"Also, Jiang Xuan could only be considered clever for now. He had likely guessed that I would not stand by and watch him die, which was why he could remain steady now."
"But as the icy power seeped into his heart and soul step by step, as his Spell Power froze and his body was slowly frozen to death, when even the flame of his Soul Spirit was drowned beneath the biting cold and plunged into endless darkness—if he could still remain steady in such a deathly predicament, only then could he be called exceptionally gifted."
As she spoke, Granny Blue raised a hand and summoned a water mirror, which clearly reflected Jiang Xuan's figure at the bottom of the lake.
After nearly half the time it took to brew a cup of tea, her gaze became exceptionally intent.
From her past experience, this should have been the point when Jiang Xuan could no longer hold on. It was also the time that best tested a person's temperament and character.
At this point, even Di Chuan temporarily halted his cultivation and came to stand beside the water mirror, watching the figure sitting cross-legged in the icy water.
Xia He clenched her fists nervously, her heart leaping into her throat.
Then, the three of them held their breath and stared at the water mirror for another half cup of tea's time.
After an entire cup of tea's time had passed, Jiang Xuan's aura had weakened somewhat, yet he did not look as though his foundations had been damaged at all.
He still maintained his cross-legged, sword-grasping posture, as if he had fused into one with the frigid lakewater.
The sight left Xia He, Di Chuan, and Granny Blue all stunned.
"?!!"
Jiang Xuan sat steadily in the bone-piercingly frozen Winter Lake for nearly the time it took an incense stick to burn, leaving Xia He and Di Chuan on the shore dumbfounded.
Subconsciously, Xia He asked Di Chuan, "Senior Brother Di, could it be that the water in Winter Lake isn't that cold? How long did you hold out in there back then?"
"..." Di Chuan's face instantly stiffened at the question. After remaining silent for a long while, he squeezed three words through clenched teeth. "Three minutes."
"..." Xia He blinked awkwardly at that reply. She had never imagined that the gap between the two could be so enormous.
But she quickly thought of something, and her expression abruptly changed. Hurriedly, she said to Granny Blue, "Granny, Junior Brother Jiang hasn't frozen stiff and fallen unconscious, has he? Should we..."
Before she could finish, Granny Blue lightly tapped her forehead. "Don't panic. And besides, this old woman isn't so blind that she can't see that much. There is another reason Jiang Xuan has lasted this long."
As she said this, genuine amazement appeared on Granny Blue's face for the first time. "His Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method has already reached Third Realm: Minor Mastery. He can circulate the Cosmic Cycle on his own. His endlessly replenishing Spell Power is helping him fend off the lake's chill."
"So that's how it is." Learning that Jiang Xuan had not suffered an accident but was using Cosmic Cycle Circulation to resist the cold, Xia He finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But in the next second, her eyes flew wide open.
"Wait, automatic Cosmic Cycle Circulation? Third Realm: Minor Mastery of the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Art?... Hasn't the Daoist Academy been open for less than ten days? How had he already learned it?!"
Granny Blue fell silent in the face of that question.
The Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method was not practiced only by Jiang Xuan. Xia He, Di Chuan, and even Granny Blue herself had cultivated it before.
Precisely because they had practiced it, they understood how difficult it was to raise this technique to the Third Realm.
Making the technique circulate through the Cosmic Cycle on its own was far from something that could be done simply by having sufficient Spell Power and connecting beginning to end. A cultivator's meridians crisscrossed in all directions, a hundred times more complicated than the world's most treacherous river channels. Even with one's full attention guiding it, it was difficult to avoid taking a wrong turn and making mistakes—this was also why many at the Daoist Academy could spend a month without necessarily opening all thirty-six Apertures.
To make the technique circulate automatically, and while unconscious at that, usually required a cultivator to toil bitterly for months, even years.
Yet Jiang Xuan had accomplished this within ten days of the Daoist Academy opening. It was truly shocking.
It could only be said that the Dao Foundation Contract's tailor-made fit was simply too powerful.
To others, the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method was an abstruse technique that needed to be learned. But for Jiang Xuan, due to its perfect compatibility, it was as natural as instinct—like birds being born knowing how to fly and fish being born knowing how to swim.
It was precisely because he possessed this ability that Jiang Xuan had chosen to cultivate the core technique of Four Seasons Valley.
Unaware that Jiang Xuan possessed the Dao Foundation Contract, Granny Blue and the other two were rendered speechless with shock by him.
Yet while the three found it inconceivable, Jiang Xuan's situation beneath the frozen lake was far from good.
Though the Spell Power circulating through the Cosmic Cycle could barely resist the chill, the bone-piercing icy qi still seeped endlessly into his limbs and bones. Even his circulating Spell Power was close to freezing into stagnation.
The reason he had held on until now, aside from the technique's automatic circulation, was entirely because the pure yang power left behind by Senior Brother Wu Shan's pot of Golden Sun Braised Rice was desperately supporting him.
But the power of Golden Sun Braised Rice would eventually disperse, while the chill of Winter Lake was nearly inexhaustible.
