Chapter 75: A Glimpse of Awakening, Elder Xuan's Desperate Gamble
"No way... Are Senior Brother Liu Yuan and Senior Brother Aotian even human?"
The training grounds were still scarred from the sheer destructive force of the recent clash. Disciples who had been preparing to disperse and celebrate the battle's outcome stood frozen in their tracks. Their eyes tracked two straight, unyielding figures walking shoulder-to-shoulder toward the secluded practice rooms of the back mountain.
"They just finished a high-intensity spar. Their soul power has not even settled yet, right? And they are going straight back into cultivation?" A thin disciple rubbed his eyes, his jaw slack with disbelief.
"They simply refuse to let us live!" another muttered, shaking his head bitterly. "Their talent eclipses ours. Their combat strength crushes ours. Yet they train like starving men. If we do not bleed for our own progress, we will not even have the right to look at their backs in a few years."
"Sigh... Let us go. Stop watching and get back to the training halls. I originally wanted to go down the mountain and have a good meal to celebrate Senior Brother Aotian's awakening, but now it seems that would be a complete waste of time."
Seeing the two absolute apex powerhouses of the Body Sect's younger generation acting with such relentless, punishing drive, the disciples felt a suffocating weight of pressure settle over their shoulders. Driven by this sudden shift in atmosphere, the noisy crowd quickly thinned out. One by one, the disciples returned to their residences or practice rooms, sealing their doors to begin secluded meditation.
High above the training grounds, Du Busi stood with his hands clasped behind his back. The wind whipped his dark green robes, but his stern, weathered face softened into a look of deep satisfaction.
"Good. This is the Body Sect I forged," Du Busi murmured, stroking his beard as his eyes gleamed with pride.
This exact environment of fierce, healthy competition and collective upward momentum was the very thing he had dreamed of establishing for years. In his eyes, the true terror of a sect did not rely solely on a single isolated monster, but on the relentless, rising tide driven by those monsters pushing everyone else forward.
...
The heavy stone doors of the back mountain practice room slid shut, sealing away the outside world. The atmosphere inside was quiet and solemn.
Liu Yuan sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor, directly opposite Long Aotian.
Long Aotian proved to be exactly as magnanimous and honorable as Liu Yuan had calculated. A lesser man, stripped of his pride and repeatedly defeated by a newly arrived junior brother, might have harbored bitter jealousy. They certainly would not have offered their cultivation secrets without a second thought.
But Long Aotian held nothing back.
He detailed every single sensation of his Secondary Awakening, breaking down the exact pathways his soul power took as it erupted through his meridians. He described the precise, mysterious frequency required to align his consciousness with his Martial Soul, and shared his raw insights on forcing the physical body and bloodline to sublimate.
"...At that exact moment, you must forget that you are a Soul Master," Long Aotian explained, his eyes closed as he recalled the burning sensation. "You must feel that every bone, every muscle, and every single drop of blood in your veins is a direct extension of your Martial Soul. You are not controlling the power. You are the power. Your will and your flesh must become one entity."
Liu Yuan absorbed every syllable. He closed his eyes, his analytical mind dissecting Long Aotian's unfiltered experience and overlaying it onto the unique framework of his Double Pupils. The hazy, theoretical path to his own Secondary Awakening suddenly sharpened into a clear, structured blueprint.
Opening his eyes, Liu Yuan bowed his head in a solemn, respectful gesture. "Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother. These insights are very useful to me."
Seeing this, Long Aotian simply waved a hand, a broad, open smile breaking across his face. He gestured for Liu Yuan to drop the formalities, his expression turning serious. "Liu Yuan, do not think you owe me a debt."
"The way I see it, the stronger you become, the stronger I am forced to be."
"Within these walls, you are the absolute benchmark I must chase. Having an opponent who might completely surpass me at any given second guarantees I will never dare to slack off. Therefore, helping you is simply helping myself."
Hearing this, Liu Yuan paused for a moment before a faint smile touched his lips. "You make me feel a bit pressured. If I do not awaken soon, I will be letting down Senior Brother's sincerity."
The two exchanged a few more words, discussing minor bottlenecks in their cultivation, before finally parting ways.
Liu Yuan returned to his own quarters, sealing the door behind him. He immediately sank into a deep meditative trance.
Following Long Aotian's exact instructions, he mobilized the vast reserves of vitality and blood within his body, attempting to trigger the origin of his Double Pupils. A faint, dangerous golden-red light flared to life within his eyes. The soul power in his meridians began to pulse to a new, heavy rhythm, matching the frequency Long Aotian had described.
However, after maintaining this volatile state for roughly half an hour, the golden-red light faded. Liu Yuan exhaled a long breath of white steam and stopped the process himself.
He felt the absolute limit.
Although this targeted attempt was infinitely better than his previous blind experimentation, and he had even felt the sheer weight of the Secondary Awakening pressing against his consciousness, the final threshold remained locked tight.
Yet, Liu Yuan felt no frustration. His mind remained perfectly cold and rational.
