Chapter Twelve: The Dragon Soul Technique

The small room was filled with the nauseating stench emanating from his body, forcing Rod to flee quickly. His eyes narrowed slightly as the intense sunlight hurt his eyes; having not seen such bright light in so long, he covered them instinctively.
Feeling the warm winter sun and taking several deep breaths of fresh air, his mood improved greatly.
“It feels great to be alive!” After adjusting to the light, Rod stretched lazily and said.
“Damn you, heavens! I told you—don’t let me get out alive! Since I’m here now… just wait for me, Rod!” Suddenly, he seemed like a different person, his expression turning cold as he spoke in a harsh tone.
Frowning, even outside in the cool breeze, Rod couldn’t avoid smelling the foul odor from his body. With a bitter smile, he shook his head and headed toward the small room, stopping by the old man’s room to grab a packet of the powder.
Looking at the old man’s room, Rod sighed in relief—there was no sign the old man had returned yet. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with his complaints or questions, otherwise, Rod wouldn’t know how to respond.
Lying in the potion, Rod closed his eyes in comfort. This feeling was truly the greatest pleasure in the world. At that moment, he lazily enjoyed it.
Under the effect of the potion, the black substances clinging to his skin slowly peeled off, revealing smooth skin that made Rod shiver. It was damn feminine—almost as bad as a woman’s!
In less than a moment, all the black substances were melted by the potion, and the bathwater became foul-smelling. Pinching his nose, Rod reluctantly stood up and fetched another basin of water.
After repeating this process several times, Rod finally stopped after a whole morning.
Standing in the midday sun, shaking the water from his hair, he smiled faintly.
“Xuanyuan… are you there?”
After tidying up his room and taking a deep breath, Rod sat on the bed, murmuring to himself.

“He’s here… You damned fool! You were way too reckless that day. If it weren’t for me using all my power to save you, you would have already turned into a corpse! Damn it, it doesn’t matter if you die—back then, I would have suffered too. I certainly don’t want to be thrown back into darkness right after seeing sunlight after being sealed for a thousand years! Who knows when the next chance will come!” As soon as he appeared, the Soul of the Xuanyuan Sword began to complain.

“Bastard! You’ve actually unlocked all twelve meridians and the hand and foot meridians? Good heavens, even those minor meridians are done!” Without stopping, Xuanyuan continued to complain, but his tone grew increasingly astonished!

After observing everything thoroughly, he couldn’t help but shout loudly, “What on earth have you done? How did you manage to connect all these meridians at once? Damn it! Have you finished all the cultivation methods in ‘Self-Cultivation’ in one go?”

By the end, the Soul of the Xuanyuan Sword’s tone was filled with anger! He had made such great sacrifices—almost sacrificing everything—to help him retain a sliver of hope. Yet this guy didn’t even realize he was still doing such reckless things while he was unconscious and merged with him. Still, he was secretly amazed. No one knew better than him what requirements were needed to accomplish all this, nor the hardships and dangers involved!

Back then, even that person took half a year to achieve it, and even then it caused a sensation throughout the world. Who would have thought this guy could accomplish it in just two months by sheer luck? Such an achievement left the Sword Spirit stunned after his complaints, forcing him to think deeply.

At the same time, he didn’t forget to observe Rod’s entire body once more, fearing any lingering effects. Such a shock could easily leave lasting consequences that would pose dangers in the future. Rod couldn’t afford any problems now—otherwise, the Sword Spirit knew he too would be doomed. After risking everything, he couldn’t fail!

“What kind of body is this? So powerful?” It was scary to look at! He hadn’t observed it this carefully before, but after this thorough inspection, the Sword Spirit was secretly amazed. This might be the strongest body he had ever seen—certainly stronger than those two people.

“Cough, cough… Forget it. Let it be. Consider it a lesson for yourself. Let’s see if you’ll dare to be so reckless next time.”

Feeling the strength of Rod’s body, the Sword Spirit silently marveled at how much this body had helped during this crisis; otherwise, his meridians would likely have been severed long ago. Since nothing could be done about what had already happened, it was only hoped that this guy would learn his lesson and stop acting recklessly.

“Hehe… Um… I promise I won’t do it again. So, how’s the cultivation method coming along? I’ve already finished practicing ‘Self-Cultivation’—I can’t just sit around doing nothing!” After complaining, Rod asked with an apologetic smile.

