If she wouldn’t let him watch, then so be it. Liu Xiaolou didn’t think much of it. His dear wife's cultivation was far above his own, separated by a whole realm. Even if he watched a hundred times, it wouldn’t do anything for his own cultivation. The only thing he regretted was that he could no longer admire that graceful, lively waist.

Reluctantly pulling his gaze away from Su Xi’s figure, Liu Xiaolou followed Susu back to the rear Hall of Yiling. He couldn’t help wondering. He had never been such a lecher before, so why did her image linger in his mind, stirring up this restless heat inside him? Could it be that her slender waist was unlike anyone else’s? That seemed unlikely.

The moment he stepped back inside, the heat in his chest suddenly flared up, impossible to hold down. Liu Xiaolou seized Susu’s wrist and stared straight at her.

Susu blinked, puzzled. “Young master?”

Without answering, Liu Xiaolou pulled her toward the bedchamber. When they reached the bedside, he let go of her wrist and waved his hand. “Go out. I need to enter seclusion.”

Still at a loss, Susu quickly backed out. She lowered the curtain over the doorway, shut the outer room’s door, and stationed herself carefully in the study next door, straining to catch any sound from within, not daring to relax for a moment.

Inside, the restless fire rising from Liu Xiaolou’s abdomen suddenly shifted into the Hand Faint Yin (Pericardium) Meridian, surging wildly through it. Unable to find an outlet, it began to batter furiously against the final, unopened Zhongchong acupoint.

He had already tried breaking through the Zhongchong acupoint several times, spending two spirit stones in the process, yet without the slightest progress. But today, under the pounding of this inner fire, there was a faint sign of loosening. That was why Liu Xiaolou had sent Susu away again, throwing himself completely into breaking through the acupoint.

In Qi Refinement, it wasn’t as simple as fully clearing every meridian and then effortlessly breaking into the next layer. More often than not, you would get stuck at the very last acupoint, unable to pass without the right opportunity.

When he advanced from the second to the third layer, it was after facing life-and-death danger at Jinping Manor, surrounded by three inner disciples from the Dongyang Sect. That brush with death had been his opportunity. For this current bottleneck, moving from the third to the fourth layer, he had been searching for where his chance might come.

He had thought it might be connected to that moment when the jade hairpin fell, but who would have guessed it would fall on today of all days, and that the opportunity would come from his lady’s slender waist.

A moment’s thought made it clear enough. The True Mysteries Scripture he practiced and the Yin-Yang Scripture complemented each other perfectly. Back when he had discussed the path of dual cultivation with Sister Qing, they had already confirmed it; though it had been purely theoretical then.

His teacher had once warned him that before reaching the fourth layer of the True Mysteries Scripture, he must not practice the Yin-Yang Scripture. So this flare-up of inner fire today must be the spark for his breakthrough, the link that bridged the two techniques, carrying him from one to the other.

Liu Xiaolou had no time to think further. He flopped onto the bed in one motion, not even bothering to take off his shoes, gripped a spirit stone in his hand, and got to work.

Threads of spiritual energy condensed into strands of true qi, flowing into his meridians and merging with the inner fire. The effect was astonishing, shaking the acupoint that had once been solid as bedrock until it grew looser and looser.

Another unexpected surprise was that under the stimulation of this inner fire, the speed at which he converted spiritual energy tripled. He had never experienced anything like it. The fuller current of true qi brought a far more violent impact, and the acupoint began to loosen like a mountainside soaked through by heavy rain, showing signs of imminent collapse.

Liu Xiaolou was completely immersed in the breakthrough. He had no sense of day or night, no count of the hours. Whenever he felt hungry or thirsty, he would simply reach for the table. He couldn’t remember what he had eaten or drunk, only that there was always food and water waiting for him. This was the advantage of cultivating in a great household. No need to worry about the necessities of life, free to focus entirely on cultivation.

Then, at a certain moment, the mountain could no longer withstand the raging flood. It crumbled at last, swept away by the surging torrent, which poured down into the hollow below, gathering into a pool.

The Zhongchong acupoint was open. Liu Xiaolou had officially stepped into the fourth layer of Qi Refinement.

But he did not leave seclusion immediately. While the inner fire still lingered, not yet faded, he seized the chance to keep converting spiritual energy from the spirit stone. This fire’s origin and nature were unknown, but it could multiply the speed of conversion. If he missed this chance, he might never find it again.

The fourth layer of the True Mysteries Scripture cultivated the Hand Lesser Yang (Triple Burner) Meridian. This meridian began at the ring finger, ran along the outer side of the arm, passed over the shoulder, and reached the head and face, with twenty-three acupoints on each side, forty-six in total. Cultivating this meridian meant tempering the eyes, ears, throat, and face. Once mastered, it greatly reduced the body’s need for drinking water, laying the groundwork for fasting at higher levels of cultivation.

Liu Xiaolou kept drawing out spirit stones to convert their energy into true qi, starting with an assault on the Guanchong acupoint.

The Hand Lesser Yan Meridian had more acupoints than the Hand Faint Yin Meridian, but each was far easier to clear. The nine major acupoints of the Hand Faint Yin Meridian had each taken him three to four spirit stones. By contrast, breaking through Guanchong had only cost him two.

Those two were also the last spirit stones he had. With that, he could finally leave seclusion.

He looked around the room and found a chamber pot tucked in the corner. Emptying the waste that had built up in his bowels, he felt lighter and more comfortable than before his retreat.

Just as he finished, Susu lifted the door curtain and came in. She covered the pot, picked it up, and carried it out, leaving Liu Xiaolou feeling embarrassed. He vaguely recalled that during his seclusion, she had come in each time to take the pot away, clean it, and bring it back. The thought made him deeply grateful.

She was a young woman as lovely as a flower, with cultivation no weaker than his own, yet she had tended to his most basic needs without a word of complaint. It was a kindness he felt he could never deserve. The more he thought about it, the more he decided he would have to treat Susu twice as well from now on to repay her.

When she returned, she brought in a bucket of hot water to bathe him. Before, when the inner fire had been raging in him, he had wanted to pull her into the bedchamber. Now that the fire had died down, he only felt awkward. He was naked, while she was fully dressed. Anyone would feel embarrassed in that situation, unless, of course, they were both naked. That would be a different matter entirely.

Susu carefully scrubbed away the grime from his skin, worked scented soap into a lather, and wiped him clean from head to toe. Then she brought out a fresh set of clothes and helped him into them, saying, “Young master, if you didn’t change and wash, this body of yours would be reeking by now.”

Liu Xiaolou let her knead and wash him, enjoying the comfort, and said sincerely, “Susu, if this keeps up, I won’t be able to live without you.”

She smiled. “Serving the young master is a maid’s duty. One day, when I’m no longer here, you’ll have another maid, and you’ll live a life of comfort all the same.”

Liu Xiaolou gave a bitter smile. “A life of comfort isn’t in my fate. All I want in this life is cultivation.”

“This time you were in seclusion for more than half a month. Your cultivation seems to have grown a lot, hasn’t it?”

“Half a month? How many days exactly?”

“Twenty-four days.”

Six spirit stones for only twenty-four days of cultivation? That was much less than he had expected. What a pity such opportunities were rare. That inner fire came and went like a wisp of smoke, impossible to grasp.

After a moment’s thought, he reached out and took Susu’s wrist again, wanting to give it another try.