Qi Exhales Like Dragon Whiskers, Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound

Li Ye naturally had no idea what had happened to the Ren Family. He only felt that it was best to toss trouble he currently could not handle to someone who could.

Not using connections when he had them—that was what idiots did.

Still, he had fired two shots in succession through Liu Ying's thigh. The first shot had indeed made him uncomfortable, but as a martial artist who had trained constantly and even Break Through Dragon Gate, his vigorous blood and qi circulation had forcibly suppressed it. The second shot, however, completely let it loose.

Martial artists were energetic by nature, much less those who had Break Through Dragon Gate. If Divine Land had not been strong enough to keep people in check, who knew what chaos this world would have become.

After returning home, Li Ye chatted with his parents for a while.

His parents had visibly become much more spirited lately. The three hundred thousand they had borrowed had been repaid, and they had also given away some of the high-quality ingredients Li Ye had brought back from the Pest Control Bureau.

Li Ye did not even need to ask to know that they must have won plenty of admiration. Someone breaking through Dragon Gate Realm was certainly worth celebrating, but it was not like Li Ye, who had begun bringing expensive ingredients home from outside as soon as he broke through Dragon Gate Realm.

Those things were far more expensive than the ingredients Liu Qingxia usually used to nourish Li Ye's body. Giving them away naturally made one look good.

Li Ye did not care much. Once he used up the ingredients, he could keep mooching more from the Pest Control Bureau. As long as he did not go overboard, it was fine. After some time, he could bring another batch home.

These ingredients were also great tonics and delicacies for ordinary people. Other than being expensive, there was nothing wrong with them.

After chatting for a while, Li Ye washed up and went to sleep. He got up early the next morning, first went to the rental house to unload the delivered rice, then headed to the old courtyard.

Xu Yanwu had already been waiting there early.

"Master."

Li Ye called out, then saw the stone table piled high with delicacies.

Xu Yanwu pointed at them. "Eat first."

Li Ye did not stand on ceremony. He took out the Five Flavors Chopsticks and began eating.

They were again high-quality ingredients that aided digestion, seemingly prepared with even greater care than yesterday, and there was much more of it. Under the effects of the Five Flavors Chopsticks, Li Ye gained fifty points of blood and qi from this meal alone.

That made Li Ye feel as though the rice he had ordered earlier did not seem all that useful. It even took up space.

"Full?" Xu Yanwu asked.

"Full," Li Ye answered honestly.

"Go stand over there. First practice the Dragon Gate I taught you yesterday once."

Xu Yanwu pointed to the center of the courtyard. Li Ye went over and stood there, condensing his blood and qi as he had yesterday and pouring it into his tailbone, then into his cervical vertebrae. It spread through his limbs and bones, surged out through the crown of his head, and then white qi flowed from his nostrils.

"Mhm. Qi exhales like dragon whiskers—this is the characteristic of Dragon Gate. But as your cultivation grows deeper, those dragon whiskers will become increasingly faint. Gradually, there will be less commotion. All this must be practiced slowly, but don't rush that for now. I'll teach you the Tiger Gate."

Xu Yanwu said, "Your control over blood and qi is very strong, so I won't take it slow. Start from the spine as well, but this time descend from the cervical vertebrae to the tailbone: five to the left, nine to the right. From the tailbone, spread it through all the tendons and bones in your body, then make them tremble. Remember, no matter what happens, do not open your mouth."

As Xu Yanwu spoke, Li Ye had already begun condensing his blood and qi. Following his instructions, he moved it from his cervical vertebrae to his tailbone at a particular frequency, then spread it through his entire body again.

Unlike Dragon Gate, whose full-body spread mainly targeted the blood vessels and internal organs, Tiger Gate focused on tendons and bones. After the qi had spread completely, Li Ye condensed his blood and qi once more and began a small-scale tremor.

This was not difficult for him either.

Yet the moment he began trembling, Li Ye felt that if Dragon Gate was like his entire body swelling with air, as if someone had thrown a bomb inside him, then Tiger Gate was like being scraped alive by blades.

From head to toe, through fascia and bone marrow, it was as though sharp cleavers were finely mincing him into meat filling, chopping indiscriminately along the paths guided by his blood and qi. The pain almost made him cry out.

But just as he was about to open his mouth, he clamped it shut again.

He could feel that the moment he opened his mouth, the blade-like sensation would dissipate—but everything he had done so far would become useless.

He had already spent the blood and qi!

He had not even seen it rise yet. He could not waste it for nothing!

