"Young’er, why did you hit yourself? Does it hurt? Look, your face is already swollen."

Startled by the sound, Xiao Shou snapped out of his thoughts. He quickly grabbed Fu Young’s hand and said honestly, "It is not because of you. I just... when I heard that you used someone for my sake, I did not feel that you were wrong. Instead, I felt happy because you were protecting me. Does that make me a bad person? I always thought I was a good person."

"Master is not bad at all. You only feel that way because An Yu was not harmed."

Fu Young felt warmth in his heart. He held Xiao Shou’s hand firmly and said sincerely, "Even if Master were truly a bad person, it would not matter. No matter what kind of person you are, I like you. To me, you are the best person in the world."

Looking into Fu Young’s determined eyes and hearing his words, Xiao Shou felt his heart begin to pound for the first time. His ears grew hot, his face flushed, even his scalp tingled. The hand being held felt as if it were burning.

He quickly pulled his hand away and changed the subject. "Then what about this shortcut? You already finished deducing my technique, did you not?"

"Yes. I finished it three years ago."

Fu Young subconsciously curled his hand slightly, feeling a hint of loss. Holding his master’s hand had felt so comforting.

"Master, with these demonic beast essences and gels, you do not need to take any shortcuts. I will hunt enough demonic beasts for your cultivation."

"Whether I need it or not is for me to decide. You just need to tell me the method."

Xiao Shou looked at him firmly. "Besides, you also used a shortcut, did you not? Otherwise, how could you reach Foundation Establishment in just four and a half years? And now, after these two years, your cultivation should already be at the third rotation of Foundation Establishment, right?"

"Master, how did you know?" Fu Young looked at Xiao Shou in surprise.

Normally, without special methods, low level cultivators could not sense the cultivation of higher level ones.

Xiao Shou had guessed his Foundation Establishment correctly.

As for the stage, he had actually just reached the fourth rotation a few days ago, so that part was slightly off.

Xiao Shou did not mention that he had accidentally noticed Fu Young was using a different dilution of spirit spring milk.

He also remembered that two years ago, Fu Young had gone to Azure Origin City to buy something and stayed away for many days.

When he returned, his entire aura had changed.

From that, Xiao Shou calculated his cultivation speed and made a guess.

Instead, he said proudly, "I am not a useless master."

"I knew Master was the most amazing. Do you really want to know?" Fu Young quickly realized it was just a guess.

Seeing Xiao Shou’s proud expression, he felt a strange warmth in his heart.

He deliberately put on a dejected look as he asked.

When Xiao Shou nodded, he had no choice but to explain, "I use lightning talismans. After each cultivation session, I strike myself with a lightning talisman, then use the lightning tempering method from the Ninety Nine Calamities Cycles Art to refine my body. After circulating my energy once, I take a Life Rejuvenation Pill to heal the damage, then continue using lightning talismans until I reach my physical limit."

"So it is the same method as using heavenly tribulation to temper the body in each major realm of the Ninety Nine Calamities Cycles Art, increasing the body’s capacity to withstand spiritual power?" Xiao Shou had read that technique, so he immediately understood the principle behind this shortcut.

He then asked, "What about the Tier 9 Three Body Problem Profound Art you deduced? Let me see it."

Fu Young took out the completed technique from his storage sachet and handed it over. "This technique was derived from my own. The condensation of spiritual energy, realm transitions, and tribulations are mostly the same. The difference is that my technique allows me to develop one special spiritual root at each major realm, while yours requires three major realms to gain one. An Yu has already tested the cultivation method. Since she successfully reached Foundation Establishment, it proves there are no errors in the later stages, as it was derived from my technique."

Xiao Shou took the technique and pressed it to his forehead, examining it carefully.

He found that the deduced method was similar to the Ninety Nine Calamity Circle Art.

It absorbed three types of spiritual energy, had nine rotations in each major realm, and each breakthrough would bring a heavenly tribulation to temper the body, increasing the capacity to withstand spiritual energy and transforming the physique.

It also had no mental barriers or bottlenecks.

The difference, however, was significant.

With each major realm, the vitality within the body would increase to nine times that of cultivators of the same level, essentially granting nine lives.

The power of techniques would also multiply, while the spiritual energy required to cast them would decrease proportionally.

The meridians and dantian would expand to nine times that of ordinary cultivators.

The nature of spiritual energy itself would also change under the influence of the technique.

After nine refinements, it would transform step by step from qi to mist, cloud, dew, water, liquid, viscous, solid, and finally into crystal.

This crystalline spiritual energy carried special properties.

Any technique or attack formed from it would cause the enemy to crystallize and only spiritual energy of the same attribute could remove the effect.

The technique offered even more.

At the Golden Core stage, it could give rise to an Illusion Spiritual Root, allowing the user to learn illusion techniques and create illusions and dreamlike realms.

At the Deity Transformation stage, it could produce a Magnetic Spiritual Root, enabling the use of gravity based techniques.