Body Refining Perfection, Fist Shakes the City

The night was as heavy as water.

The search within the city was being conducted with intense urgency; every soldier was taut with tension, probing every nook and cranny.

They hungered to find the fiend and claim the reward, yet they were terrified that they might truly encounter the monster in the next moment and lose their lives.

Under this oppressive atmosphere, two hours passed in the blink of an eye.

The deep night gradually faded into a hazy dawn.

The medicinal power within Zhao Cheng's body was finally fully consumed.

A layer of black, foul-smelling gunk coated his skin, causing him to wrinkle his nose in disgust.

But the good news was that following the marrow-cleansing and meridian-washing, his body had been completely reborn.

The amount of heaven and earth Qi he absorbed in a single breath was more than ten times what it had been before.

All the heaven and earth Qi stored throughout his body had now flowed entirely into his meridians.

Streams of Qi circulated through the meridians of his limbs and bones, continuously tempering the meridians themselves and the physique of the parts they governed.

Zhao Cheng silently sensed his internal state, gradually growing astonished.

The amount of heaven and earth Qi my meridians can contain is immense!

The Qi I accumulated over such a long time has all entered my meridians, yet it occupies less than one percent of their capacity, and as this Qi circulates, it is constantly being refined.

This meant that after his marrow-cleansing, the amount of heaven and earth Qi Zhao Cheng could store in his body was over a hundred times greater than before, and the Qi stored within his meridians would almost never dissipate.

This left Zhao Cheng feeling incredibly invigorated.

He stood up and used the little water left in the old man's house to dampen a piece of coarse burlap, wiping himself clean.

Then, he checked the system.

[Current Remaining Lifespan: 8564 years]

"There is still some time before I can leave the city, and the deduction won't take long. I'll first deduce the Qi Body Refining to see the results and determine if I can reach the perfection of Qi Body Refining."

"System, invest five hundred and sixty-four years to deduce the Basic Body Refining Technique."

[Beginning to invest lifespan to cultivate the Basic Body Refining Technique.]

[Year 1: Having undergone the marrow-cleansing and meridian-washing, you have shed your mortal shell. Your meridians are clear, and your innate talent is vastly different from before. Now, a single breath of yours absorbs more heaven and earth Qi than ten breaths did previously. You continue to breathe, rapidly absorbing heaven and earth Qi. The amount of Qi stored in your meridians grows, circulating and continuously tempering your meridians...]

[Year 10: You discover that the heaven and earth Qi absorbed through breathing prioritizes entering the major vessel along the center of your chest and abdomen. Relying on your limited knowledge of meridians, you identify this as the Conception Vessel of the Ren and Du meridians, so you begin to breathe diligently, preparing to fill the Conception Vessel with Qi.]

[Year 50: The Conception Vessel can store a vast amount of Qi. Through fifty years of persistent breathing, you finally fill it to capacity. At this moment, you realize the Conception Vessel governs nearly half of the meridians in your body; the Qi stored within it can circulate throughout your entire frame, but it ultimately returns to the Conception Vessel...]

[Year 120: Following the Conception Vessel, the Governing Vessel along the center of your back is finally filled. The Ren and Du meridians are now connected! At this point, your Qi circulation speed becomes extremely fast; in a single breath, your Qi can reach any part of your body...]

[Year 180: Through constant breathing, the Thoroughfare Vessel, which shares the same origin as the Ren and Du meridians, is filled. Your blood and Qi are nourished by the Qi once more; your blood surges like a dragon, and your strength increases significantly again!]

[Year 240: The Girdle Vessel circling your waist is filled with Qi, and the storage of Qi within your body becomes extremely stable. The already slow rate of Qi dissipation slows down many times over. Now, even if you stop breathing, your internal Qi can remain stored for decades or even a century.]

[Year 280: Qi branches out from your neck, flows through another meridian in your chest and abdomen, connects to the meridians on the inner thighs, and gradually fills the inner calves, saturating the Yin Linking Vessel. Your Qi circulation speed increases once again...]

[Year 320: Qi flows from the Governing Vessel in your neck, passes through your shoulders and ribs to the outer calves, and fills the Yang Linking Vessel. Your Qi circulation speed increases once again...]

[Year 400: The Ren and Du meridians connect to the Yin Heel Vessel and Yang Heel Vessel at your heels, and your Eight Extraordinary Meridians are filled. Countless streams of heaven and earth Qi circulate within your eight vessels, and your circulation speed increases several times over... From this point on, the eight vessels in your body act as the trunk, the Twelve Standard Meridians as the branches, and your muscles and bones as the leaves. As the Qi circulates, it naturally flows and radiates into your muscles and bones; every movement you make is supported by a massive amount of Qi...]

[Year 410: The Qi begins to rapidly temper and expand your meridians. At the same time, after fully connecting the eight vessels, every time the Qi completes a cycle, it condenses a little more...]

[Year 495: After hundreds of years of Qi tempering, your meridians are vast, unobstructed, and incredibly resilient. You have finally perfected your Qi Body Refining, breaking through the major barrier of Qi Body Refining!]

[Basic Body Refining Technique reached Great Perfection. This session of lifespan cultivation has ended.]

[Your lifespan has increased by three hundred years.]

"Huh? It reached perfection in less than five hundred years."

Zhao Cheng was stunned, his mood somewhat complex. "This Marrow Cleansing Pill is truly extraordinary; it is indeed worth ten thousand years of lifespan."

"Four hundred and ninety-five years to fill the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and break through the Qi Body Refining stage! If not for this Marrow Cleansing Pill, who knows how many ten thousand years it would have taken to reach perfection..."

