Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique

Yang Ning's life settled into a rhythm.

At dawn he drank in the Sun Purple Qi, by day he fished and practiced boxing in the water, at night he meditated, with the sky as his blanket and the earth as his bed.

In his spare time, he quietly wandered around, ostensibly searching for Tuo Buchuan, but in reality cataloging plants, animals, insects, and minerals.

He had become something of a hermit of Qin Mountain.

His original plan to hide his talent was abandoned, because he discovered that as long as he controlled his blood flow rate, his Qi-Blood Field would not be sensed.

In other words, even if he cultivated Qi-Blood and advanced to Body Tempering Triple Layer, he could still disguise himself as a fresh Second Layer rookie.

How could ordinary cultivators control their blood flow rate? Once their physical bodies grew strong, their blood flow naturally sped up, and the Twelve Divine Forms contained no relevant tricks.

But Yang Ning's Calm Lake Lone Boat Meditation Method sought a quiet heart, a spiritual tranquility.

When the heart was still, the blood flow naturally slowed.

However, this was only a low-level breath concealment technique. If someone deliberately angered him, or if he made a large movement, the effect would break.

So Yang Ning thought of another method of concealment.

Since Qi-Blood was a field, and fields could be superimposed, they could naturally also cancel each other out.

Coincidentally, blood vessels were divided into arteries and veins, and the corresponding meridians were divided into Yin and Yang.

The Qi-Blood Fields generated by the Yin-Yang Meridians had opposite directions, with the Yang meridian stronger and the Yin meridian weaker, since the heart pumped blood outward, and the intake speed was certainly not faster than the output.

Although the difference in speed was small, it still existed, causing the Qi-Blood generated by the Yin and Yang meridians to be unequal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

If controlled improperly, the two Qi-Blood Fields would not cancel each other out, but instead interfere with Qi-Blood circulation due to field superposition—the so-called Qi-Blood Clash.

If Qi-Blood Resonance were accidentally triggered, death and dao dissolution were not impossible.

This was a more severe case of Qi Deviation.

But Yang Ning could use his Spirit Realm perception to control his Qi-Blood, making the Yin and Yang Qi-Blood Fields equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, thus perfectly canceling them out.

Throughout the entire process, not only was nothing emitted outside the body, but the cancellation itself was a body-tempering process, which could even be used for cultivation!

"Since this is a technique for canceling Yin and Yang Qi-Blood Fields, I'll call it the Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique."

The Black Tortoise took the form of a turtle and a snake, one still and one moving, corresponding exactly to the Yin-Yang meridians and the artery-vein blood vessels.

The core of this technique was Qi-Blood control, but it also tested computational ability; without sufficient calculation, it could not be mastered. But Yang Ning did not lack computational ability, and after a little experimentation, he succeeded.

Yang Ning then thought that this only stabilized his Qi-Blood. If he combined it with the Calm Lake Lone Boat Meditation Method, he could even calm his breathing, heartbeat, and even his spirit.

The Black Tortoise lay motionless for years, which also aligned with the meaning of Calm Lake Lone Boat.

The Calm Lake Lone Boat Meditation Method was already available, but Yang Ning could not achieve Constant Stillness; once he Entered Stillness, he could no longer control his Qi-Blood. In other words, the Calm Lake Lone Boat Meditation Method and the Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique could not be used simultaneously.

But this was only temporary. As Yang Ning practiced the Calm Lake Lone Boat Meditation Method over time, his body remembered this state, and gradually he could enter it even while awake.

That is, he advanced from Entering Stillness to Constant Stillness.

By then, the two techniques could be used together. However, since the Black Tortoise already carried the meaning of Calm Lake Lone Boat, Yang Ning did not give it a new name; the combination was still called the Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique.

After activating the Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique, Yang Ning's entire aura immediately retracted. Apart from the heroic physique and dignified posture brought by martial training, not a trace of sharpness could be seen.

Conjuring a Water Mirror, Yang Ning studied himself for a long time, feeling he looked like a dancer who had practiced Latin for years, or a slightly fit scholar who was still weak and powerless.

Not at all like a martial artist or a cultivator.

"This technique suits me perfectly!" Yang Ning touched his nose. Yes, this was exactly who he was—a gentle, humble, harmless person!

However, while his temperament was right, his appearance still fell short.

Yang Ning came from a farming family; the beauties had all been married off to landlords, leaving none for his father.

Yet he had inherited the best of his parents' ordinary features—thick, well-shaped eyebrows, a square and upright face, giving him a handsome and extraordinary look.

This was also why he had earned so many people's favor and recommendations; the ancients valued appearance greatly.

If he had been plain-looking, the inventor of the Curved Shaft Plow might well have been the county magistrate's son.

But his slightly sunken eye sockets and narrow, long eyes gave him a somewhat gloomy look, and paired with that determined gaze, it always gave people a strong sense of aggression.

With this face, he wouldn't even need special makeup to play Ying Zheng in the entertainment industry.

This wasn't his fault. As a transmigrator with a built-in cheat, he had been an official for four years and served as Minister of Works for two.

Holding great power, controlling countless lives, and having a word that could decide a nation's rise or fall—you would be aggressive too.

This kind of appearance was no problem in a feudal dynasty, since you were at the top.

But in a cultivation world, he instantly became a small fry. So why did he have to be so handsome and aggressive?

Someone might come after him just because he was too handsome, or because he glanced at them the wrong way.

