“Huh? Big brother Chu, why are you so angry?”
“Hmph, she’s not your big sister.”
“If she really were my big sister, how great would that be? My father could just die from happiness.”
Chu Youzhao was speechless.
…
Meanwhile, inside, Zu An’s expression darkened. He stared at the young lady in front of him and asked, “Can you please not scream like that?”
Chu Huanzhao looked at him with tearful eyes, saying, “Brother-in-law, but it hurts a lot… I can’t take it.”
Zu An was speechless.
Since he wouldn't be able to gather the ingredients for the Marrow Cleansing Pills in the immediate future, he could only help this brat raise her aptitude a bit through other means for the time being. Cultivation aptitude did involve one's powers of comprehension, but it also depended on the quality of one's body. Some people’s meridians were thin like hairs, while others were like water pipes. The aptitude of the latter naturally far surpassed the former. The Marrow Cleansing Pill could improve both, but, Zu An could only temporarily improve the body’s conditions first. Thus, he had decided to use his own ki to help open up her meridians. After the meridians were widened, Huanzhao’s cultivation would immediately become much faster.
It sounded easy, but in reality, the process was quite difficult. After all, meridians were the body’s weakest part. It was even more difficult for those meridians that were as thin as hairs to endure external force. Firstly, the process needed someone whose cultivation was extremely high and didn't mind exhausting a lot of their own ki to help another widen their meridians. Even then, as long as that person was even slightly careless, they could explode the patient’s meridians and kill them.
That was why in the real world, very few did such a thing. The risk versus reward was just too unequal. Usually, only clan elders would improve the bodies of their clans’ most outstanding disciples, thus bringing them up another level. However, as for disciples with more ordinary aptitudes, no one had ever tried to use such a process on them. It was way too easy for the user of the technique to damage their own cultivation, frequently losing a decade of painstakingly gained cultivation from an accident. In addition, it was easy for other problems to occur, such as the meridians being too fragile and breaking. The difficulty of such a thing was way too high, so rather than wasting all of that effort, it made more sense to nurture those with better aptitudes.
Even so, Zu An didn’t have such problems. He didn’t have any duty to a clan; he always did things as he pleased. He felt that it was worth it to help Huanzhao, so he naturally didn’t mind using a bit of ki to give her a helping hand. Furthermore, the Heaven Devouring Sutra he cultivated was quite unique. He had absorbed quite a bit of ki from the great battle to begin with, so it was the perfect opportunity to use some to help nurture Huanzhao. On top of all that, his current cultivation granted him very precise control over ki, so the degree of danger was decreased substantially.
“Sit properly and don’t move around. I’m trying to widen your meridians right now. Big problems can easily occur if there are any accidents at all,” Zu An warned.
“It’s fine. If brother-in-law ends up crippling me, I can just rely on you for the rest of my life,” Chu Huanzhao said with a giggle.
Zu An was speechless. He really didn’t know whether to praise this girl as being open-minded or ignorant.
His fingers continuously tapped her body. He had to admit that this young lady’s body was quite dainty and flexible, a completely different sensation from the fullness of Liu Ning. He was scared of breaking her from using too much strength.
Zu An suddenly found it a bit laughable. His Shining Finger skill that was originally designed for slaughter had now been developed to this extent… The original creator of the skill would just die from anger, right?
…
Meanwhile, two people were walking side by side up the mountain. One of them was dressed in black silk stockings and had a cold expression; she was, of course, Jiang Luofu. There was a middle-aged man next to her with a long, thin mustache. His entire appearance looked a bit wretched.
“I didn’t expect you to come back,” Jiang Luofu said coldly.
The middle-aged man next to her said with a sigh, “Teacher has passed, so how can I not come back and take a look?”
“Teacher died in the secret dungeon. We cannot even pay our respects to his remains,” Jiang Luofu said, looking aggrieved.
The middle-aged man remained silent for a moment, saying, “I’ll try and talk to the new libationer. He witnessed teacher’s death. Right, who is that person? Why haven’t you told me all this time?”
“He's actually an old acquaintance of yours. Second brother, or should I call you brother-in-law?” Jiang Luofu replied with a conflicted expression, as if she was thinking about her big sister.
The middle-aged man was naturally Ji Dengtu, who was the academy’s second disciple.
“An old acquaintance?” Ji Dengtu asked, briefly puzzled. Even so, Jiang Luofu didn’t tell him, so he could only wait patiently in annoyance.
As they chatted, they inadvertently arrived at the mountaintop. Jiang Luofu looked at the small hut in front of her, saying, “We’ve arrived. The new libationer is inside.”
Ji Dengtu was about to say something when a shy voice suddenly cried out, “Brother-in-law, be more gentle. It hurts!”
Jiang Luofu and Ji Dengtu were speechless.