"Could you elaborate a bit more, Senior?" the old man asked, looking in his general direction. Liu Xing was still invisible, and anyone who saw the old man talking to empty air would have assumed he was insane. Yet, even though he was unseen, those blue eyes stared right at him as if they could see his face.

"It's just as I said," Liu Xing replied. "My cultivation ate the chains. I gave it more and more qi until it submerged all of them. Then it swallowed the chains and condensed into a main core. A ripple of energy spread from my consciousness to my body, and that ripple enhanced me. When it finished, I was officially a Core Splitting cultivator."

The old man began to inquire further, asking about Liu Xing's thoughts as his cultivation swallowed the chains, his intent, how he directed it, and the bodily sensations he felt during the breakthrough. The questions were thorough, and often Liu Xing had to close his eyes to remember what he had thought and felt at a specific moment. He was doubtful that all these details would help the old man, but insight was valuable, and perhaps the old man could glean something from his experience.

The old man barraged him with more and more questions until he began to cough. It was a dry, wracking cough, the kind that sounded as if his lungs were going to explode. Though the old man had a slender body, his chest expanded with each rapid spasm. He covered his mouth, and a blob of green blood leaped from his lips onto his hand. The old man grimaced as he wiped the blood away. Then, he flashed a hollow smile. "Sorry for the interruption, Senior. It seems my body has decided to be difficult. Could you wait for a little bit?"

Liu Xing nodded, and after thanking him, the old man closed his eyes and began to meditate. Qi was pulled toward the old man, and he absorbed it. He did not send the qi to his consciousness, however. Instead, he spread and cycled it through his body, as if trying to soothe his muscles and organs.

The old man's condition was terrible. If they kept talking, Liu Xing was quite sure his lifespan would continue to be reduced until his body could no longer bear the pain and began to shut down later that night. In short, if the old man wanted to live, he needed to break through today. It was a tall order, but it was not impossible.

The library suddenly became quiet. Liu Xing waited patiently as the old man tried to regain some vitality. He looked to the side and saw a beam of light entering through a window, illuminating the flying dust so much that it seemed to wriggle like living things in the sun. In the silence, he could hear commotion outside—shouts about a thief, questions about wages, and the frantic sound of running feet. He raised his eyebrows, wondering if their reaction was exaggerated, but shrugged a moment later. It was indeed a normal reaction.

After merely a minute, the old man opened his eyes again. His breathing was a little heavy, but he was no longer coughing. He had regained some vitality, although his face was a bit paler than before.

"Senior," he said, "do you think I can break through to the Core Splitting realm?"

"Why not?" he replied. "You're at the peak of the Lock Opening realm. It's true that you need a little more qi, but I bet that swirling ball of water of yours is already eager to advance to the next realm."

"I heard that to advance to the Core Splitting realm, a cultivator needs a certain mindset. Some even say you need an enlightenment to do so."

"An enlightenment, huh? I did experience an enlightenment before, but I'm quite sure it's not a requirement. From my experience, I felt as if my cultivation were alive, and what I needed to do was guide it. To guide it, I needed a firm will, and so, I willed it."

"You say all of that as if what you did was trivial." The old man chuckled. "Not only have you broken through to the Core Splitting realm at a young age, but you have also attained an enlightenment. I know this city is quite shabby compared to, say, the Mirror Tide Empire, but your achievement is legendary."

Liu Xing was surprised that the old man knew he was young, but he supposed it was not hard to guess. After all, the old man must have had so many life experiences.

"Well," Liu Xing smiled a little after digesting his words. "I'm actually trying to become a legend in this world. An empire has promised to write me into their history. However, to become a Core Splitting cultivator, you don't need to be legendary. You only need enough qi and a firm will."

The old man inhaled deeply and nodded. At that moment, his blue eyes shone a little more, his back straightened, and his presence became more pronounced. It was akin to a sleeping tiger deciding to finally wake up.

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"You're right, Senior. All these years, what I've lacked most is a firm will. To be honest, I don't want to die. Every time I thought about breaking through, doubt always wormed its way into my brain. I attempted to break through once, but when I realized the chains could lash out and kill me on the spot, I retreated and suffered a backlash. Now, I'm ready to try again. Thank you for giving me some pointers. It was enlightening."

Liu Xing nodded.