He knew the biological and spiritual laws of this world. A Body Martial Soul's Secondary Awakening typically required the dense foundation of a Rank 50 or Rank 60 Soul Master. Long Aotian had succeeded through years of grueling accumulation at the peak of his current tier. Liu Yuan had only just stepped into Rank 44. His total soul power capacity and the structural stability of his Martial Soul simply lacked the necessary mass to force the evolution. Failure was the only logical outcome.
"I was merely testing the waters. Since my soul power is still lacking, I will focus entirely on raising my rank. Once the foundation is heavy enough, the awakening will trigger naturally."
Adjusting his mindset instantly, Liu Yuan cast aside all distracting thoughts and plunged back into the brutal, monotonous grind of high-intensity soul power compression.
Time flowed like water. In the blink of an eye, an entire month vanished.
During this month, Liu Yuan practically disappeared from the outside world. He locked himself away, subjecting his body to a punishing regimen of soul power purification. Supported by the Body Sect's limitless supply of top-tier medicinal baths and resources, his relentless grind yielded concrete results. The bottleneck shattered. He successfully broke through to Rank 45.
He was now only five ranks away from the critical Rank 50 threshold.
On a bright morning, Liu Yuan was moving through the complex, kinetic footwork of the Qilin Step in his private courtyard when Vina stepped through the archway.
Compared to their last meeting, Vina looked exceptionally radiant today. The natural, haughty elegance of a Heavenly Soul Empire princess was softened by a bright, unconcealed joy that lit up her features.
"Liu Yuan," Vina called out softly, walking straight up to him. Her hands naturally reached out to smooth the wrinkled collar of his training tunic, her fingers brushing lightly against his neck.
She had come specifically to invite him.
"My birthday is in three days," Vina said, her voice dropping to a warmer, more intimate tone. "Imperial Father has prepared a grand banquet for me in the capital. I have to leave early tomorrow morning to oversee the final arrangements. Liu Yuan... will you come?"
Looking down into Vina's eyes, which held a deep anticipation shadowed by a faint, uncharacteristic shyness, Liu Yuan agreed without a second of hesitation.
Although they had not made any grand public announcements, their relationship had quietly deepened far beyond mere political alignment over the past months. In the quiet moments between cultivation, there had been stolen kisses in the shaded corridors, fingers intertwined under the moonlight. They had not crossed the final line—their ages dictated a measure of restraint—but the absolute certainty of their bond was established.
For an occasion this important to her, Liu Yuan would never be absent.
"Do not worry," Liu Yuan said, his voice steady and warm. "I will be there on time."
A bright smile broke across Vina's face. She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest for a brief, tight hug. Satisfied with his promise, she finally pulled away, turning to leave for the Imperial City to prepare for his arrival.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away.
The atmosphere inside Elder Xuan's private office at Shrek Academy was thick, stagnant, and suffocating.
Elder Xuan sat slumped behind his desk, his bloodshot eyes locked onto the kneeling intelligence operative. "You still haven't confirmed it?" his voice was a low, dangerous rasp. "Is the Liu Yuan who slaughtered his way across the Star Luo border the exact same Liu Yuan we expelled from Shrek Academy? Answer me!"
The spy, his face hollowed by exhaustion and weeks of relentless travel, swallowed hard. He kept his head bowed, terrified of the Super Douluo's volatile temper. "Elder Xuan, the Body Sect's perimeter is impenetrable. Their protection over this genius is absolute."
"The moment our scouts step foot near their core territory, those lunatics hunt them down. We have lost men. We simply cannot get close enough to verify his face."
Bang!
Elder Xuan's fist slammed into the heavy wooden desk, splintering the surface. His wine gourd tipped over, spilling amber liquid across the floorboards. The pungent smell of alcohol filled the room. For an entire month, the gnawing terror of what he might have thrown away had eaten at his sanity, robbing him of sleep and appetite.
The spy flinched, hastily speaking up before the elder's rage could boil over. "However! This subordinate just intercepted a critical piece of intelligence."
"Three days from now is the birthday of Princess Vina of the Heavenly Soul Empire."
"Rumors confirm that Liu Yuan shares an extremely intimate relationship with the Princess. There are even whispers of a formal marriage alliance forming within the Body Sect. Common sense dictates he will absolutely leave the mountain to attend the banquet in the Imperial City."
The cloudy, bloodshot haze in Elder Xuan's eyes vanished, replaced instantly by two terrifying, razor-sharp gleams of light.
He stood up slowly. His hunched, unkempt frame suddenly radiated a suffocating, mountainous soul pressure that cracked the floor tiles beneath his boots.
"The Heavenly Soul Imperial City? Vina's birthday banquet?"
A twisted, feral smile stretched across Elder Xuan's face. It was the desperate, manic ecstasy of a drowning man finally feeling his fingers close around a lifeline.
"Is this not the perfect opportunity? As long as that boy steps into the public eye, even from a thousand meters away, this old man will know exactly who he is!"
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