[V5C172 – A Distance Within Reach]
Zhao Yuying accompanied Qianye to the Marrow Cleansing Pond at dawn, but unexpectedly encountered Zhao Xiuzhu and Zhao Fenglei at the entrance to Fortunate Courtyard.
Zhao Yuying naturally wasn’t polite toward Zhao Fenglei. She rolled her eyes and said, “What are you here for? Could it be that you’re here for another try? Have you accumulated enough points?”
Zhao Fenglei stared at Qianye with flames spewing out of his eyes. However, with so many people present here, he had to retain his elegance and manners as Duke Yan’s eldest grandson. He couldn’t act as unbridled as Zhao Yuying.
That being said, although Zhao Yuying didn’t have the slightest air of a noble lady and was always spewing profanities, no one had been able to find fault with her in moral and conduct, not to mention she was also powerful in battle. Thus, these little quirks were merely written off as quirks.
How could Qianye leave any face for Zhao Fenglei after seeing his hostile gaze? He glared straight back without even bothering to disguise his austere killing intent.
Zhao Fenglei was furious and couldn’t help but say, “I really do want to see what this lowly commoner you guys paid such a high price for will amount to. Going into the pond and failing to produce any strange phenomena, now, that would be quite the embarrassment.”
Zhao Yuying sneered, “That’s still better than a certain someone who doesn’t dare go into battle and has no points for the Marrow Cleansing Pond at all.”
These words struck Zhao Fenglei where it hurt the most. His countenance was suffused with a green hue, and he became so angry that his face grew somewhat contorted. “Don’t forget that there’s an engagement between us!”
Unexpectedly, Zhao Yuying waved her hand as though she didn’t give a damn. “It’s no use unless this mommy here agrees.”
At this point, Zhao Yuying suddenly approached Zhao Fenglei and said in a whisper, “It won’t be your turn even if this mommy is gang-r*ped.”
“You!!!” Zhao Fenglei almost went mad with anger. He pointed at Zhao Yuying but couldn’t find the words to say.
Zhao Yuying had suppressed her voice, but it was enough for everyone nearby to hear. It could be assumed that this news would spread to every corner of the Zhao clan before long. Zhao Yuying was well known for shooting her mouth off, and it wouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone. Only Zhao Fenglei would turn into a laughingstock.
Zhao Xiuzhu, on the side, couldn’t help but wear a smile. Zhao Yuying glared at him and asked unceremoniously, “What are you grinning about?”
Zhao Xiuzhu, on the other hand, was still smiling as he replied, “I felt that I shouldn’t be staying out of matters during these troubled times, so I decided to end my origin power purification in advance and breakthrough to the champion rank. These days, I was fortunately able to produce the phenomenon of violet qi pillars dividing the north and south. Sigh, although it can be considered passable, I’m far, far behind Jundu.”
These words seemed humble, but in truth, he was quite pleased with himself. Such a phenomenon was probably only second to Zhao Jundu among all the descendants who cultivated the West Pole Violet Qi. Zhao Yuying’s cultivation art was a different school and couldn’t be compared directly, but they were probably not too far off, judging from the quality of his visual phenomena.
Zhao Yuying only nodded at his self-praise before pouring it out through the other ear. She reached out to pat Qianye’s shoulder and said, “It’s your turn. Remember to make it lively, lest this mommy loses face.”
Qianye nodded. But how could he guarantee something like a visual phenomenon?
Zhao Yuying dragged an old man in attendant’s clothing and whispered something. Then, she returned and said softly, “I just asked. Only Jundu and Xiuzhu have used the Marrow Cleansing Pond in the recent period. Jundu used up a third, and that idiot Zhao Xiuzhu’s consumption is negligible. More than half of the origin distillate remains, so you don’t need to hold back. Use it all up! It’s one of Zhao Fenglei’s cousins after your turn. Let him wait!”
Qianye only laughed. Zhao Yuying was merely speaking vicious words—an over-intake of external origin power could cause his body to burst apart. Qianye clearly remembered what had happened in the Song clan’s sky grade cultivation chamber. Add to that the fact that his origin power requirements would grow exponentially at each advancement, it shouldn't be a problem to surpass Zhao Xiuzhu.
The bell rang at this point, indicating that the time was nigh. A number of stewards from the Fortune Courtyard led Qianye through two doors to arrive just outside the pond.
