Jiang Tang set out several small dishes, prepared some hangover soup, then returned to Xun Mei.
Meng Yuan eagerly urged him to drink, and only then did Nie Yannian begin speaking of the Eighth Rank.
To enter the Eighth Rank, one had to open one of the Middle Thirty-Three Heavens.
The Lower Thirty-Three Heavens lay within the skin and flesh: four in each limb, sixteen across the front and back of the torso, and one on the head, making thirty-three in total.
The Middle Thirty-Three Heavens were distributed in the same number and pattern as the Lower Thirty-Three Heavens, except they lay within the tendons, bones, and internal organs.
To open the Middle Thirty-Three Heavens, tempering one's strength and balancing tension and relaxation were naturally unavoidable, but they were no longer the most important thing.
"Generally speaking, one uses True Qi to strike the acupoints and break through the blockages. Then, one point becomes a surface, until all are opened."
"However, the Middle Thirty-Three Heavens lie within the internal organs, tendons, and bones. Unlike the Lower Thirty-Three Heavens in the skin and flesh, they are not easy to locate. That is the difficulty. Therefore, you must first find those acupoints. That requires the skill of sensing. And how do you sense them?"
"I have already taught you the method by which the Gale Wind Saber Technique circulates True Qi. Though it circulates through the Lower Thirty-Three Heavens, if you use it often enough, you will gradually sense the Middle Thirty-Three Heavens. Then, opening the acupoints will come as naturally as water flowing into a channel!"
"Likewise, because they are within the internal organs, tendons, and bones, the slightest carelessness may injure you. Therefore, you cannot rush. You can only proceed slowly."
Nie Yannian poured out his teachings in one breath, truly holding nothing back.
"Then shall I give it a try?" Meng Yuan asked.
"Fine... eh! No, no, no!" Nie Yannian remembered how Meng Yuan had said he would give it a try earlier, only to reach Ninth Rank completion as a result. He hurriedly pressed down on Meng Yuan's arm. "There's no need to hurry!"
"Yes." Meng Yuan was an honest man and especially receptive to advice, so he immediately poured more wine.
"Wait a moment. Slow down." Nie Yannian was extremely solemn. "This comes from experience."
After speaking, he made to leave, and Meng Yuan hurried forward to support him.
Once they were outside, Nie Yannian turned back and pointed at Meng Yuan. "When the Princess Consort goes out for a spring excursion, I'll take you to pay your respects. Don't disgrace me!"
So he was going to offer further guidance. But what could the Princess Consort teach him? Was she also a martial artist? Meng Yuan did not know, but his heart was loyal as crimson blood and unwavering as a green pill. He feared meeting the Princess Consort least of all.
"When are we leaving?" Meng Yuan asked.
Nie Yannian had been about to answer, but seeing Meng Yuan practically itching to try, he hurriedly pointed a finger at him. "Don't go acting lawless right now. If you stammer when you meet the Princess Consort, I'll tear your mouth apart!"
"Master Nie truly underestimates me!" Meng Yuan immediately said.
"That's because you've never met the Princess Consort!" Nie Yannian pulled Meng Yuan closer and lowered his voice. "She's a celestial being, understand?"
"Is she truly a beauty that could topple a nation?" Meng Yuan asked quietly.
"How could it be false? I watched the Princess Consort grow up!" Nie Yannian boasted. Seeing Meng Yuan actually rubbing his hands together, he promptly slapped them down and said irritably, "Don't you dare harbor crooked thoughts!"
"How can Master Nie slander my innocence out of thin air?" Meng Yuan immediately argued.
"What innocence do you have?" Nie Yannian knew him all too well.
Meng Yuan felt guilty and did not dare argue further.
Nie Yannian took two steps, then turned back and pinched the flesh at the back of Meng Yuan's neck. "Later, take that old gelding master and his boy to sit at Drunken Moon Pavilion for a while. Put it on my account!"
"Master Nie is treating us? How embarrassing." Meng Yuan smiled.
"You don't need to feel embarrassed. I'm not treating you, and I'm not doing you a favor! Your little girl cooks for me, so I'm doing her a favor!" Nie Yannian said crossly.
After seeing Master Nie off, Meng Yuan sat alone for a long while, savoring Master Nie's words.
Afterward, Meng Yuan did not go to the Training Field. Instead, he practiced the Gale Wind Saber Technique in the courtyard, supplementing it with the method of circulating True Qi as the True Qi in his dantian moved back and forth in accordance with the mapped-out patterns.
He was unfamiliar with the first few rounds of practice, and he still felt a sense of sluggish obstruction. But after practicing more than ten times in succession, his circulation became unimpeded, and he felt perfectly rounded and at ease.
"Using the Gale Wind Saber Technique this way makes both my strength and speed somewhat faster."
"This is related to the amount of True Qi one possesses, the speed at which one moves it, and one's experience."
