Le Xaan was training in Sallow Chasing Wind Blade Style in the yard with a lengthy blade in hand.
His movements were not that swift but aimed at capturing the precision of the set of blade techniques.
He appeared to be practicing with a blade. However, Le Xaan was now largely engrossed in exercising the Qi cultivation method, Dark Shadow, simultaneously.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
After three slashed through the air, Le Xaan stood straight and sheathed his blade. He was about to go into the house and have lunch.
Unexpectedly, no sooner had he eased his blade into his scabbard than a thread of blistering-hot air emerged around his lower back in a fleeting moment.
Le Xaan was frozen on the spot. He meticulously felt that part of his body and tried Dark Shadow once again.
Around his lower back, the scalding sensation immediately flashed once more.
"This is... the Qi!"
Le Xaan was overjoyed.
For so many days, his dedication yielded no fruits and he was already doubting the authenticity of Dark Shadow.
To his surprise, his efforts finally paid off now. The feeling of the Qi belonging to Dark Shadow unburdened him of a lot of worries.
"Now that I can feel the Qi, I should modify on it right now!"
Le Xaan would definitely not let the chance slip through his fingers.
"Deep Blue."
In haste, he called out mentally.
The blue window of the chat tool emerged before him.
Sure enough, this time, in the lower part of the window appeared the line of text, 'Dark Shadow: Inexperienced'.
Even though these few words were very curt, Le Xaan was bursting with joy as he laid eyes on them.
Now, he lacked the means to enhance his strength. Dark Shadow was nearly the last glimmer of hope for him.
Otherwise, he really did not know how to deal with those eccentric, unknown threats.
Le Xaan pressed the button 'Modify', and the interface flashed.
"Modify on 'Dark Shadow', up by one level!"
Upon Le Xaan's mental command, the word 'Inexperienced' at the tail of 'Dark Shadow' changed into 'Novice' in a flash.
"Bang!"
Almost at the same time, Le Xaan felt as though his vital organs were now burning.
A stream of hot air popped up out of nowhere within his body and savagely raged its way through his meridians.
The scorching current flowed through Le Xaan's body like a flame.
He stood on the spot as his face flushed rapidly. Soon, the skin all over his body turned red as well, and Le Xaan appeared like a cooked shrimp.
Sweat poured profusely out of the pores across his body and turned into wafts of steam, rising into the air.
However, the hot current disappeared before long.
A few moments later, after the flow of air circled through his body a few rounds, his body gradually adjusted to it.
Although Le Xaan's body temperature was still high, it had decreased significantly.
Jade Crane Skill automatically started to function; countless threads of Qi radiated outward and connected to the broken meridians and the ravaged parts of the vital organs.
Quite some time later, the red color around Le Xaan's body receded and his skin resumed its fair cast.
"Puff..."
He let out a scorching hot breath.
His entire body was aching, as if needles had been stabbed through his muscles into his bones.
The side-effects of the modification on Dark Shadow differed vastly from those of Jade Crane Skill. Le Xaan now felt his body was not only tingling but also bruised.
"Fortunately, I have amassed quite some body-maintenance inner body Qi, the fruits of Jade Crane Skill. They could be put to use to heal my injuries. "
Le Xaan could sense Jade Crane Skill was activating, bringing about some curative effects to his body. As such, he released a sigh of relief.
"I could never have expected that the modification on Dark Shadow to the 'Novice' level would lead to such brutal devastation to my body. Then, how about those of the following levels? That would be... beyond any wild imagination, right?"
"Qiki." he then called out loudly.
"I'm coming, Young Master!"
Qiki ran out hastily from behind the wooden hut. Her hands were wet. Perhaps she was washing clothes.
"Give me a cup of tea."
Le Xaan ordered. Currently, his throat was hot and dried, and he was extremely thirsty.
Qiki soon served him a pot of tea brewed with all sorts of elixirs aboriginal to this world, such as Kudo dendrobium, Soubar turtle shell, dried Snowi gardenia, etc.
As a cup of tea was poured down his throat, Le Xaan felt a chilled sensation sloshing around his stomach and then spreading across his body.
The feeling of coldness dispelled more or less the dry heat around his body.
Then, Le Xaan drank another five cups of tea, emptying the teapot.
And he chewed up the tonics infused within as he sipped the tea. Over time, a sense of ease washed over him, improving his comfort in subtle yet significant ways.
Qiki was not aware of what happened to Le Xaan. She simply assumed that Le Xaan abruptly felt inclined to drink the tea. After fetching the teapot for Le Xaan, she went back to the stream to wash the clothes.
Le Xaan rested for a while. As the twilight descended, Le Xaan went out of the hut and was of a mind to try the power of Dark Shadow.
The fact that the side effects of Dark Shadow seemed much more intense than those of Jade Crane Skill intrigued Le Xaan to see how powerful this Qi cultivation method was.
While his curiosity flared up and his aches eased somewhat, he was about to have a try first.
Le Xaan went out of the garden, dragging his blade behind him, and ventured farther away from the wooden residence to a more serene spot.