Cultivation and the Influence of Bloodline (Revised)

He hadn't paid much attention when pulling out the wooden spear, but once he gripped it, Chen Jinyang realized his right hand was covered in a sticky, viscous substance. He lowered his head to look closely and saw the shaft was coated in yellow-black filth and slime, carrying a nauseating, acidic stench. Feeling as though he had swallowed a dead mouse, Chen Jinyang flung the spear away like a grenade, scrubbed his palm repeatedly in the dirt, and cursed loudly at the Goblin leader who was happily picking up the weapon in the distance. He then watched the back of the hopping, fleeing Goblin leader and flashed an internationally recognized gesture—a middle finger.

After this brief interlude, Chen Jinyang strolled over to the spot where William usually chopped wood. In the large clearing, tree stumps about a foot high were scattered among withered branches and fallen leaves. Several felled pine trees had yet to be cleared of their branches, and these were Chen Jinyang's targets. These otherworldly pines rarely exceeded thirty feet in height; their trunks were straight, the wood dense, and they were rich in resin, making them easy to ignite and long-burning. They produced very little smoke when lit and emitted a faint, clean fragrance, making them the most popular firewood in the North. Chen Jinyang quickly lopped the branches off a fallen pine, and once he had bundled it up with hemp rope, he set aside his tools and began his training in the clearing.

Chen Jinyang first practiced the Twelve Forms of Xingyi to familiarize himself with the movements before beginning to study the San-Ti Stance.

The San-Ti Stance, also known as the Foundation-Building Skill, is the source of all techniques and the root of practice for Xingyi Fist, one of the three great internal martial arts. For a martial artist, the primary goal is to temper the sinews and bones. Bones are born from essence and connected to the sinews; the stretching of sinews increases strength, while heavy bones signify marrow-fullness. The flexibility of sinews and the agility of bones depend entirely on training. Entering the path of martial arts begins with the skin; by strengthening the skin and hair, one seals the primordial essence to prevent leakage, accumulating essence to strengthen the body and solidify the foundation—this is the beginning of refining essence into qi.

However, Chen Jinyang's constitution was unique at this moment. Once he began the stance, his pores tended to close, causing the fire-attribute power in his blood to clash violently and become difficult to control. After much contemplation, Chen Jinyang concluded this was caused by an excess of essence-qi within his body. He devised a clever method: he would first use the palm-flame technique he discovered yesterday to vent the fire power from his blood, then proceed to the stance to practice sealing his acupoints and pores.

Drawing from the legends of the "Palm Thunder" in Daoist arts, Chen Jinyang dubbed this method of emitting fire from his palms "Palm Flame." After using the Palm Flame five times, he felt an immediate depletion within his body, entering a state of "sage-like" detachment. He used the San-Ti Stance to visualize his spine; it felt like a coiled dragon or a bending snake, trembling slightly. He dropped his center of gravity to his tailbone, causing his body hair to stand on end and seal his pores. As his spine stretched and vibrated repeatedly, his pores would close whenever sweat began to form, forcing the heat back into his body. Yet, Chen Jinyang consistently felt a sense of emptiness and fatigue; he understood this was because the five Palm Flames had exhausted his internal primordial qi. Although this body had an astonishing recovery rate, continuing to train this way yielded little effect.

Using the experience from his past life, Chen Jinyang stopped the stance training once he had mastered the control of his pores. Since his control was not yet sufficient, he familiarized himself with the force-generating methods of the five major Xingyi Fist forms before resuming practice of the Twelve Forms of Xingyi.

The Twelve Forms of Xingyi are: Dragon, Tiger, Monkey, Horse, Alligator, Chicken, Eagle, Bear, Horse (Tai), Snake, Harrier, and Swallow. The Dragon has the method of searching the bones; the Tiger has the courage to pounce on prey; the Monkey has the ability to scale mountains; the Horse has the power of its hooves; the Alligator has the agility to float on water; the Chicken has the courage to charge; the Eagle has the skill to seize; the Bear has the strength to stand tall; the Horse (Tai) has the talent to raise its tail; the Snake has the cleverness to part the grass; the Harrier has the precision to enter the forest; and the Swallow has the agility to skim the water. Contract the body to rise, hide the body to fall; rise like the wind, fall like an arrow—to hit is still too slow; rise like an arrow, fall like the wind—chasing the wind and moon without pause.

