Heaven and Earth Profound Qi

Within the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion stood a dimly lit courtyard.

"That piece of trash spent the entire day reading in the Scripture Pavilion?" Ning Qianwu sat in a jade armchair, gently stroking the two wisps of mustache above his lips. Two piercing gleams flashed in his eyes.

Ning Han said, "Reporting to Father, I found it strange as well. I had thought that after Sickly Ning came back from the dead, he would definitely come looking for Wang Yunchong and me to settle the score. I had already prepared countermeasures, yet he seemed to have forgotten that we tried to kill him and instead spent the entire day reading in the Scripture Pavilion."

Ning Han was Ning Qianwu's son. He was eighteen this year, and by blood relation, Ning Xiaochuan should have called Ning Han his cousin.

Ning Xiaochuan had died because Ning Han had plotted against him. Ning Han had deliberately lured him to a brothel, then incited him to clash with other young wastrels. In the end, Ning Xiaochuan had been beaten to death by a single palm strike from Wang Yunchong, the "Celestial Elephant Marquis."

Several wastrel youths had forcibly covered up the matter, claiming to the outside world that Ning Xiaochuan had been angered to death after failing to win the courtesan.

If he had angered himself to death, naturally no one else could be blamed. The dead could not testify, after all.

But who could have expected Ning Xiaochuan to come back to life?

That day had frightened Ning Han and Wang Yunchong half to death. It was not that they feared Ning Xiaochuan coming to fight them to the death. He was merely a sickly invalid without the strength to truss a chicken.

What they feared was Ning Xiaochuan telling the elders of the Marquis Mansion about this matter.

Once the matter blew up, many people would be dragged into it.

Yet Sickly Ning had spent the entire day reading in the Scripture Pavilion. This move was truly impossible to fathom; even the deeply scheming Ning Qianwu found himself unable to see through it.

Ning Qianwu pondered for a long while before saying, "I have already sent word to the elders of the Marquis Mansion. Even if that little piece of trash goes to lodge a complaint, he will not be able to stir up much of a storm."

"What matters now is making sure no clues are left behind in the brothel. Everyone who knows about this must be made to shut her mouth forever."

"I understand, Father!" A vicious light appeared in Ning Han's eyes.

After nightfall, the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion was still brightly lit.

The sounds of swords continued to ring out from the Martial Arena. Many disciples of the Marquis Mansion were practicing swordsmanship beneath the night sky. Their sword qi gave off booming sounds. Once they grew tired, they sat on chairs at the edge of the Martial Arena, where servant girls would naturally come over to wipe their sweat and knead their backs.

Meanwhile, Ning Xiaochuan sat by the window in an upper room, a lamp lit beside him as he read Heaven and Earth Profound Qi.

This courtyard was comparatively quiet. Apart from him and Ning Xiner, there were only four servant girls attending them. Compared to the flourishing Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion, this courtyard was rather shabby.

According to the book, profound qi filled all of heaven and earth. Only those who possessed a Martial Heart Palace could sense its existence.

One could absorb profound qi into the body and store it in the Martial Heart Palace.

Blood flowed through the heart, carrying Martial Dao Profound Qi throughout the body. It tempered the muscles, bones, flesh, internal organs, and bowels, ultimately elevating one's constitution beyond that of ordinary people.

Ning Xiaochuan intended to follow the book's explanation and cultivate once.

First, he entered meditation.

He entered a state of forgetting both self and world, sensing the profound qi that existed between heaven and earth.

Ning Xiaochuan closed his eyes. After roughly half an hour, he suddenly sensed a faint current flowing from heaven and earth into his pores.

It was like countless tiny spirit dragons merging into his blood. The blood throughout his body began to boil, and his bloodline continuously trembled.

After one circulation cycle, the profound qi flowed into his heart and was stored within the Martial Heart Palace.

The Martial Heart Palace was like a brilliant star hidden at the center of the heart. Its space was vast, its sea of qi misty and boundless. Martial Dao Profound Qi dispersed from the blood and rushed into the heart palace, stirring the qi inside until it rolled and churned.

The amount of Martial Dao Profound Qi in his body had increased.

Ning Xiaochuan sensed that the speed of his blood flow had also increased slightly. The strength of both his bloodline and body rose accordingly, while his speed of absorbing Heaven and Earth Profound Qi grew faster and faster.

Just like that, his blood completed thirty-six circulation cycles throughout his body.

Boom!

Ning Xiaochuan's heart abruptly shuddered, and the profound qi between heaven and earth surged madly into his pores.

The Martial Dao Profound Qi in his Martial Heart Palace directly doubled.

Profound Qi Third Level!

"Cultivating the martial path is far too easy. In less than an hour, I actually advanced by an entire level." Ning Xiaochuan felt refreshed and brimming with strength. He did not sense the slightest difficulty in cultivation.

The Profound Qi Realm was divided into nine levels: the first three refined qi and condensed strength.

The middle three expelled qi to coil around the body.

The final three wielded finger qi like swords.

Ning Xiaochuan was currently at Profound Qi Third Level. If he advanced another level and reached Profound Qi Fourth Level, profound qi would be able to burst from his pores and envelop his skin.

When defending, profound qi would be as solid as armor, impervious to blades.

When attacking, profound qi would be as sharp as a battle sword. A single palm strike could split apart a tree as thick as a bowl.

Ning Xiaochuan did not know that he could cultivate so quickly because the Old Marquis had used his own Earth Martial Essence Qi to nourish Ning Xiaochuan's heart meridians for ten years.

A great amount of Earth Martial Essence Qi lay hidden within his blood. As he cultivated, that Earth Martial Essence Qi was stimulated from within the blood.

