652: Chapter 652: Cultivation (Asking for monthly votes in a big chapter) 652: Chapter 652: Cultivation (Asking for monthly votes in a big chapter) “Does it hurt?”
In the deep silence of the night, a faint fish-belly white seed to rise in the sky on the edge of the city.
In the last darkness before dawn, on the lonely balcony, an elderly man approaching his seventies squatted in front of a young child.
The elderly man’s hand caressed the child’s forehead as he gazed at her cheeks and asked softly.
The girl’s eyes widened as she looked at her grandfather.
She bit down hard on her teeth, exposing her two small incisors, her little face flushed red, but she still firmly shook her head.
He Ao saw the discomfort on his granddaughter’s face, yet his hands did not cease their movent.
At this mont, he was using his Divine Sense to open up the unresponsive pathways within his granddaughter’s body.
This ti, the sensation of opening up Jia Xi’s pathways was almost completely different from when he opened the pathways for Pete’s daughter, Ennie.
Ennie’s talent was good, so the pathways in her body were almost without blockage or narrowing, and they had already ford, allowing He Ao to open them quickly.
In contrast, Jia Xi’s condition was entirely different.
The pathways inside Jia Xi’s body were very small, and there were hardly any congested areas, but most of the pathways were fragile and very narrow, as if they had not yet fully ford.
He Ao did not know whether this was a characteristic of the child or Jia Xi’s own innate Talent, as he controlled his Divine Sense to carefully saturate Jia Xi’s pathways.
Contrasting with the fragility of these pathways was their extrely strong recovery ability.
And the effect this produced was that Jia Xi’s fragile pathways possessed a kind of ability to absorb He Ao’s Divine Sense.
To be precise, it was He Ao actively embedding his Divine Sense into Jia Xi’s pathways.
The fragility of the pathways allowed He Ao to etch patterns into Jia Xi’s pathways with minimal cost using his Divine Sense, and the strong recovery ability quickly replenished the ‘damaged’ areas, yet the etched patterns still left trace marks.
In other words, He Ao could directly carve Strengthening Circuits within Jia Xi’s body, and when Jia Xi began to practice, the energy flowing through her body’s pathways would naturally pass through these Strengthening Circuits, becoming enhanced and condensed.
This would greatly reduce the loss of energy as it flowed through the pathways, increasing the efficiency of energy usage.
These Strengthening Circuits themselves would also beco reinforced by the flow of energy, enhancing Jia Xi’s physical constitution while further solidifying the pathways, making them resistant to wear caused by prolonged practice.
If the energy utilization efficiency of an ordinary genius during practice is 75%, then Jia Xi’s could reach 95% during her practice.
While carving the Strengthening Circuits, He Ao was also continuously expanding the narrow energy pathways within Jia Xi’s body.
In a sense, He Ao was performing the ‘Washing Marrow and Cutting Bones’ process on his granddaughter.
And the ‘price’ of this Washing Marrow and Cutting Bones was not so easy.
The destruction to the body, whether it be carving the circuits or expanding the pathways, was painful.
As He Ao’s Divine Sense continued to advance, Jia Xi’s cheeks grew redder, and a low ‘whimpering’ sound ca from her mouth,
Tears glistened in her eyes, but they did not spill over.
He Ao watched his granddaughter’s condition, his eyes narrowing slightly.
But his control of the Divine Sense did not stop.
It wasn’t until much later that He Ao finally withdrew his Divine Sense.
“Grandpa, is it over?”
Jia Xi lifted her head, her reddened eyes fixed on He Ao,
“It’s over.”
He Ao withdrew his hand, looking at his granddaughter’s small cheeks.
Just then, his half-crouched body swayed, and a wave of intense dizziness disturbed his balance.
The Divine Sense consud in performing the Washing Marrow and Cutting Bones on Jia Xi wasn’t much.
With the aid of the Strengthening Circuits, the final consumption was only about one-third or a bit more, but the prolonged focus and etching of the Strengthening Circuits took a significant toll on He Ao’s spirit.
Jia Xi quickly reached out her hands to embrace her grandfather.
Having worked out with Cito since she was little, Jia Xi was physically fit and quickly provided support to He Ao.
She said nothing, but her nose twitched slightly.
“It’s okay, Grandpa’s fine.”
He Ao also wrapped his arms around her.
The first light of dawn rose, casting its glow upon the elderly man’s graying hair and the girl’s tender face.
“Jia Xi, do you rember what Grandpa just taught you?
Take a deep breath.”
He Ao said softly.
“Mhm.”
Jia Xi responded and began to take a deep breath.
As did He Ao, at the sa ti.
The first strand of Daybreak energy entered He Ao’s body.
This strand of energy quickly entered his chest, clustered inside him, and, under his guidance, traveled towards his limbs.
The process was not very smooth.
Cito’s Talent was not bad, but he was too old.
