With his level of knowledge, even techniques from the myriad heavens and worlds held nothing he couldn't comprehend. A mundane-world foundational technique like this was as simple to him as a child's primer—on the level of the *Three Character Classic* or the *Hundred Family Surnames*.
One pass through, and every detail of the technique—its strengths, its weaknesses—stood out with perfect clarity.
What made Jiang Chen equal parts exasperated and amused was that, according to his memories, the previous Jiang Chen had only practiced this *Purple Qi Comes from the East* technique six times in two and a half years.
And of those six times, two sessions had been abandoned within ten minutes because a few of his buddies had dragged him out to goof off.
The exasperating part was that a cultivator could be this lazy—he was truly one of a kind.
The amusing part was that the less the previous Jiang Chen had practiced, the better it was for the current one. That meant he'd need less time correcting the errors accumulated from prior training. A technique practiced only six times, in fits and starts at that—practically the same as starting from zero.
Cultivating a foundational technique of this level required no effort of comprehension on Jiang Chen's part. Subtleties that others could never have perceived, he spotted with ease. He could even improve upon profundities that the technique itself didn't possess—and enhance them tenfold, a hundredfold.
That said, Jiang Chen didn't bother overexerting his mind. A beginner's technique simply wasn't worth that much of his time.
Half an hour later, the so-called nation-protecting technique's foundational portion was thoroughly digested.
Once it was understood, practice became simple.
The first run-through was slightly rough. By the second, he'd achieved fluent mastery.
By the third, it could be called flawless.
The fourth run, the fifth…
By the time Jiang Chen performed it a sixth time, even the ancestor of the Eastern Royal Clan who had originally created this technique would have had his jaw drop—and might even have turned around and bowed to Jiang Chen as his master.
Because Jiang Chen had already derived dozens of variations on this foundation, and that was while deliberately restraining himself. If he hadn't been unwilling to expend the mental effort, generating hundreds of variations would have been effortless.
After a few rounds, Jiang Chen lost interest and saw no reason to continue. Spending too much time drilling a basic technique was nothing short of murder against his prime years.
He decided to look into the third assessment instead.
The *Martial Arts Compendium*, the *Spiritual Medicine Compendium*, the *Statecraft Compendium*, the *Military Strategy Compendium*.
The third assessment roughly covered these subjects—mostly rote memorization, though there was some room for creative interpretation.
The open-ended portion could earn a passing score even without answering at all. It was merely the dividing line between talent and mediocrity.
Jiang Chen glanced through it casually. It was all crude, elementary material. With his breadth of knowledge and experience, it was like an adult solving toddler-level problems—simple beyond simple.
"Fine. The Qianlong Examination is a trivial matter—no need to waste too much time on it. What I need right now is a technique suited to this body. Nothing too extraordinary, but it must have limitless potential for growth."
Jiang Chen's memory vault held techniques from the myriad heavens and worlds—practically countless in number. But finding the right one was far from easy.
First, a technique that was too heaven-defying simply couldn't be cultivated with this body's aptitude and current conditions. It would be like a man accustomed to plain fare suddenly gorging himself on exotic delicacies—his stomach wouldn't handle it.
On the other hand, the technique couldn't be too weak either. If the starting point was too low, its future potential would be limited.
Jiang Chen had no wish for his future cultivation path to become unnecessarily rugged due to a poor foundation at the start.
But this couldn't be rushed. At this stage, he still hadn't fully familiarized himself with his body, so naturally he couldn't craft a tailor-made technique for his current condition.
In any case, the existing *Purple Qi Comes from the East*, after his improvements, would serve well enough for the time being.
The immediate priority was dealing with Eastern Lu.
On the third day, Jiang Chen didn't leave the manor. Instead, he ensconced himself in the Marquis's estate library. Since arriving in this world, he knew almost nothing about it. His past-life memories held a great deal of debauchery and foolishness but precious little of real value.
Jiang Chen refused to stumble through his days in ignorance. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you need never fear a hundred battles.
This was a mundane plane, and he was the reincarnation of the Heavenly Emperor's son—his past-life memories could only support him in theory. In actual cultivation, he had to rely on this world's body.
Theory could spare him many detours and let him grow faster than others, but it couldn't make him an unrivaled master overnight. If he grew complacent and arrogant simply because of his past-life memories, he might end up dead without even knowing how it happened.
After all, his combat power was still at the very bottom tier of this world. There were far, far too many people who could crush him with a single finger.
A full day of reading deepened Jiang Chen's understanding of this world considerably and left him feeling quite fulfilled. After nightfall, he entered the cultivation chamber and trained diligently.
After a night of cultivation, his four-meridian True Qi was further consolidated. The four opened and unlocked meridians, tempered repeatedly through his efforts, had also become noticeably more robust.
"At this pace, five or six more days should see my meridian strength reach the threshold needed to break through to the fifth major acupoint."
Cultivating within the True Qi Realm, every step upward came with greater difficulty. Each newly opened meridian was several times harder than the last. If the earlier foundation wasn't solid and one rashly attempted to open new meridians, the channels could collide—at best, causing meridian damage and permanently stunting further progress; at worst, meridian rupture and immediate death.