"Where... what are we doing in another carriage?" Lu Feng asked.
Han Lin let out a shaky breath, smoothing down her wrinkled apron as she began to explain the chaotic aftermath of his sudden slumber.
"Young Master, you... you blew up our carriage," Han Lin whispered, her voice dropping to a low undertone so the other occupants wouldn’t overhear. "The moment you passed out, this massive, terrifying gray wind exploded out of your body. It didn’t just shatter the wood; it completely disintegrated the entire carriage! The shockwave was so powerful that the two armored guards riding on our front platform were thrown completely off their feet and tumbled into the dirt."
Ye Chenxue nodded grimly, picking up the narrative but quite silently so even the other people in the carriage could hear them. "The entire line of carriages was forced to an immediate halt. A convoy of ten transport coaches doesn’t just ignore a literal explosion in the middle of the ranks. The head guards and the transport agency’s overseers rushed over to our wreckage, demanding to know the cause of the explosion. They thought we were under attack by rogue cultivators or high-tier spirit beasts."
"And what did you tell them?" Lu Feng asked, his brow furrowing.
"We said we had no idea," Ye Chenxue said smoothly, her dark eyes locking onto his. "Han Lin and I claimed we had absolutely no idea what caused it. We told them there was a sudden structural failure or a hidden explosive talisman left by the previous owners. When the guards suspicious of the blast radius demanded to know what happened to you, Han Lin quickly stated that the explosion had hit you directly from behind, which was why you were knocked out cold."
Han Lin nodded rapidly. "It was highly suspicious, Young Master. The guards kept whispering because despite being at the literal epicenter of a blast that turned solid oak into sawdust, you didn’t have a single scratch, burn, or broken bone on your body. But since there was no evidence of enemy Qi or tracking spells, the overseer couldn’t prove anything. Still, we had a massive problem."
"Our ride was entirely gone, and the transport agency doesn’t keep spare coaches trailing behind the bulls. Every other carriage in this convoy was strictly paid for by private merchants or wealthy travelers who demanded absolute privacy. They refused to let us walk, and they certainly weren’t going to turn back to Silver Jade City."
"So how did we get in here?" Lu Feng asked, shifting his weight.
Han Lin looked slightly embarrassed, biting her lower lip. "I was desperate, Young Master. You were unconscious, and we couldn’t just sit on the side of the road waiting for bandits to pick us apart. I walked down the line, knocking on every single carriage door, begging them to let us join them. Everyone slammed their doors in my face. None of them agreed... save for the owners of this coach. They didn’t care about our plight, but they asked exactly how much we were willing to pay for the inconvenience."
Han Lin leaned in closer, her voice barely a breath against his ear. "I was panicked. I knew we had gold, but I didn’t want to draw too much attention to your pouch. So I claimed we didn’t have much coin, but... but I said we could pay them with either a single gold coin or a pill."
Lu Feng raised an eyebrow. "A pill?"
"I don’t know why I said it!" Han Lin hissed, her cheeks flushing pink. "It just popped into my head because of what you had just given to Sister Chenxue right before the blast! But the moment the word ’pill’ left my mouth, it caught the couple’s attention instantly. They practically dragged us inside."
Lu Feng shifted his gaze past Han Lin, finally acknowledging the other two occupants sitting at the far end of the large carriage.
The couple was quite the sight. The man was short, round, and aggressively pot-bellied, wearing heavy silk robes that were a bit too tight around his midsection. He looked exactly like a small-time loan shark or a corrupt merchant who spent his days counting pennies and squeezing debtors.
The woman sitting beside him possessed an average, heavily painted beauty, draped in expensive satins and excessive jewelry. It was glaringly obvious she was only with the round man for the weight of his coin purse.
Lu Feng pulled the white linen tightly around his chest, anchoring it beneath his arms as he carefully swung his legs over the edge of the velvet bench and stood up. He offered a polite, noble nod toward the far end of the cabin.
"Thank you for your hospitality in our time of need," Lu Feng said, his gaze settling on the short man. "My maid spoke the truth. I will honor the agreement and provide you with the pill."
In truth, Lu Feng only possessed one type of pill in his possession right now—the Heaven-Mending Rebirth Pill. Thanks to the absurd 10,000x return on his investment in Ye Chenxue, his infinite system inventory was currently housing a staggering mountain of ten thousand identical jade bottles.
He was fully aware of the sheer, world-shaking magnitude of what that pill could do. In the hands of someone who understood its actual worth, a single one of those bottles could spark a war between major sects or purchase a small kingdom.
But he had absolutely no intention of revealing that to a couple of greedy, small-time merchants. He wasn’t going to explain its real effects, its mythical grade, or its ability to completely rebuild the soul core.
To let them know its true value would invite future complications, greed, and a trail of blood that would inevitably lead straight back to him. To them, it would just be a generic, mysterious cultivation supplement.
Before handing over the payment, however, Lu Feng took a momentary breath to internally check on himself. He needed to understand the profound structural changes his body had undergone while he was asleep.
The moment he turned his awareness inward, his breath caught in his throat. Sitting squarely in the center of his lower abdomen, exactly where the ’trash’ of the Lu family had possessed nothing but an empty, stagnant void for eighteen years, was a dense, swirling mass of pure, vibrant gray Qi essence.
His Dantian...
It was there. It was alive, slowly rotating like a miniature, silent galaxy within his flesh. A wild, unhinged grin threatened to burst across his face, and for a brief second, he looked like a completely crazed lunatic to anyone watching.
The realization hit him like a physical blow—he wasn’t just a spectator anymore. He wasn’t a master who had to rely solely on proxies. He had a Dantian. He was a cultivator.
The second change became apparent the moment he spoke again to address his companion.
"Han Lin," he said, intending to ask for his spare clothes.
He paused as he noticed it. His voice sounded radically different. The slight, youthful raspy tone he had carried since childhood was gone. In its place was a voice that sounded significantly deeper, carrying a crisp, resonant clarity that seemed to vibrate slightly within the wooden confines of the carriage. It carried an innate, effortless weight of authority.
The third change? He didn’t even notice it himself.
Han Lin was staring up at him, her jaw slightly slack and her eyes wide with a brand-new wave of bewilderment. "Young Master... you... you look different," she stammered, her cheeks turning a slightly deeper shade of pink. "You look even more handsome than you did this morning. Your skin is... and your eyes! The blue and the green... the colors seem to have a much deeper, richer shade to them now. It’s almost intimidating to look directly at you."
Lu Feng smiled at the genuine compliment, a soft chuckle escaping his throat. "Is that so? Then I suppose the explosion acted as a rather aggressive facial treatment. Thank you, Han Lin."
Ye Chenxue watched him with a sharp, calculating intensity. As a former top disciple, she could sense the subtle alteration in his aura, though the gray, primordial nature of his core completely baffled her spiritual senses.
"How are you feeling, Young Master Lu?" She asked quietly.
"I am feeling as energetic as I could possibly be," Lu Feng replied smoothly. It was a vague statement, entirely convincing, yet hiding the absolute euphoria of his newly awakened cosmic core.
He desperately wanted to ask her about the legendary archives of the Frost Heart Pavilion—specifically if she had ever heard of a core named the Primordial Chaos Bead—but he decided against it for now. There were far too many eyes and ears in this carriage.
He turned his gaze back to her. "And your spiritual sea? How is it?"
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A/N: Please support with your power stones. That’s all I ask. Thank you!!
Gimme those stones!!!