"Dude... seriously?"
"You're not even pretending anymore?"
"Not even trying to hide it?!"
"I know you can hear me!" Chen Huai'an's tone was stern, his face filled with fury. "From now on, stop controlling my phone. And stay out of my privacy—or I swear, I'll sue you to hell and back!"
[Due to the extreme danger of the Pulse-Opening Needle, using it on a suitable target will significantly increase its proficiency.]
[This application will yield 20% proficiency and reduce the chance of disability by 20%.]
[The Pulse-Opening Needle is extremely powerful. It can accelerate your electronic girlfriend's cultivation and help stabilize a cultivator's foundation.]
Chen Huai'an frowned at the three game prompts.
He calmed down and instinctively looked at his right leg.
Come to think of it... this might not be such a bad idea~
His right leg was already busted anyway. What harm could it do if it got even more crippled?
Besides, it was just a game item. It said there was a chance of disability, but come on—that had to be an exaggeration!
---
[What's that brat messing with again?]
The black cat crawled out of the shoebox and hopped onto the sofa, watching Chen Huai'an furiously poking at his phone. It needed to stay close to him to absorb the spiritual energy leaking from the spirit stones, but didn't dare get too close—fearing the ancestral dragon aura lingering on the boy.
[He's glued to that little black box all day... Wait. What if—all those good things on him came from that black box?]
Cautiously, the black cat edged closer. But all it saw on the phone screen was darkness, which only made it more suspicious.
[If this king's theory is correct, then all his lucky breaks came from this little black box. If I can get it... those fortunes will be mine!]
Maybe that was why this human was under ancestral dragon protection—because of the black box.
It certainly hadn't sensed anything particularly special about the human himself.
The cat crept even closer, one eye watching the phone, the other on Chen Huai'an's back.
Then, suddenly, Chen Huai'an picked up the set of silver needles.
The cat froze, thinking he had finally come to his senses and was going to give it some acupuncture.
But the very next second, it watched in horror as Chen Huai'an plunged a needle into his own right leg.
The cat: "???"
"AAAAARGHHHHH!!" The scream echoed through the hotel like a banshee's wail.
Good thing it was already afternoon. If he'd howled like that in the morning, the hotel would've been pounding on his door.
"Holy moly, that hurt!" Chen Huai'an glanced at the area he'd stabbed. The skin was already purple.
But very quickly, he realized something was off.
That area… hadn't had any feeling before.
Now it hurt like hell.
Wasn't that… proof that the needle was actually working?
It was just pain—he could handle pain!
Without hesitation, he drove in another dozen needles in rapid succession. The black cat saw him immersed in what looked like self-harm and hunched low, preparing to snatch the phone while he was distracted.
The moment the last needle was embedded, the cat let out a "meow!" and pounced at the phone near Chen Huai'an's thigh.
But the boy's previously broken leg suddenly snapped upward, fast as lightning—delivering a devastating knee to the cat's gut.
"Meow?!"
THUD—!
The black cat flew in a perfect arc and landed right back in the shoebox, lid slamming shut behind it.
"Ow! That really hurt… but I can feel it now!" Chen Huai'an touched his right leg, eyes wide with joy.
The Pulse-Opening Needle was designed to clear meridians and revitalize blood flow.
His leg's numbness had come from both the fracture and tumor compression. This needle therapy happened to match the condition. Of course, it could also be a "fight poison with poison" miracle—but it was working.
"Wait a second… did I just knee something?"
Chen Huai'an scratched his head and looked around.
He'd been so focused on hitting the acupuncture points, he hadn't noticed his surroundings at all.
"…Eh, probably just my imagination."
---
Cangyun Realm.
Since obtaining her Supreme-Grade Dantian, Li Qingran's cultivation speed had skyrocketed.
Just last night she'd broken into the eighth level of the Qi Refining stage. By this afternoon, she was already pushing toward Qi Refining's peak. All of this is thanks to the Supreme-Grade Dantian.
At the moment, the five-element spiritual energy simply stayed peacefully in her Dantian. It looked like a lot—but that was all.
For cultivators with spiritual roots, all the ambient energy they absorb gets automatically converted into a matching attribute—like fire, water, etc.
For example, a fire-root cultivator could refine all elemental energy into pure fire energy.
