Jiang Lu's comprehension was genuinely sharp. The moment Gu Chengming pointed out the flaw, he understood exactly where his 'Sea-Overturning' strike had gone wrong.
The previously rough transitions smoothed out under Gu Chengming's guidance, becoming fluid and natural — the technique's power climbing another full notch.
For Gu Chengming, this turned out to be an unexpected windfall.
The 'Sea-Overturning' strike was genuinely excellent — and more importantly, it had grown out of the Huiyuan Sword Art. That made it a powerful asset in his ongoing campaign to win the Huiyuan Sword Art's affection.
After all, one of the 'Little Grievance Wife's' defining traits was her inferiority complex.
She always thought of herself as a mere foundational sword art, inherently inferior to the higher-tier techniques.
But if he could use this opportunity to whisper sweet nothings in her ear — things like, 'See? When wielded properly, you're actually incredible,' or, 'The people who look down on you just don't understand you,' or, 'Your potential is limitless'...
Wouldn't that send the favorability meter shooting straight up?
Just as Gu Chengming had predicted, this 'flattery-and-encouragement' approach worked like a charm.
In just a few days, the Huiyuan Sword Art's favorability had blown past the 60-point threshold and settled at 65.
The status had shifted from [Friendly] to [Fond].
The status change brought two fixed attribute points and one extraordinarily precious free attribute point!
The fixed points naturally went into Strength, sending it rocketing up to 11.
Gu Chengming opened his panel and checked his current stats:
[Strength: 11]
[Agility: 7]
[Constitution: 2]
[Spirit: 12]
[Charm: 25]
[Status: Blood Essence Deficiency (Maximum HP permanently reduced by 30%; continuous daily decay in effect. Estimated remaining lifespan: 58 days)]
— Holy shit.
That glaring '58 days' hit him like a bucket of cold water.
Without even noticing, he'd burned through his lifespan down to less than two months?
If he'd caught this any later, he'd practically be shopping for a coffin.
But fortunately — he'd just earned a free attribute point.
Without a moment's hesitation, Gu Chengming dumped it straight into Constitution.
The numbers on his panel instantly flickered:
[Constitution: 3]
[Status: Blood Essence Deficiency (Maximum HP permanently reduced by 30%; continuous daily decay in effect. Estimated remaining lifespan: 114 days)]
"Haah..."
Gu Chengming let out a long, slow breath.
Right. Another half-year of borrowed time. As long as he was still breathing, there was still hope.
The very next moment, however, a violent, body-splitting agony erupted from every bone and sinew.
"Sss—"
Gu Chengming hissed through his teeth, curling in on himself atop his meditation cushion. Cold sweat soaked through his robes in an instant.
Strange — pumping points into Strength before hadn't produced anything like this.
Was his Constitution so low that his body simply couldn't handle a sudden surge of reinforcement? Or was this the classic 'body too frail to absorb the tonic' reaction?
He'd barely managed to ride out the worst of the pain and was lying splayed on the floor, gasping, when someone knocked at the courtyard gate.
Jiang Lu pushed the door open, took one look at Gu Chengming — pale-faced and drenched in sweat — and blinked in mild confusion.
"Senior Brother, you really don't let up on your sword practice, do you? Sweated yourself into the ground again?"
He didn't read anything into it, assuming Gu Chengming had simply pushed himself too hard in training.
Gu Chengming waved a hand to signal he was fine, then asked what brought him by.
Jiang Lu smiled. "I recently managed to secure a training slot at the Martial Grounds. I came to ask if Senior Brother would like to come along."
Seeing the blank look on Gu Chengming's face, Jiang Lu suppressed a private smile.
This Senior Brother Gu really was something — eyes on his sword and ears closed to the world.
Judging by that reaction, he'd probably never set foot in the Martial Grounds once, had he?
That thought stayed firmly in his head. His expression gave nothing away. Jiang Lu patiently explained what the Martial Grounds were all about.
The Martial Grounds was a dedicated training facility the Wenjian Sect had established for its disciples, occasionally used for sparring matches and friendly competitions.
More importantly, it had been built atop a minor spiritual vein, sitting at the heart of a dense concentration of spiritual energy. Practicing sword arts there was said to be enormously beneficial for developing sword intent and advancing one's cultivation.
"I've noticed Senior Brother spends all his time training in his courtyard," Jiang Lu said. "It's peaceful enough, but the spiritual energy there is thin — you're essentially working in a vacuum. The Martial Grounds are rich with spiritual energy. It might be worth a look. You could get twice the results for half the effort."
