"It’s pretty rare for Tier Two Demon Beasts to fight each other. They all have their own territory and aren’t short on food, unless one’s about to break through."

"Besides, Boss Ma said the wounds on that Demon Beast were too evenly distributed. They were all over its chest, back, limbs, and abdomen. It didn’t look like they were from a head-on fight, more like it was swarmed and torn apart by several beasts at once."

"Several Tier Two beasts ganging up on another Tier Two?" The tall, skinny guy rubbed his chin. "What kind of grudge is that?"

"Who knows." The bald-headed burly man shrugged. "Some people say it wasn’t them fighting each other, but that someone was controlling the Demon Beasts to do it. But that’s just nonsense, right? Who could control a Tier Two Demon Beast?"

A middle-aged woman who had been silent for a while suddenly spoke up: "Whatever the reason, the remains of a Tier Two Demon Beast prove the middle section is very dangerous. Taking the southern route is a two-day detour, but at least we won’t have to be on edge the whole time." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Exactly." The bald-headed burly man took a swig of water. "Fewer and fewer Loose Cultivators are taking the middle section now. They’re all detouring through the south."

A Tier Two Demon Beast’s combat power is equivalent to a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator. Not something someone in the Qi Refining Stage could handle.

’My patrol route in the Yuanheng Mountain Range is just in the outer ring, even less deep than the middle and southern sections they’re talking about. There are hardly any Tier One Top Grade Demon Beasts there. Since the beasts wandering near the market city are mostly Low to Mid Grade, it’s natural to investigate the outskirts first.’

Li Yuan committed this information to memory and continued along East Street toward North Alley.

It was already afternoon by the time he finished his patrol route.

Back at his residence, Li Yuan slid the bolt on his door and sat on the edge of his bed.

He took the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill from his sleeve and unwrapped its paper seal.

The booklet was thicker than the one for the Origin Condensation Skill. The paper was fine, the handwriting neat. Every step of the Spell was accompanied by a detailed diagram of the meridian pathways, drawn with more precision than the booklets for the Spirit-Introducing Skill and the Origin Condensation Skill.

The moment his finger touched the booklet, a complete set of information popped up on the panel.

[Detected equippable item: Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Hundred Rivers Return to the Sea (Blue) — The circulation of all Spiritual Power, Qi Blood, and Mana in the body is automatically coordinated and optimized. Conflicts between different Cultivation Techniques are reduced, and the overall efficiency of operating multiple Cultivation Techniques and different Magic simultaneously is significantly improved.]

[Permanence Condition: Cultivate two cultivation techniques with conflicting attributes to the point of perfection / Simultaneously consume two Tier Two pills with conflicting attributes (completing either one is sufficient).]

[Current equipment slot is full (3/3). Replace a currently equipped item?]

’Hundred Rivers Return to the Sea, a blue entry.’

’Automatic coordination and optimization, reduces conflict, and improves overall efficiency when operating multiple Cultivation Techniques and Magic simultaneously.’

’The permanence condition has two options, and I only need to complete one.’

’The first is to cultivate two cultivation techniques with conflicting attributes to perfection. Right now, I only have the Spirit-Introducing Skill, just one cultivation technique. I don’t have a second one, let alone one with a conflicting attribute.’

’The second is to simultaneously consume two Tier Two pills with conflicting attributes. Tier Two pills correspond to the Foundation Establishment Stage, so they won’t be cheap.’

’Neither path is achievable in the short term, but the entry’s effect works without being made permanent. I can use it as soon as I equip it.’

With a thought, Li Yuan first unequipped the Flame Snake Tube.

’The progress for the Flame Snake Tube’s precision entry is only at nine. It’s a long way from becoming permanent, so it can make way for now.’

He equipped the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill.

The booklet transformed into a deep blue light and merged into his body.

The sensation of information flooding his mind was more intense than any time before.

The Spell for the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill wasn’t a set of physical movements like the Iron Bull Skill, nor was it a Spiritual Power compression technique like the Origin Condensation Skill. It was a complete operational method for harmonizing the meridians—how to make energies from different sources coexist harmoniously within the body, how to clear conflicting nodes, and how to allow multiple Spiritual Power circuits to run simultaneously without interfering with each other.

