Chapter Fifty-Three: Visitors from the Zuo Family

Inside the gravity chamber, Shi Yan pressed against the gravity pillar, standing on his left middle finger with his body inverted, veins bulging across his frame. After a quarter of an hour, he switched to his ring finger, maintaining the handstand. Every subsequent quarter of an hour, he changed to a different finger, cycling through them in turn.

When one full round was complete, Shi Yan, drenched in sweat, sat heavily on the flagstone floor. He extended his left hand and released the negative energy stored within the meridians of his arm. Wisps of milky-white mist swirled around his arm, drifting slowly under the direction of his will, floating quietly before him.

Essence radiated faintly from all ten fingertips, threads of subtle light flickering uncertainly as they entered the persistent white mist before him. The essence light, like a serpentine current, wove its way through the fog.

Gradually, mist and essence intertwined, spinning into a small vortex. Suddenly, a strange suction force emanated from the center. With the emergence of this force, the surrounding space seemed to cave in and contract—the air nearby was instantly drawn inward, making the area feel oppressively heavy.

Shi Yan's eyes shone brightly as he stared unblinking at the tiny "domain field," concentrating all his senses on the mysterious power it exuded, injecting yet more essence into it. Yet with this new influx, the domain field’s strength not only failed to grow but in fact weakened noticeably.

“Hm!” Shi Yan exclaimed, momentarily startled. After pondering for a while, a realization dawned on him. He ceased adding essence and instead directed more of the negative mist from his arm into the domain field.

As soon as the mist, composed of negative energy, entered the field, the previously diminishing domain field abruptly surged in power. He gazed intently at the field for ten seconds, contemplating the subtle transformations, then finally withdrew both kinds of power sustaining it.

The domain field vanished without a trace.

From this session, Shi Yan drew a conclusion: to maintain the domain field’s potent effect, the two forces injected into it—essence and negative energy—must be kept in balance. Only when both are roughly equal can the field remain strong. If one side grows too dominant, not only does it not enhance the field, it disrupts the balance, greatly diminishing its power. The two forces may be equally strong or equally weak, but never one strong and the other weak. Precision in balance is essential, or the domain field’s full potential cannot be realized.

All this time, Shi Yan had immersed himself in two martial skills: the Finger Spear Technique and the Magnetic Domain Field. Except for eating, drinking, and other necessities, all his focus was devoted to arduous practice.

After a month of relentless self-imposed hardship, his mastery of the Finger Spear Technique had improved markedly. Now, he could hold himself on any single finger for a full quarter hour.

The joints of his fingers had grown ever harder; after petrification, the sound of his fingers clashing together rang out like metal striking metal. Each session of Finger Spear practice would be followed by study of the spirit-grade martial art, Magnetic Domain Field.

He never dared to release all the negative energy from his meridians at once; instead, he used only a small amount from one arm at a time, blending it with essence to probe the mysteries of the Magnetic Domain Field. The domains he formed were small, but the principles were the same. Through repeated experimentation, his comprehension of the field deepened, and with each passing interval, he gained new insights.

The deeper he delved, the more he discovered the profound and subtle truths of heaven and earth hidden within this spirit-grade skill. The process of cultivation itself seemed a journey of understanding cosmic principles.

Now, Shi Yan sat cross-legged, soaking in sweat and frowning in deep thought.

The door to the gravity chamber creaked open. Han Zhong, shaking his head as he entered, called out, “Yan, the head of the family wants you in the guest hall.”

“The guest hall?” Shi Yan glanced at him, frowning. “Wasn’t I told not to leave the gravity chamber unless necessary? Is there a particularly important guest this time?”

“Zuo Xu is here, and with him, that girl Zuo Shi.” Han Zhong stood at the doorway, explaining, “Zuo Xu just came back from the Misty Mountains, bringing Zuo Shi back from her master, Chixiao. Passing by, he’s stopped in to talk with our family head about the upcoming Martial Gathering.”

The Zuo family was also one of the five great houses of the Merchant Alliance and had always been close to the Shi clan. Their martial soul, “Phantom,” allowed Zuo family members to summon lifelike illusions beside themselves in battle. The most skilled among them could conjure seven or eight phantoms at once, each moving independently and performing different actions, making it nearly impossible to tell real from false.

