Spirit and Martial Arts Unite

"Student Xu Yuan, here to learn the unity of spirit and martial arts."

Handing over the twenty spirit stones for tuition, Xu Yuan watched the other party beam as she accepted the cloth bundle, then wrote his name into the register on the desk.

"Come with me."

Motioning for Xu Yuan to follow, the girl rose and walked into the building behind her.

It was a single-courtyard residence, but spacious inside, about the size of a basketball court from his previous life. The girl led Xu Yuan to the side room on the left and stepped forward to knock on the door.

"Sir, we've taken in another student today."

"Let him come in."

A voice echoed from within. The girl pushed open the door and entered. Peering in from behind her, Xu Yuan saw that the room had clearly been converted into a classroom.

There were over twenty stools, nearly all occupied. The instructor was a burly man six or seven feet tall, holding a teaching whip in hand, his eyes as large as bronze bells as he looked over.

"Come forward."

Gesturing for Xu Yuan to stand beside him, the burly man drew the whip back into his palm and asked casually, "This newly arrived student—does anyone in your family hold a post in an immortal sect?"

"No." Xu Yuan shook his head, not quite understanding what the man meant. Then the burly man raised the teaching whip in his hand, signaling for him to move back.

"Step back three rows."

Xu Yuan: "?"

He did as instructed, only to hear the man ask again, "If no one in your family serves in an immortal sect, do any of your relatives run businesses in Biyou Market?"

"No." Xu Yuan shook his head once more. The burly man waved his teaching whip again. "Then step back another three rows."

"Since no one in your family serves in an immortal sect, nor does anyone run businesses in Biyou Market, you ought to be a diligent fellow. But let me ask one more thing: has anyone in your family broken through to the middle stage of Qi Refinement?"

"Reporting to you, sir." Xu Yuan straightened his back. "No one in my family serves in an immortal sect, no one runs businesses in Biyou Market, and no one has broken through to the middle stage of Qi Refinement. To be precise, I, Xu Yuan, am alone here. I know no more than one or two people."

"Mm." Nodding in understanding, the burly man raised his teaching whip, about to tell Xu Yuan to find a seat in the corner.

Just then, as if possessed by a ghost, he suddenly asked, "Mm, since you do know someone, who exactly is this person you know?"

"Actually, I wouldn't say I know them." Xu Yuan steadied himself, then took a token from his sleeve. "It's only that a certain lord asked me to handle something and gave this item into my keeping. There's some connection, that's all."

"What... hm?" His eyes suddenly widened. The burly man rubbed them hard, and only after confirming that he was not seeing things did his relaxed manner vanish. He immediately raised his teaching whip and shouted at a student seated in the first row, "Ji Bai, get up. Quickly give your seat to this latecomer."

Ji Bai: "?"

Blankly staring at the burly man, he had not yet risen when the man slapped his forehead again. "Forget it. Little sister, bring over another stool and put it beside my lectern."

"You're too kind, sir." Waving a hand from the back, Xu Yuan casually found himself a seat. "Cultivators have keen ears and sharp eyes. It's all the same wherever I sit, so I'll sit here."

"Look at him. Just look at him! See how perceptive this student Xu Yuan is? When there is a classroom in one's heart, where can one not listen? Unlike you lot, always fighting over who sits in front and who sits behind."

The burly man clapped his hands in praise. The students below, however, shot Xu Yuan resentful looks. Wasn't it you who insisted on dividing us into ranks and assigning priority? How was it somehow our fault now?

Still, they had already paid their fees and hoped to learn something from him, so the students kept silent. They were merely curious what Xu Yuan had taken out just now to frighten the instructor so badly.

Once everyone was seated, the lesson began.

Though he was somewhat unreliable as a person, this burly instructor was actually quite skilled at teaching. Even Xu Yuan, who had only recently arrived, could understand the lesson. Gradually, he began to grasp what the unity of spirit and martial arts truly was.

The so-called unity of spirit and martial arts was the combined mobilization of vital blood and spiritual energy. The explosive force produced after merging the two into one was not a path of cultivation, but a genuine method for fighting enemies.

Those who cultivated this art needed sufficiently powerful physiques. Otherwise, the slight boost from vital blood would be better than nothing, but only barely.

Beyond that, this method demanded an extremely high degree of control over both spiritual energy and vital blood. If one rashly wielded both powers, they could become unstable and injure the user in turn.

Only after achieving all that could one release vital blood and spiritual energy in unison, and only then came their fusion.

Back in the mine tunnel, Xu Yuan had only managed a brief unification of spiritual energy and vital blood by chance, relying on the formidable traits of his Innate Martial Bones. That was why he had been able to withstand several of Tu Fang's blows.

Otherwise, no matter how old and frail that old dog was, no matter how depleted his spiritual energy had become, with his fourth level Qi Refinement cultivation, crushing two people who had just entered Qi Refinement would have been effortless.

A day's lesson lasted roughly two hours, for a total of ten days. Besides teaching the unity of spirit and martial arts, there was also plenty of instruction on controlling spiritual energy and vital blood.

An hour later, the lesson inside ended. The burly man called to the group, then drove them outside.

Next came practical training.

Standing before the students, the burly man gripped an iron rod he had pulled from who knew where and called out to them, "In the path of spirit-martial unity, control over spiritual energy and vital blood is merely the foundation, while their fusion is only the beginning. To truly master this path, heh."

The burly man raised the iron rod. In an instant, two clearly distinct streams of power, one red and one white, flowed from his hands toward opposite ends of the rod. Once they filled it completely, the two powers suddenly entwined and merged, finally becoming a state where you were within me, and I within you.

"Only when you can achieve this have you truly entered the gate!"

His expression grew far more solemn as he violently swung the iron rod down. With a boom, it smashed into the ground, instantly blasting a huge crater into the earth.

"Alright." Waving at the envious students before him, the burly man said smugly, "Go practice first, all of you."

At the back, Xu Yuan's gaze also held a trace of amazement. The spiritual energy and vital blood the burly man had released just now were not particularly strong, yet their combined force had produced an effect greater than one plus one.

If I could reach that level... Xu Yuan let his thoughts wander for a moment, then closed his eyes and began trying to guide the two forces within his body.

Having used it once before, Xu Yuan was not like a headless fly. He did his best to find that feeling from back then. After a long while, he seemed to catch hold of something. The next moment, as though the scene in the mine tunnel had replayed itself, one white and one red stream of energy suddenly surged from his body and entwined around his five fingers.

However, his vital blood and spiritual energy remained two clearly distinct streams, completely unable to merge together. Even so, that alone drew nearly every gaze present.

Even the burly man, who had already sat down nearby, suddenly straightened up. Then he muttered inwardly, "Here to smash my establishment?"