Ji Xun had an eidetic memory, and due to the suspicion that someone might come looking for him recently, he had been meticulously observing his surroundings.
The staircase, usually only used by the morticians of Team Five, was familiar to him down to every detail.
But now, there was a new set of unfamiliar footprints on the dusty floor.
No, he had noticed it earlier in the courtyard.
The tread pattern on the anti-slip soles suggested it was a pair of high-end Monk shoes from the "Mole Leather Factory" in District Five, favored by middle-aged men around 40. Such shoes weren't affordable for common folk, indicating the owner had a decent job.
These high-end shoes weren't typical for morticians, as none in the branch wore them.
Size 42, with a worn left heel and a medium stride. Based on the formula height = (shoe size + 10) / 2, the wearer was estimated to be around 173-178 cm tall and had a slight outward tilt of the left foot when walking.
The depth of the prints in the soft mud outside indicated a weight of about 60-65 kg.
Not particularly robust.
This almost immediately ruled out a melee-focused card user.
Given the correlation between muscle mass and strength, a melee card user of this height would weigh over 80 kg.
So, a magic or mystical card user?
It seemed unlikely that the Cao family's assassins had come after him.
Ji Xun instantly suspected: something had happened regarding the cellar in Tailor Street.
It made sense.
They were here to retrieve something, not to kill.
A mystical card user with special abilities seemed more appropriate than a brawny thug.
As he approached his dorm room, Ji Xun was even more certain someone had been inside.
Hmm...
Perhaps the person was still inside.
Waiting for him to return.
After all, only he and the chubby guy had been in the cellar, leaving a stronger scent in their rooms.
The moment Ji Xun noticed the anomaly, he made a choice.
If it was an expert, running wouldn't help; any extra movement would arouse suspicion.
If it wasn't an expert, Ji Xun doubted they could take advantage of him.
Taking such hot loot naturally came with risks; he was well-prepared.
Now that the stolen goods had been consumed, he wasn't afraid of being caught red-handed.
It was all about being bold and careful.
...
Before his cover was blown, Ji Xun was just an ordinary mortician.
He shouldn't display any awareness beyond what his job entailed.
With a quick turn of thought, he showed no hesitation and feigned drunkenness as he opened the door.
Meanwhile, his hand in his pocket had already activated the Clown Mask card.
From what he knew, card users weren't omnipotent.
Apart from their specialized abilities, they might not know much else.
At least, the person hadn't concealed their footprints, making them a lousy investigator.
Probably sent in a hurry after the discovery of the theft.
Or perhaps the amateurish evil organization didn't have any talent for trace tracking.
Ji Xun had already formed a fairly accurate profile of the intruder.
As he opened the door, a notification appeared: "You have resisted a mental hypnosis attempt."
As expected.
Ji Xun's gaze was vacant as he looked at the shining silver pocket watch in front of him.
Having been hypnotized many times in his previous life, whether successfully or not, and due to his abnormal mental state, he had studied and understood a lot about hypnosis. He knew exactly what it felt like to be hypnotized.
Inside was a figure in a black cloak, face obscured.
Ji Xun pretended not to see, his pupils dilated, staring blankly.
The strong smell of alcohol on him wasn't from drinking but from using a gas to interfere with the olfactory sense of a card user. The stains on his clothes were intentional. Even if there was any lingering psychic residue on him, it would be hard to detect now.
Morticians getting drunk on their day off wasn't unusual.
The cloaked figure frowned at the "drunken" mortician.
Believing the hypnosis had worked, the figure spoke directly.
"Did you go to Tailor Street 17's cellar yesterday to collect bodies?"
"Yes."
"Did you find anything unusual?"
"Collected many bodies..."
"And?"
"Can't... can't remember, just many bodies..."
Hearing the vague response, the cloaked figure didn't press further, muttering to himself, "So, memories have been wiped after all."
This was also why Ji Xun dared to go upstairs and face the danger head-on.
