Chapter 330: Bai Zhenzhen Practices Swordplay, Zhang Yu Thaws
After Le Mulan awakened her Dao Seed, the Profound Cold Meridian, Zhang Yu immediately copied it into his Dao Seed Register.
Now, in addition to the Level 1 Third Eye Mystic Power (Spirit Root), the register also listed a Level 1 Profound Cold Meridian (Magic Power).
Activating the Profound Cold Meridian plunged Zhang Yu’s entire body into a state of stagnation. His consciousness grew hazy, and his senses of the external world became blurred.
His thoughts, seemingly frozen by the Profound Cold Meridian, sank into an unprecedented state of inertia.
Zhang Yu could barely sense an indescribable transformation occurring within him, fueled by an astonishingly deep cold.
He lost track of time. Suddenly, he felt warmth against his back — something soft and pliant pressing against him, dispelling the chill within his body and infusing him with gentle warmth.
His mind frozen, Zhang Yu couldn’t think. He instinctively craved the warmth, and as his body gradually regained mobility, he reflexively wrapped his arms around the warm, soft mass.
Slowly, Zhang Yu’s senses returned, little by little. He noticed something flickering before his eyes.
“Hmm?”
“Someone’s trying to contact me?”
Zhang Yu clicked on the profile picture, suddenly realizing, “Right, it’s time for my call with A-Zhen, isn’t it?”
Still sluggish from his recent mental exertion, Zhang Yu subconsciously accepted the communication request.
In the next moment, Bai Zhenzhen’s Spirit Realm Projection materialized in his Bionic Eye.
Seeing A-Zhen drenched in sweat, her entire body steaming, Zhang Yu asked, “Just finished training?”
A-Zhen nodded, wiping sweat from her forehead. “Just finished practicing swordsmanship. Why did it take you so long to answer today?”
Zhang Yu paused, thinking, “I was just…”
As his cognitive functions gradually returned, memories of the day flashed through his mind like lightning, finally settling on Le Mulan’s Dao Seed.
“Hmm? After using Le Mulan’s Dao Seed, I seem to have passed out for a while?”
Just then, Zhang Yu, still staring at Bai Zhenzhen’s steaming projection, suddenly felt a warmth spreading through his own body, as if the heat radiating from A-Zhen’s projection were permeating the Spirit Realm Network and reaching him.
“Why am I so warm? It can’t be that A-Zhen’s heat is affecting me through the Spirit Realm Network, could it?”
In the next moment, Zhang Yu suddenly realized what was happening.
As his Third Eye Mystic Power activated, he saw Le Mulan behind him, clinging to him like an octopus, their bodies pressed tightly together.
Zhang Yu immediately messaged Le Mulan through their Bionic: “What are you doing?”
He tried to stand up, but felt her long, powerful legs clamp around his waist, radiating waves of scalding heat.
Simultaneously, a flurry of messages from Le Mulan flooded his interface:
“Don’t move. You’re frozen by my Magic Power. I’m circulating energy to warm you up.”
“Your Magic Power was completely frozen just now — it was too dangerous!”
To warm Zhang Yu, Le Mulan had deliberately intensified her vital energy and blood circulation, making her entire body burn with heat. Now, patches of sticky sweat clung to their skin where their legs and torsos were pressed together.
“Your body is mostly thawed now. I’ll warm up your Dantian next.”
“Don’t rush or move around. You might suffer hidden injuries later.”
In the next instant, Le Mulan’s hands reached around from behind, gently pressing against Zhang Yu’s lower abdomen.
“Hiss!” Zhang Yu gasped.
Bai Zhenzhen asked, puzzled, “Yu Zi, what’s wrong?”
Zhang Yu thought to himself, “I can’t tell her the truth. If A-Zhen finds out, she’ll tease me relentlessly and look down on me.”
Frowning, Zhang Yu said, “I was practicing my Dao.”
At the same time, he silently adjusted the communication mode to only show his upper body.
Meanwhile, Le Mulan’s small hand reached down, and her surprised voice came from behind Zhang Yu’s head: “Huh? It’s not cold here.”
Zhang Yu took a deep breath and abruptly gripped Le Mulan’s hands tightly, preventing her from moving further.
Zhang Yu: “I’m fine. If you keep messing around, I’ll charge you.”
Le Mulan: “I should have paid you already. How much do you want?”
Fu Ji watched this scene and sneered inwardly, “Tch! With such weak self-control, he thinks he can get into Joyful Union University? What a naive virgin.”
At the same time, Bai Zhenzhen, observing Zhang Yu’s strange behavior, showed a hint of disdain. “You little rascal,” she muttered. “Up to your usual antics again?”
“Tsk, no wonder it took you so long to connect.”
“You wouldn’t be… doing that while talking to me, would you?”
Bai Zhenzhen sighed. “Ah, I knew once you went to university and I wasn’t there, you’d start letting loose.”
“If only I’d cut off the root of your trouble before I left.”
Zhang Yu’s face flushed red. “What nonsense are you spouting?! I’m not Yu Xinghan!”
Bai Zhenzhen said, “Then hold out your hands. Both of them.”
Zhang Yu, who was pressing down on Le Mulan’s hands with both of his, froze for a moment.
The next instant, just as he realized he needed to activate his Gang Qi, Bai Zhenzhen’s expression of disdain deepened. She curled her lips and said, “Alright, alright, I know you. If you want to watch me do it, go ahead. We’re brothers, after all. If I don’t help you, who will?”
“What the hell—” Zhang Yu snapped angrily, “I didn’t fucking do anything!”
“Mhm, mhm, mhm,” Bai Zhenzhen hummed dismissively, already changing the subject.
