Facing the Dispersed Master's killing moves, Marco had lost the will to fight. He hastily retreated.

"From today, the Low Hou Sword is no more in the Tera Dynasty."

His opponent's voice floated over, sounding either smug or regretful.

Marco's heart ached as he recalled the past. A sense of utter resolve welled up within him.

If the worst came, he could give up seeking the Way. Let it be, let it be - he would remain a freelance expert for life, unrivaled in the martial world!

On the brink of despair, Marco severed his obsession and cast aside seven years of bitter cultivation.

Billowing true qi surged out from his dantian's qi origin, instantly flooding Marco's mysterious orifices and welling up an aura mighty as mountains.

"Not good!"

The Dispersed Master's heart lurched. How could he not see Marco was breaking into the freelance realm? Quickening his steps, his long whip thrashed like a snake dance, tracing hundreds of afterimages in the air.

"Show mercy!"

"Dispersed Master, stop!"

Two shouts rang out from beyond East Pass Street, shaking the avenue until ice and snow swirled up, icicles on both eaves snapping off in unison to spear the snow, revealing the unfathomable mastery of the arrivals.

The Dispersed Master's thick brows angled up, a chill flashing through his eyes. But far from stopping, his steps grew even faster.

There was an unwritten rule in the Tera martial world that freelance experts must not kill each other. Any half-step master breaking into the freelance realm could not be attacked. Without thinking, the Dispersed Master knew who the arrivals were. Aside from him, two other freelance masters guarded the capital.

Yet at that moment, something completely unexpected happened.

Marco's retreating figure suddenly convulsed, his complexion going pale as his whole body seemed to instantly age ten years. The light in his eyes peeled away inch by inch. Then with a cough he spewed a mouthful of black blood, staggering as if drunk.

The sudden change not only startled the Dispersed Master but left the two rushing freelance masters frozen in their tracks.

Moments ago, Marco's aura had signaled he fully possessed the might to break through. Given that seven years ago he was already evenly matched with a freelance master and even won, the three masters including the Dispersed Master had thought Marco's breakthrough would be easy. They never expected this outcome.

"Hahaha, I knew it, I knew it!" The Dispersed Master stroked his beard and laughed loudly. "I'd heard you were refused by every immortal sect in your path seeking the Way. This noble one thought the sects' criteria for accepting disciples had become impossibly high. Turns out, you're no longer the Low Hou Sword of the past."

With another long peal of laughter, the Dispersed Master vanished into a blaze, disappearing amidst the snow.

A lifetime halted here...if this continues, even my true qi will be hard to retain...forcing a breakthrough will just dissipate your true qi...

Shuro's words echoed in Marco's ears, buzzing like an iron mallet pounding his heart. Just before he was about to breakthrough, the true qi roiling in his mysterious orifices had crumbled apart in an instant. Not only was all vital energy sapped from his body, but his five viscera and six bowels were left in collapse, nearly extinguished.

"Every word came true. Master Shu, what manner of sage are you?" Marco mumbled as he stood numbly amidst the snow.

His expression was complex, tinged with self-mockery, marvel, and some stubborn denial.

True qi congelation, primordial essence generation - the immutable truth through the ages!

Even as nothing remained, to the last Marco's pride had refused to believe Shuro's words. He'd decisively shattered the qi elixir with no hesitation, determined to prove Master Shu wrong.

Yet everything had played out just as Shuro foretold. Even now, Marco could scarcely believe it. Today, seven years of bitter cultivation had somehow inexplicably succeeded. Amidst joy, Marco couldn't help feeling regret.

Looking back, Shuro's casual tone when speaking of shattering the elixir, neither cold nor zealous yet fully confident, embodied the awe-inspiring poise of an ancestral master.

One who could make the wily Judge Peng willingly serve him, surely that youth was no ordinary person.

To think I doubted such a fleeting sage and missed the chance to thank him!

Marco was anxious and concerned.

