Beside the stone table, Chen Xuan listened to that gentle yet bone-chilling compliment and understood perfectly:
Tsk, the cruelest thing wasn't hatred, but disregard. This wife of the heir didn't see Xiao Yuxuan as a man at all. Then again, with a breathtakingly beautiful fairy like her beside him, Xiao Yuxuan was nothing but a silver-plated pewter spearhead in that department. Who could think highly of him?
Yet Xiao Yuxuan, standing in the practice grounds, failed to hear the perfunctory note in Su Wanqing's words. He simply thought the beauty had finally begun to see him in a different light. Overjoyed, he grew as excited as if he had been injected with chicken blood:
"Hahaha! Wanqing, as long as you think I've improved! Your husband hadn't fully warmed up during that last round. Don't blink-I'll demonstrate the entire sequence for you another three times, from beginning to end! Let you get a proper look at the true might of this supreme art!"
With that, Xiao Yuxuan sank his waist and settled into a horse stance again, assuming the opening posture of Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang!
Beside the stone table, Chen Xuan's breath abruptly caught.
At the very instant Xiao Yuxuan's blood and Qi began circulating anew and he assumed his stance-
Hum!
Deep within Chen Xuan's mind, the golden light of his [Heaven Rewards Diligence] fate trait blazed into brilliance!
Lines of dazzling golden text appeared out of nowhere at the very center of his consciousness:
[High-tier martial art of slaughter detected: "Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang" (incomplete execution version)] [Reverse-deducing and completing according to the law of Heaven Rewards Diligence... deduction complete!] [Record immediately?]
Holy shit?! Just watching someone practice boxing lets me reverse-deduce, complete, and record it directly?!
Chen Xuan's fingers abruptly tightened around the copper kettle's handle. His heart pounded like a drum, almost hammering its way out of his throat.
Without the slightest hesitation, he roared inwardly, Record it! Record it immediately!
[Recorded successfully!] [Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang: beginner (1/500)]
Boom!
In an instant, an unimaginably vast torrent of information forced its way into the depths of Chen Xuan's mind!
If the Boulder Art's Qi circulation route was merely a muddy little ditch in the countryside, then the Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang now imprinted in his mind was a mighty, boundless river stretching ten thousand miles, winding through countless twists and bends! The sequence for flushing all thirty-six acupoints, how to compress and refine blood and Qi into Yang Gang, how to layer and unleash inch force with each punch... every detail was as clear as though he had already practiced it hundreds upon thousands of times!
So overbearing... this art was so fucking overbearing!
Chen Xuan stood frozen behind the stone table, a shudder shooting up his back to the crown of his head. Against an opponent at the same realm, someone practicing this Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang could pulverize a Boulder Art guard into meat paste with a single punch, bones and all! This was the true foundation of an aristocratic family. This was the ruthless stuff that could kill men and seize power!
"Hey, Chen Xuan, what are you spacing out for? The kettle's almost full!" Beside him, Old Sun nudged him with an elbow and reminded him in a low voice.
"Huh? Oh, oh! His lordship's kingly, domineering presence stunned this lowly servant just now. My calves were trembling a little." Chen Xuan instantly came to his senses and steadied himself, plastering a frightened, foolish grin across his face. He deliberately slowed his wiping of the table and arranging of the teacups, while the corner of his eye remained hooked firmly on Xiao Yuxuan in the center of the grounds.
"Ha! Eight Desolations Burn the Heavens!"
On the practice grounds, Xiao Yuxuan put every ounce of strength he had into winning a smile from the beauty, blasting out another palm strike with his head drenched in sweat!
[Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang: beginner (2/500)]
The number in his mind ticked crisply upward by one!
Chen Xuan's eyes lit up. Just watching him practice increased proficiency?! My lord, my dear lord, you weren't practicing martial arts today-you were clearly serving as my free one-on-one private tutor!
"Again! Second form, Subdue the Prison and Shatter the Mountain!"
Xiao Yuxuan panted heavily, his face as white as paper. But when he saw that Su Wanqing beneath the parasol tree had yet to lower her head to her book, he gritted his teeth and forced himself through the next form.
"Excellent! Cousin, how mighty! That move was even more ferocious than before!"
"Once more! My lord, once more! Let us broaden our horizons!" The wastrels beside him kept cheering and egging him on.
Hiding behind the stone table, Chen Xuan slowly arranged the fruit platters while frantically giving those wastrels a thumbs-up in his mind. Yes, yes, keep flattering him! Don't stop! My lord, you absolutely must hold on. Do a few more rounds. Don't spare that little bit of blood and Qi. At worst, just drink a couple more bowls of nourishing soup afterward!
On the grounds, Xiao Yuxuan grew dizzy with their flattery and forced himself to demonstrate the first few forms over and over, a full dozen times or so, until his legs went weak and sweat completely soaked his moon-white martial attire.
Notifications rang out one after another in Chen Xuan's mind:
[Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang: beginner (5/500)] [Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang: beginner (8/500)] [Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang: beginner (11/500)]
Eleven proficiency points!
As the number jumped to 11, Chen Xuan distinctly felt that, apart from the sluggish blood and Qi of the Boulder Art, a strand of overbearing heat as thin as a hair and as scorching as a burning coal had actually materialized deep within his dantian!
His fingers holding the teapot trembled slightly from this sudden, searing power.
"Enough."
Just as Xiao Yuxuan, panting like an ox, was about to force himself through another round, Su Wanqing finally spoke lightly beneath the parasol tree, snapping her book shut.
"The sun is fierce now. My lord, you've depleted too much blood and Qi. Continuing may damage your meridians. I'll return to my courtyard to rest first."
Su Wanqing rose with her maid Jinshu's hand supporting her and moved with light, lotus-like steps, preparing to leave the practice grounds.
Yet after only two steps, her embroidered shoes paused briefly on the bluestone paving.
As though she had sensed something, she suddenly turned her head. Her frost-cold gaze passed over the panting Xiao Yuxuan in the grounds and landed precisely on the menial servant at the edge, who was bending over with his head lowered, wiping teacups.
"Miss, what's wrong?" Jinshu followed her gaze and asked softly in confusion. "Did that tea-serving servant offend you by forgetting his manners?"
"...Nothing." Su Wanqing narrowed her phoenix eyes slightly and watched Chen Xuan's slightly bowed back for two breaths. A faint trace of puzzlement entered her cool voice. "It's just that, at the moment the heir withdrew his fist, I seemed to sense a trace of extremely condensed, masculine blood and Qi flash past by the stone table... its rhythm was actually somewhat purer than his."
"Huh? By the stone table?" Jinshu covered her mouth and chuckled. "Miss, you must be tired from reading too long. There's only Old Sun over there, already half in the grave, and a groom whom his lordship whipped half to death yesterday. They don't even know which way the door to Ming Jin opens. Where would any masculine blood and Qi come from?"