Shortly after feeling that mysterious energy in his body, Zhou Mingxuan regained his calm. Now, the most important thing to do was experiment.
He knelt next to Xiao An, "Thank you for your sincerity, Xiao An. Can you do one more thing for me?"
Xiao An nodded, "It is a life's debt, sir."
Zhou Mingxuan whispered in Xiao An's ear, his words too soft for others to hear.
The little eunuch's eyes widened, and he responded, "If sir insists… I can handle this."
Mingxuan nodded at the child, and waved him off. Xiao An quickly navigated through the repository's mess, went off to do as Mingxuan instructed.
'If I truly gain qi through worship, I owe Xiao An quite a bit for this discovery. It'll require more experimentation though, I mustn't come to conclusions early.'
Soon after that thought, Mingxuan paused and thought, 'But first I need to test if this mysterious spark of energy is even qi.'
Mingxuan quickly moved to the long table where he normally read, and upon arrival he dug through the mountain of books that sat atop it. Soon, he found what he was looking for.
"Copper Body Manual… the princess sent this to me shortly after bringing me to the palace. I could never use it, but now that I have a spark of qi, I must attempt to break through to the Body Refinement realm."
The Copper Body Manual wasn't anything special, almost everyone in the Canglong Empire had access to it. But, without qi, you couldn't use the technique at all.
Zhou Mingxuan quickly read through the manual, memorizing its contents after reading over it twice. In his opinion, it seemed spiritually profound, but the actual refinement method was beyond simple.
'First, I must control my qi. The manual says qi should move at will, like any other limb,' Zhou Mingxuan thought.
After a short attempt, he found it to be true. That tiny, golden spark in his dantian began to move around in any direction Mingxuan willed it.
Zhou Mingxuan moved the qi from his dantian to the meridian specified by the manual, circulating the qi as intended by the Copper Body Art's creator.
Only one circulation later, Mingxuan abruptly stopped, "What the hell? My body is this sore after circulating the technique only once?"
A sense of weakness overwhelmed Zhou Mingxuan, and he tried to get out of his meditative position. But he couldn't, his limbs felt as though someone had strapped weights to each of them, and pain coursed through his veins as he continued to try.
With a sigh, Mingxuan fell back to the ground, "The Copper Body Manual did say one may enter a period of weakness after cultivating the technique… IF their physique was unusually weak."
In other words, the constant reading of books, sitting around and doing nearly nothing physical all day, had finally caught up with him.
'Still, it's been confirmed. That energy within me is qi, and can be used for cultivation,' Zhou Mingxuan was ecstatic.
Although he still couldn't sense qi within the air and make it his own like others, the fact that he had it at all greatly relieved many pressures in his heart.
Staring blankly at the ceiling of the repository, whilst laying flat on the floor, Zhou Mingxuan fell into deep thought, 'It's technically still up for debate… whether or not I got this qi through Xiao An's worship. But I should be able to confirm it soon, if Xiao An completes the task I gave him.'
Just as Zhou Mingxuan thought he could rest and recover, an incessant tapping noise rang nearby.
The sound of a knock could be heard from the repository's window, causing much complaint in Mingxuan's mind.
'Ugh… why now?' Mingxuan groaned in his heart. He knew what was knocking, and his body wasn't in the best shape to go receive it.
Still, he forced himself up. It wasn't something he could ignore.
Mingxuan knees shook as he struggled toward the window, and what met his gaze was a small, azure-blue bird. It resembled a pigeon, a chubby chest and sleek coat, but the sharpness in its glare couldn't be ignored.
With a groan, he opened the window. The bird, with intelligence unbecoming of its form, lifted its leg toward Zhou Mingxuan.
"Another letter from the princess…" Mingxuan muttered.
He quickly removed the letter from the bird's leg, and unfurled it. The neat hand writing upon the paper was all too familiar.
It contained a simple message, one that annoyed Mingxuan, "3 days, sunrise."
Mingxuan kept the letter, and nodded at the bird with a simple command, "Received."
Normally the creature's azure wings would have begun to take off by now, but Mingxuan noticed that it seemed to give him an extra glance this time. Soon, its wings began to flap, and it left Zhou Mingxuan alone yet again.
"That bird is so damn creepy," Mingxuan assessed.
Zhou Mingxuan fell to the ground, his back sliding against a wall as he did.
He winced, falling into thought, 'Weird… doesn't she normally call upon me at the end of the month?'
It wasn't uncommon for the princess to send him letters, each one detailed when they should next meet. Always near the end of the month, without fail.
'There should still be about 2 more weeks… I hope it's nothing annoying,' Mingxuan thought. It wasn't as if he could refuse, the princess was the only reason he was allowed to live in the palace, and her backing prevented him from getting bullied like Xiao An.
As long as she didn't ask him to risk his life, Mingxuan could only endure. He owed her that much.
"Well, if things are as I suspect… I should be powerful enough to handle any annoying matters within 3 days," Mingxuan mused.
After all, once he had a true cultivation base, the problems that plagued him would be little more than trifles.
Then, the doors of the repository opened, bringing Mingxuan's thoughts to a close.
A meek voice echoed from behind the doors, "Hello…?"