Only when a spiritual root aligned with the energy could it be harnessed to full effect. If there was a mismatch, it could cause energy turbulence—or even internal damage. Some cultivation techniques and inner arts required specific roots. Even when passing energy to another cultivator, you had to find someone with at least one compatible root—or else it wouldn't work at all.
Because of this, single-root cultivators were considered geniuses. Mutated roots were even more rare and powerful. Meanwhile, five-root or rootless cultivators were considered bottom-tier talent.
Those with five roots cultivated extremely slowly—most wouldn't even break through the Qi Refining stage in a lifetime. Rootless cultivators, while fast to absorb energy, couldn't refine it properly and often hit bottlenecks early on. Their spells were also far weaker compared to others.
Li Qingran had once believed she could never reach the Foundation Establishment stage.
The bottleneck was like a massive dam—breaking through required not only immense volume but also great impact.
Her messy spiritual energy simply didn't have enough force to punch through.
But now, just as she approached Foundation Establishment, she discovered that her Supreme-Grade Dantian gave her not only more energy—but purer energy as well!
"The Dantian bestowed by the senior is truly incredible…"
She looked inward at her Dantian, utterly stunned.
Before her cultivation was crippled, she had just begun Foundation Establishment. But now, the energy stored in her Dantian was two or three times greater than her peak back then!
If she also had a spiritual root and broke through properly… wouldn't her energy levels rival five—or even more—normal Foundation Establishment cultivators?
"So what if I don't have a spiritual root? With the senior's help, I can still walk this path…"
Under her control, the five-element energy began to boil and surge, gathering toward that dam-like bottleneck.
She was preparing for her breakthrough!
But just then, a stabbing pain hit her mind.
Darkness swallowed her completely.
In the void, a familiar figure appeared—an old man in a blue robe: Daoist Qingxuan, her former master.
"Li Qingran! You injured your junior sister—that is injustice!"
"You learned our sect's martial arts but failed to improve—unfilial!"
"You were demoted to outer disciple and bullied others—cruel!"
"You hold our sect's core manual, but dare to consider switching masters—disloyal!"
Her Dao heart grew clouded—inner demons took root.
A smiling mask could no longer hide the scars beneath.
Her past pains were not so easily buried.
Each of Qingxuan's words echoed like thunder in her mind—scattering the surge of energy that had nearly broken through.
Her senior brother, Lu Changtian, appeared beside Qingxuan, sneering coldly:
"Li Qingran, someone like you—disloyal, unfilial, unjust, and cruel—dares dream of Foundation Establishment? Pathetic!"
"I can't believe you hurt Junior Sister," said her third brother, Yun Zimo, face full of contempt.
"Give back all the pills and herbs I gave you!" snarled second brother Xiao Yifeng.
"I'll kill you myself if you break through," growled fourth brother Zhang Hanxiao, sword in hand.
"No... I didn't mean to hurt her… I never slacked off in training… I never bullied anyone…" Li Qingran clutched her head, curled up in the freezing void. She tried to explain—but countless dark hands reached out to smother her voice.
No one believed her. No one truly listened.
Just like during that sect tournament—when her junior sister got hurt and she was struck off the stage by Lu Changtian in a rage. Her defense fell on deaf ears, her tears were seen as manipulation.
But she had been coughing blood, lying in the dust.
While Mu Baishuang, her junior sister, had only a cut on her shoulder.
Wasn't she, Li Qingran, also Lu Changtian's junior sister?
Wasn't she also a disciple of Chixiao Peak?
Wasn't she also Daoist Qingxuan's student?
The sneering faces of her fellow disciples reappeared in the darkness, gathering behind the others.
She could only watch helplessly as their disgust and hatred surged toward her.
Only their mocking, venomous words reached her ears:
"She really hurt Junior Sister on purpose? What trash!"
"How could Chixiao Peak raise someone so vicious?"
"Probably just jealous of Mu Baishuang's beauty, hahaha…"
"And Lu Senior was always so kind to her too…"
"Someone like that deserves to die—let the beasts of Wanqingshan feast on her!"
"Get out of Qingyun Sect! OUT!!"
…
Her sixth junior sister, Mu Baishuang, stood at the back of the crowd, nestled beside Lu Changtian.
She stood in the light, shielded by everyone around her, like a delicate flower in full bloom.
She looked at Li Qingran, whose face was soaked with tears, and gently mouthed the words:
"Senior Sister Qingran… just disappear."
"People like you… don't deserve to live."