The limited space meant everyone stayed in the backyard for their Cultivation.

Of course, with Zhong Ming’s status, he could have driven the others out, but he was not so overbearing or unreasonable.

Zhong Ming ignored the others and turned to Yi Yunya. "Are you practicing the Cultivation Technique of Longxi Peak, or one from your family?"

"The one from Longxi Peak. The Yi Family’s Cultivation Technique is a special Secret Technique that can only be used for supplementary practice."

Hearing this, Zhong Ming nodded. "I see. First, sit down and relax your Heart Spirit..."

Although Yi Yunya didn’t know why Zhong Ming was asking this of her, she had always trusted his words implicitly. She obediently knelt before him, her eyes filled with reverence, and quietly waited.

This sight made Yan Chen, Han Yu, Su Lingya, and the others shake their heads.

"How servile."

"As expected of someone from a merchant family. She has no problem lowering herself..."

After the Grand Tournament of the Seven Peaks, they all held great respect for Zhong Ming. But at the end of the day, they were the prodigies of the Seven Peaks, and they had their pride.

Thus, they were willing to acknowledge Zhong Ming as their head senior brother.

But to ask them to bow and scrape to the same extent as Yi Yunya—that, they could not do.

Su Lingya, one of their number, even sighed, completely abandoning any thought of trying to win his favor herself.

’I can’t stoop to Yi Yunya’s level. If I don’t lower myself like that, I won’t be able to compete with her.’

Her attitude was noticed by Ning Yunlu, the head senior sister of Cuixiang Mountain, who had accompanied them. The latter had come along because of Zhong Ming—his habit of consuming Elixir Pills like candy was so alarming that the Sect Leader, fearing for his health, had specifically brought a high-level Alchemist to help regulate his body.

Sensing Su Lingya’s hesitation, Ning Yunlu didn’t blame her. Instead, she patted her junior sister’s shoulder and sent a private voice transmission, "It’s okay. Don’t force yourself if you can’t do it. We are Cultivators, after all, not servants."

"Besides, lowering your standing so much isn’t a good thing. A servile Mental Realm like that is not conducive to breakthroughs..."

Clearly, she too was disdainful of Yi Yunya’s behavior.

...

The others in the courtyard all had their own thoughts, but Zhong Ming was naturally unaware of them, nor did he have the mind to pay them any attention.

At that moment, all his energy was focused on recalling the Dao Rhyme - Flow of Water, Qi Circulation, and the Dao Rhyme - Living Rhyme.

"Water is formless, and thus has ten thousand forms..."

"...Breath of Heaven and Earth Stream..."

"...Circle without forcing the gates; flow downstream with the current..."

As Zhong Ming recalled these things, the insights from his previous Cultivation flowed through his mind as gently as water.

As he savored these pieces of information, Zhong Ming focused his Thought, and a Flame ignited in his spirit.

VMMMM!

To capture the maximum amount of insight with his Jie Technique, Zhong Ming went all out, even merging his flesh and spirit with his Dao Seed and activating his Dragon Aspect.

His left eye turned crimson like a burning candle, his right a deep blue like a cold abyss. A vast and powerful might began to emanate from his body.

This powerful aura startled Yan Chen and the others. They exchanged a look, and everyone saw the shock and astonishment in the others’ eyes.

"He’s gotten stronger again."

"So fast... He’s truly worthy of the Sect Leader’s high esteem..."

Though they marveled inwardly, they still felt they could never act as Yi Yunya did.

Cultivators, after all, possessed a certain pride—prodigies even more so.

And amid their shock, their curiosity grew: what exactly was Zhong Ming planning to do by revealing such a terrifying aura?

Yan Chen, Xue Yao, and the others weren’t the only ones who were curious.

Law Enforcement Elder Wei Jingcheng, Sect Leader Zong Chengze, and Hong Jing—who had returned to discuss their collaboration—all raised their eyebrows and watched Zhong Ming, their gazes full of inquiry.

Then, they watched as Zhong Ming burned his Heart Soul and channeled his Thought, and a flickering point of light appeared on his fingertip.

The Flame resembled that of a candle; it wasn’t particularly majestic, but it possessed an inexplicable resonance.

Before anyone could get a clear look, Zhong Ming waved his arm in the next instant, his burning finger tracing an arc as it shot straight toward the spot between Yi Yunya’s eyebrows.

!!!

Zhong Ming’s action startled Yi Yunya, causing her pupils to shrink.

However, the thought that she had never done anything to wrong Zhong Ming stopped her from dodging. Instead, with a gentle and compliant smile, she allowed the burning fingertip to touch her forehead.

BOOM!

The instant his finger made contact, Yi Yunya felt as if her mind... had exploded.

BOOM!

Countless insights, an endless stream of information about Daoist Skills, surged into her mind all at once, like a bursting dam.

The information was too much for her consciousness to handle, and blood began to trickle from her seven orifices.

"Huh?"

"Is this a punishment?"

"Yi Yunya didn’t do anything, did she?"

Zhong Ming’s actions and Yi Yunya’s apparently injured state made Yan Chen, Zong Chengze, Wei Jingcheng, and the others all frown.

They didn’t understand why Zhong Ming would move against Yi Yunya, who had always served him so attentively.

Just as they were struggling to understand, something else happened that made their eyes go wide.

Yi Yunya, bleeding from her seven orifices, certainly looked to be in a wretched state. But very quickly, a resonance of flowing water began to radiate from her body.

It was the profundity of "water is formless, and thus has ten thousand forms," the clarity of "Breath of Heaven and Earth Stream," and the naturalness of "flowing with the current back to the source"...

The insights Zhong Ming had just been recalling were now flowing through Yi Yunya’s mind.

No, it wasn’t as simple as them just flowing through her.

A Dao Skill Rhyme could only be grasped intuitively, never conveyed with words, let alone shoved directly into someone’s head. If that were possible, many of the second-generation heirs in the Cultivation Realm wouldn’t have ended up as mediocrities.

But Zhong Ming was different. His Eternal Flame didn’t just cram all the knowledge into Yi Yunya’s mind.

The burning light had also ignited Yi Yunya’s Heart Soul, temporarily granting her the first two attributes of Reading: Mind Reading and Immersion.

Although the granted Mind Reading was weaker than Zhong Ming’s, it still made Yi Yunya’s Heart Spirit utterly Clear.

Immersion allowed her to experience things as if she were Zhong Ming at the moment of his breakthrough, giving her a perfect understanding of his thoughts. The combination of these two effects meant she was able to comprehend a fraction of the resonance Zhong Ming had transmitted.

Haaa...

The Dao Rhyme permeated her, and understanding dawned.

This flicker of comprehension of the Dao Rhyme caused strange phenomena to appear around her.

Wind surged and clouds gathered. Amid the swirling wind and rain, Yi Yunya’s body was lifted by an invisible current and began to rise slowly into the air.

Wind and rain swirled around her, Dao Rhyme coiled about her body, and the aura of a Cultivation Technique breakthrough erupted from within her!

This scene made Yan Chen, Wei Jingcheng, Su Lingya, Zong Chengze, Xue Yao, and even Hong Jing stare wide-eyed. Their breath caught in their throats, their faces masks of utter, incredulous shock.

"This is... imparting the Dao?!"