Practicing Divine Skill Recklessly

Yan Nu was hanging in a plaza at Tea Mountain Fort. His hands and feet were both cuffed with chains, and his feet were three feet off the ground, suspended in a cross shape between two iron pillars.

Two burly men with mocking expressions were whipping him, beating him until his skin and flesh tore apart. Bloody gashes covered his face, arms, and chest, causing pain so agonizing it felt like dying and coming back to life.

Yet Yan Nu possessed extreme endurance, letting out a few grunts and suffering the beating and scolding without resistance.

He still muttered in his mouth, "Grandpa... Grandpa..."

Yet no one paid him any mind. The two burly men simply lashed with all their might. After one hundred lashes were finished, Yan Nu already looked like a bloody man.

"Hah, tough bones you've got," the burly man grinned, his arm sore.

"This brat has practiced cultivation; give him another hundred lashes! Use True Qi!" Steward Liao said coldly.

"You got it!"

And so, another flurry of whipping cracked down, emitting a sound like wind and thunder!

Struck by such vicious lashes, Yan Nu flinched like a twitching meat-worm, pulling the iron chains into a rustling sound.

Steward Liao watched silently, his expression cold.

What recommendation to the instructor, what service for the Fort Master—did Tea Mountain Fort lack this kind of labor?

A lowly menial servant, what of it if he was beaten to death?

Ordinarily, a hundred lashes followed by locking him up for a night would have sufficed. The kid could forge eighty pounds of steel in a night, so he still counted as a talent.

However, since he had practiced martial arts and possessed decent aptitude, to avoid trouble in the future, it was better to simply finish him off.

"Yan Nu'er, do you still remember me?" Shen Leling's voice appeared in Yan Nu's mind.

Yan Nu lowered his head, fresh blood matting his hair as he weakly murmured, "You're yesterday's monster sister..."

"You call me..." Shen Leling was startled at first, then chuckled. "Hehehe... Sister killed someone last night; why didn't you tell the others?"

Yan Nu murmured, "Forgot, too busy."

"..." Shen Leling's tone sank. "Ha, you certainly are honest!"

Yan Nu didn't speak. His wounds were repeatedly whipped, and the pain grew intense.

Yet for some reason, when an ordinary person lost this much blood, they should have died long ago, but he was still able to continue living on a tiny amount of blood. Once the blood drained away, a small amount of new blood would regenerate, and his viscera operated normally, only his limbs remaining stiff and numb.

Seeing his body was not good, Shen Leling asked, "Are you still not circulating your cultivation technique for body protection?"

"What is... circulating for body protection?"

"..." Shen Leling was somewhat speechless. Was this someone who had practiced martial arts?

"True enough, what could a craftsman possibly teach you? It's a wonder you managed to cultivate this bit of True Qi!"

A mystical stage cultivator possessed Spiritually Awakened Clear Vision and the ability to sense qi, let alone a Spiritual Sense Stage one!

Shen Leling had long since seen that Yan Nu possessed third-rate cultivation power, except he had never undergone body tempering.

"Come, come, Sister will teach you. Listen well: mobilize your True Qi from your dantian, and transport it to—"

Before she finished speaking, Yan Nu blurted out, "What's a dantian?"

"Huh?" Shen Leling's tone was somewhat dazed. "You don't even know what a dantian is? What kind of hammer True Qi are you cultivating?!"

"Swinging a sledgehammer," Yan Nu said as a matter of course.

"This..." Shen Leling was extremely shocked.

Hearing Uncle Hong say he had taught Yan Nu a few years of crude martial arts, she had assumed it was at least a proper mind method. As it turned out, it really was just the negligible skill of swinging a hammer and circulating qi?

That Uncle Hong was so old, and who knew how many years he had spent smithing, yet his True Qi was still terribly weak!

Relying purely on such a meager skill, Yan Nu had actually managed to reach this level over the years. He definitely counted as having astonishing aptitude!

"Hahahahaha... To think you're actually a martial arts prodigy, Yan Nu'er..."

"If you practiced a true ultimate skill, given time you might even become a World-Shocking Martial Artist capable of slaying cultivators."

"Heeheehee..."

As Shen Leling spoke, she cackled strangely to herself, no one knowing what she was thinking.

When she snapped out of it, she found Yan Nu spitting out a large mouthful of blood. Looking closer, the force of the whip had actually snapped his meridians.

She panicked on the spot. "Hey, don't you die on me!"

"Damn it, they broke your meridians! Oh no, ordinary True Qi body protection is useless now... I'll pass the Great Emperor White Jade Scripture to you!"

Shen Leling hurriedly used her Divine Sense to wander inside his body, except she had never learned how to guide someone else's internal energy with divine sense, only being able to transmit the simulated sensation to Yan Nu...

