The perfection of the Essence Gathering Realm was not a destination, but a new vantage point. Li Yao's senses, now fully integrated with his soul, perceived the world with a crystalline clarity that was both a blessing and a burden. He could feel the hidden tensions in the sect, the subtle currents of ambition and fear. He could feel Wang Jin's turbulent aura from a hundred paces away, a storm cloud of resentment and desperate striving.
He could also feel the limitations of his environment. The Qi of the outer sect was thin, polluted by the discordant energies of thousands of struggling disciples. The monthly stipend of three Spirit Stones was a mockery. To condense the swirling nebula of energy around his perfect core into a solid, stable Core Formation, he would need a qualitative leap in resources. He needed to enter the Core Formation Realm, and he needed to do it before the slow grind eroded the perfect foundation he had just built.
The System confirmed his assessment.
"Analysis: Host's foundation is optimal for Core Formation. Projected time to breakthrough using current resource flow: 4.7 years. Projected time factoring in lifespan decay and competitive pressures: Unacceptable. Recommendation: Secure a high-density energy source or a location of natural law alignment."
Four-point-seven years. It was a lifetime in the desperate race of cultivation. He couldn't wait.
His path was clear. He had to leverage his only tangible advantage: his control over Wang Jin's cultivation.
He found the Young Master not in the training grounds, but in the sect's library, scowling at a scroll on foundational stability. The irony was palpable.
"We need to discuss your next step," Li Yao said, his voice calm, devoid of its previous servile tone. It was the voice of a physician to his patient, or a craftsman to his client.
Wang Jin's head snapped up, his eyes burning. "I take orders from you now?"
"You seek to form your Core," Li Yao stated, ignoring the hostility. "You cannot. Not with your current method. The Ghost-Fern elixir has patched the leak, but the vessel is still cracked. To attempt Core Formation now would be to pour a ocean into a cracked cup. It will shatter."
The truth of the words hit Wang Jin with physical force. He had been feeling the pressure to advance, the shame of being left behind. The urge to force a breakthrough using his family's resources was a constant temptation. Now, this servant was telling him it would be suicide.
"What would you know of it?" Wang Jin sneered, but the bluster was weak.
"I know that the 'Soaring Cloud Art' you practice is incompatible with your meridian structure. It exacerbates the flaw. I know that the Spirit-Gathering Pills your father buys are of mediocre quality, leaving toxic residues that your body cannot purge. And I know," Li Yao leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping, "that there is another way."
He had Wang Jin's complete attention now. The hatred was still there, but it was eclipsed by a desperate, hungry curiosity.
"What way?"
"The 'Stellar Core Method'," Li Yao said, the name flowing from the System's database. "An unorthodox path. It uses the conflicting energies of stellar and earthly Qi to forge a core under immense pressure, like a diamond. It would not only bypass your meridian flaw but would use the conflicting energies to temper it into a strength. Your core would be more resilient, more dense than any formed by the common method."
It was a half-truth. The Stellar Core Method was real, and it was brutal. It required precise guidance and immense resources. Without the System, it was a path to self-immolation. For Wang Jin, it was the only path that didn't lead to a dead end.
"Why would you tell me this?" Wang Jin asked, his voice a whisper.
"Because the resources required are significant," Li Yao said, his gaze unwavering. "A 'Sky-Iron Meteorite Shard'. The heartblood of a 'Thunder-Scale Python'. Ten High-Grade Spirit Stones. You cannot get these on your own. Your father can."
He was presenting a devil's bargain. Wang Jin would have to go to his father, confess the full extent of his weakness, and ask for a king's ransom to pursue a dangerous, unorthodox path on the word of his mortal enemy. It was a humiliation beyond any beating.
But the alternative was stagnation, and eventual regression.
"You expect me to believe you?" Wang Jin choked out.
Li Yao didn't answer directly. Instead, he placed a single sheet of paper on the table between them. It was the first third of the Stellar Core Method's initial energy circulation pattern. To Wang Jin's eyes, trained in the Soaring Cloud Sect's orthodox ways, it looked alien, heretical, and yet… breathtakingly elegant. He could sense the profound logic in its chaos, a solution to a problem he didn't even know how to articulate.
"This is a sample," Li Yao said. "The rest, and my guidance, have a price."
"What price?" Wang Jin asked, his pride in tatters.
"Not from you. From your father." Li Yao's eyes were hard. "I want an audience. A private one. Tell him the servant who saved his son's life has a proposal. One that will see the Wang family name rise with the Soaring Cloud Sect, rather than be buried by it."
He turned and left Wang Jin sitting in the silent library, staring at the fragment of a technique that promised power and demanded the ultimate surrender. Li Yao was no longer just treating a patient. He was making a power play. He was forcing a meeting with the Captain of the City Guard, the man who had once seen him as a variable to be controlled. The rat was not just entering the lion's den; he was demanding the lion come to his table.
The next move was no longer his. It was Wang Zhong's. But for the first time, Li Yao held the leverage. He had the one thing the Captain wanted more than anything: his son's future.