Beneath the glow of a gilt candelabra, her pale, oval face resembled the thin snow of early spring.
Her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly as she lightly stroked the floral patterns on the brocade quilt.
Her name was Lian Xing, one of the Palace Maids frequently favored by Xia Wuyang.
She had been a light sleeper since childhood due to her constitution. Unexpectedly, starting over ten days ago, her sleep quality had suddenly improved. Every time she finished serving the elder Crown Prince, she would fall asleep quickly and know nothing until morning.
Lian Xing naturally sensed that something was amiss. After some hesitation, she decided to take an elixir in advance to stay awake and see what the elder Crown Prince was actually doing.
Agarwood incense wafted through the Sleeping Palace as Lian Xing’s slender fingers clutched the corner of her quilt.
Tonight was her first attempt. When Xia Wuyang believed all the maids were sound asleep, Lian Xing quietly awoke. She secretly looked around but couldn’t find any sign of the elder Crown Prince.
Wenhua Hall was vast. She wanted to search for him, but she was afraid of startling the elder Crown Prince. If he was doing something clandestine and she was discovered, the consequences would be dire. She might even be killed for it.
The elder Crown Prince’s position was precarious these days, and he was becoming increasingly unhinged. There was no telling what he might do.
Thankfully, the elder Crown Prince hadn’t done anything to them after they fell "asleep"; he had simply disappeared. Lian Xing breathed a small sigh of relief, though her curiosity remained piqued.
After a moment of hesitation, she decided it was best to keep feigning sleep. ’I shouldn’t go searching blindly. If I manage to wake up early a few more times, I might eventually find out what the elder Crown Prince is up to.’
’It’s not like I’m a spy for the other Princes and Princesses. I’m not that interested in his secrets, anyway.’
In the Practice Room, Xia Wuyang had no idea that what he feared was already happening. Fortunately, he had already mastered the basics of the Soul Capturing Technique and was getting closer to Minor Achievement.
Even now, it was quite effective. His incredibly high Spiritual Power granted him equally high Comprehension, which was a tremendous boost to his cultivation.
Xia Wuyang had also discovered something. When others cultivated Spiritual Cultivation Techniques or absorbed related Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, they purely increased their Spiritual Power.
While their memory and understanding might see a slight increase, the improvement was minimal, and the boost to Comprehension was even more negligible. However, when the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Talent enhanced his Spiritual Power, it wasn’t just a raw increase; it also boosted seven associated abilities.
These "Seven Apertures" referred to seven fundamental powers.
Memory: Enhances all information retrieval, forms efficient memories, and increases overall memory capacity.
Understanding: Deepens the hierarchical and associative analysis of content, establishing topological connections between different domains.
Comprehension: Triggers lightning-fast cognitive breakthroughs, fostering sudden flashes of insight into various principles.
Focus: Builds a mechanism to resist distractions, allowing for precise allocation and control of attention.
Thought Speed: Optimizes cognitive processing efficiency, enhancing the ability to process and compute information.
Creativity: A quantum leap that shatters rigid thought patterns, forming new paradigms of association and combination.
Metacognition: Develops the ability to monitor and correct one’s own thought processes, establishing the mental capacity for self-evolution and optimization.
...
Seven dimensions, seven abilities, all combined to form his Spiritual Power. It wasn’t a simple, raw increase, and it far surpassed this world’s so-called Spiritual Cultivation Techniques and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.
Those other techniques and treasures typically only provided a raw increase to Spiritual Power, or perhaps to one of these seven aspects. But each time the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Talent activated, it boosted all seven aspects simultaneously.
Therefore, in this world, greater Spiritual Power did not necessarily mean greater understanding, memory, Comprehension, focus, or creativity. Only Xia Wuyang was like this. Others mainly increased their raw Spiritual Power, which came with only a slight, extremely limited boost to memory, understanding, or other faculties.
Relying on the seven abilities granted by his Seven-Aperture Exquisite Talent, Xia Wuyang was able to fathom the secrets of the Soul Capturing Technique and the Nether Acupuncture Needle in a short time, master their basics, and advance toward higher levels of mastery.
All sorts of insights and flashes of inspiration appeared in his mind like countless stars. This allowed him to not only improve his cultivation but also refine the techniques, making the Soul Capturing Technique and the Nether Acupuncture Needle more suitable for his body, as if they were tailor-made for him.
As his Spiritual Power continued to grow, he would be able to make even deeper modifications, perhaps even fundamentally transforming and elevating the techniques themselves.
Spiritual Power +1!
Twenty points of Spiritual Power!
Before he knew it, he had been in Wenhua Hall for over half a month, and his Spiritual Power had reached twenty points. To support such an astonishing amount of Spiritual Power, his physical constitution had also grown immensely.
Coupled with the enhancements from his cultivation, while he appeared to be only at Seventh Grade Perfection, his overall power far surpassed that of an ordinary Martial Artist at the same level.
Unfortunately, reaching twenty points didn’t awaken a new Companion Talent. He could only clearly feel the improvements in his memory, understanding, and Comprehension. Perhaps a higher level of Spiritual Power was required to awaken another one.
What he didn’t know was that the Little Palace Maid, Lian Xing, had been observing him for several days. But since he always hid himself away in the Practice Room, she had no idea what he was doing.
She just instinctively sensed that this Dying Crown Prince was not as foolish and incompetent as everyone believed. He seemed to be hiding a secret.
Fortunately, Lian Xing wasn’t a spy sent by another faction. Otherwise, she would have already reported to her masters, and Xia Wuyang would have been in serious trouble.
His Soul Capturing Technique would soon reach Minor Achievement, and the Nether Acupuncture Needle was not far behind. His Dragon Storage Skill was already approaching Perfection in a remarkably short time, and the Dragon and Phoenix Body Technique had reached Great Success.
His mastery of the Dragon Tiger Fist grew more and more skilled. He had essentially completed his first round of modifications, tailoring it to his own body. Cultivating it now yielded twice the results with half the effort, and the effects were truly astonishing.
When he practiced the Dragon and Tiger Pile Techniques, his Qi Blood surged. The tempering of his body was both meticulous and as swift as fire, and he was on the verge of breaking through to a higher level.
Everything was heading in the right direction. At this rate, in about a year, he would have enough power to protect himself. He would at least be able to handle the spies and informants sent by his siblings, fend off their covert plots, and even have the ability to fight back.
’But will things really go this smoothly? Will the others really give me enough time to keep increasing my Cultivation Power until I’m strong enough to turn the tables?’
The answer was no. Late one night, just after he had favored several Palace Maids, taken a few nourishing elixirs, and was about to head to the Practice Room, he faintly heard a strange sound.
Even with his twenty-plus points of Spiritual Power, he couldn’t pinpoint the source’s location, only vaguely sense that something was wrong.
Without a second thought, Xia Wuyang quickly pulled one of the sweet, innocent-looking Palace Maids into his arms and lay down, pretending to be utterly exhausted and fast asleep.

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