Uncle Chen Clears the Air, the Broken Sword's Origins

"You don't need to be so nervous, child." There was no hostility in Uncle Chen's cloudy eyes, only the kindness of an elder looking upon a junior. "Since I recognized it, I won't have any ill intentions toward it."

As he spoke, he laboriously pulled a small package tightly wrapped in oil paper from his clothes.

Uncle Chen carefully unfolded the oil paper, revealing an old photograph that had yellowed with age.

He handed the photograph to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan took it, and the two people in the photo made his mind buzz.

One of them was a young man dressed in plain work clothes, smiling brightly. It was Uncle Chen from decades ago.

Beside Uncle Chen stood a tall, upright man with a resolute face.

That man had eyebrows and facial contours strikingly similar to Jiang Yuan's. In his hand, he held a flawless longsword, its blade burning with dark crimson fire patterns.

That was the Thunderfire Sword in its complete form.

"Is this... my father?" Jiang Yuan asked in confusion.

"That's right. He was Jiang Xiaotian, your father." Uncle Chen sighed and leaned against the wall beside him as though he had exhausted all his strength. "This Thunderfire Sword is a treasured heirloom passed down through your Jiang Family for generations."

After a pause, he continued, "Back then, your father discovered that a mysterious force was tracking him in secret. To protect you, he could only choose to leave. He gave the broken sword to me, telling me to seal it away and hide my identity here at Treasure Gathering Studio. That day, when I acted greedy, it was all an act."

"Trackers? Who were they?" Jiang Yuan immediately pressed for answers. This was the first time he had heard a specific reason for his father's disappearance.

"I don't know." Uncle Chen shook his head, his face full of helplessness. "Your father didn't say. He only told me that force was incredibly powerful, so powerful that even he wasn't confident he could handle them. The last clue he left behind was that he was going to 'New Star.'"

Uncle Chen's expression turned exceptionally grave. "Child, remember what I say. Until you possess absolute strength, never casually reveal this sword's true form. Just treat it as the scrap metal I tricked you into buying back then."

Jiang Yuan silently put away the photograph. To him, it was more important than any monetary reward.

"You can't take on Celestial Pivot Industries by yourself." Uncle Chen shook his head. "They're a massive interest group with deep roots in Jiang Hai City. If you go to the Third Machinery Factory now, you'll only fall into an even deeper trap they set."

He pointed Jiang Yuan toward another path.

"Go find the Shen Family. They have the ability to help you resolve this trouble. I've already spoken with Uncle Zhou. They should be waiting for you at the Extreme Martial Arts Hall now."

Half an hour later, inside the Grade A training hall of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall.

Jiang Yuan strode in with the wooden box on his back.

The hall was brightly lit. Shen Liuli and Uncle Zhou had already been waiting for quite some time.

Today, Shen Liuli had changed out of her combat gear and into a tailored women's business suit. Black stockings wrapped around her long, straight legs, making her seem less like an inexperienced young woman and more like a capable professional.

When she saw Jiang Yuan, a strange light flickered in her beautiful eyes.

"Jiang Yuan, you're here." Uncle Zhou spoke first, his attitude far more courteous than before. "Uncle Chen has already told us everything."

He pointed to a virtual projection device beside him.

"Our Shen Family wants to make a real deal with you."

With Uncle Zhou's operation, a complex diagram of the human meridian system was projected into the air. One particular route of energy circulation was marked in bright red, but the path was visibly broken and disordered in the middle.

"This is the energy circulation diagram for an A+-grade martial art preserved by our Shen Family, the Azure Sea Force." Uncle Zhou explained. "This technique is immensely powerful, but the version passed down is incomplete. When the force reaches this point, it clashes. At best, it damages the meridians; at worst, it causes immediate paralysis. We've studied it for more than ten years and have never been able to complete it."

Uncle Zhou turned to Jiang Yuan, anticipation in his eyes.

"The Spiral Hidden Force you used to cripple Song Xi's prosthetic body in the arena may help us reconstruct the correct energy circulation route through its principles of force application."