The stewards explained how to use the pond and things to pay attention to. Then, they had him remove all his clothes and accessories. The articles were placed in a designated location where a specialized staff would keep watch. The value of the origin distillate within the Marrow Cleansing Pond couldn’t be calculated in gold coins. This could be considered a way of preventing people from smuggling the distillate away.
Qianye pushed open the simple wooden door before him and entered a small, exquisite courtyard. In the middle of this compound was a pond cut out from stones of various colors. Several gemstone steps led into its deep, jade-green waters. The contents of the pond were rolling about as though it were boiling.
The water surface was suffused with a lingering mist, as if there were stacking layers of clouds upon it that rose past the banks by quite a bit. However, not a strand of mist seeped out of the pond as though there was an invisible wall holding them in.
Qianye activated the Eyes of Truth and found that the mist was actually made up of dense, tangible origin power, while the pond was filled with a liquefied form.
Qianye took a deep breath at the side of the pond and felt the origin power in his body become much more active. He moved forward along the steps and entered the pond. He then relaxed his body and lay down, slowing sinking to the bottom of the pond.
The water wasn’t hot at all, but Qianye could feel waves of scalding pain on his skin as though red-hot steel nails were piercing his skin continuously. This little pain was nothing to Qianye—he quickly pulled back his concentration and slowly circulated his origin power according to the chant the stewards had provided him.
As the origin power started to flow within his vessels, Qianye soon felt a deep force continuously drawing upon the origin power from his nodes and aggregating them in his chest. Strands of origin power began to revolve and gradually took the form of a fledgling vortex.
This was the Zhao clan’s secret art tailored for use in the Marrow Cleansing pond. It was capable of raising the chances of a successful advancement. This was where the foundations of a major clan lay.
The vortex had just taken shape when the origin distillate in the pond turned into a scalding hot stream which gushed in through his nodes, mixed with his origin power and rushed toward the newly formed origin vortex in his chest.
Qianye’s accumulations were extremely deep. Not only was his origin power capacity several times larger than ordinary rank-nine warriors, but each and every drop of it was also pure to the extreme. He was at the end of all progress.
However, this was only the first step. His origin power vortex had to grow continuously all the way to its limit before reaching the most critical moment—that was where the essence of the Marrow Cleansing Pond lay.
But the stage of condensing qi into a vortex was exceptionally slow and long. No matter how much origin power poured in, he was like a bottomless hole capable of devouring everything clean. Meanwhile, there seemed to be very little change in the vortex. It would expand every so slightly only after a long time.
Qianye was in no rush, either; he was neither arrogant nor impatient. He entered a state of emptiness and forgot about the flow of time.
Within the Fortune Courtyard, Zhao Yuying had climbed up to the third floor of the building. This place was usually reserved for the elders of the clan. However, those old men had no interest in watching Qianye ascend—only the younger generation paid him attention.
In truth, all the young descendants in the clan were fairly curious about Qianye. Zhao Jundu had caused quite a stir back then when he announced that he would take in an adopted brother. His authority grew exponentially after advancing to the champion rank, and even the clan elders were no longer willing to go against his will regarding this small matter. As such, it could be considered settled.
Because of this, it was only natural that everyone wanted to know just what was so special about Qianye that even Zhao Jundu had to view him favorably.
It was just that most Zhao clan descendants were too proud to admit that they were inferior to Qianye without even fighting him. They didn’t feel that he would produce any visual phenomena, either. No visions meant that there was nothing to comprehend, and attending the ritual would be a pure waste of time. Only Zhao Fenglei and Zhao Xiuzhu had a different idea; they were looking to shame Qianye ruthlessly in front of Zhao Yuying.
Zhao Yuying didn’t hold back at all. She climbed right up to the third floor and occupied the central table, even ordering people to deliver wine and dishes. There, she drank and ate with great gusto while reading a secret volume.
Qianye’s ascension might take a couple of days or even longer, and it was inevitable that she would be bored. However, Zhao Yuying was determined to sit here personally and watch from the beginning to the end, lest certain people play tricks during Qianye’s advancement.
Zhao Yuying was feeling quite carefree and leisurely, but the others couldn’t enjoy such treatment. Zhao Fenglei and Zhao Xiuzhu duly seated themselves on the second floor. They weren’t willing to meet Zhao Yuying on the third floor just yet because that would truly be seeking awkwardness.