Even though years of fitness maintained so sort of energy circuit in his body, it couldn’t stop his internal pathways from aging as well.
Most of Cito’s internal pathways were unobstructed, with few blockages, but there was a noticeable trend of narrowing.
Moreover, these aging pathways had no recovery ability, so He Ao could not inscribe Strengthening Circuits on them.
He could only use Divine Sense to guide the energy to flow in the manner of Strengthening Circuits to reduce energy dissipation.
In fact, He Ao had started exploring how to use Strengthening Circuits within the body since last night.
Once he saw the effects and confird there were no problems, he dared to perform ‘marrow cleansing and bone cutting’ on his granddaughter.
The strand of energy quickly passed through He Ao’s limbs and then gathered back in his chest.
After circulating for an entire loop, a small portion remained.
He Ao continued to let this small portion of energy circulate through his body and then opened his personal attribute panel.
[He Ao (Cito)]
[Permission Level: Advanced Player]
[Physical Quality: 1194 (8)]
[Skills: Talent Sequences 272: Super mory (C-level), Basic Firearms Mastery (Soul Part), Talent Sequences 72: Secret Mage (C-level) (Unavailable)]
[chanical Modification: None]
[Martial Arts: Qi Refinent and Spirit Transformation (C-level) (Partially Available)]
Physical Quality increased from 7 to 8.
This was the result of He Ao’s cultivation through a sleepless night.
Cito’s Talent was good, both in terms of vascularty and energy absorption efficiency.
If he had been fortunate enough to obtain the Body Tempering Technique when he was younger, his achievents might not have been much less than Regit’s.
Although Cito had always kept fit, he had never acquired a body training thod like the Body Tempering Technique.
His fitness regin could only maintain his health and a slightly higher physical quality than an average person to prevent high-intensity work from breaking him down.
Of course, Cito’s decades of practice had not been without effect.
Shortly after He Ao opened his personal attribute panel, that last bit of energy completely dissolved into his body.
Under He Ao’s gaze, the physical quality on the personal attribute panel quickly changed from ‘8’ to ‘9’.
Cito’s body, like Regit’s, had beco very adept at absorbing energy after years of rigorous exercise.
In the early stages of practice, there was no need to consider the body’s tolerance too much.
All that was needed was a constant infusion of energy.
Moreover, with He Ao’s Divine Sense guiding the energy flow and maximizing the use of energy, the early stages could see a rapid pace of cultivation.
However, it was still difficult to catch up with soone like Regit who had already honed his body to the limit.
“How do you feel?”
He Ao closed the attribute panel and gently patted the back of the girl embracing him.
“All those round things aren’t running around anymore, huh,” Jia Xi said with so surprise, “It’s like they know where the path is.”
It seed that those Strengthening Circuits inscribed inside Jia Xi’s body, in so sense, also served to guide the energy flow.
“Then, Jia Xi, have you tried to guide those round things to ‘advance’ according to the thod Grandpa taught you?”
He Ao slowly released the girl in his embrace and asked with a smile.
“Yes!”
Jia Xi nodded vigorously.
He Ao smiled as he touched his granddaughter’s head.
Yesterday evening, he had been guiding his granddaughter to sense the existence of those energies.
He called this sensory ability ‘Qi Sensing,’ and it was, in fact, the most difficult first step in entering the world of martial arts.
This ‘Qi Sensing’ is essentially about feeling the presence of sothing inside one’s body out of thin air.
So people can enter this state imdiately, while others can’t sense it no matter what they do.
Of course, this might also have sothing to do with ‘comprehension.’
Like Ennie, who felt the energy’s presence the very first ti she tried.
And Jia Xi, perhaps because her focus was not concentrated enough, took several attempts to succeed, and even after sensing the energy’s presence, she couldn’t properly guide it through her body.
It wasn’t until early this morning that the little girl woke up from her dreams and saw He Ao sitting by the window reading and cultivating, that in her drowsy state, she suddenly grasped the knack of it.
Then He Ao took her to the balcony to help her with the Body Tempering Technique.
“Grandpa, it looks like the sun is about to rise.”
Jia Xi turned her head, looking towards the pale light on the horizon.
“Yes, the sun is coming up,” He Ao agreed, glancing at the sky and slowly standing up.
“Grandpa, what are we eating this morning?”
Jia Xi looked up at He Ao.
“Let grandpa tidy up a bit, and we’ll go out for breakfast,” He Ao said with a smile as he walked towards the house with his granddaughter, “By the way, Jia Xi, you can’t stop the energy circulation I taught you, okay?”
“Okay!”
The little girl nodded enthusiastically and dashed towards the living room’s old smart TV, “Then grandpa, I’ll play a ga for a while.”
Watching his granddaughter sit in front of the sofa, He Ao went back to the bedroom.
On the desk in the bedroom, there was still the old book he had been reading.
The notes left in other parts of this book were written by Kavi when he was a child, with no recent notes.
