Nothing but flashy and impractical stuff.

Meanwhile.

Su Ji sat cross-legged on the warm jade bed, holding the thread-bound book he had taken out of the purple sandalwood box.

The Desolate Meteor Sword.

Following the descriptions in the sword manual, he attempted to circulate the spiritual energy within his Glazed Dao Foundation.

The spiritual energy of the Desolate Meteor Fallen Dragon Art surged through his meridians like an awakening giant dragon.

And the method of the Desolate Meteor Sword acted like an invisible set of reins, beginning to guide this berserk power.

It neither suppressed nor altered it; rather, it carved out a brand new, far more exquisite riverbed for this torrent.

The spiritual energy, which was originally rushing in all directions, began to converge toward a single point, condensing and spinning to form a tiny yet resilient vortex.

Su Ji could clearly feel that the total amount of his spiritual energy hadn't increased, but its quality was undergoing an unimaginable transformation.

If his previous spiritual energy was a surging river, then now, it was a lake compressed to the absolute extreme.

This newly refined spiritual energy flowed slowly through his limbs and bones, ultimately gathering in his right arm, which held the ancient sword, Yinfeng.

Buzz—

A faint sword hum resonated from the palm of his hand.

The next moment, Su Ji's soul violently shuddered, and his consciousness was dragged by an irresistible force into a grayish-white void.

Within this space, the blurry figure of the man he had seen in the wooden box's light screen reappeared.

His face remained obscured, and he simply stood there quietly, holding a black ancient sword in his hand.

There was no opening remark, no unnecessary words.

The man merely swung his sword forward in a casual manner.

This strike was very slow.

So slow that Su Ji could see every inch of the sword's trajectory.

This strike also lacked any earth-shattering might.

There was no rampant sword qi, no tearing of space, not even a trace of wind stirred.

It looked just like a child, newly learning the sword, swinging it blindly.

Yet Su Ji's pupils suddenly shrank at this moment.

Because he saw it.

Or rather, this space allowed him to see it.

Even before the sword's edge arrived, the air parted to both sides on its own, as if actively making way.

He saw that space itself, that seemingly seamless and intangible concept, actually contained countless gaps and nodes imperceptible to the naked eye.

And that sword strike had glided gently along the most fragile gap, without the slightest deviation.

Like a master butcher expertly carving an ox.

This idiom popped into Su Ji's mind out of nowhere.

He instantly understood.

This sword manual wasn't teaching any world-destroying sword techniques at all.

What it taught was a method to see through the essence of the world.

It was the why.

Not the how.

Everything in the world has its own underlying principle.

For example, if someone split a river with a single sword strike, it might be because their sword qi was overbearing enough, or their boiling spiritual power forcibly evaporated the river water.

But this man was teaching Su Ji how to find the joints and meridians of the water, to follow its natural flow, and to dismantle it with a single strike.

At this moment, an unprecedented enlightenment welled up in Su Ji's heart.

He suddenly felt glad that he was usually too lazy to practice the sword; aside from a few basic stances, he knew absolutely nothing about the Dao of the Sword.

Precisely because he was a blank sheet of paper, he could so easily accept this subversive concept.

If it were those sword cultivators who had immersed themselves in the Dao of the Sword for a hundred years, they would likely fail to understand this purest of principles due to their ingrained perceptions.

It turned out that being lazy... was actually useful.

The feeling of sudden enlightenment in Su Ji's heart left him intoxicated.

In the void, the blurry figure slowly dissipated after executing that strike.

Su Ji's consciousness returned along with it.

Buzz...

The Yinfeng Sword in his hand let out a soft hum of joy before falling completely silent.

He slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath of stale air.

He looked down at his hands.

Third level of Foundation Establishment?!

Could it be that he really was a cultivation genius?

Su Ji felt great.

Better than ever before.

He then casually flipped through the Desolate Meteor Sword manual again.

He took back what he just said.

Aside from the insights into the Dao of the Sword at the very beginning.

Eighty percent of the entire book consisted of world-destroying sword techniques.

And they were all the type of techniques that didn't pursue actual power, but only sought to be grand and spectacular.

To the point where expending ten parts of spiritual energy would only yield the effect of two.

Hmph.

Nothing but flashy and impractical things.

Thinking this, Su Ji carefully tucked the book into his robes.

Then he stood up, stretched his limbs, and pushed open the door of the quiet room, preparing to go out and share his joy with his little fox junior sister, and perhaps show off a bit while he was at it.

But when he saw the sky outside the door, he froze.

In the courtyard, the moon was high in the sky, and the stars were scattered all over.

How much time had passed?

Wasn't his closed-door cultivation just a brief moment?

As Su Ji was scratching his head, his gaze inadvertently caught sight of something, and his heart violently skipped a beat.

Not far away, a gray-clad figure stood quietly.

The simple cloth garments were covered in the night's dew, looking somewhat damp and heavy.

But the person remained motionless, save for a pair of eyes that shone astonishingly bright under the moonlight, with sword light faintly flickering within them.

It was him?

That Golden Core street vendor?

Su Ji's first thought was to turn his head and run away.

What was going on?

Had this guy realized what happened?

He came to block the door?

Did he realize he had been thoroughly duped and came to settle the score?

The moment Su Ji pivoted on his heel, before he could even exert any force, the man had already spotted him.

Li Fan's reaction was much faster than Su Ji imagined.

Seeing Su Ji emerge from seclusion, those sword-sharp eyes instantly burst with excitement.

Without a shred of hesitation, he immediately took a large stride forward, and with a heavy thud, fell to both knees right in front of Su Ji.

"Senior's immense grace and virtue, Li Fan will never forget in this lifetime!"

He performed a full prostration toward Su Ji, bowing until his head touched the ground.

"Li Fan is willing to join the Xiangsi Sect and go through fire and water for Senior, without hesitation!"

Su Ji's motion to run away froze in place, his brain unable to process the situation for a moment.

This... this isn't how the script was supposed to go, right?

Maybe I should observe a bit more?

Right at that moment, a clear and cold voice came from further away, rapidly approaching.

"You finally bear to come out of seclusion."

Following the silhouette, Su Ji could see Su Jiu hurrying over.

Dressed in an elegant and simple white dress, the moonlight cascaded over her, making her look unearthly.

Only, her clear eyes were filled with the resentment of so you, the absentee boss, finally know to come back.

"Junior Sister? Why are you..."

"Why am I what?" Su Jiu rolled her eyes at him in exasperation. "You have the nerve to ask? Sect Master, your closed-door cultivation lasted for over a month."

"Even if you ignore everything else, at least deal with this person."

"For the past month, he has been guarding this place every day like a door god. No matter who tried to persuade him, he refused to leave."

A month?

Su Ji was completely dumbfounded.

He felt like he had merely flipped through the sword manual, attempted to cultivate it for a bit, got pulled into that grayish-white space to watch a sword strike, and then woke up, and that was it.

The whole process took an hour at most.

How could a month have passed?

No wonder he felt his cultivation had unknowingly reached the third level of Foundation Establishment.

So it wasn't a side effect of cultivating the sword art, but rather that he had actually cultivated for a solid month while completely unconscious?