Transforming the Foundation

With a plan in mind, Meng Zhao directly used energy points to gain an entry-level understanding of the Red Flag Order.

In an instant, a flood of information surged violently into Meng Zhao's mind, filled with analyses of the Red Flag Order's divine art.

The sheer volume of information struck him like a heavy blow. Unable to control himself, he let out a muffled groan that carried outside.

The two guards standing watch beyond his courtyard heard that somewhat pained groan and were filled with concern.

One of them furrowed his thick brows, glanced at his companion opposite him, hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not dare barge in. He called out loudly,

"Young Master, what happened? Do you require this servant?"

Meng Zhao pressed one hand tightly against his head, his eyes bloodshot as though they might burst at any moment.

With the other hand, veins bulging as he clenched the Jade Prayer Beads, he rasped out an order,

"Nothing is wrong. Guard the outside. Do not allow anyone to enter."

The two men were helpless, but since it was the Young Master's command, they had no choice but to obey. "Yes!"

Inside the courtyard, the bitterness lingered at the corners of Meng Zhao's lips. His head already felt much better, but he thought bitterly,

With every gain comes a loss. Although I have the Sky-Illuminating Mirror and can use energy points to improve my understanding and cultivation of martial arts, the price is this unbearable pain.

Fortunately, the results were also gratifying. If Meng Zhao's previous understanding of the Red Flag Order had merely remained on the surface,

then now, his comprehension and insight into this martial art had reached the entry level.

He also understood much more clearly Meng Jizu's guidance in the ancestral hall earlier, as well as his explanations regarding the Red Flag Order.

The cost, however, seemed rather steep. His energy points had dropped directly from 9,700 to 5,700, nearly half wiped out in an instant.

Even as his heart ached, Meng Zhao decided to strike while the iron was hot. Riding this favorable wind, he would directly transform the foundation within his body, converting all the inner force of the Arhat Young Monk Skill into the Red Flag Order's inner force.

He sat cross-legged, both hands laid flat upon his knees. His pair of deep eyes seemed half-open and half-closed. With each breath, his breathing was sometimes short and rapid, sometimes long and unbroken. His entire mind had already sunk completely into his own world.

At this moment, he was visualizing an incomparably majestic and domineering red flag. Its patterns were exquisitely detailed, golden flames adorned its edges, and at its center seemed to be hidden a blazing sun, radiating boundless light and heat. This was the Red Flag Visualization Spirit Technique.

Like the White Bone Visualization Method paired with the Arhat Young Monk Skill, this Red Flag Visualization Spirit Technique, abbreviated as the Red Flag Visualization Method, was a method recorded in the first chapter's general outline. It was an essential practice for cultivating inner force.

Having lived two lives, Meng Zhao possessed powerful spiritual strength. With the Sky-Illuminating Mirror's support, he belonged among those blessed with extraordinary talent. He swiftly succeeded in his visualization, and his body began to radiate a scorching power from within.

This force baked the surrounding air, warping the light as waves of heat rolled outward.

Within his dantian, raging waves were also rising, bringing earth-shaking changes.

The Young Monk Skill's inner force, which had originally flowed slowly like seawater, traveled along meridian routes utterly different from before. With every inch of meridian it passed through and every acupoint it flowed through, the nature of the inner force transformed another degree.

Where it had once been purely robust and resilient, its foremost traits now became scorching heat and burning destruction, possessing incomparably terrifying destructive power.

The silver-white inner force, once like liquid mercury, gradually transformed into crimson inner force resembling molten lava.

When it finally returned to the dantian, Meng Zhao, driven by his spirit, directly condensed that inner force into five red flags coiled within it.

If the dantian was heaven and earth, then these five red flags were five blazing suns suspended in the sky, searing the land and burning the firmament.

The instant the red flags condensed within his dantian, Meng Zhao's half-closed eyes abruptly flew wide open, shooting out a startling red light that transformed into an illusory flame.

