Chapter 62

In the quiet room on the third floor of the commercial building, Shang Xia cultivated the Two Instruments Essence within his body according to the circulation method of the *Three Profound Dual Extremes Technique* for three full cycles before slowly ending his cultivation.

Compared to the initial awkwardness when he first started, Shang Xia now found the circulation of the essence within his body much smoother.

After three cycles of cultivation, the Two Instruments Essence within his body grew stronger, and the Taiji diagram manifested in his dantian became slightly more solid.

However, this almost visible rate of improvement would only occur during the early stages of advancing to the Martial Apex Realm—or more accurately, the Two Instruments Realm.

As his cultivation progressed further, this improvement would become increasingly less noticeable.

At this moment, Shang Xia suddenly felt a surge of inspiration and wanted to verify a previous idea.

With a slight thought, the Two Instruments Origin in his dantian immediately began to change.

The originally balanced Yin and Yang essences suddenly began to transform, with all the Yin essence converting to Yang.

The solidification of the Yang fish in the Taiji diagram increased by a factor of two compared to before.

It really works!

Shang Xia felt a surge of joy. With another thought, the essence that had completely merged with the Yang fish transformed back through the Yin-Yang conversion of the Taiji diagram, becoming Yin essence once again. The solidification of the Yin fish also doubled compared to its initial state.

Shang Xia finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the Two Instruments Origin in his dantian began to return to balance.

This was the strength of manifesting the Taiji diagram in his dantian.

The concept from his homeland made maintaining the balance of his essence an instinct, while also minimizing the possibility of losing control.

Additionally, Shang Xia had always been concerned that his method of cultivating both Yin and Yang simultaneously, without the two layers of the Martial Apex Realm, and with his Two Instruments Essence being far superior in quality to other Martial Apex Realm practitioners, might slow down his cultivation and raise suspicions.

However, the recent experiment put his mind at ease.

As long as Shang Xia was willing, he could focus all his Two Instruments Essence on one extreme at any time.

This way, when his Two Instruments Essence cultivation was halfway complete, he could still display the cultivation of the first layer of the Martial Apex Realm, or even the second layer, when necessary.

Thus, while his cultivation progress might slow down due to the superior quality of his Two Instruments Essence, it would not slow down to the point where everyone would become suspicious.

In the current situation, Shang Xia was not willing to reveal anything related to his homeland.

At the end of his cultivation, Shang Xia's attention returned to the essence surrounding the Taiji diagram.

Most of this essence was a remnant from when Shang Xia was in the Martial Essence Realm. Although it would be refined during his cultivation, completely converting it to Two Instruments Essence would require the help of martial techniques.

Therefore, the cultivation of the *Ji Jian Ce* needed to be expedited.

The Four Spirit Mountains could attack at any time, and the Mystic Peak was about to face a major battle, one of the few in the past twenty years since the formation of the Two Realms Battle Zone.

At this time, any increase in strength was crucial.

When Shang Xia awoke from his cultivation, he did not know how much time had passed.

In the Two Realms Battle Zone, the unpredictable and ever-changing weather made it impossible to judge the time by the environment.

However, the originally clean and tidy quiet room was now in disarray. What had happened?

Shang Xia's gaze quickly locked onto the culprit, Yan Nie'er, a large swallow perched on an open box.

The moment he saw Yan Nie'er, Shang Xia, who had been calm, was suddenly startled.

If he remembered correctly, the box under Yan Nie'er contained three bird eggs!

These were one of the spoils he obtained after killing three martial practitioners of the Wind Swallow Tribe in the valley.

Oh no, did Yan Nie'er peck and eat the three eggs?

Shang Xia knew that some extraordinary spirit birds were hostile to eggs that were not their own.

Looking at the many cotton-like things dragged out on the ground, they were likely the soft padding from the box.

Shang Xia quickly got up and went to Yan Nie'er, speaking softly, "Good girl, let me see inside the box. I won't blame you, if you ate them, it's fine!"

Although Shang Xia felt a bit heartbroken, there was nothing he could do if they were eaten.

"Chirp chirp—"

Yan Nie'er was clearly very unhappy with Shang Xia's request, but she eventually gave in and moved aside.

Shang Xia looked into the box and saw that the eggs were intact, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

He thought to himself, it seems Yan Nie'er has a good attitude towards eggs of her own kind!

However, just as Shang Xia was about to look away, Yan Nie'er, standing on half of the box, lost her balance and leaned to one side, quickly regaining her balance.

In that moment, Shang Xia caught a glimpse of a red glow with golden specks.

"Huh?"

Shang Xia felt a sense of strangeness and picked up Yan Nie'er, fully exposing the open box.

One, two, three, four...

Why are there four eggs?

Three of the eggs, which were greenish-gray, were the ones Shang Xia had obtained earlier.

