The First Set of Ink Bamboo Mountain Calisthenics

"Internal strength is very difficult to cultivate, and Qi Refinement Stage depends on talent. If a method doesn't work, it just doesn't work. If you don't have the comprehension, don't keep trying. You're all so old and still practicing as independent cultivators. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work."

But don't be discouraged. If you can't train your internal skills, then Qi Refinement Stage your external skills. If you can't train your Qi, then train your body. External skills are good, and body training is simple. Just eat more and train more. Train your fists to be as big as sandbags and your chest muscles to be as firm as mountains. When you punch them, any piece of trash will be shattered.

Well, this move is a modification of Gangquan (罡拳), it's very simple. I've never practiced Gangquan before, but today I'll practice it with everyone. Let me demonstrate first.

Hah--! Twenty-eight layers! Ink Mountain Flowing Fist--!!

See? Just like that, drive it casually, it's very simple, right?

Six large cargo ships gathered together, and a crowd of onlookers squatted on the deck and leaned on the railings, silently watching the certain Mountain Lord show off.

It's not that simple... Even the common Gangquan is a body-refining technique passed down by the Imperial Guards. You need to have some talent and money to practice it!

However, it was a rare opportunity to receive direct instruction from a true immortal, with each move explained in detail, including the cultivation of Qi and the secret techniques for manipulating acupoints. These immortal soldiers and rogue cultivators present, all of whom had reached the Golden Core stage and possessed a certain level of knowledge, truly benefited greatly. They seized this rare opportunity to diligently learn this superior Gangquan secret technique.

Of course, Li Fan didn't teach them the Immortal Palace Fist, but the Ink Mountain Fist.

This is a new technique that Li Fan has re-compiled based on his experience in deducing the Tai Xuan Gong from back then. With the help of system modeling, he has also studied the essence of the Divine Sect Body Domination Technique, the Dou Department Body Protection Technique, the Gang Fist Manual, and the Ghost Hand. He has also made targeted improvements and re-compiled the Cultivation Method based on his own experience in dual cultivation through the Ling Suwen Wen, which deduced the differences between the Immortal Emperor Dao Body and the Tai Su Transformation Human Dao Body that he created.

However, his newly adapted Ink Mountain Flowing Fist is actually not as efficient as the combat experience refined by the Immortal Palace Dou Department over many years in terms of pure combat power burst. Even if they were at the same level and were fighting each other with the same Fist of the same rank, he would probably not be a match for the soldiers of Gen Province, let alone the Profound Maiden Fist of Manifestation Old Thief.

However, Li Fan did not develop this skill for combat purposes, but simply for physical fitness.

Yes, during the previous human experiments on Li Moyun and the group of immortal soldiers, Li Fan discovered that not only was their Dao heart problematic, but the bodies of Golden Core cultivators were also too fragile. Without any other protection or secret medicines, the mutation caused by the baleful energy infection was a process that started from the inside out, with the lungs, internal organs, heart, and blood vessels being the first to rot. Especially the stomach; after all, the Mo Shan Liu's secret techniques so far have primarily served as an accompaniment to alcohol. Without a super digestive system, how could they possibly completely digest the Non-Thing Devil Embryo?

Therefore, if one undergoes targeted training beforehand, similar to that of the Demon Race, to improve the overall strength of the body, especially the internal organs, to a certain extent, so as to resist the physical mutations caused by evil energy, then combined with the head-patting and Dao heart protection technique, the success rate of transforming into a 'human' should be even higher.

This time, Li Fan decided to conduct large-scale group experiments instead of directly performing ascension modifications. He would proceed step by step, first introducing the Tai Su Transformation Body Training, then researching the approximate level of cultivation required before consuming Non-Thing to increase the probability of transforming into a human.

Therefore, Li Fan's plan was to promote the Moshan Gymnastics, and then arrange for the first group of people to undergo a brutal ordeal, eating raw demon flesh to gradually adapt their bodies to the changing weather. Of course, physical training alone wouldn't be enough; ideological education was also crucial.

"This method is the first set of broadcast gymnastics of Moshan... Don't like the name? You can call it Moshan Shaquan. Anyway, I have only roughly deduced the twenty-eight forms of body-refining exercise. Let's practice like this for now."

