Zhang Ruochen thought for a moment before asking, "Was Lin Chenyu executed?"
"No! The Seventh Prince wouldn't let him off that easily," Yun'er explained. "Lin Chenyu was subjected to palace punishment—castrated and turned into a eunuch. He now serves as the Seventh Prince's slave."
Zhang Ruochen remarked, "The Lin family's top genius, reduced to a eunuch and a slave to his enemy. What a colossal humiliation for them."
Frowning, Yun'er asked, "What I don't understand is, why would the Lin family's head still marry off his daughter to the Seventh Prince after suffering such disgrace?"
Zhang Ruochen replied, "That's easy to understand. With the Seventh Prince's talent, he's likely to inherit the throne and become the ruler of Yunwu Commandery. For the Lin family to maintain their standing, they need to mend ties with him. A marriage alliance is the best way."
"Also, given that Lin Chenyu is now the Seventh Prince's slave, their relationship is probably not as hostile as we might think. In fact, the marriage between Lin Ningshan and the Seventh Prince could very well have been arranged by Lin Chenyu himself."
Yun'er stared at Zhang Ruochen in disbelief, amazed at how clearly and logically he had analyzed the situation. He no longer resembled the timid boy of the past but instead exuded a sense of wisdom and maturity.
"It seems that awakening his Divine Martial Seal truly transformed him," Yun'er thought. If Consort Lin knew of the changes in Zhang Ruochen, she would surely be relieved and overjoyed.
Returning to his room, Zhang Ruochen immediately entered the inner space of the Temporal Spirit Stone.
"Time to open the second meridian!"
He uncorked a small jade bottle and downed a dose of Marrow Cleansing Elixir.
As the powerful elixir surged through his body, his blood felt like it was boiling. Utilizing this surge of energy, Zhang Ruochen followed the teachings of the Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture and began opening his second meridian.
The more meridians he opened, the faster he could absorb spiritual energy, and the quicker his true qi could circulate through his body.
With more meridians, his martial body would become stronger, allowing him to unleash greater power in battle even at the same realm.
Using his previous life's cultivation experience, Zhang Ruochen quickly opened the second meridian, and the flow of true qi in his body doubled in speed.
"My qi pool hasn't expanded yet, which means I haven't broken through to the mid Huangji Realm. It seems I'll need to open one more meridian."
He swallowed a blood pill to recover his strength, rested for about an hour to reach his peak state, and then immediately consumed another dose of Marrow Cleansing Elixir to start opening the third meridian.
Typically, after opening a new meridian, cultivators needed to rest for one to three months to strengthen and activate the new meridian before attempting another.
But Zhang Ruochen couldn't wait that long—he needed to open the third meridian now and push through to the mid-stage of the Huangji Realm.
The difficulty of this was far greater than usual.
"I can do this. I will succeed. Tonight, I must break through to the mid Huangji Realm."
Clutching a spirit crystal in one hand, Zhang Ruochen absorbed its spiritual energy while directing all his true qi to surge toward his third meridian.
Boom!
A deep sound echoed from his forehead.
His qi pool, previously the size of a basketball, expanded tenfold, becoming the size of a large vat, about three feet wide.
Now, Zhang Ruochen's qi pool truly deserved the name qi pool.
This was the power of the mid-stage Huangji Realm!
"I've just entered the mid Huangji Realm, so my true qi hasn't increased by much yet. However, I now have room for improvement. If I fill this qi pool to its full capacity, my true qi will increase tenfold." Joy filled Zhang Ruochen as he realized how much stronger he had become in his martial cultivation.
With each breakthrough to a higher realm, the qi pool expanded, allowing for more true qi storage.
Without breaking through to a higher stage, no amount of cultivation would increase the amount of true qi. The size of the qi pool was fixed until a breakthrough occurred.
As Zhang Ruochen reached the mid-stage Huangji Realm, impurities in his body were expelled through his pores, leaving behind a layer of black, sticky grime that emitted a faint stench.
Zhang Ruochen immediately fetched a bucket of hot water, washed himself, and changed into fresh clothes before returning to the inner space of the Temporal Spirit Stone.
Grasping a pen, he smoothly drew a human figure on a scroll.
He then carefully illustrated thirty-six meridians on the figure, each one following a different path.
