"Has it been an hour already? Still waiting? Looks like the little guy has encountered some trouble." The Qian Emperor said, "By the way, did he mention how the death battle between their tribes went today?"

"He didn't mention it," the purple-robed maid replied, her head lowered. Though she had accompanied the Qian Emperor for thousands of years and was among the few closest to him, she still dared not look at him directly.

The Qian Emperor's authority was backed by the entire dynasty's luck.

"I estimate they've lost all ten battles again. No one will fight next month, and his mother will likely take him and his sister to flee," the Qian Emperor continued, walking up to the soundstone. This "Ancient Soundstone" was an item the Qian Emperor had obtained unintentionally during an expedition to a ruin 17,000 years ago.

The term "ancient" referred to the period between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago.

At that time, soundstones were categorized into different levels. The peak level, known as the "No-gap Soundstone," was a treasure held by top sects in the ancient times, and the mountain-shaped stone was one such item. However, compared to modern items, it wasn't particularly impressive—today’s top sound artifacts could be as small as a piece of paper or a jade plate, yet they achieved the same effect as the ancient No-gap Soundstone.

This was part of the Qian Emperor's antique collection.

Although the forging techniques were outdated, rarity made it valuable. Since the Ancient Soundstone had a unique shape, the Qian Emperor had placed it in his palace a thousand years ago, using it merely as a decorative piece.

Soundstones were typically used in pairs to communicate.

The Qian Emperor had one, but it was nearly impossible to find its counterpart. The stone was meant for long-distance communication, but the other stone would be somewhere far beyond—probably destroyed by now, as these were products of the ancient era.

It was just a historical artifact at this point, not something the Qian Emperor had intended to actively search for.

He had never expected it to make a sound one day.

"Chasing Wind Blade's third style is so difficult! The first style, the dragging blade, I mastered in a month, perfected it in three months, and had full control over it in half a year. The second style, 'Cutting Blade,' I perfected in a year, but this third style, 'Breaking Blade,' I’ve been practicing for seven months and still can’t get it..." Eight years ago, the Qian Emperor had heard the voice of a childish boy coming from the ancient soundstone.

The boy babbled on, his voice growing fainter as if he was about to leave.

The Qian Emperor used the soundstone to call out to him.

It was easy to get a child to talk, and soon the Qian Emperor learned that the boy was named Jiang Xuan, seven years old, from the tribes around Heitan Mountain, idolized his father, thought his sister Jiang Qinghong was the most beautiful, and was practicing a blade technique called "Chasing Wind Blade."

Since that day, the Qian Emperor frequently used the soundstone to check on daily life in distant tribes under his rule, occasionally giving the boy advice on his cultivation, simply to pass time and find someone who dared to speak to him normally.

This continued until today.

"Senior, are you back?" Jiang Xuan sat cross-legged on the ground, his back against a large stone, looking tired and drained as he spoke toward the soundstone.

"I’m back." A calm voice came from the soundstone.

"Senior!" Jiang Xuan immediately stood up, his energy returning. "Senior, I must first admit my fault... I didn’t follow the agreement we made..."

"You made a move?" The Qian Emperor guessed, but was surprised. "Wasn’t there the second elder, the fifth elder, and the others? Wasn’t there enough people for the battle? How did it end up with you stepping in?"

"The fifth elder betrayed us. We lost one person."

"So, you had to step in? To challenge a true congenital warrior?"

"If I hadn’t stepped in, no one would have walked out. And that Shentu Yong...," Jiang Xuan explained the situation in detail and added, "It’s thanks to your advice, Senior, about the imperial law considering 15 as the age of adulthood, or else I wouldn’t have had the qualification to enter the arena."

"I just wanted to see if you had the guts to make a move. You’ve surprised me." The Qian Emperor said.

"Senior, you're really strange. You passed down your techniques to me, told me not to easily reveal my power in public, and now, you’re curious to see if I would dare make a move?" Jiang Xuan replied with a helpless tone.

The Qian Emperor had always been enigmatic.

For instance, Jiang Xuan still didn’t know the Qian Emperor's real name, as the Emperor refused to reveal it, and Jiang Xuan could only refer to them as "Senior of the Ancient Stone."

Then there was the "Black Abyss Skill"...

The very technique the Qian Emperor had passed to him. If Jiang Xuan wasn’t mistaken, the name of the skill was composed of "Black" from Heitan Mountain and "Xuan" from Jiang Xuan’s name. In other words, the Qian Emperor didn’t even want him to know the true name of the technique.

Jiang Xuan vaguely felt that the Qian Emperor didn’t want him to know their true identity, which was why things were kept so mysterious.

"Senior, I have not yet reached the true congenital body, and I used the technique you taught me in public, but I had no choice. It’s a matter of life and death for my tribe, I had no choice but to act. Please forgive me." Jiang Xuan sincerely apologized again.

Although he knew nothing about the Qian Emperor's true nature, appearance, or background, and had only communicated through voice, Jiang Xuan believed that the Qian Emperor was an incredibly powerful and legendary figure.

His trust in the Qian Emperor stemmed from the casual guidance he had received early on.

After meeting the Qian Emperor eight years ago, the two had casually chatted while Jiang Xuan struggled with the third style of "Chasing Wind Blade," unable to grasp it. One day, when he complained about the blade technique, the Qian Emperor casually gave him some pointers.