He Ao had spent the whole night going through all the books in the house, finding no trace left from before his son’s disappearance.
Eventually, he returned to this very first book once again.
The notes in this book ntioned two things, ‘Polluted Monsters’ and ‘Pollution Cleaning Departnt.’
Polluted Monsters appeared to be a na for a type of monster, and it was unclear whether Vite, whom he t last night, belonged to this category of Polluted Monsters.
The Pollution Cleaning Departnt seed to be a division specifically designed to deal with these Polluted Monsters.
From Kavi’s notes, both ‘Polluted Monsters’ and ‘Pollution Cleaning Departnt’ seed to be entities that had always existed, but Cito had no recollection of these in his nearly seventy years of mory.
So it seed these entities, like the Transcendent world, were buried in secrecy.
And did Kavi co into contact with these entities under certain circumstances?
Was this so-called ‘pollution’ the cause of the car accident that befell Kavi and his spouse?
Going by the system’s usual patterns, mainline missions often have so connection with the characters in the Copy World.
So, could this ti’s mainline mission ‘Winding Hill’ be related to this so-called ‘pollution’?
Kavi had ntioned in his notes that he had never seen the so-called pollution when he was studying in Dawn City.
At that ti, Kavi might not have been exposed to the Transcendent world and did not know what the Transcendent world in Dawn City was like.
But He Ao was sowhat familiar with the Transcendent world of Dawn City and was also quite certain that, although various strange pollutants had infiltrated the city, there was no monster species that could be called ‘Polluted Monsters’ nor a departnt known as ‘Pollution Cleaning Departnt.’
Therefore, these two entities could possibly be ‘specialties’ of Saint Joen City.
Kavi’s last sentence, ‘there’s sothing wrong with this city,’ also indirectly confird He Ao’s speculation.
However, from the last two sentences, it seed that Kavi had ti to leave the city, and his visit to see his father Cito could indicate that he was prepared to take Cito with him.
But at the ti, Kavi didn’t explicitly state the situation to Cito, suggesting that at least then, Kavi believed there was still ample ti.
Not long after that, he and his wife disappeared.
So what happened that led to this unexpected turn of events?
Besides this information, Kavi also ntioned in his notes that the area where Cito lived had the fewest appearances of Polluted Monsters.
What could that an?
Was there sothing special about this area?
The good news was, He Ao now had many clues, but the bad news was that they were all disjointed and without any clear lead.
It looked like he needed to grasp a main thread and comb through it carefully.
He Ao closed the book and replaced it back in its original location, then he walked out of the room.
“Grandpa, what are we having for breakfast?”
Jia Xi looked at him walking out, quickly turned off the TV, and leaned in.
“How about hot dog sandwiches?”
He Ao smiled and ruffled his granddaughter’s hair.
“Yes, please!”
Jia Xi nodded happily.
Grandfather and granddaughter opened the room door and left the house.
At the mont the room door closed, He Ao paused.
He was not simply taking his granddaughter out to eat, but this morning, Cito had arranged to et with the funeral parlor to collect his son and daughter-in-law’s ashes.
“Grandpa, what’s wrong?”
Jia Xi, who had already walked to the corridor, looked back at He Ao.
“It’s nothing.”
He Ao shook his head and took his granddaughter’s hand as they walked toward the elevator.
—
Zelen Street Stars Hospital
The life signs monitor next to the hospital bed beeped steadily.
The woman lying in the bed suddenly opened her eyes, then abruptly sat up.
“Ah!”
The nurse, who had co over to change her dication, was startled and knocked over a bottle of dicine.
Only then did the woman realize she was in a hospital.
She turned her head towards the nurse, reached out her hand, and caught the falling bottle in mid-air, passing it back to the nurse, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” the nurse said, sowhat surprised, and began to change her dication, “You’ve broken three ribs, but luckily your internal organs weren’t damaged.
You need to take proper rest now.”
These words triggered so hazy mories in the woman’s mind.
She looked around and saw a butterfly knife with a tallic sheen on the bedside table.
More mories flooded in,
She imdiately turned to the nurse,
“Excuse , is the gentleman who brought in last night…
it should be an elderly gentleman, is he still here?”
“Last night?”
The nurse shook her head, reached for a tablet next to her, and said, “I was not on duty last night, but there’s only your na on the dical record, no other signatures,”
As she spoke, she handed the tablet to the woman, “Here’s the dication and diagnosis details, as well as the charges.
Take a look, and if there are no issues, please sign.”
“Oh okay,”
The woman took the tablet, glanced at the list, and asked while continuing, “That person who brought here, didn’t he leave any records or contact information?”
“I have no record here.”
The nurse shook her head.
“Is that so…”
The woman looked at the tablet in her hands, lost in thought.
Countless fragnts flickered through her mind, then she suddenly stopped and looked up at the nurse, “Was there a fire anywhere last night?”
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