Mysterious Person?

Tie Ta followed Tong Qiang and the others in training, while Gao Ren went to the pharmacy. The first thing Ren Jie did himself was activate the third layer of the Jade Emperor Art Body Refining Chapter, setting the six Qi Strength Chains formed from the 144 Qi Strength Rings within his body into motion.

Though he had long been prepared, the sensation of tenfold—or even greater—gravity suddenly pressing down upon every inch of his body, every single cell, was not something an ordinary person could endure.

Ren Jie then frantically circulated the Jade Emperor Art Body Refining Chapter. His body gradually strengthened through movement and slowly adapted. It took an entire night before he felt even slightly better. The next day, Ren Jie began meeting the Guard Squad members besides Tong Qiang.

The first person he met was called Di Shu, a squad leader under Tong Qiang, the captain of the Guard Squad. Though this Di Shu was not as fat as Gao Ren, he was hardly thin either. Ren Jie's first thought upon seeing him was, How did someone built like this fit into that suit of armor? Beneath that armor, the group all looked equally imposing and mighty, but Di Shu was less than 1.6 meters tall.

Since Ren Jie had never seen these people without their armor before, nor had he ever visited where they lived, he was practically getting to know all of them anew.

Di Shu dragged his exhausted body inside. The moment he entered, he thought he had gone to the wrong place. Was this for real? They had been training like mad, and Ren Jie had gone into his room afterward—but why did Ren Jie look even more exhausted than they were? At this moment, even the slightest movement while sitting there seemed incomparably burdensome. What had happened?

Just as Ren Jie was looking him up and down, Di Shu acted before Ren Jie could ask. The fat on his body actually began to shift, his bones stretched, and his body rapidly grew much taller. The fat all over him condensed into bulging muscles, and even his appearance changed.

Yet as he circulated his cultivation art and transformed, there were no secrets left in Ren Jie's eyes, even though Di Shu was currently at the True Qi Realm Eighth Layer.

"The cultivation art you practice is quite special. In the future, you should even be able to shift the positions of your internal organs, but it is probably incomplete. A few parts seem to be wrong. Do you often feel your heart race and your blood vessels swell with pain? Even in winter, do you need to consume ice cold items to suppress it?"

"Ah..." Di Shu froze for a moment, then reacted. "The captain must have told the Family Head, right?"

This issue had only emerged in the last few years. Not even the teammates around him knew about it. Only once, when an episode had become severe, had Tong Qiang discovered it and helped him suppress it.

"When you cultivate in the future, several parts need to be changed, especially the circulation through a few meridians. It should go like this..." Ren Jie seemed to exist in a different world from everyone else at that moment. It was as if his body were being crushed inside a gravity chamber. He slowly picked up a brush and slowly began writing things down for Di Shu. For now, he merely altered several of Di Shu's cultivation routes and added some targeted training methods.

This would need to be done gradually. Ren Jie believed that this change alone would be enough to give Di Shu a chance to break through into the Divine Power Realm. As for what came afterward, he would have to address that later.

It was fewer than a hundred words, yet after Ren Jie finished writing, he looked as if he had been drained dry. Sweat had soaked through his clothes, and his complexion became even worse. Once he was done, he did not even want to speak. He pointed at the paper for Di Shu to take away, then drank some High Grade Potion Gao Ren had prepared earlier to restore his body and replenish his strength. Only after recovering for half an hour did he call in the next person.

Xiao Niao was another squad leader under Tong Qiang. He was thin and small like a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy—one who had gone without food for ages, malnourished and little more than skin and bones. The sight of him evoked pity. The Guard Squad contained people of every shape and kind. When they wore armor, they all appeared equally valiant and robust, but without it, they were entirely different.

This time, Ren Jie did not ask anything. He directly told Xiao Niao to circulate his cultivation art. Xiao Niao did so without concealing anything, and Ren Jie noticed something wrong after only one look...

"This isn't a cultivation art meant for humans?"

