"Fuck them!"
"They've really gone too far! Hurry and gather everyone!"
Xu Chengye's expression darkened. He cursed angrily, then turned to leave.
"Grandfather."
Xu Xuan suddenly called out to stop him. "I want to go too."
"Go? What for? That's a place where adults fight. One careless move and your head could be split open."
"Great-grandfather."
"Your grandson may have a way to subdue them without fighting."
Xu Xuan's gaze was clear, his expression composed. "I'll only come along to watch. I won't do anything reckless."
Seeing his assured expression and recalling what had just happened, Xu Chengye nodded in agreement as though moved by some unseen force.
"Then stay close to me. Don't act rashly!"
"All right!"
Xu Xuan agreed with a smile, but a cold glint flashed in his eyes.
Upper Stream Mouth was where the river entered Xu Household Market.
The thousand qing of fertile fields along both banks all depended on its water for irrigation.
At that moment, more than a dozen broad-shouldered, thick-waisted men blocked the canal entrance.
Their leader was a scar-faced man with an aggressive air.
The steward from Li Household Village stayed behind them, his nose in the air.
Dozens of young, able-bodied men from the Xu Household arrived with farm tools in hand, their faces indignant.
The two sides faced off, swords drawn and bows taut.
"This water was bestowed by Heaven! What gives your Xu Household the right to monopolize the upper reaches?"
Steward Li barked his challenges, like a dog emboldened by its master's power.
"Hmph!"
"This river channel has always been this way!"
"If your Li Household Village wants to cut off the water, first ask whether the men of our Xu Household agree!"
Xu Chengye spoke coldly.
The scar-faced man stepped forward with a savage grin and stamped his foot.
A muffled boom rang out, and the ground trembled slightly. Clearly, his external martial skills were considerable.
"I'm changing this channel today! Who objects?"
Though the young men of the Xu Household practiced the "Grain Garment Art" and were not weak,
their expressions still tightened slightly at this display of might.
Amid the confusion, Xu Xuan quietly took several steps forward and stood beside the water.
No one paid any attention to a child like him.
Xu Xuan closed his eyes and reached into the water.
The strand of pale green internal breath within him quietly circulated, resonating with the spiritual activity in the water.
The spiritual root within him grew somewhat more active.
Sure enough, there's a faint trace of spiritual energy in this current too. It feels water-aligned...
Could there be a water-aligned spiritual vein hidden beneath this river channel?
He silently worked his method, mixing a faint thread of spiritual sense with his internal breath and extending it downstream along the current.
Even after a long while, he had not reached its end.
Forget it. I'll investigate another day when I have time.
Now that I've found signs of a spiritual vein, there's even less reason to yield this river channel.
Wherever Xu Xuan's intent passed, the flow of the water quietly changed.
The people from Li Household Village shouting downstream suddenly felt a chill around their feet.
Looking down, they saw that the stream, which had only reached their ankles moments before, had risen silently, passing their calves in an instant.
The current also became swift and icy, striking them so hard they could barely keep their footing.
"Huh? Why's the water rising?"
"Hiss! It's freezing!"
"I can't keep my footing!"
Several men cried out and staggered.
Even the scar-faced man's stance wavered, and he nearly fell, surprise and suspicion appearing on his face.
The sky was clear, with no rain.
This was truly bizarre.
Xu Xuan's face had gone pale, and he had already withdrawn his hand.
Forcibly stirring the water vein like this was somewhat too great a burden for him as he was now.
Xu Daocheng's face was slightly pale as he quietly withdrew his hand. This had consumed considerable strength.
He raised his head, and his voice quietly reached Xu Chengye's ears.
"Great-grandfather, you can tell them that if they keep making trouble, the river god will grow angry and bring a flood. When that happens, all the blame will lie with them for angering the river god."
Xu Chengye was still wondering at the change in the current when he suddenly heard his grandson's voice.
He was taken aback at first, then understood Xu Xuan's meaning and immediately declared loudly:
"Three feet above our heads dwell the gods!"
"Have you all seen it?"
"This is Heaven's will!"
"If you persist in wrongdoing, the river god's wrath will surely bring disaster by water!"
The people from Li Household Village watched the inexplicably rising river water, its cold biting to the bone.
Hearing these words as well, they felt their scalps prickle.
Country folk feared ghosts and gods most of all. This was far too strange for them not to believe.
The scar-faced man also felt unnerved, but forced himself to preserve his dignity and said:
"You're just playing tricks with gods and ghosts!"
Before his words had finished, an undercurrent surged toward him.
With a splash, he slipped and landed sitting in the water, utterly bedraggled.
Everyone burst into an uproar, even more terrified.
