Three-Knock Blood Pass, Vajra Perfection (Please Follow)

He took out two Fire-Core Jujubes and two Vermilion Summer Fruits with a backhand motion. A solemn fragrance rushed at his face; merely breathing in a trace of it set the blood and qi throughout his body circulating.

The medicinal jujubes looked ready to drip blood, like thumb-sized balls of fire. The vermilion fruits were orange-red and translucent like the setting sun, brimming with medicinal power and rich wood qi.

"Since my preparations are this ample, breaking through the Three-Knock Blood Pass is inevitable!"

With a sweep of his sleeve, he swallowed both Fire-Core Jujubes at once.

The instant the fiery cores touched his tongue, an extreme heat exploded within him. His body felt like iron being forged in summer, held over blazing coals.

It was as though all moisture had been drained from him. His skin shriveled, his hair fell away, and in the blink of an eye, not a single strand remained on his body.

This was an unavoidable condition when breaking through the Three-Knock Blood Pass. The power of blood and qi surged through the body, heat boiling like exploding gunpowder, snapping off every hair in an instant.

Yet once they entered his stomach, they immediately transformed into two streams of warmth that coursed through his limbs and bones, explosively igniting the blood and qi within him.

Countless beads of sweat steamed away. Each circuit the warm currents made through his body carried out another layer of gray impurities.

A gust rustled past the treetops, easily scattering them into faint dust.

The youth did not notice that, if someone had been standing beside him, they would have clearly seen a faint golden ring revolving at an angle behind his back.

His righteous qi surged vast and mighty, his bearing majestic and peerless.

The Jiuwei acupoint gradually began to tremble. An intense tearing pain arose, and the already tough flesh of his chest muscles knotted, twisted, churned, and continuously reshaped itself.

"Hiss!!"

Wang Xuance clenched his teeth, his entire body trembling as sweat poured down him.

The process of breaking through the Three-Knock Blood Pass could be summed up in one word: pain!

Muscles cramping and bones breaking, bamboo piercing ten fingers—nothing was different. The abundant blood and qi throughout his body ran rampant, crashing wildly about, while his flesh could only desperately contain it and endure to the death.

The reason the Three-Knock Blood Pass was such a difficult hurdle before entering the Fetal Breath Realm lay in opening this acupoint.

The moment this acupoint was opened with the force of blood and qi, one could command the blood and qi of the entire body, circulating it forward or running it in reverse.

Most martial stance arts were governed by forward circulation, while few centered on reverse circulation.

That was why most martial artists had to cultivate a foundational stance art. Though fist, palm, saber, and sword techniques could greatly increase blood and qi, they could not circulate it in reverse. Naturally, they could not break open the Jiuwei acupoint!

Reverse circulation consumed blood and qi most heavily. Opening this acupoint already depleted much of it, and once the old strength was reversed, the new strength had yet to arise while the old had already departed!

Many martial artists failed at this point. From then on, their martial path declined, one defeat following another.

Thus, preparing medicine capable of greatly increasing the power of blood and qi was especially crucial.

He tightly controlled the circulation of his blood and qi, nurturing the toughness of his sinews and channels. His blood and qi grew increasingly dense, heavy, and compact.

"Hmph!"

Wang Xuance steeled his heart and began trying to mobilize all the blood and qi in his body to strike the Jiuwei acupoint, seeking to open it in one stroke and break through into the next stage.

At the same time, with a thought, he slowly poured eight hundred and eighty strands of True Martial Qi into the Crane Form Grand Stance.

He directly deduced the stance art to Greater Mastery!

[Thump!!]

[Crane Form Grand Stance]: 0/6000 (Greater Mastery).

Boom!

His blood and qi suddenly surged, thick enough to seem tangible. Strands of scarlet blood qi began to churn like crimson flood dragons and pythons baring their fangs and claws, their whiskers flaring as they glared in fury.

[The host has brought two stance arts to Greater Mastery and may stack them into the Dragon Elephant Grand Stance.]

[Advance both to Perfection to directly condense the first essence of blood and qi!]

Thunder suddenly rang by his ears, vast and alarming as heavenly might drawing near. Mysterious insights into the martial path flowed through his heart.

Without realizing it, he swept up the Vermilion Summer Fruits from the ground and swallowed them whole. With a slight circulation of his blood and qi, he refined them in an instant.

At that moment, a crisp crack sounded from the junction between his chest and abdomen. Wang Xuance felt his heart thumping slowly, but every beat carried the force of splitting bamboo and sounded like a war drum!

The Jiuwei acupoint had opened!

At this point, the three great acupoints of Shanzhong, Zhongting, and Jiuwei had all opened. His martial cultivation had reached the Three-Knock Blood Pass!

His blood and qi were as dense as silver mercury, circulating like rumbling thunder.

With the three acupoints connected, his blood and qi overflowed like towering waves crashing against his body, producing deep thump-thump sounds.

In an instant, Wang Xuance's mind blurred, as though heavenly illusionary mist had descended. The blood and qi throughout his body began to run in reverse.

"Pfft!"

His chest constricted as though he were about to suffocate. He swayed on the verge of collapse, and every sinew and channel in his body seemed to cry out in anguish, the twisting pain like needles stabbing him.

The meridians throughout his body swelled and contracted by turns. Under the violent rush of blood and qi, he immediately stopped breathing and fainted.

His entire body writhed like a live shrimp, tossing and convulsing. His skin seemed to split under blazing heat, cracking open into torn flesh...

No one knew how long passed before Wang Xuance struggled into a seated position and slowly breathed in and out, feeling an indescribable comfort within his body.