A faint hint of purple flashed through the depths of his eyes, but Meng Zhao noticed nothing.

Rising to his feet, Meng Zhao looked at his hands in disbelief. He casually thrust out a palm. As his force circulated, a wave of heat surged outward, as though a furnace were hidden within his hand.

The nature and power of his inner force had risen in a straight line.

Meng Zhao had never imagined that he would alter the foundation of his inner force so easily. All his inner cultivation had already been converted into the Red Flag Order.

It had been so effortless that it exceeded even his own expectations.

When he raised his head to look at the sky, twilight had already deepened. His seemingly "brief" cultivation session must have lasted at least several hours.

It was only because he had been too focused that he had overlooked the passage of time.

As for the Arhat Young Monk Skill, apart from the vast amount of Pure Yang Child Qi hidden deep within his body, not a trace of it could now be found.

Yet it had not vanished completely. Rather, it seemed to have concealed itself within his body.

In the future, he could still use certain methods from the Arhat Young Monk Skill for cultivation—for example, tempering his body, generating Pure Yang Child Qi, visualizing white bones, abstaining from women, or even actively circulating his inner force to cultivate Arhat Young Monk inner force.

The earlier methods remained useful, but the last would only taint the nature of his own inner force. It was instead less useful than cultivating the Red Flag Order alone in its pure form.

After coming back to himself, Meng Zhao carefully sensed the state of his dantian again. It seemed that after the red flags' development, his dantian had improved further, taking another step toward the realm of Dantian Like a River.

To truly achieve Dantian Like a River, however, he should need to condense seven red flags from his own inner force.

To achieve Dantian Like a Sea—that was, to establish the strongest foundation and a perfect dantian—he would need to condense nine red flags.

Nine was the ultimate number, containing a wisp of Innate Spiritual Spark.

According to what cultivators throughout the generations had said in the fifth chapter of the Red Flag Order,

those who condensed nine red flags would often suffer a terrifying backlash: Qi Dispersion and Form Destruction, with the red flags striking back against their master.

If one could endure it, one would naturally achieve Merit Completion, establishing a profound martial foundation. Among martial artists of the same level, few could contend against them.

But if one failed to endure it, the lighter outcome would be severe damage to one's vitality and injury to the dantian's foundation; the heavier outcome would be dispersed cultivation, grave injuries, or even death.

After Meng Shentong, limited by talent, there had indeed been few who could cultivate nine red flags. Yet over so many years, there would always be a handful.

Those who dared to take this step and challenge it were even fewer.

The risk was simply too great, while the reward was no more than adding flowers to brocade.

Meng Jizu and Meng Hongdao, for instance, had both condensed eight red flags before using their inner force to link their meridians and entering the Postnatal Great Accomplishment Stage.

Now that they had reached the Innate Realm, they were still first-rate experts.

Then there was Meng Zhengan. He had been a peerless genius, blessed with outstanding talent.

One important reason he had dared to harbor ambitions of standing shoulder to shoulder with—or even surpassing—his ancestors was that he was the genius who possessed both the talent and courage, and who had ultimately succeeded in condensing nine red flags.

But so what?

That genius had ultimately lost to someone even more gifted, then suffered Qi Deviation while practicing martial arts and died in desolation.

Instead, he had been inferior to his elder brother and younger brother, who had advanced steadily and surpassed him later on.

Even after cultivating the Red Flag Order, Meng Zhao wondered whether Meng Zhengan's Qi Deviation back then had been related to the nine red flags he had condensed during the postnatal stage. Perhaps hidden trouble had already been left behind at that time.

Of course, this information and speculation only sounded frightening.

Meng Zhao did not feel worried or afraid.

He possessed a Special Physique and was accompanied by an Exotic Treasure. If he could not establish the strongest foundation, it would be a waste of the talent and fortune bestowed upon him.

To condense nine red flags within his dantian with inner force and establish a perfect dantian like the sea—this was one of his goals at his current stage, and he had to accomplish it.

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