But what was the red egg with golden specks?

It couldn't have just appeared out of nowhere, right?

Shang Xia looked suspiciously at the four eggs in the box and then at Yan Nie'er perched on his arm.

"Did you lay this egg?"

Shang Xia asked.

"Chirp chirp—"

Yan Nie'er responded.

It seemed this was the only explanation!

Shang Xia, ignoring Yan Nie'er's dissatisfaction, gently touched the red egg with golden specks, which was identical in shape to the other three. He indeed sensed two familiar lightning auras.

One came from the Thunderbird, and the other was from Yan Nie'er, who often enjoyed lightning baths in his palm, thus absorbing a strand of aura similar to his.

So, the matter was clear!

Shang Xia had left Yan Nie'er by his side while he was cultivating in the quiet room.

During his meditation, it happened to be Yan Nie'er's egg-laying period.

Yan Nie'er did not dare to disturb Shang Xia's cultivation, so she tried to build a small nest on her own to prepare for egg-laying.

While rummaging through the items Shang Xia had temporarily placed in the quiet room, she found the box containing the three mutated swallow eggs and used it.

However, seeing the shredded cotton on the ground, Shang Xia felt something was off. Why did she throw out the soft padding from the box? What was now inside the box?

Shang Xia looked inside the box again and saw a large clump of fluffy material, almost filling half the box.

Shang Xia immediately realized that this was the fluffy material from the mutated swallow, which he had used here.

Shang Xia laughed and put Yan Nie'er down.

The bird, flying and jumping, returned to the box and incubated the four eggs under her.

Shang Xia smiled and left her alone, then picked up the scattered items on the ground.

The box of mud pills was missing a few, which must have been pecked by Yan Nie'er, but the loss was not significant.

The bottle containing a drop of blood was hard and did not break when it rolled on the ground.

The box that originally contained the fluffy material was indeed empty...

After leaving the quiet room, Shang Xia instructed the inn's staff to bring him some thin bamboo sticks to weave a small nest for Yan Nie'er. He then placed the fluffy material and the four eggs from the box into the nest, making it more comfortable for Yan Nie'er to incubate the eggs.

After doing this, Shang Xia spread his palm and gave Yan Nie'er a thorough lightning bath, then placed her in the small nest to continue incubating the eggs. Shang Xia then went to the backyard of the commercial building.

The Shang family had set up a large training ground in the backyard. Shang Xia had previously practiced the *Hunyuan Palm* and *Pili Palm* here to loosen his muscles.

However, this time, Shang Xia planned to try practicing the sword techniques from the *Ji Jian Ce*.

The complete *Ji Jian Ce* recorded five sets of sword techniques and the cultivation method for a sword technique's divine power.

The five sets of sword techniques were the *Fanggang Sword Technique*, *Wuxing Sword Technique*, *Gangrou Sword Technique*, *Gangrou Dual Sword Technique*, and *Gangrou Dual Person Sword Formation*.

Each set of sword techniques had a unique method of circulating essence to match.

However, the *Ji Jian Ce* Shang Xia obtained from the scripture cave was incomplete, containing only the *Fanggang Sword Technique*, *Wuxing Sword Technique*, and *Gangrou Sword Technique*.

The remaining two sets of sword techniques were more powerful and could only be obtained from the scripture library after Shang Xia returned to the academy.

As for the cultivation method of the sword technique's divine power, the *Ji Jian Ce* only recorded a general direction, and most of the cultivation would depend on personal insight.

Shang Xia picked up an ordinary green steel longsword from the weapon rack, skillfully performed a sword flower, and silently circulated the essence method of the sword technique, beginning to practice the sword technique.

The first sword technique Shang Xia planned to cultivate was the *Fanggang Sword Technique*.

According to the conventional cultivation method of Martial Apex Realm practitioners, he could only mobilize the Yang essence in his dantian at this time.

With a thought, the Two Instruments Essence in his dantian began to transform into Yin and Yang, and the Yang essence was mobilized to circulate according to the method of the sword technique.

At the same time, Shang Xia held the longsword and began the first move of the *Fanggang Sword Technique*, slowly performing it as the essence within his body circulated.

At first, Shang Xia's movements were very awkward.

The sword moves were imitated, and the circulation of essence within his body was inconsistent, making it difficult to synchronize with the sword moves.

As Shang Xia repeatedly practiced, he gradually became familiar with each move, and the circulation of essence began to synchronize with the sword moves, gradually increasing the power of the sword moves.

Shang Xia quickly became fully immersed in the practice, and in this state, time passed very quickly.

Just as he had become proficient with the third move of the *Fanggang Sword Technique*, a scream from the top floor of the commercial building suddenly interrupted his practice.

"Ah—, who wasted such a good thing by using swallow down to pad a bird's nest?"