Yang Qing and the rest were surprised when Yang Fen suddenly went silent with a suspicious look on his face before he suddenly got up in a maddened hurry mumbling gibberish things about certain experiments and how he had a sudden epiphany that he needed to act on, and left for the valley.
"Has Grandpa finally lost it?" Yang Qing wondered out loud, as he saw the dust storm he left behind.
"He has always lost it.." said his father with his brother nodding along in agreement which drew a strange look from Yang Qing who as far as he saw it, his brother was slowly following their grandfather's footsteps. He felt it wasn't long now. He could see that crazy experimental fanaticism flame slowly growing in his brother's eyes. He wasn't sure if the person in question had noticed it yet.
He couldn't help but sympathize with his two nephews who were competing on who could throw the century iron stones the furthest as they glided on the pond's water surface, completely unaware of the tortured future that awaited them.
However, his sympathetic side was quickly short-lived and was replaced by his petty side.
"Sorry nephews, the Yang family tradition must live on. Brother, I leave it to you to educate them, leave nothing out.." he thought as he threw an encouraging look his brother's way who seemed confused by Yang Qing's strange eye glances he was throwing his way.
"First Grandpa and now him. Is there no normal person in this family.."? Yang Gen thought to himself and when his gaze fell on his father, he couldn't help but sigh to himself.
The night quickly passed with Yang Qing promising to stay over for at least a week at the behest of his mother who also seemed to encourage Yang Qing to invite Mao Yunru over, which Yang Qing pretended he didn't hear.
When morning came, like always, he used the blue tear-dropped stone to go to the auspicious grove wood tree's location.
Even without telling the saint grade tree anything, it could already tell Yang Qing was in a weakened state and that it had something to do with his physique.
Yang Qing went on to explain what had happened, after which the saint-grade tree produced a multicolored crystal pebble from one of the shallow mounds within its trunk which it gave to Yang Qing to use to cultivate with.
The crystal pebble would help keep his soul and mental sea revitalized and refreshed at all times as long as it was next to him as he cultivated.? His hours at the brook of clarity were also extended to six hours.
The two hours where he personally experienced the events of the Ice Emerald Sect with vivid details, remained, however, the period of coalescing that came after was extended from two hours to four.
Yang Qing was extremely grateful to the saint-grade auspicious grove wood tree, and without missing a beat he thickened his face to ask for more water from the brook of clarity, which the saint-grade tree agreed to but not without asking for something from Yang Qing in return, which was him cultivating next to the tree when he reached the domain realm, and he was to do it for two continuous weeks in a year.
Yang Qing could only guess at its reasons, that it had something to do with the Universal Resonant Light Sect's cultivation art, especially when he remembered the effects it had on the spirit beasts and plants at Deer Mountain Range.
However, now, he couldn't help but wonder if his peerless jade physique had also been a factor.
However, he pushed the matter to the back of his mind to concentrate on collecting the water from the brook of clarity.
After the session was done, he made his way to the Medical Valley where he checked on Ma Yuan and Ma Ling first before he went on to handle the cases for the day.
He noticed his healing abilities had been affected though he could still perform them easily and they were still powerful, he could feel the intrinsic differences to when he used them a few days prior, before his accident.
They worked fine, but they seemed to lack a sense of vibrancy and liveliness that was there before.
As he did his work, he took great care to note down every single difference like his grandfather asked. As he did, he was continuously surprised at how much his physique boosted his abilities and spells without him noticing, including even the ease with which he executed the techniques and spells contained in the Universal Duality cultivation art.
Even though his mastery was still there, he could detect minute differences in the time it took to execute them, his natural movements as he did so, and the resonance with the art.
No one other than him could detect those differences, though he felt the valley master and Ren Shu could.
Now when he used the various spells and techniques it was like he was a swimmer, a human swimmer who had learned swimming from birth training day and night, that his body's structure gradually developed and morphed to meet the demands of swimming. That was what he felt currently, without his physique's presence, however when he recalled how he felt using the same techniques and spells with the physique active, he felt he was like a fish in water.
No matter how good a human was at swimming, they could never be freer in the water as a fish, no matter how much they tirelessly trained and conditioned their body.
Presently that was how Yang Qing felt. The Yin Yang jade bones had somehow enabled him to use the various spells and techniques as though he was born with them from birth and now without the technique, it felt less natural and more like something he had tirelessly trained for to have it ingrained in his body.
With a reference point established, Yang Qing wholly committed himself to delve deeper into those techniques to try and close that gap as much as he could, and maybe when his physique came out of its dormancy, he would experience a qualitative change in the use of his techniques.
His schedule over the next few days remained unchanged, as he left his parent's home to the auspicious grove and then to the Medical Valley before he finally went home.
A deviation only appeared on the fourth day, which was the day Peng Zhen would have his first match for his life and death sentence.
Yang Qing admired his character, so he wanted to be there when he had his first match, and all his other matches if possible.
So after a session with the auspicious grove wood tree, instead of heading to the Medical Valley like always, he made his way to Egg Peak, which was the name of the region where the first years of the Institute were trained.