Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 597 Transcendence (Part 1)

After deciding to further study the divine skill, the first problem facing Murong Xiao was the "privacy issue".

After all... he is someone who needs long-term, round-the-clock care.

Although he could use various methods to send his servants away, such as "I'll sit here and read by myself for a while, you can go outside and rest for a bit, I'll call you if I need anything," the privacy he could gain was still limited.

From the other person's perspective, the thought at this moment would only be: "Second Young Master, aren't you just making trouble for me? What if you bump into something while I'm not in the room? If the Master blames you afterwards, won't we, the servants, have to bear the consequences?"

In those days, this was indeed the reality for the vast majority of wealthy families.

Some of them were particularly vicious. Whenever something went wrong in the household, even if they knew it wasn't caused by human error, they would still pin the blame on the servants to vent their anger. The servants could only endure it, because enduring it was a way to minimize their losses. If they dared to reason with the master, he could simply say, "How dare you talk back," and then ignore all their arguments and beat them to death.

Under such circumstances, the one who was sent outside by Murong Xiao certainly wouldn't actually "rest." On the contrary, he would listen even more closely to the sounds inside the house, fearing that something might happen to the young master while he was away.

Ah Xiao had to practice his skills while also being careful not to make too much noise that would attract the servants to rush in and check. Naturally, this made him easily distracted and he felt constrained.

In the end, the only time he could truly unleash his full potential for training was when his father came to "play chess and chat," because only then would the servants who had been sent away truly rest.

However, this couldn't go on forever, so after Murong Xiao had basically regained his mobility, he went to Murong Shu to discuss whether they could tell a lie together.

The father and son naturally had to keep the matter of the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill a secret, but they could make up another reason to explain that Ah Xiao had been "cured," which should be fine.

So, a month after returning from his trip, Murong Shu suddenly gathered his family together and announced the "good news" that A Xiao had regained his ability to take care of himself.

As for how he recovered, the father and son explained that a month ago, Murong Shu went out to find an extremely rare snow lotus in the Tianshan Mountains. After Murong Shu successfully brought the snow lotus back, A Xiao used his years of medical research to concoct a medicine with the snow lotus as the main ingredient. For the past month, A Xiao has been taking the medicine while receiving Murong Shu's "internal energy therapy," and the results have been remarkable. Now that the medicine is finished, A Xiao's body can move freely like a normal person.

This set of arguments is undoubtedly a very clever lie, because it is complicated where it should be complicated and vague where it should be vague.

If they simply say that Murong Shu found something and Ah Xiao was cured after eating it, that would be too simplistic and crude, and everyone would inevitably doubt the authenticity of the thing.

However, it is now said that "snow lotus" is only the main ingredient, and it is only effective when combined with "Ah Xiao's medical skills" and "Murong Shu's internal energy healing"—methods that are difficult to verify. This is because the details are rich but cannot be proven.

In addition, this lie also conveniently included the fact that "Murong Shu had been to Tianshan," which is a real event and highly likely to be verified.

Murong Xiao speculated that his sudden announcement of his recovery at this time would inevitably lead some people to connect it with Murong Shu's trip a month ago, and then secretly investigate.

Then why not have them proactively include some verifiable facts into this lie? That way, when others investigate, it will further increase the credibility of their story.

In short, this lie is enough to fool people in the short term.

Besides, we're all family. Now that Ah Xiao's health has improved, everyone's first reaction should at least be to be happy for him. Even someone as foolish as Murong Ji wouldn't immediately start interrogating him like a criminal.

Therefore, this wave allowed Murong Shu and Murong Xiao to get through it quite smoothly.

But how many people are truly happy for Ah-Xiao?

And you know what? Most of them are.

First is Murong Shu's younger brother, Murong Tao, who is also A Xiao's second uncle.

As we mentioned before, this guy is simply easygoing and has long since given up on anything—he doesn't want to hear about anything like the position of family head or the conflicts in the martial arts world.

In the past, when the children were still young, he would lend a hand when the business was short-handed. Now that Murong Shu's branch of the family is so prosperous, Murong Tao has even more reason to abandon it.

In fact, Murong Tao rarely shows up at his family home anymore. He and his only wife moved to their daughter's in-laws' house to retire early. To put it bluntly, it's no different from him "kicking himself out of his own family."

