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Xiao Lingxi furiously left Xiao Long’s pavilion. Her anger was not directed at him but at the one who caused him to change like this!

And that is Xia Qingyue! 

‘That bitch! I will get back at you for what you did to my Long’er!’

For the girl, there is no way that Xiao Long could have done something back. No, it was Xia Qingyue. She told him that she couldn’t be his wife. That is what has traumatised him!

‘I will hurt you for what you did to Long’er…’ With ever-growing fury, she walked to her pavilion and started to cultivate as well.

Since Xia Qingyue ruined her life, she will do the same thing she will do the fairy of Frozen Cloud!

As this was happening, Xiao Long was thinking about Xiao Lingxi for a few moments.

The transmigrator ranked that girl 3 out of 4 on his scale of ‘wife material’. 

1 out of 4 is a Hoe. Not much needs to be said. These kinds of girls are only worth a pump and a dump one-night stands, no more, no less. In the regular world, they would only be there for money; in the cultivation world, they are most likely there for resources.

Then, 2 out of 4 is a Golden Digger. These have standards, but they are for money, a lot of money. He could safely put Xia Qingyue here as she is one of those cliche ice beauties who are waiting for the main character to beat all the villains so that he can make her his Queen. These are pretty flowers, and they are very proud.

Then there are 3 out of 4 who are ‘caretakers’—girls who are good for regular guys as they only want family and regular lives. These girls will pamper and spoil their children and be quite strict with their husbands. 

But at the end of the day, a woman like this will prioritise her family over her husband. He is her provider, and she will sacrifice him if necessary.

Lastly, the apex, 4 out of 4, is dubbed ‘proper wife’ in Xiao Long’s eyes. When he says, ‘I want empire,’ she says, ’Which one?’ She comes along when he goes on an adventure, and when he wants to settle down, she does the same. That is what makes a proper companion and wife.

He might find one in this place, but he is not holding his candles for her. Nope. First, he needs that apex, and then he can look for someone who could be 4 out of 4.

Of course, these are just broad ideas he came up with when he was a writer and was writing female characters, though he is, in essence, writing about fictional girls. 

But real ones are slightly different as they can change. He no doubt can expect changes from someone like Xia Qingyue, as that girl could change, but it's hard to hide those gold digger tendencies.

Regardless, for now, he decided to forget about the whole nonsense about chicks, as they are nothing more but trouble.

~~~

Xiao Long spent the entire day cultivating. His cultivation had reached [Fifth of Elementary Profound], and he could feel that reaching the next stage would be harder. On top of that, he could feel his skin becoming stronger. To test it out, he went over and found a knife.

With a knife in hand, he tried to poke his finger, but it was more difficult than he thought.

‘Well, at least I know that the technique is working. But now the issue is that I barely know shit how cultivation works in this place.’

Since it was evening, it was a good time to speak with his grandfather about cultivation at the evening table.

…

…

…

“You want to know about cultivation?” Xiao Lie put the teacup down on the table.

“Well, the things you need to be aware of when you reach [Nascent Profound] is that Profound Veins have Profound Entrances. These entrances dictate your future potential as a Practitioner of Profound.

One of the reasons why Xiao Clan’s founder, Xiao Beili, was exiled is because of the amount of Profound entrance he had. Cultivators who have less than 11 are not welcomed in Xiao Sect.” Xiao Lie proceeded to explain about the founder.

“He inherited his mother’s talent. He only had 10 entrances, which is average for a regular person. That is not enough to be an XIao Sect member. So, he was exiled after struggling to cultivate.

You see, with 10 entrances, reaching realms beyond [Spirit Profound] is difficult. He died never achieving [Earth Profound].” Xiao Lie explained with a sombre tone.

“Can these Entrances be opened in some way? Or they are set for life?” Xiao Long asked with a curious tone.

“They can be. But you need mirage herbs or the expertise of a Medical Saint. However, in the whole continent, few could open even five.” He showed his spread-out hand with five fingers.

“I see. How many of these Profound Entrances are there?”

“It is said that there are 54 Profound Entrances. If one could have all of them opened, he would never encounter a bottleneck in his life. But that's just a myth.” Xiao Lie chuckled while saying that.

But Xiao Long’s eyes gleamed when he heard that. It seemed his grandfather had just pointed him towards his first proper hack.

‘I guess I just found how to improve my ‘Nine Rebirths of Nature’ Art further. From how he explained it to me, impurities seem to block these entrances. It's a cliche trope of Xianxia as the founder's mother was a servant maid who never properly practised martial arts, so her profound entrances were never tailored and never had more entrances than necessary.’ 

From this, he can guess that there is a way to have all of them unlocked, and if it is true, then the flow in and out would increase, and he will have an advantage in future battles with more entrances.

After this, Xiao Long spent some more time with Xiao Lie before returning to his pavilion.

He had more ideas on how to improve his art.

~~~

The first thing he did was alter the ‘Nine Rebirth of Nature’ Art. He added purification elements to the refinement process, which resulted in extra lines to those 25 paragraphs. It bloated the text, but it worked. 

Not that this improved cultivation speed in any way. He still needed Nature Energy to awaken his veins and reach [Nascent Profound].