Jiang Yuan looked at the complex meridian diagram, and the cultivation principles of the Profound Heaven · Shattering Bone Hand instantly flashed through his mind.

He understood. They had their eyes on the force techniques of his ancient martial art.

"What do I get for helping you?" Jiang Yuan asked bluntly. He had never done good deeds for nothing.

"What you get is that, from this moment onward, Chu He and Celestial Pivot Industries will no longer have any chance to cause you trouble."

This time, it was Shen Liuli who spoke.

She walked up to Jiang Yuan, and a faint fragrance drifted into his nostrils.

"As long as you're willing to assist us in repairing this technique, the Shen Family will mobilize all its resources to comprehensively suppress Celestial Pivot Industries' business in Jiang Hai City. As for Chu He, we'll make him pay for what he did and ensure that he can never appear before you again."

She paused, then offered an even more tempting condition.

"Besides that, we'll immediately arrange your special admission into New Star Martial University. All resource allocations will be provided according to the standards for S-grade core students. You won't need to wait for the selection competition. You can report directly to XX City next week."

The terms were extremely generous.

Not only would they completely solve the threat posed by Chu He, but they would also directly pave the way for his future in martial arts.

"Fine." Jiang Yuan agreed on the spot with almost no hesitation.

He needed a stable environment to improve his strength and investigate his father's whereabouts. The Shen Family's offer happened to satisfy all his needs.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Shen Liuli extended her slender hand, a charming smile appearing on her face.

Jiang Yuan reached out and gave her hand a light shake. Her skin was warm and smooth.

He could feel that Shen Liuli's palm was slightly damp and hot, and her body temperature was a little higher than normal.

Seeing the two reach an agreement, Uncle Zhou let out a long breath of relief, a gratified smile appearing on his face.

"Time is of the essence. Shall we begin now?" Uncle Zhou was somewhat impatient.

"Not yet." Shen Liuli interrupted him. She released Jiang Yuan's hand and brushed back the hair by her ear. "Jiang Yuan has gone through several intense battles today and expended a great deal of energy. Besides, deducing a cultivation technique isn't something that can be done overnight. Uncle Zhou, prepare the best guest room for him to rest in first."

Uncle Zhou was stunned for a moment, but he still nodded and turned to leave the training hall.

Only Jiang Yuan and Shen Liuli remained in the vast training hall.

The atmosphere became somewhat subtle.

Shen Liuli looked at Jiang Yuan's sharply defined face, and the image of him dismantling a prosthetic body barehanded in the arena before forcefully pinning Song Xi beneath him surfaced uncontrollably in her mind.

That extreme violence and powerful masculine presence made her heartbeat quicken involuntarily.

Especially since Jiang Yuan cultivated the Nine Yang Divine Skill. Its supremely yang and unyielding aura held a fatal attraction for a woman like her, who had cultivated yin-cold techniques since childhood.

She felt an inexplicable heat rising from deep within her body. The instinctive urge to be thoroughly penetrated and filled by that masculine energy made her cheeks burn.

"I... I worked up a sweat training today too. I was just about to take a bath and relax." Shen Liuli's voice carried a barely noticeable hint of seductiveness. Her gaze darted away, and she did not dare look directly at Jiang Yuan.

She walked to the resting area of the training hall and picked up her towel and a change of clothes.

When she reached the door, she suddenly stopped and turned around as though she had remembered something.

"Oh, right. I have an idea about the energy circulation route of the Azure Sea Force. They say that when the body is enveloped by flowing water, it enters its most relaxed state, and its sensitivity to force becomes sharper as well."

She bit her lip, her large watery eyes fixed directly on Jiang Yuan as she made an invitation that left much to the imagination.

"Could you... come outside the bathroom door later? I want to discuss the specific sensations of circulating energy underwater with you through the door."

The implication in her words could not have been more obvious.

Jiang Yuan looked at her bold yet shy appearance and found it a little amusing.

It seemed that the method he had used last night—watching videos to temper his state of mind—would come in handy today.

"All right." Jiang Yuan nodded, agreeing without hesitation.