Low-Key Cultivation, Nalan Yanran's Changes

Ever since imprisoning Nalan Yanran that night, Xiao Yan had begun living a low-key life of cultivation.

Every day, he hid in the Portable Space to cultivate.

Without Medicine Elder absorbing his Dou Qi, his talent returned once more.

Moreover, perhaps due to awakening the wisdom of a past life, his soul perception seemed to have increased by more than double.

Coupled with the fact that the heaven-and-earth energy within the Portable Space was twice as dense as outside, his Dou Qi improved rapidly.

Time flew by, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the Portable Space, Xiao Yan sat cross-legged in a tub of emerald medicinal liquid, his upper body bare as he cultivated.

Suddenly, he opened his closed eyes, and two streaks of white light shot from them. The light persisted for more than a minute before fading away.

Xiao Yan let out a long breath of stale air, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"Finally, Dou Qi Stage Nine."

With a splash, Xiao Yan stood up from the tub, allowing icy droplets to roll down his fair body.

"Pervert!"

At that moment, a delicate cry rang out.

It was Nalan Yanran.

The place where Xiao Yan cultivated was just outside the courtyard where Nalan Yanran was imprisoned.

He lowered his head and glanced at his shorts, soaked through with medicinal liquid and clinging tightly to his body. His impressive manhood was particularly obvious—indeed, rather indecent.

But what decent girl would lie atop a wall and spy on someone else cultivating?

After half a year of imprisonment, Nalan Yanran seemed to have resigned herself to her fate.

At first, she had protested by going on a hunger strike for several days, but later, unable to bear the hunger, she secretly ate again.

However, within the Portable Space, none of her actions could escape Xiao Yan's perception.

Xiao Yan changed clothes right in front of Nalan Yanran, startling the girl into spitting in embarrassment and pulling her flushed face back behind the wall.

No one knew how many times they had gone through such a scene.

As Xiao Yan changed, he said, "Nalan Yanran, the people from the Cloud Mist Sect withdrew from Wutan City over a month ago."

In the courtyard, the girl leaned against the wall, and the expression on her pretty face barely changed.

Almost every so often, Xiao Yan would report to her some intelligence regarding the Cloud Mist Sect's search for her.

At first, she had been full of hope. But as time passed, she went from hope to despair, then from despair to acceptance.

"You're Xiao Yan, aren't you?"

Nalan Yanran asked from the courtyard.

Xiao Yan had never revealed his identity.

"Heh, so you guessed it. Being imprisoned by the man whose engagement you looked down upon—does that make you feel miserable?"

Xiao Yan said with a light laugh, "If you hadn't come to the Xiao Household to break off the engagement back then, I wouldn't have imprisoned you. You brought all this upon yourself, Nalan Yanran."

"Is it wrong for me to want a free marriage? Is it wrong for me to want to choose my own partner?"

Nalan Yanran's voice suddenly rose.

With a flash, Xiao Yan appeared in the courtyard. He stood before Nalan Yanran and stared directly into her eyes.

He sneered. "To get the freedom to choose your marriage, did you have to trade away my dignity and my father's dignity?"

"You had countless ways to break off the engagement, yet you insisted on using the Cloud Mist Sect to pressure the Xiao Household and force me to dissolve it."

"How was that fair to me, or to my father?"

"Just because I was a good-for-nothing and the Xiao Household was weak, we had to accept that injustice?"

"Now I'm stronger than you, so you're imprisoned. That's fair, isn't it?"

Xiao Yan's cold words drained the color from Nalan Yanran's face. She lightly bit her lip and said in a low voice, "But none of that ever happened, did it? Why are you being so fierce?"

Xiao Yan chuckled. "I know you too well, Nalan Yanran. If I hadn't imprisoned you in advance, everything I said would have become reality."

"We've never met since childhood, and we've never lived together. What makes you think you know me?"

Nalan Yanran raised her head defiantly.

Naturally, Xiao Yan would not say that he knew through reading a book.

"Since things have come to this, just live here obediently. Once I have the strength to contend with the Cloud Mist Sect, perhaps I'll let you leave."

Too lazy to explain, he flashed away.

"Actually, if you let me go now, I won't let the Cloud Mist Sect make things difficult for you or the Xiao Household."