Then, the changes within his body began.

It wasn’t a specific spot growing hot or cold, but a holistic change, as if a band playing out of tune had suddenly found the same beat.

The Spiritual Power circulation path of the Spirit-Introducing Skill and the Qi Blood circulation path of his mundane cultivation techniques originally followed two different sets of meridian circuits. They mostly didn’t interfere with each other, but at a few shared meridian nodes, the Spiritual Power and Qi Blood would briefly intersect.

Previously, whenever they intersected, there had been an extremely subtle feeling of stuttering—the Spiritual Power would have to wait for the Qi Blood to pass a node, or the Qi Blood would be pulled off course by the flow of Spiritual Power, needing a micro-adjustment to its direction before it could continue.

It was so subtle he normally couldn’t feel it at all, but it was definitely there.

Now, these stutters had vanished.

The rhythms of the Spiritual Power and Qi Blood automatically aligned. When passing through shared nodes, they no longer yielded to each other. Instead, they were like two parallel rivers, each flowing in its own channel, water levels even, speeds identical.

It wasn’t just effective for the Spirit-Introducing Skill and mundane cultivation techniques; it also worked on Magic.

Li Yuan tried casting some Magic.

The initial rhythm of mobilizing Spiritual Power for both the Fireball Technique and the Ice Cone Skill—two types of Magic with different attributes—became much smoother. Previously, when switching from the Fireball Technique to the Ice Cone Skill, his Spiritual Power had to undergo a brief redirection process, adjusting from a Fire Attribute frequency to an Ice Attribute one. Now, this redirection was almost instantaneous. His Spiritual Power was like a fluid that could change shape at will, flowing wherever he directed it.

His entire body felt like a recalibrated machine. Every Spiritual Power circuit, every Qi Blood channel, and every shared meridian node was perfectly aligned. Idle running and friction were reduced to a minimum.

Li Yuan took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and began to circulate the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill.

Equipping the Cultivation Technique had infused the complete Spell into his mind, but the physical cultivation still had to be done step by step.

Following the guidance of the Spell, Li Yuan started from his Dantian, combing through his meridians one by one along the twelve primary channels.

When the Spiritual Power reached the Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin, he felt a familiar node.

This node was also a spot his Spiritual Power had to pass through when circulating the Spirit-Introducing Skill. The two Cultivation Techniques intersected here, their Spiritual Power pathways almost overlapping.

The next few meridians were the same.

The Spiritual Power circulation route of the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill had long sections that overlapped with the Spirit-Introducing Skill, but their paths diverged at every branching meridian node.

The Spirit-Introducing Skill’s route was simple and direct—follow the main trunk, pass the nodes, and enter the Dantian. It was fast and efficient, but precisely because it only followed the main trunk, it couldn’t clear out the impurities lingering in the branch meridians.

This was the biggest shortcoming of the Spirit-Introducing Skill. The cultivation speed was fast, but the Spiritual Power it produced was impure, a problem that became more pronounced the further one progressed.

The Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill was different.

At every branching node, its route would split off a wisp of Spiritual Power to travel a short distance along the branch meridian, pulling the Spiritual Power within that branch into the main circuit. After a full cycle, it wasn’t just the Spiritual Power in the main meridians that was circulating; dozens of meridians, large and small, were all running in sync.

It was significantly slower than the Spirit-Introducing Skill, but after completing one cycle, Li Yuan could clearly feel that the Spiritual Power entering his Dantian was more condensed than when he used the Spirit-Introducing Skill. The quality of the Spiritual Power was higher.

After one full cycle, the total amount of Spiritual Qi absorbed by the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill was indeed a little less than with the Spirit-Introducing Skill, and it was also a bit slower, but the difference wasn’t huge.

However, the improvement in Spiritual Power quality brought by the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill was something the Spirit-Introducing Skill could never achieve.

Feeling the flow of Spiritual Power within him, Li Yuan continued to cultivate the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill.