Embrace Dan

After signing the agreement, Zhao Yuan and Qi Dongyuan warmly invited Li Pin to visit as a guest. Considering Fang Lingjue's current mood, Li Pin declined.

Seeing this, Zhao Yuan could only settle for second best and invited Li Pin to Sect Master Cao Tianyou's sixty-sixth birthday celebration half a month later.

Cao Zuoqiu had already been buried.

The Five Elements Sect had lost an Embrace Dan expert and several skilled martial artists who had reached great mastery in Strength Training at Wang Daoyi's hands. This would likely give the martial forces of Canglong City ideas they should not have.

To demonstrate that the Five Elements Sect still held influence in Canglong City, they planned to use Cao Tianyou's sixty-sixth birthday as an occasion to hold a grand celebration and invite guests from every corner.

Considering that the box contained Cao Tianyou's personally written experiences on Embrace Dan and insights into Gang Training, it would not have been convenient for him to refuse this birthday invitation, so he agreed.

After Li Pin escorted Zhao Yuan and Qi Dongyuan to the elevator and returned to the office, Fang Lingjue sighed somewhat emotionally. "Looking at you is like watching a rising sun. By the seventeenth or, at most, eighteenth Martial Arts Tournament, you will probably be blazing at high noon, illuminating Jiangzhou and casting every young martial artist beneath your radiance."

"I signed up for this tournament too. Master Fang, do you feel any pressure?"

Li Pin joked with a smile.

"Haha, what a joke. I, Fang Lingjue, am at least one of the top ten favorites in this Jiangzhou Martial Arts Tournament. I might even break into the top ten and become one of those invited to the National Tournament. As for you... your future is bound to shine brilliantly, but if you want to suppress my light, wait another dozen years!"

Fang Lingjue laughed loudly.

After all...

This was his final Jiangzhou Martial Arts Tournament in the youth division.

If he competed again in the future, it would be in the adult division.

And twenty-two-year-old Li Pin still had more than a decade before reaching the adult division.

Li Pin merely smiled and said nothing more.

After chatting for a while, he returned to his apartment and eagerly opened the Five Qi Towards Origin Method.

A Viscera Refining Secret Method.

Even in this world where martial arts flourished, it could be considered precious.

Many cultivation methods might contain sections on Gang Training, but methods for nourishing and tempering the internal organs were, without exception, secret teachings never passed down outside their respective lineages.

Only the most core disciples would be taught them.

Back then, a Martial Saint had once pushed for legislation in the Taibai Kingdom to protect Gang Training methods and prevent them from being leaked or secretly learned.

The reason was that rashly practicing Gang Training methods without a proper Viscera Refining Secret Method might allow one to strike with Gang Jin, but it would also damage a martial artist's five viscera and six bowels, ruin their future, and hinder the development of the Martial World.

Although this bill did not pass, that Martial Saint later settled for second best and narrowed its scope to Viscera Refining Secret Methods, whereupon it passed.

This alone showed how precious Viscera Refining Secret Methods were.

If a martial artist secretly learned a Gang Training method, the sect would still have to follow the Martial Arts Association's formal procedures to clean house, and could only act after obtaining permission.

But once someone was discovered secretly learning a sect's Viscera Refining Secret Method, even if the sect's experts directly beat the thief to death, they would be protected by the law.

Even death would be for nothing.

This showed just how valuable viscera-refining methods were.

"The Five Elements Sect's viscera-refining method focuses on nourishing and tempering the Five Elements and Five Qi... When I first read the Five Elements Body Refining Technique, I felt that something was still left unfinished. Now it seems it was missing this portion of the Five Qi Towards Origin Method."

After reading through it once, Li Pin fell into thought. "Wang Daoyi must also have failed to obtain the Five Qi Towards Origin Method and had no choice but to settle for second best, cultivating the Three Flavors Heart Refining Method he got from who knew where to strengthen his lungs and viscera from within. Because the methods did not match, he used the resonant force of his lungs and viscera to unite the strength throughout his body and strike with Five Elements Unity, but he also suffered severe internal injuries and repeatedly dared not use it lightly."

