The Loosening Shackles

Lin Xiu hurried out of the house, a rag still in her hand. She spotted her husband crouching beside the vegetable patch, his shoulders trembling slightly.

"Dear?" Her voice grew urgent.

Lu Qinghe didn't look up. He only shook his head, hard.

Lu Yuan stood up. "Mom, Dad's fine."

Lin Xiu didn't believe him. She saw that the back of the hand her husband used to wipe his face was wet. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Really?" Her voice dropped.

"Mm." Lu Qinghe finally spoke, his voice terribly hoarse. He lowered his hand. His eyes were red, but he was grinning. "Xiu'er... my Soul Power moved just now."

Lin Xiu froze.

She didn't understand anything about bottleneck points. But she understood her husband. For fifteen years, he had sat in fruitless meditation for half an hour every night, only to be even more exhausted the next day. She had seen it all.

It moved?

Those two words turned over in her mind.

"R-really?"

Lu Qinghe nodded hard, seized his wife's hand and pressed it to his chest. His heart was pounding fast and hard.

Lin Xiu's hand began to tremble too.

Lu Yuan watched quietly. Dusk was deepening. He turned, scooped up half a dipper of cool water, then came back and handed it to his father.

"Have some water and catch your breath," he said. "This is only the beginning."

Lu Qinghe took the dipper and gulped down several mouthfuls. The ice-cold water calmed some of his excitement. He let out a long breath.

"Little Yuan, that method... it really worked?"

"Preliminary results show that it worked," Lu Yuan corrected him. "The loosening means the Basic Activation Method produced a stimulus. But there's still a long way to go before an actual breakthrough."

He spoke calmly.

Listening to him, Lin Xiu felt the warmth in her heart cool a little. "Then... he still has to practice?"

"He does." Lu Yuan nodded. "And he can't stop. You need to remember how it felt today until it becomes a habit."

Lu Qinghe clenched his fist. "I'll remember."

Dinner was quiet. But the atmosphere had changed. Lu Qinghe shovelled down his rice faster than usual. Lin Xiu's hands were much steadier as she served more dishes.

Lu Yuan ate slowly. He was thinking.

His father's bottleneck loosening was a good thing, but it was also the beginning of trouble. Maple Leaf Town was too small; even a fart of a matter could spread. A commoner Soul Master who had been stuck at a bottleneck for fifteen years suddenly showing signs of a breakthrough would be enough to draw the attention of others trapped at the bottom.

He needed to plan ahead.

That night, Lu Qinghe practiced behind the house for half an hour as usual. Less than a quarter of an hour after closing his eyes, he caught that faint tug again. It was like a tiny whirlpool, pulling gently as his Soul Power flowed through the bottleneck point.

It was very faint, but real.

When he returned to the house after practicing, his steps were lighter. Lin Xiu had already made the bed and was sitting on the edge of the kang, mending clothes. The oil lamp's wick was turned low.

"How was it?" she asked softly.

"It moved."

In the darkness, Lu Qinghe kept his voice very low, as though afraid of scaring something away. He turned over to face the wall. "That 'whirlpool' seems to have gotten just a tiny bit stronger."

Lin Xiu murmured an acknowledgment in the darkness, her needlework coming to a stop. After a long while, she said softly, "As long as it can move."

In the little room next door, Lu Yuan lay with his eyes open.

The little joy his father's loosening bottleneck had brought cooled quickly. Reality was like a block of ice pressing against his chest.

Soul Power cultivation was, ultimately, a matter of energy.

His father's Soul Power had been depleted for fifteen years, and his meridians were like a drought-cracked field. The Basic Activation Method was a channel for drawing water, but what could it draw if there was no water in it? There had to be water, and a steady supply of it, to wash that barrier away.

Where would the water come from?

Beast meat, medicinal herbs, even better-quality grain. Any of them would do. But they all cost money.

Lu Yuan knew how little the family brought in. His father did manual labor, his mother took odd jobs, and they had a small vegetable patch behind the house. They pinched every Copper Soul Coin, but how many could they have left at the end of the month? His own body was severely depleted too, as thin as a hemp stalk, his meridians thin and weak. Without a foundation, forcibly increasing his Soul Power absorption would be like pouring water into a bamboo tube too fast-it was bound to split.

