Yijin Jing and Nine Yang Divine Skill
Xia Yu spent the entire night on the streets of Brooklyn, dealing with car thefts, convenience store robberies, and even men harassing girls. He completed ten minor crime-fighting tasks, and as many as six involved armed criminals. This time, though, Xia Yu gave them no chance. He changed outfits at a distance and went straight in with Lingbo Weibu. More often than not, they were unconscious on the ground before they could react.
He glanced at his points: 160. Then he took stock of himself. He had a special forces soldier's physical fitness and mastery of various skills, plus Lingbo Weibu. He didn't need the cheap stuff and couldn't afford the expensive stuff. He might as well keep his head down, level up, and farm equipment.
Having transmigrated that day and spent most of the night working, Xia Yu slept until the sun was high in the sky. He went downstairs for a not particularly authentic spicy hot pot as a treat, then dutifully returned to play the role of a veteran traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. He had met Nick Fury on his first day here; who knew how many other plot characters he might encounter? The system had given him a good starting position, and he couldn't waste it.
He received two appointment calls that afternoon. Since he had hardly any patients anyway, he scheduled them for that same day. No wonder his grandfather in this world had been able to leave him a whole building in Manhattan, where every inch of land cost a fortune. The patients were all Wall Street elites. At first, they were a little skeptical of Xia Yu's skills, but after trying his treatments, they couldn't stop praising him. After all, anything produced by the system had to be top-notch!
The funny thing was, one of the two blond, blue-eyed foreigners had come for cupping, and the other for gua sha. Xia Yu couldn't help feeling like he was back in China giving massages at a blind massage parlor. Yet the system unexpectedly rewarded him with five points for each patient, giving Xia Yu the urge to go out and promote his services. Even offering cheaper treatments would do. Money wasn't important; he still had several million dollars his grandfather had left him sitting in his account, not to mention a three-story building. Xia Yu just wanted to earn more points and grow stronger sooner, but after thinking it over, he gave up on the idea because it would take too much time.
Now it seemed that every step the system had arranged was meant to help Xia Yu grow gradually, including the identity and client base his grandfather had left him. He didn't want to miss out on those for the sake of a few points. Treating Nick Fury had even earned him Lingbo Weibu, something he now depended on to stay alive.
With Xia Yu's change in mindset, he completed the system's task in just over ten days. Each assignment involved little more than petty thieves or street thugs, and he never once encountered a major crime.
Xia Yu figured either he lacked the kind of protagonist's luck that made trouble break out wherever he went, or the system was doing it deliberately to train him in stages, since it was the system that marked every crime's location. Xia Yu asked Tmall about it, but Tmall wouldn't say a thing. With no other choice, Xia Yu could only speed up his task progress to grow stronger as quickly as possible.
Fighting crime a hundred times in just over ten days was hard work, even with New York's high crime rate. As a result, Xia Yu could now stay perfectly calm when facing one or two guns. He had also become so familiar with Brooklyn that he had a map of it in his head. There wasn't a street or alley he hadn't visited.
After receiving the notification that his task was complete, Xia Yu got home before midnight that day. He now had 4,060 points. The 3,000-point reward for completing the task made him very happy. He could finally get another powerful martial art, but what he looked forward to most was still the prize draw. Although every prize was the same, at least he was guaranteed to win, right?
With considerable annoyance, Xia Yu spun the prize wheel, whose eight slots all said Yijin Jing, and numbly clicked the stop button. While Tmall offered toneless congratulations on his grand prize in words brimming with delight, he loaded and learned the Yijin Jing.
The system's introduction to the Yijin Jing read:
A secret supreme art of the Shaolin Temple, capable of cleansing the marrow and tempering the meridians, improving martial arts aptitude, refining the muscles, bones, and body, and surpassing human limits.
It cleansed the bone marrow, improved blood production, strengthened the bones and fascia, and strengthened and widened the meridians. In essence, the Yijin Jing was not a martial art, but a cultivation method that enabled life to evolve. It consisted of twelve diagrams, beginning with physical training and gradually transforming the body from the outside in, strengthening the flesh!
This time, unlike with Lingbo Weibu, loading the Yijin Jing was excruciating. Completely unprepared, Xia Yu was happily waiting for it to finish when a tearing pain suddenly swept through the muscles all over his body, followed by his bones and fascia, his meridians, and his bone marrow!
Pain! Pain that went straight to the bone, so intense that Xia Yu repeatedly slammed his head against the floor!