Li Ye continued making his blood and qi tremble through his tendons and bones. Once his entire body had been guided, the pain of those straight-cleaving blades intensified and surged collectively up his cervical vertebrae, forcing him to grit his teeth.

Rumble!

It sounded like thunder, yet also like a roar. Blood and qi steamed from Li Ye's entire body, producing a muffled thunderclap within the courtyard, seemingly accompanied by a faint howl of wind.

"Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound."

Xu Yanwu's eyes were full of approval. "This is Tiger Gate. Practice it long enough, and it can stimulate strength, granting immense power. Once your tendons and bones become tough, you can also gather your force and erupt with thunder sound."

Li Ye first sucked in a breath, enduring the soreness in his tendons and bones, then wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked, "That's it? It worked?"

Xu Yanwu nodded. "Tiger Gate is complete, but Dragon Tiger Gate is not. The two blood-and-qi guiding techniques must be fused into one. Condense blood and qi separately in the tailbone and cervical vertebrae, guide them toward each other, then expand them together throughout your body. Your blood, organs, tendons, and bones must all be condensed. When you guide it to the crown of your head, it must also explode within your body. Then your Dragon Tiger Gate will be complete. Keep practicing now!"

Li Ye let out several breaths and began condensing his blood and qi according to Xu Yanwu's instructions, combining the two sets.

Blood and qi guided each other in two streams, from top to bottom and bottom to top, spreading once again through his limbs and bones, blood, organs, tendons, and bones. Then they surged together toward his forehead and exploded within him. As thunder sound trembled through his body, a stream of white qi sprayed from Li Ye's nostrils, scattering across the ground like dragon whiskers.

He consumed even more blood and qi.

When practiced separately, each technique went down seven and rose two. But when combined, they actually dropped by eighteen points, while the total increase was only a little higher than that of a single technique. In numerical terms, one set gave two, while both together only gave two and a half.

"Continue. This time, do it slower. The slower, the better."

After leaving those words behind, Xu Yanwu entered the house. Li Ye could only continue circulating and condensing his blood and qi.

Going slower was not a problem. He only had to slow the speed at which he condensed blood and qi. Under his authority, this was not difficult, but it felt extremely uncomfortable.

Taken as a whole, it was like a fragmentation grenade exploding inside his body, scraping at him as it blew him swollen.

It felt as if, with even the slightest loss of control, his entire body would explode into pieces the next second.

He finally understood what Pan Zhengyang meant by "enduring hardship."

The hardship he had imagined before was, at most, like when he trained at the martial arts school—pushing himself through insane training, kicking until his legs were bruised and swollen and his blood vessels burst. If he had not dealt with it properly at the time, he might even have suffered fractures.

But with professional medicinal baths and dietary supplements, those injuries could be healed without leaving hidden damage.

When learning this martial art, Li Ye had assumed it would only be harsher than before. At worst, he would train until his bones fractured, and there would surely be matching medicinal baths to ensure no hidden injuries remained.

After all this, it was nothing like that. He was dancing on a steel wire.

First, he had to make sure his blood and qi did not fall too far. Dragon Gate Realm did not have any rule saying that a drop in blood and qi would lower one's realm, but blood-and-qi depletion was unavoidable. If he was careless, once the depletion began, what he would lose was his foundation.

Now he also had to pay attention to this Training Method. He had to follow the circulation frequency exactly, without the slightest deviation. He had authority, so he could detect it. If there truly was an error, he certainly would not die, but not only would his previous efforts be wasted along with his blood and qi, the feeling of exploding into fragments would also intensify.

This was far harder than simply making the body suffer!

Especially now, when he had to circulate his qi slowly. It was like dull blades scraping flesh—slowly cutting in with dull blades.

The discomfort made Li Ye bare his teeth and grimace.

But it was a top-tier martial art, after all. Though slowing down made it even more unbearable and his blood and qi continued to decline, he could faintly feel his tendons, bones, and strength changing.

If this was the only price, then it was not impossible—

Just as Li Ye thought this, his eyes flew wide open. He saw Xu Yanwu emerge holding an iron rod as thick as an arm.

He quickly finished circulating his qi, detonated Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound within his body, and sprayed out a stream of white qi. Then he cried out in shock, "Master, what are you doing?!"

The second chapter needs to be slower. Also, before it goes premium, there will be two updates daily. It's a platform mechanism issue—after it goes premium, there will be a burst of updates. Gentlemen, please follow, send monthly tickets, and give rewards. Don't let it die from neglect; follow-up data is very important. Fish Head gives his thanks!