The moment Xiao Niao heard those words, his expression changed. He never imagined Ren Jie would see through it. Even when he had followed Ren Tianxing, Ren Tianxing had not discovered the issue...

When he was young, Xiao Niao had been raised by a group of Avian Type Demon Beasts. Later, someone captured him together with those demon beasts. In the end, Ren Tianxing rescued him during a battle. Since the demon beast that had grown up alongside him had become his spirit beast—or rather, his family, a part of him—the Guard Squad had given him this nickname. Yet no one knew the specifics, and no one had ever understood the matter of his cultivation art.

How did he know? Xiao Niao had been in the Guard Squad for over a decade and was usually exceptionally cheerful. From Ren Jie's speech yesterday and his exchanges with Di Shu and the others, Xiao Niao had already understood something of him. But now, he had no idea what to say. He simply stood there in a daze.

His mind was completely blank...

"Your situation is rather troublesome. Originally, you should have cultivated entirely by instinct. The demon beast that taught you must have been unusual as well. Ordinary people cannot learn demon beast cultivation methods at all. But if you keep cultivating like this, you definitely will not last three years. You should already be struggling to hold on. How about this: from now on, add three Low Grade Body Refining Spirit Pills to your monthly allotment to strengthen your body. At the same time, do not deliberately suppress yourself. From now on, your appetite and the resources you need should exceed everyone else's. Start with three times as much, and we'll see afterward."

"You cannot turn this cultivation art around now. You can only continue down this path. But your ultimate goal must be to break through into the Divine Power Realm. Otherwise, if you want to survive, you can only demonize yourself. This cultivation art requires a body and meridians like surging rivers, while a human's body and meridians are like little streams in the early stages. So no matter how diligently you cultivate, you cannot fill them. I've altered it slightly for you first. This way, you should be able to break through into the Divine Power Realm very soon. We'll discuss the rest later. This is not a bad thing for you. All right, have the others come in after half an hour." As Ren Jie spoke, his brush continued writing. After finishing, he wiped away his sweat and pointed for Xiao Niao to take the sheet.

"Oh... oh!" Xiao Niao had not said a single word from beginning to end. At last, he nodded repeatedly and walked out in a daze with the page Ren Jie had written.

Even after leaving, he remained muddled. This was a secret only he knew—yet Ren Jie had understood it with a single glance? And just by looking, he could revise Xiao Niao's cultivation art? What kind of joke was that? Altering a cultivation art—even those in the Divine Power Realm, no, even existences who had condensed Yin Souls or Yang Souls would not dare claim they could alter another person's cultivation art! And this single page could... could let him break through into the Divine Power Realm?

Yet what had just happened made Xiao Niao feel that Ren Jie was not joking. Why did this new Family Head seem even more unfathomable than the Old Family Head?

"What? You didn't tell him? How could that be possible?" The instant he came out, he heard Di Shu's startled cry from the courtyard. Di Shu then grabbed Tong Qiang and questioned him in disbelief. In the end, Tong Qiang grew so annoyed that he kicked Di Shu flying, and that finally ended it.

Tong Qiang found it even stranger than they did. Aside from him, everyone entered the Family Head's room afterward. After coming out, each one either grabbed him like Di Shu and asked whether he had leaked their secrets, or wandered about in a daze like Xiao Niao.

Two of them were even more extreme. After leaving Ren Jie's room, they directly erupted in excited cheers. They had been stuck at the Body Refining Realm Ninth Layer for years, yet after spending only a short while inside, they had finally taken that critical step and reached Body Refining Realm Great Perfection.

Once one reached Great Perfection, entering the True Qi Realm was only a matter of time.

Over the following day, Ren Jie did not rest at all. Di Shu and Xiao Niao took more time, but for the others, Ren Jie could generally easily offer a few pointers, correct some flawed cultivation methods, or ask about problems in their cultivation and help answer them. The gap in realms was like that between an adult and an infant. Perhaps he had never encountered that field before either, but after hearing a little, he could still quickly determine how to solve the issue.

