Repeated Deduction

Inside the quiet chamber, sunlight filtered through the wooden lattice window, casting square patches of light across the bluestone floor.

Shen Yuan sat cross-legged on a cushion, his body motionless while his consciousness sank into the vast white Martial Arts Simulation Space.

Within his sea of consciousness, the enormous, dark phantom of the Martial Arts Heavenly Stele floated silently.

Shen Yuan issued a command in his mind. "Using my current physical condition as the foundation, combine it with the optimized Azure Cloud Inner Breath Art and deduce a Meridian Opening Realm breakthrough circulation route suited to damaged innate bones."

[Host status detected: Body Tempering Sixth Layer peak. Numerous minute old cracks in the innate bones; some meridians retain hidden injuries. Deducing a personal Meridian Opening breakthrough method will require extensive trial-and-error calculations. Estimated Martial Dao Point cost: 12 points. Current Martial Dao Points: 35. Confirm initiation of deduction?]

"Confirm."

Bzzzz—

Twelve Martial Dao Points were deducted instantly. Remaining Martial Dao Points: 23.

Within the martial arts void, countless virtual incarnations of Shen Yuan appeared simultaneously.

Each incarnation attempted a different route for circulating blood and qi. Some altered the order in which blood and qi struck the meridians; some divided the explosive force, turning a single violent charge into dozens of gradually escalating minor impacts; others used the blood and qi of the body to nourish the innate bones first before breaking through the meridian barriers.

Thousands upon thousands of plans began undergoing trial and error at once.

Bang!

The first incarnation suffered an imbalance in its blood-and-qi force distribution. The cracks in its innate bones widened, and its simulated body was directly gravely injured and collapsed.

The second incarnation reversed the order of its meridian impacts. Its blood and qi flowed backward, blood poured from its seven orifices, and the deduction failed.

The third, the fourth...

Failed phantoms shattered and vanished one after another.

The deduction process was incomparably brutal.

Every time a body collapsed and shattered in the Martial Arts Simulation Space, part of the pain was faithfully reflected onto Shen Yuan's soul.

Though his physical body remained unharmed in the quiet chamber, Shen Yuan's soul experienced again and again the agonizing pain of torn meridians and shattered innate bones. A layer of fine cold sweat seeped across his forehead, and the veins at his temples throbbed faintly.

"Cough..."

In reality, Shen Yuan gave a muffled cough, and a faint trace of bloody froth spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The backlash from overloading his soul had begun to show.

Yet he did not stop the deduction.

He understood perfectly well that the Azure Cloud Sword Formation was filled with lethal danger. Xiao Wuji still held the authority to adjust the sword formation. If Shen Yuan entered the test with only Body Tempering cultivation, then should Xiao Wuji secretly amplify the sword formation's power, Shen Yuan could very well die within it with nothing but his flesh and blood to rely on.

The Meridian Opening Realm was not some empty pursuit of status. It was a safeguard for survival.

"Continue the deduction. Eliminate every route that could cause permanent damage to my innate bones. Prioritize the safety of the innate bones before seeking to break through the meridian barriers." Shen Yuan gave the Heavenly Stele additional conditions within his sea of consciousness.

After receiving the new restrictions, the Heavenly Stele re-sorted its immense number of deduction branches. A large number of routes that produced quick results but would leave permanent hidden injuries were directly discarded, leaving only plans focused on steady progress.

Time flowed differently within the Martial Arts Simulation Space than it did in reality.

Only two days and nights passed outside, yet dozens of days and nights of repeated trials had already passed within the Martial Arts Simulation Space.

One increasingly viable circulation route after another was iterated into existence.

Several plans could already strike the meridians without directly shattering the innate bones, but a new problem emerged: the breakthrough period was too long.

[Plan A: Can safely break through to the Meridian Opening Realm. Full deduction and execution requires forty-two days of seclusion for the physical body in reality.]

[Plan B: Extremely safe. Requires thirty-three days.]

But Shen Yuan only had eighteen days left.

