Research

By the time Feng Xiu came out of the training room, night had already fallen.

Feng Shouzhuo followed behind him, panting heavily. He was drenched in sweat, but his eyes shone with a joy he had never felt before.

Feng Xiu took a packet of Qi Gathering Powder from his waist pouch, ate one dose, then handed another to him.

Feng Shouzhuo took it and tossed it straight into his mouth.

"Once you get back, take some time to think it over," Feng Xiu said. "For the next few days, practice the Five Force Fist more. Don't deliberately chase after the Dragon Snake Martial Seal."

Feng Shouzhuo stared at him. "Why?"

Why?

Feng Xiu smiled. "You don't even know where the Sea of Qi Acupoint or the Hundred Meetings Acupoint is. You forced your way through it entirely on the strength of your blood and qi, and you clearly don't have enough control over your power when you strike."

"The Five Force Fist is a great martial art that goes straight to the heart of your blood and qi. Studying the meridian routes more will do you more good than practicing the Dragon Snake Martial Seal."

Feng Shouzhuo blinked, then seemed to genuinely consider Feng Xiu's advice.

Just as he was about to reply, Feng Xiu spoke again.

"Besides, your foundation was given to you by someone else." Feng Xiu had thought it over for a long time, but in the end, he decided to reveal a little.

After a moment of silence, he continued slowly.

"No one can say for sure whether this thing can be taken back. Build up the core of your blood and qi first. Even if something really happens later, you'll still be a proper Blood Burning expert."

At once, Feng Shouzhuo seemed dazed. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

Compared to Uncle Zheng's earlier tactful hints, Feng Xiu's words were quite blunt.

"Big brother, what do you mean by that?" Feng Shouzhuo seemed to realize something and hurriedly pressed him.

Thinking it over, both Han Che and Uncle Zheng seemed to be keeping something from him.

Even when he had advanced to Blood Burning in just six days, a feat unprecedented through the ages, they hadn't praised him much. Instead, they kept telling him to build a solid foundation.

Han Che had also repeatedly warned him not to let down the genius blood and qi in his body.

He'd thought those were just words meant to encourage him to train hard. But hearing this now, it seemed that wasn't what they meant.

"All right, don't dwell on it. Focus on your cultivation."

Feng Shouzhuo's expression shifted, but he still pushed his thoughts aside and nodded.

"Big brother, I understand."

Feng Xiu smiled and gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

Feng Shouzhuo watched Feng Xiu leave through the door, his eyes clouded with bafflement as he tried to make sense of it all.

Then his thoughts stalled. He drew a deep breath and continued practicing the Five Force Fist in the room.

In the bedroom,

Feng Xiu sat down in a chair, and the calm, unruffled look he'd been maintaining vanished as he sucked in a sharp breath.

"Damn, that was brutal!"

The intense pain he'd been suppressing for a long time suddenly surged through his chest. Feng Xiu grimaced in agony.

He rubbed his chest, and the pain finally eased a little.

"The Dragon Snake Martial Seal really lives up to its reputation as a top-tier technique. Tss..."

Feng Shouzhuo had no idea how to hold back or regulate his power. He was at the stage where a flurry of punches could beat a master, and every strike came at full force.

Feng Xiu had taken one of Feng Shouzhuo's brutal blows head-on. It had nearly killed him on the spot.

Only because his foundation was solid and his vitality astonishingly strong could he act as if nothing had happened after taking the hit.

Otherwise, anyone at the Body Refining stage would have died after being struck by that seal.

After catching his breath, Feng Xiu was still turning over in his mind the punch Feng Shouzhuo had formed with his fingers.

The two surges of force were savage and overbearing, yet also soft and uncanny. He still couldn't tell which move it had been, the Green Snake Seal or the Flood Dragon Seal.

But judging by its power and sheer destructive force, it was simply terrifying.

As Feng Xiu thought about it, his heart stirred again. He picked up the Dragon Snake Martial Seal and studied it closely.

The Dragon Snake Martial Seal had no restrictions on one's cultivation level, but Blood Burning was still the ideal stage for it.

Only after the blood and qi in one's body formed a cycle of their own, gathering into force, could the Dragon Snake Martial Seal unleash its full power.

Otherwise, after one or two moves, the blood and qi in the body would be spent.

