In her past life, Mao Xuelian once knew a man known by his title: the Madman.
He was her father's younger brother and the great commander of the Mortist Empire during the Second Great War of Tamala. It was said that his voice could echo through any battlefield, delivering tactics that led to victory. His sword was said to know no restrictions, and his armor was believed to withstand even the combined assault of an entire battalion.
He was the Madman—glorious, yet filled with madness. With a single sword, he rained down blood on the battlefront from his foes.
That same Madman, who ultimately succumbed to his madness after the war, once told something significant to Tairyn—words she could never forget, about the truth of the strongest force in the world.
"Niece," he said, "the strongest force in the world is power, with control following after. With power, you don't need to fear deception. With power, you don't need to worry about betrayal. With power, you don't need to guard against a blade. With power... death is merely a subsidiary option."
Inspired by his words, Tairyn trained herself in sword mastery from a young age. It was her skill with the sword that helped her rise far toward the throne.
With the same blood of the Madman and the Benevolence Emperor flowing in her veins, Tairyn possessed unparalleled talent in swordsmanship. When her innate ability was added to her skills, no one could trick or deceive her eyes. Her peak vision and sharp blade made her unbeatable in the power struggles that lay ahead.
Even after being reincarnated into this world, Mao Xuelian never forgot her uncle's words. She believed in power, and she always would.
Hence, she cultivated.
Beneath the withered peach tree in Huai's cave abode yard, she sat cross-legged, her eyes tightly shut.
There's still bloodstain on her face, her cheek even still swollen blue and red; Mao Xuelian didn't have time to wipe her body clean, and she was determined to become stronger as fast as she could.
A thin, transparent symbol of green flame appeared on her forehead, amidst her curved brow.
She cultivates the Pure Blood Technique while observing how her body reacts. She takes mental notes of every single reaction and what she gets after successfully opening an acupoint.
Bead after bead of sweat kept forming one after another on her tan-skinned face. Her brow knitted in contempt, eased in realization, and then pushed upward in surprise.
After 5 hours of serious cultivation and observation, after she returned to the cave abode from the training field, Mao Xuelian finally found the real problem in the Pure Blood Technique. The main hindrance is that the technique fails to achieve its maximum potential.
The reason was that the acupoint used was simple and did not provide enough. The technique shouldn't stop at 350 acupoints, but go beyond it and reach more and more hidden acupoints.
After doing a meticulous observation of her own body while cultivating, Mao Xuelian thought that she had already caught the pattern of acupoint position.
Amongst the commonly used acupoints in cultivation, 350 acupoints were located in a confluence area of two or more muscle fibers, where a dislocation or clogging was more likely to happen than not.
By knowing so, Mao Xuelian was convinced that she could find more acupoints on her body, and yes, she found them. These newly found acupoints were much more than she thought before. There's a total of 460 of them after she accumulated them with the already commonly known and commonly used acupoint in cultivation.
Only after changing the range of circulation of the Pure Blood Technique to cover every single one of them did Mao Xuelian feel that this technique was finally completed.
At this time, Mao Xuelian had successfully opened her seventh acupoint. After she covered all 460 acupoints in her body with the circulation of the technique, she found that the seven acupoints she had opened were beginning to form some sort of thread-like connections.
After the threads fully formed amongst the opened acupoints, Mao Xuelian felt that her blood circulation speed and effectiveness had been enhanced more than twofold.
Even the method of opening the acupoint had been changed. From manually controlling her blood to circulate around an unopened acupoint to open it, Mao Xuelian now merely needs to locate an unopened acupoint and continue to circulate the technique. The threads from the opened acupoints could automatically begin to connect themselves to the unopened acupoint.
Finally, after 3 more hours, Mao Xuelian felt that her fatigue was already unbearable enough for her body to endure, so she stopped cultivating.
"Gasp!" Mao Xuelian let out a breath full of dirty air from her lungs.
She looked at her body, which was already soaked in sweat and filth substances she naturally extracted out of her body when cultivating.
"I need to wash my body and clothes," muttered Mao Xuelian.
She tried to push her body up, but she immediately found that she couldn't exert any strength in her hands and legs. They felt limp and out of strength, almost like she had fatigued her muscles to the extreme.
And maybe it's true.
Because she has already just opened her 30th acupoint in such a short period of time with her revision of Pure Blood Technique.
Her body had become stronger too fast for the muscles to keep up with her growth and were damaged instead.
"Urgh..." Mao Xuelian couldn't help but grit her teeth when she tried to stand.
The damaged muscles would eventually heal, sure. But the pain from the damaged fibers would not disappear just because she would still heal herself with time. The pain was so unbearable that it even made her forget about her swollen face and slightly swollen stomach.
In the end, Mao Xuelian was forced to crawl her way to the small basin with fresh—albeit rather bloody—water from the river on the mountain that connected to the cave abode bathroom with a bamboo pipe.
She began to undress and wash every inch of her body. All while occasionally writhing in pain.
...
The next day, Huai had not returned from her mission.
Once again, Mao Xuelian was forced to volunteer in the training field, serving the disciples there. However, she didn't see the male disciple who had assaulted her the previous day. She spent the morning checking the ground while assisting other servant disciples, but the man did not show up at all.
Not overthinking the situation, Mao Xuelian returned to her cave abode right after her volunteer duties were finished. On her way, she witnessed an unknown male disciple engaged in a bloody brawl with a female disciple, apparently over some romantic matter. However, she chose not to pay much attention to them and simply took another path to avoid the commotion.
After eating a small portion of rice and a piece of beef of unknown origin, she immediately resumed her cultivation. Sitting cross-legged beneath the withered peach tree, she began to circulate her Pure Blood Technique.
Her cultivation lasted until the afternoon shifted to evening, during which she successfully progressed from the 30th acupoint to the 80th acupoint in a flash. Her already damaged muscles felt like they might explode after that intense session, prompting Mao Xuelian to stop cultivating to allow her body some time to regenerate.
The following morning, Mao Xuelian returned to the training field after cleaning and sweeping her cave abode. She arrived quite late due to her aching body. Without the support of a stick, she could hardly stand, but that was unavoidable. Yet, Dean Bao sneered at her in disgust, unable to hide his contempt.
Despite this, Mao Xuelian didn't voice a single complaint. She merely nodded obediently to his grievances while keeping her eyes on a particular male disciple with a glimmer of determination.