That day, Jiang Xuan understood the third style.

Under the Qian Emperor's guidance, Jiang Xuan mastered the third style in just half a month, something his father had taken two years to accomplish. From that moment on, Jiang Xuan never doubted the Qian Emperor's power!

He began actively seeking advice from the Qian Emperor on cultivation.

The Qian Emperor would sometimes offer detailed guidance, other times let him figure things out on his own, saying little.

When Jiang Xuan explained his tribe's technique, "Jiang Family Skill," the Qian Emperor gave it a low rating. It was a terrible technique, so bad that the Qian Emperor had no interest in offering any pointers.

Thus, Jiang Xuan requested the Qian Emperor teach him a new technique.

At first, he had merely been testing, since they weren’t related by blood.

To his surprise, the Qian Emperor agreed, but with certain conditions.

Among them: he must regularly converse through the soundstone, must secretly practice, temporarily abandon other techniques, and refrain from using the technique in public before reaching the congenital realm.

After weighing it out, Jiang Xuan agreed.

Though young, he understood this was an enormous opportunity that he couldn’t miss!

Jiang Xuan gave up practicing the "Jiang Family Skill" and the "Chasing Wind Blade" to devote all his energy to learning the "Black Abyss Skill." The technique didn’t disappoint him, and despite lacking resources, by twelve years old, he had reached half-step congenital. If this got out, it would cause a huge stir, and even deities and demons might show up to take him as a disciple.

But because of his agreement with the Qian Emperor, Jiang Xuan had to feign mediocrity, using the Qian Emperor’s breath control method to disguise his true cultivation level.

"You did it for your tribe, for the life and death of your people. It’s understandable." The Qian Emperor’s voice was ethereal. "However, have you thought about what you will do a month from now? With your current strength, killing someone at the early congenital stage is your limit. Killing a heavily wounded person at the late congenital stage was lucky, based on your anger. A month later, any warrior of the Shentu tribe at the late congenital stage could easily kill you."

"What if I break through to the congenital stage in a month?" Jiang Xuan asked.

"You little trickster, trying to pry my words?" The Qian Emperor replied bluntly. "You won’t have the chance! The 'Black Abyss Skill' requires vast resources to fully break through to the congenital stage. It’s not something you can do just by my guidance. This technique was originally an ancient foundation-building technique that I modified slightly. It can either consume large amounts of resources for a quick breakthrough or use the natural spiritual energy of the world to break through more gradually. You’re on the latter path. You just need to keep working diligently, and by the time you’re eighteen, you will definitely break through."

"Eighteen? Three more years? Does that mean I’ll be dead for sure a month from now?" Jiang Xuan asked.

"You could always choose to admit defeat before entering the arena," the Qian Emperor tempted.

"Admit defeat? Impossible!" Jiang Xuan responded firmly. "My father taught me that a real man dies standing, not kneeling! I’m the last man of the Jiang tribe, and even if the Shentu tribe enslaves us, they’ll have to step over my corpse first!"

"Now that’s some backbone," the Qian Emperor remarked.

"Senior..."

"Just speak your mind."

"Senior, after I die, will you miss me?"

"..."

After a moment of silence, the ethereal voice replied, "Stop pretending to be pitiful. I never said you would definitely die."

"Ha! I knew you wouldn’t let me die! Please, Senior, teach me what to do."

"Practice the blade."

"Practice the blade?" Jiang Xuan was shocked but confused. "Senior, can you teach me blade techniques through the soundstone? A soundstone can’t transmit techniques or diagrams. For blades and swords, it’s not just about mantras, but also movement diagrams, which the soundstone can’t convey."

"Of course, I can't teach you the blade technique directly." The Qian Emperor answered.

"Then what do you mean..." Jiang Xuan was puzzled.

"Practice your tribe’s 'Chasing Wind Blade.' Although it’s a bit rough, it’s good enough. Also, I’ll teach you a breathing technique. If you can understand it, your skill comprehension will increase drastically, maybe even by several times." The Qian Emperor’s voice was casual.

"Breathing technique?" Jiang Xuan was stunned. "What’s a breathing technique? Can it increase comprehension? Isn’t comprehension a type of talent? Talent can be improved?!"

The purple-robed maid in the Xianlu Palace trembled slightly. She still didn’t dare to look at the Qian Emperor, her eyes wide in shock as she gazed at the ground.

Did His Majesty finally decide to teach the breathing technique?

But why to Jiang Xuan?

Jiang Xuan had never heard of the breathing technique.

That’s because such a technique had never existed from ancient times to now.

It was created by the Qian Emperor.

Seventeen thousand years ago, the Qian Emperor had the idea of creating the breathing technique. He began preliminary research thousands of years ago, and it wasn’t until the last ten years that he perfected it.

There was only one breathing technique in the world.

The Qian Emperor had only recently perfected it.

"The Emperor once said that she spent millennia perfecting the breathing technique to enhance cultivation comprehension. If it spreads, the overall strength of this world will increase several times. Not only will it make it easier for mortals to ascend to deity status, but even gods and demons can use it to enhance their understanding of divine abilities... This is a monumental achievement that surpasses even the ancient saints, and it’s the key to elevating this world to a greater plane. Why would His Majesty..." the purple-robed maid thought, still in disbelief.