Cultivating Dou Qi

Sensing qi was only the first step in cultivating battle aura, and also the most basic one. After sensing qi, one had to try using the mind to touch it, to draw close to it. Qi was a formless, unconscious thing; it would not converse with you. Thus, the purpose of continuously touching qi with the mind was to cultivate one's perception of it, to increase one's compatibility with it, until that compatibility reached a certain degree. Only then could one proceed to the second step of cultivation—controlling the flow of qi.

At the beginning, this process would be incomparably difficult. You would feel as if qi were a disobedient child: when you told it to move, it stubbornly refused; when you did not let it move, it darted wildly everywhere, leaving you helpless. People with bad tempers would often fly into a rage and vent for a while before cultivating again.

Therefore, the step of controlling qi required patience. One had to guide qi bit by bit, increasing familiarity bit by bit. Gradually, only after a period of time would you discover that your control over qi had greatly strengthened. Only when this process became practiced and smooth could you proceed to the third step—gathering qi.

So-called gathering, as the name implied, meant gathering the guided qi together, storing it, and distributing it within the muscles, so it could be drawn on whenever needed. As long as the second step was completed well, there was basically no difficulty to the third step.

Under ordinary circumstances, this was the complete method for cultivating battle aura. However, some comparatively excellent battle aura cultivation methods had a fourth step, a step independent from the other three—purification.

As everyone knew, the purer battle aura was, the easier it was to control, and it could also unleash the greatest power with the least consumption. Imagine, among people of the same strength, you only used one percent of your battle aura yet accomplished the destruction others could cause only by using two percent or even five percent of theirs. How much of an invisible advantage would that be?

But purifying battle aura was very difficult. Without the correct method, it was simply impossible. This also made those rare battle aura methods that possessed a way to purify battle aura incomparably precious.

Aside from the strength of the body, the level of one's mental strength also affected the speed of battle aura cultivation to a certain extent. The stronger one's mental strength was, the greater the advantage one would possess when sensing qi, controlling qi, and gathering qi.

Under normal circumstances, an ordinary cultivator—meaning the kind of fellow who had trained to the peak of Soldier Rank—possessed physical strength of roughly one hundred and fifty jin with one hand, three hundred jin with both hands, while his mental strength was also at a normal level. For such a person to cultivate basic battle aura and sense the qi within his muscles would take about a year. Then, beginning to make contact with qi until completely controlling it would require at least two years. Finally, gathering a certain amount of battle aura and thereby entering Guardian Rank would require around another year.

Basically, the entire process took four years before the foundation could be considered properly laid. The best age to cultivate battle aura was starting from thirteen. If one was too young, the body had not grown enough, and cultivating battle aura would cause harm to the body's muscles, bones, and so on. If one was too old, the qi within the muscles would be hidden even deeper, making it even harder to develop.

Thus, the period from thirteen to sixteen was the best age for cultivating battle aura, and at the same time the most important period. The foundation laid during this time would have a crucial influence on future cultivation.

Diya tightly shut his eyes, mobilized his mental strength, and spread it over his body, carefully sensing the fluctuations of qi within his muscles. Time passed bit by bit. Diya remained motionless, as if he had fallen asleep, but his mental strength still enveloped his whole body. In his heart, he cast aside all stray thoughts and focused wholeheartedly on sensing the fluctuations of qi.

Like this, an entire night passed. When the darkness gradually receded and a streak of fish-belly white appeared at the edge of the sky, Diya opened his eyes blankly. Then his gaze changed, and he looked around. That pile of fire had long since gone out. The dry wood had been burned into ash, and when the mountain wind blew, it scattered loosely all around.

Last night, he had begun entering the state of battle aura cultivation, but he had not expected to fall asleep without realizing it. Perhaps it was because he had run around all day yesterday and had been too exhausted, causing him to sleep extremely deeply last night. Fortunately, no fierce beasts had approached. Otherwise, it would have been dangerous.

Diya stood up and tidied himself. There was no breakfast again. Fortunately, he had eaten very full last night, and now he felt no hunger at all. Picking up the longsword again, Diya continued climbing toward the mountain peak.

The morning sun gradually shed its warmth and revealed its ferocious side. Blazing gold poured down wantonly, shining on a black figure constantly climbing toward the mountain peak. Diya was drenched in sweat, muttering all the while about why the first fragment did not have air-conditioning abilities. Otherwise, it would not be so scorching hot.

