Martial Arts' Six Realms

"Brother Wang, are you going to the Martial Lecture Hall this afternoon?"

A hearty voice came from not far away.

Wang Xuance looked toward the sound and saw Xu Dalin, the very man he had exchanged moves with before.

Xu Dalin was upright and forthright, leaving Wang Xuance with a good impression.

"Oh, Brother Xu? What is this Martial Lecture Hall you mentioned?"

Wang Xuance hurriedly rose to his feet and cupped his hands in greeting, asking in confusion.

"Ah, it's the annual martial arts lecture held by the main military camp of White Light City's outer city!"

"You know that several major provinces of Great Zhou have recently fallen into rebellion. The army desperately needs fresh blood, but hardly any martial apprentices are willing to enlist!"

"And those who join the army must face an assessment three months later. To retain capable people, they specially established the Martial Lecture Hall to explain the path of martial arts!"

"I heard General Li from the outer city army will be attending this lecture. Quite a few people want to catch a glimpse of the general's heroic bearing!"

As he spoke, Xu Dalin revealed a yearning expression, as though the General Li in his words was a hero of peerless spirit and extraordinary might.

"Where is this Martial Lecture Hall?"

"Oh, it's at the Military Supply Camp in the outer city. Brother Wang, shall we go together?"

Hearing this, Wang Xuance's eyes stirred slightly. His expression turned solemn.

"I could not ask for more!"

The Military Supply Camp was the headquarters for the outer city army's grain, fodder, and ironware. The horse Wang Xuance had ridden out of the city before had been borrowed from this very place.

After Wang Xuance and Xu Dalin arrived at the Military Supply Camp, they went their separate ways.

The blazing sun hung high overhead, its light dazzling. The air was thick with the pungent stench of sweat and foot odor.

Sweeping his gaze across the grounds, he roughly took in the entire scene.

Though it was called the Martial Lecture Hall, it was merely a round plaza ten zhang wide, with a dark stone platform placed in its center. The plaza was filled with cushions woven from a grass found outside the city called Armor Grass.

There was still some time before the lecture began, yet the place was already packed to the brim. Everywhere, people had gathered into groups, chatting with one another.

There were quite a few people like Wang Xuance standing alone at the edge, but when he spotted a youth around his own age, his expression changed drastically.

Shouldn't he have died at Tower Stele Martial Hall? Why did he join White Light City as well?

Impossible. How could there be someone in this world who looked so alike?

Just then, a breeze swept across the dark stone platform, and three burly figures appeared out of thin air.

For some unknown reason, their features could not be seen clearly. No matter how hard one looked, they remained a blur.

The man in the middle stepped forward. A thunderous boom erupted beneath his foot, and cracks spread outward across the dark stone platform like a vast spiderweb.

"Hahaha! To see so many young talents again this year—after a few more years, White Light City will surely produce more outstanding men whose names shake Great Zhou!"

That voice, lofty enough to pierce the clouds, was like a heavenly demon's low roar and the ringing cry of gods and Buddhas. The people below felt their ears buzz, while the blood and qi throughout their bodies involuntarily congealed.

When Wang Xuance first heard it, he thought it no different from ordinary refined iron striking against iron. Yet the instant his blood and qi stagnated, he realized that this extraordinary metallic sound was a martial art!

"Legend has it that at the Great Buddha Jade Wall in the Western Desert, there was once a martial arts master of exceptional wisdom, one who saw through the mysteries of heaven."

"By observing golden Buddha statues, bronze idols, or murals of flying immortals upon silver walls, he created a martial art that used a unique circulation of blood and qi to command sound with qi!"

"It could wound a person's blood and qi from afar and damage their mind. At greater power, a single utterance could carry the authority of heaven itself and decide life and death!"

The speaker had surely cultivated a martial art similar to the Lion's Roar.

This man's blood and qi are full to the brim, like towering waves surging and furious billows rolling snow. Could he be the General Li Xu Dalin spoke of?

Wang Xuance sighed inwardly. The path of martial arts was truly broad and profound, making one unable to stop and stirring endless yearning.

"Enough, Brother Bai. Stop showing off that martial art of yours. Even if you restrained ninety percent of its power, it would still injure the hearts and lungs of those little fellows below!"

At that moment, a middle-aged man clad in dark yellow armor stood upon the dark stone platform. His five fingers curved slightly as he pressed a giant palm down through the air, dispersing the rippling chant waves of the man he called Brother Bai.

"Tsk, tsk. General Li, your Giant Spirit Demon Palm has become ever more exquisite and profound. This old Daoist admits defeat, admits defeat..."

The crowd watched as two of the three men vanished from the stone platform in the blink of an eye, leaving only this "General Li" standing against the wind, his cloak snapping loudly.

Wang Xuance saw the man's face clearly. He had a leopard's head and round eyes, thick brows like iron-black lacquer, and a pair of eyes brimming with heroic vigor. His build was incomparably burly!

His fingers hooked like claws. With a reach from below, a cushion seemed to be drawn into his palm. Then he sat cross-legged with the commanding poise of a great general.