Moments later, as the communication line went dead, Zhang Yu glanced at Le Mulan beside him. “You…”
“Ah, my lifelong reputation, ruined by your hands,” Le Mulan sighed dramatically.
“How will A-Zhen ever see me again?” Zhang Yu thought bitterly. “I’ll never be able to hold my head up in front of her again.”
Le Mulan hesitated. “Were you just… communicating with someone?”
“Yes,” Zhang Yu snapped irritably. “Listen up! From now on, you’re not allowed to touch me without my permission. Got it?”
Le Mulan explained, “I was afraid you’d get frostbite. You looked really scary just now.”
Hearing this, Zhang Yu remembered, “Right, the Profound Cold Meridian.”
He quickly sensed the changes within his body and found his Magic Power flowing through his meridians like clusters of ice crystals, carrying a faint chill throughout his system.
His meridians themselves seemed to have transformed into pathways forged from ice and snow, causing his body temperature to plummet far below normal.
After some experimentation, Zhang Yu discovered that his Magic Power could now generate a cold poison. This poison could be injected into others through his Magic Power or its derivatives, such as martial dao Gang Qi.
Initially inconspicuous, the cold poison would gradually accumulate before suddenly erupting, freezing the target’s vital energy and Magic Power solid.
“Cold poison, huh? It seems to have boosted my Gang Qi’s power even further.”
Zhang Yu recalled how both he and Le Mulan had frozen solid earlier. It must have been the first appearance of this cold poison within their bodies, a phenomenon they hadn’t yet adapted to.
Having adapted to it this time, future uses of the Profound Cold Meridian would no longer cause such problems.
Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Even if Le Mulan hadn’t intervened when I froze after copying the Profound Cold Meridian, I probably would have been fine in the end.”
“But Le Mulan doesn’t know I can copy her Dao Seed… Ah, well, I can’t really blame her.”
Zhang Yu then recalled his earlier clash with Cong Na, thinking, “If I’d had this Profound Cold Meridian during that fight, it would have been much easier.”
He proceeded to experiment further on himself.
Observing the Gang Qi frozen solid in his palm, Zhang Yu tested its hardness and mused, “Freezing Gang Qi doesn’t seem just for attacking enemies. It can also be used to alter its form.”
Just as Zhang Yu was deep in thought, Le Mulan exclaimed in surprise, “You also possess my Ice Magic Power now?”
Zhang Yu saw no reason to hide it. After all, unlike the Third Eye Mystic Power, this ability was too obvious to conceal.
Zhang Yu nodded. “It’s likely you influenced it during your breakthrough.”
Through further experimentation and sensing, Zhang Yu discovered that under the influence of the Profound Cold Meridian, his Magic Power could eliminate pathogens and freeze wounds, providing a therapeutic effect.
“Not bad.”
“But how to apply it effectively still needs further research.”
Zhang Yu thought, “Besides this, I also need to see if there are any other effects I haven’t discovered yet…”
Just then, Zhang Yu’s gaze narrowed slightly as he sensed the flow of Ice Magic Power. He thought incredulously, “No way…?”
Since consuming large quantities of Life-Shortening Drugs, fortifying his foundation, and continuously revitalizing his body to repair the damage, Zhang Yu had developed a heightened sensitivity to the depletion of his lifespa — or rather, the loss of his Primordial Qi.
At that moment, he suddenly sensed that under the influence of the Profound Cold Meridian, the rate at which his lifespan was diminishing seemed to have slowed down minutely.
“This Profound Cold Meridian… can it slow the loss of lifespan?”
“Could it actually extend longevity?”
Zhang Yu wasn’t entirely certain; he felt the details needed further investigation.
After pondering for a while, he shared this possibility with Le Mulan, who was beside him.
Le Mulan was startled. “My Magic Power has such an effect?”
She mused thoughtfully, “Then we need to study this carefully.”
“I’ll conduct experiments using the resources from the Pharmacy Institute,” Zhang Yu replied.
He added. “Before that, let’s keep this information confidential to avoid unnecessary complications.”
As he spoke, Zhang Yu glanced at the Dao Seed on Le Mulan’s chest.
According to his senses, the next upgrade of the Profound Cold Meridian required increasing the Magic Power Quality to 200%.
“This won’t be a quick task,” he mused.
“I wonder what changes the next level of the Profound Cold Meridian will bring.”
Over the following days, Zhang Yu devoted his spare time between work and cultivation to continuously experimenting with the Profound Cold Meridian’s effects.
One day, at the construction site within the tomb, a humanoid Gang Qi materialized behind Zhang Yu.
Unlike the ephemeral humanoid Gang Qi he had casually conjured in the past, this one possessed a distinct solidity and presence.
This Humanoid Gang Qi not only emanated a chilling cold but also possessed a distinct texture.
In Zhang Yu’s perception, the interior of the Humanoid Gang Qi contained bone-like structures composed of ice crystals — the very Gang Qi he had frozen.
“Using frozen Gang Qi as bones…” Zhang Yu murmured inwardly as he watched the Humanoid Gang Qi perform various tasks under his control. “This significantly improves the efficiency of Gang Qi in conducting power, but it consumes more Magic Power and slows down the Humanoid Gang Qi’s movements.”
Suddenly, a gust of Gang Qi swept past him, as if grasping something.
Zhang Yu’s gaze sharpened as he noticed fine white powder falling from it.
“This is… medicinal powder? No, it’s flour.”
“Where did this flour come from?”
After searching for a while, Zhang Yu suddenly turned his gaze toward the secret passage.
Activating the ritual power within him, he conjured the surveillance camera’s feed before his eyes.
The sight before him sent a jolt through his heart, and a thunderbolt of realization struck his mind: “The Dark Seed Territory?”