One Qi Sword Art, Advancement! Innate One-Qi Sword!

Jiang Xuan sat steadily in the bone-piercing, frozen Winter Lake for nearly the time it took an incense stick to burn. Xia He and Di Chuan, standing on the shore, were both stunned.

Instinctively, Xia He turned to Di Chuan and asked, "Senior Brother Di, could it be that the water in Winter Lake isn't that cold? How long did you last in there back then?"

"..." Di Chuan's face instantly stiffened at the question. After a long silence, he squeezed out three words through clenched teeth: "Three minutes."

"..." Xia He blinked awkwardly at that answer. She had never imagined the gap between the two could be so vast.

But soon, she thought of something. Her expression changed, and she hurriedly said to Granny Blue, "Granny, Junior Brother Jiang Xuan hasn't frozen stiff and passed out, has he? Should we..."

Before she could finish, Granny Blue lightly tapped her forehead. "Don't panic. Besides, this old woman isn't so blind with age that I can't tell. There's another reason Jiang Xuan can endure for so long."

At this point, genuine amazement appeared on Granny Blue's face for the first time. "His Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method has already reached minor mastery of the third realm, allowing him to circulate through a Cosmic Cycle on his own. His endlessly flowing spiritual power is warding off the lake's chill for him."

"So that's it." Learning that Jiang Xuan had not met with an accident but was using Cosmic Cycle Circulation to withstand the cold, Xia He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But the next second, her eyes flew wide open.

"Wait, automatic Cosmic Cycle Circulation? Minor mastery of the third realm of the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Art?... Didn't the Dao Academy open less than ten days ago? How did he already learn it?!"

Granny Blue fell silent in the face of that question as well.

The Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method was not cultivated only by Jiang Xuan. Xia He, Di Chuan, and even Granny Blue herself had cultivated it before.

But precisely because they had practiced it, they understood how difficult it was to raise this cultivation method to the third realm.

Making a cultivation method circulate through a Cosmic Cycle automatically was not something that could be achieved merely by having sufficient spiritual power and connecting beginning to end. A cultivator's meridians crisscrossed throughout the body, a hundred times more complex than the most treacherous river channels in the world. Even under full concentration and careful guidance, one could hardly avoid taking a wrong turn or making a mistake—this was why many in the Dao Academy might spend an entire month and still fail to open all thirty-six acupoints.

To make the cultivation method circulate automatically, and while unconscious at that, often required months or even years of bitter effort from a cultivator.

Yet Jiang Xuan had accomplished it within ten days of the Dao Academy's opening. That was truly shocking.

All one could say was that the Dao Foundation Contract, tailored precisely to him, was simply too powerful.

To others, the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method was an advanced technique that needed to be learned. But for Jiang Xuan, because it matched him perfectly, it was as natural as instinct—like birds being born able to fly and fish being born skilled at swimming.

It was precisely because he possessed such ability that Jiang Xuan had chosen to cultivate Four Seasons Valley's core cultivation method.

Unaware that Jiang Xuan possessed the Dao Foundation Contract, Granny Blue and the other two were left speechless in shock.

Yet while the three found it inconceivable, Jiang Xuan's condition beneath the frozen lake could not be called good.

Though the spiritual power circulating through his Cosmic Cycle could barely fend off the chill, that bone-piercing icy aura still seeped endlessly into his limbs and bones. Even his circulating spiritual power was nearly frozen into stagnation.

The reason he had endured until now, apart from his cultivation method automatically circulating, was entirely because the pure yang power left behind by Senior Brother Wu Shan's pot of Golden Sun Braised Rice was barely holding him up.

But the power of Golden Sun Braised Rice would eventually dissipate, while the chill of Winter Lake was nearly endless.

When the incense stick finally burned out, Jiang Xuan could no longer hold on.

His skin had frozen iron-blue, and the spiritual power throughout his body had completely stagnated. Yet the bitter cold still surged wildly into him, seeking to freeze his five organs and six bowels, even the flame of his life, completely solid.