With the Phantom soul, the Zuo family always held an advantage in combat. Opponents often wasted their attacks on phantoms, allowing the Zuo fighters to calmly wear them down. The phantoms were useful not only for fighting, but also for escape: when threatened, a Zuo could split into several phantoms fleeing in different directions. If their pursuer was alone, they could only choose one to follow—only to discover, more often than not, that they’d chased a phantom, while the real person had vanished.

Even if by luck they caught up to the real body, the Zuo would conjure more phantoms and escape once again, leaving their pursuer frustrated and exhausted. After being played like this a few times, most would simply give up the chase.

“Oh, I see,” Shi Yan nodded, grabbing his green martial robe from the floor and pulling it on as he strode toward the door. “Let’s go.”

“Uh, Yan, aren’t you going to wash up first?” Han Zhong pinched his nose, waving a hand. “You reek of sweat.”

“No need. I’ll be back soon anyway.”

“You’re not worried about making a good impression on Zuo Shi?” Han Zhong’s expression grew odd. “She’s the prettiest girl in the Merchant Alliance—Tian Xiao, Tian Luo, and the other young masters are all trying to win her favor. Don’t you want a shot? Maybe develop something with her?”

“Zuo Shi?” Shi Yan started, a sudden flash crossing his mind. For no apparent reason, a bittersweet feeling stirred in his heart. He shook his head. “I think there’s some history between us…”

“Of course there is!” Han Zhong chuckled. “You two were born on the same day. It was such a coincidence that your grandfather and Zuo Xu almost arranged a betrothal right then and there. But on her third day, Zuo Shi’s martial soul, the Phantom, manifested, while you showed no sign of petrification. And so… no one mentioned it again. Both families tacitly agreed to forget.”

Han Zhong paused, sighed, and continued, “It’s only natural. Zuo Shi was born with a martial soul, and you weren’t. For families like ours, a child without a martial soul is unlikely to accomplish much and won’t be given much attention. The Zuo family would never marry such a gifted girl to an ordinary person, and the Shi family couldn’t expect to profit from such a match. So, it was quietly dropped.”

Memories buried deep within his mind seemed to tear open at Han Zhong’s words. Shi Yan stood dazed, sorting through the flood of recollections. After a moment, he muttered softly, “So this guy was a lovesick fool…”

“Zuo Shi is incredibly gifted and intelligent,” Han Zhong went on. “It’s said she’s lazy and not fond of martial arts, but all her achievements were forced out of her by the Zuo family. Even so, she never fell behind. At seventeen, she’s already at the second tier of the Human Realm! That’s another miracle for our Merchant Alliance.”

Han Zhong shook his head and sighed, muttering, “Even Beiming Ce only reached the second tier at seventeen, and he’s always been a tireless cultivator. But Zuo Shi—she sleeps all day and shops for fun, and still made it to the second tier at seventeen. Honestly, in terms of talent, she might even surpass Beiming Ce.”

Shi Yan said nothing, his brows deeply furrowed.

He could sense the faint ache in his heart, a feeling that arose because of Zuo Shi. With these memories resurfacing, he realized that the body’s original owner had long harbored a secret love for Zuo Shi, though she had never paid him any mind.

Zuo Shi was lazy, disinterested in hard cultivation. She loved painting and calligraphy, flowers and trees, tea ceremony, star-gazing—her interests were many and varied, her ambitions seemingly absent. Yet with her keen intelligence, she could effortlessly break through barriers that stymied others, reaching the second tier of the Human Realm with casual ease.

Not only was she supremely talented, but her beauty was also renowned. The previous owner of this body had seen her only once, and her image was forever imprinted on his heart. Yet he was shy and self-aware, never daring to confess his feelings—a classic case of unrequited love.

“I see…” After a long silence, Shi Yan drew out his words, then smiled. “She truly is a prodigy, isn’t she?”

“Absolutely!” Han Zhong replied with conviction. “Otherwise, Chixiao of the Misty Mountains wouldn’t have insisted on taking her as a disciple three years ago after meeting her once. Chixiao is a powerhouse of the Heaven Realm—one of the greatest in the Merchant Alliance, the Blazing Empire, and the Divine Grace Empire. Even Beiming Shang once suffered at his hands, they say.”

“Oh.” Shi Yan’s expression was indifferent. “Can we go now?”

“Uh, after all that, you’re not even tempted? Not going to tidy yourself up and try for a good impression?” Han Zhong said with a wry smile.

“With so many admirers, and Chixiao and Zuo Xu watching over her, I haven’t a chance at that prize. No point wasting the effort.”

…