The table was cleared. Shen Yi could see the old woman gearing up to revisit the subject of introductions.

He found an excuse and retreated to his room.

Settle down first, get established, pick up a job where you might not survive the year — and people expect you to be thinking about starting a family.

He closed the door and sat on the edge of the bed.

He tipped all three Aperture-Opening Pills into his mouth. An intense, concentrated bitterness spread from his tongue — like biting into raw goldthread.

Having previously swallowed a rancid beast core whole, this registered as manageable.

He looked at the panel.

【Jade Liquid · Meridian-Severing Dragon Capture — Untrained】

【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 300 years】

These reserves had been kept for emergencies.

If he burned through them entirely, he’d be in serious trouble against a powerful demon — a single full use of the Heavenly Astral Blood-Corruption would leave him completely drained. And now that he was in the Division, a path toward Jade Liquid Realm internal arts was at least within reach — once he’d oriented himself, acquiring one shouldn’t be out of the question. That would presumably be another significant lifespan investment.

Three hundred years of demon lifespan, and it felt somehow insufficient.

He shook off the thought and fed the reserves into the Meridian-Severing Dragon Capture in measured increments.

Whatever the situation, every improvement gained was one more sliver of survival odds. Stay alive first. Everything else after.

【Year one — you work through the text until you have it memorized, while simultaneously refining the medicine in your body. Having never tasted rare medicine before, you are extraordinarily frugal with it — not a thread of essence goes to waste.】

【Year three — you swallow the second pill. Your meridians and apertures widen again. The text has long since been memorized. An enormous volume of information about meridians and pathways floods your mind — your eyes carry the clarity of someone who has not yet been confused by knowledge.】

【Year nine — the last pill’s essence has been absorbed without remainder. Your apertures have widened by a full ten-fold. You feel a modest satisfaction. You still don’t quite understand what meridians actually are — but you observe everything around you with diligence.】

No wonder the General only passes one technique to each disciple.

If the Four Harmonies True Astral Force was the art of wielding qi, the Meridian-Severing Dragon Capture was the art of taking the physical body to its ultimate limit. Two completely unrelated disciplines. Each one demanded a lifetime of immersion to master properly, and doing one justice was already an exceptional achievement.

“Master any one of the five and you can dominate demons at the same level” — because anyone capable of actually mastering one was already exceptional to begin with. For someone with ordinary talent, a lifetime might not be enough to reach true understanding.

I’ll take both.

Shen Yi drew out several more decades of demon lifespan and fed them in.

【Year twenty-six — you extend your palm and run your fingertips lightly across rough bark. Your fingers dance along the trunk, and you lean close — as if you can hear the tree’s heartbeat.】

【Year forty-eight — you lift a boulder. It feels like a stone egg, something living gestating within. A wild grin breaks across your face. YES — you understand!】

【Year sixty-nine — you sit slumped on the ground in complete deflation. You understood nothing. You just went briefly insane. You haul yourself upright and vent your frustration on the boulder, worn smooth by weather, striking it over and over — then you trail off mid-swing and stare at it and mutter that the rock seems to have died somehow.】

【Meridian-Severing Dragon Capture — Novice.】

【Year seventy-one — Striking Affinity activates. Your palm technique grows increasingly natural. Minor Mastery.】

【Year seventy-three — you finally understand what it means for everything to have meridians. What remains is only learning when to act. Major Mastery.】

【Year seventy-five — Perfection.】

Once the breakthrough came, everything that followed accelerated.

It reminded Shen Yi, with some amusement, that he apparently had genuine talent in striking and palm arts. The years spent on the Cloudscattering Longfist hadn’t been entirely wasted.

Five years — one Jade Liquid Realm striking art, from Untrained to Perfection.

So this is what it feels like to be actually talented at something.

As it turned out, as long as no mysterious quality called “insight” was involved, he was reasonably capable after all.

He closed the panel.

Eyes shut, he turned his attention inward and took stock of the changes.

The most immediate sensation was the amplitude of qi surging through the widened apertures — far beyond what he’d had an hour ago.

For others, that kind of expansion probably felt like doubled endurance in a fight.

For Shen Yi, it meant something more specific: he could finally deploy the Heavenly Astral Blood-Corruption at full capacity, rather than the diminished output he’d been limited to by insufficient reserves.

And with qi refinement doubled, a mere five years of demon lifespan would still be enough to refill after a full expenditure.

The Meridian-Severing Dragon Capture, in essence, is a method of imposing restrictions.

He spread one pale, cleanly jointed hand open in front of him.

Leave the surface intact. Drive the palm like a blade. Sever the meridians within.

Seal the apertures. Extinguish the life.

He remembered Lin Baixi’s condition when he’d found her — a similar technique applied to her by a demon. She’d been at Jade Liquid Realm Perfection. Whatever had reduced her to that state was almost certainly at the Condensate Realm.

And here was a Jade Liquid Realm technique that could reach into similar territory.

Seventy-five years well spent.

The days that followed were, by any reasonable measure, comfortable.

In Baiyun County, the question had always been whether the next demon encounter was survivable.

Here, in this quiet courtyard, there was something approaching peace.

Beyond the walls stretched two thousand eight hundred mu of Demon Suppression Division grounds — cloud-band black robes everywhere, the accumulated presence of countless practitioners rising like a blade into the sky.

The safest place in all of Qingzhou.

Shen Yi let himself ease off for a few days. He’d been wound tight for a long time. Some rest was overdue.

The cultivation methods were secured. His arrangement with Lin Baixi was concluded.

But the old woman pickled vegetables with genuine artistry, and eaten alongside plain congee it produced a remarkable appetite. She didn’t seem to mind the company, and Shen Yi had no pressing reason to leave.

Though it would be better if Commander Fang, during the Meridian-Severing Dragon Capture demonstrations, could manage not to keep a trace of condescension on his face.

Shen Yi wasn’t sure what he’d done to earn the man’s disdain.

He also didn’t have the energy to spend on it.

Flattery had never been his skill set, and he had no interest in developing it. He’d learned that lesson from his old life.

“Describe your impressions.”

Fang Heng lowered his fists and looked into the middle distance.

Shen Yi stood a half-step to the side and behind, and thought about it. “Very good.”

Fang Heng’s Meridian-Severing Dragon Capture had recently reached Minor Mastery — he could see the early signs of genuine quality in the palm work. Given the man’s age, and set against Shen Yi’s own seventy years of simulated grinding before the understanding finally arrived, this was genuinely impressive. Still some roughness around the edges, but legitimately good. Shen Yi was willing to admit he was nowhere near Fang Heng’s level.

“Hm.”

No real comprehension whatsoever, just dressing it up in vague pleasantries. Fang Heng felt the corner of his mouth curl almost imperceptibly.

He said nothing more. He dressed himself and turned back toward his room.

Then voices outside broke the quiet.

“Brother Shen — come out.” Liu Xiujie’s head appeared around the courtyard entrance, kept low. “Come on. Time to get moving.”

“Sure, give me a moment.”

Shen Yi rolled his wrist. He’d rested long enough. Letting the edge dull entirely would be its own kind of waste.

This comfort had nothing to do with him in any lasting sense. It wouldn’t keep him safe forever.

He turned toward his room to get the saber.

The powerfully built figure turned back slowly.

Fang Heng’s cold eyes fixed on him. He raised an eyebrow, and his measured voice carried a thin edge of something that was not warmth.

“Who gave you permission to agree?”

“…”

Shen Yi’s step slowed.

He turned and met the gaze.

A moment passed.

A faint smile rose to Shen Yi’s face.

And something quietly dangerous surfaced in his eyes.

(End of Chapter)