Chapter 114: Seclusion and Preparation for Battle

Whether it was the majestic Great Wall, the vast and classical Forbidden City, or the desolate and sprawling Summer Palace, the figures of the Jiang family of three were imprinted upon these grand sites. They paused at the magnificent Chang’an Gate Square, strolled through the pleasant Beihai Park—without work, without conflict—just the three of them, eating, drinking, playing, and savoring these rare moments of warmth.

The period around the New Year was the happiest time for Xixi. Each day brought new expectations—fun games, delicious treats—so many delights that she was constantly laughing. Like an angelic porcelain doll, she would run ahead, with a cute little yellow dog always following close behind. This scene brought smiles to many who witnessed it.

Happy times always pass too quickly, and before they knew it, the New Year had come and gone.

“Daddy, come quickly! Little Tiger is sick!”

Early one morning, Jiang An was gently combing Song Wanshuang’s hair when Xixi suddenly dashed in, clutching his leg. Her little face tilted upward, her big eyes brimming with worry.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Jiang An comforted her.

“Daddy, hurry! Little Tiger is so pitiful!” Xixi ignored the reassurances, tugging at Jiang An’s clothes as she tried to pull him outside. She only knew that her best companion, Little Tiger, seemed to have some problem—he lay completely still.

Jiang An lifted his daughter in his arms, shooting an apologetic glance at Song Wanshuang, then followed Xixi to her room.

In one corner lay Little Tiger’s little nest, where he often slept beside Xixi. Usually, the moment Xixi opened her eyes, she would see Little Tiger’s chubby face and gentle smile. But today was different. Upon waking, she saw no sign of him. Little Tiger lay quietly in his nest, but no matter how much she called or shook him, he didn’t respond. The innocent child naturally assumed that Little Tiger was sick, and her first reaction was to cry while seeking her father.

The truth was that last night, Jiang An had infused the life essence harvested from a great black tiger through the Nixia Technique into Little Tiger’s body. This life essence was overwhelming for Little Tiger, but it was his opportunity. If he could fully absorb it, his physical condition would greatly improve, and there was hope for a bloodline mutation. From then on, he would no longer be an ordinary little dog, but a formidable beast.

However, the process was slow. According to Little Tiger’s usual absorption capacity, it would take him one to two years to fully assimilate the essence, during which time he would remain in a state of dormancy. Even now, with Jiang An’s magical power aiding and part of the essence sealed, Little Tiger still needed to rest in dormancy for more than half a month, gradually absorbing the remainder afterward.

Jiang An found himself at a loss about how to explain this to Xixi. The details were too complex for her to understand. After some thought, he said, “Little Tiger isn’t sick. He’s just sleeping, only this time, he needs to sleep longer.”

“How long?”

“About twenty days.”

The little girl had no clear concept of time, only feeling it was very long. Pouting, she said, “That’s too long. Xixi wants Little Tiger. Daddy, can’t he not sleep so long?”

“Well, this sleep is very important for Little Tiger. After he wakes up, he’ll grow bigger and taller. If he doesn’t sleep, he’ll get sick and feel bad. Don’t you want Little Tiger to grow up?” Jiang An coaxed.

Xixi tilted her head, thinking hard. After struggling with herself, she said, “I don’t want Little Tiger to be sick or feel bad. I want him to grow up with me.”

“That’s the right attitude!” Jiang An breathed a sigh of relief—only to have Xixi’s next words make him even more troubled.

“When Little Tiger is sleeping, Daddy must stay with Xixi all the time, okay? Xixi loves Daddy the most,” the little girl whispered, hugging his neck softly.

Could Jiang An tell her that he was about to enter seclusion for cultivation, for even longer than Little Tiger’s sleep? Surely, Xixi would burst into tears.

“All right, Daddy will be here all the time,” he said helplessly, hoping that a child’s attention span would soon wander.

That day, Jiang An devoted himself to his daughter’s company. There was no need to go out; they played simple little games. Sometimes, just sitting nearby and occasionally responding was enough—she would entertain herself.

That evening, Jiang An discussed his impending seclusion with Song Wanshuang.

“Xiaoshuang, you know, in just over a month, I will face a battle with the warriors from Wa. Before that, I need to prepare and enter seclusion for a while,” Jiang An murmured, gently caressing the silky curve of her waist, whispering close to her ear.