"Look, that's General Li! I heard that in those days, dressed in white and riding a white horse, he charged into Liangzhou and personally slew the Blue Whale Sect's sect master, saving the lives of an entire region!"

"That's old news. General Li has fought the rebels in the heartland of the Central Plains. He charged in alone and emerged with his whole body intact!"

"Tsk, tsk. If only I had even a shred of General Li's strength!"

"Back in those days, General Li..."

The instant the armored man sat down, voices rose everywhere below the platform. People spoke all at once, one after another.

"Silence!"

With one stern shout, the entire grounds fell silent as cicadas in winter. No one dared utter a word.

"Find yourselves seats and sit properly. The Martial Lecture Hall begins now!"

Whoosh!

Everyone immediately found a cushion and sat down. All of them stared fixedly at the large man in yellow armor, their gazes burning.

"First, I, Li, congratulate all of you on your wise choice—to enlist!"

"I hope everyone listens with your ears pricked up to what comes next. Do not miss any important information!"

"Very well. I will not waste words. Let us begin with the first steps of martial arts!"

"Great Zhou has stood for more than three hundred years. Back then, Emperor Zhou Wu used martial might to crush the chaotic age. From south to north, he fought across countless battlefields for sixteen years, pacifying the heroes of north and south. Whether immortal sects and Daoist sages, Buddha shrines and spirit arhats, or Demon Sect giants, all submitted to Great Zhou. If you refused, Emperor Zhou Wu would use his pair of iron fists to suppress the age itself!"

"Thus, the path of martial arts began to rise!"

General Li paused, then began to explain the part that interested Wang Xuance most.

"The path of martial arts is divided into six realms!"

"The first realm is what you all call a Martial Practitioner—the Fetal Breath Realm!"

"After you successfully open the three acupoints of Danzhong, Zhongting, and Dove Tail and become a martial apprentice of the Three-Knock Blood Pass, you must prepare to break through into the Fetal Breath Realm!"

"This stage is like ten thousand troops and horses crossing a single-log bridge. One wrong thought, and your martial path may be severed forever!"

"Countless people have met their bitter end at this stage, dying at the Martial Pass!"

The moment those words fell, the crowd below erupted in an uproar. They struck directly at everyone's deepest fears—could practicing martial arts actually kill people?

"May I ask, General Li, is there another method to pass this stage safely?"

"That's right, General. Martial arts are meant for self-protection, yet now they have become something that claims lives. Why is it so strange?"

Wang Xuance, standing below the round platform, was equally alarmed and uncertain.

Why had I never heard of this at Tower Stele Martial Hall? The hall master back then was also an expert of the Fetal Breath Realm!

His eyes filled with doubt as he quietly marveled to himself.

"Hehe, the martial path has always been filled with hardship and countless difficulties. If you do not advance, you retreat. Why do people only respect you after you enter the Fetal Breath Realm? Why do you only gain the ability to establish yourself then?"

"The key lies here!"

"To become a Martial Practitioner, you must open three Martial Apertures during the Three-Knock Blood Pass. Each Martial Aperture nurtures a wisp of Essence of Blood and Qi!"

"When three wisps of Essence of Blood and Qi gather into one complete strand of True Qi, you may enter the Fetal Breath Realm and become a Martial Practitioner!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire grounds sank into bewildered silence. Only the friction of air twisting beneath the blazing sun and the slowly drifting breeze could be heard.

"Essence of Blood and Qi? Martial Apertures? True Qi?"

Wang Xuance furrowed his brow tightly, pondering what those three terms represented.

"Essence of Blood and Qi... Essence of Blood and Qi!"

In an instant, a flash of insight appeared in his mind.

That day, when he poured all three hundred wisps of True Martial Qi into the Tortoise-Snake Great Stance and his mind was dragged into that illusion—

A thin, imperceptible layer of blood and qi had surrounded his body.

Could that... have been the Essence of Blood and Qi?

General Li's voice rang out again from the round platform, abruptly interrupting Wang Xuance's thoughts.

"The so-called Essence of Blood and Qi is formed when the blood and qi throughout the body accumulate to a certain level, gathering into a great mass of blood and qi!"

"Its uses are exceedingly mysterious. It can attach itself within the body, increasing the force behind one's strikes until they carry the strength of a thousand jin!"

"It can also be driven outside the body, piercing and killing like a crossbow bolt, unstoppable in its momentum!"

Those final words were like thunder exploding from level ground, instantly confirming Wang Xuance's guess.

"Open one Martial Aperture, and you may condense one wisp of Essence of Blood and Qi. Open three Martial Apertures and condense three wisps of Essence of Blood and Qi, and then—"

At this point, General Li's voice suddenly rose. His brows stood erect, and Sha Qi began to show on his face.

A gale swept past, and a violent shriek pierced the sky!

"Since you came, stay behind for this general!"

The next moment, the crowd saw the massive hand from before condense in the sky, now several times larger, as it shot toward a spot above the plaza with incomparable speed!