“I knew it was for this. Do you even realize how dangerous you were this time? Do you know what the most important thing in martial cultivation is? Unity of body and mind, understand? Look at yourself now—thanks to this sudden progress, your internal energy is fine, but what about your state of mind? And your physical condition? With both your body and mind not keeping up, how dare you ask for a cultivation method? Should I give it to you? I certainly don’t want to end up ruined along with you!”

Although he couldn’t see the Sword Spirit’s face, Rod could guess its expression—probably one of annoyance as it complained like a child.

“Is it that serious?” Rod muttered, slightly annoyed and puzzled.

“It’s even worse! Well, you decide for yourself. I’ve put the cultivation method inside you—take a look. Remember, don’t get impatient. Cultivate step by step!” After pondering for a moment, it simply handed the method to Rod. If Rod could have seen it at that time, he would surely have been intimidated by its sinister grin.

Immediately, Rod’s face lit up with excitement! The Sword Spirit’s complaints hadn’t affected him at all. At least now he had what he wanted. Let it complain if it wanted to! His entire focus was on the cultivation method.

He hurriedly searched his mind for information about it. At this moment, Rod, like a child, was filled with endless hope and fantasies, imagining just how powerful that method must be!

Soon, he found the cultivation method implanted in his mind by the Sword Spirit. It was called “Dragon Soul Heart Method,” which sounded quite good—seemingly a very powerful technique. Rod even began to envision it in his mind. With an extremely excited smile, he eagerly started to examine it.

“Damn it, this can’t be true!” Dreams are beautiful, but reality is always cruel.

After finishing the review, Rod instantly slumped, speaking in disappointment. All the excitement had vanished completely, leaving only despair and despondency.
Full of hope and anticipation, he now looked utterly dejected after checking it out. The part of this cultivation method he could see wasn’t it exactly the second chapter of the “Self-Cultivation” method? It just had some additional requirements and training methods added! There wasn’t a single thing related to combat energy at all—wasn’t this no different from not having it at all?
“Boss, seriously? You’d do this to me?” With a pained expression, Rod said helplessly in his heart.
“What? Aren’t you satisfied? Let me tell you, this ‘Dragon Soul Cultivation Method’ was created over the past two months through day and night of research on that strange information, combined with all my knowledge and tailored to your physical condition. Aren’t you still dissatisfied? As I said earlier, your current physical condition and mental state are far from matching the level of cultivation required. So just practice as instructed—what else do you expect?”
Sighing, the Sword Spirit said gloatingly. Of course, at that time, it hadn’t realized Rod’s body was actually so strong. But that didn’t matter—it was even better, as it would lead to better training results! The Xuanyuan Sword Spirit wanted to see what kind of results Rod’s body could achieve after being strengthened.
What neither of them expected was that Rod’s cultivation would waste a lot of time. Given his already strong physique, the requirements of the cultivation method naturally increased, making it far harder to meet the sealing requirements. Naturally, the difficulty soared. But this would bring huge benefits to his future.
“What the hell? It’s just some extra methods for physical training—what’s the big deal? What nonsense!” Hearing the Sword Spirit’s words, Rod knew his dream was definitely going to be shattered, and he complained dejectedly.
After complaining, he had no choice but to accept the outcome. Hunger left him with no energy to argue further—there was no point in saying more since it was already settled. He took the money the old man had reluctantly left for him and left the house.
……
They found Kambi and the others, and the four of them quickly headed toward the street nearby. During this time, they didn’t dare to go far, as they might face revenge from that suspicious bastard, Vidoc, at any moment.

It seemed fate had decreed that this day would not be peaceful. Despite Rod and his companions being very careful to watch their surroundings, shortly after they left, a few shady guys appeared behind them, watching as the group disappeared into the distance!
“Hehe… Finally coming out of your hiding place? Yellow-haired guy, go back and tell the boss!”
As the group disappeared, a blue-haired man who appeared to be the leader showed a sinister smile before shouting at a thin, yellow-haired guy beside him.
With a quick reply, the young yellow-haired man vanished and ran off into the distance.
“Hehe, Knight Rod? How far can you run this time?” the man continued to sneer after the yellow-haired guy disappeared.
A conspiracy was closing in on them, yet Rod and his companions, unaware of anything, continued on jokingly! A storm was brewing!