Cultivating the Bauhinia Breathing Technique

After finishing dinner, the sky had completely darkened.

The moonlight from the twin moons poured down like mercury, shrouding the land in a hazy veil, beautiful and magnificent.

The manor's backyard had simple structures for the Barbarians and Kobolds to live in, and since it was mid-April, the weather wasn't cold, so there was nothing to worry about.

Loren didn't linger in the hall after his meal and returned to his room on the third floor.

The maids had already prepared hot water for his bath.

Seeing the handsome and elegant Loren enter the room, the two maids showed a hint of joy in their eyes.

They curtseyed slightly, tugging at their black and white maid dresses.

"Good evening, Master Loren. We have hot water ready for you. Would you like to bathe now?"

The slightly plump maid on the left looked expectant. "Serving you during your bath is our duty."

Loren's mouth twitched at her words.

"You two can go out now. I'll wash myself."

The two expectant maids were instantly filled with disappointment, feeling like another golden opportunity had slipped through their fingers.

After dismissing the two maids cleanly and efficiently, Loren soaked alone in the large tub.

It wasn't that he was being fussy. As a lord, and the descendant of a High Noble, having a few maids serve him was perfectly normal in this world.

It's just that while the maids in the manor were decent-looking, they were still far from his aesthetic standards, so he wasn't interested.

In the hot water, Loren felt the power within his body gradually recovering, and he let out a slight sigh of relief.

It had been five days since he defeated the Barbarian Chieftain Yas, and the period of weakness after forcibly overexerting his power was not easy to endure.

He opened his status panel.

His gaze fell upon the breathing techniques at the very top.

Bauhinia Breathing Technique (S-rank) Pros: Primarily cultivates the spirit, greatly strengthening it after practice, increasing mental resilience, and allowing immunity to a Spellcaster's mental attacks in the later stages. When used with corresponding skills, it can unleash powerful attacks. Cons: The Bauhinia Breathing Technique provides insufficient physical training. Full power bursts can easily cause significant bodily damage.

Demon Breathing Technique (S+-rank) Pros: The ultimate cultivation method of Demons, it greatly enhances physique and strengthens the body. In the final stages, it allows for limb regeneration, greatly increases resistance to magic, and ensures inexhaustible strength. Cons: After cultivation, one can no longer learn spells. It can easily lead to berserk and bloodthirsty states, requiring extremely high mental control.

There wasn't much of a secret to practicing breathing techniques; it simply required persistent effort and gradual accumulation.

However, the training methods for the two breathing techniques differed.

The Bauhinia Breathing Technique required visualizing a powerful lifeform within the sea of consciousness, combined with a specific breathing rhythm to mobilize Bloodline Power and cultivate spiritual energy, thereby increasing it. It primarily cultivates the spirit.

The Demon Breathing Technique required strenuous, high-intensity movements to hone the body, along with consuming large amounts of energy-rich food for replenishment. It primarily cultivates the physique.

Perhaps due to the power of the system, both breathing techniques excelled in one extreme, yet they could be perfectly integrated.

This could not be considered anything short of a miracle.

The higher the rank of a breathing technique, the more stringent the conditions for the learner.

The most typical example is that the Bauhinia Breathing Technique requires the bloodline of the Orchid Family to be cultivated.

This breathing technique was obtained by the first Archdemon of the Orchid Family from a divine ruin. Later, through continuous improvements, it became exclusive to the Orchid Family.

The Demon Breathing Technique was similar; it was a breathing technique imprinted within the Archdemon Bloodline, much like the bloodline spells obtained by Kobold Spellcasters, it was a form of inheritance. Without the Archdemon Bloodline, it was impossible to learn, and even if obtained, it would be useless.

More importantly, Loren had never heard of anyone being able to cultivate two high-level breathing techniques simultaneously.

The higher the rank of a breathing technique, the greater the benefit to the practitioner. The energy intake and training efficiency were incomparable to lower-level techniques.

It was precisely because of this that breathing techniques would cause significant changes to the body, remodeling the person's bloodline, bones, flesh, and so on to be more adaptable to the breathing technique.

Cultivating two breathing techniques simultaneously would not only waste a lot of energy but also greatly increase the difficulty of cultivation.

The higher the rank, the more likely the breathing techniques were to mutually backlash.

