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Two hours.
Bian Ruxue's medicinal tub had become completely clear, without a trace of the medicinal liquid remaining.
The maids dressed her in clean new clothes, dried her hair, and she stood quietly next to Li Hao's medicinal tub, unaware of what any of this meant, simply waiting silently for Li Hao to come out.
In contrast, Li Hao was obliged to soak in his medicinal tub under Lin Haixia's firm insistence.
Yet, the color of the liquid inside was still that glaring purple.
The maid attending to Bian Ruxue glanced over, utterly dumbfounded.
As another two hours passed, other servants and maids heard the news and came to take a look, all equally shocked.
They, being accustomed to life in the Divine General Mansion, naturally understood what this signified.
At this moment, they looked at each other in disbelief, as if the sky had fallen.
The Marquis of Martial Affairs's son couldn't practice martial arts?
This was the bloodline of the Li Family!
*It was simply inconceivable.*
But the facts were right in front of them.
The whole courtyard fell silent, and soon, one of the servants realized what to do, scrambling away in a hurry. Not long after, a colorful group swarmed into the Mountain and River Courtyard.
Ladies and madams from various wings arrived, clustering around the medicinal tub. Upon hearing from the nearby servants about Li Hao's soaking time, they found it unbelievable.
Liu Yue Rong stood among the crowd, her heart sinking.
*Could it be the medicine?* she wondered.
*But I hadn't heard that the medicine had such severe side effects!*
She felt a nervous flutter in her chest, but maintained a calm face, quickly donning an urgent and pained expression.
And inside the medicinal tub, Li Hao, feeling utterly dejected, also saw his stepmother's performance. From her eyes, Li Hao even caught a glimpse of genuine panic.
*Could this stepmother really have been scared?* Li Hao scoffed internally.
As the courtyard grew noisier, the head madam ordered the servants to leave, only keeping the ladies from each wing. She instructed them that the incident must not be disclosed or leaked!
Lin Haixia, seeing that the Foundation Establishment medicinal liquid showed no decrease, felt her heart sink completely.
*This couldn't even be described as "slow."* she thought.
She considered a terrifying constitution and shuddered. *Could it be that the Marquis's Qilin son is truly a complete martial arts dead end?*
Not continuing further, Lin Haixia fetched Li Hao out of the medicinal tub.
Seeing Li Hao's body oxygen-deprived and pale, with his skin shriveled and wrinkled, the ladies' gazes varied.
They learned that Li Hao had been soaking for six hours.
But the Foundation Establishment medicinal liquid showed no change at all, indicating the gravity of the situation.
Liu Yue Rong saw how pale Li Hao's lips were from soaking and was convinced it wasn't an act.
Her heart was gripped with fear. *I only wanted to abolish the Divine Blood in this child, not completely ruin him!* she thought.
*After all, if he becomes a complete waste, it would be too suspicious!*
This was the powerful Li Family line, and yet he couldn't cultivate?
*If the reason were to be investigated…*
The first to regain composure was the head madam. She immediately instructed Lin Haixia to take good care of Hao Er and asked her maid to bring some nourishing herbal soup to help Li Hao recover his weak body.
...
...
The next day.
Lin Haixia prepared two more tubs of Foundation Establishment medicinal liquid, allowing Li Hao and Bian Ruxue to soak separately.
Lin Haixia closely watched as Li Hao went into the bath.
Li Hao, somewhat helpless, knew it was futile, a waste of herbs, but couldn't argue with the other and complied.
*It probably wouldn't take many more tries before they give up,* he estimated.
This time, the same font prompts appeared as the previous day.
[Unknown substance detected, analyzing...]
[Analysis failed, automatically isolated.]
Li Hao wasn't too surprised, as he had anticipated this. He obediently stayed in the medicinal bath, fiddling with his feet, utterly bored.
As time went on, and the medicinal liquid showed no change, the short soldier nearby could no longer hold it back and let out a low growl.
"How could this happen?!"
Lin Haixia grew more agitated than Li Hao, seemingly finding it even more unbelievable.
He paced in circles next to the medicinal tub, hitting his head, "There can't be an issue with the medicinal liquid, it can't be wrong. Could it be that the Marquis's child truly can't cultivate?!"
This was the Li Family bloodline!
Li Hao wasn't too upset. After all, with the panel, he could grow stronger without relying on these medicinal liquids.
However, seeing his teacher so distraught, he felt a bit guilty and comforted, "Uncle Lin, it's alright, don't be so upset."
Hearing this, Lin Haixia's body shook.
He looked at the child in the medicinal tub, and suddenly felt like tears were about to burst forth.
*Child, you do not know the fate you are about to face!* he thought.