But he has already started to work on upcoming issues he will face when he is in [Nascent Profound].

‘But hold on. Where the fuck are those entrances in the first place?’

Xiao Long stopped cultivating and walked outside. He walked to the middle of the yard and closed his eyes, channelling Profound Energy.

By doing so, he could feel exit… points? From a network of energy circulating in his body.

‘Let’s count… 1…3…5…9…11…13…15…16? Sixteen entrance points… Does this mean I have sixteen Profound Entrances?’

Xiao Long didn’t know what to think of this. He had heard that his father—or, more accurately, the father of this wimp body—was talented and as good as his grandfather, but his grandfather was still only [Peak Spirit Profound].

‘Something doesn’t add up. My talent is superior to whatever the requirements of Xiao Sect are. From how he explained, I should have enough potential to reach [Sky Profound] or even [Emperor Profound]’ For a moment, he even pondered that he was not even a member of Xiao Clan. 

‘I guess my art already started opening these entrances without me even knowing.’ This was the conclusion he ended up with.

However, there is a possibility that he was adopted or something else.

That makes him wonder if he has some sort of unique power. He should try investigating his body, just in case. 

‘I need art, something like an inner eye. Maybe it will help me determine if I have some unique stuff.’

He knows those tropes. He won’t be surprised if he was adopted for some weird reason. This was, after all, Xianxia.

So he activated his power and started pondering how to word those words for inner eye observation.

Well, everything starts with Profound Energy. So, Profound Energy creates a pulse which scans the inside of the body.

What he understands is Profound Energy compression, which is how cultivation works. So he can easily understand that. Now that he knows about the entrances, there should be some sort of ‘nature’.

He decided to play around for a bit.

…

…

…

[Name: Xiao Long]

[Cultivation: Fifth of Elementary Profound]

[Profound Veins: Lightning/Nature]

[Profound Entrances: 16 out of 54]

A small smile appeared as Xiao Long looked at what he saw. He developed a game-like window to see those small details. In Xianxia, people hide their cultivation realms so this art would see through them.

Well, that's what it is supposed to do.

He will need to test it out in the morning.

For now, he will cultivate the night away.

‘But damn, I have a lightning element. That is cool.’

~~~

As morning arrived, Xiao Long reached [Sixth of Elementary Profound].

After reaching the halfway point, cultivation becomes more difficult.

His grandfather told him that the gap between stages 1 and 6 is massive, especially once one reaches [Sky Profound].

The amount of people in the early Sky Profound is enormous. The number of people who achieved realms beyond the fifth rank of [Sky Profound] dropped considerably. 

Xiao Long can assume this is because profound entrances come into play. One has 14, and the other one has 15 or something like that.

‘No doubt my ex-wife has quite a bit. But knowing Xianxia, she should be only relevant to the first major empire… probably.’ 

As he left his pavilion in the morning, he focused on the first person he saw and used his new ‘Heaven’s Eye’ technique.

[Name: Xiao Baiyu]

[Cultivation: Peak Nascent Profound]

[Profound Veins: Wind]

[Profound Entrances: 11 out of 54]

‘Wind huh… but those entrances are a little bit above how much a regular person has.’

He continued to check other people and soon figured out the patterns. All of them have wind and profound entrances between 11 and 13. 

A picture started to manifest in his head. He doesn't have the same things Xiao Clan has. 

From the nature of his veins to Profound Entrances, he needed one more piece of proof, and that was checking out his grandfather.

He used bis technique the moment he saw him.

[Name: Xiao Lie]

[Cultivation: Peak Spirit Profound]

[Profound Veins: Wind]

[Profound Entrances: 14 out of 54]

‘So he does have the most Profound Entrances in the clan so far. But his attribute is still wind.’

Xiao Long started to consider that his theory of being adopted or replaced could be true.

Like in the novel Ancient Godly Monarch.

Still, it was too early to draw a conclusion; instead, he decided to figure out the limits of his new technique.

So, after breakfast, he went over to the training grounds and found a place to sit.

However, people noticed him and started whispering about his cultivation, which had skyrocketed over the past few days.

‘Here we go again.’

Instead of getting bothered by them, Xiao Long used his Heaven’s Eye technique on everyone he could look at. He quickly found out that his sonar-based technique had one glaring weakness.

It doesn’t work on agitated Profound energy.

He couldn’t discern people who were using their energy in the middle of fights.

‘So that’s one issue.’

“This is the wrong place for you, trash Long.” a lanky teen said with a mocking smile.

“...Hmm? I don’t remember you deciding such things. I should ask grandfather if he knows anything about new rules.” Xiao Long wanted to mess with him, so he slowly got up, but the skinny teen grabbed his hand.

“There is no need. Since you have cultivation, we start ‘practising’.” The guy had a wicked smile, but the transmigrator grabbed his wrist and started squeezing.

“...!!!”

“Aghhhh!!!”

The guy started to scream in pain.

“Oh, sorry. I still don’t know my strength. I didn’t think people in [Eight of Elementary Profound] are so fragile.” Xiao Long swiftly released his grip on the guy’s wrist.