Fu Chen’an’s expression darkened, and he nodded. "Calling it a living hell is a soft remark."

"The men have been slaughtered, the women reduced to slaves and prostitutes, while the elderly and children are treated as reserve food supplies. Anyone who resisted has already been killed."

After a brief silence, he sighed heavily. "I’m afraid that even if we reclaim the city, rebuilding it won’t be easy."

Xiao Wei’s gaze darkened after hearing those words.

Before this, everyone believed that no matter how cruel the barbarians were, they would at least treat civilians as human beings. Unexpectedly, the barbarians possessed no morality whatsoever.

They were worse than beasts.

After their brief conversation, Xiao Wei still had patrol duty to complete and soon left the tent.

Once he was alone, Fu Chen’an finally took out the Jin Gu and Lei Jing cultivation manuals from his spatial bag. After reading the introductions carefully, he gained a rough understanding of both manuals.

The Jin Gu cultivation manual focused on body tempering. It strengthened not only the cultivator’s bones, joints, flesh, and skin but also guided spiritual energy throughout the body to continuously refine the physique.

As for the Lei Jing cultivation manual, it specializes in using spiritual energy to clear the meridians, temper the body further, and strengthen the cultivator’s soul.

If he could successfully cultivate both manuals, even Fu Chen’an could not imagine how powerful he would eventually become.

However, he understood that the body was the foundation for all cultivation. Only with a strong physique could one withstand the increasing amount of spiritual energy gathered within the body.

Otherwise, no matter how much spiritual energy a cultivator absorbed, their body would eventually collapse or even explode from the strain.

With this understanding, Fu Chen’an placed the Lei Jing cultivation manual back into his spatial bag and focused solely on the Jin Gu manual for now.

He read the first Chapter repeatedly before finally sitting cross-legged on the bed. Closing his eyes, he silently recited the cultivation method within his mind.

Perhaps it was because the manual perfectly matched his spiritual roots and constitution, or perhaps it was due to the immortal bone the System mentioned before, but Fu Chen’an could sense the spiritual energy within the air faster than Yao Zhi.

The moment he calmed his breathing, he could already faintly sense tiny strands of energy floating around him.

Unlike Yao Zhi, who relied heavily on comprehension and understanding the deeper concepts of cultivation, Fu Chen’an followed the more conventional path practiced by most cultivators.

He guided the spiritual energy according to the circulation route described in the manual, allowing it to flow slowly through his body before tempering his flesh, bones, and meridians step by step.

As the spiritual energy entered his body, a faint tingling sensation spread through his limbs. It felt similar to countless tiny needles piercing his muscles and bones repeatedly.

Although the pain was mild, Fu Chen’an did not dare relax in the slightest. He maintained full focus and continued circulating the spiritual energy carefully according to the manual’s instructions.

Time passed silently inside the tent.

Outside, the night patrol continued as usual, and no one noticed that inside the ordinary military tent, someone had already stepped onto the path of immortality.

Meanwhile, in Yang Village, when the sun rose over the eastern horizon, Yao Zhi had just finished practicing the breathing technique from the Yunfeng Sword manual. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

She took out the Hongyun sword from her system storage and gently caressed the scabbard.

Unlike the completely black blade given to her husband, the Hongyun sword was a thin longsword. Its scabbard was a mixture of red, gold, and black. The material looked ancient and mysterious, unlike anything that existed in this world.

The moment she slowly unsheathed the sword, a sharp and piercing phoenix cry suddenly echoed within her mind. The sound seemed to strike directly at her soul, causing her head to spin for a brief moment.

After recovering, Yao Zhi lowered her gaze and carefully examined the sword.

The blade itself was forged from silver-colored metal, but near the base of the blade was a vivid red phoenix pattern.

Besides that, countless intricate engravings covered the surface of the sword.

At first glance, it looked like one complete formation, but upon closer inspection, she realized that it actually contained countless smaller formations intertwined together.

One of those formations was the Qi Gathering formation she had previously seen within the Qimen Dunjia records. At this moment, a thought flashed through her mind.

Perhaps the Hongyun sword had already developed its own consciousness, and the phoenix cry she heard earlier belonged to the sword spirit itself.

Although she felt excited by this discovery, Yao Zhi quickly forced herself to calm down.

She had only just stepped onto the cultivation path. Trying to tame or communicate with a sword spirit was still far beyond her current abilities. Right now, her priority was to learn the sword techniques first.

After making up her mind, she recalled the sword movements recorded in the second Chapter of the cultivation manual. Her movements were extremely slow as she followed the illustrations step by step.

Not only did she need to imitate the sword forms precisely, but she also had to circulate spiritual energy through her meridians according to the manual’s instructions in order to unleash the true power behind the techniques.

Originally, she thought it would not be too difficult. Unexpectedly, after actually practicing the sword techniques, she realized how terrifyingly hard they were.

There were a total of 27 sword forms recorded within the second Chapter.

Yet after barely practicing the 3rd form, her entire body was already drenched in sweat. When she attempted the 4th form, intense pain instantly spread through her bones, joints, and meridians.

Left without any other choice, she could only stop practicing temporarily.

Looking up at the sky, she was startled to discover that the sun had already risen three poles high. Unknowingly, she had spent nearly 3 hours just practicing 3 sword forms.