After his explanation, Jiang Lu noticed that Gu Chengming didn't look particularly moved, and found that a little odd.
He had no way of knowing, of course, that Gu Chengming's entire approach to cultivation didn't revolve around absorbing spiritual energy at all — it ran on favorability grinding.
Spiritual energy was a nice bonus. Without it? Fine too.
Still, hearing Jiang Lu make it sound so remarkable, Gu Chengming did find his curiosity stirring a little.
He wasn't doing anything else anyway. Might as well have a look.
So he nodded and agreed, letting Jiang Lu lead the way.
The two set off deeper into the sect grounds.
Past several groves of bamboo, around a few ornamental rock formations — and then the scenery opened up before them.
It wasn't the flat practice yard he'd vaguely imagined, like the school sports grounds from his previous life. Instead, it was a complex of buildings constructed against the mountain.
Numerous elegant pavilions were arranged in a pleasing cascade along the mountainside, each one radiating a faint spiritual luminescence — clearly reinforced by formation arrays.
Jiang Lu led him into one of the pavilions, a place called the 'Wave-Listening Tower.' The interior was spacious and sparsely decorated — just a few massive stone pillars holding up the domed ceiling.
A clean, refreshing spiritual energy suffused the air, sharpening the mind the moment you breathed it in.
Jiang Lu stepped up to a stone stele by the entrance, pulled out his disciple token with practiced ease, and gave it a wave.
A ripple of green light pulsed across the stele. Registration confirmed.
When it was Gu Chengming's turn, he hesitated for a moment, then pulled out his own disciple token.
Ding.
A flash of green light. Check-in complete.
They passed through the pavilion and into what Jiang Lu called the 'back court.'
Through a curtain of shimmering light, the view transformed again. An expansive open plain stretched before them, surrounded on all sides by towering cliff faces that formed a natural spiritual-gathering formation.
The moment Gu Chengming stepped through, the difference was immediately tangible.
So this was what abundant spiritual energy felt like.
Curious, he drew a deep breath. A cool current rushed through his nostrils and flooded his lungs, leaving him feeling as if he'd sunk into a warm bath — his entire body lighter, more at ease.
Even the dull aching pain left over from force-feeding his Constitution stat seemed to ease, just a fraction.
After a brief exchange, the two each found a clear patch of ground and went their separate ways to practice.
Gu Chengming found a corner, drew his wooden sword, and began running through the Huiyuan Sword Art.
As the sword forms unfolded, he noticed something surprising — not only were his movements smoother here, but the circulation of qi and blood in his body seemed to flow more freely as well.
Especially...
Partway through his practice, he suddenly felt a warm current stir to life on its own inside him. It moved along specific meridian pathways — faint, but remarkably tenacious.
Was this... the Hundred Bones Resonance?
Gu Chengming's heart lurched — and then wild joy flooded through him.
He hadn't been deliberately training the Hundred Bones Resonance at all, yet the warm current had activated by itself.
And compared to the tearing agony of cultivating it back in his cave dwelling, this sensation was incomparably gentler — like something slowly nourishing and repairing his body, piece by piece.
Could this place actually help with Hundred Bones Resonance training?
To test the theory, Gu Chengming immediately stopped his sword forms, sat cross-legged, and actively tried to circulate the Hundred Bones Resonance.
Something strange happened.
The moment he consciously tried to guide his qi and blood into the technique, the gentle, nourishing sensation vanished. In its place returned the familiar, teeth-grinding sensation of being torn apart from the inside.
Still somewhat less brutal than back in the cave — but nowhere near that blissful 'idle auto-run' feeling from before.
After several rounds of testing, Gu Chengming arrived at a hypothesis.
The abundant spiritual energy here naturally 'nourished' his body, giving his Constitution an organic boost.
Meanwhile, the Hundred Bones Resonance, as a domineering body-tempering technique, worked by 'destroying' the body in order to 'rebuild' it stronger.
In a sense, it inflicted damage on the body.
It was like hammering a lump of iron over and over. Back in his cave dwelling, he was hammering with nothing to cushion the blows, and his body couldn't take it.
But here, the spiritual energy acted like a lubricant and coolant — even as his body took damage, it was simultaneously and rapidly being repaired and nourished.
Break it down and rebuild it stronger — that was the fundamental logic behind every body-tempering technique.
Which meant... wasn't it possible to...
