"Because your craving for cultivation resources gave you away. Before you fled the Supreme Manor, you didn't steal anything else — only Mystic Beads. And you stole an enormous amount."
"Within days of the theft, your cultivation level shot up. That's completely unnatural."
"So if I'm not mistaken, your cultivation method devours massive amounts of resources. Which means I know — you don't have a Heaven-Gifted Divine Body. The special power you wield is most likely a bloodline. A very powerful bloodline," Zi Ling said.
"A bloodline?" At those words, Chu Feng was stunned. He had never once considered that the Divine Thunder inside him might actually be a bloodline.
After all, it had only invaded his body when he was ten years old. So Chu Feng had always assumed he was simply Heaven-Gifted, just like anyone else.
"That's right. In this world, besides those with Heaven-Gifted Divine Bodies who possess special divine power, there are also people who carry inherited bloodlines and wield extraordinary strength."
"Take the Jiang Dynasty, for example. They possess a special inherited bloodline, which is why their clansmen need vast amounts of cultivation resources to advance."
"However, you're different from them," Zi Ling said.
"Different? How?" Chu Feng asked.
"If I'm not mistaken, you've already refined all one million-plus Mystic Beads. But after consuming that many, you only broke through from Xuan Wu Third Stage to Xuan Wu Sixth Stage. The resources you need are terrifying — far beyond anything even the Jiang Dynasty's clansmen could match."
"Moreover, you advanced through multiple stages in succession. That tells me two things."
"First, your resource requirements are astronomically high. Second, your breakthroughs are unrestricted — at least at the minor stages. As long as you have enough resources, you can advance effortlessly."
"Am I right?" Zi Ling asked.
"How… how do you know all this?" Chu Feng's brows furrowed deeply. He never expected this little girl to have seen through him so thoroughly — to understand not only his cultivation method but the rules governing his breakthroughs.
"Really? Was I right about everything?" Zi Ling suddenly burst with excitement, turning the question back on Chu Feng.
"You little brat — you were testing me?" Chu Feng caught on to her intent and couldn't help feeling irritated.
"Actually, I was just guessing. After our fight at the White Tiger Manor, I went home and asked my grandfather — besides the Heaven-Gifted, what kind of people could wield such powerful special abilities?"
"My grandfather said there were two types. One: people born with inherited bloodlines. Two: people who cultivate a Forbidden Mystic Art."
"A Forbidden Mystic Art is a cultivation method that imitates the Heaven-Gifted Divine Body. Through this art, practitioners can obtain special power comparable to a Heaven-Gifted body — and they only need to master the art itself, without requiring vast cultivation resources."
"However, this path comes with enormous danger. Practitioners often suffer torment from the Mystic Art during specific cultivation periods — a phenomenon called Heavenly Punishment."
"Heavenly Punishment strikes at regular intervals. If they can endure it, they keep going. If they can't, they die. And you clearly don't suffer from anything like that."