"The river god really is here!"
Someone said it tremblingly.
"Go, go, go!"
The steward from Li Household Village turned pale and was the first to retreat.
The others hurriedly helped the scar-faced man up and slunk away, not daring to utter even another threat for fear of angering the river god again.
The people of the Xu Household exchanged bewildered looks. No one knew who started it, but they all knelt on the bank and began kowtowing.
"Thank you for protecting us, River God!"
Only Xu Chengye looked at the grandson standing quietly beside him with a complicated gaze.
Just now, he seemed to have seen Daocheng withdraw his hand from the water.
And there was that method of secretly transmitting his voice.
After this incident, Xu Chengye no longer had the slightest doubt about Xu Xuan.
That night, in the study of the Xu Household's old residence.
"Daocheng, tell your great-grandfather honestly."
Xu Chengye's expression was solemn. "The river water today..."
"That was your grandson's doing."
Xu Daocheng admitted it frankly.
"I merely used a little trick to stir the current and frighten those ruffians away."
"This-"
"You actually have such ability?"
Although he had already guessed as much, Xu Chengye still felt shaken to hear it himself.
"Once the 'Grain Garment Art' reaches a profound level and the internal breath becomes pure, it can stir a little of the power of heaven and earth," Xu Xuan said, mixing truth with falsehood.
"An unseen voice told your grandson this while I was practicing."
"That voice also told your grandson some cultivation formulas."
As he spoke, Xu Xuan recounted the "Grain Garment Art" and the improvements he had recently made to it, one by one.
As Xu Chengye listened, his expression grew deeply alarmed.
It was because the formulas recited by the grandson before him, who was only a little over ten,
did not differ by a single word from those his grandfather Xu Changgeng had taught him before passing away.
Even the detailed provisions within them were exactly the same.
This must be Grandfather manifesting his spirit. He took a liking to this child Daocheng, and that was why he passed down the formulas and more key points of cultivation.
"Daocheng, do you still remember everything that voice taught you?"
Xu Chengye's voice trembled slightly.
"Your grandson has a photographic memory. Of course I remember it all."
Xu Xuan patted his chest as he answered.
"Excellent. Tomorrow, write all of it down, and I'll compile it into a book. Perhaps our clansmen will be able to advance further in their cultivation!"
"Heaven blesses the Xu Household. Heaven truly blesses the Xu Household!"
From then on, Xu Xuan's standing within the Lineage became somewhat transcendent.
Xu Chengye's words shocked the clan elders, but faced with the true essence Xu Xuan released, they had no choice but to believe.
Eleven-year-old Xu Xuan had already mastered this volume of the "Grain Garment Art" passed down by their ancestor.
He had reached a height no member of the Xu Household had ever attained,
and after practicing the improved breathing method, the Xu Household's clansmen made considerably faster progress in the essence-condensing step.
Some had even touched the threshold of discarding the dross and keeping the essence, tempering their true essence.
Every aspect of their bodies improved greatly.
Even Xu Chengye made a breakthrough thanks to the new breathing method.
The vital energy within him surged, his qi and blood revived, and even his beard and hair showed signs of turning from white to black.
The entire clan was uplifted, and they held Xu Xuan, the "child prodigy" favored by their ancestor, in even greater esteem.
Xu Chengye even issued an order: Xu Xuan was the very core of the Lineage, and his commands were the commands of the Household head.
This was undoubtedly treating Xu Xuan as the Xu Household's next head.
The name Xu Daocheng also quietly spread through the surrounding villages without anyone quite noticing.
Another winter passed, and spring arrived.
Xu Xuan was now twelve.
Thanks to his years of cultivation, his physique was now close to an adult's, only somewhat more delicate in appearance.
With nine years of unremitting cultivation, along with nourishment from meat and medicinal herbs,
the strand of pale green internal breath in his dantian had grown as thick as a thumb, incomparably pure and flowing like liquid. When released, it extended more than six feet.
His Essence Fusion Realm had reached complete perfection.
The barrier of that spiritual vein had long since become as thin as a cicada's wing.
He knew the time for a breakthrough had arrived.
That night, moonlight flowed like water.
He sat beneath the old locust tree, cultivating in stillness.
His mind sank into his dantian, driving that strand of pure internal breath into a sharp current of qi. With unstoppable momentum, it charged fiercely toward the final barrier.
Boom!
It was as though thunder had exploded within him.
Or as though spring ice had cracked.
A powerful suction arose from his dantian, and the pores all over his body opened.
The sparse spiritual energy between heaven and earth swarmed toward him.
The first meridian wheel abruptly opened.
After twelve years in this life, he had finally taken another step closer to Qi Refining.
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