So when his brother called him back and he heard about his second nephew's recovery, he was naturally overjoyed and had no other thoughts.

Secondly, there's Murong Xiao's biological mother, Murong Shu's "second wife." Needless to say, her child had suffered so much injustice over the years, and now that he had "stood up" in every sense of the word, she was absolutely overjoyed and wept tears of joy.

Next came Murong Shu's "Third Madam," and then there was "Third Girl" Murong Yue.

These two are in a similar situation to Murong Tao, because they are not involved in the "competition for the next head of the family" and have no vested interests in the matter, so they are definitely happy for Ah Xiao when he is cured.

Now that we've come to that point, I think everyone understands that the only ones who aren't genuinely happy for Ah Xiao are the "First Madam" and her two sons... Murong Ji and Murong Dian.

The reason these three were able to get along peacefully with Ah-Xiao in the past was because Ah-Xiao was a "useless person" and had no qualifications to compete for the future position of family head.

But now everything is different. A healthy Murong Xiao doesn't even need to practice martial arts; he's still a top-notch talent.

If he were to master martial arts in the future, Murong Ji and Murong Dian would be in a situation where "comparison is the thief of joy" in his presence. Wouldn't they be anxious?

However, there was one person who was actually even more anxious than them.

That was Murong Xiao himself.

Others might think: Now that this person is finally able to move around normally, they should cherish their body even more and avoid making risky or radical decisions.

But from the perspective of those involved, it was quite the opposite.

"Now that I can finally practice martial arts like an ordinary person, and even have a better foundation than an ordinary person, I must make up for the wasted decades in the past as quickly as possible."

This is what Ah-Hsiao really thinks.

Therefore, after publicly revealing his physical condition to a small group at home, thus regaining his "privacy," Murong Xiao immediately began to train day and night.

His next step after mastering the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill—"becoming"—means, as the name suggests, he wants to become someone with the same strength as the Great Hero Yun when he first mastered the Divine Skill in the shortest amount of time.

Anyway, from the time when Master Yun became famous for his divine skill to the time when he "returned to his cocoon," there was about ten years. Ah Xiao asked himself, if it were him, he would have found a way to defy fate long ago during such a long period of time.

So, let's "become" first.

Looking at the entire martial arts world over the past few hundred years, how many extraordinary skills could enable someone to go from having no martial arts skills to becoming a top master in a very short period of time?
Don't say that you'll die after ten years if you master it; even if you die after just one year, many people will still succumb to the temptation.

Someone like Ah-Xiao, who has suppressed and endured for so long, and is both incredibly confident and incredibly stubborn, would be even less likely to resist such an opportunity.

With the necessary conditions for cultivation, he spent another month practicing the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill from the first level to the fifth level.

Even though this was a skill that could be mastered quickly, and even though the great hero Yun was exceptionally talented and had many fortuitous encounters, he could never have mastered it as fast as he did.

Of course, we all know the biggest reason for this: Ah-Xiao's body is special.

All internal energy cultivation is inseparable from the core of "breathing," and Ah Xiao's body has an advantage over ordinary people in this respect.

To put it simply, once he has mastered the true use of his body, he will be much faster than others, no matter what kind of internal energy cultivation he practices.

Another secondary reason is that he is "intelligent"...exceptionally intelligent.

Generally speaking, when an ordinary person of average talent practices an internal skill, the first thing they need to do is memorize the basic formula of that skill, namely the introductory "breathing method". After memorizing it, they need to guide the "qi" in the meridians in a certain pattern while breathing, according to the contents of the formula... Only by completing a "small circulation" in this way can it be considered an effective practice.

To draw an analogy, going through this whole process is like doing a set of strength training exercises in the gym with very standard posture.

However, people's memory and comprehension abilities are different. Some people find it difficult just to memorize the formulas, while others can memorize them without much trouble, but they don't fully understand the content they've memorized. All of these factors will affect their efficiency when meditating and circulating their energy... It's similar to how their posture is incorrect when doing strength training, which reduces the effectiveness of their training.

The difference in so-called "qualifications" is reflected here.

Of course, it doesn't matter if you're not naturally gifted, because you can do many sets or many times a day with this kind of training. Even if you're a little slower or less skilled, as long as you keep practicing and improving your proficiency, you'll eventually do well. You just need to spend more time and effort than those who are naturally gifted.