When the incense stick burned out, Jiang Xuan finally could not hold on any longer.
His skin had frozen to an iron-blue hue, and the Spell Power throughout his body had completely stagnated. Yet the sinister icy intent continued to surge wildly into him, intent on freezing his five viscera and six bowels, even the flame of his life, completely solid.
The cold had even penetrated his fleshly body and invaded his Divine Soul. At that moment, Jiang Xuan could no longer sense anything outside. Before his eyes remained only boundless darkness and cold, while even his thoughts became stiff and sluggish.
Jiang Xuan in this state was like a weak 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.
And as he neared the brink of desperation, an unfamiliar fear and despair abruptly welled up in Jiang Xuan's heart.
There was great terror between life and death. At this moment, Jiang Xuan experienced that truth in the fullest possible measure.
Yet facing this deathly impasse, Jiang Xuan was not crushed by fear.
Instead, the ultimate desperation and his near-death state completely unleashed his potential.
To save himself, his will condensed to the utmost limit. The talent [Heart? Sincere (Sword)] was triggered beyond its limit, while the active skill of the Clear-Heart Sword Disciple, "Sword of the Mind," suddenly erupted with brilliant radiance beneath his intense will to survive.
His instinct to live caused an unprecedented power to quietly gather within him.
"Bzzzz—!"
"You actually did not reveal the slightest panic from beginning to end, nor did you struggle to escape the lake's surface... I truly don't know whether you were simply too bold, completely unafraid of death, or whether you trusted this old woman."
Naturally, Granny Blue had also noticed that the flame of Jiang Xuan's life was about to go out.
And that made her prepare to intervene.
But just as her Spell Power began to stir—
"Ring!"
A clear sword cry suddenly shot up from beneath the frozen lake. An incomparably sharp Sword Intent erupted fiercely from Jiang Xuan's body!
"Hmm?!"
That Sword Intent forcibly rekindled the dying flame in Jiang Xuan's heart and hacked open a fissure through the cold surrounding his body.
The clear sword cry made Granny Blue freeze where she stood. Beside her, Di Chuan clenched his fists so tightly that his nails sank deep into his palms and blood seeped out, yet he remained wholly unaware.
"One time... He actually succeeded in one try?!"
Thinking of how he himself had entered the lake twelve times before barely comprehending a wisp of Returning-to-Void Annihilation Sword Intent, while Jiang Xuan had succeeded in a single attempt, Di Chuan suffered a severe blow to his mind just like Wu Shan.
But just as he began to doubt his entire life, Granny Blue spoke hesitantly. "No, Jiang Xuan did not break through with the Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword. What he comprehended was not Winter Solstice Sword Intent either."
It could only be said that Granny Blue's eye was truly vicious. With just one glance, she had discerned Jiang Xuan's condition.
And indeed, what he had broken through with was not the Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword.
Moments earlier, Jiang Xuan's limbs had gone stiff. His flesh, skin, and bones had frozen, and even the flame of his Divine Soul was about to extinguish.
At that time, the only part of his entire body that still retained any vitality was his five organs.
Though they were fragile, they had always been situated deepest within his body, shielded by flesh, skin, bones, and Spell Power. This allowed them to barely retain a trace of strength.
At the same time, the terrifying external pressure and ultimate danger caused Jiang Xuan's mind to unite completely as one.
His will to survive was like a sharp blade, splitting apart the shackles of his fleshly body and awakening every bit of potential hidden within him.
Because Jiang Xuan 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 suddenly merged with a thunderous roar, guided by the Sword of the Mind!
It could only be said that between life and death lay great terror, but also great fortune. Ultimate danger allowed Jiang Xuan's One Qi Sword Art to take its most crucial step.
[Warning: The player's body and Soul Spirit have neared their limits. You are on the verge of death.] [ Ding! In a desperate situation, your intense will to survive has completely awakened your own potential. Your willpower has increased substantially!] [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 Achievement)]
"Ring!!"
The clear sword cry shattered the chill around Jiang Xuan. At the instant the Innate One-Qi Sword took form, even Jiang Xuan's dying body glimmered with faint light.
The five organs were the foundation of the human body, the source of life. The Innate One-Qi Sword, tempered and sublimated from the Five-Organ Origin Qi, was both a killing sword that cleaved through ten thousand laws and a life sword that nourished all things.
"Shhk!"
As the Sword Qi turned and suddenly scattered into a warm, rich stream of Innate Spiritual Impetus, it flooded into Jiang Xuan's limbs and bones. The flame of his life, which had contained only a final ember and could go out at any instant, suddenly reignited like withered wood meeting spring, blazing fiercely once more.
Wherever that abundant life force passed, part of the bone-piercing cold lodged within him was forcibly cut apart and driven out of his body.
In the next instant, Jiang Xuan, having just recovered a sliver of strength, moved his will again. A second Innate One-Qi Sword abruptly condensed!
This sword no longer carried vitality. The sharpness forged from his Five-Organ Essence moved with his thoughts, turning into a silver-white streak of lightning that shot skyward from the crown of his head, piercing straight toward the heavens!
"Shhk!"