The cold had even penetrated his flesh and invaded his soul. At this moment, Jiang Xuan could no longer sense anything outside. Before his eyes remained only boundless darkness and cold; even his thoughts had become rigid and sluggish.

Jiang Xuan in this state was like a faint candle flame beneath a blizzard, liable to be extinguished completely at any moment.

His hands and feet had long since frozen beyond his control. He did not even have the strength to struggle to the surface.

The shadow of death pressed heavily upon his heart like an iceberg.

At the brink of death, an unknown terror and despair suddenly surged within Jiang Xuan.

There was great terror between life and death. Jiang Xuan experienced that truth with utter clarity at this moment.

Yet faced with this dead-end realm of death, Jiang Xuan was not crushed by fear.

Instead, the ultimate desperation and his near-death state thoroughly forced out all his potential.

To save himself, his will condensed to the utmost limit. The talent of Heart: Sincerity was triggered beyond its limits, while the Clear-Heart Sword Disciple's active skill, "Sword of the Mind," abruptly burst forth with dazzling radiance under his fierce desire to survive.

The instinct to live caused an unprecedented power to quietly gather within his body.

"Buzz—!"

"You never revealed even a trace of panic from beginning to end, nor did you struggle to escape the lake... I truly don't know whether you were simply too bold, not afraid of death at all, or trusted this old woman."

Granny Blue had naturally noticed that the flame of Jiang Xuan's life was about to go out.

And because of that, she was preparing to act.

But just as her spiritual power began to surge—

"Ring!"

A clear sword cry suddenly shot into the heavens from beneath the frozen lake. An incomparably sharp sword intent erupted violently from within Jiang Xuan's body!

"Hmm?!"

That sword intent forcefully reignited the fading flame in Jiang Xuan's heart, hacking open a crack through the cold surrounding his body.

That clear sword cry made Granny Blue freeze on the spot. Di Chuan, beside her, clenched his fists tightly. Even as his nails dug deep into his palms and blood seeped out, he felt nothing.

"One time... He actually succeeded in one try?!"

Thinking of how he had entered the lake twelve full times before barely comprehending a wisp of Returning-to-Void Annihilation Sword Intent, while Jiang Xuan had succeeded in only one attempt, Di Chuan suffered the same devastating blow to his heart as Wu Shan.

But just as he was beginning to doubt his life, Granny Blue spoke hesitantly. "No, that's not right. What Jiang Xuan broke through was not the Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword, and what he comprehended was not Winter Solstice Sword Intent."

Granny Blue's eye for detail truly was vicious. With just one glance, she had noticed Jiang Xuan's situation.

What he had broken through was indeed not the Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword.

Just then, Jiang Xuan's limbs had already stiffened. His flesh, skin, and bones had frozen solid, and even the flame of his soul was about to be extinguished.

At that time, the only part of his entire body that retained a trace of vitality was his five organs.

Though fragile, they were located deepest within his body and had been protected by his flesh, skin, bones, and spiritual power, allowing them to barely retain some strength.

At the same time, the terrifying external pressure and extreme danger had caused Jiang Xuan's mind and spirit to become completely unified.

His will to survive was like a sharp blade, cleaving apart the shackles of his physical body and awakening all the potential hidden within him.

Because Jiang Xuan had cultivated the One Qi Sword Art, he had long since nurtured their respective Origin Qi within his five organs.

Now, under the threat of death, the five qi that had always been unable to fuse together used the Sword of the Mind as a guide and crashed together into one!

There was great terror between life and death, but also great fortune. This extreme danger allowed Jiang Xuan's One Qi Sword Art to take its most crucial step forward.

[Warning: The player's body and soul have reached their limits. You are on the verge of death.]

[ Ding! In this desperate situation, your fierce will to survive has completely activated your own potential. Your willpower has greatly increased!]

[Using the Sword of the Mind as a guide, you forcibly unified the Five-Organ Origin Qi. Your One Qi Sword has transformed into—Innate One-Qi Sword!]

[Your "One Qi Sword Art" has advanced. Current level: Third Realm · Proficient (Minor Mastery)]