"Quick, quick, quick! Move the True Qi to follow the route I'm transmitting to you. Don't go through the meridians; separate it from the flesh and blood into all the acupoints throughout your body! Finally, converge it at the Xuanji and Huagai!"

"Fine... you don't understand what an acupoint is... It doesn't matter! Just mobilize it following my sensation!"

Shen Leling was practically breaking the cultivation technique apart and chewing it up to impart it to Yan Nu. At this moment, Yan Nu could feel strands of breath surging throughout his body, dividing into sixteen routes while simultaneously flowing at different rhythms and paths.

"Can you learn it? Is it too difficult?" Shen Leling also felt it was a bit too difficult for a martial arts idiot who had been beaten to the brink of death to temporarily operate such a profound ultimate skill.

One had to know that this Great Emperor White Jade Scripture was the cultivation technique of the former Mount Tai Immortal Sect, a genuine orthodox profound-gate immortal-cultivation classic.

When the Mount Tai Immortal Sect was destroyed back then, many classics scattered among various factions, subsequently leading to various new sects springing up in both the mortal and outer worlds.

One could say they all derived and branched off from the Mount Tai Immortal Sect.

Among them, the Gao Family of Pingcheng had obtained several volumes of remnant scriptures. Before Shen Leling ate the young master of the Gao Family, she had sworn brotherhood with him, assisted him in body tempering, and exchanged numerous cultivation techniques, with this Great Emperor White Jade Scripture being one of them.

Of course, what she had obtained was merely the short chapter concerning "body tempering" within the "Spiritually Awakened Chapter," but placed in the mortal world, it absolutely counted as a peerless divine art.

"Eh?"

"That's right, that's right! Just circulate it like this! When cultivating, it comes with its own body protection, and it can also allow True Qi to nourish your viscera, heal your tendons and bones, and protect your skin and flesh..."

Shen Leling could scan that the Sea of Qi within Yan Nu's body was churning, surging through his body's acupoints, meridians, and even blood vessels, circulating according to the route and sequence she had transmitted!

The True Qi flowed unceasingly like the running of a river. They did not take the ordinary paths, darting through countless minute blood vessels.

This made the operation of the True Qi more three-dimensional rather than planar!

Finally, at the Xuanji and Huagai acupoints, they condensed into two streams of qi cyclones—one yin and one yang—the one spinning left and the other spinning right, mutually depending on and drawing upon each other.

Repeating this cycle, the acupoints all over his body ceaselessly generated breath, and on the path flowing into the cyclones, they nourished Yan Nu's viscera and protected his limbs and skeletal frame.

From this point on, his internal breath was protracted and his breathing grew slow.

"You're not an idiot after all! With sixteen inner breaths operating simultaneously, I really was afraid you couldn't do it!" Seeing him succeed, Shen Leling was extremely delighted.

"Slap, slap, slap!" Lash after lash struck, but Yan Nu no longer added new bloody gashes.

Yet because there were already too many bloody gashes on Yan Nu's body, the executioner couldn't even tell the difference.

"Steward, the flogging is done!" the executioner said, cupping his fists.

"Hmph, has he breathed his last?"

The executioner looked closely and found that Yan Nu seemed to have incoming breath but no outgoing breath, so he said, "His breathing is imperceptible; even if he isn't dead, he's close to it."

"Bah!" Steward Liao curled his lip. Hearing no wailing or begging for mercy was also quite dull, so he said, "Forget it, just leave him hanging here to make an example for three days!"

With that, he led the people away, leaving only Yan Nu hanging in the plaza like a dead person, covered all over in injuries.

"He's finally gone..." Shen Leling chuckled. "Yan Nu'er, properly operate the method I taught you; it comes with healing properties... Hmm, that Tea Mountain Fort Master has a secret room, Sister will go take a look and bring you some spiritual medicine later."

"Thank you..." Yan Nu said weakly.

"Hehe, don't you die!"

As she spoke, Yan Nu'er felt a divine sense vanish from his mind.

He was now utterly exhausted and unable to move, his entire body covered in countless bloody gashes, his viscera and tendons and bones all sustaining heavy injuries.

He could only close his eyes to rest his mind, silently operating the cultivation technique the monster had taught him.

Yan Nu could sense that all over his body there were hundreds of spring-like qi cavities, with each qi cavity hiding his True Qi.

That was the power he had constantly used these past two days of smithing. Every time he used it up, eating a meal would replenish it.

And now, all of this True Qi was flowing away step by step, merging into the two qi cyclones and transforming into True Qi of another nature.

Whenever a strand of old True Qi transformed into new True Qi, he felt comfortable all over!

To the point that he became engrossed in it, extremely focused.

He didn't know how much time had passed before all the old True Qi was gone, and the numerous acupoints became empty.

Then each and every acupoint began drawing strength from his flesh and blood, generating strands of new inner breath that converged into the cyclones.

"Huh?" Yan Nu's body gave a twitch, feeling the sensation of this essence being extracted to be very uncomfortable!

It wasn't pain, but rather a faint sense of emptiness.

This was vastly different from the all-over comfort and surging blood and qi he felt when transforming True Qi earlier... Yan Nu much preferred that surging feeling.

"No, no, this is making me drowsy and on the verge of falling asleep. How can I cultivate if I fall asleep?"

"Right, I need to eat some grass first to replenish my hammer True Qi."

Thinking to himself, he immediately stopped cultivating.

Yan Nu understood nothing of cultivation and did not know that this emptiness actually helped cultivators "achieve extreme emptiness and guard steadfast stillness," immersing them in a state of meditative absorption.

He assumed True Qi was entirely replenished by eating things he liked, and he also assumed this cultivation technique simply had to transform his original True Qi.

The moment he stopped cultivating just now, he naturally also stopped healing, and the pain on his body gradually grew clear again.

"Monster Sister told me to cultivate to heal my injuries, but my hammer True Qi is gone. How am I supposed to cultivate?"

Then he thought of the two large qi cyclones: "I wonder if these two streams of new True Qi can be used?"

Yan Nu tried mobilizing them, and sure enough, he could. Thus, he frantically drew them out from the qi cyclones, circulating them according to the previous route to moisten every part of his body.

Sure enough, this could heal injuries as well. The pain immediately diminished, and his parched blood vessels gradually welled up with fresh blood once more.

The injuries in his viscera, internal organs, limbs, and skeletal frame were all slowly recovering.

In this manner, he continuously consumed the cyclones until they were exhausted, by which point his injuries had already healed by ten or twenty percent.

Not only that, when the final two streams of pure breath in the yin and yang cyclones dissipated, his body had also been tempered to become even sturdier.

The improvement in this effect was far more pronounced than the slow nourishment of his body from before.

"The True Qi has all been cultivated away! Excellent!"

Just like when he was smithing previously, Yan Nu had rendered his body empty without a shred of True Qi left.

He was quite satisfied, feeling that this meant he had finished cultivating well.

And so he smiled comfortably, tilting his head to look at the moon while yearning for Grandpa, and gradually drifted off to sleep.

Deep in the night.

A stealthy figure with a hunched body approached the execution grounds.

He looked around left and right, and seeing that the patrolling martial artists in the distance were not looking over, he gave Yan Nu a nudge and called out softly, "Yan Nu... Yan Nu!"

"Uncle Hong... why are you here?" Yan Nu slowly woke up.

"Silly child, if Uncle Hong doesn't come to save you, you'll die here! Quick, eat something first." Uncle Hong pulled out a few steamed buns.

Yan Nu was right in the middle of being hungry, gobbling them all down before saying with worry, "Uncle Hong, don't steal buns next time; I can eat grass."

"Nonsense, people only eat grass when they're so starved it's life-risking." Uncle Hong didn't believe for a second that he could really eat grass.

"Really, the grass I've eaten since I was little is more than the rice I've eaten," Yan Nu said earnestly.

"You child, you don't even know how to lie!" Uncle Hong sighed, assuming Yan Nu was just afraid of getting caught stealing buns and thus had learned to lie.

He stroked Yan Nu's injuries, a sight that was startling to behold.

"Does it hurt?"

"It hurt before, but it's much better now."

Uncle Hong pulled out a hammer and a chisel, wanting to pry the chains open.

Yet the moment he exerted a little force, a ding sounded, exceptionally clear in the dead of night.

It frightened Uncle Hong into hurriedly looking toward the patrol team, though fortunately they hadn't noticed.

He couldn't pry them. Martial artists had sharp ears and clear eyes, and any louder sound would definitely be heard by them.

These were fine steel chains; it seemed thinking of saving Yan Nu and escaping Tea Mountain Fort was out of the question.

"Child, yield a little and beg the steward to spare your life. He might let you go," Uncle Hong bitterly urged.

Yan Nu did not answer, instead asking in return, "Uncle Hong, did you ask around for news about Grandpa?"

Uncle Hong had no choice but to lie, saying, "I asked, I asked. Your grandpa is still in the army. He's old and frail, so he only does odd jobs in the rear. He hasn't even been on the battlefield once this entire year. Once the Hu Barbarians are repelled, he'll be back."

"That's great! I must wait for Grandpa to come back!" Yan Nu was wild with joy.

"Right, so you mustn't die. Tomorrow I'll beg the steward to come over, and you must also beg him for mercy. Whatever he tells you to do, do it, and say some nice things."

"Okay! I remember!"

Only then did Uncle Hong leave with peace of mind, leaving Yan Nu to endure another night.

Postscript: Sorry.