However, as you delve deeper into the training, the things you need to memorize and understand as you progress from "beginner" to "advanced," then to "mastery," and finally "mastery" in a martial art become increasingly difficult. Not to mention, after "memorizing" and "understanding," there is an ultimate hurdle called "enlightenment."

At this point, some people will encounter "bottlenecks" or even "limits" due to qualification issues.

But for those with high qualifications, what they see is a process of "from simple to complex" and then "from complex to simple".

As they practice, they realize that this is not fitness, but mathematics, highlighting the idea that "it is difficult for those who don't know it, but easy for those who do."

Murong Xiao was a "skilled one," and one with extraordinary talent.

He can improve his understanding of martial arts just by imagining it, let alone practice it in person, especially with his special body.

Therefore, after he had mastered the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill to the fifth level, he stopped at the next important hurdle.

This is because there are some things here that he feels he needs to think about carefully.

According to the manual, when the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill breaks through from the fifth to the sixth level and from the ninth to the tenth level, one will experience a "cocooning". The first cocooning can make one "reborn", while the second will "increase one's power".

Back then, Yun Daxia probably thought this was just a "setting". It was strange, but he wouldn't think too much about it, at least he wouldn't think that it was related to some kind of "side effect" that might appear ten years later.

Now that Murong Xiao knows the fate of Hero Yun, he has to question the two "transformation" processes of this martial art.

Why is this necessary? What is the necessity of metamorphosis and emergence from the cocoon? What are the biological and chemical principles underlying this?
As the saying goes, scientific martial arts training should start with me.

Murong Xiao keenly realized that these two cocoon transformations might be the key to the irreversible side effects of this martial art in the future. If he could thoroughly study the principles behind them and find a more reasonable way to bypass these two "cocoon transformations" and then continue to advance his cultivation, wouldn't he be able to improve it into a more perfect divine skill?

To give an example, it's like a Saiyan who both unleashes the power and potential of his Great Ape transformation and bypasses the process of losing his mind and turning into a Great Ape. That's... Super Saiyan 4.

With this idea in mind, Ah Xiao conducted a comprehensive analysis of the principles behind the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill that he currently possessed, which was now at the threshold of the first cocoon transformation.

This is something that many martial arts practitioners would never even consider, let alone do.

In this martial arts world, 99.99% of people learn whatever their master teaches them, and any innovations are "micro-innovations" made after they have mastered the skills.

Only a super genius like Lin Yuancheng could have the ability to "teach him a 6-point sword technique, and after a little study, he would figure out an 8-point evolved version on his own."

Murong Xiaozi has not yet reached the level of talent that allows him to decipher and upgrade martial arts simply by thinking naturally, let alone the fact that he is now facing peerless martial arts, not something like the Seven Star Sword Technique.

So, at this point, Murong Xiao also encountered a bottleneck.

The bottleneck lies not in cultivation, but in tracing its origins and breaking through them.

Even with his sharp mind, he pondered this challenge for three days and three nights before a flash of inspiration finally came to him.

Three days later, after much thought, Murong Xiao finally realized: if the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill is regarded as a complex whole, it is indeed difficult to unravel the mystery of "transforming from the cocoon to break through the realm". But what if... it is broken down and then solved?

Just like when we encounter some seemingly complicated real-world application problems, it is very abstract to calculate and think about them by hand, but if you list a few unknowns and break them down into a set of several equations to calculate, it will become much simpler.

It was during this period that Murong Xiao discovered that this divine skill was incomplete and had been modified and even pieced together more than once.

Its true origin is probably a martial art with significant side effects. After reaching its current stage, three different "logics" emerged. It is the "answer" derived from the combination of these three logics that allows this divine skill to not show side effects at least in the short term and to be mastered quickly.

However, it is clear that skipping the original side effects in this way will give rise to new side effects. It's just that the people who pieced together and improved it at the time did not care, did not know, or simply did not have the ability to manage this new "cost," which is why this version of the divine skill was left behind.

Having figured this out, Murong Xiao suddenly understood.

Since the previous person had made a mistake in solving this problem, he decided to redo it. In any case, he had already discovered where the two key points were.

Thus, he embarked on the final step in cultivating this martial art—transcendence.