"Master Shu?"

The York Old Lady racked her brains but couldn't think of anyone in the capital or even the whole Tera nation by that name. She grew more certain this was Marco's excuse.

"This old one turns a hundred this coming month, on the same day next month. If Sir Low Hou is free, please come for a little gathering at my estate." The York Old Lady changed the subject.

The Tera freelance masters had always been distant from Sir Low Hou for the sake of the Tera king. Now that Sir Low Hou was about to embark on the immortal path, with his talent the future was limitless. Naturally she didn't want to miss this chance to build ties with Marco for her descendants' fortune and prosperity.

"The Third Young Master of York and my worthless boy have both drawn the attention of immortal sects and may barely gain some karmic ties. Though their talent can't compare with Sir Low Hou's, they are still of our great Tera lineage. I hope Sir Low Hou looks after them in the future." The man in yellow robes chuckled.

He wasn't simply being polite. Though the prodigies on the Unpolished Jade Ranking were extolled, next to Marco, the undisputed legend of Tera who'd shocked half the nation at seventeen by breaking into the half-step freelance realm, what were they?

Upon enlightenment, much of Marco's former temper dissolved, making him see worldly matters more clearly.

He cupped his hands in a bow to the York Old Lady. "Rest assured, Lady York, I will come calling in a month's time."

The frigid winter wind howled like a wild beast through Caelius Capital.

Shuro slipped along the snow as a coil of water, gliding like a snake.

Bundled in thick quilted jackets, old women sat a whole morning in the snowbound streets, sunning themselves while snacking on chickpeas in vinegar and chatting away. Merchants and peddlers hurried about their business. Soon teahouses, taverns, apothecaries, tailor shops, pawnshops, antique stores, theaters, leatherworkers, scribes...all trades successively opened for the day, and the previously deserted West Main Street grew lively.

Watching Caelius Capital at dawn, Shuro felt both intimacy and strangeness. Though gliding low along the ground, he somehow had the fleeting sense of gazing down upon the entire city from the nine heavens, the bustling multitudes following an indescribable order, maintaining the workings of the whole world, even heaven and earth. While he was the destroyer of all order - one snap to shatter propriety, one careless song to ruin cities and nations.

Soon Shuro realized this feeling didn't belong to himself, but came from that once aloof and remote demon lord of yore, His Highness Jiu Chen.

The pleasure in killing Guan Pang and Leonard, the nonchalance in sneaking through Caelius Capital, the latent abandon hidden deep in a youth's heart had been stimulated after a single night, blending together with that hint of Jiu Chen's devilry, silently growing within Shuro's psyche.

Not far ahead was the secondary manor of the Luo family, with its twin bronze lion statues.

Just then Shuro caught a strange sound rising from his dantian, as if something was about to be born within his body.

"True qi?"

Shuro's mind shook. Then he suddenly felt every single pore on his body open up, an incomparable comfort suffusing him.

He'd expected it would take another three or four days to generate true qi. He never thought that after just one night, he could sense the signs of the true qi generation described in Jiu Chen's memories.

Elixirism and Foundation Establishment alike relied on true qi.

True qi was the primordial vapor formed from dual cultivating essence and life. Brimful of vitality, it linked the body's inner cosmos and mysterious orifices, holding infinite potential.

Not everyone had the talent and gift to conceal true qi. Of ten thousand children, only two or three truly had the gift. These talents were called prodigies by the secular world, seedlings of immortality by southern cultivation circles, and once tested, were fought over and accepted into immortal sects and cultivation sects.

Meanwhile, elixirs took a different path. First consolidating qi into elixir beads, constantly amassing the elixir with postnatal qi until quantity transformed to quality, finally generating true qi. This process could be shorter or longer, depending on one's talent. With better talent, from Minor Dan to Major Dan to Lesser Empty Spirit producing true qi might only take ten or twenty years. For poorer talent it may be impossible in a lifetime, halted at Major Dan.