That night, Chen Guan sat cross-legged on his bed, feeling the abundant Dou Qi thrumming within his body. He opened his eyes with a deep sense of satisfaction and retrieved a small, emerald-green pill from the low-level storage ring on his finger. A rich medicinal fragrance instantly filled the air, a testament to the pill's extraordinary quality.
A fourth-grade medicinal pill, the Qi Gathering Powder. Sister Yao Ye is truly generous. If I still fail to break through with this, I'll be too embarrassed to ever face her or anyone again.
For an ordinary practitioner at the peak of the ninth stage of Dou Zhi Qi, attempting to break through to the Dou Zhe realm was a gamble with a high rate of failure. A single misstep would not only halt their progress but also cause their strength to regress back to the eighth stage.
But the Qi Gathering Powder in his hand eliminated that risk entirely.
It was a fourth-grade pill with a single, miraculous function: it could help a practitioner at the peak of the Dou Zhi Qi realm condense their Dou Qi vortex with a one-hundred-percent success rate. There had never been a recorded case of failure.
Those three words—one hundred percent—were enough to make countless aspiring practitioners salivate, and its value reflected that demand.
Chen Guan clearly remembered from the original story that when Nalan Yanran went to the Xiao Clan to annul her engagement, she had included a Qi Gathering Powder as part of her apology, causing a massive stir. It was no exaggeration to say that in any auction house, the price of a single Qi Gathering Powder would be no less than one hundred thousand gold coins.
The low-level storage ring he wore was cheap by comparison. And both of these items were simply a meeting gift from Yao Ye.
This soft rice… it's so delicious.
After a moment of self-deprecating humor, he carefully stored the weight of the favor in his heart. Pushing aside all distractions, he adjusted his state of mind until he was perfectly calm and focused. Then, with everything ready, he swallowed the pill in one gulp and skillfully formed the hand seals to absorb the energy.
The Qi Gathering Powder dissolved the moment it entered his mouth. A colossal wave of medicinal power erupted, surging through his meridians before finally converging at his dantian.
At this moment, his dantian was like a jar filled to its absolute limit. Just as the surging Dou Qi could no longer be contained and was about to overflow, Chen Guan's mind moved. His spiritual power poured into his dantian, acting like a celestial grinder, compressing, squeezing, and tamping down the chaotic energy over and over again, tirelessly.
The Dou Qi, which had been on the verge of spilling out, began to decrease in quantity, but its quality soared. It was a transformation from quantitative to qualitative change.
Finally, after repeating the process countless times, the Dou Qi in his body coalesced into a milky-white vortex, spinning with a steady, powerful rhythm.
The Dou Qi vortex was formed.
At nine years old, Chen Guan had taken a solid step forward, becoming a true Dou Zhe. He could feel the surging power coursing through him; he could easily defeat eight or ten of his former self. Furthermore, he could now peer inward, clearly observing the state of his own body.
Resisting the sudden urge to find Zhao Gang for a sparring match, Chen Guan forced himself to calm down and began to circulate his energy according to the Soul-Guiding Art he had long since memorized. After several cycles, he felt no pressure at all.
So this is why practitioners on the Dou Qi Continent only begin to practice Dou Skills after becoming a Dou Zhe. My physical strength is on a completely different level now. I must train my body more in the future. A powerful physique offers a huge advantage in battle.
Overall, he was more than satisfied.
After washing up, Chen Guan put on a fresh set of light cyan robes. He felt that after his breakthrough, he had grown several centimeters taller, his frame becoming more slender and less childish. He looked closer to fourteen or fifteen than his actual age.
Feeling refreshed and in high spirits, he decided against his usual solitary practice. Instead, he opened his door and walked out into the martial arts training ground, letting the cool night breeze wash over him.
Perhaps because another assessment was approaching, the training ground was still bustling with activity despite the late hour. Youths were sparring everywhere, sharpening their skills before the test, and a palpable sense of urgency hung in the air.
Chen Guan was a well-known figure among his peers. Many did a double-take when they saw him. They never expected this "King of Cultivation Scrolls" to actually emerge from his room.
Incredible!
Though they were curious, no one had a close enough relationship with him to approach, so they just offered polite nods as greetings. Chen Guan paid them no mind and wandered around the grounds on his own. It was funny, really. For the past five years, while they no longer had to worry about food and drink, their world had been confined to this small training area. Everyone else had likely explored every nook and cranny long ago. He was the only one who felt the need to take a proper look around now.
He strolled leisurely until he was near the main gate of the training ground, where he stopped, preparing to head back. But at that moment, he saw a little girl sitting on the steps. She looked to be about seven or eight years old, with her chin propped in her hands and her cheeks puffed out like an angry little pufferfish.
Judging by her fine clothes and the several guards standing ramrod straight behind her, pretending not to notice her presence, the girl's identity was obvious.
In all likelihood, this must be the other little princess I've never met.
Just as an unconscious smile touched his lips, the little girl noticed him.
"Hey, you! Are you laughing at me?" she demanded.
"Ahem, no, Your Highness. You must have seen wrong."
"You're lying! I clearly saw you staring at me and smiling. Come here. This princess is in a bad mood. Tell me a joke, and I might just forgive you."
Chen Guan was in a good mood himself. With Yao Ye as his backer, he knew this little pufferfish couldn't really do anything to him. He walked over and sat down beside her. He didn't realize it at the time, but perhaps due to the kindness shown to him by the royal family, or because he now called Yao Ye his sister, he felt a natural closeness to this little princess, subconsciously treating her as a younger sister of his own.
The little pufferfish didn't seem to mind his casual behavior and asked, "Hey, what's your name?"
"Chu Yuxuan," the young man said without hesitation, using a fake name.
"What a weird name. Anyway, you can start telling jokes now. If you make me happy, I'll forget what just happened. If you don't..."
"What if you're not happy?"
"Then you'll be punished by having to tell ten stories! No, you'll tell them until I'm happy!"
Chen Guan couldn't help but laugh again. What a terrifying punishment. I'm so scared.
"Alright, you have the final say. But first, you have to tell me why you're unhappy, so I can tell the right kind of joke and not make things worse."
The girl, whose name was Yao Yue, looked at him with a hint of doubt. "I have to tell you why I'm unhappy for you to tell a joke?"
"Of course. It's just like seeing a doctor. To cure your unhappiness, I need to know the cause of the disease, right?"
"That seems to make sense... well, it's nothing serious. I went to the Alchemist Guild today. Grandpa Fama said that if I could memorize the pharmacology manuscript without any mistakes, he would accept me as his disciple. I practiced at home and could recite it perfectly, but when I got there, I failed twice in a row! I already told my sister and great-grandfather I would succeed before I left. How can I face them when I go back now?"
It was a trivial matter, but as Yao Yue spoke, her pout deepened, her distress genuine. The minds of children are so wonderfully simple.
Chen Guan was momentarily stunned, not by the girl's troubles, but by the profession she had mentioned.
Alchemist!
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