Drunkard

The person Chen Wu was going to meet was none other than Wu Chengyi.

Since he had nothing else to do, he might as well go see Cloud-Grasping Iron Hand.

Outside the eastern gate of the prefectural city stood a large fenced-off area pressed against the city wall. This was the livestock market of Jincheng Prefecture. The smells of animals, fodder, and manure mingled together, forming a peculiar stench.

Chen Wu looked around and saw horses and camels settled in rows inside the enclosures. He hadn't searched for long before spotting Wu Chengyi busy in front of a horse.

Wu Chengyi held a wooden brush and was grooming the chestnut horse, his expression utterly focused.

"Brother Wu!" Chen Wu called softly.

Wu Chengyi turned around, and the moment he saw Chen Wu, delight spread across his face.

"Daoist!"

Though he spoke, his hands didn't stop. He continued grooming the chestnut horse.

"Wait a bit, I still have some chores to finish!" Wu Chengyi said as he brushed.

"You're meticulous about your work!" Seeing how seriously Wu Chengyi took the job, Chen Wu praised him sincerely.

"My dad teases me too. He says I take better care of livestock than I do of my own father. Guess what I said to him?"

"What?"

"I said, 'Dad can't be used as livestock, so why bother taking such good care of him?'"

Chen Wu barely managed to keep a straight face. "And your father...?"

"He gave me a good beating right then and there!" Wu Chengyi said with a laugh.

"Go ahead and finish up. I'll wait." Afraid he'd burst out laughing if they kept talking, Chen Wu hurriedly let Wu Chengyi get back to work.

"Sure!"

Wu Chengyi picked up the pace. He fed and watered the remaining horses, wiped them down and brushed their coats, and even inspected their horseshoes.

His deft movements had a certain beauty to them in Chen Wu's eyes. They reminded Chen Wu of those videos of people trimming donkey hooves he'd seen online in his previous life. They were all so satisfying to watch.

By the time Wu Chengyi finished, half an hour had passed. He gathered up his tools, washed his hands, and called out to Chen Wu.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Wu Chengyi said. "Did you come to find me for drinks and meat, Daoist?"

Remembering that he still had to work on his Jade Bone that night, and that drinking wouldn't be suitable, Chen Wu replied, "Meat sounds good, but I can't drink today. I'll treat you."

"Bad timing, huh?" Wu Chengyi asked, a little suspicious.

"Very bad timing."

"Then I won't make things difficult for you, Daoist. I'll drink today's share myself." Seeing that Chen Wu was set on it, Wu Chengyi didn't press the matter. "But it has to be good liquor! I've been out of jail for a few days, and my mouth's been so dry I could grow feathers!"

"Sure!" Chen Wu said with a smile.

"What do you mean by this? Are you trying to buy me off?"

Guo Xuchu looked at the stack of silver notes before him, perplexed.

"Why would I indulge in such a pipe dream?" Yang Yuchun, sitting across from Guo Xuchu, shook his head. "I just want to tell Star-Pulling Sword something. Do you know who gave me these notes, worth two hundred thousand silver dollars?"

"What's the story?" Guo Xuchu narrowed his eyes.

"These are a gift from Qiao Jisheng, the only son of Qiao Weisheng, presented to the Crown Prince's Mansion."

"He's here?"

"He is, and he came quickly. So quickly that none of us expected it."

"That bastard!" Guo Xuchu suddenly understood. He stood up and cursed, "That bastard!"

"He really is a bastard! But the Crown Prince's Mansion has decided to protect him!"

"You're really taking him in?"

"We're taking in Zhong'an Bank."

"Fine! Fine! Fine!" Guo Xuchu said it three times, his tone conveying something between anger and sorrow.

"Good! Good! Good!"

At a wine stall in the eastern gate market, a plate of hand-pulled mutton sat on the table alongside a plate of beef shank, a dish of lamb liver, and a plate of peanuts.

But Wu Chengyi seemed not to see the food. He picked up the wine jar and started drinking, leaving Chen Wu staring at him in astonishment.

"Ah, now that's good liquor!" Wu Chengyi took several big swigs before setting down the jar and wiping his mouth. "This Highland Barley Wine from Hehuang sure packs a punch."

Seeing Chen Wu watching him, Wu Chengyi didn't feel the least bit awkward. "I, Wu, just love a drink. When I was in jail a while back, I was practically dying for one."