Normally, if something went missing, the first people the mastermind would look for would be the two field agents from the Golden Oak Security Company.
Since they had come here, it was clear they had already searched those agents.
This meant they were aware that the Golden Oak Security Company had a "memory erasure" procedure.
They were here merely to confirm.
Killing was meaningless.
Killing a small-time mortician even more so.
They were here to retrieve something.
The cloaked figure had no interest in wasting time here and, after asking a few questions, left the dormitory.
As the intruder left, Ji Xun's vacant eyes slowly refocused, sharp and alert.
He also released the pull ring hidden in his sleeve.
With this danger passed, the hidden threat from the cellar in Tailor Street was completely eliminated.
...
Ji Xun closed the door, feeling no great waves of emotion.
As for moving to another place because someone came looking for him?
Unnecessary.
After all, no place in the city was truly safe for him now.
Instead, having someone visit the dorm made it feel more secure.
Now, with the fourth young master of the Cao family likely scouring the city for him, the mortician's dormitory was sufficiently remote and safer.
With this in mind, Ji Xun took out the unnamed golden breathing technique from his storage ring and began studying it carefully.
What he needed now was to quickly enhance his strength. Once he was truly strong, he wouldn't have to live in constant fear.
With the "Demon Feast," becoming stronger was just a matter of time.
And now he had a compatible breathing technique.
Everything was coming together.
Ji Xun could almost see the "Brute Path" beckoning to him.
Just like when he encountered that Vajra Demon Ape on the train, he could punch anyone who dared to hypnotize him again!
...
The thin booklet seemed to possess infinite power, and Ji Xun quickly became engrossed in it.
His exceptional comprehension allowed him to gradually understand the lines describing the mysteries of breathing.
The more he delved into it, the more he felt astounded.
"The gap is just too vast. The difference between the 'Great Dark Breathing Technique' and this fragmented breathing technique is enormous. No wonder the shop owner said this is a remnant technique related to an ancient demon god..."
Ji Xun found it increasingly unbelievable.
He had attended lectures and knew some basics.
Breathing techniques primarily served two purposes: first, to condense free elements from the void into one's own spell power, and second, to shape the body into a "vessel" to hold this spell power.
Generally, the better the quality of the breathing technique, the higher the condensation efficiency and the larger the vessel.
For card apprentice levels, the spell power values weren't uniform.
According to the "Great Dark Breathing Technique," a typical breathing technique, card apprentices had spell power values from levels 1 to 9, approximately 100, 150, 230, 360, 540, 810, 1200, 1800, 2700, and 4000 (full) respectively.
Each level increased by about 1.5 times.
The disparity grew with each level.
Iron breathing techniques and silver breathing techniques generally offered a 20-70% step-up in values. Factors like demon marks, job sequences, environment, and drugs also influenced these values, making them vary even for the same breathing technique.
However, according to the booklet in front of him, this incomplete golden breathing technique could exceed 4000 spell power by the sixth level!
If cultivated to the ninth level, it would be many times that of an average card apprentice.
Potentially even rivaling a formal spell card user.
This was still for an ordinary person learning it.
Ji Xun's situation was different from ordinary people.
The demon contract he had fused with was the very special "JOKER."
Breathing techniques had a hidden threshold—individual endurance.
Simply put, the body's tolerance for elemental affinity.
The higher the affinity, the more spell power the body could hold.
Elemental affinity could be improved through training and certain materials, usually directly related to the demon mark.
This was why elder spell card users often had more abundant spell power.
Although Ji Xun's current elemental affinities weren't high, he could absorb them from corpses!
With "JOKER," he gained growth in all elemental affinities. As long as he had enough high-quality corpses, he could potentially raise every elemental affinity to an extremely high level.
What does it mean?
In other words, if he truly cultivates according to his conditions, his magical power values might even surpass the theoretical data in the tome.
"What... what exactly is this technique?"
Ji Xun hadn't even encountered the Iron-tier Breath Technique before, so for the moment, he didn't know how formidable the technique in his hands really was.