He took out the Three Flavors Heart Refining Method and compared it with the Five Qi Towards Origin Method.

Compared to the blazing, domineering Three Flavors Heart Refining Method, the Five Qi Towards Origin Method was clearly far more upright, balanced, and peaceful.

The two...

One resembled the Demonic Path, the other the righteous path.

"The Three Flavors Heart Refining Method ignites spirit fire, essence fire, and qi fire to temper the internal organs. Its efficiency is faster, but when the three-flavored heart fire burns, the harm it inflicts upon oneself is immense..."

He thought of Wang Daoyi's age.

Around forty-five. Though he had passed his absolute peak, there was still some time before his condition should have begun declining.

Yet he had hurried all the way to Canglong City to take revenge on the Five Elements Sect at that age...

"The Three Flavors Heart Refining Method must have developed problems, causing his condition to decline much earlier than other martial artists."

Li Pin glanced at the blazing, domineering Three Flavors Heart Refining Method, then turned his gaze to the upright and peaceful Five Qi Towards Origin Method...

The Five Qi Towards Origin Method was safe, but it refined the viscera too slowly.

The Three Flavors Heart Refining Method...

He did not know whether his Innate Qi Nourishing Technique could withstand it.

Or perhaps he could balance the two Viscera Refining Secret Methods.

With the Innate Qi Nourishing Technique as his foundation, coupled with his minute control over his own condition, he could stop at any moment if something went wrong. Finding the viscera-refining method best suited to him was merely a matter of time.

"Embrace Qi into Dan uses a state where qi and blood are round and whole as one to nourish oneself. At this point, if one cultivates diligently, three to five months will be enough for qi, blood, and physique to reach their peak—around 33 or 34. The next step will be to begin refining the viscera."

From this perspective, after Embrace Dan, viscera refinement was not far away.

Or rather, once Embrace Dan cultivation was complete, one had stepped onto the path of Gang Training.

Once one's lungs and viscera grew strong enough to support striking with Gang Jin, one would count as a Gang Jin grandmaster and could take the assessment for a Senior Title, earning the reputation of a grandmaster.

Once strength penetrated from outside to within, reaching the lungs, viscera, and bone marrow, refining the viscera and replacing the blood, passing a Senior Title assessment would be effortless.

Li Pin carefully pondered it for several days.

Gang Jin and Gang Training no longer seemed like myths and legends to him as they had in his previous life. They stood solidly and tangibly before him.

Sensing the state of his body at that moment, Li Pin's thoughts stirred.

[Gang Training: 1/1846]

"Although I still cannot even strike with Gang Jin, at least I can see hope now. And... Embrace Dan..."

Li Pin moved, throwing a punch.

"Rumble!"

The air trembled.

A dull, heavy sound rang through the twenty-square-meter quiet room.

The entire floor shook faintly.

It was like a heavy truck had just thundered past outside with its engine roaring.

[Dan Jin +1]

This time, he had barely visualized any of the Eight Fiends, such as Tao Wu, Teng Snake, or Li Long, yet the force of his punch had still barely reached the level of a Dan Jin burst.

"Soon."

Li Pin calmed himself once more and began studying the Five Elements Body Refining Technique, along with Cao Tianyou and Fang Lingjue's insights on Embrace Dan.

Thirteen days later.

Changfeng Martial Hall.

After Li Pin finished a set of Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin training forms, he had not even deliberately activated Dan Jin when the qi and blood within him suddenly surged.

This anomaly made him instantly realize something.

His thoughts stirred.

The qi and blood throughout his entire body gathered toward a certain point within him at astonishing speed.

There was no danger whatsoever.

Nor was there any earth-shaking upheaval.

He simply maintained the Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin training forms and guided his qi and blood according to the method he had comprehended during this period.

In less than half an hour, all the qi and blood force he could control had condensed into a single mass within his body, no longer leaking out in the slightest.

As he stood there casually, he was perfectly round and whole as one, without a single leak throughout his body.

"Embrace Qi into Dan. So that's it."