Despite the residual soreness in his newly healed muscles, Yoriichi's head turned sharply toward the adjacent room. With his Dantian now stabilized at the 2-Star Dou Shi realm, his spiritual perception had grown exponentially sharper. He could feel a massive, churning vortex of ambient worldly energy actively funneling through the walls of the dormitory, carrying a temperature so profoundly cold it caused condensation to freeze on his wooden windowpane.
Without a word, Yoriichi pushed the blanket aside. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. Though his body felt stiff, the milky-white liquid Dou Qi coursing through his meridians provided a robust, revitalizing strength that easily banished the lingering fatigue.
Zhan Yue simply smiled and stepped aside, following him as he walked out of his room and down the short hallway.
Yoriichi pushed open the door to Xiao Yu's room and froze.
The room looked like the heart of a glacier. A thick layer of sparkling white frost covered the floorboards, the bed, and the ceiling. In the very center of the room, Xiao Yu was seated in a flawless meditative lotus position, hovering an inch above the ground.
She was entirely encased in a semi-transparent, swirling cocoon of frosty-silver Dou Qi. Her silver hair floated wildly around her, and the ambient energy of the academy was rushing into her at a terrifying, almost violent speed.
Yoriichi's crimson eyes narrowed, his Transparent World vision piercing the icy cocoon.
He stared at the liquid crystal core spinning within her Dantian. The volume of the liquid was staggering.
"Four-Star Dou Shi?" Yoriichi muttered, a rare flicker of genuine astonishment crossing his stoic face. "And the energy flow... she is still climbing. Her meridians are expanding to accommodate a Five-Star threshold."
"She was a 2-Star Dou Shi when we brought you both back," Zhan Yue explained softly, her breath pluming into a white cloud in the freezing room. "Three days ago, she had an immediate, short wake-up. She didn't even speak. Her eyes just snapped open, she assumed the lotus position, and she immediately entered this state of deep, autonomous cultivation. She hasn't stopped absorbing energy since."
Yoriichi remained entirely silent for a long moment, intensely analyzing the structural integrity of his sister's flesh and blood.
In the cultivation world, rapid breakthroughs were a double-edged sword. While power was intoxicating, inflating a Dantian too fast without the proper physical tempering or combat experience was akin to building a towering pagoda on a foundation of mud. Eventually, it would collapse, crippling the cultivator permanently.
"Will there be a problem if she keeps pushing these breakthroughs so fast?" Yoriichi finally asked, his voice laced with a heavy, protective concern. "Her vessel might not withstand the sheer volumetric pressure."
Zhan Yue shook her head, leaning against the frozen doorframe. "That is the most terrifying part, Xiao Ning. I had the exact same worry. I have been examining her internal state daily alongside the medical elders. There is absolutely no foundation instability. Her Dou Qi is terrifyingly pure, and her meridians are automatically reinforcing themselves to handle the load. It is as if her body was always meant to hold this much power, and a dam has simply been broken."
Yoriichi hummed a low, resonant note of acknowledgment. He stood in silence alongside the Dou Huang, both of them simply watching the mesmerizing, terrifying evolution of the young woman within the silver cocoon.
After several minutes, recognizing that disturbing her now would be disastrous, Zhan Yue gestured with her head. "Come. Let her be. Follow me outside; the freezing air in here isn't doing your newly healed lungs any favors."
Yoriichi nodded, gently closing the door behind him to seal the freezing domain.
He followed Zhan Yue out of the private courtyard. The afternoon sun was warm, a stark and welcome contrast to the glacial temperature inside. They walked over to a large, ancient willow tree nearby the open fields, its long green branches swaying gently in the mild breeze.
Zhan Yue leaned against the trunk, her casual demeanor fading into a mask of utmost seriousness. She crossed her arms, her amethyst eyes locking onto Yoriichi.
"While you were unconscious, I didn't just bring the medical staff to look at her," Zhan Yue began, her voice dropping to a confidential volume. "I brought Deputy Headmaster Hu Gan and three of the oldest Core Elders from the Inner Academy to inspect this courtyard."
Yoriichi's eyes narrowed slightly, but he remained silent, waiting for her to continue. To summon the apex authorities of the Jia Nan Academy meant the situation had escalated far beyond a simple student anomaly.
"They thoroughly examined the residual energy she was leaking," Zhan Yue continued. "After hours of debate, they reached a unanimous conclusion. Your sister is currently undergoing the primary awakening phase of a highly mysterious, deeply entrenched mutated bloodline."
"I deduced as much in the wetlands," Yoriichi replied calmly. "Her hair, her eyes, the primordial nature of her ice—it surpasses standard elemental affinities."
"Yes, but there is something else," Zhan Yue hesitated, her fingers drumming against her bicep. She looked around the empty courtyard to ensure absolute privacy before speaking her next words. "The bloodline didn't just give her ice. During the initial examination, when Elder Su probed her Dantian, the bloodline violently rejected him. In that exact millisecond, a microscopic burst of energy exploded from her core."
Zhan Yue looked directly into Yoriichi's eyes. "It felt distinctly bestial."
Yoriichi frowned, his brow furrowing in deep contemplation.
"Like a magical beast?" Yoriichi asked.
"Exactly like a supreme, ancient magical beast," Zhan Yue confirmed with a heavy nod. "It was only a millisecond to read, but the resonance was unmistakable to a strong Dou Zong like him. Yet, when we scanned her aura immediately afterward, it was fully, one hundred percent human. There is no biological trace of a beast core or physical mutation within her anatomy. It is a complete paradox."
Yoriichi processed this information rapidly. In the Dou Qi Continent, bestial traits usually meant a cultivator had absorbed a beast's soul, practiced a forbidden body-modification art, or possessed a lineage tied to the ancient Snake-People or similar half-human tribes. But for her aura to remain perfectly human while harboring a bestial resonance... it defied the known laws of anatomy.
"If this is a bloodline awakening," Yoriichi stated, his tone applying flawless, cold logic, "then it is hereditary. She and I share the exact same parents. We are direct, blood-related siblings. If she possesses these certain peculiarities within her very marrow, then shouldn't I also have them?"