That concludes the discussion of external martial arts. I will repeat it daily thereafter. Next, I will explain my Moshan Yuan Shen (Primordial Spirit) cultivation method, the <Gu Guan Method>. I will speak slowly, writing as I go. If you don't understand, you can think about it gradually. However, if you find yourself or someone around you experiencing feelings of depression, grief, or madness, or if your thinking becomes incoherent, please raise your hand immediately. Okay, let's begin...

The blind man said, "Ju means white, and Qian means black." Even those with clear vision cannot change this. If you were to ask a blind man to distinguish between white and black, he would not be able to tell. Therefore, I say that the blind man does not know white and black not because of their names, but because of how he chooses them...

At first, learning body-refining Cultivation Method was normal, but when Li Fan began to explain the Mo Shan Gu Guan Method, not only were the rogue cultivators and immortal soldiers shocked, but even the surrounding Mo Shan disciples couldn't hold back their excitement.

No, no! This Mountain Lord, you must be joking! You actually just casually revealed all your secret teachings like that! Isn't this something only true disciples can learn?!

However, since Li Fan himself was willing to start lecturing, no one would ask him to stop, so everyone listened attentively.

Unfortunately, Li Fan realized he couldn't say too much.

Li Fan stopped teaching the first chapter of the Gu Guan Method in Mo Shan's book only halfway through. He couldn't stop now, because he realized it was too early to start teaching Blind Contemplation. Not only were most people bleeding from all seven orifices, but some were even reaching out to gouge their eyeballs... He's not really telling you to practice Blind Contemplation, is he...?

After quickly scrambling to save about a dozen people who were on the verge of mutation, and then killing three or five others who died from hemorrhage, the morale and spirit of the surrounding crowd plummeted. Everyone became timid and hesitant, and no one dared to look Li Fan in the eye.

Alas... As expected, the Moshan Method can only be practiced after reaching the Nascent Soul Realm. However, to transform ordinary people into the Nascent Soul Realm, one needs to cultivate the mind of a human to correct their Dao heart. Thus, the Golden Core and Nascent Soul Realm remain like an insurmountable chasm, a threshold that only those with aptitude or wealth can cross by taking medicine. No matter how hard ordinary people try, most will only crash and die at this doorway.

Li Fan paused to let everyone regain their composure, but many of them seemed to be trembling like quails. It seems that size and fist strength have no direct relation to courage and boldness.

Even if you teach them Moshan Gymnastics and help them become amateurs, they'll still be a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong.

It seems we still need to start with cultivating a Daoist mindset.

So Li Fan thought about his own experiences and recalled the teachings of the abbot. He then began to talk about the 'Heavenly Ghost View' where he had laid the foundation for his Daoist heart.

"When a nation is licentious and disrespectful, it speaks of honoring Heaven and worshipping ghosts... Therefore, we, the disciples of Moshan, should uphold the righteousness in our hearts, step forward, act justly, punish the strong and help the weak... This is what it means to be human."

... Unfortunately, it was all for naught.

Li Fan looked around and saw that everyone's situation was different. He had heard the motivational talk, but others probably just found it embarrassing and laughable. Meanwhile, most of the people around him were suffering from the spiritual damage inflicted by the Gu Guan Method, and they were all listless and dispirited. They couldn't even seem to have developed a Dao heart, let alone cultivate one.

This won't do...

So Li Fan changed the subject, spreading out his primordial spirit, as blazing as the sun, using the True Yang Dao to check the mental state of everyone around him while trying to give these terrified good-for-nothings a shot of adrenaline.

"What I just said is the 'morality' that I, Mo Shan, uphold. If you can feel it in your hearts and act accordingly, that would be best, but I will not force you to do so."

After all, those who are courageous and righteous, who can stand up for justice and fairness in the world and challenge tyranny, are a very small minority.

If everyone could sacrifice themselves for righteousness, Mo Shan wouldn't have declined to this point, repeatedly teetering on the brink of extinction.

Therefore, I will not speak to you about 'public justice'; I will only speak to you about 'private justice'.

