Sinking into the cross-legged position, Zong Shou dismissed thoughts of his demon body. He retrieved the Imperial Flame Spirit Fusion Art, which he had previously set aside, and devoted himself to its meticulous study.

Innumerable notions flashed ceaselessly through his mind. Passages of incantation, intricate diagrams—they surfaced in his consciousness one after another.

Truthfully, it had been the same a few days prior; despite a surge of inspiration, he could never locate the precise breakthrough point needed to seamlessly integrate this fire-attribute technique with his World-Shaking Spiritual Art.

As he once again began his deduction, the situation was almost identical—it felt as if a membrane separated him, an invisible barrier he could not breach.

Closing his eyes in concentration, a full quarter of an hour passed with no breakthrough. Zong Shou finally had no choice but to stop; it seemed he could not achieve that state of sudden enlightenment like Xiong Kui could.

This "Luck" Talisman, brought by the Yun character, appeared not to be particularly effective.

Fortunately, he hadn't harbored high hopes to begin with, so he felt no real disappointment now. In fact, merely sitting quietly for that quarter of an hour without any other misfortune occurring was enough to bring him relief.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Chu Xue tidying the hopelessly messy carriage compartment. Armed with a rag, she attempted to wipe up the spilled spiritual ink from the carpet.

Her upper body was bent low, her hips jutting high, the fabric of her dress stretched taut, tracing the perfect curve of her posterior. Perhaps due to Chu Xue’s recent rapid growth spurt, the gown was noticeably tight, almost revealing the crease in her lower regions almost completely. Zong Shou’s eyes immediately brightened. With a soft gulp, he swallowed hard, fixing the shape with a fierce look, memorizing the contours carefully, before immediately reverting to the guise of a proper gentleman and turning his head away.

Just as he mused that this young maid was simply devastatingly beautiful, he suddenly felt another surge of chaotic energy within his body. The Water-Fire Spiral True Essence began to rampage once more. Thankfully, this time Zong Shou was prepared and immediately exerted his full power to suppress it. Sitting on the ** cushion, protected by the Weak Water, no accident occurred.

And just as he managed to completely subdue the surging True Qi within him, a flash of clarity suddenly illuminated Zong Shou’s mind, a brilliant radiance appearing in his eyes.

Then, his pupils gradually lost focus, his gaze flickering erratically. In his mind, frantic deductions and calculations were taking place. All cultivation techniques related to water, fire, and lightning that were buried deep in his memory were being extracted, filling the gaps in both the World-Shaking Spiritual Art and the Imperial Flame Spirit Fusion Art. Spiritual energy churned all around him, the Water and Fire Spirits being the most active. Faint purple electrical arcs could be seen flickering in the periphery. In just a moment, a look of joyous satisfaction dawned on Zong Shou’s face. He had actually broken through! This single instant of enlightenment would save him months of laborious comprehension.

The second and third layers of the Earth Wheel section within the World-Shaking Spiritual Art were rapidly refining themselves. Not only was his spirit vigorous, but his thoughts were frighteningly sharp. The tens of thousands of martial arts codices he had previously memorized now felt like they were equipped with a search engine; the essence, key phrases, and crucial martial principles were available almost instantly, requiring no effort whatsoever.

If this continued, perhaps in just a day he could perfect the cultivation methods for the Earth Wheel section for the most part. He was ecstatic, yet he forcibly suppressed the feeling, maintaining a perfectly calm state to continue deducing these two techniques. Just as he reached the fourth layer, Zong Shou’s right eyelid suddenly twitched, bringing with it an intensely ominous premonition.

The very next instant, he felt the entire Cloud-Flipping Carriage beneath him suddenly halt with a tremendous Rumble, as if it had struck something solid. The carriage body was instantly thrown airborne.

What made Zong Shou utterly speechless was that the various small objects, like paperweights, that had just been placed on the table were all violently thrown into the air by the immense force—and without exception, they were all hurtling directly toward where Zong Shou was sitting.

At that moment, Zong Shou felt utterly despairing. Once wasn't enough, why again? Was this truly retribution?

Sure enough, the True Qi inside him went into chaos again, rendering him immobilized. But in the next instant, the Weak Water intervened just in time. A slender rapier instantly wove a dense curtain of swords before him, slicing and shattering everything flying his way.

However, Zong Shou could not settle down; if anything, the ominous feeling intensified.

This time the ordeal lasted longer; it took a full half-cup of tea’s time before the carriage compartment finally stabilized. He had initially suspected an attack, but once things quieted down, he learned that the spiritual array within the Cloud-Flipping Carriage had temporarily malfunctioned, taking a considerable amount of time to repair.

By this point, Zong Shou had collapsed helplessly onto the soft couch. He was covered in several new red welts, and his clothes were torn in multiple places, leaving him in a truly wretched state. If one looked closely, one could notice over ten shallow sword gashes across his chest and abdomen. Though the wounds were superficial, one or two were deep enough that carelessness could lead to serious injury.

This time, however, it was Weak Water who wore an expression of shame. Kneeling beside him, she looked at Zong Shou with eyes that pleaded innocence, though her gaze was brimming with barely suppressed laughter. Chu Xue, on the other side, could no longer hold back and let out soft giggles.