The elder's decision to try to break through once more, Liu Xing realized, was not really because of him. What the old man needed was a little push. He imagined that if a small child had come to the library and simply babbled and entertained the old man, that child could have given him the push he needed. Hell, even if a caterpillar had accidentally entered the library and the elder saw it crawling to find food, it might have been enough to give him the resolve to break through.

As the old man submerged himself in his consciousness, trying to break through, Liu Xing also decided to close his eyes for a moment. He remembered being in a similar situation. The difference was that this little push made the old man decide to save himself, while in his case—as William—that little push had made him decide to do the opposite of what the old man was doing right now.

Liu Xing decided to observe Fang Ruxue. She was still engaged in a conversation, sitting on a chair while an array of people spoke with serious faces, as if in a group meeting to tackle a dire problem. He raised his eyebrows, curious, but he could be patient and ask her about it later. Then, he switched his focus to observe the rest of the group on the grassy land. He saw that they were preparing breakfast, and at the edge of his vision, Tide Walker was swimming through the air between tall trees, chasing butterflies. Seeing his shark, he felt a bit relieved. The shark had a free spirit and was always roaming around. It was good to see it playing near the group.

The morning wind in the library felt stale, mixed with dust, making the air here feel rather unpleasant. As he wondered whether to grab a book while he waited, the qi around the old man suddenly began to rush toward him as if trapped in a vortex. Liu Xing nodded. The old man was beginning the process of advancing.

As more time passed and the old man absorbed more and more ambient qi, a commotion suddenly reverberated from outside. The commotion had been ongoing since he swept the money, but this was different. Shouts, growls, and sneers could be heard. Cursing, mocking, and the word "thief!" floated around more and more. Hearing this, Liu Xing's heart skipped a beat as a suspicion formed in his mind.

He looked at the old man, observing that the process would likely take time, then rose from his chair and began to walk hurriedly. Soon, he left the library and was walking in a corridor between buildings. Workers were running frantically, and he could hear a particular group talking as they ran.

"A thief! A thief has stolen our wages! It's unacceptable!"

"Luckily the thief was already caught!"

A man snarled. "Who would dare to do such a thing? Didn't he know we're the Qing clan?!"

"I heard it was that cursed woman! To think that our leniency made her so bold. She forgot she was not the daughter of our clan after she severed her connection with us."

"Don't be too hasty," a burly man said from the front of the group. "And shut your mouth. We're merely servants. We're not really part of the Qing clan."

"Shut your mouth! I'm merely a servant, true, but I am also part of the Qing clan. The patriarch said so!"

Their conversation began to heat up, but Liu Xing didn't listen to them anymore, instead focusing on the most important thing. A thief was caught. The thief who "stole" the workers' wages. How could that be? The one who stole it was him, and he had not been caught.

As his heart beat faster, he decided to jump out of the corridor. He shot like a bird toward a building, rotated his body, kicked off the wall, and launched himself toward the front gate of the Qing clan. There, two guards held a woman so roughly that her face was pressed to the ground, and a man in a white robe with piercing eyes looked down at her with so much disdain it was as if she were a maggot that had dared to crawl to his feet. That man was a cultivator at the Lock Opening realm fifth stage, but the one who captured his attention was the woman pressed to the ground, the "thief" who had "stolen" the workers' wages.

It was the beggar woman who was hated by qi.

As Liu Xing landed right in front of the crowd, his eyes widened. Somehow, this woman was being blamed for the theft.

"Cursed woman with cursed baby! To think you would dare to steal from us. Don't you have any shame?" the cultivator said.

The beggar woman looked to the side and pleaded, "Please release me! I'm not a thief. I didn't steal any money from you! I'm also part of the Qing clan!"

"No, you're not!" a man to Liu Xing's side shouted. "You weren't part of the Qing clan the moment you decided to marry our enemy!"

"Yes. You have no more connection with us!"

"Kill that thief! How dare she steal our money!"

"Kill her!"

"Execute her!"

"She is a disgrace, a stain on the history of the Qing clan."

"Disgrace! Thief! Beggar!"

"Cursed mother! Cursed mother!"

"No, I'm not a thief. I didn't steal any money. Ask around! Many people have seen me since yesterday. I'm not a thief! I'm not a thief!" Tears fell from her eyes and snot dripped from her nose as she desperately tried to proclaim her innocence to the cursing, mocking crowd.

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