Qin Yuan did not return to the association immediately.
Instead, he rented a private cultivation training room in the eastern district.
Not the cheap public rooms.
Not the association's standard rooms either.
He chose a high-privacy training chamber registered under a neutral cultivation service company, one known for serving rich disciples, independent experts, and people who did not want others asking questions.
The front desk clerk gave him a polite smile.
"Combat chamber, meditation chamber, or hybrid chamber?"
"Hybrid."
"Destruction tolerance?"
"High Common peak."
"Privacy grade?"
"Highest available."
The clerk's fingers paused.
"That costs extra."
Qin Yuan looked at him.
The clerk coughed.
"Right. Of course. Association talent. My bad."
A few minutes later, Qin Yuan stood inside a sealed cultivation chamber.
The room was wide, circular, and empty. The walls were black alloy reinforced with pale blue formation lines. The floor could absorb impact, repair shallow sword marks, and adjust terrain. A formation dome prevented energy leakage. Projection crystals floated near the ceiling, ready to replay purchased art recordings.
A screen appeared.
PRIVATE HYBRID TRAINING ROOM.
ENERGY SIGNATURE MASKING ACTIVE.
DAMAGE RECORDING INTERNAL ONLY.
OUTSIDE SPIRIT SENSE BLOCKED.
Qin Yuan nodded once.
"Good."
He took out the Windless Sky Veil Art first.
The projection crystal rose into the air.
A translucent figure appeared in the center of the room.
It was an old man in plain white robes.
He stood there silently.
At first, Qin Yuan thought the recording had not started.
Then he realized the old man was already moving.
No sound.
No ripple.
No obvious footwork.
The old man crossed ten meters as if the room had gently decided to place him somewhere else.
Qin Yuan's eyes narrowed.
Interesting.
Text unfolded beside the projection.
WINDLESS SKY VEIL ART.
First Layer: Quiet Step.
Second Layer: Breathless Motion.
Third Layer: Aura in Air.
Fourth Layer: Wind-Body Illusion.
Fifth Layer: One With Wind.
Foundation Note: The art does not force wind to obey. It persuades the body to stop offending the wind.
Qin Yuan read that line twice.
Then he understood.
Most movement arts treated air as resistance.
This art treated air as an ally.
The first step was not to move faster.
It was to stop making the world reject his movement.
Qin Yuan began.
His first attempt was already better than most beginners could hope for.
His feet touched the ground lightly. His breathing slowed. Spirit Qi sank into his legs and spread across his skin in a thin layer.
The system responded immediately.
Art Comprehension Talent Activated.
Focused Practice Talent Activated.
Spirit Sense Talent Activated.
Running Talent Activated.
Escape Talent Activated.
Calm Mind Talent Activated.
Windless Sky Veil Art Analysis Beginning.
He followed the old man's movement.
One step.
Two.
Three.
A tiny disturbance appeared near his ankle.
Wrong.
He corrected the angle of his foot.
Another disturbance formed around his sleeve.
Wrong.
He adjusted his arm.
His breathing created a faint pulse in the air.
Wrong.
He lowered his breath into a smoother rhythm.
Windless Sky Veil Art Experience +0.31
Movement Talent Experience +0.18
Aura Concealment Talent Unlocked — Level 1
Breath Control Talent Unlocked — Level 1
Qin Yuan's expression did not change.
He moved again.
This time, the chamber barely heard him.
Again.
Less sound.
Again.
The hem of his clothes stopped fluttering.
Again.
The air around his shoulders softened.
Minutes passed.
The projection old man moved silently.
Qin Yuan followed.
The gap between them was still enormous.
But it was shrinking at a speed that would have made any instructor question reality.
At the ten-minute mark, his footsteps no longer made sound.
At the fifteen-minute mark, his breathing became so thin that even Qin Yuan's own ears could barely catch it.
At the twenty-minute mark, his aura began to blur.
Not vanish.
Not yet.
But it no longer sat around him like a clear flame. It spread into the air, thin and harmless, like background mist.
