Second Level of Qi Circulation, Copper Scarlet Realm

It was March, and the weather had begun to warm. Winter's biting chill had quietly faded, while several peach trees in the garden had silently formed tender red buds that trembled faintly in the night breeze.

That night, the moonlight was exceptionally clear, spilling across the ground like liquid silver and bathing the small courtyard where Chen Lingxi lived in brilliant light.

After many days away, Jiang Yuan, a guest retainer of the estate, was still out on Lin Longyue's orders.

Chen Lingxi was practicing.

Standing alone in the courtyard, straight as a pine, he slowly performed the opening stance of Mountain-Crushing Force.

After more than ten days of cultivation, Chen Lingxi had gained many insights into Mountain-Crushing Force. He could be said to have just glimpsed the gateway.

His qi and blood surged through his body like rising tides, flowing ceaselessly beneath his skin.

As Mountain-Crushing Force circulated, it gave off a faint, low hum.

"Mountain-Hoisting Fist!"

Chen Lingxi spread his arms wide, as though hauling back a collapsing mountain. With every movement, his qi and blood rushed forth, carrying considerable power.

Mountain-Crushing Force was not a fist technique, but a wondrous method for moving and explosively releasing qi and blood. Only when paired with the fist techniques of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War did it reveal its true effect.

"Mountain-Crushing Force is powerful because, with this wondrous method supporting it, qi and blood can be moved swiftly and fiercely! Their explosive force becomes even greater."

Chen Lingxi had merely reached the entry level of Mountain-Crushing Force, yet he could already sense that the killing power of his fists had risen greatly.

He performed a full set of Mountain-Winding Stance, clearly feeling the agitation and heat of his qi and blood. Anticipation stirred within him.

"My internal organs have also been tempered with iron nature. This can truly be considered the completion of the Iron Body.

"Before long, I will surely be able to ignite my qi and blood, turning iron into copper."

He estimated that at this rate, within three to five days, with the aid of River-Entering Stance, the second form of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War, he would surely break through his shackles in one stroke and enter the Copper Scarlet Realm.

"It's actually making me a little impatient."

Chen Lingxi withdrew his stance, shook his head, and returned to his room.

He did not hurry to rest. Instead, as usual, he sat cross-legged on the bed, restrained his breath, focused his mind, then bent his body like a bow. He paused thrice with each exhale and five times with each inhale, circulating that profound breathing technique.

Tonight, the moonlight seemed especially bright. Threads of clear radiance slipped through the window lattice and, as though alive, wound themselves around his body.

"Hm? Today's breathing practice seems a little different."

Chen Lingxi noticed that the moonlight in the sky seemed to merge with the pure qi of heaven and earth drawn in by his breathing, transforming into faint silver streams almost invisible to the naked eye. They slowly seeped into his body through his breath and his opened pores.

Within his dantian, the spiritual qi that had grown as thick as an infant's arm seemed like parched earth meeting sweet rain. It trembled with delight, actively drawing in the abundant spiritual force formed from moonlight and pure qi, guiding it into his limbs and bones.

"It really is different!"

Chen Lingxi was astonished, yet he did not dare slacken in the slightest. He controlled the spiritual qi and sent it flowing throughout his body.

Wherever the spiritual qi passed, his skin, tendons, and bones felt as though they were being pressed by warm jade, sending waves of tingling pleasure through him.

His internal organs seemed washed by a clear spring, every trace of turbid qi swept away;

Deeper still, the spiritual qi threaded its way into his bones, reaching straight into the depths of his marrow.

At first, it was only a faint itch. Then it turned into a strange sensation of "ants gnawing," as though countless tiny creatures were gently nibbling and carrying things away within the hollows of his bone marrow.

"Ha..."

The feeling nearly made Chen Lingxi cry out in delight.

He felt the old silt and sluggishness within him being stripped away and dissolved bit by bit, giving rise to entirely new qi and blood, fuller of life.

Though the process brought a slight soreness and numbness, there was no pain. Instead, it gave him the lightness and openness of being reborn, like a river channel clogged for years being completely dredged clean, its vast spring waters rushing onward without obstruction.

Chen Lingxi's mind shook, and he could barely contain his joy.

"This is quite similar to when I first drew qi into my body and remade my flesh... but its effects are more than ten times stronger!"

"Could it be... this is the Second Level of Qi Circulation?"

He pondered inwardly, yet did not dare let his focus wander at all. He maintained the rhythm of his breathing with all his strength, guiding that abundant spiritual force as it scoured his entire body.

A night passed quietly.

When the eastern horizon began to pale like a fish's belly, the faint jade-green glow around Chen Lingxi slowly withdrew. He exhaled a long breath of turbid air, his breath astonishingly deep and prolonged.

His eyes opened, gleaming with sharp light.

"Did I succeed?"

Chen Lingxi gently moved his limbs, feeling incomparably refreshed and light enough to fly. Deep within his marrow was a faint sense of clarity, while the circulation of his qi and blood had become smoother and more unimpeded than ever before.

