Along the edge of the lawn, several tall trees rose with full, spreading canopies, offering a touch of shade without blocking the view.
"This is... far better than I expected." Ye Xuan murmured quietly, with a note of genuine satisfaction.
Honestly, he hadn't set his expectations particularly high for the living arrangements. He had assumed it would be similar to ordinary residential housing, the main difference being that his neighbours would be ability users and cross-dimensional treasure holders rather than regular civilians.
A proper villa, a private garden, and a wide open lawn had been entirely beyond what he imagined. His standing in the Bureau's eyes was evidently higher than he had assumed. Otherwise, there was no way they would have arranged something of this quality.
On the matter of food, a dedicated culinary team was available around the clock, ready to prepare whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it. Eastern or Western cuisine would be produced on the spot without any wait.
As for training equipment, even though Ye Xuan didn't have a pressing need for it, the facilities were impressively complete. Everything commonly available on the market was present, along with several pieces of specialised equipment designed specifically for ability users.
If he wanted to go out, a dedicated driver was always standing by to ensure his comfort. Beyond that, any specific requirements he had could be communicated at any time, and the Bureau would handle the procurement.
For that last point, the house manager and the driver had both specifically suggested he contact Su Mengyao directly rather than going through the general channel. Ye Xuan didn't bother puzzling over why. Most likely, Su Mengyao wanted to maintain a direct line of contact so that other colleagues within the Bureau who had noticed Ye Xuan's potential couldn't easily approach him behind her back. Though what benefit that arrangement gave Su Mengyao personally, he wasn't entirely sure.
In short, there was only one thing he needed to do: keep training and keep growing stronger. Nothing else.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Time flowed like water, and in what felt like an instant, seven days had passed.
Perhaps it was the rare combination of Ye Xuan's original talent and the layered talent from the Wangquan Baye template producing some kind of remarkable reaction, or perhaps his natural foundation was simply better than he had given himself credit for. Either way, his progress along the sword path was moving far faster than he had anticipated.
He hadn't yet fully developed the Wangquan Sword Intent, but the shape of it was already clear in his mind, the direction and the thread of thought leading there. At the latest within a month, he was confident he could give it form in his own right.
This pace might not appear drastically faster than what the real Wangquan Baye had managed, but it was worth remembering that Baye had the actual Wangquan Sword as a guide for comprehension. Ye Xuan had no such thing. That he could work toward forging the Wangquan Sword Intent on his own in so short a time was evidence enough of how extraordinary his current aptitude for the sword truly was.
And it wasn't only in sword technique. Cultivation had followed the same pattern.
Ye Xuan's suspicion had been correct. The reason the humans of Wangquan Baye's world couldn't achieve immortality was that the energy of that world wasn't capable of elevating their life level. Strength could grow without limit, but the essential nature of a human remained human. The same applied to demons. Their long lifespans came simply from being the kind of race that was born to live long, not from any transformation of their fundamental existence.
The Spiritual Energy of his current world was a different kind of energy entirely, one that could continuously raise the level of life itself. In only seven days of cultivation, he could already feel the changes in his body clearly. His bones were denser, his skin more resilient, and every part of him was in the middle of a transformation.
The world seemed to have shed a thin layer of haze and sharpened into something crystalline. Under ordinary circumstances, no matter how gifted a cultivator Ye Xuan was, changes this fundamental couldn't have occurred in seven days.
But technically speaking, he wasn't starting cultivation from the ground up. His body was adjusting under the nourishment of Spiritual Energy to bring itself in line with the level his power already occupied. Having strength that vastly exceeded normal human capacity while possessing a body that was barely distinguishable from an ordinary person's was simply inconsistent, even by the standards of the Wangquan clan, who had never specialised in physical strengthening.
What Ye Xuan was doing right now was transforming his body to match his cultivation. Even so, even if that was all it was, the increase in his strength was far from trivial.
Still, neither the progress in sword technique nor the advancement in cultivation was the most important thing on his mind right now. What mattered most was that seven days had passed and the second month had just begun. That meant a new fishing quota had arrived.
This confirmed how the system's quota distribution worked. It wasn't a rolling one-month countdown from the last pull. It followed the human calendar. At the start of each new month, the system would grant him a fresh fishing opportunity.
Even though his current talent was now exceptional enough that he could grow rapidly through his own efforts alone, when compared to using a cheat code, even the most extraordinary talent would pale.
People had limits.
Without any hesitation, Ye Xuan sank his awareness into the system.
"System, use the fishing quota."
One second after the words left him, his vision went dark. When his eyes opened again, he was standing above the endless river of stars.
Before him stretched a boundless universe, the stars spread out like a glittering ocean. Every point of light seemed to be its own world, each radiating a different kind of glow. Ye Xuan stood in the void. Even though this wasn't his first time here, the sight still held him for a moment.
But he didn't linger on it. He knew why he had come. With a single thought, a fishing rod gradually emerged from his palm.
A golden thread hung from the tip of the rod, trailing straight down toward that radiant ocean of stars, as though it were a line of connection running between worlds without end. The thread sank slowly into the stellar expanse. Time seemed to lose its meaning. Perhaps a second had passed. Perhaps an hour. To Ye Xuan, it was no more than a breath.
Then the rod in his hands gave a violent tremor, as though something was fighting hard at the other end of the line. Without hesitation, he pulled, and a sphere of light pulsing with a soft, deep glow came rising quickly along the thread.
The surface of the sphere rippled with currents of deep purple and black, and the interior seemed to contain a force so tremendous it resonated somewhere beneath conscious thought.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the item: Three Thousand Burning Flame.]
The system's voice resonated, followed by a new information panel appearing before him.
[Item Name: Three Thousand Burning Flame]
[World of Origin: Battle Through the Heavens]
[Item Description: A Heavenly Flame ranked ninth on the Heavenly Flame Rankings. Formed within the sea of stars. Upon its formation, silver fire descends from the sky, rendering the land for thousands of miles a scorched wasteland. Day and night become indistinguishable, stars vanish from view, and the sun no longer shines. Born beyond the heavens, this flame carries not only its burning heat but also the boundless power of the stars themselves.
Its bearer will obtain the Three Thousand Star Constitution, which possesses an extraordinarily powerful regenerative ability. As long as the soul has not been extinguished, the physical body can recover by absorbing stellar energy. For this reason, it is also known as the Undying Body.]
[Note: Can absorb stellar energy to strengthen the self or repair the body, but cannot restore years of life consumed through the use of secret techniques.]
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