"To adjust my appearance, I'd need the Eighth Level of Body Refinement, and bone structure is heaven-given; changing it would affect luck and cultivation." This wasn't his previous life, where plastic surgery was freely available.

Here, cutting into your face could affect the integrity of your meridians and blood vessels, and thus your own path.

"Glasses?" That was a good idea. Cultivators weren't nearsighted, but they had even more eccentricities; people did all sorts of things.

Especially artifact refiners—they could forge all kinds of strange things. Wearing a pair of glasses was perfectly ordinary!

But that was a matter for later; he hadn't even formally started learning artifact refining yet.

So before putting on glasses, he could first narrow his eyes.

Yang Ning caught a small tortoise and studied its eyes.

Yes, that was exactly the look.

Narrowing the eyes wasn't the same as squinting; it was more like half-open, half-closed, similar to the eyes of a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, a deity statue, or a tortoise.

And Yang Ning found that this look wasn't without reason.

The eyes were windows to receive external information. Closing them halfway halved the observable information, naturally reducing the data the brain had to process. The freed-up mental capacity could be used for rest or meditation.

One or two days might make no difference compared to others, but over one or two years, or ten or twenty years of accumulation, the gap would become considerable.

Wasn't cultivation exactly about accumulating bit by bit like this to surpass others?

Of course, closing them completely would be even more effective, but in situations requiring open eyes, half-open and half-closed would do; when cultivating wholeheartedly, closing them entirely—the two didn't conflict.

"Breathe in, breathe out!"

A mouthful of purple qi swallowed into his belly marked another brand-new day.

Yang Ning checked the time. From disembarking the ship until now, twenty-five days had passed.

His progress over these twenty-five days had been extremely fast.

Once the Qi-Blood Field appeared, it would begin actively tempering the body, and its efficiency was far higher than simply eating and practicing boxing.

This was why the Stance Realm and the Body Tempering Realm were two separate realms—once qi and blood were born, stances became much less important.

If the progress speed of the Second Level of Body Tempering was 1, then the Body Tempering Triple Layer was 5; for those with exceptional talent, it might be 10!

Thus, although Yang Ning had cultivated for nearly a month before generating qi and blood, in just twenty-five days, his qi and blood intensity had multiplied nearly a hundredfold, spreading from his heart to his limbs and bones, and even the active meridians had already birthed a Qi-Blood Field.

In wuxia novels, this would be like opening two meridians and becoming a newly minted expert.

This speed was actually still slow, because Qin Mountain was an ordinary mountain range with sparse spiritual energy. The fish in the river, though large, had poor qi and blood quality, nowhere near the meat he'd eaten on the ship.

If he were still on the ship, Yang Ning was confident he could take another step forward and enter the next realm!

"Lin Tianheng, you deserve to die!" Yang Ning cursed inwardly, then turned his head to glance at the distant waterfall—this had become a habit after waking up each day.

He thought it would be empty as usual, but suddenly, he seemed to see a faint glimmer?

"Hm?" Yang Ning immediately activated his Deep Blue Eye to look, only to realize it wasn't a fluorescent light, but a youth in a gray robe leaping over from afar.

"Who is this?" Yang Ning asked.

He was just a bookboy and shouldn't make friends everywhere, but Deep Blue had recorded everyone's names, appearances, and even origins and relationships during the days on the ship.

So if he didn't recognize him, Deep Blue should.

"Xia Yi, a prince from a small country in Western Splendor, a formal disciple," Deep Blue said.

"Oh." He didn't know him. If it were someone from the Northern Plains, he might have, but that wasn't important. What mattered was whether he could discover Tuo Buchuan behind the waterfall.

Xia Yi naturally had no idea someone was watching him from 330 kilometers away. He had been diligently searching for Tuo Buchuan for over twenty days, turning into a wild man, even his white clothes now gray!

Seeing the waterfall and pool before him, he excitedly jumped in.

But he didn't dare wash for too long; if he delayed, he might miss Tuo Buchuan!

"Oh? What's this?" Xia Yi also spotted a Seven-Colored Rainbow Silver Fish.

Tuo Buchuan had killed all the Seven-Colored Rainbow Silver Fish inside the waterfall, but he hadn't bothered with the ones that had swum out earlier, so a few remained.

But Xia Yi had no time to read books and didn't recognize this fish. He only thought it was beautiful and figured that if he couldn't find Tuo Buchuan, offering a pretty fish to Lord Lin Tianheng wouldn't be bad either!

So he dove straight in to catch the fish.

Originally, the fish here were dull and stupid, not fleeing when they saw people, but after many of their kind had been killed a few days ago, the Seven-Colored Rainbow Silver Fish naturally knew to run.

And the direction they fled was, of course, where they felt safe—the place that had granted them evolution.

So Yang Ning watched as Xia Yi dove into the water, surfaced again, and then crawled toward the back of the waterfall.

"The hermit life is about to end," Yang Ning sighed. Although the conditions weren't as good as on the ship, living and cultivating here alone, without comparisons, pressure, or conflict, was actually quite pleasant.

He withdrew his gaze, since Lin Tianheng would be arriving soon.

He climbed down from the tree, then pretended to search for something, busying himself for over half an hour, until a warmth spread in his chest.

Pulling out the Communication Talisman, Yang Ning saw a line of text appear on it.

"Mission complete. Go to the highest point of your current location. A ship will come to pick you up."