"In just one night, it was like dredging river channels and washing my marrow. My whole body has become who knows how much lighter!"

"The qi in my dantian has also thickened by a full measure, and it circulates even faster."

As he pondered, his thoughts shifted slightly.

The spiritual qi moved as readily as an arm or finger, coursing through his entire body in an instant, nourishing and warming every inch of his tendons, bones, flesh, and blood.

"I must have broken through!" Chen Lingxi suppressed his surging emotions.

Though no one had guided him, and he did not know the specific names and characteristics of the Twelve Levels of Qi Circulation mentioned by the Candle of Time's Cauldron Venerable,

this experience of spiritual qi washing his marrow and clearing his hundred channels was certainly not something ordinary breathing practice and accumulation could produce.

He was already seventy to eighty percent certain that he had entered a new stage on the path of Qi Circulation.

"Perhaps this is the Second Level of Qi Circulation! Washing the marrow, dredging the river channels, strengthening spiritual qi!"

"And because my body has changed, my qi and blood also seem to be growing stronger faster."

With that thought, Chen Lingxi suddenly leaped from the bed and hurried into the courtyard, his eyes brimming with delight. He assumed the opening stance of River-Entering Stance—the second form of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War.

In the past, whenever he cultivated this form, his qi and blood had never been rich enough for him to truly imitate the artistic conception of a great river dividing into streams and surging onward in grandeur. He had possessed only the form, not the essence.

Yet now, the instant his thoughts stirred, the qi and blood within him—refined by a night of spiritual qi and completely renewed—seemed to cast off some invisible shackle and came roaring forth!

As his movements unfolded, there was no longer the slightest sluggishness!

As his body shifted, he resembled a flood-dividing dragon; where his arms swept, rivers and streams yielded before him!

His surging qi and blood flowed naturally with his movements, washing through every inch of tendon, membrane, and bone. Not only was it incomparably smooth, but as it circulated, it spontaneously absorbed the lingering traces of spiritual qi within his body like a snowball rolling downhill, continuously growing stronger and purer!

The temperature of his qi and blood also rose sharply as he practiced, changing from a warm current into something like a scalding, boiling spring!

"It's like warm water turning into boiling water, then boiling water turning into a scorching current like molten copper..."

After completing the nine transformations of River-Entering Stance, Chen Lingxi withdrew his form and stood still in thought. His qi and blood continued rushing through him without rest, heat radiating from his body.

His thoughts shifted, and he tried to guide that scorching qi and blood slowly into his right index finger.

In an instant, the skin of his fingertip turned crimson. A thread of condensed scarlet qi, needle-fine and fiercely blazing, shot from his finger with a "hiss." Though only the tiniest tip emerged, it scorched the air until it faintly crackled, and wisps of green smoke drifted forth.

"Copper-Molten Qi!"

Chen Lingxi was beside himself with joy!

This was precisely what Jiang Yuan had described—the sign of minor accomplishment in the Copper Scarlet Realm. The fire nature of one's qi and blood condensed like molten slurry, allowing it to be released outward to wound enemies!

In a single day, as his Qi Circulation ascended a level, his martial cultivation had also reached fulfillment as naturally as water flowing into a channel. He crossed the threshold of perfected Iron Body and entered minor accomplishment in the Copper Scarlet Realm!

The nourishment and enhancement the Second Level of Qi Circulation brought to his body far exceeded his expectations.

He even had a powerful premonition that, on this foundation, he would not need much time. With only a little more tempering, he could ignite the qi and blood throughout his body, condense it into protective qi armor, and enter the realm of major accomplishment in Copper Scarlet!

After the rush of joy, Chen Lingxi suppressed the churning waves in his chest and finally let out a long breath. The crisp morning wind filled his lungs, making him feel even more refreshed.

"After cultivating for more than a month, I've finally crossed beyond Iron Body and stepped into the Copper Scarlet Realm."

"At this level, I can no longer be someone waiting to be carved up by others."

His thoughts in turmoil, Chen Lingxi turned and returned to his room.

He did not need to arrange flowers today, so he had an abundance of time.

"Yesterday, I was busy breaking through and never used the Sight-Roaming divine ability. I wonder whether I missed anything last night."

Thinking this, Chen Lingxi closed his eyes and focused his mind, sinking his consciousness into the mysterious Divine Chamber deep within his mind.

The moment his consciousness entered that model-like void of the Divine Chamber, before he could activate the Sight-Roaming divine ability as usual, Chen Lingxi's mind was firmly seized by another strange sight!

Beneath Sight-Roaming, the second line of tadpole-like script, which had always remained dim and unusable, now flowed with golden light, dazzling and brilliant, without the slightest trace of darkness!

[Divine Ability: Total Perception (Ready)]

Those simple six words made Chen Lingxi's mind quake, as though a great bell had rung within his spiritual platform.

Total Perception!

The second divine ability granted by the Divine Chamber, after his breakthrough to a new level of Qi Circulation and advancement in martial cultivation, seemed to have finally... become usable!