Cultivation Techniques (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

Chapter 33: Immortal Cultivation Technique (Please Keep Reading)

The Inner Martial Path was divided into five major realms: Qi Sensing, Body Cultivation, Reality Preservation, Innate, and Grandmaster.

Qi Sensing was the first realm.

So long as one sensed that elusive feeling of qi, one had successfully broken through.

Body Cultivation was the second realm.

Inner martial artists used inner qi to nourish the limbs, bones, extraordinary meridians, and eight channels within their bodies, allowing inner qi to flow unhindered throughout the body. Thus, this realm was also called Body Nourishment.

It was about cultivating a body suited to the practice of the Inner Martial Path.

Martial arts had never merely been about brawling and brutality.

The true aim of martial arts was to push the human body's capabilities to their absolute limit.

The third realm—Reality Preservation—was to continuously compress one's inner force and nurture a wisp of life-bound true qi, preserving it within the dantian.

Filial Righteousness Hall's temporary base.

Inside the secret chamber.

Master Ma and Xu Xing sat facing each other. As Xu Xing sat cross-legged and refined his inner qi, Master Ma continuously adjusted his breathing rhythm, striving to match Xu Xing's pace.

He divided his attention between two tasks.

While circulating the Rock Heart Method, he also began circulating the Noon-Midnight Art.

Before long, Master Ma's entire body relaxed. In meditation, he entered the boundless reaches of space. Drops of sweet dew hung above his head, like dew congealed upon lotus leaves, slowly descending through the crown of his head and entering his body. From top to bottom, from within to without, they washed his entire body clean...

Drawing upon this spiritual dew that poured through the crown of his head, he blended it with his own inner force and sent it all into Xu Xing's body, using the inner force of the Noon-Midnight Art to cleanse Xu Xing's body.

"The Noon-Midnight Art I cultivate is fully called the Noon-Midnight Purification Art. It is also known as the Noon-Midnight Life-Seizing Art..."

"The words 'noon-midnight' refer to how this art is best cultivated at the midnight and noon hours. Midnight is when yin wanes and yang flourishes; noon is when yang wanes and yin begins to flourish... Midnight and noon accord with Kan and Li, making them the best times to practice."

"And purification means only after washing away all the leaden dust does gold reveal itself. It is said that this art was a foundational inner cultivation method of Complete Reality Taoism, personally compiled by Patriarch Chongyang..."

"I will now use the inner force condensed through this art to help you break through!"

Before transmitting his inner force, Master Ma had informed Xu Xing of this beforehand.

Ordinarily, it was most suitable for someone cultivating the same technique to help another break through a realm.

However, he was an exception.

His Noon-Midnight Art was a true Daoist transmission, of a higher level than ordinary inner cultivation methods.

Their palms met.

In an instant, a surging wave of inner force rushed into Xu Xing's body.

This inner force was vastly different from Xu Xing's own.

The inner force he had cultivated was like solid rock—tough and slow-moving—while this inner force was more like a sweet spring in the mountains, gurgling endlessly onward. As it passed through his meridians, not only did it bring no aching or obstruction, it instead carried a cool sensation of being nourished...

Blocked meridians and acupoints were forced open.

"Guanyuan, Huiyin..."

"Shanzhong, Yutang, Xuanji..."

While being nourished, Xu Xing also worked hard to guide this inner force into forming a circulating cycle within his body, urging it to merge with his own inner force and thereby give birth to a wisp of life-bound true qi.

One great circulation.

Two great circulations.

Seven great circulations.

After nearly two hours of transmitting inner force, Master Ma's reserves were beginning to fail.

Just as he hesitated over whether to withdraw his hands, Xu Xing proactively separated their palms. Then his breathing rhythm gradually quickened, and the speed at which he circulated the Rock Heart Method suddenly surged by a great margin.

"Did he succeed?"

The knot in Master Ma's heart loosened slightly.

If Xu Xing had failed to break through, Master Ma might have had to continue transmitting inner force. They were only one step away, after all—no matter what, they could not give up.

But now that Xu Xing had succeeded, he could finally breathe easy.