“This battle is unavoidable, so preparations are necessary. We’ve discussed this before,” Song Wanshuang blinked her big eyes.

“The problem is with our daughter…” Jiang An smiled bitterly, recounting the events of the day. He sighed, “I wish I could stay by Xixi’s side, watching her change, watching her grow. But often, things are beyond one’s control.”

“No father can be with his daughter every moment of the day. Yes, we love her and want to protect her, but one day she must grow up and walk on her own. Do you want to raise her to be a clueless dependent forever?”

“But I promised her today.”

“To be honest, I’m even more guilty—I’ve promised many times and broken those promises often. Here’s the plan: you focus on your seclusion. I have Qiuke to look after her. I guarantee your little girl will soon forget you.”

“Haha, she would never forget her daddy,” Jiang An laughed.

So the decision was made.

There were other options—Jiang An could have used his clone technique to accompany Xixi daily. But with his current cultivation and spiritual power, his clones couldn’t last long or perform complex tasks; after all, they were not independent, fully sentient avatars.

Before his seclusion, Jiang An had one important matter to attend to: Song Wanshuang’s cultivation.

Cultivation required aptitude, known as spiritual roots. Unfortunately, Song Wanshuang’s were poor. Despite her breathtaking beauty, her five-element spiritual roots were chaotic and disorderly. The quality of spiritual roots determined the efficiency of refining spiritual energy and the retention of spiritual power. Comparing pure spiritual roots like Heaven Roots to five-element roots, the former could refine spiritual energy four or five times faster. Furthermore, refined spiritual energy loses power during processing—Heaven Roots suffer almost no loss, dual roots lose about ten percent, and five-element roots lose about half. Over time, the gap widens: one day of cultivation with Heaven Roots equals one or two months with five-element roots.

Starting so far behind, five-element roots made true cultivation nearly impossible; a lifetime was often insufficient to reach mid-stage Qi refinement.

The immortal realm was vast and filled with countless mystical arts and secrets; naturally, there were ways to overcome poor aptitude. High-level cultivators could use great power to refine away inferior roots, though at great cost to their foundation, or use rare five-element treasures to replace innate roots, or Jiang An could employ his divine art, the Unprecedented Technique, to open a new spirit root for her. Many methods existed, but all required advanced cultivation.

Clearly, Jiang An, at mid-stage Qi refinement, was far from such mastery.

But as one of the top cultivators, his insight was unmatched. He quickly conceived a plan.

As mentioned before, martial artists who reach the master level gain cultivation aptitude. Even without innate spiritual roots, their bodies, nurtured by internal true energy, become attuned to such energy. Once they cross the master threshold, their perception of external energy greatly improves, generating acquired “spiritual roots.” After all, magical power is essentially a higher form of energy than internal power.

With this in mind, Jiang An realized that even if Song Wanshuang couldn’t become a martial arts master, nurturing her body with pure, refined energy could stimulate her meridians and dantian, unlocking potential and encouraging her chaotic five-element roots to evolve and combine into a mutant root. Most crucially, the energy must be exquisitely pure; ordinary energy would be useless.

Fortuitously, Jiang An’s immortal body gave him Yuan Yang Qi, one of the purest energies in the world. After their union, he consciously transferred all this Yuan Yang Qi into Song Wanshuang’s body, slowly improving her constitution.

Originally, Jiang An wished to accelerate this process, but now he decided to wait. If he rushed, his seclusion would force Song Wanshuang into cultivation alone, leaving Xixi unattended.

Fortunately, having mastered the Crossing Difficulty Scripture, Jiang An only needed to restore his cultivation. Otherwise, without his Yuan Yang body, this great divine technique would be inaccessible.

Having arranged everything, Jiang An resolutely entered seclusion. With just over a month left, it should suffice.

Several hundred spirit stones—if for a typical cultivator, this fortune could support them from early Qi refinement to its peak or even foundation establishment. But for Jiang An, practicing the Crossing Difficulty Scripture, even absorbing all these stones wouldn’t push him from mid to late Qi refinement.

Previously, in early Qi refinement, he refined magical power using Qingyuan Elixir and later advanced to mid-stage with a dozen stones and the Spirit Gathering Array. But now, Qingyuan Elixir was ineffective, and the gap between each small stage grew exponentially. Moreover, the first stage of the Crossing Difficulty Scripture consumed substantial magical power.

Thus, Jiang An’s goal during seclusion was to refine these spirit stones into magical power crystals.