System notifications flowed through his vision.
Windless Sky Veil Art — Entry Achieved.
Quiet Step — Initial Mastery.
Breathless Motion — Initial Understanding.
Aura Concealment Talent Level Up.
Spirit Sense Level Up Progress Increased.
Art Comprehension Experience +4.7
Focused Practice Experience +3.9
Qin Yuan stopped only after his Spirit Qi circulation grew unstable.
He exhaled slowly.
If anyone outside saw this, they would not call him a genius.
They would call him a problem.
Elder Mu would probably drop his teacup.
The association elders would surround him like wolves pretending to be grandfathers.
As for Elder Su…
Qin Yuan imagined her cold, strict face freezing for three seconds before she muttered something like, "This is medically offensive."
He almost smiled.
Then he took out the Threadlight Severing Sword recording.
The translucent projection changed.
This time, a middle-aged swordsman appeared.
He held a thin blade and stood before seven armored targets.
The recording started.
One breath.
The swordsman stepped in.
His sword flashed once.
Seven targets split apart at the throat, heart, knee tendon, wrist, spine, eye socket, and lower abdomen.
Every cut was thin.
Every cut was clean.
No wasted movement.
Qin Yuan watched carefully.
This art suited him.
Not grand.
Not loud.
Not honorable in the way sect disciples liked to brag about.
It was efficient.
Qin Yuan lifted the Cloudline Sword.
He copied the first strike.
The sword moved too wide.
Wrong.
Again.
The angle was too obvious.
Wrong.
Again.
The wrist turned late.
Wrong.
Again.
A thin sword line appeared in the air.
Better.
Threadlight Severing Sword Experience +0.52
Sword Mastery Experience +0.41
Killing Technique Experience +0.33
Weak Point Recognition Talent Activated.
Qin Yuan continued.
The chamber targets rose from the floor one after another.
He cut throat lines.
Heart lines.
Tendon lines.
Artery lines.
Meridian disruption lines.
He did not imagine honorable duels.
He imagined enemies trying to kill him.
A 9th layer Spirit Opening cultivator charging with superior strength.
A wizard hiding behind a spell shield.
A warrior with a thick body and reckless confidence.
A beast lunging through mist.
A smiling noble sending assassins.
Cut the throat.
Disable the hand.
Destroy the knee.
Pierce the heart.
Blind the eye.
Sever the spine.
Leave nothing to drama.
When his arm grew tired, he activated Flash Meridian Burst.
The first attempt sent pain snapping through his legs.
Qin Yuan stopped immediately.
"Too crude."
He studied the manual again.
The art worked by forcing Spirit Qi through selected meridian routes for a temporary burst. If used badly, it could damage muscles, nerves, and meridians.
Dangerous.
Useful.
He adjusted the flow.
A thin surge moved through his calves.
He stepped.
His body flashed forward three meters.
Too much force.
He nearly slammed into the wall.
Qin Yuan twisted mid-step, used Reed-Bending Evasion to shift his balance, and slid across the floor instead.
His shoulder still hit the wall.
Not hard enough to injure him.
Hard enough to teach him.
Flash Meridian Burst Experience +0.66
Reed-Bending Evasion Experience +0.48
Emergency Dodge Talent Experience +0.27
Pain Adaptation Talent Experience +0.09
Qin Yuan looked at the wall.
Then at his legs.
"Again."
The second attempt was cleaner.
The third was faster.
The fourth almost silent.
By the seventh attempt, he combined Windless Sky Veil with Flash Meridian Burst.
His body flickered forward without sound.
The air barely stirred.
The Cloudline Sword flashed.
A target's throat line split open.
Qin Yuan landed behind it.
Three-Breath Execution Form activated next.
First breath.
Close distance.
Second breath.
Create opening.
Third breath.
Kill.
Simple.
Brutal.
Perfect.
Qin Yuan practiced until sweat soaked his back and his Spirit Qi grew thin.
He did not stop because he lacked focus.
He stopped because continuing would damage his foundation.
That was pointless.