"Thus, even two people both at Ninth Rank completion will differ in superiority and inferiority when using the same Gale Wind Saber Technique."
Meng Yuan continued practicing for a while, but even after fatigue set in, he still did not sense the Middle Thirty-Three Heavens.
After dinner, Meng Yuan simply locked himself in his room, intending to undergo Essence Flame Body Tempering.
After the first body tempering, the Lower Thirty-Three Heavens had loosened, and from then on he had surged forward like a song of triumph, already reaching Ninth Rank completion.
After that, the Essence Flame had nurtured him slowly, only becoming full again after he swallowed the Green Fruit.
Meng Yuan reckoned that this body tempering would likely be even more effective.
He did not rush. First, he rested his mind. Once True Qi filled his dantian and he was clear-headed and full of vigor, Meng Yuan simply stripped off all his clothes and sat on the floor.
With a slight act of visualization, he saw a great blaze enveloping his body.
With a thought, the Essence Flame erupted with a thunderous boom.
For a time, Meng Yuan felt the flames racing ceaselessly through his body, probing along his meridians into his flesh, blood, tendons, and bones, reaching all four limbs and a hundred bones, his five viscera and six bowels. It was like a raging flood, unstoppable.
Then Meng Yuan felt the Lower Thirty-Three Heavens trembling without rest. After every acupoint was scorched once, the flames actually burrowed in along the Lower Thirty-Three Heavens. His internal organs, tendons, and bones shook violently, and at last the Essence Flame entirely descended into his dantian, as though it meant to boil his True Qi.
Meng Yuan felt his whole body burning, and his dantian in particular was in agonizing pain. After gritting his teeth and enduring for more than a dozen breaths, the Essence Flame slowly receded.
Only after a long while did Meng Yuan open his eyes.
The discomfort in his body remained, and his dantian felt as though it had been torn apart.
Meng Yuan carefully examined the changes after the body tempering. Not only had his flesh and blood become more condensed, but the meridians throughout his body had also widened.
During the first Essence Flame Body Tempering, he had felt as though he had shed his mortal body and exchanged his bones, as though his tendons had been cleansed and marrow washed. But compared to this time, it felt as though every trace of impurity within him had been burned clean, as if he had washed away all worldly dust and beheld heaven and earth anew.
Not only was his body light as a swallow and his mind clear, but his strength and reaction speed had changed as well. The Lower Thirty-Three Heavens he had opened were also different.
It was as though a river channel had been widened and dug deeper still. His dantian was even broader, like a place for storing water that had become vastly more spacious.
Before the body tempering, his True Qi had been abundant and filled his dantian. Yet now he felt hollow, with only half of his stored True Qi remaining. This showed how much more solid and powerful his dantian had become.
When he visualized the Essence Flame again, only something the size of a soybean remained.
This Essence Flame Body Tempering still had not opened any acupoints, but Meng Yuan sensed that the Middle Thirty-Three Heavens had already loosened.
Sitting cross-legged in meditation, Meng Yuan carefully felt around. As he visualized Great River Water, he saw another river channel beneath the Lower Thirty-Three Heavens.
After carefully locating one spot, Meng Yuan intended to guide his True Qi into striking it, but a feeling of exhaustion arose instead.
"Not enough True Qi. I need to nurture it—and I'm starving too!"
Meng Yuan did not force himself. In any case, serving the Princess Consort was not so urgent that it had to be done at this very moment.
He simply got up and went to the kitchen, where he gnawed on several steamed buns to fill his stomach. Then Meng Yuan lay down to sleep, planning to deal with it tomorrow.
He drifted off in a haze. Not long after, he heard someone enter the room. That person tucked in his blankets, felt his forehead with a small hand, then leaned close to his ear and said, "Brother, the food is in the kitchen, your shoes and socks are by the bed, your saber is beside your pillow, and your homework is on the table in my room."
After a long while, Meng Yuan opened his eyes and immediately saw a huge face.
"Why are you here?" Meng Yuan was startled when he saw Tie Niu leaning close and staring at him.
Tie Niu was exceedingly solemn. "Big Brother, why are you sleeping so greedily?"
He wanted to lift the blanket, but did not dare. "Grandmother isn't hiding in your bed, is she? My father said that if all you think about is sleeping and you have no drive to do things, I have to remind you!"
"I... I understand." Meng Yuan knew he could not reason with Tie Niu, so he simply lifted the blanket. "Grandmother isn't here."
"Then I'm relieved." Tie Niu let out a sigh, but he still craned his neck for a closer look, as though searching for weasel fur.
"Why did you come?" Meng Yuan rubbed his brow.
"I almost forgot!" Tie Niu slapped his forehead. "Hu Qian and Wu Changsheng told me to find you and tell you to hurry to the Training Field!"
Before you continue