Chen Jinyang repeatedly corrected his posture, practicing transitions, inch-steps, quick-steps, and stomping-steps. His feet rose to drill and landed to flip; shoulders drove the hips, hips drove the knees, knees drove the feet, feet drove the shoulders, shoulders drove the elbows, and elbows drove the hands. Not until the sun set and the sky grew dim did Chen Jinyang stop his training, dragging the pine logs back to the village with the hemp rope.

Upon returning home, Chen Jinyang saw Mishaer looking quite pleased with herself, holding the Horn of Kor and scribbling on parchment with an ink pen. Her little face was dotted with black ink stains, and the Horn of Kor was covered in tiny handprints. A rusty iron sword, some flint, and a small vial of unknown liquid were scattered haphazardly on the bed. A mix of amusement and frustration, Chen Jinyang tidied up the items. Facing the little girl who wore an expression that screamed "I am innocent," he drew a bucket of clean water and gently washed the ink from her face and hands, also cleaning her beloved Horn of Kor.

After dinner, Chen Jinyang chopped the logs he had dragged back into two-foot segments and split them into firewood the thickness of a child's arm, stacking them up.

With this, Chen Jinyang's day of work was finally complete.

Lying in his sleeping bag, Chen Jinyang reflected on the problems he encountered during his training. To practice the San-Ti Stance, the excess primordial qi was difficult to control before using the Palm Flame to consume the bloodline power; yet, after the bloodline power was exhausted, there was insufficient primordial qi. If he only fired three or four palms, he could maintain control while retaining enough primordial qi—would that not be twice the result with half the effort?

Just as Chen Jinyang was pondering his training, he witnessed an unforgettable scene. Alos, who had also become bald, suddenly emitted a brilliant red firelight in his sleep, and the temperature in the room rose sharply. Thinking Alos was on fire, Chen Jinyang was about to intervene when he realized the light was merely an illusion, nowhere near enough to ignite his clothing. Recalling the strange dream he had on his first night after being reborn, he did not wake Alos but instead kept watch by his side. The red light eventually faded without any unexpected changes occurring, and Chen Jinyang, exhausted from the half-night of turmoil, finally fell back asleep full of questions.

The next day, Chen Jinyang woke up feeling sore all over; he had overexerted himself the previous day, and his body was struggling to adapt. He endured the soreness in his limbs, spent the morning feeding the horses, and then practiced horse stance while carrying water to train his lower body. In the afternoon, he returned to the logging site. Chen Jinyang fired the Palm Flame three times, then used the San-Ti Stance to vibrate his spine and close his pores. A heat flow surged within him, showing signs of breaking through his defenses, so he had no choice but to fire a fourth Palm Flame.

At this point, Chen Jinyang felt his body grow slightly empty. His spine vibrated in sequence from top to bottom, and the heat flow in his blood was no longer as violent or difficult to tame. When the heat flow prepared to break through his defenses, he instantly dropped his center of gravity to his tailbone, causing his hair to stand on end and forcing the heat back into his body. It circulated through his meridians and throughout his entire body, creating the illusion that every muscle and bone was being scorched by a faint fire. As his spine once again drew the heat to gather, he closed his pores again, forcing the flow to diffuse throughout his body. When the cycle reached the twelfth time, Chen Jinyang finally could no longer control the surging, flood-like heat and instinctively fired a Palm Flame. This time, however, the feeling of emptiness was slightly lighter than before, and his entire body was filled with a tingling, comfortable sensation.

Chen Jinyang was greatly encouraged. He practiced the five major Xingyi Fist forms several more times and then continued to diligently train the Twelve Forms of Xingyi.