Once he came back to himself, he flicked a finger against the fascia on his chest. A rebounding force sprang up, leaving his fingertip numb and itchy!

"Hoo~~"

Wang Xuance could not help but smile bitterly as he settled his mind and continued sensing the changes after his martial progress.

He exhaled a mouthful of turbid air. The force of his breath shot three feet into the courtyard, and a gray vortex drifted away in a thin stream.

"Buzz~~"

His eyes slowly opened, a sharp glint flashing through their depths.

A towering aura seemed ready to soar into the heavens. The muscles of his arms knotted like coiling mountains, thick as roof beams. With the slightest stretch, they emitted crackling bursts like beans popping in a pan.

"This breakthrough was truly perilous! I muddled through and forced open the mysterious gate. It could not be called anything but dangerous. Had my preparations not been complete, I fear I would not have survived!"

Just now, his reverse-circulating blood and qi had cut off his breath and knocked him unconscious. If not for the two Vermilion Summer Fruits continuously boosting his blood and qi, he would certainly have failed to break through and suffered grievous damage to his blood and qi.

Wang Xuance merely clenched his fist slightly, and the air in his palm was instantly crushed apart with a crisp crack.

A thousand jin could not buy a single clear ring. With only the slightest movement, his strength was already incomparable to before.

"This is the realm of the Three-Knock Blood Pass—manifest force like thunder!"

He turned to look toward a corner of the courtyard not far away.

Six ironwood stakes as thick as bowls stood there, black from top to bottom and extraordinarily hard. He had prepared them specifically to test the strength of the Three-Knock Blood Pass.

He threw a punch. The muscles in his arm instantly bunched up, compressing the air until visible ripples rolled outward. The incomparably surging force of his fist struck the wooden stake.

"Pshht!"

The bowl-thick stake split open at once, without any thunderous explosion.

Instead, the force bloomed at a single point within the ironwood stake, blasting it into specks of wood. The force remained undiminished, even shattering the portion buried beneath the ground and flinging up great clods of dirt!

"Not bad. The might of this casual punch carries something of the force of fist aura. If I strike with all my strength, then with this realm and a fist technique, I can dominate within the Three-Knock Blood Pass!"

"But against martial artists who have condensed the essence of blood and qi, I do not know who would be stronger or weaker!"

"If I face Wu Shan now, I will no longer be at his mercy. Protecting myself will be no issue!"

Wang Xuance drew a bucket of cool water from beside the pool and splashed it over himself, washing away the impurities expelled from his body.

With a thought, he summoned his martial template.

[Wang Xuance]

[Dragon Elephant Grand Stance]: 100/3000 (Beginner).

[Tortoise-Snake Great Stance]: 0/6000 (Greater Mastery)

[Crane Form Grand Stance]: 0/6000 (Greater Mastery)

[Vajra Fist]: 700/6000 (Greater Mastery).

[Great Arm Scripture]: 0/2000 (Beginner).

[True Martial Qi]: Five hundred and forty strands

Seeing his martial template take shape more and more, and seeing that he had finally gained the strength to protect himself in this world after all this way, he could only think, There really was no making it without a cheat!

"I still have so much True Martial Qi, but I cannot directly deduce the three stance arts!"

"Crossing from the Two-Knock to the Three-Knock realm in a single day is still understandable. But if I further condense the essence of blood and qi, not only would it be impossible to explain in terms of martial arts, this body full of dense blood and qi would surely invite plenty of trouble!"

"Besides..."

Wang Xuance vaguely recalled that when he had advanced the Crane Form Grand Stance to Greater Mastery, the voice in his mind had clearly told him—

By cultivating two stance arts to Perfection, he could refine the first strand of blood and qi essence.

Or he could stack the two stance arts to advance the martial progress of the Dragon Elephant Grand Stance.

"Is it that the Dragon Elephant Grand Stance itself can refine martial apertures, or is it because of the martial template?"

No matter how he thought it over, he could not understand. Wang Xuance raised a hand and rubbed his brow.

"Alas... I have always been busy improving my martial cultivation and have never properly learned about the books of this world!"

"In the end, it is because my understanding is too shallow!"

Far to the north of his small courtyard lay Wu Shan's residence.

Inside a secret chamber in the inner courtyard, the golden seal between Wu Shan's brows flickered with each breath he took. A blurry image slowly emerged behind him.

"Hehe, boy, this martial art suits you better than anything. Back then, I nearly died nine times out of ten to obtain it!"

An aged, teasing voice sounded from Wu Shan's chest, full of mockery!

"Hmph, old man, together we both profit. If you do not give it to me, how am I supposed to accomplish that matter!"

"By the way, have you found any trace of that person?"

Wu Shan slowly opened his eyes and asked the air. His hands formed seals, and the light and shadow behind him stirred as the blood and qi throughout his body surged madly.

"I have not detected the precise location. But that boy with the green armor over his face is rather suspicious. Keep a closer eye on him tomorrow..."

The black-robed youth nodded. Then he suddenly hammered his chest and spat out a mass of blood. It was only the size of a fist, yet specks of golden light glimmered within it, wondrous and extraordinary, incomparably heavy.

"Whoosh!"

It blurred slightly before vanishing into the air, plunging headfirst into the light and shadow behind him.

With the addition of the blood mass, the image gradually became clearer. All that could be seen was shifting light and shadow upon it, as though it bore an angry, glaring expression and the air of looking down upon all beneath heaven.

The six martial halls were also making thorough preparations for their own disciples, who would take the stage and fight tomorrow. They were determined to seize good rankings!