Only now did Ren Jie gain a new understanding of what he had obtained during that quarter-hour immersed in the Sage Dao Discussion. The more he realized this, the more urgently he wanted to enter it again. He discovered that beneath the Divine Power Realm, he could practically see through any field at a glance. Just like the cultivation problems of Di Shu and Xiao Niao, he could understand them immediately. But he could not see through Tong Qiang completely, so Ren Jie had not sought Tong Qiang out for the time being.

It was not only Tong Qiang. Ren Jie also took a look at Tie Ta but did not say much. Instead, he left Tie Ta for Tong Qiang to guide. Ren Jie discovered that Tie Ta and Tong Qiang cultivated the same art, and it was remarkably complete. At least at Ren Jie's current realm, he could not fully see through it. If he wanted to help them, he could only wait until his own realm rose further.

For ordinary Body Refining Realm cultivators, Ren Jie only needed to take a look, say a few words, and offer some guidance. Thus, his pace became much faster afterward.

Some people had their problems swiftly resolved. Others had no obvious issues for the moment, but people like Di Shu and Xiao Niao, who had already been thoroughly shocked by Ren Jie, no longer held even a trace of contempt for him as their Family Head.

At first, they obeyed Ren Jie's orders solely because he was Ren Tianxing's son. But in less than two days, when they received one training order after another from Ren Jie, they carried them out with even greater resolve. It was no longer entirely because of Ren Tianxing. Nor were they fools. When they saw Ren Jie's condition, they initially thought he was slowly putting on airs, but later realized something was wrong.

They had vaguely begun to sense that Ren Jie was training in some special way. Even as he handled matters, he was secretly undergoing an extremely intense form of training.

This gave the Guard Squad members a trust that did not need to be spoken aloud. Ren Jie had not hidden it from them, and they finally realized that everything the Family Head had shown others in the past had been an act. Now that he trusts us so much, we must keep his secret...

Ren Jie had simply discovered that, beneath the Divine Power Realm, he could see through all sorts of things at a glance. That was why he gave each of them a different cultivation plan and offered some pointers along the way. He had not thought of anything else. The unexpected gain was that these people trained even more frantically afterward, while Ren Jie, after a day and a night, finally adapted somewhat.

That evening, he ate a good meal and drank quite a few more potions before recovering a little. Gao Ren returned once in the middle and secretly brought back many potions. After all this tossing about, Ren Jie felt thoroughly exhausted. Even those in the Divine Power Realm still needed to eat and sleep, merely less than ordinary people. Only after reaching the Yin Yang Realm could one completely cease needing food and sleep, but there were not many at that realm even in Jade Capital City.

Having gradually adapted to the immense gravity formed by the 144 Qi Strength Rings of the Jade Emperor Art Body Refining Chapter's third layer, Ren Jie planned to get a good rest. Over the next few days, he would cultivate with Tong Qiang and the others. Once Fang Tianen could no longer endure and came knocking on his own, Ren Jie would have his first sum of funds and could consider doing more.

He would open that video again and think of more ways to get money. After all, right now he...

As these thoughts ran through his mind, he lay down and quickly fell asleep. Before the thoughts in his mind had fully dispersed, Ren Jie suddenly felt himself float up, as if he were flying. He left his room and, in the blink of an eye, had left the place where he lived. Strange—his residence had formations and restrictions, and he had already activated them. Was this because he was dreaming...

Suddenly, Ren Jie realized something was wrong. He abruptly opened his eyes and discovered that he was in midair. He could clearly feel a hand gripping his shoulder. Before he could turn to look, he suddenly plunged straight down from the sky. The descent was far too fast.

This was no longer falling. He had been fucking thrown straight down.

Damn it. Watching the ground rush toward his face, Ren Jie had only one thought: with his current physical strength, let alone him, even someone below the True Qi Realm Fifth Layer would have only one road ahead after falling from such a height—death.