The early phases of advancement for normal people were mostly calm and uneventful. Having nothing better to do, Zhao Xiuzhu asked Zhao Fenglei, “Cousin, I heard you’ve met Qianye before. Do you think this person has any chance of winning Yuying’s affection?”
Zhao Fenglei shot up from his seat and asked furiously, “What do you mean?”
Zhao Xiuzhu wasn’t afraid at all as he replied with a smile, “I just feel that this Qianye might shock everyone with a single brilliant feat. Who knows?”
Zhao Fenglei sneered, “He’s just a kid Old Four picked up from some unknown place. An overnight rise to fame? This is simply not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth. Yuying is just temporarily muddled. She’ll come to herself sooner or later.”
Zhao Xiuzhu laughed radiantly after hearing this. Although no one could say it out loud, many people were already making guesses in secret. For someone with Zhao Jundu’s temperament to view Qianye as his brother, maybe he really might have some Zhao clan blood. But the clan rules were strict, and it wasn’t so easy for external descendants to return to their ancestry.
There were also talks about how Duke Chengen and Princess Gaoyi had met Qianye personally—now, that was thought-provoking. Even if people had an axe to grind, it would be unwise to act rashly without fully understanding the truth.
Zhao Fenglei was resentful upon seeing Zhao Xiuzhu’s expression. However, Zhao Xiuzhu was the grandson of Duke Yan’s third brother. Although the latter was inferior to him in status, the visual phenomena produced during his ascension proved that he was still above Zhao Fenglei in terms of talent. It was a certainty that Zhao Xiuzhu’s future status would rise—even if it probably wouldn’t exceed Zhao Fenglei, he wasn’t someone the latter could casually lecture, either.
Zhao Xiuzhu naturally knew when to stop. The two were of the same branch, closely related, and also had the same enemies. There was no way they would start an internal fight in Fortune Courtyard.
It was at this time that some footsteps rang out from the stairs, and it was actually Zhao Ruoxi who appeared.
The two immediately stood up and greeted her at the same time. But Zhao Ruoxi only shot them a glance and continued onto the third floor without even bothering to smile.
“This…” Zhao Fenglei’s face was red, and he was so angry that he couldn’t speak. As the eldest grandson of Duke Yan, his status in the clan was extremely high. Throughout the residence, how many people dared not give him any face?
Unfortunately, however, the two ladies on the third floor belonged to that group. Zhao Fenglei still dared to talk back at Zhao Yuying, but he didn’t even have the confidence to retort in front of Zhao Ruoxi. Seriously speaking, Zhao Ruoxi, with her Red Spider Lily, was already comparable to all the elders in status. Her position was quite aloof in front of the younger generation—even Zhao Jundu couldn’t surpass her before his ascension.
Zhao Ruoxi ran up to the third floor as though she were riding on the clouds and sat down across Zhao Yuying. She then proceeded to give the latter an extremely ill-willed glare.
Zhao Yuying was quite surprised. She had rarely had dealings with Zhao Ruoxi although she was quite close to Zhao Junhong and Zhao Jundu, not to mention they were also quite different in their temperaments.
Seeing Zhao Ruoxi’s torrential momentum, Zhao Yuying simply couldn’t recall when she had ever offended the young girl. “What’s going on? Did I provoke you in some way?”
Zhao Ruoxi said with a cold voice, “When Qianye comes out, he’ll move to my place from yours.”
Zhao Yuying’s expression sank as she replied coldly, “Isn’t it Jundu’s residence that he should be moving to? Are you trying to order me about?”
Zhao Yuying reached out and instantly brought Mountain Splitter into her hand. She had actually brought this hand-cannon of extreme firepower along. It would seem she had come well-prepared, and Mountain Splitter would fire immediately at anyone who so much as tried to do anything to Qianye.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Ruoxi also placed her little hand on the table, and in her grasp was the Red Spider Lily. Zhao Yuying’s eyelids twitched as an uncontrollable chill rushed up from the bottom of her heart and her entire body froze up. She couldn’t move at all!
The Red Spider Lily was a Grand Magnum of the present age, while Zhao Yuying was in an injured state. After being locked down by its killing intent, she only felt her surroundings freeze up as she lost the ability to resist.
“You’re mad!” Zhao Yuying had never expected Zhao Ruoxi would really use the Red Spider Lily. This was the Zhao clan! A blast from this gun would turn not only Zhao Yuying but also the entire building into dust.