As he thought this, the Qi within his body began to surge like a tide, rushing into Zhao Cheng's eight major meridians in an instant, like the sea pouring backward.

At the same time, his meridians were rapidly becoming wider and tougher. If Zhao Cheng's meridians had previously been mere sheep trails—where even if they were clear, the speed of Qi circulation could not be fast—

Then now, they were broad highways capable of accommodating eight carriages side-by-side. No matter how much Qi surged in, there was not the slightest congestion; they were vast and unobstructed to the extreme.

In a single breath, an endless amount of Qi could circulate through his entire body.

Moreover, a single inhalation now absorbed more Qi than a hundred inhalations had before!

The degree of Qi condensation was also more than three times what it had been.

This Qi was stored within the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, circulating back and forth in a continuous loop.

With every cycle, it flowed through the Twelve Standard Meridians to every corner of his body, then dissipated into his flesh, muscles, and bones, nourishing his physique and providing energy.

As for Zhao Cheng now, in terms of the mere content of Qi within his flesh and bones, he was already a cut above what he had been before opening his meridians.

But unlike before, the Qi within his flesh and bones could now be consumed at will.

Because every time it was consumed, the Qi within the eight meridians would instantly replenish it, without him needing to inhale again to draw it from the heavens and earth.

"I don't know if it's because of the marrow cleansing or the opening of the major meridians, but I seem to be able to guide and control the flow of Qi."

Zhao Cheng felt the surging Qi within his body. With a thought, a large surge of Qi instantly poured into his arm, filling it with endless explosive power.

This power demanded release. He threw a punch.

BOOM!

A sonic boom erupted, echoing for several miles around.

Sounds of chickens flying and dogs jumping immediately came from the surrounding houses. Feng Quan and Feng Ruo rushed out with panicked expressions, their faces filled with extreme vigilance.

"What happened?"

"My Lord, are you alright?"

Zhao Cheng looked at his arm in astonishment and waved his hand. "It is nothing. You two rest a while longer; we will leave the city at the first light of dawn."

Feng Quan and Feng Ruo remained uneasy, constantly observing their surroundings. "What was that sound just now?"

"It sounded like a mountain collapsing?"

"Could it be an earthquake?"

Zhao Cheng was caught between laughter and tears. The power of this Qi explosion was truly shocking, enough to make even Feng Quan mistake it for an earthquake.

Fortunately, he had reached perfection in body refining. After being tempered by Qi, his muscles, bones, and meridians were already capable of withstanding such an explosion, and could even withstand more.

Otherwise, given his previous physical strength, his arm would likely have suffered torn muscles and damaged bones from this blast.

Zhao Cheng prevaricated, "There is no earthquake. Perhaps the enemy troops are up to something?"

Feng Quan looked at Zhao Cheng suspiciously; he felt that the sound had been too close.

However, after carefully observing the surroundings and listening for a while, he found nothing unusual and had to go back to packing, still full of doubt.

Zhao Cheng stood in the courtyard, not continuing to deduce further.

Instead, he pondered carefully.

"Qi Body Refining is already the final realm of the Basic Body Refining Technique. To continue cultivating, I fear I must deduce a new technique."

"It is a pity that I am completely ignorant of things like meridians and acupoints. I need to supplement my knowledge in this area; otherwise, relying solely on groping in the dark will yield little result."

"Judging by the current situation, there is only one direction for further improvement: through the circulation of Qi, let the Qi be constantly condensed, then replenished, then condensed again, until it can be condensed no further."

"In this way, the quality of the Qi will continue to improve."

"Besides that, the Basic Body Refining Technique contains nothing regarding acupoints. I fear that acupoints are also a direction for a breakthrough."

"It is a pity that even until reaching perfection in body refining, I have not sensed the existence of any acupoints."

Zhao Cheng felt some regret, but the body refining technique was, after all, only a technique for refining the body—it was very basic.

What he was touching upon now was already equivalent to Qi cultivation for immortality. It was normal for the body refining technique to lack subsequent content.

Fortunately, with his current strength, he would have more than enough power to storm cities, seize strongholds, and capture enemy generals, so there was no rush to cultivate what came next.

By this time, Feng Quan and Feng Ruo had finished packing.

Zhao Cheng led the two toward the north of the city.

Along the way, the atmosphere in the city was heavy as water; one could barely see a soul on the streets.

Occasionally, a few passersby fetching water or buying rice wore expressions of panic and fear, their footsteps hurried.

There were large numbers of soldiers patrolling and searching the streets. Seeing that Zhao Cheng and his two companions looked normal, the soldiers immediately felt something was amiss and stepped forward to stop them.

"You three, what are you doing?"

Feng Quan said, "We are heading out of the city to hunt and gather firewood. This officer, what is going on today? There is hardly anyone on the road, and the atmosphere is so strange."

The soldier looked at the three of them with suspicion, "You don't know?"

Feng Quan's acting was not bad either, as he said innocently, "What happened?"

The soldier said, "Yesterday, some thieves entered the city and caused chaos, killing many commoners. Many people were terrified, and it even alarmed the General. The General has ordered us to guard strictly and not allow anyone to leave the city."

"I find the three of you rather strange. This matter has spread throughout the entire city; how could you not know?"

Feng Ruo quickly said, "The three of us live in a remote area, in the southeast corner, and we don't interact much with our neighbors..."

The soldier waved his hand, "Enough nonsense. Follow me to see the commander; we can discuss other things after the commander has questioned you!"