During the day, he reads to overcome and harmonize the Evil Qi in his Mental Realm.

At night, he sharpens the knife, letting the Evil Qi stimulate his Primordial Spirit.

In the days that followed, these two things became Chen Yan's routine.

The first knife sharpening brought Chen Yan unbearable pain, yet he gritted his teeth and persevered.

He has a cold personality—but people with a cold personality often possess another trait:

Ruthlessness!

Those with cold personalities tend to be ruthless.

Chen Yan is quite ruthless, also to himself.

During his first attempt at "knife sharpening," after suffering for half an hour, he rested for just a tea's time before starting the second round.

In the second round, he again suffered for half an hour, but this time, with some experience, he stuffed a towel into his mouth, gritting his teeth to suppress his screams.

Then came the third round...

The fourth round couldn't continue; while his spirit could endure, his physical strength couldn't keep up.

Indeed, Chen Yan discovered his biggest weakness with knife sharpening was not his willpower but his physical endurance.

In moments of pain, one's whole body exerts force, every muscle tense and straining.

During each knife sharpening round, this process lasts for half an hour.

During that half-hour, one continuously exerts physical force, a method extremely tiring.

The day after knife sharpening, Chen Yan noticed something was wrong.

Muscle soreness all over!

He confirmed one thing... His muscles were strained.

This is somewhat ironic.

Given his body's current strength, after Enhancing Primordial Qi, he is comparable to a superhero; someone like Captain America, Chen Yan could take on barehanded.

Frankly, putting Chen Yan in the Olympics, he could easily win any individual event based on physical prowess and set the world records to an unbelievable level.

Yet, such a monster as he is, Chen Yan strained himself.

The next day, Chen Yan persisted in going to the Academy, nursing several plasters with a strong medicinal scent.

His persistence in going out reading was intentional—not to interact more with Chu Keqing.

It's just that he realized he needed to balance his mindset and couldn't lock himself inside all day; he needed to go out, meet people, and engage with the outside world.

Thus, he spent his days going to the Academy to read and nights at home sharpening the knife in self-abuse.

Like this, a week passed.

·

A week later, Chen Yan finally felt the effects of "knife sharpening."

The level of his Primordial Spirit hadn't increased—this was expected, as he hadn't cultivated a Primordial Spirit Technique, so the amount of his Spirit wouldn't increase.

The range of his Primordial Spirit perception was still as before.

With Chen Yan's current Cultivation, his Spirit awareness could cover about a dozen meters around, meaning that while sitting at home, the entire villa was within his awareness, able to sense nearby changes.

After a week of sharpening, this range hadn't expanded.

However, the quality of his Primordial Spirit had indeed improved!

The difference was, still the perception within about a dozen meters, but the details became richer.

With a single thought, any subtle movements within the house were no longer hidden from his perception.

Originally, his enveloping perception was still somewhat rough, unable to capture too small details accurately.

Now, it's progressing toward a state of seeing everything clearly, advancing steadily!

It was like evolving from the original [Standard Definition 480P] directly towards [High-Definition 4K]—not yet reached, but clearly improving.

With the improvement in the "quality" of his Primordial Spirit, Chen Yan finally felt it.

The knife sharpening wasn't in vain!

·

A week later, Chen Yan's daily routine was interrupted by a phone call.

He sat on the living room sofa, holding the phone, with a strange expression.

The call just ended, lasting less than a minute.

The conversation was simple:

"Are you Chen Yan?"

"Yes."

"A Loose Cultivator in this realm, Cultivation is Early Stage of Guiyuan Realm?"

"Mm."

"Alright, didn't find the wrong person, it's you."

"Who are you?"

"Let me tell you, bro, I'm the Inspection Bureau's Assistant Inspector. You've already joined, right? They've assigned you to me. From now on, you work with me, understand? I'm responsible for giving you assignments; once completed, I review them, and it counts toward your performance. Got it?"

"...Got it."

"Then let's meet; we'll be working together, so we should meet each other first. You can call me brother, and I'll take care of you."

Following that, the caller mentioned a location for Chen Yan to meet at five o'clock today.

Chen Yan held back his laughter on the phone with sheer willpower.

Because he was very familiar with the voice on the call.

Ouyang.

·

The meeting place is called "Little Penglai," a small-sized restaurant that reportedly serves authentic Lu State cuisine. The location is near the old city wall area of Jinling Prefecture.

Chen Yan arrived at the restaurant at five minutes to five.

As he entered, he felt the place was rather deserted, with no customers at the small dining area, only two uniformed waitress girls with professional smiles greeting him warmly.

Judging by their enthusiastic manner, it's as if they're afraid Chen Yan might leave.

When he sat down, one girl helped with ordering food, while the other went to brew tea.

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