Chapter 286: Sister's Dao Seed

The Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture is a cultivation method with a very high entry barrier because it requires practitioners to change their breathing pattern, transforming normal breathing into fetal breathing. Practitioners often need to maintain their spiritual power circulation while constantly battling their natural breathing habits to establish a new fetal breathing system. As a result, it's not uncommon for cultivators to struggle for ten days or even half a month without grasping the basics.

However, for Zhang Yu, none of these were issues.

The Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture involves all the pores of the body and the increasingly complex meridians after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage. After more than thirty minutes, Zhang Yu finally completed one full cycle of spiritual power circulation according to the scripture's technique.

In an instant, a series of images flashed through his mind, depicting his diligent practice of the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture over and over, until he finally mastered it. Simultaneously, Zhang Yu's breathing grew fainter and fainter, eventually becoming almost imperceptible. A cool, refreshing sensation spread across his entire body, as the spiritual energy in the room continuously poured into his pores, converging into the spiritual power circulation within his meridians.

Zhang Yu felt that after entering the fetal breathing state, his pores were constantly absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy every moment, as if it had become his new instinctual breathing. After a brief period of adaptation, Zhang Yu continued circulating the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture, commencing his second round of cultivation.

The moment Zhang Yu converted his breathing to fetal breath, Zhang Pianpian, who had been cultivating with her eyes closed, suddenly opened her eyes. A divine light seemed to flash in her gaze as she looked towards Zhang Yu.

"Fetal breath?" Zhang Pianpian mused inwardly, "It seems my brother has been contemplating fetal breathing techniques ever since school started."

"That's good. Mastering the art of fetal breathing, absorbing spiritual energy and refining spiritual power day and night, is highly beneficial for spiritual power growth."

With a brief glance, Zhang Pianpian closed her eyes, and scenes from the depths of the spiritual realm appeared in her mind's eye.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yu continued his diligent cultivation of the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture in the following days, passively circulating it during classes and actively doing so after classes, never ceasing his arduous practice. In a mere three or four days, he raised the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture to Level 10. This granted him the Level 10 cultivation effect, allowing the scripture to achieve 100% of the effectiveness of active circulation even when passively circulated.

Another ten days passed, and Zhang Yu elevated the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture to Level 20 in one go. This Level 20 effect made the spiritual power circulation of his fetal breath scripture incredibly smooth, with each breath feeling divinely assisted. Originally, it took Zhang Yu over thirty minutes to complete one full cycle of the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture; now, he could do it within twenty minutes, significantly boosting his energy absorption efficiency. During his cultivation, his spiritual power continuously grew to 286.2, and its quality reached 113.

However, just as Zhang Yu was preparing to choose his next cultivation method, Zhang Pianpian seized the opportunity while Yu Xinghan and Le Mulan were absent, and sought out her brother.

Earlier, at the end of June, Zhang Pianpian had recognized that Zhang Yu had mastered the fetal breathing technique and hadn't found anything problematic about it. But over the next half month, she reviewed the dormitory's spiritual energy consumption data and found that it was continuously increasing, practically surging day by day. Noticing this, she paid even closer attention to why the spiritual energy consumption was increasing so rapidly. She soon discovered that every time the spiritual energy consumption data surged, it coincided with Zhang Yu being in the dormitory.

"Is it because Zhang Yu's energy absorption efficiency has improved?" Upon realizing her brother's improved energy absorption efficiency and faster spiritual power refinement, Zhang Pianpian's first reaction wasn't joy, but suspicion. "To increase this much in such a short time, did he spend a lot of spirit coins? Or even... take out a loan?"

Zhang Pianpian's suspicion was not unfounded; after all, Zhang Yu had already accrued a debt of 700,000 just three months into his first year of high school. However, Zhang Pianpian wasn't worried about Zhang Yu's debt itself—after all, he had already proven his talent in immortal cultivation, and it was common for immortal cultivators to borrow money. Instead, she was concerned about him spending recklessly.

"Spiritual power growth is a long-term process, accumulated bit by bit," she mused. "Spending vast sums on this daily is only suitable for the truly wealthy, not for the poor."

So, Zhang Pianpian cast a spell and began investigating Zhang Yu's spending records, loan records, and credit information. To her greater surprise, she discovered that in the month and a half since Zhang Yu arrived at Myriad Laws University City, he had been living frugally, with no significant expenditures apart from purchasing numerous cultivation methods. After ruling out all possibilities of excessive spending, only one conclusion seemed to remain.

"My brother hasn't replaced any physical cultivation enhancements, nor has he taken any medicines, purchased Daoist services, or used any other expensive methods..." Zhang Pianpian looked at the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture in his shopping records and thought to herself, "In this short half month, his energy absorption cultivation method must have been rapidly improving, which explains the daily increase in spiritual energy consumption."

At this moment, only Zhang Pianpian and her brother Zhang Yu remained in the room. Zhang Pianpian looked at Zhang Yu and asked, "Brother, tell me honestly, how far have you cultivated your Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture?"

Zhang Yu was slightly startled, not expecting his sister to pinpoint the cultivation method he was practicing with just one sentence. Fu Ji quickly reminded him, "Zhang Pianpian is one of the True Gods' people. You absolutely cannot disclose our affairs to her. Underreport your progress on the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture to avoid drawing her unnecessary attention."

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Twenty levels in half a month, that is indeed quite astonishing." So, after thinking for a moment, Zhang Yu slowly said, "Level 10."