For some unknown reason, Diya felt that today's temperature was especially high and the sunlight especially venomous. By noon, Diya had no choice but to find a shaded spot, set down the longsword, and rest. Aside from this damned sun, everything else was fine. At least when the mountain wind blew over, it was very cool and refreshing. Before long, all the sweat on Diya's body had already been dried by the mountain wind. After resting for a while longer, Diya simply leaned against a rock, closed his eyes, and began cultivating battle aura again.

He was very patient, not anxious at all. Although he still had not sensed the fluctuations of qi even now, Diya also understood the principle that haste made waste, so he had always regarded it with a calm heart.

Two hours passed. Diya opened his eyes again, ending his battle aura cultivation. The sunlight was no longer as venomous as before. Diya set out once more. The mountain peak was already close at hand. After spending nearly another two hours, he finally reached the summit. A raging gale blew past, making Diya's tattered long robe flap noisily. Standing on a huge boulder at the top of the mountain and overlooking the tiny world below, Diya felt the illusion of looking down on all living things arise in his heart.

The blazing white sun began to turn somewhat pale yellow and had already tilted westward. Diya rested for a short while, then immediately decided that he would spend the night on the mountain peak. But the most pressing matter now was finding food.

He began searching around the summit. Before long, Diya found an Azure Tiger that was just about to return to its little nest. This unlucky Azure Tiger naturally could not escape Diya's murderous hands, and was killed in just a few moves. Although the Azure Tiger's strength might not have been much weaker than Diya's, and its power might even have surpassed Diya's, a beast was still a beast in the end. It did not have much intelligence. It had a body full of strength and speed, yet could not bring them into play. It was buried beneath Diya's sword and became Diya's food.

Diya brought the whole Azure Tiger back to the little nest he had already prepared and immediately decided to live on this mountain peak for a few days, cultivate battle aura, wait for Diablo to wake up, then begin fusing with the second Hell Fragment. Only afterward would he start descending the mountain.

As for exactly how large the outside world was, Diya had only seen it through descriptions in books. Truly experiencing it personally was another matter altogether. How dangerous it was, how cruel it was, Diya did not know. He only knew one thing: the stronger his own strength was, the more secure he would be. If he could cultivate battle aura to the peak here, that would naturally be even better, but this was not a good plan, because the battle aura cultivation method was too rotten.

Diya began handling the Azure Tiger's meat while thinking. From the time Diablo fell into deep sleep to recover his soul power until now, it had become the second night. In other words, there were still two days before Diablo could wake up. Then he would stay here for two days and use this time to practice battle aura along the way, striving to see whether he could sense the existence of qi.

Mm, tomorrow he would still have to search the surroundings to see whether there was a water source. Otherwise, always drinking the blood of fierce beasts would become unbearable after too much. After finishing off another hind leg of the Azure Tiger, Diya let out a satisfied burp and stood up. The sky was shrouded in dark clouds, without the slightest starlight or the slightest moonlight. There were only dense dark clouds, one layer after another, surging. That low, heavy feeling pressed straight down, making one feel stifled.

"It really is changeable. It was perfectly fine during the day, and now it looks like a storm is coming again," Diya muttered. He hurriedly moved the Azure Tiger's corpse into the prepared little nest, a crevice beneath the cover of a huge boulder, just about large enough for two people to squeeze into. Now that there was only Diya alone, it seemed quite spacious.

Immediately after, Diya drew the longsword again and began digging up soil in front of the little nest, outside the cover of the huge boulder. After a short while, a trench twenty centimeters deep appeared, and on the side of the trench facing the little nest, Diya piled up soil twenty centimeters high. Then he dug another small pit about one meter in diameter and thirty centimeters deep.

Splash...

Raindrops the size of little fingers fell, striking Diya's face and making him react. He hurriedly burrowed into the little nest. A few seconds later, intense splashing sounds spread out, and the torrential rain poured down violently, as urgent as a waterfall. Before long, the trench Diya had dug was already filled with rainwater. It flowed along into the small pit, and after the small pit filled, it overflowed again, flowing down the mountain. Not a single drop entered Diya's little nest.

Seeing that the situation was just as he had expected, Diya smiled in satisfaction. Then, looking at those wildly splashing raindrops, he could not help thinking of Uncle Fu. He had already been gone for more than two months. He wondered whether Uncle Fu was doing well now, and whether he had already reached the royal capital of the Templar Dynasty. As he thought and thought, Diya then thought of Christiana, of that stormy night he had spent with her, and then of his meeting Christiana, getting to know her, and spending time with her. She was a very quiet beauty, and being together with her made people feel very relaxed.

He wondered whether Christiana was now wearing a white gauze dress, sitting on the balcony of a pavilion and watching the rain. Gradually, his thoughts drifted far away, and his mind sank into stillness. Diya naturally entered battle aura cultivation.