The sun rose as usual, Ms. Wen left for work as usual, and the house fell quiet once again.
Jiang Zhaoye drew open the curtains, letting the morning sunlight flood across the floor, and deftly sat cross-legged onto his practice mat.
He first gave the Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art a try.
Measured by cultivation realms, Jiang Zhaoye could at best be considered to have just drawn qi into his body. His realm was far too low. A treasure like the Marrow Cleansing Pill remained useful even after Foundation Establishment; if not for the fact that its effects were most potent upon first consumption, and that the original kid had stayed up late every day and possessed a wretched foundation—causing most of the medicinal efficacy to be spent on improving his physique and bone structure—the unconsumed medicinal power from only a few shichen of cultivation in the spirit-gathering array would have bloated him until he burst.
Even so, a good deal of medicinal power still lingered in his body, not yet completely absorbed.
Jiang Zhaoye still remembered the circulation route for the Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art quite clearly.
Spiritual energy... no, it should be called psionic energy now. Psionic energy departed from his dantian, traveled up along his spine, branched out with exquisite precision, spread across the countless capillaries in his chest, diverged through both arms, converged back into his torso, sank into his legs, and finally returned to his dantian.
Compared to when he was in the ice cave, his speed of circulating the technique now was as slow as a crawling turtle.
Back on the cold jade bed, the spiritual energy concentration had been so high it felt like soaking in a hot spring, filling his entire body with sweet warmth with every casual breath. At home, however, even with an ice-attribute practice mat to assist him, the psionic concentration barely reached 10 degrees. The amount he absorbed in one full cycle might have taken only a few breaths in the ice cave.
But at least it was circulating.
Jiang Zhaoye verified that running the Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art with psionic energy was just as stable; his meridians felt no discomfort, and although the circulation route and rhythm were sluggish, everything was still smooth. Closing his eyes, he sensed it for a moment, and a conjecture surfaced in his mind: psionic energy and spiritual energy were probably essentially the same thing, merely named differently and differing in concentration.
Pondering this, he decided to bring an instrument that measured psionic concentration next time he visited the ice cave; one test would tell for sure.
With that in mind, Jiang Zhaoye shifted his posture and began attempting to cultivate the Mystic Ice Mirror.
An hour later, he fell silent.
The Mystic Ice Mirror's qi-guiding route was vastly more disordered than the Psionic Guiding Technique's, and its control over spiritual power had virtually zero technical finesse to speak of.
When absorbing psionic energy with the Psionic Guiding Technique, it felt like riding a smooth maglev train—gliding along seamless tracks at a steady, blisteringly fast speed. But switching to the Mystic Ice Mirror felt like being abruptly tossed onto a beat-up little donkey cart, jolting along a pothole-riddled, muddy rural road, every step clumsy and arduous.
He had gotten the hang of the basics in ten minutes, but after trying for over half an hour, he could barely complete half a circuit. The spiritual power felt as sluggish in his meridians as a frozen river, excruciatingly frustrating to push forward. Not to mention trying to pair it with the Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art—practicing it alone felt suffocating enough, so using the psionic energy absorbed from this thing to drive a body-refining technique? It couldn't budge it at all.
A mischievous idea flashed through Jiang Zhaoye's mind, and he tried dual-threading the Mystic Ice Mirror alongside the Psionic Guiding Technique.
The result was even worse: the two circulation routes clashed violently, and the spiritual power thrashed and tangled in his dantian, nearly causing his qi to go awry. Words never teach like reality does; reality put this brat right in his place instantly, leaving him too spooked to experiment recklessly again.
Jiang Zhaoye sighed and put the jade slip away.
The Mystic Ice Mirror technique was unusable; forcing himself to practice it would only cause problems.
He checked the attributes on his watch again: [Psionic: Metal 13, Water 15, Ice 22]
Not a single point had increased. It seemed cultivating the Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art didn't raise attributes... though it was also possible that the psionic concentration at home was insufficient and he hadn't cultivated long enough for any changes to show.
He would have to test that separately later. Jiang Zhaoye jotted down the test results in his watch's memo pad and switched to cultivating Water-Ice Attribute Conversion.
