the age of eight. Now sixteen, he had cultivated for eight years, yet had only brought the Spring Return Technique to the third level.

Moreover, the further one progressed in Internal Art cultivation, the harder breakthroughs became. And no one would devote too much effort to arduously cultivating a health-preserving art.

The original owner's grandfather had cultivated for an entire lifetime, yet only reached the fifth level before his death. He had never completely opened the twelve primary meridians to break through to the Acquired Realm. Yet Zhou Qing had used Dao Source to upgrade the Spring Return Technique and risen three levels in a single thought.

"One point of Dao Source equals a year of arduous cultivation. So it means cultivating every one of the twelve double-hours each day, without stopping for a single moment."

Zhou Qing came to a realization.

The original owner had cultivated for eight years, but when he first started, his mind had been unsettled. Cultivating for half a double-hour a day was already his limit. Even after he became more accomplished, he only meditated for one double-hour each day before he could no longer endure the monotony.

Using Dao Source to improve himself also meant cultivating for a year, but naturally, the gains from endlessly cultivating through all twelve double-hours of every day differed from cultivating only one double-hour a day.