Life had settled again. Not into comfort
but into routine. The kind of quiet that most men would welcome but one that slowly began to suffocate someone like Luo He.
The Jin estate moved with steady rhythm. Mornings were filled with training. Afternoons with study. Evenings with strategy, conversation, and the occasional gathering. Peace. Order.
Predictability.
Luo He stood by the courtyard railing one evening, watching the fading light stretch across the stone tiles. Servants moved in silence. Guards rotated positions with practiced discipline. Everything worked.
And that was the problem.
"This is boring," he muttered under his breath. Not loudly. Not carelessly. Just truth. He hadn't stopped improving.
If anything this quiet period had sharpened him in different ways.
His medical research had deepened. Scrolls filled with notes, formulas, refinements. He experimented, adjusted, tested. What once were ideas were slowly becoming systems. Reliable.
Repeatable.
Powerful in a different sense. And then there was chess. At first, it had been a distraction. Then it became a challenge.
Now. It was another battlefield. Luo He sat across a low wooden table. A chessboard laid perfectly between him and his opponent. Xu Mun.
The only one in the entire household who could actually make him think. The pieces moved with quiet precision.
Click. Slide. Pause.
"You're hesitating," Xu Mun said calmly, eyes still on the board. Luo He smirked slightly. "I'm not hesitating," he replied. "I'm deciding how much effort you deserve."
Xu Mun didn't react but a faint shift in his gaze showed he understood the provocation. Another move. Sharp.
Calculated. Luo He leaned back slightly, studying the board. His internal system flickered faintly in his mind Chess Skill: 1378 points So close. Yet not enough.
"Still stuck," he murmured. His early rise had been rapid. Almost unnatural. But now. Every point felt like a wall. Progress slowed. Refined. Demanding. And worst of all there was no one else worth playing.
He had tried. The men of this family were as dull as night so Luo He didn't even bother challenging them. They already saw it as a waste of time.
Jin Su had sat across from him first. Three moves in, she frowned. Five moves in, she leaned forward. Ten moves in she nearly flipped the board. "This is a waste of time," she snapped. Luo He had only sighed.
Jin Mulan tried next. She lasted longer. Not because she was better but because she was stubborn. She refused to lose quickly. Which only made her losses slower not fewer.
Even that had its limits. "You're smiling," she accused once, narrowing her eyes. "I always smile," he replied. "That one's annoying." she said in a ragge. "That's because you're losing." Luo He answered calmly. She nearly stabbed the board with a piece.
The only surprise Su Kim. She sat differently. Played differently. Not like a warrior. Not like a noble. But like someone who observed patterns rather than followed them.
"You think in straight lines," she told him once, moving a piece in a way no one else had. Luo He raised a brow. "And you don't?" "I think in outcomes." That game had lasted longer than expected. Not enough to win. But enough to interest him.
Still even that faded. Only Xu Mun remained a true opponent. And even that began to grow repetitive. "You're improving," Xu Mun said after another match ended in Luo He's narrow victory.
"I should be," Luo He replied. "You're the only one not wasting my time." Xu Mun allowed a faint smile. "That's a compliment, I assume." Xu Mun laughed. "Don't get used to it." Luo He whispered.
And just like that even chess lost its edge. That night, Luo He lay back, staring at the ceiling. Quiet. Still. Empty.
"I miss war," he said openly. Not regretfully. Not emotionally. Just a fact.
War was where everything mattered.
Where decisions had weight. Where failure meant loss. Where success meant dominance. Where he thrived.
Here everything was already his. There was nothing to take. Nothing to break.
Nothing to outplay.
"So I'll find something," he decided.
His eyes shifted slightly. And then a name surfaced. The Emperor. A slow smile formed. "If anyone has problems the emperor of the country is at the very top spot he thought."
The next day, he wrote a letter. Simple.
Direct. To Lin Su. Is the Emperor facing difficulties? The reply came faster than expected. Yes. But unclear. Something had changed. A new favorite concubine.
