The knight's cultivation can be strictly broken down into two stages.
The first stage is the "Qi Seed Stage," where the cultivation involves years of tempering the body and supplementing nutrition through medication to nurture a Battle Qi Seed in the lower abdomen.
Most cultivators, as long as they have sufficient nutrition, can produce a Battle Qi Seed.
However, the vast majority are only able to cultivate a single Battle Qi Seed, which emits a trace amount of power to fortify and invigorate the body.
After all,
the blossoming of the Battle Qi Seed, resulting in the formation of genuine Battle Qi, is extremely difficult.
Like Russell's mother, who was a precious daughter of the Rainflower Family, she never lacked resources nor guidance from famed teachers, but ultimately, she stopped at the Battle Qi Seed.
Even Russell himself, if not for his predecessor's desperate breakthrough attempts, might have spent his entire life stuck at the Qi Seed Stage, unable to progress an inch.
Fortuitously, Russell perfectly inherited the brilliant prospects that his predecessor sacrificed his life for.
With the Battle Qi Seed blossomed, he stepped into the second stage—the "Battle Qi Stage."
According to the process of cultivation, the Battle Qi Stage can be further divided into two levels. One is the "Armed Knight" level, which involves opening up the meridians and boosting the Battle Qi with the goal of piercing through all the body's meridians to allow the Battle Qi to flow throughout the entire body, thus stepping into another level—the "Great Knight."
Therefore,
in the Gloomy Dreamland, the luminous silhouettes of the Armed Knights are incomplete, missing arms or legs, or even heads—it's quite normal.
In the entire Wuyao Snake Manor, Armed Knights like Charles, Tom, and John bear these incomplete forms within the Gloomy Dreamland.
Only Eric possesses a complete human silhouette.
This signifies that Eric, as a Great Knight, has reached the pinnacle of Battle Qi cultivation, and to ascend to even higher realms, he can no longer do it on his own.
He must either contract with a Fantasy Beast or ride a Flying Dragon.
"Wake up... call for Eric, capture the assassin alive!" At this moment, Russell, while in a state of sleep, had his eyes tightly shut and brows deeply furrowed.
It seemed as if he was struggling desperately, his body trembling slightly.
Suddenly,
like being pushed to a limit, Russell's tightly closed eyes snapped open, two sharp glints flashing through the darkness.
"Hu, hu, hu..." Russell gasped for breath and then incomparable joy followed, "I really woke up!"
But the next moment, he became anxious, "Oh right, the assassin!"
He quietly got out of bed, then moved to the window, carefully peering out to see a slim figure clinging to the outer wall of the second floor, pressing against the window, seemingly trying to determine who was residing in the room.
"The rooms over there are empty, a good opportunity!"
Russell turned around, quickly opened the door to his room, and then, tiptoeing, he made his way to the guest room where Eric was staying; the door was unlocked.
He pushed the door and entered.
With just that slight noise, Eric was jolted awake: "Who's there!"
"Shh, Mr. Eric, it's me!" whispered Russell, "Hurry, come with me. An assassin has come to the manor's guesthouse and is checking the rooms. It's very likely they're here for me!"
Eric, taken aback, didn't speak but got out of bed barefoot and followed Russell to the main bedroom.
Through the window, one could see the assassin climbing on the outer wall, now certain that the rooms were empty. He began to crawl towards Russell's window, much like a gecko.
"It's someone from the Dungeon," Eric said with just one glance, identifying the intruder's affiliation, "Completely silent, the operating speed of their Battle Qi reduced to the extreme; that's the rule of survival for the Dungeon Knights. No, they should be called... Wanderers."
"Wanderers?" Russell's eyes narrowed.
In a noble territory such as Glowing Valley, beneath the protection of Bipedal Flying Dragons, it becomes a warm and fertile land. However, beyond the Glowing Valley, one still faces the harsh reality of icy tundras.
Criminals, evil-doers, and some Freemen hide at the junction of warmth and cold, in the shadowy crevices of the Dungeon, living meagerly like weeds under the ravages of Snow Demons and Snow Ghosts, where life and death are but a moment apart.
Knights within the territory could fight on horseback, on fantasy beasts, and even on dragons.
Wanderers outside the territory could only rely on their own strength to wander through the dangerous dungeons, trying their best to stay alive.
"Sir," Eric whispered, "when he comes over, you push the window open, and I'll grab him right away!"
"Alright."
After a brief discussion, the two hid at either side of the window and waited quietly for the dungeon wanderer who dared to violate the rainy night.
It wasn't even two minutes before the wanderer climbed to the master bedroom window.
His movements were extremely slight, and with the steady rainfall tonight, it was almost impossible to hear anything without listening carefully.
Alas.
He was already being watched.
The moment the wanderer climbed to the window, preparing to peek through the glass to see who lived inside, the window suddenly flung open, and a pair of large hands accurately grasped his arms on the window ledge, dragging him forcibly into the room.
Clack.
The window closed again.
The knights below, not dead asleep, cracked their eyes open as if they sensed something, but after listening for a while and hearing no unusual sounds, they turned over and went back to sleep.
They didn't know that an assassin had been captured upstairs.
Tight leather clothes, ear-length short hair, a black face scarf—it was almost immediately apparent to Russell and Eric that this was a female wanderer.
But Eric didn't go easy on her, took the rope prepared by Russell, and tied up the female wanderer's hands behind her back.
"Speak, who are you?" Russell sat on a chair, looking down at her from a height.
Eric lit a gemstone lamp; the light emitted from the magical stone illuminated every corner of the master bedroom, only slightly less bright than daylight.
"I mean no harm, absolutely no harm," the female wanderer regained her composure from the shock, "Respected Lord Russell Fluorescent Mushroom, is this how you treat a guest who has come to deliver you a message? This is not the way to treat a guest."
"A message?" Russell let out a chuckle, "My manor has a proper door; is there a need to climb through windows?"
"As you can see, I have my reasons for... taking an alternative path."
"Making excuses is useless, just tell me who you really are."
"Can you untie me first? In front of two Great Knights, what danger can I, a wanderer, possibly pose?" The female wanderer wriggled her body, leaving a puddle of water on the floor.
Russell frowned.
He rose from his chair and walked over to the female wanderer.
Just as the female wanderer twisted her body, lifting her wrists, preparing for Russell to untie her, Russell slapped her face hard without warning.
"Can't you understand human speech, who are you!"
Slap!
With blood at the corner of her mouth, the female wanderer was stunned by the slap.
Eric slightly gaped too, rarely seeing the usually gentle Russell display such a violent side.
Seeing the female wanderer daze out, Russell slapped her once more, "Aren't you going to talk?"
She had sneaked up in the dead of night to pry open the window; had he not unexpectedly discovered her while riding the Little Dream Dragon, she might have slipped into the room.
She might have even killed him a hundred times over by now!
In such a situation, even Russell with the best temper couldn't help but get angry; he almost wanted to kill the wanderer on the spot, certainly not tolerating her dictating terms and even thinking about having him help untie her.
"I..." Finally sobered up by the slaps, the female wanderer dared not dawdle, "My name is Catherine, Sir."