A spark of inspiration flashed through Gu Chengming's mind.
If actively cultivating it was too agonizing, then he'd cultivate it passively!
He could keep practicing the Huiyuan Sword Art here, using the physical movement to stir his qi and blood into activity, and let the dense spiritual energy carry the Hundred Bones Resonance into a kind of 'semi-automatic' operation alongside it.
On the surface: training the Huiyuan Sword Art.
In reality: sneaking the Hundred Bones Resonance in through the back door.
For some reason, this gave him the distinct impression of making eyes at a mistress right in front of his main wife.
Gu Chengming gave his head a quick shake and tossed the strange thought away.
Whatever. As long as it made him stronger, he'd take the NTR route if he had to.
And so, Gu Chengming opened a new chapter in his training regimen at the Martial Grounds.
Day after day, he planted himself there.
On one of these days, Gu Chengming was deep in his Huiyuan Sword Art practice, feeling the warm current inside him grow a little stronger with each passing moment.
Then, from somewhere nearby, came the sound of a mocking, contemptuous snicker.
"Heh. First Realm, Third Layer — just as useless as advertised. Been at it all this time, and all you've got is the same handful of flashy, hollow moves."
A girl's voice — clear and bright, but dripping with deliberate provocation.
Gu Chengming didn't pause. He kept his focus on his sword forms, as though he hadn't heard a word.
Getting no reaction, the girl's voice rose a notch.
"Hey! I'm talking to you! The one with the wooden sword! Did you skip a meal or something? Those swings are pathetically limp — you swing like a girl!"
Gu Chengming continued to ignore her completely.
The speaker was none other than You Yuyao.
She'd been looking for her chance for days now — searching for an excuse to 'teach' Gu Chengming a lesson.
Today she'd finally cornered him at the Martial Grounds, and she had no intention of letting the opportunity slip.
The only problem was... this girl clearly hadn't had much practice with trash-talking.
Her provocations weren't even irritating — they were almost funny, and carried a certain blundering, guileless charm.
'Pathetically limp,' 'swings like a girl' — for someone like Gu Chengming, a veteran forum-dweller who'd been handed gold-tier online insults in a past life, this barely registered as a tickle.
When Gu Chengming still didn't acknowledge her, You Yuyao started to look genuinely flustered.
This wasn't how the script was supposed to go.
Her plan had been simple: provoke him verbally until his temper got the better of him and he challenged her to a duel.
But now... he wasn't taking the bait at all.
Was he deaf? Or was he just such a spineless coward that he couldn't even protest being insulted to his face?
Now it was You Yuyao who was growing anxious.
She began to circle him, rattling off a string of 'fierce' provocations that only she thought were particularly threatening.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me?!"
"What are you, a turtle? How long can you keep this up?!"
"You should just crawl out of the sect already! Stop embarrassing yourself here!"
No matter what she said, he remained unmoved — unhurried, steady, continuing to practice his sword forms.
That focused, unbroken concentration made her feel like she was talking to empty air.
You Yuyao, now thoroughly exasperated, blurted out:
"I have no idea what you think you're working so hard for! What's so great about the stupid Huiyuan Sword Art? That thing is trash — it's a beginner's technique, something for new disciples to mess around with! You could practice it your whole life and never get anywhere with it!"
At those words, the figure that had been standing there like a wooden post finally — finally — paused.
Gu Chengming slowly lowered his sword and turned around.
He looked at You Yuyao with a peculiar expression.
Burning gaze? Not quite.
It was more like a starving vagrant who'd gone three days without food, suddenly finding a lavish feast dropped right in front of him.
To be honest, Gu Chengming had initially had no interest in engaging with this person at all.
He didn't know her. She was acting like a lunatic. There was no reason to waste his time.
Until that last line.
'What's so great about the stupid Huiyuan Sword Art?'
In that instant, his 'Galge Master Instincts' fired off like an alarm.
Wasn't this exactly the kind of 'favorability event' he'd been dreaming of?!
He let his sword hand fall and walked toward You Yuyao, one deliberate step at a time.
You Yuyao was startled by the sudden shift in his bearing and reflexively stepped back half a pace.
"You — what are you doing?"
Gu Chengming held her gaze and spoke, each word slow and deliberate.
"Insult me all you like."
"But insult the Huiyuan Sword Art — that I won't allow."
He raised his hand and pointed to the wooden sword in his grip.
"I'll give you one chance. Apologize to the Huiyuan Sword Art."
"Now."
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