Court politics shifting. Information restricted. Luo He read it once. Then again. Then smiled. "That does sound fun."
The next morning training resumed. The forest clearing. Broken trunks. Scorched earth. The remains of previous effort still visible. Jin Mulan stood ready, spear in hand. Fei stood beside her, fists wrapped, posture firm.
Luo He stood before them, arms crossed. Unimpressed. "As expected," he said flatly. "Still weak." Jin Mulan narrowed her eyes. Fei said nothing. "Show me," Luo He continued.
Jin Mulan moved first. Her spear cut through the air clean, controlled. Then
Fire. Not wild like before. Not unstable.
It flowed along the weapon, wrapping the sphere tip in heat. She struck. A tree cracked splintered and partially burned through.
Not destroyed. But damaged. Controlled damage. Luo He watched silently. "Better," he admitted. Jin Mulan exhaled slightly but didn't relax. Fei stepped forward next. His punches came faster now. Sharper. More structured. Not just brute force anymore. One strike two
then three. The tree shook with each impact. Chunks of bark shattered away.
Still not enough. But Improvement.
Luo He nodded slightly. Then stepped forward. "Move." They did. He raised his hands. "This," he said calmly, "is what you're trying to reach." His stance shifted. Different from before. Compact.
Focused. He moved a punch. Simple.
Direct. The air cracked. The tree didn't just break. It folded inward then exploded outward from the impact point. Silence followed. Fei's eyes widened. Jin Mulan's grip tightened.
"That," Luo He said, lowering his hand, "is boxing." Fei leaned forward slightly.
"It's not just strength." "No," Luo He replied. "It's structure." He turned to him.
"Your body is already strong. Your bloodline gives you advantage."
A pause.
"But you waste it." Fei clenched his fists.
"I'll fix that," he said. "You will," Luo He replied. "Or you'll fall behind." Then Luo He turned just slightly toward Jin Mulan.
Casually. Almost as if it didn't matter.
"After a few hours of training," he said, "he's already where you were before awakening your element." Silence.
Jin Mulan's eyes sharpened instantly.
Fei froze. Luo He continued calmly. "We were lucky," he said. "A golden bloodline user as a disciple…" A faint smile. "That's rare." Jin Mulan stepped forward slightly.
"Say that again." Luo He looked at her.
Unbothered.
"I said," he repeated, "he's catching up."
A pause. Then "Fast." The air shifted.
Not with power. With intent. Jin Mulan spun her spear once flames flickering along its edge. "Good," she said quietly.
Luo He raised a brow. "Very good." Because now she wasn't training to improve. She was training to surpasses. And Luo He did so purposely.
Luo He did not remain idle not even in peace. While Jin Mulan and Fei trained under his watch, he stepped slightly aside, rolling his shoulders once before begining again. Punch after punch cut through the air. Clean. Direct. Repeated.
There was no wasted motion. Each strike carried intention.
Each movement refined itself. The air gave soft, dull sounds with every impact, as if resisting him less and less the more he practiced. To an outsider, it looked simple almost pointless. But Luo He knew better. With every punch, he could feel it. A small shift. A gain. A point.
Again. And again. And again.
Sweat gathered slowly along his brow, but his breathing remained steady, controlled. His eyes sharpened slightly as the rhythm deepened. "Eight thousand" he muttered under his breath.
Not a complaint. A calculation. "If I maintain this pace I'll reach it soon."
He didn't stop. Because he understood something his disciples were only beginning to grasp. Repetition was power. Not flashy techniques. Not sudden breakthroughs. But the slow, relentless sharpening of something simple until it became unstoppable.
Behind him, Fei struggled through his strikes, his fists lacking precision, his stance still unstable. Jin Mulan moved with far more control now, her spear cutting arcs through the air with increasing confidence but even she paused briefly to glance at Luo He.