But the values he estimated in his mind were already quite staggering.
With the synergy of [JOKER], its effect was fundamentally beyond what the Silver-tier Breath Technique could contend with.
It's not just one tier higher, but many!
And this was just an incomplete piece.
From what the shopkeeper hinted, it seemed this technique had quite a background?
In other words, there might be other people in the city practicing the subsequent incantations?
Ji Xun was already beginning to anticipate what the complete technique might be like.
However, the six segments of incantations he currently possessed were already sufficient.
For a long time to come, Ji Xun wouldn't need to worry about the technique.
Moreover, even if he truly cultivated to the sixth segment of magical power, why did it feel like his magical power values were already at the peak of an Apprentice Card Master?
Ji Xun knew beforehand that the fusion of his [JOKER] mark was impressive, but at this moment, he once again experienced its hidden exaggerated enhancement!
....
Soon, Ji Xun finished reading through this incomplete Breath Technique for the first time.
He had already memorized all the incantations.
And his exceptionally high comprehension made his mind operate like a computer, inputting those code-like incantations, as if he had suddenly started running.
Analyzing, enlightening, understanding, mastering...
After pondering for several hours, Ji Xun felt he had grasped something.
At least, he had mastered the incantations of the first segment.
But the exaggerated magical power values he calculated left him somewhat skeptical.
The magical power value cultivated from practicing the first segment already exceeded 1000?
One segment of the "Golden Fragment" ≈ Six segments of the "Great Dark Breath Technique"?
This incredible gap made him feel like he had overlooked something, miscalculated. xＳ one two
Without much thought, Ji Xun began practical exercises.
Cross-legged on his bed, he closed his eyes and entered a state of meditation.
Following the breathing incantations from the tome, he began attempting to inhale various elemental particles from the air.
As soon as he closed his eyes, it was almost an hour.
...
At a certain moment, the feeling of complete spiritual fulfillment made Ji Xun withdraw from that focused elemental breathing state.
He opened his eyes.
It had taken an hour for his magical power to complete one cycle, which was twice as slow as the "Great Dark Breath Technique." However, Ji Xun's eyes gleamed brightly.
Because,
The growth in his magical power value had increased by a dozen times!
Ji Xun was well aware that his magical power value before meditation was 115.
Now, it was 119.
An increase of a full 4 points.
What does this mean?
In contrast, his previous breathing technique could increase at most by 0.3!
Moreover, according to the previous calculation of the Dark Breath Technique, once reaching a value of 100, it was already the first stage of magical power. After reaching this value, there was a sense of breathing saturation, and the efficiency of absorbing elements using this segment of incantations would decrease significantly, even stagnate.
This required the second incantation of the breathing technique to elevate the "water tank wall," increase its capacity, and then practice further.
However.
This incomplete Golden Breath Technique was different.
Just the first segment of incantations gave him a complete lack of "water tank overflow" feeling.
This first segment of incantations had created an extremely exaggerated "water tank bottom" for him. Even if it was the first stage, the magical power capacity was ten times larger than before!
....
After Ji Xun had put it into practice, he realized that this breathing technique was far more powerful than expected.
The reason for such an exaggerated efficiency was that there were enough elements to breathe.
Previously, he could only absorb dark elements.
Now, he could inhale and absorb various elements, converting them into magical power.
Previously, the Dark Breath Technique was like drawing out a black strand from a spectrum of colors.
Now, this incomplete Golden Breath Technique was like a whale swallowing all the free elemental particles around it in one gulp.
Feeling the change brought about by switching breathing techniques, Ji Xun felt that his previous adventures in the Dark Rain Street were completely worth it.
This could save him more than ten times the time spent on meditation.
"Wow... This breathing technique is incredibly powerful."
Feeling the benefits, Ji Xun was amazed for a moment before closing his eyes once again to continue meditation.
As long as he was given enough time, the path of a magical card master would be clear.
The risks taken on Dark Rain Street before were suddenly felt to be worth it!