In an instant, Jiang Zhaoye was pleasantly surprised. The psionic conversion was far silkier than it had been over the past month. It was like a cleared canal; though the current wasn't fast, it was no longer clogged, feeling leagues smoother than before.
He had spent more than half the summer vacation practicing Water-Ice Attribute Conversion, so he was intimately familiar with how it felt down to his bones. Not a shred of change or progress could escape his notice. Jiang Zhaoye estimated that at his current speed, it would take about a week to convert one point of ice attribute.
That was vastly better than before.
Yet with only two weeks left until the census, even if he practiced day and night without stopping, he would only convert two points at most—a drop in the bucket.
Pouting, Jiang Zhaoye felt an ache of annoyance. Recalling the eight points gained overnight, he truly understood how hard it was to go from luxury to frugality.
Knowing he wouldn't be able to settle his mind anytime soon, Jiang Zhaoye simply wrapped up his cultivation and stood up, loosening his stiff legs and feet. Just as he was wondering whether to whip up something to eat in the kitchen, the doorbell suddenly rang.
It chimed incessantly, a clear sign that some animal outside was mashing the doorbell.
He pulled open the door, and sure enough, Chen Tuizhi was standing there.
This fellow was Jiang Zhaoye's neighbor from the same residential community and had been his classmate through all three years of middle school; they hung out together walking to and from school, on quite good terms.
His old pal was wearing an otaku graphic tee stamped with some anime goddess and holding a bag of snacks, slumping casually with one hand mashing the doorbell while playing a mobile game with the other. The moe gacha game sound effects chimed from his phone alongside the doorbell's ringing, creating such a racket that Jiang Zhaoye's temples throbbed with bulging veins, and he kicked out at this apparently deaf bastard.
Chen Tuizhi nimbly dodged with practiced ease. “Insolence! You dare kick your old man?” Cursing under his breath, he looked up, and the moment he caught sight of Jiang Zhaoye, he stumbled, nearly falling flat on his face, and froze against the wall.
“Who are you?”
Jiang Zhaoye said, “...Your dad.”
Chen Tuizhi ignored him, circling him like a welcome-mat puppy and eyeing him up and down several times before his gaze focused on his face like a searchlight. “Did you fucking get plastic surgery? And color contacts?”
“How did I never realize you were so flashy?”
Jiang Zhaoye felt a bit disgusted under his stare and backed away with disdain. “No surgery. It's just... I probably awakened a spirit eye, so my eyes turned blue on their own. Also, back off—I don't roll that way!”
“A spirit eye?” Chen Tuizhi's eyes went wide. “You? Awakened a spirit eye?”
“It's not fully awakened yet; my mom said it might just be an initial opening.” Jiang Zhaoye brought out the heavy artillery that was Ms. Wen. “My ice attribute increased too, from 17 to 22.”
“Holy shit,” Chen Tuizhi uttered in heartfelt shock. “Are you fucking hacking? I checked the group chat yesterday and thought you only hit 20, but you little punk held back on us—it's 22 now? You were only at 16 during the high school entrance exams, right? A five-point jump in one month—what did you eat?”
“Just... normal practice,” Jiang Zhaoye brushed it off nonchalantly, then quickly changed the subject. “What did you come over for?”
“I swear, you're such a poser...” Chen Tuizhi tossed the snack bag into his arms. “Here's the care package your old man brought you.”
“Why did I come? To hang out! We're finally on summer vacation; cooping yourself up at home cultivating every day—have you trained yourself stupid?”
Chen Tuizhi crossed his arms and leaned casually, tapping his foot against the floor with rhythmic clicks. “Come on, walk around with me. I heard a new merch shop opened over on Huaihai Road, featuring a crossover with my goddess.”
The Huaihai Road he mentioned—formally the Huaihai Road Pedestrian Street—was one of the bustling hubs of this eighteenth-tier prefecture-level city of Huaicheng. Thanks to a dedicated anime-and-manga district and frequent conventions, it was quite popular among local youth.
Jiang Zhaoye gave it some thought; since his cultivation was stalling today anyway, heading out to catch some fresh air sounded fine.
He returned to his room to change into a short-sleeved shirt and trousers, then stepped out the door with Chen Tuizhi.
Rate on N.U.