Money.

That shackle was more tangible and heavier than a Trash Martial Soul.

Lu Yuan closed his eyes. Complaining was useless. Knowledge was a key, so he would use it to find a way. If he couldn't afford ready-made things, he would look for cheap ones, things free for the taking. Soul Power permeated everything on the Douluo Continent; there had to be things people had overlooked.

He needed information. Every blade of grass and every tree around Maple Leaf Town had to pass through his mind.

At breakfast the next morning, the congee was thin enough to see one's reflection in it.

Lu Qinghe took an extra coarse-flour flatbread and chewed hard. "There's a lot of work today. They're putting up a warehouse on West Street, and they provide meals." He paused. "I'll do more and save up."

He didn't say what he was saving for. Lin Xiu lowered her head and picked through the pickles, taking only the smallest one.

Lu Yuan finished his last mouthful of congee and looked up. "Dad, are you especially hungry after practicing?"

Lu Qinghe was taken aback. "A little... my stomach feels empty."

"Your Soul Power is more active, so it gets used up faster. This food alone won't replenish it." Lu Yuan's tone was even. "It would be best to have some meat, or eggs."

The room fell silent for a few seconds. Lu Qinghe's Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't answer. Lin Xiu's chopsticks stopped at the edge of the plate.

"Let's keep practicing for now," Lu Qinghe said at last, his voice dry. "As long as the method works. The rest... we'll find a way."

After breakfast, the house was empty.

Lu Yuan didn't rush to practice. He carried a stool to the doorway and sat down, looking past the earthen wall toward the rolling line of wooded hills beyond town. Low mountains lay to the west, with low-level Soul Beasts and medicinal herbs. To the east were fields, and farther away, a river.

The information was too fragmented. He had to see for himself.

Over the next few days, apart from his unwavering cultivation routine and guiding his father, he wandered through the town and its surroundings. He walked slowly and looked closely.

The wild grass beside the field ridges, the moss by the river, the things farmers' chickens and ducks pecked at. He crouched not far from the general store, listening to the idle chatter inside and glancing at the cheap medicinal herbs gathering dust on the counter.

His memory bank worked silently, comparing and sorting.

Most were ordinary things. Of the few that showed some Soul Power reaction, either there was too little of them, or processing them cost more than it was worth.

He wasn't in a hurry.

On the afternoon of the fifth day, he wandered to the south of town. It was near an abandoned post road, and few people came here. A half-collapsed earthen wall enclosed a patch of wasteland, with several pieces of rotting wood jutting from the weeds. He had heard the elderly mention that someone had once kept a medicinal herb garden here, but it had later fallen into neglect.

Lu Yuan climbed over the low wall.

Nettles and foxtail grass. In the shade at the base of the wall, several clumps of dark purple vines crept along the ground. Their leaves were small, split into three star-shaped lobes, and covered in an almost invisible layer of grayish-white down.

He crouched down without touching them. He studied the shape and veins of the leaves, then leaned close for a sniff-the smell of earth after rain, mixed with a faintly astringent scent.

An obscure corner of his memory bank lit up.

...Leaves split into three star-shaped lobes, purple stems covered in extremely fine grayish-white down, prefers damp shade... Name: Starlight Dew Vine. Commonly mistaken for a weed without Soul Power. If its stem juice is pressed out using a specific method and left to settle, a trace amount of clear liquid can be obtained. Extremely mild in nature, it contains a faint amount of life energy and can nourish the meridians and relieve Soul Power fatigue. Because the yield is small, its effects are weak, and improper processing can easily cause diarrhea, it has not been included in mainstream records...

Lu Yuan opened his eyes.

This was it.

Its effects were weak, it was troublesome, and it had side effects. So nobody wanted it.

But the knowledge bank contained the "specific method." Peel it, press it lengthwise with a wooden tool to extract the juice, leave it in an earthenware vessel overnight, then take the clear liquid from the top... It required no Soul Power and no complicated equipment, only patience.

Most importantly, it was right here, free for the taking, and there was quite a lot of it growing here.