Chapter 35

"Eldest Brother, what are you thinking about? How about go shopping on the streets with me now?"

Le Cinci waved her hand before Le Xaan with anticipation written on her face.

Le Cinci has become a different person since Le Xaan rescued her. In the presence of Le Xaan, she grew more tender and feminine these few days.

"Cinci, have you heard of inner body Qi cultivation methods?"

Le Xaan didn't respond to her question but asked her instead.

"Inner body Qi cultivation methods... Yes. My master had once talked about it." Le Cinci nodded her head. "Inner body Qi cultivation methods are different from outer body martial arts. They took a long time to cultivate. But without more than five years' worth of effort, the practitioners would be no stronger than ordinary people.

Eldest brother, why are you asking this?"

"Does your master know some inner body Qi cultivators?" Now that Deumu Wann had disappeared without a trace, Le Xaan planned to probe Le Cinci and see if her master had any access to inner body Qi cultivation methods.

"Yes. My master are friends with two monks who practiced body-maintenance oriented Qi cultivation methods." Le Cinci replied.

"Body maintenance.... Is there any who can mobilize their Qi to aid them in a fight?"

"Uh... I have never heard of that sort."

Le Cinci's response made Le Xaan a little disappointed.

But that was within his expectation.

Even someone as mysterious as Deumu Wann was only able to offer a few sets of body-maintenance inner-body Qi cultivation methods, let alone Le Cinci's master, a not-that-extraordinary outer-body martial arts practitioner.

"What? Elder Brother, you want to cultivate Qi? I hear that Qi cultivation methods were very arcane and entailed years' efforts yet yielded a little result. And one risk their health during the cultivation process. In my opinion, by any measure, outer body martial arts are superior, costing less time yet more powerful. Why do we have to practice that sort of things?" Le Cinci wondered.

"I have my own plans."

Le Xaan replied.

Then he thought about something else.

He indeed planned to go to Mountainside City, but not now. The current situation in Gourian City was in turmoil, so he was in no mood to depart and leave his family unprotected.

His family was friendly to him in this life, regardless of either Le Finn, Louir Cayv, Elder Zaner, or anyone else.

He hated to think that something unfortunate might happen to the family following his departure.

What's more, if that type of thing really happened, would he never return to Gourian City going forward?

Le Xaan sensed that his father was in the mindset to send him to Mountainside City to evade something.

"A storm is brewing..." Le Xaan released a long sigh. Laying eyes on the carefree Le Cinci before him, he was more weighted down with concerns.

"If I were to leave now, I might be able to stay safe for the time being. However, I can't evade each time; there will come a day when I have to confront it head-on.

With my current well-off family situation, I don't have to worry about money. It's a more sensible choice that I make the most of my time to grow strong, thereby granting myself more strength to protect my family and myself. "

From Gourian to Mountainside was a journey too long. Le Xaan had already drafted up another plan in his mind.

Practicing inner-body Qi cultivation methods alongside outer-body martial arts was the most fantastic path Le Xaan could conceive with his current knowledge...

It suddenly dawned on him that he had purchased a set of Qi cultivation method, the incomplete edition of 'Dark Shadow'.

"Though it's an incomplete edition, all I have on hand is this manual. Regardless, I'll give it a shot!"

While Le Cinci was nattering on and on by his side about her days learning martial arts along with her fellow disciples, Le Xaan began to recall the cultivation method of Dark Shadow.

He had tried practicing Dark Shadow earlier on, thus he still bore in mind its first level's mental scripture.

Seeing that Le Xaan was absent-minded, Le Cinci left disappointedly after a while.

Before long, Qiki entered the room with a basin of water for Le Xaan to wash his face. And then, she served a bowl of tonic soup on the table.

During this process, Le Xaan didn't speak at all. He focused on training in Dark Shadow in accordance with the manual.

He guessed that the great difficulty in cultivating in Dark Shadow might well be due to the lack of its meditation chart.

Jade Crane Skill came with a meditation chart depicting an imposing crane that was flapping its wings, poised for flight.

Maybe Dark Shadow also had its own meditation chart.

Yet, nothing like that could be found in the manual.

"A meditation chart functioned as a general outline, illustrating the route of inner body Qi circulating throughout a practitioner's body."

Unfortunately, he had too few manuals of Qi cultivation methods and was unable to cook up a meditation chart himself.

Le Xaan kept cultivating in Dark Shadow, and his injuries gradually recovered bit by bit.

After a few days that seemed but a fleeting moment, another weird thing took place.

In the city outskirts, a great deal of scribbling appeared on the wall of a compound, seemingly the work of a child.

They seemed to have been painted with a charcoal stick. However, when some people stayed up all night nearby to catch the naughty child, their efforts went in vain. More scribblings were added to the wall without anyone being the wiser.

Nobody was seen bypassing the patch of wall.

Following the Xavir family case, the Wein village's case, and the hunters' evaporation, now those scribblings appeared out of nowhere.

This series of incidents made the Gourian CIty's citizens nerve-stricken.

It had been reported that miserable screams were heard on the city outskirts during the night. A brave soul ventured to have a look, only to discover blood-tainted marks and signs seemingly from a fight between wild animals.

And an order came from the City Chief that the search for the person or item could now be halted.

On a morning, Le Finn and the other three families' heads were summoned to the City Government.

When he returned home, he wore a gloomy expression.

Le Xaan asked his father about his worries. Le Finn simply explained that they and the City Chief were in a conflict over some matters, and the meeting concluded with unresolved disputes.