Breaking Through the Meridians

Day after day, the rear mountain of the Lian Clan was covered with Yi Yun's footprints.

At night, Yi Yun refined the Savage Bone; in the morning, he secretly watched the Warrior Reserve Camp train. He then cultivated in the rear mountain for the entire day, returning home only at dusk to sleep for an hour.

Yi Yun cultivated with such painstaking diligence that his strength also advanced by leaps and bounds.

The rear mountain was a great distance from Medicine Mountain. It was also far from the clan village, so no one usually came here. There was no one around during the day, and at night, there was not even a ghost's shadow. Yi Yun practiced here without the slightest concern that anyone would see him.

Fifteen days later—

"Ha!"

Yi Yun let out a great roar and shot forward like an arrow. He leaped onto a ten-meter-high boulder in a single bound!

The wind howled beside his ears. Every joint in Yi Yun's body cracked explosively, like a tiger's roar and a dragon's cry!

"Fierce Tiger Descends the Mountain!"

Yi Yun's body tensed. His legs carried the force into his waist, his spine transmitted it to his arms, and he slammed out a fist!

"Buzz!"

A clear tremor rang out from within Yi Yun's body, like a powerful bow being drawn taut. It was the explosive sound of his sinews! Compared to Yao Yuan's that day, it was even more intense!

"Crack!"

Before Yi Yun, a large stone a foot square was smashed apart by his fist!

Spiderweb-like cracks spread across the entire rock!

This was no ordinary stone, but Black Iron Rock, far harder than common rock. Yet today, Yi Yun had shattered it with a single punch.

"Flap, flap, flap!"

The birds that had already settled in the forest were startled into flight, while the insects chirping all around and the croaking frogs fell silent in alarm!

For a moment, all sound vanished from the mountains and wilderness. Only leaves and feathers drifted down, landing on Yi Yun's head and shoulders.

Thunder dwells in the ninth heaven's clouds; a startled wild goose falls from the sky!

My punch has already reached the rudimentary level of that realm!

At the instant Yi Yun erupted with all his strength, his joints truly cracked with faint thunder. But as for startling a wild goose from the sky, that required an injured, solitary goose. Otherwise, even a nine-stone-strength bow could not frighten a wild goose down.

Yi Yun casually moved his body, and his joints once again made a series of "crack, crack, crack" sounds. His bones were now like steel tempered a hundred times, while his sinews were truly like the tendon of a flood dragon used to draw a powerful bow!

"My realm has already been completely stabilized. I can try to open my meridians and enter the Fourth Layer of Mortal Blood: Meridian Realm in one stroke!"

The human body possessed meridians, but ordinary people's meridians were blocked and could not form a circulation. Thus, they could not contain Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi.

After a martial artist had tempered his body to perfection, he had to open his meridians in preparation for truly setting foot on the path of martial arts.

The human body's meridians were divided into the twelve regular meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians.

The twelve regular meridians all passed through the limbs: the three yang meridians of the hands, the three yin meridians of the hands, the three yang meridians of the feet, and the three yin meridians of the feet, making twelve in all.

The eight extraordinary meridians, meanwhile, spread throughout the entire body. The two most important among them were the Ren and Du Meridians.

The Ren and Du Meridians lay along the body's central axis. Seen from the front, they were both straight lines.

The Ren Meridian was in front and the Du Meridian behind. The two lines formed a circle along the body's central axis, passing through the dantian and perineum. They were like two ropes passing between the legs and enclosing the body within them.

There was a break in the Ren and Du Meridians. Once the two meridians were opened and the break connected, the body's energy would form a perfect, closed circulation along the central axis. Thus, opening the Ren and Du Meridians was the crucial first step to opening all the meridians in the body.

Among the wuxia novels Yi Yun had read, there were many scenes involving the opening of the Ren and Du Meridians.

For example, Zhang Wuji practiced the Heaven and Earth Great Shift and opened the profound gates throughout his body. Xu Zhu opened his meridians when he received the internal energy inheritance of Li Qiushui and Grandmother Tong, and so on.

Even ancient medical books contained many records of opening the Ren and Du Meridians. Once those two meridians were opened, one could be reborn and gain tremendous power.

The perfect closure of the meridians would also pave the way for future cultivation into higher realms.

Yi Yun sat down cross-legged and began circulating the energy accumulated within his body, charging at his meridians!

Once his meridians were opened, Yi Yun's strength would basically be comparable to the peerless masters in wuxia novels.

If he were in ancient China, he could easily scale walls and leap over roofs, pursue justice and avenge grievances, and seize the head of an enemy general amid a vast army.

There were two methods of opening the Ren and Du Meridians: one relied on external aid, while the other relied on oneself.

In historical novels, peerless masters would expend their cultivation to open the Ren and Du Meridians for the protagonist, causing the protagonist's strength to increase greatly overnight. This was the so-called "transmitting cultivation."

Although this method was swift, it was ultimately not the proper path and was less solid than cultivating on one's own.

Yi Yun naturally chose the second method—opening his meridians by himself.

The Dragon Marrow Tiger Bones Fist recorded a method for opening the meridians: sit with both legs crossed, and make every breath as deep and long as possible.

After a martial artist reached the third layer of Mortal Blood, the air inhaled into his body would combine with the energy already accumulated within him. The two forces would merge like a stream of flowing fire circulating through his body!