For example, if the first breathing technique required a blood vessel to soften, while the second required that same blood vessel to harden, such direct contradictions were almost unavoidable, leading to immense conflict.

Some might replace a lower-level breathing technique with a higher-level one, but no one would cultivate two breathing techniques simultaneously.

However, under the power of the system, Loren not only felt no mutual repulsion between the two breathing techniques but even felt the Demon Breathing Technique rotating along when he practiced the Bauhinia Breathing Technique.

Although the efficiency was only one-third of dedicated practice, it was still remarkable.

Practicing the Demon Breathing Technique had the same effect on the Bauhinia Breathing Technique.

That feeling of being in sync and complementing each other made Loren feel exceptionally comfortable.

The weakness from the battle with Yas five days ago had largely recovered thanks to the frantic consumption of rich food over the past few days.

In another two days, he should be able to recover to his peak condition. At that time, he might be able to attempt to break through to Silver Intermediate.

Although it was only a small advancement in rank, the increase in combat power would be considerable.

With dual bloodline awakening, every step he took in growth granted him far more power than ordinary awakened individuals.

If one hadn't awakened bloodline power, the gap between them and him would be even greater.

A Silver body, clashing head-on with Gold Grade.

This was enough to explain everything.

Loren took a deep breath, withdrew his focus, and slowly closed his eyes in the hot water.

He began to cultivate the Bauhinia Breathing Technique.

Slowly, he started breathing at a specific frequency, while his bloodline power circulated within his body in a special manner.

He had been practicing the precursor to the Bauhinia Breathing Technique for over ten years, and it had long since formed ingrained muscle memory. After a few breaths, Loren fell into the rhythm.

Huuu~

Huuu~

The breath he exhaled swallowed magic power. With his eyes closed, Loren could clearly sense the surrounding energy being rapidly devoured by his pores.

In the past few days, his body had been too weak, so he hadn't been able to cultivate intensely. This was the first truly immersive cultivation session he'd had.

As the energy within his body rapidly filled him, a pattern of a bauhinia flower slowly appeared in Loren's sea of consciousness.

Visualization, to train his mental strength.

The Bauhinia Breathing Technique required continuously using mental strength to construct powerful beings one had seen, serving to train one's mental strength.

According to family legends, by visualizing extraordinary beings like dragons, one could gain a portion of a dragon's traits upon reaching a high level, such as draconic might.

However, this legend was limited to what was recorded in the family tree. Currently, the descendants of the Orchid Family only visualized bauhinia flowers.

This was not only because the bauhinia flower was the emblem of the Orchid Family, but more importantly, the bauhinia flower perfectly complemented the Bauhinia Breathing Technique.

It allowed the practitioner to maintain a relatively fast cultivation speed.

Of course, another key point was that it was easy.

To visualize other beings, the first problem encountered was replicating their image in one's mind.

This was too difficult for beginners.

Take dragons, for example. Who wouldn't want to possess some of a dragon's traits?

But who could capture those extraordinary beings to observe them?

Without sufficient observation, mere fantasy would be ineffective.

Observing low-level magical beasts, on the other hand, yielded far less training effect compared to constructing a bauhinia flower.

After numerous attempts, the great figures of the Orchid Family discovered that visualizing the bauhinia flower offered the highest cost-effectiveness.

Thus, over time, no one bothered visualizing anything else.

In Loren's sea of consciousness, a bauhinia flower constructed from mental strength bloomed brilliantly, but it collapsed after only a few breaths.

After collapsing, the mental strength reconstructed it again. After repeating this process more than ten times, Loren's unfamiliarity with visualization and construction methods vanished completely.

After two to three hundred repetitions, Loren was constructing it almost by instinct, reaching a state of numbness.

After another bauhinia flower he constructed collapsed, Loren suddenly thought of something. With a flicker of his mind.

Although visualizing the bauhinia flower allowed for a high cultivation speed, it didn't satisfy him.

Since he could visualize other beings, why not try visualizing demons?

High-level demons were no less extraordinary than beings like dragons.

The others in the Orchid Family couldn't visualize them because they couldn't find such powerful beings.

But he was different.

After activating his Archdemon Bloodline, the image of an Archdemon had permeated his bloodline. He could observe it however he wished.

Furthermore, he himself was an Archdemon. Why couldn't he use himself as the visualization subject?

Would there be any peculiar effects?

Loren's interest was immediately piqued.