It was like when he'd first learned to combine the Five Forces into one and could only strike six or seven times.

Besides the two external seals, it also included a unique Dragon Snake Breathing Method.

Sense the intent of the dragon and snake, guide the qi with intent, and let the qi follow the mind.

"You can put off learning the seals, but the breathing method is worth a try."

As he read, Feng Xiu decided to give it a try. He sat cross-legged on the bed in the Vajra posture.

He closed his eyes and focused, visualizing the two energies of the dragon and snake between heaven and earth, as the book described.

"Whoosh..."

At the same time, he followed the breathing rhythm: breathe out for six counts and breathe in for nine. With each light inhale, he imagined dragon qi entering through the crown of his head.

Before long, his deep martial arts foundation helped him find the trick.

His breath flowed down the Conception Vessel to his dantian. As he exhaled, he imagined snake qi entering through Yongquan at the soles of his feet, then flowing up the Governing Vessel to his dantian.

The two energies met in his dantian and gradually merged into one.

Feng Xiu slowly opened his eyes, a flicker of delight in them.

"This feels much more profound than the Five Force Fist. The Five Force Fist only concerns itself with the flow of blood and qi, while the Dragon Snake method actually divides qi into two energies."

Feng Xiu pondered. In terms of its underlying concept alone, the Dragon Snake Breathing Method stood head and shoulders above other martial arts.

With the dragon and snake as its guiding principles, the hands as yin and yang, and specific seals paired with the movement of qi through the meridians, it could bring out the full potential of one's blood and qi.

"No wonder Shouzhuo's move was too much for even me. Not only can it combine the Five Forces of the Five Force Fist into one, it can also unleash two entirely different currents of power."

The more Feng Xiu studied it, the more satisfied he became.

He even began to grow so arrogant as to think that, once he mastered the Dragon Snake Martial Seal, even the Eastern Army's Commander-in-Chief, Li Xuanshuang, might not be anything special.

But the moment the thought crossed his mind, his excitement gave way to cool-headedness.

The former was obvious. The Lineage had already decided on its strategy to shift toward martial arts, and this was the best way Feng Xiu could think of to save the family business.

With troubled times gathering on the horizon, getting into the martial arts trade was still better than clinging stubbornly to the grain business.

"Li Xuanshuang, Su Wantang..."

In his estimation, they were an extraordinary combination of master and wife.

Su Wantang couldn't bring herself to be ruthless with Shouzhuo. She'd even left him such a rich martial arts inheritance.

That woman truly cared for Shouzhuo.

The next day.

After getting up, Feng Xiu once again went to the courtyard to hone his martial arts.

His spar with Feng Shouzhuo the day before had taught him a great deal.

No matter how Feng Shouzhuo had gained his strength, Feng Xiu still couldn't overcome an entire major cultivation realm and subdue him with ease.

The claw techniques built around the Vajra Finger Blade could only hold him off for a little while.

After completing a set of the Vajra Skill, Feng Xiu let out a long breath, picked up the tea that had long since cooled, and took a small sip.

His mind kept replaying the details of the previous day's spar.

"Using the Five Forces combined as one to generate power, then pairing it with the initial concept behind the Tyrant Fist, I should be able to send my blood and qi straight to both palms in an instant."

"That way, I can turn it into a variation of the fist technique!"

Feng Xiu's eyes lit up slightly as he considered it.

The Tyrant Fist's sudden burst of blood and qi surged upward from the dantian in one powerful rush.

It hadn't yet formed a true "blood gate," but Feng Xiu didn't need that now. What he wanted was the explosive impact of that sudden rush of blood and qi.

Feng Xiu pressed his lips together. His expression grew serious as he walked to a decorative round stone beside the covered walkway.

The stone's rough surface had long since been ground smooth by a craftsman. Feng Xiu ran his hand over it.

Beneath his dark jade fingernails, his fingertips felt the stone's slight chill. Feng Xiu closed his eyes and sank into a low stance.

He casually shook out his strong right arm. In an instant, his gaze sharpened.

His right arm shot out. His five fingers clenched into a fist, and his blood and qi tightened like a drawn bowstring. Halfway through the punch, energy surged up from his dantian.

He shifted from fist to palm. His right palm turned scarlet in an instant.

Then he pressed his fingers together like a cone. His blue-black fingertips sliced through the air with a cold gleam.

