This horizontal training method came with both illustrations and text, as well as the clarified butter needed to practice it.
During training, you covered your entire body with clarified butter and used your qi and blood to strengthen your physique.
Fortunately, although the thirteen ingredients used to make clarified butter were quite precious, they were not rare, and the Lu Family Pharmacy stocked them all.
According to the book, before practicing the horizontal training method, you first covered your whole body with clarified butter, allowing its medicinal properties to seep into your flesh, skin, sinews, and bones.
The clarified butter's medicinal power could flow freely inside and out, melt and forge, tempering strength with softness and softness with strength, until the two worked in harmony.
After preparing the clarified butter, Lu Yuan took off all his clothes. He scooped up the warm butter, rubbed it between his palms until it melted, then coated himself from head to toe, front to back, arms to legs, covering every inch of his body.
Feeling the medicinal power seep through his pores, Lu Yuan circulated his qi and blood, following the method of the Heavenly Dipper Horizontal Training Method. Warm qi and blood spread from his chest and coursed through his body.
He circulated his qi and blood again and again. An hour later, when he finally finished training, he opened the Yellow Court Sensing Chapter.
"Before the Supreme Clarity Purple Haze Void Emperor, the Supreme Dao Jade Morning Lord. In seclusion within the Stamen Pearl, composing seven-word verses, scattering and transforming the five forms, becoming myriad spirits... Above dwell the soul and spirit; below lies Guanyuan. To the left is Lesser Yang, to the right Greater Yin. Behind is the hidden gate; before, the gate of life. The sun rises, the moon sets, and the breath is preserved... The four qi combine, the constellations divide. Purple haze rises and falls beneath three clouds of pure essence. Watering the five blossoms, cultivating the numinous root, seven fluids stream through the space between the thatched hut..."
There were barely more than three thousand words, yet every one was a gem. Lu Yuan read them five times over, and the more he read, the more profound the technique seemed. He wanted to try practicing it, but each time he felt he was right at the threshold, he simply couldn't step across.
It was like the final step between a man and a woman: just as they were about to join as one, a hand suddenly clamped down, and they could not become one.
Before he knew it, half a month had passed.
Lu Yuan trained as usual. Training, and more training.
"Phew~~~"
Lu Yuan rose to his full height and suddenly opened his eyes. In the empty room, they flashed like lightning.
"I've finally completed the Four Blood Changes! My strength has surged by a huge margin! My inner and outer sinews, bones, skin, and flesh, as well as my five viscera and six bowels, have all drawn together as one. My skin is like copper, my bones like steel, and my organs like iron. My qi, blood, and physique are incredibly powerful. So the saying that each Blood Change is almost like an ascension wasn't just talk."
Feeling the changes in his body, Lu Yuan was secretly delighted.
"My Heavenly Dipper Horizontal Training Method has also reached the stage of mastery... My flesh and skin are tougher than a tiger's hide. If I tense my muscles, a kitchen knife can only leave a white mark. Ordinary blades and swords can cut my skin, but they can barely reach the muscles beneath."
"If I keep practicing this horizontal training method, I could probably just stand there and let ordinary people hack at me with their blades and swords without suffering so much as a scratch."
Lu Yuan habitually opened the Yellow Court Sensing Chapter, his brow furrowing.
"This technique's threshold is just too high. It's been half a month, and I still haven't crossed it..."
This left Lu Yuan feeling deeply frustrated and questioning his whole life. Was he really a genius?
No matter how high the threshold of a technique was, surely he should at least be able to get started.
"Could this technique be meant only for super-geniuses? Hm? This page..."
Lu Yuan rubbed the last page hard. Sure enough, it felt slightly thicker than the others, though the difference was tiny.
The paper was quite sturdy. Lu Yuan wet it with a little water and rubbed hard until it tore, revealing a flash of gold. His spirits lifted. He pinched the golden section and pulled. To his surprise, a sheet of gold foil came out.
The gold foil was as thin as a cicada's wing, only a tenth as thick as the paper. It was no wonder Lu Yuan hadn't felt it hidden inside at first.
The sheet was square, and as soft as water to the touch.
The gold foil was covered in densely packed writing. More than three thousand characters, spanning over a dozen pages, had all been condensed onto this one sheet. They were tiny, neat characters, yet perfectly clear, as though carved with a knife—every one sharp and distinct.
On the other side of the gold foil sat a faceless figure in the void, with countless suns, moons, and stars revolving around it.
It wasn't truly faceless. The person who had made the gold foil had deliberately blurred the figure's features, like flowers glimpsed through mist. Yet it seemed that the radiance of the stars had gathered upon its face.
"The Yellow Court Sensing Chapter?"
Lu Yuan carefully read through the writing on the gold foil, then let out a long breath. Its contents were 99 percent identical to those on the paper, but that altered 0.1 percent had turned the Yellow Court Sensing Chapter on the paper into a technique that seemed profound but could never be mastered.
Whoever had altered it was highly skilled. Only a Martial Arts Grandmaster could have spotted the differences. Lu Yuan was still worlds away from becoming one, so he had naturally been fooled.
Lu Yuan steadied himself, wild joy surging in his heart.
Anyone could tell that if someone had gone to such lengths to hide gold foil between the pages of a book, it had to be an absolute treasure.
The figure sat cross-legged, hands forming a seal before its chest. Its expression was gentle and dignified, yet not without authority.
"Let's try practicing it again."
In truth, he already knew the contents by heart. He only needed to memorize the few dozen altered characters again. After silently reciting them a few times, Lu Yuan began practicing once more.
Gradually, he entered the proper state.
Half-dazed, thinking and yet not thinking, asleep and yet not asleep. In his hazy awareness, Lu Yuan saw the misty figure seated in the void appear in his mind.
Countless points of starlight shot down from the distant void, entering through the crown of his head, inch by inch.
Lu Yuan trembled slightly. Coolness spread through his body. It was like stripping naked in the height of summer and jumping into a stream; every pore was breathing, drawing in and expelling Primordial Qi, while he floated as if among the immortals.
After an unknown length of time, Lu Yuan finally emerged from that ethereal state.
"I actually cultivated Internal Qi!"
Feeling the change in his body, Lu Yuan was overjoyed.
Internal Qi was refined from qi and blood.
Ordinarily, however, one could only slowly refine Internal Qi after reaching the level of Qi and Blood like a Tiger.
For anyone who practiced martial arts, this Internal Qi was crucial. Whether it was condensed or not determined the power of their martial arts.
As far as Lu Yuan understood, Internal Qi was similar to the True Qi or Internal Force from the martial arts novels he had read in his previous life, but it could not leave the body.
Being able to condense three inches of Blade Qi or Sword Qi along the edge of a blade or sword was already an extraordinary feat.
"Hm? It's so late, and someone's running across the rooftops?"
Suddenly, Lu Yuan caught the faintest stir of movement. He leaped out of the room and saw a figure vault over the roof of his house, arms spread like a great bird in flight, before landing almost soundlessly on the roof of another building.
Lu Yuan thought the person would keep going and leave, but suddenly the figure dropped straight down midway, like a bird whose wings had been torn off.
Thud!!
A heavy crash.
Lu Yuan couldn't help grimacing. Just from the sound, he knew the fall had been a bad one.
Before he could get close, the person sprang to his feet and stood there, covered in blood.
"Help me!"
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