Yi Yun consciously guided this energy toward his dantian and compressed it there!

Again and again, the energy throughout Yi Yun's body slowly gathered. His breathing grew faster, and each inhalation grew deeper.

Absorb the essence of the sun and moon; breathe in and out Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi!

If someone had been nearby at this moment, they would have seen a faint radiance covering Yi Yun's body.

The light was especially concentrated around Yi Yun's chest, where purple radiance gathered before gradually spreading throughout his body.

This was the radiance produced when the Origin Purple Crystal absorbed Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi. As Yi Yun sat cross-legged and breathed in and out, the purple crystal in his heart also absorbed the energy of the world alongside him, helping him make his final breakthrough.

Slowly, the purple light around Yi Yun grew brighter. It resembled the legendary Purple Qi Coming from the East of ancient China—a sign of a sage!

With energy merging again and again, the sounds of tiger roars and dragon cries emerged from Yi Yun's body. The blood flowing within him was like a mighty river, surging without end!

With each breath, the surrounding air rapidly spun around Yi Yun, like a long whale sucking in water. Its momentum was astonishing.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

Yi Yun's breathing grew heavier and heavier. With every breath, his body swelled and contracted, as if it were a small boat rising and falling upon the waves.

Amid these undulations, all the strength in Yi Yun's body continued to gather, then gather again.

The sinews within his body rang like bowstrings. His tough skin and membranes resembled inflated cowhide, while his bones cracked explosively like beans frying in a pan.

When all of this accumulated to its limit, Yi Yun felt as if his body were about to explode. He controlled the gathered power and, together with the hot current he had inhaled, drove it all into his dantian in one rush, wave after wave, like furious billows battering a reef!

When Yi Yun felt that he had reached his limit and the tiny blood vessels beneath his skin began to burst, a deafening "boom" suddenly rang out. With Yi Yun at the center, his energy erupted completely. The rock beneath him split apart, while the bushes and saplings within five meters of him were all snapped down!

Yi Yun's entire body went limp. Blood flowed from his nostrils and ears, but it was not fresh blood—it was black blood. Even his pores seeped out gray sweat.

It worked.

Mortal Blood Fourth Layer—Meridian Realm!

Yi Yun knew that he had finally opened all the meridians in his body. He had officially entered the Fourth Layer of Mortal Blood: Meridian Realm, becoming someone equivalent to the world-shaking heroes of wuxia novels.

When Yi Yun had read wuxia novels in the past, he had also dreamed of becoming a carefree hero who could scale walls and leap over roofs, uphold justice, and pursue his desires and avenge his grievances.

Today, he truly possessed such strength.

However, energy was far richer in this otherworld than on Earth. On Earth, opening the Ren and Du Meridians was enough to make someone a peerless master. That was probably because Earth had no such thing as Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi.

Here, however, there was not only Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi, but also Savage Power, spiritual power, and all kinds of mysterious forces Yi Yun had never even heard of. Their might was as exaggerated as nuclear energy on Earth.

This power could be used by him, so the Fourth Layer of Mortal Blood: Meridian Realm was merely the starting point of the martial path.

Yi Yun sprang up from the ground and looked around. His senses had become clear once more. Within ten steps, he could hear everything distinctly—the wind brushing against blades of grass and tiny insects burrowing through the earth.

He could even count the fallen leaves on the surrounding grass at a glance. There were thirty-two in all!

His senses were clearer and his thoughts sharper. Many martial arts experts could remember anything after seeing it once precisely because all the meridians in their bodies were open, bringing a considerable improvement to their mental abilities!

One had to know that the circulation of the Ren and Du Meridians passed through the brain. Once energy flowed into the brain, a person's memory would naturally become stronger and his reactions much quicker.

"It feels incredible!"

The changes in his body filled Yi Yun's heart with delight. He had perfectly broken through into the Fourth Layer of Mortal Blood: Meridian Realm. Not only that, but he had once again used the breakthrough to undergo Marrow Cleansing.

Mortals ate grains and miscellaneous foods, leaving many impurities in their bodies. Before reaching the Purple Blood Realm, they had to undergo Marrow Cleansing.

Naturally, the more thorough the Marrow Cleansing, the better. Yi Yun had already cleansed his body twice, and each time, the filth removed had been less than before.

Yi Yun stripped off his clothes and jumped into the deep pool to bathe. He dove more than a hundred meters beneath the surface in a single breath and held his breath underwater for twenty minutes before swimming back up.

"Splash!"

The water exploded outward as Yi Yun leaped onto a large rock like a carp!

He was completely naked and had no change of clothes, so Yi Yun put on his freshly washed old clothes while they were still wet.

The coarse-cloth clothes clung damply to Yi Yun's body, displaying his perfect lines.

After these days of arduous training, Yi Yun's muscles had grown increasingly firm and his physique increasingly handsome. He had also grown several inches taller, making him look more and more like a refined young man.

Especially now that Yi Yun had broken through into the Meridian Realm, his entire presence felt different.

He stood atop the boulder, his body like a drawn treasured sword, his aura sharp and his bearing outstanding. Soft moonlight poured down onto his smooth skin like mercury sliding over glass.

How could such a youth still resemble a poor child from a destitute family who could not even eat his fill?

He was like an uncarved piece of jade that had already revealed a beautiful luster. The coarse-cloth clothes, so tattered they could almost be called "ragged," could not conceal his radiance at all.