In the courtyard, Nalan Yanran twisted the hem of her clothes between her fingers and murmured softly.

Five days later, inside the Portable Space, within Medicine Elder's courtyard.

Watching Xiao Yan successfully condense a Dou Qi vortex and become a Dou Practitioner, Medicine Elder quietly let out a breath.

He had originally planned to refine Qi Gathering Powder for Xiao Yan, but Xiao Yan had refused.

He had thought the little fellow was overestimating himself, but he had not expected to still underestimate the other's soul perception.

Xiao Yan smiled faintly. He had great confidence in his soul perception.

He had first transmigrated to Blue Star, then transmigrated to the Battle Qi Continent, and had even absorbed the soul of that original fellow Earthling.

It could be said that he had lived four lives. His soul perception was four times that of an ordinary person.

Even the slightest improvement in soul perception created an obvious gap, let alone a fourfold increase.

"Teacher, now that I've become a Dou Practitioner, I can cultivate a technique. Bring out that evolving technique you mentioned."

Xiao Yan smiled broadly and held out his hand.

"Have you really thought it through? If you want the Flame Mantra to evolve, you must absorb Heavenly Flames. You've witnessed how tyrannical my Bone Chilling Flame is. Absorbing a Heavenly Flame is extremely dangerous; one mistake could cost you your life."

Medicine Elder said gravely.

Xiao Yan smiled. "You've seen my fire-attribute constitution. I'd be an idiot not to cultivate the Flame Mantra. Besides, I even dared to imprison the young sect mistress of the Cloud Mist Sect. Is there anything I wouldn't dare to do?"

"Your constitution is indeed suited to cultivating the Flame Mantra. Perhaps you truly can master this extraordinary technique."

Medicine Elder was also amazed by Xiao Yan's miraculous constitution. He often sighed that the little fellow was blessed by fortune and truly a heaven-favored prodigy.

Over the past half year, Xiao Yan had often lit great fires and then sat within them to cultivate. This was also one reason he had broken through to Dou Qi Stage Nine so quickly.

By now, Xiao Yan could even approach within half a meter of the Bone Chilling Flame and cultivate by absorbing the fire energy it emitted.

Slightly excited, Medicine Elder took out a black scroll. The technique's obscure description stated that several Heavenly Flames could be combined to forge a body capable of housing a soul. With a new body, he would essentially be reborn.

Given Xiao Yan's talent, his chance at rebirth might truly be possible—and the odds were quite high.

The moment Xiao Yan touched the black scroll, a vast flood of information poured into his mind.

Only after half an hour did Xiao Yan finish digesting the information contained in the Flame Mantra.

He sat cross-legged, intending to transform the ordinary vortex in his dantian into a technique vortex.

The first step was to construct a "Spirit Rune" at the center of the vortex.

Different techniques formed different Spirit Runes, and the Spirit Rune was the core of a technique vortex.

The vortex's efficiency in absorbing and converting Dou Qi, its maximum Dou Qi storage, the quality of its Dou Qi, and the speed at which it released Dou Qi were all determined by the Spirit Rune.

The higher the grade of the technique, the more complex the Spirit Rune it formed, and the more powerful the functions of the technique vortex became.

The Spirit Rune formed by the Flame Mantra was exceptionally ingenious and advanced. It was open-ended, capable of absorbing Heavenly Flames to evolve.

Since the Flame Mantra initially was only a low Yellow-tier technique, its Spirit Rune was quite simple.

In only an hour, Xiao Yan successfully constructed a strange flame-shaped Spirit Rune at the center of his vortex.

The next step was to drive the vortex into rotation. As it spun, the Spirit Rune released wave after wave of strange ripples, transforming the entire vortex.

After another hour or so, a brand-new technique vortex took shape.

Compared with the basic vortex, the technique vortex absorbed and converted heaven-and-earth energy more efficiently, stored more Dou Qi, produced higher-quality Dou Qi, and released Dou Qi from the vortex more quickly.

Within the technique vortex, the milky-white Dou Qi was also transformed into pale yellow Dou Qi and stored at the center of the vortex.

Xiao Yan opened his eyes, and pale yellow light shot from them, taking more than a minute to fade away.

Having become a Dou Practitioner, he could next begin learning Alchemy.