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Eternal Spring Court.
He Jianlan sat dignified on the smoothly polished nanmu armchair, listening to the young house servant's trembling report, a trace of movement stirred in her heart.
She had long heard that the child was precocious and very clever, but sadly lacked martial arts talent, wasting all that intelligence.
Thinking of the letter from the border side of the Li Family, He Jianlan sighed inwardly and said indifferently, "Xuejian, keep an eye on the child, just make sure he doesn't tear up the books."
"Yes."
To the side, a woman with almond eyes and red lips, fair complexion, quietly answered.
...
The directive from Eternal Spring Court was conveyed to the outside of Listening Rain Tower. Li Hao looked at the young girl who came to supervise, a bit surprised, but he did not mind, since it was quite normal for the lady of the house to not feel at ease letting him enter the tower alone given his young age.
Both house servants, but Zhao's status was clearly lower than that of this girl called Xuejian, who stopped him from entering the tower.
Inside the ancient tower, the light was dim, and dust covered the floor.
Rows of towering bookshelves stood in the tower, each side bearing a wooden label, categorizing them.
There were books on swordsmanship, saber techniques, spear methods, as well as categories on weapons, poisons, and more.
The variety of books was vast, almost anything you could think of.
Li Hao couldn't help but exclaim.
This small tower practically contained half of Jianghu.
Before long, Li Hao found the Body Refinement sect's secrets, the shelves densely packed with various Body Refinement techniques.
Vajra Secret, Divine Turtle Nine Transformations, Seven Stars Seal, and so on.
Li Hao casually took down a book called Stone Skin Hundred Refinements and began to leaf through it, leaning against the bookshelf.
The tower was extremely quiet, with only the breathing of the two of them, one large, one small.
Xuejian followed Li Hao like a shadow, proper in her behavior and even more dignified than the daughters of ordinary nobles. She watched the young master who had been the center of attention since birth and curiosity glimmered in her eyes.
He really does seem very precocious, and he even seems to be literate.
And he's reading with such focus, can he really understand it?
Time passed.
As Li Hao read over the initial chapters repeatedly, trying to understand every word, a joyous message finally appeared before him:
"You have learned the basics, do you wish to record this?"
Li Hao immediately chose yes.
Soon after, a panel leaped before his eyes.
[Name: Li Hao]
[Age: 4]
[Cultivation Level: Mortal]
[Swordsmanship: Level 2]
[Skill: Endless Sea·Tide (Exquisite) [Forbidden]]
[Physical Body Path: Not Started]
[Skill: Stone Skin Hundred Refinements (Not Started) {Forbidden}]
[Chess Tao: Level 2 (18/1000)]
[Chess Manual Collection: 0]
[Skill Points: 0]
Seeing the successful recording, Li Hao felt pleasantly surprised, his speculation was correct, and with this, he could officially start his cultivation.
But before that, he needed to accumulate new Skill Points.
Thinking of this, Li Hao's brows furrowed in worry.
Grinding experience by himself was fast, but playing against others was much slower.
It took three days just to accumulate 18 experience points, and the scapegoat had been frightened away.
He needed to find a stable scapegoat... Li Hao muttered to himself, stuffed the secret back on the shelf, and then turned to ask the young girl behind him, "Which floor has the best Body Refinement secrets?"
Xuejian was a bit surprised, does this child truly understand Body Refinement?
Who taught him?
Could it be that military officer who helped him with Foundation Establishment?
Martial meridians blocked, so he intends to pursue the pure Body Refinement Path... Realization flickered in Xuejian's eyes as she replied softly, "To answer the young master, Listening Rain Tower's strongest Body Refinement secrets are on the sixth floor, I will take you there."
"They're not on the seventh floor?"
Li Hao felt a tinge of disappointment, saying, "The strongest should mean the only one, right?"
"Because one text is complete and can be cultivated, while the other is incomplete, it can still be practiced, but not to the pinnacle," said Xuejian.
Li Hao was somewhat surprised, an incomplete text made it to the sixth floor?
```
Soon, under the little girl's guidance, Li Hao was carried up to the sixth floor.
By his own efforts, he had already begun to tire by the third floor.
The higher up they went, the fewer the secret manuals on the floors became, and by the time they reached the sixth floor, there were only a few short bookshelves left. Glancing over them, it appeared that all the secret manuals combined might total to just twenty or thirty books.
