Chapter 77: Resonance

Zhao Jundu shook his head and said, “No, I can’t. It’s a time of many troubles lately. The dark races are constantly mobilizing large numbers of troops, and the rebels have somehow acquired a large amount of weapons, and they are also getting restless. I really can’t afford to leave.”

Zhao Junhong shrugged and said, “Alright, indeed, these are all major issues. Hehe, anyway, you’re going to be the next patriarch, so who else should be burdened but you? But, going to the frontlines for a week to fight a few battles, can’t you even spare that much time?”

Zhao Jundu gave a faint, helpless smile. “Father spends most of his time with the army, and he doesn’t like to deal with such trivial matters. You and our eldest and third brothers are also uninterested in administrative affairs. If I don’t do it, who will? These matters, no matter how big or small, can’t be pushed away. You should know that the other two branches are eyeing this position! If we want to keep the position of patriarch within our Cheng’en Duke lineage, someone has to work hard.”

Zhao Junhong raised his hands and laughed, “Fine, fine, let’s not talk about it anymore. Anyway, at least before I break through to become a warlord, I won’t have any interest in administrative affairs.”

Zhao Jundu could only shake his head.

Of his three full brothers, the eldest and the third were completely unsuited for administrative duties. Zhao Junhong had some talent in this area, but he was more interested in martial arts, and whenever there was an opportunity, he would go to the battlefield to fight, and he didn’t care about mundane matters.

Zhao Junhong casually picked up a provincial report, flipped through it, and said in surprise, “The headquarters of Ghostcord in Youshen City was burned to the ground? Who dared to show such disrespect to Elder Ho?”

Although Zhao Junhong didn’t get involved in administrative matters, he was quite perceptive about the various movements within the clan.

Elder Ho belonged to the lineage of the Duke of Youguo and was usually quite active in front of Zhao Wei Huang’s faction. Most of the affairs he handled were of a gray nature, and the secretive organization Ghostcord had a close connection with him. Fighting and killing people was one thing, but having their base destroyed was a significant grievance.

Zhao Jundu, showing little interest, said, “I heard that Ghostcord first destroyed a trading post of someone, and then got revenge and counter-attacked them.”

Upon hearing that it had nothing to do with their family, Zhao Junhong immediately put the file aside. As he was about to leave, he remembered something and asked, “By the way, fourth brother, when do you plan to break through to become a warlord?”

Zhao Jundu continued to review documents, not even lifting his head, and said calmly, “I need to further refine my foundation. There’s no rush.”

Zhao Junhong sighed and said, “I’m already finding it hard to resist the urge to level up.”

Zhao Jundu put down his pen, looked up, and said seriously, “Your foundation is not yet solid. Even if you break through to become a warlord, you won’t be able to go far. What’s the point?”

“Ah, I still have a scheduled battle with that guy. It’s been almost half a year.”

Hearing this, Zhao Jundu’s expression remained unchanged, but a flash of coldness appeared in his eyes.

Zhao Junhong suddenly became alert and said, “Fourth brother! Don’t touch him.”

Zhao Jundu was extremely protective of his family. After the Tianxuan Spring Hunt, someone in a social setting had mocked Zhao Junhong’s defeat. Before Zhao Junhong could do anything, Zhao Jundu, without a word, dragged the person to the back garden and beat him up.

Zhao Junhong recalled that Zhao Jundu had once sent someone to look for Qian Xiaoye, but the person had already left the Yin family. When the war on the Continent of Eternal Night erupted, and the situation on other continents also became tense, the matter was put aside, and he hadn’t thought about it since.

Zhao Jundu smiled, shook his head, and said, “Since Second Brother has spoken, I naturally won’t disobey.”

After Zhao Junhong left, Zhao Jundu’s gaze fell on the gray dossier at the bottom of a pile of documents. With the war raging on the Continent of Eternal Night, finding a mere hunter was like fishing for a needle in the sea. So he only had people keep an eye on Song Qi.

Although there wasn’t any accurate information, Song Zining and that person should have been in contact. However, Song Qi had his own troubles recently, and the internal affairs of the Song family were not easy to meddle with. Zhao Jundu didn’t want to reveal this information to his second brother at this moment.

After leaving the Xinglong Merchant House, Qian Ye did not rush back to the inn but continued to wander around the city. He strolled into a courtyard with an ancient style, and looking up, he saw a horizontal plaque above the gate, which read, “Zhenxi Martial Arts Academy.”

The calligraphy was quite good, but the name “Zhenxi” was a bit too grand for a small martial arts academy.

Fortunately, Qian Ye wasn’t here to make trouble; he just wanted to rent a cultivation room. While he could cultivate in any quiet place, a specialized cultivation room with special elixirs to aid in faster cultivation was always the best choice.

The Empire was founded on martial strength, and within its borders, there were various gun shops, armor workshops, and martial arts academies. Besides recruiting disciples, teaching combat techniques, and accepting fighting tasks, renting out cultivation rooms was also a main business for martial arts academies.

Qian Ye walked into the martial arts academy and told the disciple at the entrance, “I want to rent the top-tier cultivation room for twelve hours.”

The disciple, with a well-trained smile, respectfully replied, “It’s one gold coin for every three hours.”