Growth required pressure, not stupidity.
When he finally sat cross-legged in the center of the chamber, his system screen opened.
Windless Sky Veil Art — Initial Mastery.
Threadlight Severing Sword — Initial Mastery.
Flash Meridian Burst — Entry Achieved.
Reed-Bending Evasion — Entry Achieved.
Three-Breath Execution Form — Entry Achieved.
Aura Concealment Talent — Level 3.
Breath Control Talent — Level 3.
Wind Flow Perception Talent Unlocked — Level 1.
Silent Movement Talent Unlocked — Level 2.
Qin Yuan studied the screen quietly.
In less than one evening, he had gone from buying arts to making them usable.
Not mastered.
Not perfected.
But usable.
For anyone else, this would have been the kind of progress worth screaming about.
Qin Yuan only closed his eyes.
Not enough.
The beast gathering was still dangerous.
The experts who would go there were not polite training targets. They would be greedy, experienced, and shameless. The moment treasure appeared, law and courtesy would become decorative words.
He needed to assume everyone there would kill him if the profit was high enough.
Which meant he could not enter as Qin Yuan, seven-star alchemist.
He would go as no one.
No name.
No face.
No aura.
Just wind passing through the trees.
Outside Jadefall City, far beyond the clean roads and suppression towers, the wilderness had already begun moving toward chaos.
In the eastern outer region, under a bruised purple evening sky, two figures moved through a forest of black-barked trees.
The first was a young man in a patched blue martial jacket, his hair tied messily behind his head with a red cord. He had bright eyes, a lively face, and the kind of grin that made him look like he was either fearless or terrible at understanding danger.
His name was Tang Jue.
6th layer Spirit Opening.
Born from a small mountain town most maps only remembered when tax season arrived.
The second was a young woman in a fitted gray-green coat, a sword at her waist and a tablet-sized formation compass floating beside her shoulder. Her black hair was tied neatly, her expression cautious, and her eyes kept moving over every footprint, broken twig, and disturbed patch of grass.
Her name was Xu Yiran.
Also 6th layer Spirit Opening.
Book-smart, careful, and currently regretting at least four of her life choices.
Tang Jue crouched behind a moss-covered stone and pointed ahead.
"There. See it?"
Xu Yiran whispered, "I see a dirt-brown little beast chewing grass like it has never had a thought in its life."
"Exactly."
"That is not exactly suspicious."
"Yiran, that thing crossed three beast territories and not a single predator touched it."
"Maybe it smells bad."
"It does not smell bad."
"You smelled it?"
Tang Jue gave her an offended look. "I have survival instincts."
"You followed a random beast for six hours because an old hunter told you it looked 'too calm.'"
"And now we're here, aren't we?"
Xu Yiran looked around the dark forest.
"Yes. In the wilderness. At night. With no backup. Amazing work."
Tang Jue grinned.
"You complain, but you still came."
"I came because someone had to make sure you didn't die chasing a rabbit into a death zone."
"It's not a rabbit."
"It looks like a rabbit."
"It has antlers."
"Tiny antlers. Embarrassing antlers."
Ahead of them, the strange little beast hopped forward.
It was dull brown, with short legs, a fat body, and two small branch-like horns growing from its head. Its aura was so weak that most cultivators would dismiss it as useless.
But it moved with unnatural certainty.
Not fast.
Not slow.
As if it knew exactly where it was going.
Tang Jue's grin faded slightly.
"See? No hesitation."
Xu Yiran's expression turned serious too.
Her formation compass spun slowly.
"The energy density here is rising."
"Spirit Qi?"
"Not just Spirit Qi."
The compass let out a faint hum.
Xu Yiran frowned.
"There's mana too. And… something heavier. Vital Force, maybe. Warrior-type energy."
Tang Jue's eyes brightened.
"So the rumors were real."
"I said energy is rising. I did not say ancient inheritance treasure palace free-for-all jackpot."
"Same direction."
"No, those are very different sentences."
The little beast hopped between two leaning trees.
Then vanished.