36: Chapter 36 The Supreme Elder

Then, a warmth filled your chest.

It felt as if something had lit up.

That sense of frustration did not disappear, but it was cut off, as if a transparent wall had been erected between you and that abyss of despair.

You could feel its presence, but it could no longer shake you.

Steadfast Heart.

Your breathing steadied, and your hands stopped trembling.

Your nose was still bleeding and your head was still aching, but your eyes regained their clarity.

You wiped away the nosebleed and looked back at the diagram.

This time, your gaze did not retreat.

Time lost all meaning in the secret chamber.

There was no sunrise or sunset, no morning bells or evening drums. Apart from the Utility Disciple delivering your meals daily and your routine washing, you remained with the diagram on the wall.

During the first month, you practiced visualization for four hours every day, using the remaining time to recover your mental energy. Your nosebleeds decreased from daily to once every three days, and the headache shifted from feeling like iron nails piercing your brain to a dull ache.

The progress was slow, but it was genuine.

On the fortieth day, you successfully constructed the outer outline of the visualization diagram in your mind for the first time.

On the fifty-second day, you began to touch the core area of the pattern—in the center of that Chaos and Void Realm, there was a... dot.

You did not know what it was, but every time your visualization touched it, your spirit would tremble violently, as if something was about to break out of its shell.

The sixty-first day.

You sat cross-legged as usual, closing your eyes to visualize. The pattern in your mind was ninety percent complete, with only that core "dot" remaining blurry.

Today, you decided to force a Breakthrough.

You gathered all your mental energy, like a sharp blade, and thrust it toward that blurry core.

Boom—

A burst of white light exploded in your mind.

Your body jolted violently, and blood seeped from your seven orifices, but you did not stop. You gritted your teeth and continued to pour in your mental energy.

That "dot" gradually became clear within the white light—

It was not a dot.

It was an endless Void Realm.

The moment you "saw" it clearly, the entire visualization diagram formed with a roar in your mind. Chaos, Void Realm, and Taixu—the three merged into one, forming a complete inner landscape.

At the same moment, the True Qi within you began to circulate spontaneously.

The Innate True Qi surged, compressed, and underwent a qualitative change within your Meridians. A brand-new power rose from your Dantian—vast, deep, and heavy—completely different from the Innate True Qi.

Grandmaster Protective Aura.

The barrier had broken.

You opened your eyes.

Everything in the secret chamber remained the same, but the world you saw was different. Fine dust visible to the naked eye drifted in the air, and every texture on the stone wall was incomparably clear.

You stood up and stretched your limbs.

Every inch of your muscles and every Meridian in your body was filled with power.

Grandmaster Early Stage.

You picked up the token, pushed open the stone door, and walked up the stone steps.

The seventh floor, the sixth floor, the fifth floor... all the way down.

When you reached the entrance of the first floor, Chen Wuyai was still in the same state, resting with his eyes closed, with wine and peanuts laid out before him.

You walked up to him and stood still.

Chen Wuyai did not open his eyes: "What, couldn't hold on? Want to change your Cultivation Technique? Only two months—longer than I expected—"

He opened his eyes.

His words ceased.

His gaze landed on you, and his pupils constricted sharply.

The aura circulating around you was thick and deep, definitely not something a Xiantian Peak should possess.

"You..." Chen Wuyai stood up abruptly, knocking over the wine pot with his sleeve and spilling wine everywhere, but he was completely unaware. "You had a Breakthrough?!"

You nodded.

"You have mastered the entry level of the Taixu Visualization Method?"

"I have."

Chen Wuyai's mouth hung open, and he didn't even notice a peanut falling from the corner of his mouth. He circled you twice, as if looking at some rare treasure.

"Two months... two months!" His voice was trembling. "The fastest record in three hundred years is eight months, and you did it in two months?!"

"Perhaps I was just lucky. Elder Chen, I will go back to wash up first." The Impurities expelled from your body after the Breakthrough were clinging to you, making you want to return and bathe immediately.

"Wait!" Chen Wuyai grabbed your sleeve. "You wait here, don't go!"

He turned and ran toward the back mountain, moving with a speed that didn't befit a thin, withered old man.

An incense stick later.

You stood in the courtyard of the West Peak, with three people now standing before you.

Zhou Shouzheng, his face full of disbelief.

Chen Wuyai, still panting.

And an old man you had never seen before.

This old man looked to be in his seventies, with a thin build, wearing a faded gray Daoist robe. His hair was completely white, yet he looked vigorous. He stood there, motionless and silent, but every hair on your body was screaming of danger.

Great Grandmaster.

And not an Early Stage one.

"Is this her?" the old man asked, his voice calm.

"Junior Martial Uncle, this is her!" Zhou Shouzheng's face was flushed with excitement. "She mastered the entry level of the Taixu Visualization Method in two months and went straight to a Breakthrough to Grandmaster!"

The old man's gaze fell upon you, as if looking at an uncut piece of jade.

"What is your name?"

"Senior Sister Lin Shuang."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-five."

"Who is your Master?"

"I have no Master."

The old man's eyebrows twitched. This was his only change in expression.

"You taught yourself to Xiantian Peak?"

"Yes."

There was silence for three breaths.

The old man suddenly smiled. It was not a polite smile, but one from the heart, as if he had found a treasure.

"Good," he said. "I am Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan, the Grand Elder of the West Peak. From today on, you are my closing Disciple."

Zhou Shouzheng was frantically winking from the side, meaning: Hurry and agree!

You looked at Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan, feeling the unfathomable aura about him.

Great Grandmaster Late Stage.

This was the strongest existence you had encountered so far.

"Disciple Senior Sister Lin Shuang pays respects to Master." You cupped your fists and bowed.

Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan nodded and then asked: "You just said you were self-taught; is there any unspeakable hardship?"

You were silent for a moment.

At this moment, you made a decision—half-truth, half-falsehood.

"My name is Senior Sister Lin Shuang, from Yunjin City in the Qing Kingdom. My brother was framed and killed, leading to the destruction of my family. The enemy is Wei Feisen, the leader of the Black Tiger Gang. To avoid being hunted, I hid my identity and Cultivated alone in the deep mountains until now."

After hearing this, Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan did not ask for details.

He only said one sentence.

"The Black Tiger Gang?" His tone was as if he were speaking of an ant. "Just a Jianghu Gang. From today on, you are a Disciple of the West Peak of the Cangyun Sect. Anyone who dares to touch you must first answer to my sword."

Zhou Shouzheng nodded repeatedly from the side: "Yes, yes, yes, Junior Martial Uncle is right. That Black Tiger Gang is nothing in front of our Cangyun Sect."

Chen Wuyai also rarely agreed: "Exactly, a bunch of clowns."

You lowered your eyes, your throat tightening slightly.

Having fled Yunjin City at sixteen, living with tigers in the deep mountains, and walking alone in the Jianghu, this was the first time you had heard someone say—this is your home, and no one can touch you.

"Thank you, Master." Your voice was soft, but steady.

Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan took a cloth bag from his sleeve and handed it to you.