A wisp of true qi was condensed from thirty-six wisps of inner qi.

Xu Xing looked inward. Under the guidance of his will, he drew a wisp of earth-yellow true qi from his dantian and sent it continuously coursing through the meridians of his flesh and blood. As the true qi flowed throughout his body, his five viscera and six bowels were constantly tempered, becoming far tougher and weightier than before.

Once one entered the Reality-Preserving Realm, one could be considered a renowned expert in the martial world.

One could even attach one's life-bound true qi to a weapon and use it to slay enemies.

As for why Master Ma..., Forget it. No need to mention Master Ma.

Xu Xing shook his head.

He could not fathom Master Ma's realm.

Kid Brother could already wield a blade with qi; Master Ma was naturally even more so.

Yet he reckoned Master Ma should lie somewhere between the Innate Realm and the Reality-Preserving Realm. According to martial-world rumors in the Phoenix Creek Kingdom, masters of the Innate Realm could kill invisibly with falling flowers and plucked leaves. Though Master Ma could wield a blade with qi, he seemed a step short of those legendary Innate masters.

Before he had decided to pursue the imperial examinations in his youth, he had also inquired into some secrets of the martial world.

It was just that... the people of the martial world were truly too mediocre, incapable even of being a match for a hundred men, so he had gone straight into the imperial examinations to become an official.

The reason he said Master Ma stood between the Innate Realm and the Reality-Preserving Realm—

Was because what Master Ma cultivated was an immortal cultivation technique...

The first step of the Noon-Midnight Art was to draw spiritual essence in from the outside world.

The internal cultivation methods of martial arts, meanwhile, extracted vital essence from food, then circulated it through the meridians to form inner qi...

"Scholar..."

"You must pass!"

"The techniques of the Complete Reality Dragon Gate Sect are worth far more than a thousand pieces of gold!"

At the thought, Xu Xing's eyes grew much hotter.

Even the basic inner cultivation of Complete Reality Taoism possessed such capability.

Then what a sight would the true immortal cultivation techniques preserved by Complete Reality Taoism be?

Only after Patriarch Chongyang encountered Patriarch Lü and Han Zhongli on Mount Zhongnan and was imparted the wondrous principles of Complete Reality did he establish the path of Complete Reality and begin cultivating immortality...

"Thank you for your trouble, Master Ma..."

After storing two strands of natal true qi, Xu Xing finally ended his cultivation, rose to his feet, and thanked Master Ma.

Thanks to Master Ma using the Noon-Midnight Art to help him break through, the aftereffects of his breakthrough did not seem particularly severe.

That alone was enough to leave him deeply grateful to Master Ma.

"We're brothers-in-arms."

"There's no point fussing over such empty formalities."

Master Ma casually picked up a pot of cold Three-Cannon Tea, poured each of them a cup, drained his tea in one gulp, then waved his hand.

Xu Xing was now a hall master of the Filial Righteousness Hall.

Though he did not directly command any brothers, in terms of status, he was only one rank below Master Ma, a Red Pole.

Besides, Xu Xing had previously given him the Rock Heart Method. That was something that could strengthen his family's foundation. Even if he himself had no use for the technique, the younger generations would always be able to use it.

Not just anyone could cultivate the Noon-Midnight Art.

In over a hundred years, he was the only one who had succeeded.

Kid Brother only counted as half of one.

To put it nicely, Kid Brother possessed the heart of a child, so cultivating Daoist inner arts was smooth sailing for him. To put it bluntly, Kid Brother was not quite right in the head, a little worse off than an ordinary person...

The "opportunity" he had given Xu Xing had only cost him a favor.

If Xu Xing failed to pass as a scholar, then that opportunity would be nothing but an empty check.

"One thing is one thing."

"A favor should still be clearly distinguished."

Xu Xing did not simply go along with the flow, laugh heartily, and let today's matter pass.

Instead, he solemnly spoke of the favor Master Ma had done him.

Master Ma could choose not to care about it, but Xu Xing could not.

Otherwise, he could ask Master Ma for help today—but what about tomorrow? The day after?