But all thirty-six meridians had one thing in common: they all converged at the qi pool in the forehead.
The first time Zhang Ruochen had opened the Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture, he had seen this Meridian Diagram, with no accompanying text, leaving it entirely up to the cultivator to comprehend its meaning.
The higher the grade of a cultivation technique, the more meridians it would require to be opened, accelerating the flow of true qi.
"Low-tier Human-level techniques only allow for seven meridians to be opened."
"But the Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture contains routes for thirty-six meridians. Each additional meridian opened strengthens the martial body. If I can open all thirty-six, how strong will my martial body become?"
The "extremity" in the Huangji Realm referred to the limit of the number of meridians one could open.
In his previous life, Zhang Ruochen had managed to open thirty-three meridians. There were three more he had never been able to open, no matter how hard he tried.
Even with his thirty-three meridians, Zhang Ruochen had been invincible among his peers. Even Empress Chi Yao, the strongest in the world at the time, had only opened thirty-one meridians—two fewer than Zhang Ruochen.
"Now that I've opened three meridians and reached the mid Huangji Realm, I'll need to open at least three more to reach the late Huangji Realm."
Zhang Ruochen rolled up the meridian diagram and placed it back on the stone platform.
To push forward to the late Huangji Realm, he first needed to fill his qi pool with true qi.
Normally, even with the help of spirit crystals, it would take at least a month and a half of cultivation to fill the pool.
But Zhang Ruochen didn't have that kind of time, so he decided to use Qi Gathering Pills.
Each Qi Gathering Pill was worth a thousand silver coins, making them rare treasures for ordinary martial artists. Even young talents from middle-ranking families found it difficult to obtain one.
Zhang Ruochen had purchased ten at once, planning to use them to quickly enhance his cultivation.
The pill was no larger than a pearl, emitting a faint fragrance, with visible strands of spiritual energy swirling on its surface.
Zhang Ruochen swallowed the Qi Gathering Pill.
Moments later…
Boom! The pill exploded within his body, releasing a burst of violent energy that surged wildly through his meridians.
His three meridians worked at full capacity to absorb the pill's energy, circulating the true qi through one full cycle, storing it in his qi pool.
Despite his best efforts to absorb the energy, Zhang Ruochen still lost 70% of it through his pores. Only 30% was successfully converted into true qi.
It took him an entire day to completely absorb and refine that 30%.
After refining the energy, his qi pool's true qi had doubled.
"I've only opened three meridians, so my conversion rate is still too slow. Losing 70% of the pill's energy is a huge waste. If I were at the Small Extremity of the Huangji Realm, I'd be able to absorb the full pill's energy without any waste."
"Still, as long as it helps me progress faster, wasting silver is worth it. With the Qi Gathering Pill, I'll only need to refine four more to fill my qi pool."
Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen now had plenty of silver coins and didn't need to worry about money. Otherwise, wasting a thousand silver coins per pill would have pained him greatly.
He didn't immediately take another Qi Gathering Pill. Instead, he paused his cultivation and left the inner space of the Temporal Spirit Stone, returning to his room.
Although he had spent over a day cultivating in the Temporal Spirit Stone, only half a day had passed in the outside world.
It was now midday.
Without alerting Yun'er or Consort Lin, Zhang Ruochen fetched a bucket of hot water and placed it in his room.
This wasn't for bathing, but for a medicinal soak.
For martial artists, it wasn't enough to cultivate true qi alone—they also needed to temper their physical bodies.
Compared to his peers, Zhang Ruochen's body was still somewhat frail. To build strength quickly in just a few months, he would need not only intense physical training but also regular medicinal baths.
Zhang Ruochen had bought five vials of Body Refining Powder, each costing a thousand silver coins.
He poured one vial into the wooden tub.
The water immediately began to hiss and bubble, releasing white steam.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged in the scalding tub, his entire body submerged beneath the surface.
The water was boiling hot, bubbling and steaming.
The searing heat caused intense pain on his skin, which soon penetrated deep into his muscles, then into his bones and internal organs.
The burning pain engulfed his entire body. Any other martial artist would have jumped out of the tub, unable to endure such agony.
But Zhang Ruochen remained as still as a boulder at the bottom of the tub, his expression unchanged as he silently withstood the pain.
"Only by enduring hardship can one rise above others."