The price made Qian Ye involuntarily sigh. The Zhao family’s territory was indeed wealthy. Even in such a border town, the prices were more than ten times higher than those on the Continent of Eternal Night.

However, after being led to the location, Qian Ye found that the so-called top-tier cultivation room was over a hundred square meters, with all the necessary facilities. The walls were inscribed with medium-sized arrays to gather origin power, not just simple patterns. This was a considerable investment.

A pretty female disciple brought in a censer, filled with Zhuyuan incense to aid in cultivation. Seeing this, Qian Ye felt that the money was at least somewhat worth it.

The door to the cultivation room closed with a steam-driven mechanism, and Qian Ye immediately sat cross-legged, wasting no time. He first cultivated the Bingfa Jue. After successfully advancing his dark golden blood energy, his constitution improved further, and his growing blood energy protected his internal organs. Therefore, this session of Bingfa Jue progressed impressively, reaching an astonishing forty-five tidal waves.

The later stages of Bingfa Jue invoked more powerful tidal waves, and the increase in origin power was more rapid. After thirty tidal waves, each additional wave increased the cultivation speed by 10%. After forty waves, each additional wave increased the cultivation speed by 20%. In other words, his current Dawn origin power cultivation speed was actually double that of when he had forty waves.

At this rate, in a few months, Qian Ye would be able to activate his ninth origin power node, leaving only one step to becoming a warlord. At that time, he would need to purify his origin power, solidify his foundation, and find the best opportunity to break through.

As the tidal waves of the Bingfa Jue gradually subsided, Qian Ye slowly opened his True Vision, preparing to verify a conjecture he had made earlier.

Under True Vision, he could see that the air was still filled with dark origin power, and the origin power arrays on the walls frequently emitted a misty Dawn origin power, quite thin, and would soon be neutralized by the dark origin power.

But compared to the outside, the indoor environment was indeed better for cultivation.

In the corner of the room, the censer was emitting wisps of pale white Dawn origin power. The Zhuyuan incense enhanced the concentration of Dawn origin power, thus increasing the cultivation speed. From the quality of the incense, this Zhenxi Martial Arts Academy was indeed quite conscientious.

Qian Ye began to gather origin power. As he breathed, Dawn origin power flowed from various nodes, and the purified origin power by the Yao Chapter gathered towards his chest, slowly forming a small vortex.

Once the vortex formed, the Dawn origin power in Qian Ye’s body suddenly resonated with the ubiquitous dark origin power. The previously formless and substanceless dark origin power suddenly gained weight, and Qian Ye felt as if he were underwater, with every movement sluggish.

The ocean of dark origin power was far denser and heavier than normal seawater. Even with the strength equivalent to a vampire viscount, Qian Ye found it difficult to move, and as the vortex of Dawn origin power grew stronger, the pressure from the surrounding dark ocean increased.

With almost all of his Dawn origin power gathered, Qian Ye needed to use at least 80% of his strength to slowly throw a punch. Each punch caused the dark ocean within a meter around him to tremble, and a fine stream of dark origin power, like a tiny brook, leaped out and entwined around his fist.

Now, this punch carried not only his own formidable strength but also the origin power in the surrounding space.

Qian Ye directed this punch at a steel mannequin placed against the wall. The mannequin, made of thick steel and covered with a thick layer of rubber, was specifically for martial artists to practice combat techniques.

Before Qian Ye’s hand touched the mannequin, the strand of origin power drawn by the punch hit it first, like a wave crashing against the shore, causing the area to immediately collapse!

Qian Ye instinctively felt that something was wrong and immediately pulled back. But the punch, like a boat in a wave, was hard to start and equally hard to stop.

The steel mannequin made a light cracking sound and suddenly crumpled, as if trampled by a giant beast, almost turning into a sheet of metal, with the edges curling and a hollow hole in the middle.

The punch, still carrying its momentum, struck the wall where the steel mannequin was leaning. Cracks spread across the entire rock wall in an instant, and with a loud boom, the solid rock wall collapsed into a pile of rubble in front of Qian Ye.

This cultivation room of the martial arts academy was definitely well-built, and it had hosted many eighth and ninth-grade soldiers, but under Qian Ye’s punch, it was utterly defenseless.

At that moment, Qian Ye finally understood why, after cultivating the Yao Chapter and advancing his blood energy, he felt his punches becoming slower and heavier during his practice sessions. It seemed that he had already been able to resonate with the origin power in the environment, but he had lacked True Vision and thus couldn’t discover the secret.

The fundamental principle of the secret martial techniques of the great families of the Empire was to mobilize the origin power within the body for attacks. Some high-level techniques could also draw on the origin power in the environment, making them much more powerful, and thus most of them required a warlord to master.

Gathering origin power into a vortex and drawing on the origin power of heaven and earth was the power of a warlord, and it was the fundamental difference between a warlord and a soldier.

Without any special martial technique and with not all of his origin power nodes activated, Qian Ye was already capable of using warlord-level skills, which clearly owed to the purified Dawn origin power.

From this, it was clear that the Yao and Xuan chapters of the Song family’s ancient scroll were not simple and must contain more secrets yet to be discovered.

At that moment, there was a commotion outside. The door opened, and several disciples of the martial arts academy rushed in, their faces filled with anxiety.