Itching! An itch that seemed to come from the depths of his soul, one he could neither scratch nor reach. Xia Yu gritted his teeth so hard he felt he might crush them. At last, it stopped.
Xia Yu was like a rag doll that had been stomped countless times in a muddy puddle. A great deal of impurities and bloody fluid had been expelled from his body along with his sweat, mixing with the clothes he had inadvertently torn to shreds. A very, very long time passed before Xia Yu managed to spit out a feeble curse.
"Tmall, give me an explanation. Why was this time different from last time?" Even Xia Yu's voice in his head sounded weak.
"Master, cultivating the Yijin Jing takes more than ten years at the fastest, and several decades at the slowest. Now that decades of changes inside and outside your body have been compressed into five minutes, of course it was a little painful."
"You call that a little painful? Could you please warn me first next time?"
"Certainly, Master. But I suggest you wash yourself first. Although I don't have a nose, I don't think you smell much better than excrement."
"Screw off!!! I! Don't! Fucking! Need! You! To! Tell! Me!"
Once he had recovered, Xia Yu took a shower. He felt like he had nearly scrubbed his skin off and only felt a tiny bit better after lathering himself with soap and body wash countless times.
How could he describe the feeling of cultivating the Yijin Jing? It was like suddenly recovering from a terrible cold. Everything was clearer, and not just his five senses. His entire physical condition was completely different, as if gravity had lessened. In any case, his whole body felt indescribably light.
After cleaning everything up, Xia Yu happily sat down on the couch, lit a cigarette, and opened the points store. He still had several thousand points to spend. The store was such a mess and had so many things in it that his eyes glazed over. Although he didn't want to listen to the synthesized voice, he had no choice but to ask the system for help!
"Tmall, what do you think I should do with the points I have now? Doesn't the store sell divine weapons or precious armor or anything?" Xia Yu asked.
"Certainly, Master!" Tmall answered word by word. "You have now practiced the Yijin Jing and Lingbo Weibu. Your foundation is solid, and you have a footwork technique. Your best choice now would be a better internal cultivation technique. As for moves, your current mastery of combat techniques is already sufficient. Weapons will become available later."
"There's too much stuff here. Recommend one for me!" Xia Yu said.
"Nine Yang Divine Skill!"
In the novel, this one divine skill had been split into three parts, and those had gone on to give rise to the Emei and Wudang sects. That showed just how formidable this internal cultivation technique was. The original work described the Nine Yang Divine Skill like this:
Once the divine skill was mastered, internal energy would be generated at an astonishing rate and would be inexhaustible. Even ordinary punches and kicks could deliver tremendous destructive power. Its defensive power was unmatched, and it automatically protected the body by reflecting external attacks. Its practitioner's qinggong and movement techniques surpassed those of every master of intricate qinggong in the world. It was also a supreme healing art, granting immunity to all poisons and specifically countering all cold and yin internal energy. The Nine Yang Divine Skill encompassed the fundamental principles of martial arts; once mastered, all martial arts under heaven could be picked up and used with ease.
Apart from lacking moves, it was practically an all-purpose internal cultivation technique. It restored mana and health incredibly fast, boosted basic attack power, and increased agility and defense. Sure enough, everything the system arranged for Xia Yu step by step was the best. It was just a little expensive at 4,000 points. After redeeming it, Xia Yu had only 60 points left, back to square one overnight.
All the meridians throughout Xia Yu's body were now open, so loading the Nine Yang Divine Skill took no effort. It soon began circulating automatically inside him. Xia Yu sat in meditation, circulated his energy, and tried looking inward. Only then did he understand why the Nine Yang Divine Skill was so versatile. Ordinary internal cultivation techniques generated internal energy and stored it in the dantian. When needed, the energy traveled through the meridians, enhancing the functions of whichever part it reached, such as eyesight, qinggong, or strength in the hands.
With the Nine Yang Divine Skill, not only was there internal energy in the dantian, but there was also energy in all the major acupoints throughout the body, and it circulated automatically. It was like having one large warehouse and small warehouses all over the body, with production and circulation running constantly. How could it not be formidable?
The system told Xia Yu that the Nine Yang Divine Skill could circulate on its own and that it would help him maximize the cultivation he gained each day. This was also one of the system's support functions. Xia Yu no longer needed to make a special effort to cultivate; he only needed to focus on doing his duty as the neighborhood hero. A new task would be issued in three days, so for the next few days he could settle down and be a veteran traditional Chinese medicine practitioner while adapting to the changes in his physical strength.