As evening approached, Chen Jinyang chopped some thick pine branches and carried them back to the village on his back. The work of felling logs was a task assigned by the village chief, and that firewood was public property for the use of the night-watch militia. These pine branches, however, were firewood Chen Jinyang had prepared for his own family to survive the winter.

On the third day of practice, after firing the Palm Flame four times, Chen Jinyang stopped guiding his spine once the heat flow reached the eleventh cycle. At this moment, his skin was scorching hot and flushed red, his spirit was full, and his body seemed to possess infinite energy; his third limb, in particular, was as hard as iron, showing signs of excessive fire energy. Chen Jinyang continued to practice the Twelve Forms. Feeling that training only in the afternoon was insufficient, he decided to wake up earlier the next day to clear his morning schedule for training as well.

Winter was approaching, and the merchants traveling the long road were becoming fewer. The villagers of Gnome Village began to inspect their carts and clean their belongings, packing what needed to be packed and storing what needed to be cellared in preparation for the journey back to Mirabar.

However, this had little to do with Chen Jinyang. His life had become much more regular. He would wake up before dawn, carry water in a horse stance to feed the livestock, and after breakfast, he would shoulder his tools and head into the forest, not returning until the sun set in the evening. He spent his mornings controlling the heat flow and practicing the Twelve Forms of Xingyi, and his afternoons practicing the five forms: Splitting, Crushing, Drilling, Pounding, and Crossing.

The villagers had long noticed William's unusual behavior, but after seeing Alos become much smarter following the awakening of his fire bloodline, they assumed William's intelligence had also improved when his fire bloodline awakened. Thus, they paid it no mind.

The only unhappy person was perhaps the "little princess" Mishaer, as Chen Jinyang's mysterious schedule meant he spent much less time with her. Every time Chen Jinyang prepared to leave, she would look at him with an "I'm going to cry" expression, causing Chen Jinyang to flee in a panic, burdened by an inexplicable sense of guilt. Upon returning at night, he would have to offer delicious roasted meat as "atonement" in exchange for the cute little elf's laughter. This was game Chen Jinyang hunted in the forest; the wild animals were very plump as winter approached, and both Chen Jinyang and Mishaer loved these delicacies, their muscles filled with rich fat.

Chen Jinyang never tired of this life. The life of a fugitive in his past life had left him weary and desperate; that dark, bloody journey had brought his martial arts and skills to their peak, but it had also severed his path to a higher realm—a master filled with despair in his heart could never step into the transcendent realm.

Weeks passed, and the weather grew colder, almost to the point of freezing. Chen Jinyang's progress in his training accelerated, and he felt he had almost recovered, if not surpassed, the peak physical strength of a "Hua-Jin" master from his past life.

Whenever Chen Jinyang felt he could easily control the heat flow within a limited range, he would increase the number of cycles. By now, he could control up to thirty-seven cycles.

Chen Jinyang could now fire the Palm Flame seven times, and the power of each strike had increased significantly. His once stiff, hard muscles had become slightly smoother, and his regrown eyebrows and fiery red crew cut gave him an attractive, flame-spirit-like allure. The only downside was the excess fire energy; even on cold nights, using icy well water to cool himself down had little effect, which was truly an embarrassing and helpless situation.

Chen Jinyang was very worried he would lose control, because lately, even a mare could make him feel distracted, which was quite dangerous. He feared that if this continued, he might lose his sanity.

Of course, this was not what Chen Jinyang needed to worry about most right now. His first priority was to consider how to ensure the three siblings safely survived the cold and long winter.

Over the course of more than a month, Chen Jinyang had integrated into this strange family and village. He had learned a few simple daily phrases in the Common tongue. After Sailu revealed that both brothers had awakened sorcerous bloodlines, the villagers no longer considered him a simple fool, but rather a budding spellcaster who was slightly smarter than before but still slow-witted and surely incapable of learning complex magic. The now-smarter Alos was already able to easily cast some simple magical cantrips, such as a small flame the size of a candle or a gust of warm air.

Whenever Chen Jinyang performed some strange actions, the villagers were not surprised; they were merely amazed and envious of the magical power that could turn a fool into someone smarter, and perhaps even a little jealous.