"Whew... so this is the power of the Middle Stage of Ming Jin and minor attainment in Yang Gang? Swallowing a pill and breaking through felt a hundred times better than getting a ten-month year-end bonus in my previous life!"
In the haystack in the deepest part of the stable, Chen Xuan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air laced with scorching sparks. Listening to Liu San and Xiao Liuzi's footsteps fade away completely beyond the courtyard wall, he muttered those words under his breath.
When the force that had broken through the barrier inside him erupted just now, it had whipped up a ground-hugging gale in the narrow stall, sending the surrounding hay flying everywhere.
Chen Xuan rose from the ground and looked down at his right hand, slowly curling his fingers into a fist.
Rise!
With that soft command in his heart, the crimson fire force in his dantian, already condensed to the thickness of a chopstick, mingled with the robust blood and Qi of his fully mastered Boulder Art and surged through the meridians of his right arm toward his knuckles. A layer of pale red, scorching Qi radiance actually condensed over the rough surface of his fist!
"The first level of the Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang-projecting Gang Qi outside the body! That useless heir Xiao Yuxuan, propped up on pills, practiced for five whole years and could still only put on light shows in the training grounds. I've only been at it for two and a half days, and I've already condensed Yang Gang over my knuckles!"
Scorching excitement flashed through Chen Xuan's eyes. He abruptly twisted his body and waist, aimed at the yellow earth wall in the corner, packed as hard as an iron plate, and threw a punch without the slightest whistle of wind!
Bang!
A low, muffled impact burst out in the corner.
There was no commotion of flying rubble, but when Chen Xuan withdrew his fist, a pitch-black fist hole half a foot deep had appeared in the hard rammed-earth wall! More terrifying still, the yellow earth within three inches of the hole had been shaken into fine powder by that incomparably overbearing pure Yang Gang Qi. It streamed down the wall with a soft rustle, still scorching to the touch and giving off a burnt smell.
"Hiss... what overbearing penetrating power! Yesterday, when I'd just entered Early-stage Bright Force, an all-out punch could only smash a shallow three-inch dent in the wall. Now, with minor-attainment Yang Gang added on top, this punch could blast straight through even a piece of hundred-refined iron!"
Chen Xuan shook out his wrist in satisfaction, hurriedly grabbed several handfuls of hay and horse dung, and concealed the fist hole in the corner completely. Then he yanked off the ragged short work clothes soaked through with sweat and foul black impurities.
There was an old well in a corner of the stable's rear courtyard. Chen Xuan picked up a wooden bucket, drew a bucketful of icy well water, and took a coarse cloth to scrub his body carefully.
The midday sun filtered through gaps in the eaves, shining on his sharply defined body. His flesh, once somewhat shriveled and sallow from years of malnutrition, now glowed with a warm luster like bronze-colored jade after the cleansing of the Blood-Gathering Pill and the repeated tempering of both cultivation arts. The muscle lines of his chest, abdomen, and arms were firm and fluid; even a casual stretch revealed explosive power poised within his sinews and bones like a leopard ready to spring.
Chen Xuan raised both hands before his eyes to inspect them and could not help murmuring in admiration:
"Tsk, the recovery power of blood and Qi at the Middle Stage of Ming Jin really is miraculous. Yesterday afternoon, that black leather rein cut wounds deep enough to expose bone in the training grounds. It's only been one night and half a morning, yet all the old scabs have already fallen off, leaving just these two faint pink marks on my palms."
As he pulled on the half-new coarse cloth clothes Steward Zhao had sent someone to deliver that morning, he slowly settled into a stance on the open ground beside the well and practiced basic punches, kicks, dodges, and maneuvering footwork.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As his figure shifted, both the short-range force of his punches and the speed of his changes of direction were more than twice as fast as yesterday!
Finishing his practice and coming to a standstill, Chen Xuan looked at his astonishingly bright eyes reflected in the bucket. He immediately drew a deep breath and sounded an alarm in his heart:
No, too strong. Going out looking this full of vitality will definitely cause trouble! In this Marquis of Zhenbei's Residence, where people devour you without spitting out the bones, the tree that rises above the forest is sure to be battered by the wind. Just this morning, the First Madam and Third Young Miss still thought I was rotten wood that hadn't sensed Qi in three years. If I reveal the foundation of the Middle Stage of Ming Jin when I report in this afternoon, even a fool will know I was hiding my strength before!
"Then how many of my cards should I show now?" Chen Xuan rubbed his chin, his eyes shifting slightly, and soon sorted out the stakes. "To everyone else, I'll insist that the Blood-Gathering Pill the First Madam bestowed on me let me clear my blocked meridians through sheer luck, and that I've only just entered Early-stage Bright Force!"
"That way, I can perfectly explain why I underwent such a complete transformation in just four hours while satisfying the First Madam and Third Young Miss's sense of accomplishment at 'buying horse bones for a thousand gold'; it'll also make Xiao Ling'er feel that this blade of hers is sharp enough to be worth pouring more resources into nurturing! As for my true cultivation at the Middle Stage of Ming Jin, especially the Xiao family's closely guarded direct-lineage supreme art, the Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang..."
Chen Xuan's gaze abruptly turned cold and ruthless, his voice barely audible. "That's my life-saving trump card for overturning the table. Until I have the strength to crush the entire residence, even if I die, I absolutely cannot let a single spark of Yang Gang show in front of anyone!"
At that thought, he immediately activated the breath-concealing method innate to his [Heaven Rewards Diligence] fate attribute. Sinking his focus inward, he locked the blood and Qi of the Middle Stage of Ming Jin, surging like a great river, and his crimson Yang Gang deep within his marrow and dantian. He left only a faint, somewhat restless fluctuation of Early-stage Bright Force blood and Qi near the surface of the meridians in his limbs, just like someone who had recently broken through.
Having completed this disguise, he deliberately grabbed a handful of hay ash and smeared it over his palms, then wrapped his already healed wounds twice with bloodstained strips of rag. Glancing at the sun, he strode out of the stable courtyard.
He had just reached the entrance to the flagstone passage leading to the inner courtyard when he came face-to-face with two outer-courtyard menial slaves carrying buckets of swill on shoulder poles.
"Oh! Isn't this our Brother Chen Xuan from the stables?!"
The pockmarked servant on the left, Li Si, rolled his eyes the moment he spotted Chen Xuan, hurriedly set down his shoulder pole, and approached with his face wreathed in smiles. "Brother Chen, have you already been to the main hall to collect the First Madam's reward? Brother Liu San was just searching all over the rear kitchens for you with Xiao Liuzi. He said Steward Zhao had some instructions for you!"
"Oh, it's Brother Li Si." Chen Xuan stopped, immediately putting on that honest, simplehearted smile. "Sorry to make Brother Liu San and Steward Zhao worry about me. I only left the main hall this morning. The First Madam and Third Young Miss took pity on the wounds on my hands and bestowed some medicine on me. Now they're urging me to report for duty at the Listening to Rain Pavilion in the inner courtyard, so I'm afraid I won't have time to see Brother Liu San in the rear kitchens."
"Go... go serve at the Listening to Rain Pavilion?!" The short servant beside him sucked in a breath of cold air, looking Chen Xuan's clean clothes up and down, his tone full of incredulous sourness. "Good heavens, the rumors from the front courtyard were actually true?! Chen Xuan, you really caught the Third Young Miss's eye and got promoted to the inner courtyard as her personal guard?!"