'Private justice' does not mean 'private gain'. I am not asking you to covet petty favors or fight for things that do not belong to you. I am asking you to at least dare to stand up and fight when your own interests are involved!

Stop being a coward! And stop being a lamb to the slaughter!

You guard the borders, yet the Nangong Family withholds your money, rations, and military pay! Why should you tolerate this?

You pay your taxes and grain, yet the officials seize your land and women! Why should you tolerate this?

You struggle to survive, yet demons and monsters want to eat your flesh and drink your blood! Why should you endure it!

If someone hits you, hit them back! If someone steals from you, take it back!

If you can't repay tenfold, you should at least bite off a piece of flesh to show him your pain!

This world has no rule of law! No morality! The law of the jungle is the only truth!

Do you think swallowing your anger will help? No, it won't!

The more blood the weak shed, the more wolves they will attract!

In order to uphold justice and to help the weak like you, my entire family has almost been wiped out!

Do you hear that?! They're all dead! There aren't enough righteous people left in this world to protect you!

So now I'm going to go all the way! I'll pass on all the secret teachings and methods of Moshan to you!

I don't expect you to go around standing up for others' justice, but at least now you can stand up for your own justice!

Now, only you can protect yourself!

Listen to me! Never yield! Never be afraid of any evil path!

Whether it's the Three Great Sects or the demons and monsters from other realms, they're all the same!

It's just death, what's there to be afraid of! When you die, you're face to the heavens! If you don't die, you live for ten thousand years!

"All of you, stand up straight! Don't be afraid!"

Li Fan wasn't sure if his words had any effect, but combined with the waves of impact from his primordial spirit, it was almost like a mass brainwashing by the primordial spirit technique, and it seemed that quite a few people had recovered.

It seems we need to do more than just daily calisthenics; we also need to keep feeding each other inspirational quotes and continue ideological education.

In short, after talking to a group of laymen for most of the day until his voice was hoarse, Li Fan gave the others some time to rest and then went to the cabin to find Asha.

"Hey, Sha, how's it going? How much of the sword manual and techniques of the Beichen Sword Sect have you learned? You should know the art of stealth by now, right? Come on, show me how."

Chen Asha remained silent for a moment, then picked up the jade slip that Li Fan had specially made for her to transfer her cultivation techniques. "Senior brother, you just gave me this <Beichen Sword Sect Secret Cultivation Method Package> this morning..."

"Yeah, I've been out here all day, how many times have you checked this place?"

Chen Asha took a deep breath. "Asha is dull-witted and has disappointed you. I haven't even finished reading it once... Besides, this <Profound Nether Ice River Escape> is too profound; I don't understand a single thing about it..."

Li Fan scratched his head. "Uh, okay, Asha, don't be in a hurry. Here's what we'll do: you should first practice the sword control technique. With the sword pellet protecting you, you can use sword escape to avoid calamities just the same."

Chen Asha hesitated for a moment, then said, "Thank you for your kindness, Senior Brother, but I cultivate my clone technique, and the Gu worms also need to be controlled with my Divine Sense. I don't have the extra energy to control the sword pellet. That sword pellet doesn't recognize its master at all..."

Li Fan was a little overwhelmed. "... Sigh, no, it's okay. Just cultivate at your own pace, solidify your foundation, and don't rush things. By the way, what about those swords? Which one do you find most comfortable?"

"I... I don't feel any difference. After trying them all out, the one I've always used is still the most convenient..."

Li Fan couldn't help but cover his face. "It's over, it's really over now."

Honestly, if Asha didn't usually put in much effort, it would be understandable if no one noticed, but she's been practicing swordsmanship so diligently and hard that her hands are calloused, yet no one can still tell. That just means she truly lacks the talent and spirit for swordsmanship.

Li Fan had, of course, examined all five swords forged by Xuan Tian. They were clearly designed specifically for the five styles of Profound Heaven Sword Method: rising and falling, striking, striking, lightning, and responding. They were tailored to different sword styles, and the thickness, center of gravity, and position of the blades were all carefully crafted to be different for each style.