"Level 10?" Zhang Pianpian's heart skipped a beat, but she kept her expression completely neutral. She said indifferently, "Impossible. Level 10 of the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture hasn't truly reached the Foundation Establishment level. I've seen your spiritual energy consumption in the room over the past half month, as well as your spending records. Speak honestly, don't try to deceive me. What level is your Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture really?"

Zhang Yu hesitated for a moment, then replied, "It's Level 15."

Zhang Pianpian's heart jolted at his words. "Level 15? Cultivated to Level 15 in half a month? This energy absorption method, the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture, usually takes a year or two to cultivate to Level 15 by oneself. My brother actually only took half a month. How much spirit coins would it take to achieve this? 50 spirit coins? Or 100?"

Zhang Pianpian sighed inwardly, "My brother's talent seems even more astonishing than I originally anticipated." She recalled seeing "???" when she last used the Heaven's Eye Talisman to check Zhang Yu while she was on the first floor. "That's good. If he weren't this talented, how would he ever keep up with me later?"

Thinking this, Zhang Pianpian looked at Zhang Yu and said seriously, "Zhang Yu, I've told you before about the importance of information in Kunxu. Mastering more information and having sufficient information asymmetry is often more useful than raw power. It can allow you to defeat the strong with weakness, and the rich with poverty. We know this, and naturally, the True Gods, Golden Cores, Nascent Souls, and even higher-level Immortals know this even better. Therefore, with each higher layer in Kunxu, information regulation becomes stricter. It's like layer upon layer of spiderwebs enveloping everyone, as if they want to monitor every piece of data on every person. Your increased spiritual energy consumption in the dormitory over the past half month can be easily detected. If you don't know how to hide it, as your future achievements increase, people will soon become interested in your data and information. It won't be long before many people notice your astonishing talent."

Hearing this, Zhang Yu's heart stirred slightly. His rapid cultivation progress was indeed something he couldn't explain away. If a higher-ranking entity were to become very interested in him, his future fate would then be entirely at their whim. Therefore, he had always intentionally concealed this matter, avoiding any overly shocking displays of his abilities. However, this time he hadn't expected that his rapid progress in the energy absorption method could be deduced from the room's spiritual energy consumption data combined with his own spending records.

Zhang Pianpian continued, "Therefore, in addition to mastering information asymmetry, creating it is also very important. For us who are not wealthy, the simplest and most effective way to create information asymmetry is to learn how to hide our own information. You cultivate spiritual power to sell it and earn money, right? But with your talent, if you rapidly increase and sell a large amount of spiritual power in a short time, it will immediately become a problem of a massive, unidentifiable source of spiritual power."

Zhang Pianpian sighed and said, "So, you need to learn to slow down your progress a little. For example, with the Hunyuan Fetal Breath Scripture, don't improve it for at least half a month. You can shift your focus to physical strength or cultivating your Dao Heart instead."

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "But I'm already Level 20, damn it."

Fu Ji reminded him, "Don't worry, Zhang Yu. With my anti-detection ritual, it won't be difficult to simply hide your strength." Detection rituals can identify cameras. Anti-detection rituals, on the other hand, can hide some data when physical information is being monitored. Zhang Yu had completed both of these rituals while he was still on the first floor.

But Zhang Yu still lamented in his heart, "Even if I can hide my spiritual power progress, selling too much spiritual power still carries risks. It seems if I want to earn more spirit coins, I'll ultimately have to rely on the construction site. Then my original cultivation plan will have to change."

Zhang Pianpian then reminded him, "Also, pay attention to your rankings. Don't rise too quickly and attract too much attention. Many exams in the university are application-based; the assessment happens when you apply. Try to delay taking exams until the last possible moment; that way, even if your grades improve significantly, it will draw less attention. Oh, and for your daily body refining cultivation, don't do it at the dormitory entrance anymore. Find places without surveillance to practice."

Zhang Yu asked curiously, "Where are there no surveillance cameras?"

Zhang Pianpian said indifferently, "Below the 100th floor of the university city, the lower you go, the fewer surveillance cameras there are. You can go there to cultivate."

Zhang Yu then asked, "But what about the spiritual energy consumption in the dormitory?"

Zhang Pianpian simply extended a hand and pointed, and a scroll of talismans appeared at her fingertip. As runes flashed and vanished, the log of the dormitory's spiritual energy consumption appeared before Zhang Pianpian, and with a flick of her finger, it was modified to a different data set.

"Spiritual energy consumption is relatively easy to conceal. I'll use a Spirit-Stealing Talisman to help you hide it, but for your own achievements and strength, you'll have to rein them in yourself."

Zhang Yu asked curiously, "What is a Spirit-Stealing Talisman?"

"It's a talisman that allows you to use a bit more spiritual energy without being discovered, just a little trinket I drew myself, don't worry about it," Zhang Pianpian said with a faint smile. "After all, the dormitories on the 125th floor are quite rudimentary; I've already cracked the talismans that record spiritual energy data within them."

Fu Ji watched this scene, startled. "Damn it... is this even possible? Does she think this is like stealing electricity? This Zhang Pianpian... is she human or a god now?"

As Zhang Yu looked at his sister before him, he suddenly saw information about a Dao Seed flash across her chest.

"Supreme Purity Talismans?" Zhang Yu thought to himself. "Is this sister's Dao Seed?"