Bang!

Fragments of stone sprayed from the huge round stone before him. Its hard surface burst open, leaving a hole shaped like a fist.

His entire right hand and forearm had sunk into the opening, buried deep past his wrist.

"Rrrip!"

Feng Xiu's lips curled slightly. He bent his five fingers, drew them inward, then suddenly yanked his hand back.

With a single tear, the hole widened dramatically!

"Not bad, not bad. A piercing strike that goes straight through. If that had been flesh and blood, I doubt anyone could have stopped it."

His claw technique's trump card had begun to take shape, and Feng Xiu looked thoroughly pleased.

"I'll call this move Bone-Breaking," he murmured after a moment's thought.

[Martial Killing Move: Vajra Bone-Breaking]

A brand-new panel appeared, displaying a new line of text.

Unlike the martial arts he'd recorded before, which raised his four attributes, the lettering on this panel looked heavy and substantial.

Feng Xiu was momentarily stunned. Just one glance was enough for him to sense the many martial concepts and ideas woven into the words.

"It can do that?"

"So, if I create the Tyrant Fist later, will it show up on the panel too?"

Feng Xiu found this astonishing, but after thinking it over, it also seemed perfectly natural.

Self-created moves didn't simply appear out of thin air. The idea had first taken shape during his spars with Han Che and the others.

Because Feng Xiu was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold back, he'd incorporated grappling and restraint techniques into the Five Force Fist, which had originally trained his sinews, bones, and skin while combining attack and defense.

At the time, he'd wondered why grappling wasn't included in the Technique Record if it could record martial arts.

Now he understood. Grappling was just a technique, not something that would be recorded on its own.

And in the killing move Bone-Breaking, the Tyrant Fist's blood and qi surged up from the dantian before he struck with a fist and reached out with a claw.

In essence, if the move weren't meant to kill, he could use a grappling technique as he punched. The different techniques could be fused together.

"Come to think of it, if I keep creating more and more moves, won't the text get smaller and smaller?"

After putting his thoughts aside, Feng Xiu returned to the training room.

Some of the materials from Feng Shouzhuo's breakthrough a couple of days ago were still left over. Early that morning, Feng Xiu had sent Uncle Zheng to prepare the medicinal bath for the Bone Refining Claw.

But he'd barely taken a couple of steps when a door creaked open, and Feng Shouzhuo emerged, looking bright-eyed and full of energy.

He took a deep breath of the rising sun's light, then headed to an open space and was just about to assume his stance.

But he suddenly sensed a gaze on him, and turned to look.

"Big brother?"

Feng Xiu smiled. The approving look in his eyes faded, and he offered a little encouragement.

"Keep at it."

"The rosy morning clouds are enormously beneficial for training in the martial arts."

"All right, big brother."

Feng Shouzhuo smiled and nodded too.

Uncle Zheng and Han Che had been unimpressed with him, the family's genius, but they held his big brother in the highest regard.

Even though he'd advanced to Blood Burning, brimming with vitality and greatly improved in both spirit and energy, someone who'd spent years sleeping until well past midmorning still found the choice between getting up and staying in bed a vexing one.

He'd certainly been getting up without delay and no longer needed a maid to attend to him. Feng Shouzhuo thought he'd been rising early enough.

But he hadn't expected Feng Xiu to be up even earlier.

From the looks of it, he'd already been training for quite a while.

"Big brother, I want to take over some of the family's affairs." Feng Shouzhuo steadied himself, then spoke to Feng Xiu with solemn resolve.

He'd originally only meant to bring it up as a casual thought, but with the bold temperament of a martial artist taking hold, his hesitation melted away and he spoke plainly.

"Hm?"

"What made you bring that up?" Feng Xiu smiled.

Feng Shouzhuo scratched his head and grinned. "I just feel like I can't keep sitting around doing nothing."

"Once your cultivation has stabilized, I'll hand some of my work over to you. It's too early to talk about that now."

Seeing that Feng Xiu hadn't refused outright, Feng Shouzhuo smiled too. He put his distractions aside, raised his fists in salute, and began practicing as if no one else were there.

Feng Xiu watched him for a while longer.

Even when Feng Shouzhuo's moves showed small inconsistencies here and there, he didn't interrupt him.