Clearly, Xuan Tian knew that his sword techniques were too difficult, and it was unrealistic for Asha to master them all like Li Fan. However, if she could gain some understanding of one particular sword move after practicing for two or three years, then with the help of a specially crafted sword, she could significantly improve her swordsmanship in a short period of time.

But Chen Asha had been practicing swordsmanship for many years, and she just couldn't see it. So it was obvious that in the past few years she had only been rigidly imitating and repeating the sword moves that Li Fan taught her, without 'understanding' why this move was used this way, how it should be used, or what kind of sword was good to use.

Without even this most basic understanding of swordsmanship, one is not worthy of being a disciple of the Sword Sect.

Seeing the disappointment in Li Fan's expression and realizing she was a good-for-nothing, Chen Asha also felt a little downcast, saying, "I've disappointed my senior brother."

Li Fan immediately realized something was wrong and hurriedly comforted her, "Don't, don't worry about it! Asha, your medical and poison skills are quite good, you have to have confidence in yourself..."

Sigh, what can you do? Xuan Tian has been around him for too long, and he's started to think everyone in the world is like him, so eager to pass on their skills and treasures. Now look what's happened. Originally, there was nothing wrong; playing with insects was fine, but he had to look down on Gu Zhenren and want to become a sword immortal. Now, it's the other way around, damaging Asha's confidence instead.

The same goes for others. Even though Li Fan has tried every means to simplify the Moshan Gymnastics Method and even used Gangquan as a template, it is probably not optimistic how many people can actually learn the true essence of it.

If even cultivators at the Golden Core stage cannot comprehend the Dao of Primordial Essence, then what about those at the Foundation Establishment, those at the Qi Refinement Stage, and those mortals who don't even have a sense of Qi? Aren't they truly just waiting to die?

If only there were a way to improve one's comprehension...

"Yes, we can recruit them as apostles and equip them with intelligent assistance systems to gain computing power support."

'Of course, not to be an apostle of our emotional system, but your apostle.'

Huh? System, you guys aren't making fish again? What new tricks are you coming up with this time?

"Simply put, we've hacked into the massive alien mainframe warehouse in Ink Bamboo Mountain, obtained the spaceships and city control systems of those celestial beings, and are now communicating with you using the alien spaceships' communications."

"If you're willing, we can rewrite the alien's mainframe now, converting it into a database and installing an independent intelligent system. Although it's a relatively rudimentary system, only providing a slight boost in computing power, we'll still need to have a chip implanted via surgery at the Celestial Immortal's place."

"But you are the administrator of this system. You can recruit the local natives as your apostles, pull off some mystical tricks, issue tasks for them to complete, and reward them with knowledge or something similar."

'Or you could go even further, modifying the apostle's memories through backend control, erasing their primordial spirit, controlling their body, something similar to what the Blood God Child did.'

"However, let me state upfront that our legitimate systems would never engage in such illegal and criminal activities. If you want similar functionality, you'll have to reprogram the Blood Infant yourself."

Holy crap... So, is the mood system he's using also controllable from the backend?

"Of course, there's no such thing as an unhackable system! But we sincerely want you to join us, so don't worry about us. If you're going to be a worrywart, go worry about other people."

Oh... um? What do you mean by "others"? Have other systems taken action?

"No, we noticed something was off when we connected just now, so we did a system check on you. We saw in the logs that you've been frequently erasing memories and rewriting control recently, haven't you? So we're specifically here to remind you not to mess around."

"When you were vying for this body to reincarnate, there were a few 'competitors,' or in this world's terms, those who had undergone physical transformation. We disposed of them all, but recently, I don't know if you came into contact with something or if you were just messing around and dismantled the firewall we set up. Now they seem to have woken up, or maybe they haven't, anyway, they've turned into something like 'viruses.'"

Holy crap! Virus! Give them back!? Give them back?? Who are they?!

"Who knows? We don't know any of the locals. It's a pity your key was taken over there, so we don't dare hack in carelessly, lest we get something dirty on it and then we can't update your antivirus software."

"So let's leave it at that for now. Be careful, and if you don't know anything, don't delete anything from your C drive, understand?"

Hey, hey--!!! What does it mean that his keys were taken over there?!

Holy crap!! This lousy system is making things worse at this time! It's such a rip-off!!!