Inner Strength Secret Manual

"How is it? Does it taste good?"

Yue Lingshan asked with a smile.

"It's delicious. Thank you, Master Yue."

"You're welcome."

Yue Lingshan said with a smile:

"Our Mount Hua Sect has plenty of money now. From now on, whenever your vitality and blood are deficient or your training causes you harm, I can prepare Great Nourishing Soup to replenish your body!"

She raised her left palm in a stopping gesture.

"Hey, don't keep thanking your Master Yue. Being so polite with your Master Yue is far too distant, understand?"

"Yes, Master Yue."

"That's more like it."

Yue Lingshan beamed.

Ji Shu smiled as well.

Talking with simple, pure people was so easy and pleasant. I hope I meet more people like this in the future.

With that thought, Ji Shu continued drinking the soup.

After finishing the large bowl of nourishing soup, the vitality and blood he had depleted from training last night had mostly been replenished. Yue Lingshan had clearly spared no expense.

Many of the medicinal ingredients inside were extremely precious, likely worth far more than a single gold ingot!

The fee he had paid to enter the sect was certainly not enough to cover the cost of this bowl of medicinal soup.

"Ji Shu. Hehe~"

Yue Lingshan ran into the room and handed Ji Shu a Secret Manual. "This is our Mount Hua inner strength Secret Manual. It's a basic inner strength method, and every Mount Hua disciple must practice it. Outer Sect disciples have one version, while Inner Sect disciples have another. You'll be cultivating the Inner Sect disciple version."

Ji Shu accepted it. "What's the difference?"

"The difference is huge. The Outer Sect inner strength method cannot seamlessly connect with our Mount Hua Sect's superior inner strength arts. The Inner Sect version can. As long as you cultivate this basic inner strength method well, you'll be able to smoothly switch to Mount Hua's superior inner strength arts in the future!"

Ji Shu nodded.

He flipped through the Secret Manual. Compared with yesterday, when everything had been completely incomprehensible, he could understand quite a lot today. Still, there were some points of knowledge he did not understand. Just as he was about to ask, Yue Lingshan said:

"I'm going to see why my parents were looking for me. When I get back, I'll teach you Chong Ling Swordplay. I'm leaving now. If I return late, you can go eat in the kitchen. I've already spoken to Sixth Senior Brother. He'll take good care of you."

"I understand, Master Yue. Go early and return early."

Yue Lingshan skipped away.

Ever since she had lost her composure and screamed in front of Ji Shu yesterday, she had completely stopped pretending.

In her own words, "As a Master Yue whose skills are far from refined, it's really hard to put on a dignified front before a peerless genius like you! It's much more comfortable to just relax!"

Ji Shu put away the food container.

Then he took out the inner strength Secret Manual and began reading.

The more he read, the more profound and vast it seemed. Though it was only a foundation, a towering building rose from level ground. This basic inner strength method was likely the essence of Mount Hua.

"It is said that Mount Hua's inner strength lineage came from Hao Datong of the Quanzhen Sect. Then this basic inner strength method is most likely the Quanzhen Heart Method?"

Guo Jing's foundational inner strength method had been the Quanzhen Heart Method.

Ji Shu's insight was no longer what it had once been. After reading the Secret Manual from beginning to end, he concluded that it was no ordinary art. It was even far superior to the Nurturing My Sword Style.

The Nurturing My Sword Style was merely swordsmanship. Although Ji Shu's astonishing comprehension and Inner Strength Talent allowed him to produce sword qi after mastering it,

when it came to inner strength, swordsmanship could not compare with a proper, orthodox inner strength method.

"If this basic inner strength method is the Quanzhen Heart Method, then I really should cultivate it properly."

Ji Shu began to comprehend the heart method.

After some time,

he frowned slightly and chose to temporarily give up. There were some technical terms in the Secret Manual that he did not understand. He would wait until Yue Lingshan returned and ask her.

He was afraid of going astray in his cultivation. That would be troublesome.

As he waited,

noon arrived.

Yue Lingshan still had not returned.

Ji Shu tucked the heart method Secret Manual into his clothes and prepared to head to the kitchen.

Along the way, he encountered quite a few players dressed in blue robes, with long hair and an ancient air about them.

This time, the players regarded Ji Shu with greater scrutiny. Some even came forward to ask him how to join the Inner Sect.

You all know I joined the Inner Sect. How could you not know the method?

Ji Shu's casual remark made a burly player's expression shift slightly. He stared coldly at Ji Shu.

"An Inner Sect disciple has appeared among the players. Ji Shu, do you know that? You've already been targeted by certain people! If you don't recruit more teammates into the Inner Sect, you'll die a miserable death."

"Heh."

Ji Shu chuckled and walked away without paying those players any attention.

If they wanted him dead, they had better be prepared to be killed by him.

This was the world of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, where people ate people!

As for returning to the Blue Star world?

Once the time limit expired, the Tower of the Multiverse allowed them to freely choose whether to return. Before he could withstand the slaughter of bullets and artillery shells, he definitely would not go back! What could those Player Organizations do to him?

When he reached the kitchen,

he ran into Lu Dayou again.

This time, Lu Dayou was gnawing on duck neck, his mouth glistening with grease.

"Looks like someone threatened you."

He gave Ji Shu an interested once-over.

"Want me to help?"

"No need. Thank you, Sixth Martial Uncle."

"Don't call me Sixth Martial Uncle."

Lu Dayou dug at his ear.

"Hearing those words makes me uncomfortable. They make me sound old. You should call me Sixth Senior Brother instead. Martial Mother mentioned you this morning. You already call her Martial Mother, yet you call me Sixth Martial Uncle. Where does that leave Martial Mother?"

"...Sixth Senior Brother."

"Mm."

Lu Dayou nodded in satisfaction and said:

"Since I'm already your Sixth Senior Brother, your business is my business. If anyone dares to give you trouble in the future, just let me know, and I'll come right away!"

"Thank you, Sixth Senior Brother."

"Don't be so stiff and formal. How boring."

Lu Dayou stepped forward, slung an arm around Ji Shu's shoulders, and said warmly:

"We're both young people. Relax a little."

"...Yes, Sixth Senior Brother."

"That's better. Don't be nervous around me. Let me tell you, I, Lu Dayou, love making friends most of all. We'll both be Inner Sect disciples from now on, so we're friends. Don't be too polite. If you have something to say, just say it."

"Sixth Senior Brother, since you put it that way, I happen to have a few questions I'd like to ask you."

"Ask away."

Ji Shu then took out the inner strength Secret Manual and asked some basic questions.

Lu Dayou did not think much of it and answered everything he knew without holding anything back.

They talked for over an hour.

Lu Dayou's throat had grown a little dry. He looked at Ji Shu in surprise.

"Ji Shu, I couldn't tell before, but you're improving quite quickly."

Ji Shu smiled.

"I heard someone say that you joined the sect with prior training. Did you study inner strength before? Or some other martial art?"

"I learned a fist technique."

"No wonder. It makes sense that you'd progress so quickly if you've studied martial arts before. But the things I just told you were all common knowledge. It seems the martial art you learned before was really nothing special. You didn't even understand these basics."

"That's true."

He had asked all the questions about inner strength that needed asking.

As they chatted,

Ji Shu had already thoroughly grasped every mystery within the heart method Secret Manual.

Self-Generating Inner Energy.

In just a few breaths,

a stream of pure, vigorous inner energy appeared within his Dantian. With every few breaths Ji Shu took, this inner energy completed one full great circulation through the meridians of his body.