However, Li Hao didn't underestimate this number; with the thousand years of accumulation of the Li Family, these twenty or thirty books would probably be invaluable if placed outside.
Very quickly, Xuejian brought back the two Body Refinement secret manuals she had mentioned to Li Hao.
One was called "Thousand Jiaos Holy Body."
The other one was named "Taichu."
The covers were somewhat worn and damaged, likely to be treated as trash by ordinary households, used to prop up a wobbly table leg.
Li Hao took them and started flipping through them one by one.
Just the opening of the manuals made him feel a vast difference from what he had seen on the first floor.
He... couldn't understand it at all.
The words within were extremely abstruse, like reading classical Chinese, oh no, it should be said more like oracle bone inscriptions; with great difficulty, he recognized a few characters, but when strung together, they were completely incomprehensible.
Li Hao's little face scrunched up in frustration.
He kept at it stubbornly for a while, but ultimately decided to give up decisively.
He couldn't even grasp the basics.
"When I first watched that little brat practice swordsmanship, it also took me several days to record the 'Endless Sea,' and that was directly observing someone demonstrating. This is self-study..."
Li Hao shook his head; it was better to wait until he had accumulated enough Skill Points to enhance his Physical Body Path before trying again.
He had Xuejian carry him downstairs.
Although Li Hao wanted to learn other types of secret manuals, it was clear that he didn't have the energy to spare at the moment.
Without Skill Points, everything else was in vain, and the problem returned to... the lack of tool people.
After leaving the Listening Rain Tower, Li Hao said goodbye to the little girl, who was very precise in dealing with people, and then returned to the Mountain and River Courtyard with Zhao.
"Brother Hao,"
Seeing Li Hao's return, Bian Ruxue immediately ran over but tripped and almost fell.
"Don't rush, don't rush," Li Hao quickly said.
"Where did Brother Hao go? Can you take me with you next time?" Bian Ruxue pouted, her eyes filled with hope.
Over the past year, the little girl had become attached to Li Hao, even taking her pillow at night and sneaking into Li Hao's room. Only with this arrangement would she willingly go to sleep.
At first, Li Hao had driven her away several times, but after the little girl woke up crying several times in the middle of the night, running to find Li Hao, her tearful appearance finally made it impossible for him to harden his heart.
Fortunately, the bed was big and his own body small; having one more person did not make much difference, and as the little girl was quiet and did not fuss in her sleep, he let her be.
"You must be obedient, as long as you stay here, no matter where I go, I will come back," Li Hao said, patting her small head.
The surrounding house servants and maids were accustomed to this scene and did not find it surprising.
"Pinky promise,"
Bian Ruxue extended her small hand.
Feeling helpless, Li Hao pacified her with a pinky promise.
"No take-backs, you said it, whoever changes is a puppy," Bian Ruxue pouted slightly.
"Alright, alright," Li Hao said helplessly.
...
In the following days, Li Hao was determined to showcase his Chess Tao talent and began to forcefully request the house servants and maids to play chess with him.
Those who disobeyed would receive three strikes from Zhao.
After three strikes, even though their skin wouldn't split, it was enough to deter them from sitting down on a chair for half a day.
Under the tyranny of the young master, these maids and house servants had no choice but to take turns at the table to entertain him.
As days went by.
Two scenes appeared in the courtyard: one was Lin Haixia teaching Bian Ruxue simple swordsmanship and boxing, suitable for the young and the small.
It wasn't formal Cultivation Level training, just routines for getting familiar with the feel for martial arts.
Though occasionally painful, the little girl was rather stubborn and never cried over this.
On the other side, things were bustling.
A group of house servants gathered in the pavilion, as Li Hao played against one of them, with the order that the onlookers had to study the game.
Among these house servants, some were clueless about chess, while some seemed to have picked up a bit from somewhere. Li Hao found that when playing against those with chess skills, if he won, he would gain not just 1 point of experience, but 2, and occasionally even 3!
On the other hand, playing against those who were ignorant of the game, even if he won, he would only get 1 point of experience.
If the opponent carelessly made a wrong move, the whole game would be invalid.
So, gradually, these house servants were no longer needed on rotation, and Li Hao picked out the two with the best chess skills to accompany him in grinding experience every day.
In the blink of an eye, Li Hao was five years old.