Shen Yuan furrowed his brow tightly.

The safe plans were too slow; the fast ones carried an enormous risk of damaging his innate bones once again.

The dilemma lay before him.

"Can you find a compromise route that reduces the breakthrough period to within fifteen days while bringing the risk of innate bone damage down to a tolerable level?" Shen Yuan continued questioning the Heavenly Stele.

[Recalculating...]

Countless phantoms began moving once more.

Another batch of plans was generated, tested, and eliminated.

More than half a day passed in reality.

At last, the Heavenly Stele revealed a new deduction result.

[A compromise breakthrough plan has been deduced. It consists of three stages: first, use spiritual medicine to nourish the cracks in the innate bones; second, strike the eight primary meridians through segmented vibrations; third, circulate true qi back to nourish the innate bones.]

[Estimated real-world execution time: thirteen days. Risk warning: if the spiritual medicine's potency is insufficient and the nourishment is inadequate, there remains a thirty percent chance that old innate bone injuries will recur during execution.]

Thirteen days!

That was just enough time to make the Inner Sect Test. But the prerequisite was having the corresponding spiritual medicines as a foundation—the Meridian-Coagulating Flower and Scarlet Blood Vine that Wang Dong had gone down the mountain to find. Without the medicinal power of those herbs laying the groundwork, the risk of this deduced route would soar directly above seventy percent, practically equivalent to gambling with his life.

The spiritual medicines are the key, Shen Yuan thought.

He had obtained the deduced route, but the herbs were still nowhere to be found. Wang Dong had been out for two days already and had yet to return.

After withdrawing from the Martial Arts Simulation Space, Shen Yuan slowly opened his eyes. His soul had endured countless simulated torments, leaving his head dizzy and swollen with pain. He circulated the optimized Azure Cloud Inner Breath Art and slowly breathed in and out, drawing in the spiritual qi of heaven and earth to nourish his exhausted soul.

Just then, urgent knocking sounded from outside the courtyard gate.

"Shen Yuan! Shen Yuan, open the door!"

It was Wang Dong's voice, hurried and breathless.

Shen Yuan rose to his feet and quickly went to pull open the courtyard gate.

Wang Dong stood there covered in dust, with several tears in his clothes and a trace of bedraggled exhaustion on his face. He clutched a cloth bundle tightly against his chest. Yet his face held no joy at success, only deep anxiety.

"What happened? Did something go wrong?" Seeing him like this, Shen Yuan's heart sank slightly.

Wang Dong rushed into the courtyard, shut the gate behind him, and spread open the cloth bundle. Inside lay only a small, ordinary-quality Scarlet Blood Vine. There was no sign at all of a Meridian-Coagulating Flower.

"I spent two days running around the market at the foot of the mountain." Wang Dong panted heavily and wiped the dust from his face. "I finally managed to trade for the Scarlet Blood Vine. But Meridian-Coagulating Flowers have practically vanished from the entire market. I only learned later that, over the past two or three days, Inner Sect disciples have been buying up the Meridian-Coagulating Flowers circulating on the market in bulk. They cleared out all the market's stock."

Shen Yuan's gaze turned cold. "Xiao Wuji."

There could be no one else.

Xiao Wuji knew Shen Yuan was preparing to break through to the Meridian Opening Realm for the Inner Sect Test, so he had acted in advance and bought up every Meridian-Coagulating Flower, cutting off Shen Yuan's source of breakthrough resources. He could not openly make a move against Shen Yuan, so he obstructed him at every turn through resources instead.

Wang Dong let out a heavy sigh. "That's right. A clerk from one of the market shops secretly told me that people under Inner Sect member Xiao Wuji had come forward to make the purchases. Even if we were willing to pay double the spirit stones, we still can't buy a Meridian-Coagulating Flower now. Without one, the risk of the breakthrough method you deduced will skyrocket."

The atmosphere in the small courtyard instantly turned grave.

The deduced breakthrough route lay before them, but its most vital spiritual medicine had been deliberately cut off by their opponent.