Chapter 10

The Thirteen Great Protectors' Adamantine Bell Shield martial art interested Bai Lang greatly, and he immediately felt it was necessary to practice it properly. But he still had to drive the truck away; otherwise, in this desolate place with no village ahead or behind, he would have nowhere to cultivate—this martial art came with a matching medicinal bath and Qi Strengthening Pills.

Where was he supposed to find medicinal ingredients in the wilderness? Bai Lang was a thug for a brokerage, not a herb gatherer, and it was impossible to collect every ingredient here. He still needed to go to a city. In Bai Lang's view, if he wanted to gather as many medicines as possible, he could only go to a major provincial capital. Lanzhou was not far away now.

Several dozen kilometers outside Lanzhou, Bai Lang abandoned the truck by a fork in the road. Then, traveling by day and moving at night, he reached Lanzhou City in a single night and even checked into a hotel—when he had rented a room in the town, he had used fake identification.

With some free time, Bai Lang began carefully studying the Secret Manual. "This medicinal bath formula feels like it might be genuine, but it doesn't seem very reliable. As for the Qi Strengthening Pill, it may conform to medicinal principles, but aren't the ingredients far too rare?" Bai Lang muttered as he looked at the prescriptions in the back of the book.

He had received a Qi Replenishing Pill each month while in the Changle Gang and had seen more common pill formulas before. Besides, he neither visited brothels nor went around picking fights. He merely passed his spare time reading and practicing martial arts. Having read quite a few medical texts, he had gained some understanding of pharmacology—no matter what, his knowledge and ability to learn and analyze were naturally superior to those of the locals.

"The medicinal bath actually contains tiger bones, along with a whole pile of medicines that were obviously expensive just by thinking about them, all boiled into a bath—and one batch can only be used three times before it has to be replaced. The Qi Strengthening Pill requires ginseng, more than a hundred years old at that, plus donkey-hide gelatin and a whole lot of other things, refined with honey into pills, one to be taken daily." Never mind whether tiger bones could even be bought these days; just the medicines that were available would probably cost more than Bai Lang could afford in any quantity.

In any case, he would put the medicinal bath and Qi Strengthening Pills aside for now and try cultivating first. There was no need to rush. He would wait until the next day, when he found a cheaper and less conspicuous place to rent. What he had done at his previous location did not amount to much now—there were only limited surveillance cameras. They could only capture him hijacking the truck and fleeing along the highway, but once he reached a stretch without surveillance, he vanished without a trace.

The man they caught claimed he had found a truck, while the fellow who had beaten someone and hijacked it was nowhere to be seen. The next day, Bai Lang rented a house. He did not care about the rent, and he had nothing to move in, so naturally he found one quickly. His cultivation site was simple as well—there was a nearby park, and it was not small. Plenty of people exercised there, so he would not stand out in the crowd.

At least according to the illustrations in the Secret Manual, the cultivation method for the Thirteen Great Protectors' Adamantine Bell Shield was not particularly earth-shattering. Like the Thirty-two Forms Long Fist, it mainly involved moving the fists and feet while circulating internal energy. There was also plenty of stillness practice, merely sitting cross-legged to refine essence into qi.

However, Bai Lang still lay low for three days to observe the situation. He had never underestimated modern society's surveillance capabilities. Once he confirmed there was no trouble, he headed for the park before sunrise on the fourth morning.

Parks were not open twenty-four hours a day. Even now that square dancing was popular, the elderly were only allowed to dance in parks until nine at night to avoid disturbing residents, and the parks did not reopen until six the next morning for citizens doing morning exercises. Yet Bai Lang had already slipped into the park at four in the morning. Using Flight Over Grass, he lightly leaped over the wall, landing without a sound, his entire body seeming to glide across the ground—Flight Over Grass had never been a poor lightness skill; there simply were not many who had truly mastered it.

After reaching the depths of the park, Bai Lang first looked in every direction and confirmed that none of the night patrol security guards were nearby. He then sat upright on a stone bench, let out a long breath, and began meditating to regulate his qi and breath. He had considered practicing stillness first. In the dead silence of the night, practicing the noisy moving exercises would be practically inviting the guards to notice him.

Stillness practice took time anyway. Once he had circulated his qi and activated the meridians in his body, it would be no problem to practice the moving exercises afterward. Most importantly, the moment when he gathered that breath of violet qi from the rising sun was the most suitable time to practice stillness. Thus, Bai Lang cultivated until after sunrise. The internal cultivation method he practiced was still the one he had painstakingly trained in for three years—balanced and orthodox, though ultimately only an entry-level foundational art.

At six in the morning, quite a few citizens had already entered the park, and Bai Lang could finally begin cultivating in earnest. He had already memorized the Secret Manual from cover to cover, but still kept it on him in case he needed to consult it. The Thirteen Great Protectors' Adamantine Bell Shield did not require him to remain a virgin like Thirteen Protectors' Hardening. Judging from the twelve stages described in the book, this martial art seemed more like something copied straight out of a wuxia novel.

The first stage mainly involved moving exercises, but Bai Lang first practiced his own evolved Thirty-two Forms Long Fist. In accordance with his talents, it had long since become more like Baji Fist, Xingyi, and Pigua Fist. Surging internal energy emerged from his Dantian and circulated through the meridians he had opened, repeatedly striking at those still blocked. This was how martial arts cultivation worked. Without a divine art or immortal pills, one could only rely on painstaking practice to slowly wear away the obstructions in the meridians.

Bai Lang knew that his talent was merely above average. Even daily hard training was not enough, so how could he dare indulge himself? His complete focus produced a practice session of fierce, forceful momentum. Wherever his stamping feet landed, the ground trembled faintly. People had already gathered nearby, clicking their tongues in amazement—the citizens who came here every morning to exercise mostly knew one another, and everyone had their customary spot. This young man was an unfamiliar face practicing martial arts here, so naturally people came to watch.

One look was enough to show that this was no ordinary training. The young man's punches were fierce and powerful, like flood dragons overturning and true dragons soaring, like a savage tiger leaping and roaring. His imposing aura was so overwhelming that ordinary people could not get within twenty feet of him—this was only because Bai Lang had already trained his fist and foot techniques to the point where he could control them freely, gathering most of his momentum and internal energy within himself to strengthen his meridians rather than letting it disperse outward.

After finishing the Long Fist routine, Bai Lang closed his eyes and meditated for a moment. Then he drew in a deep breath and began practicing the Golden Bell Shield. "Hm?" As he performed the fist forms together with the breathing method, Bai Lang immediately felt the internal energy circulating through his heavenly cycle jolt. His hands and feet did not stop. The next moment, the internal energy that had been flowing through his meridians transformed into a roaring river, charging directly past its original route and crashing toward another meridian.