"I'm treating today, Brother Wu. Drink up."

Chen Wu could tell this was genuine love of drinking. Back in his previous life, some of the older folks in his family were the same. They could happily put away half a jin with nothing but a few peanuts to go with it.

"I'm making you spend money, Daoist," Wu Chengyi said. "I've only been out for a few days, so I hardly have any silver on me. Next time, next time I'll make it up to you."

"It's only a little money for drinks. Don't worry about it."

Chen Wu didn't have any particular purpose, so he simply chatted with Wu Chengyi.

To his surprise, the more they talked, the more they hit it off. Wu Chengyi was, after all, a Zhoutian Realm expert, and much of what he knew about martial arts opened Chen Wu's eyes.

"You mean... the Pulse-Opening Realm has lesser and greater stages?"

"Yeah! Don't they teach you that at Golden Wind and Drizzle Tower?"

Don't blame Golden Wind and Drizzle Tower for the actions of individual assassins! I'm the one who didn't know. I'd forgotten a ton of memories, damn it.

"How are the stages divided?"

Wu Chengyi didn't dwell on it. He answered directly, "Lesser Pulse-Opening is what people usually mean when they say Pulse-Opening. All the hundred meridians are opened, and the inner and outer realms merge, breaking down the divide between internal and external cultivation. After that, you can bring both together as one, cultivate them side by side, and release your true qi beyond your body."

"That's how they put it, but people have their limits, so even when you cultivate both, one will still take priority. If you start with internal cultivation, you'll still focus on circulating qi and building up your power afterward. Strengthening your protective true qi is just an added benefit. But if you practice an external style, you'll be able to release Astral Energy from then on, tempering a Protective Astral Qi. You won't pay much attention to circulating internal energy through your dantian."

Chen Wu listened intently, forgetting even the mutton in his hands.

"But Greater Pulse-Opening..." Wu Chengyi paused slightly. "To advance further at that stage, you have to break through the divide between the human body and the heavens and earth, letting the meridians absorb the power of heaven and earth directly."

"The power of heaven and earth?" Chen Wu was a little baffled. Had this damn thing turned into immortal cultivation?

"Do you know why we can practice martial arts?" Seeing Chen Wu's confusion, Wu Chengyi couldn't help showing off a little.

Chen Wu had never really thought about it. Ever since he'd transmigrated, the fact that people in Great Shun could practice martial arts had been part of the world's basic setup, so he'd simply taken it for granted.

"I'd be grateful if you could explain it, Brother Wu." Chen Wu wanted to hear how people in Great Shun understood the matter.

"I don't really understand it either. I just heard it from someone at the Academy of Sciences." Wu Chengyi unexpectedly turned modest. "In our world, there's a kind of energy that you can't see or touch... Uh, that's what they called it. Only the bodies of martial artists like us can absorb this energy. Practicing martial arts is really just a way of making it our own."

The Great Shun Academy of Sciences really did research into everything!

"Greater Pulse-Opening means the meridians absorb this energy directly, without it first being accumulated and transformed by the body."

"Actually, once you reach the Mystic Realm, you can merge with this energy and keep it flowing without end. Even if you're badly injured, you won't die for a while. Greater Pulse-Opening doesn't have the same miraculous qualities as the Mystic Realm, but it can still count as a lesser Mystic Realm."

So that was how it worked. The greatest peculiarity of this world of Great Shun was the existence of this energy, which was what had given rise to martial arts.

"Then how do you cultivate Greater Pulse-Opening?" Chen Wu asked eagerly.

Wu Chengyi answered without hesitation. "I don't know!"

"You don't know?"

"Lesser Mystic Realm is harder to cultivate than the real Mystic Realm." Wu Chengyi tipped back the wine jar and drained it. "With the true Mystic Realm, as long as your cultivation method is right, there's at least a narrow path to follow, and you know which way to go. But the lesser Mystic Realm depends on each martial artist's own fortuitous encounters. Whether you manage it or not comes down entirely to fate."

Ah, so much for getting excited!

No, wait! Chen Wu suddenly remembered that the next step in cultivating the Heaven-Intercepting Dao-Exposition Method seemed to have something in common with Greater Pulse-Opening.

Sure enough, whenever there was a path, someone would try to walk it. They just might go about it in a rather absurd way.