Looking at this child's optimistic and pure eyes, Lin Haixia felt as though something in his heart had torn.
*The sole heir of the commander will have such a future?*
Yet, there was nothing he could do.
Li Hao's condition suggested only one possibility: a congenital blockage in the meridians.
This was a classic martial arts waste body!
In an ordinary household, such a condition would be normal. Nine-tenths of all people in the world were like this; it wasn't particularly unusual.
But this was the Li Family!
A family that had produced True Dragons generation after generation!
Even the least talented offspring of the Li Family were considered excellent compared to others.
Let alone those True Dragons of the Li Family, all of whom were notable figures.
And the child before him…
Lin Haixia was speechless, unable to swallow his tears. Even he, who could gaze upon mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the battlefield without changing color, found himself unable to look at this child directly.
Those pure, simple eyes were heart-wrenching.
"It's okay, really…" Li Hao, seeing that this man was genuinely upset for him, and not pretending, felt a bit warm-hearted.
He rose from the medicinal tub, tugging on his trouser leg, trying to offer some comfort.
...
...
The second Foundation Establishment medicinal bath was declared a failure.
The news spread like a hurricane throughout the Divine General Mansion, and this time, it was confirmed that Li Hao could not cultivate.
The Li Family's ladies and servants who heard the news were all shocked and in disbelief.
In the days that followed, Li Hao no longer soaked in the medicinal liquid. Instead, people repeatedly came to examine his body, but all eventually left, shaking their heads.
Li Hao also eavesdropped a bit, learning that in their eyes, his condition was a martial arts waste body.
Such a constitution didn't mean he couldn't cultivate at all.
It just meant it would be especially difficult.
He couldn't absorb pills or external energies and could only rely on arduous self-training to achieve anything.
And he could only reach the Second Realm.
To break through, he would need to commune with Heaven and Earth Energy, thus the Second Realm was his limit.
The news seemed to have reached the Northern Yan battlefield. Soon, a family letter arrived via urgent courier.
The information in the letter once again shook the Divine General Mansion.
The Marquis of Martial Affairs, it was said, had reached the Three Immortal Realms!
The letter encouraged that the head madam should not give up on Hao Er, no matter how hard or painful, and ensure he stepped onto the path of martial arts.
Even if he only took the first step, if his Divine Blood awakened in the future, he could still accomplish something, though he would no longer become a genius. At least he could secure a position of centurion in the military.
In this way, he would not dishonor the name of the Li Family sons.
The head madam was Ms. He, named Jianlan.
Despite being over sixty years old, He Jianlan looked merely in her forties. After reading the letter, she let out a soft sigh:
"Poor Hao Er, it's all because of that worthless woman."
No one knew whom she referred to as the worthless woman.
...
...
In the days that followed, Li Hao felt as if everything had returned to how it was.
The Foundation Establishment could not be established again. It was rumored they planned to try Blood Melting when he turned four.
As such, Li Hao spent his idle days and had more time to secretly play chess, with his experience value quietly growing rapidly.
News of Li Hao's martial arts waste body somehow leaked outside the mansion.
In Qingzhou City, taverns and dining establishments suddenly buzzed with gossip, though most dismissed it as the embellishments of storytellers. No one truly believed it.
After all, that was the Li Family son.
However, when the word reached some of the Li Family's rivals in the court, it immediately caught their attention.
After sending people to investigate carefully, they confirmed the situation was true, to the mixed feelings of joy and shock of many within the mansion.
Joy because the millennia-long brilliant Li Family finally had a break in their bloodline!
But the shock was that the Marquis of Martial Affairs had hidden his strength so deeply, having long reached the Three Immortal Realms, only now revealing it.
Fortunately, his son was a martial arts waste body; otherwise, he might have been another Li Junye!
...
...
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Li Hao turned four.
After a year of secret study, Li Hao's Chess Tao successfully stepped into the second stage.
He also gained a new Skill Point.
Without hesitation, Li Hao used the Skill Point on the Sword Dao.
His Sword Dao thus advanced to the second stage.
Compared to the overwhelming information surge when increasing the first stage, the now four-year-old Li Hao could barely endure it, only feeling his brain somewhat bloated.
As the Sword Dao advanced, the skills on the panel also changed.
[Name: Li Hao]
[Age: 4]
[Cultivation: Mortal]
[Sword Dao: Second Stage]
[Skill: Endless Sea·Tide (Ultimate Perfection) [Banned]]
[Mastered Art: Chess Tao]
[Chess Tao: Second stage (0/1000)]
[Collection of Chess Manuals: 0]
[Skill Points: 0]
However, after entering the second stage in Chess Tao, Li Hao realized that playing against himself could no longer earn experiences, needing to find someone to compete against.
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