Chapter 40

Le Xaan drew a deep breath.

"This sort of sleight of hand might prove useful on temporary terms. Yet, as time dragged on, if other similar cases popped out, it would only backfire..."

He put away the letter and pondered for a while.

The Le family, powerful as it was in Gourian, was no less vulnerable against those weird things than ordinary people.

If they were faced with that sort of thing, the family's fate would be all too apparent.

Therefore, the only thing he could do was bolster his strength.

Should he encounter those eerie things in the days to come, his strength would enable him to protect himself and his family.

He did not know how strong he had to grow to fight against that type of mysterious entities. All he could do was try his best to punch above his limits.

Over the next few days, Le Xaan kept consuming a lot of elixirs.

Qiki would prepare the nourishing tea for him to drink after each meal every day.

After his body was nurtured with such a great deal of tonics for three days, the side effects in the wake of the modification on Dark Shadow were erased.

Four days later...

"Now it's time to improve Dark Shadow by one more level!"

Le Xaan stood in front of the tree that he had slashed at a few days before.

The previous cut reached only one-fifth of the tree's diameter in depth. The wood around the cut was now desiccated.

As one of the thickest trees amid the forest, it now seemed to be withering.

Le Xaan decided on this place where he would make his breakthrough in Dark Shadow.

He sat down near the tree and placed the teapot beside him on the ground. And then he crossed his legs, seated there.

The Dark Shadow's inner body Qi kept circulating around his waist.

"Deep Blue."

Le Xaan called out inwardly.

The cheat tool popped up before him. Le Xaan cast a glance at the row of Dark Shadow.

Then he pressed the button 'Modify' by focusing his mind on it.

"Elevate Dark Shadow by one level!"

He whispered mentally.

"Swish."

As this thought of his sprang up, the stats at the rear of 'Dark Shadow' turned from 'Novice' into 'The First Level' in a flash.

No sooner had Le Xaan been able to display his joy than a current of heat spread through his body.

He felt as though his body was roasted by a blazing flame.

Within a few breaths, sweat poured profusely out from Le Xaan's body, and his skin once again turned crimson red.

Fortunately, his body suffered less than the last time.

In over a dozen minutes, Le Xaan's breathing had been soothed.

Numerous meridians had been unlocked within Le Xaan's body and would be included in the Dark Shadow's Qi circulation network. It would take quite some time for these channeled meridians to be restored.

Le Xaan now felt aching all over his body.

Yet, meanwhile, he felt like his body was so full of strength that it was about to explode.

"Let me try its current power."

Le Xaan rose to his feet and drew his blade from behind his lower back.

Le Xaan mobilized a sliver of Dark Shadow Qi instantly.

This time, it's the Qi with his mastery in Dark Shadow at 'The First Level'.

It was more scalding than ever that when Le Xaan marshaled it to flow through his flesh, bones, and skin, those tissues seemed on the verge of combustion.

The inner body Qi flowed out from his kidneys, through his back, his right arm, and then his right palm into the blade.

"Swish!!"

As the blade sliced through the air, it made an ear-offending noise.

Finally, it was buried deep into the trunk.

This time, it penetrated to the depth of half of the tree's diameter before coming to a halt.

"Good job!"

Le Xaan felt elated.

He was sure that he had made quite remarkable progress.

In the following days, he no longer went on his daily routine but occasionally went for a stroll and, most of the time, immersed himself in a slumber.

He would sometimes activate Jade Crane Skill into a speedy circulation mode. That helped boost his recovery pace.

And he had to be prepared to break through into the next two levels.

The manual on his hand had recorded the cultivation method of the first three levels of Dark Shadow.

Back at the Le Mansion.

Yuri was now carrying a basket in which a few boiled eggs, a bag of soybean cakes, and two pieces of dried smoked pork were placed.

She strode through the side gate of the Le Mansion while greeting the guard and then walked down an alley.

A kid ran past the end of the alley, being chased by a few more kids, with a stick of candied haw in his hand. That was part of these kids' frolicking.

Yuri sighed at this sight. She recalled that when Little Balir was still a kid, he was as adorable as these children, running after his friend with a candied haw only for a taste of it.

Back then, Yuri was still a young woman, aged around eighteen. Each time after she finished her work at the Le Mansion, she would buy some snacks with her reward tips for Little Balir, a kid aged three or four at that time.

But now...

The mere thought of Little Balir's current mental disorder made her feel sorrowful.