Zong Shou was steaming with suppressed anger. If he weren't almost completely exhausted, he would have happily grabbed these two women right there and given them a stern spanking.

Yet, the moment he regained a sliver of strength internally and sat up, a spiral burst of energy shot out from his palm.

It was still water and fire intertwined, but now far more balanced. And those purple electrical arcs seemed to act as a bridge, tightly binding them together.

Zong Shou couldn't help but smile. This time, he hadn't just deduced the techniques for the second and third layers of the Earth Wheel section; he had further refined the preceding portions as well.

With the same amount of True Qi, the resulting might was clearly nearly twenty percent stronger! If his estimation was correct, he would only need another ten days or so to attempt merging two more spiritual meridians and advance to the Earth Wheel Second Meridian realm. Even the Third Meridian might only take three or four months.

Though this experience was somewhat humiliating, leaving him bruised and swollen, the harvest was quite good overall—definitely worth the trouble.

If he could experience such moments of sudden enlightenment a few more times, he wouldn't mind.

The only unsettling aspect was that as the World-Shaking Spiritual Art and the Imperial Flame Spirit Fusion Art were perfected, the dormant fire-attribute bloodline within him was once again showing subtle signs of awakening, causing him palpable anxiety.

Zong Shou smiled contentedly, crushing the sphere of energy in his hand completely. Estimating that time was up and the Yun Talisman had lost its effect, he rose to his feet and looked out the window. He saw Xiong Kui, covered in injuries, looking even more wretched than himself. Only then did Zong Shou manage a satisfied smile, slightly comforted that while he had been unlucky, someone else had suffered worse misfortune. But then, when Xiong Kui’s ** horse stumbled again and sent him sprawling to the ground, Zong Shou froze, all sense of schadenfreude vanishing. “Something is wrong! It’s one thing for my Spiral True Qi to go haywire—the World-Shaking Spiritual Art has many flaws and is inherently unstable. But what Xiong Kui practices is the Imperial Flame Spirit Fusion Art, a heritage technique left by the Ancient Demon Emperor, created by a Martial Saint-level expert. How could it lose control so easily?”

In truth, whether it was the tables and chairs or the rapier wielded by Weak Water—if she had pulled back her strength in time—they generally couldn't have harmed him. His surface Gang Qi alone could have resisted them. Furthermore, with his current mastery of external body refinement, it was nearly impossible for spiritual weapons to pierce his skin.

But just then, it wasn't only the True Qi inside him that went berserk; the circulation of vital energy on his skin's surface was also intensely chaotic, leaving the epidermal layer in its most vulnerable state.

Truly, when a person is down on their luck, even a toothpick can prove fatal.

Xiong Kui’s situation was similar, but usually, one Luck Talisman only subjected him to misfortune once or twice; his condition was far more resilient than Zong Shou’s.

He recalled an insight he gained back on Dan Ling Mountain when inscribing the ‘Luck’ Heavenly Talisman.

“Misfortune leans on fortune, and fortune hides within misfortune. Who can define their limits? They are never constant. Constancy becomes strangeness; goodness reverts to wickedness. Man’s confusion has persisted for ages!”

“To know the masculine, guard the feminine, and be the valley of the world; to know honor, guard disgrace, and be the valley of the world; to know whiteness, guard blackness, and be the template of the world!”

“Misfortune and fortune have no gate; they are summoned by oneself; retribution for good and evil follows like a shadow!”

“The root of misfortune lies in the corruption of the self and the wickedness of thought; the foundation of fortune lies in strengthening virtue and performing many good deeds.”

But looking at today’s events, he realized he had probably only just grasped the threshold back then. This bizarre and unpredictable Heavenly Talisman was far more profound than he had imagined.

Previously, he always felt he had overlooked something essential, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

“So that’s it! It’s probability! This character for Luck I wrote magnifies all possibilities!”

Waves of excitement, like fiery currents, surged through Zong Shou’s chest, heating his core. His eyes shone with the clarity of sudden realization and joy.

On the surface, Chu Xue constantly tripping in Little Yuan Town only to immediately pick up money seemed to be a cycle of fortune and misfortune leaning on each other. But that wasn't the case; it was simply because this Yun character magnified all probabilities. Naturally, it looked as if there was both misfortune and good luck present, but while there was some connection between the two, it was not as tightly interdependent as he had previously assumed.

Furthermore, this Yun character spiritual talisman, besides manipulating probability, seemed capable of causing minor fluctuations in a person’s fate over a short period.

The moment this thought crystallized, he felt a massive detonation within his Soul Sea.

The ‘Yun’ Heavenly Talisman, swirling outside the vortex, suddenly emitted boundless radiance.

The brilliant halo and thin mist covering the talisman gradually dissipated. And now, Zong Shou could probe the structure of this Heavenly Talisman with his spiritual sense with utmost ease. The other eleven Heavenly Talismans obtained on Dan Ling Mountain were all Spirit Seeds. Only this ‘Yun’ Heavenly Talisman was a perfect Spirit Seal level, the most profound and unfathomable.

After meticulously pondering for a moment, Zong Shou was struck by divine inspiration and entered a meditative state. He began constructing True Talisman Spirit Seals continuously within his Soul Sea. With this ready-made, complete Heavenly Talisman as a reference, he completed them one by one without the slightest hindrance. (To be continued)