That was why, despite not cultivating at all, he had entered Profound Qi Second Level merely by sleeping through one night. It was no surprise that he could now easily step into Profound Qi Third Level.

The Old Marquis's Earth Martial Essence Qi was enough to turn an ordinary martial artist into a peerless expert. Ning Xiaochuan had only stimulated an extremely small portion of it so far. As his cultivation grew higher, this Earth Martial Essence Qi would be released even faster.

Of course, if Ning Xiaochuan could never repair his heart meridians in his lifetime, then he would never be able to obtain this power.

"Cultivating profound qi truly is marvelous. Through the bloodline, profound qi is absorbed into the heart palace, then flows from the heart palace back into the bloodline, nourishing the entire body and making it continuously stronger."

Ning Xiaochuan discovered something rather interesting. Whenever he circulated Martial Dao Profound Qi, the speed of his blood flow increased.

For an ordinary person's blood to circulate through the entire body once took roughly three minutes.

After entering Profound Qi Third Level, Ning Xiaochuan needed only two minutes for his blood to complete one circulation cycle if he cultivated deliberately.

In one hour, he could complete sixty circulation cycles.

An ordinary person could complete only forty circulation cycles in one hour.

In other words, the higher one's cultivation, the faster one's blood circulated and the faster one absorbed Heaven and Earth Profound Qi.

"According to the book, if one can complete ten circulation cycles in a single minute, the body will undergo a transformation, thoroughly transcending mortal flesh and becoming a Divine Martial Body. The power it unleashes is beyond what ordinary people can imagine. Incredible!" Ning Xiaochuan developed a powerful interest in martial cultivation.

In his previous life, he had read wuxia novels. Those highly skilled martial artists cultivated their dantian and extraordinary meridians, but that was all utter nonsense. He had dissected countless corpses and had never once dissected a single meridian. If the human body truly had a dantian, that would be the strange thing.

But blood vessels and the heart truly existed, and blood flowed through every part of the body. If Martial Dao Profound Qi were stored within the blood, it truly could irrigate the entire body and bring about an earth-shaking transformation.

Creak!

Ning Xiner returned from cultivating at the Martial Arena. Seeing that Ning Xiaochuan's room was still lit, she pushed open the door and revealed her delicate, beautiful face.

With a hint of reproach, she said, "Brother, your body is weak. Why are you still not resting?"

"Hehe! I was studying how to cultivate Martial Dao Profound Qi." Ning Xiaochuan smiled.

Ning Xiner asked, "Did you borrow a cultivation technique from the Scripture Pavilion?"

Ning Xiaochuan nodded. Picking up Heaven and Earth Profound Qi from the table, he said, "This one."

Ning Xiner was suddenly speechless. "That is not a cultivation technique at all. It is merely an ordinary book explaining Heaven and Earth Profound Qi. You can buy a copy on the street for five Small Coin."

"Ah? It is not a cultivation technique?" Ning Xiaochuan scratched his head.

If it was not a cultivation technique, why had he been able to sense Heaven and Earth Profound Qi according to the method in the book and even absorb it into his body?

Ning Xiner said, "Of course, those commoners cannot obtain genuine cultivation techniques, so they can only cultivate according to the basic methods in Heaven and Earth Profound Qi."

"However, their cultivation speed is extremely slow. They might spend several decades and still only reach Profound Qi Third Level or Profound Qi Fourth Level."

"No, I think what this book says is quite good, quite orthodox. It was definitely written by an expert." Ning Xiaochuan said.

Ning Xiner said, "Naturally, it was written by a remarkable expert, or else how could it have spread so widely? It is simply too basic. I could already recite it backward and forward when I was six."

"Brother, you have never cultivated the martial path, so you do not know the profundity of cultivation techniques. For example, our Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion's Heart Furnace Divine Canon uses the heart as a furnace, blood as fuel, and burning blood to create qi."

"Upon reaching the first level of the Heart Furnace Divine Canon, the speed of absorbing Martial Dao Profound Qi is ten times that of Heaven and Earth Profound Qi."

"Upon reaching the second level of the Heart Furnace Divine Canon, it is twenty times that of Heaven and Earth Profound Qi."

"This is a true divine canon technique. Compared to the Heart Furnace Divine Canon, Heaven and Earth Profound Qi is one on the ground and one in the heavens. They cannot be compared."

Ning Xiaochuan felt that the Heart Furnace Divine Canon had the air of taking a sword down a dangerous path. Its cultivation speed might indeed be fast, and it might indeed be a cultivation divine canon, but it was absolutely not the true great path.

It was not as orthodox as Heaven and Earth Profound Qi.

Thus, he decided not to cultivate the Heart Furnace Divine Canon. He would cultivate Heaven and Earth Profound Qi instead, using himself to communicate with heaven and earth. The human heart was a furnace, but was heaven and earth not also a great furnace?

Ning Xiner knew Ning Xiaochuan's constitution was weak and that he simply could not cultivate Martial Dao Profound Qi, so she did not say anything further. For someone who could not cultivate, was there any difference between reading Heaven and Earth Profound Qi and reading the Heart Furnace Divine Canon?

Ning Xiner worried about Ning Xiaochuan's health and feared that he would continue staying up late to read. Thus, she forcibly dragged him to bed.

Only after seeing him close his eyes did she return to her own room. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, she circulated her bloodline and cultivated the Heart Furnace Divine Canon, condensing Martial Dao Profound Qi.

Naturally, Ning Xiaochuan did not sleep. Instead, he lay in bed and sensed the profound qi between heaven and earth. The profound qi became active, flowing into his pores, invading his blood, and gathering in his heart palace.

His heart beat powerfully. A small blood-red sword floated within the lower left chamber of his heart, its light flickering as strands of tiny sword qi flowed from it and slowly merged into his blood.