The days passed by in poverty, chaos, and the painful struggle of cultivation.
Zhang Shaozhong felt like he was being driven to the brink of schizophrenia!
During the day, he has to be Ling Qingxue's "calm baby," in the afternoon he has to be Ye Meier's "raging beast," and at night he has to worry about the food expenses of the two ancestral masters and the thickness of his own wallet.
That minuscule progress was slower than a snail's pace.
Ling Qingxue's saying "many a little makes a mickle" made him feel that even if the universe were destroyed, it might not be enough to fill a single toe.
The "strength" that Ye Meier boasted about was just going from not being able to lift the computer case to being able to barely lift it and walk a few steps, which was a far cry from her claim of "tearing apart tigers and leopards with her bare hands".
The two women's mutual sarcasm became a daily background noise, more frequent than the noise from the street outside the window.
"Concentrate your mind! Focus your attention on your dantian! Where have you drifted off to again?"
—This was Ling Qingxue's cold rebuke.
"Push harder! Didn't you eat?! Yes! Like that! Shout it out! ...Tsk, your voice sounds like a cat's meow, so weak!"
—This was Ye Meier's exasperated outburst. "Demonic cultivation techniques are crude and utterly useless, a waste of vital energy!"
"The orthodox methods of the Xuanmen? Even a tortoise can crawl faster than that! Might as well just wait to die!"
Zhang Shaozhong's head was throbbing from their noise, and he almost went mad several times!
Although his meager cultivation level wasn't enough to cause any demonic possession, at most it would just result in poor blood circulation, dizziness, and blurred vision.
That afternoon, under Night Charm's "passionate guidance," he once again attempted to impact a certain joint.
The intense, fiery energy surged through his body, causing his meridians to ache and his head to be covered in sweat, yet he couldn't break through that barrier no matter what he tried.
"No! Not here! How stupid! It's that 'branch' next to it!"
Ye Meier was so anxious she was jumping up and down. The "branch" she mentioned was naturally their demonic way of speaking.
A chilling correction came from the side:
"Nonsense! This is a branch of the 'Hand Shaoyang Meridian,' which should be gently nourished with pure Qi. How can it be subjected to such brute force?"
"Bullshit! It's clearly the 'Crimson Blood Aperture'! We have to break through it in one go!"
"Nonsense! Damaging your meridians could have disastrous consequences!"
"You know nothing!"
Zhang Shaozhong was annoyed by their noise, and the hot energy in his body became even more chaotic due to his unstable mind, surging and thrashing within him, causing him to grimace in pain.
He instinctively recalled the routine Ling Qingxue had taught him that morning, and tried to guide the almost imperceptible, cool spiritual energy to soothe his restless blood and qi.
It would have been better if we hadn't tried it; once we did, things went completely wrong!
The moment that faint cool air came into contact with the raging heat, it was like a drop of water falling into a hot oil pan, instantly triggering a violent conflict!
Two energies with completely opposite properties and completely opposite routes collided violently in his narrow meridians!
"Awooo—!"
Zhang Shaozhong screamed in agony, feeling as if he had been punched hard in the stomach, his internal organs twisted together, his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground, convulsing all over.
"Idiot! I told you they can't operate simultaneously!"
Ling Qingxue's expression changed slightly.
"Hey! Kid! Are you alright?"
Ye Meier was also startled and quickly squatted down.
The intense pain made Zhang Shaozhong's consciousness somewhat blurred.
He felt as if his body was about to burst from the two tearing forces.
In his extreme discomfort, the contract imprint in his mind, which had always been barely noticeable, suddenly began to heat up without warning, even emitting an extremely faint, flickering light through his clothes.
Just as the contract mark heated up, deep within Zhang Shaozhong's chaotic and agonizing mind, as if a drowning person were grasping at a straw, an extremely strong yet vague thought arose:
"Stop fighting...stop arguing...come together...can we...come together...?"
His idea wasn't some profound technique; it was purely a desperate whim and an instinctive desire born out of desperation.
He couldn't even understand what "coming together" meant; he was just subconsciously fed up with the conflict and opposition.
However, the instant this absurd, almost impossible thought surfaced, the burning contract imprint in his mind suddenly lit up!
Immediately afterwards, an indescribable feeling arose.
Right where the two energies inside his body were violently clashing and almost tearing him apart, right at the very center of the burning sensation of the contract mark, it was as if an extremely tiny "point," smaller than the tip of a pin, had appeared out of thin air!
The moment this "point" appeared, it generated a strange, faint "suction".
It neither favored Ling Qingxue's icy spiritual energy nor Ye Meier's hot blood and qi. Instead, it acted like a neutral, greedy bystander, forcibly pulling a sliver of each of the two energies that were in fierce conflict and shoving them roughly into that "point"!
This process is extremely brief, but the pain it brings escalates dramatically!
It was as if the two forces weren't colliding, but were being forcibly twisted and devoured! Zhang Shaozhong groaned, almost fainting on the spot.
But right after this extreme pain, that "point" seemed to saturate, trembled slightly, and then, a trace of... an extremely strange and indescribable "thing" seeped out from it.
It is neither the cool, refreshing spiritual energy of Ling Qingxue, nor the fiery, restless energy of Ye Meier.
It gave people a feeling of extreme antiquity, chaos, and faintness, yet also a sense of inexplicable inclusiveness. This energy was so faint that it was almost negligible, a hundred times thinner than the spiritual energy of heaven and earth that Zhang Shaozhong could perceive.
As soon as it appeared, it slowly dispersed and merged into Zhang Shaozhong's body, which was ravaged and on the verge of falling apart.
In an instant, the excruciating pain miraculously eased a little.
It wasn't that it was cured, but rather that the "sharpness" of the conflict was slightly "neutralized" by this chaotic and inexplicable energy, becoming somewhat dulled.
It's like dropping some random thing into a pot of boiling oil; it doesn't lower the oil temperature, but it strangely calms the boiling for a moment.
The whole process happened in the blink of an eye.
Ling Qingxue and Ye Meier outside only saw Zhang Shaozhong suddenly collapse to the ground in pain. A faint light seemed to flash under his clothes, and then his convulsions subsided. Although he was still pale and covered in sweat, his breathing seemed to have become a little easier.
"Hey? Kid? Don't scare me!"
Ye Meier panicked a little and poked his face.
Ling Qingxue also frowned, and a tiny bit of cold air unconsciously gathered at her fingertips, as if she wanted to investigate but was afraid of causing another conflict.
Zhang Shaozhong collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, feeling as if he had just been kicked back from the brink of death.
He looked inward with lingering fear (actually, he didn't know how to look inward at all; it was just a vague feeling), and found that although the two deadly forces were still there, they seemed... less tense.
It seems like something else was added in the middle, and it was used to balance things out?
Moreover, the heat of the contract imprint in his mind gradually faded.
"Just...just now..."
His voice was hoarse, filled with lingering fear.
"What the hell is that?"
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