Lunar Visualization Art

At dawn, Lin Qing slowly woke atop the stone table in the small courtyard.

The early autumn mornings in the county city carried a damp chill. On the branches of the osmanthus tree in the corner of the yard, several sparrows chirped and hopped about, shaking loose the dew that had formed overnight. It splattered against the bluestone paving, breaking into tiny wet marks.

Lin Qing stretched lazily. He had spent the past few days constantly rushing about over the Wang Lineage case, on top of his usual duties at the Martial Suppression Office. His days had been exceedingly busy.

Such days of nonstop toil had kept his first Second-Tier Stance Art from reaching completion. But today was the day.

After breakfast, he retrieved the lustrous jade bottle from beneath a bluestone brick under his bed. He took a drop of Earthheart Marrow, and his mind immediately became clear.

Lin Qing walked to the open space in the courtyard. He planted his feet shoulder-width apart, bent his knees slightly, lowered his waist and hips, and slowly raised both hands before his abdomen in a ball-holding posture—the opening stance of the Mystic Mountain Mountain-Suppressing Stance.

Mystic mountains stood like towering peaks; inner breath flowed like rivers. Guard the center to reach afar, steady as a boulder.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the osmanthus leaves and fell over him, casting a faint sheen across his black martial attire. Lin Qing's movements were not fast, but every motion was incomparably precise, every fixed stance as immovable as Mount Tai.

One hour passed, then another incense stick's worth of time. An unprecedented sense of harmony swept through his entire body like a rising tide.

"Done!"

He could clearly sense that the proficiency bar for the Mystic Mountain Mountain-Suppressing Stance had been completely filled at that instant. Yet Lin Qing did not stop to inspect the panel immediately. Earthheart Marrow was precious, and its medicinal power had not yet dissipated. He continued cultivating the next art.

Lin Qing took a deep breath and suppressed the tremor in his heart. His hands shifted, changing from the ball-holding stance to a mountain-pushing stance, then transforming into a pagoda-supporting stance—the opening forms of his second Second-Tier Stance Art, the Thunderbolt Body-Tempering Stance.

Unlike the calm solidity of the Mystic Mountain Mountain-Suppressing Stance, the Thunderbolt Body-Tempering Stance emphasized "speed" and "hardness." Every movement carried a sharp whistle that split the air, while the inner breath throughout his body changed from a placid, harmonious pool into rushing torrents, like thunder racing through the mountains.

As he practiced one movement after another, a faint trace of crimson quietly surfaced across his skin.

The crimson was extremely pale, like a thin veil draped over his limbs and bones.

"Blood Qi Veil!"

A flicker of incredulous delight flashed through his eyes.

The Blood Qi Veil signified that a martial artist's blood qi had grown dense to the utmost limit, enough to form an invisible layer of protection over the body. It was also the threshold for advancing to a Second-Tier Martial Artist.

Only around twenty days had passed since Lin Qing broke through as a First-Tier Martial Artist. Multiple Life-Nourishing Arts and First-Tier Stance Arts had continued circulating within his body, creating a foundation far deeper than that of ordinary people.

The realm that Shi Jian, the head of Bedrock Martial Academy, had failed to reach throughout his entire life had been easily attained by Lin Qing within merely twenty days of becoming a First-Tier Martial Artist.

Yet he was ultimately someone who could keep his composure, so he continued practicing the Thunderbolt Body-Tempering Stance.

"Huff—"

His morning cultivation ended. Lin Qing wiped the sweat from his brow and walked over to sit by the stone table.

With a thought, he opened the panel.

[Host: Lin Qing]

Realm: Skin-and-Flesh Realm (Breakthrough Time: 280 days)

Fused Arts: Mystic Mountain Mountain-Suppressing Stance, Mountain-Suppressing Stance Art (Expand)

Recorded Arts: Thunderbolt Body-Tempering Stance (12/400), Tendon-Strengthening Bone-Fortifying Stance (0/400), Bone-Nourishing Tendon-Tuning Stance (0/400), Origin-Returning Body-Tempering Stance (0/400), Lunar Visualization Art (3/10000)

Body Control Rating: Mortal Tier Limit

Recorded Martial Arts: Falling Rock Fist Art (0/100), Cloud-Piercing Sword Art (0/100), Mist-Treading Step (0/100), Sunken Rock Palm Art (0/100), Wind-Slashing Saber Art (0/100)

The time required for his Second Tier breakthrough had shortened to 280 days, which was within his expectations. As more arts reached completion, the time would shorten even further.

But what truly caught his attention was the entirely new art that had appeared under Recorded Arts—the Lunar Visualization Art.

Its proficiency requirement was an unprecedented 10,000 points, far surpassing any art he had cultivated before.

Sun Shaoping's words from the past flashed through Lin Qing's mind.

Visualization Arts were the key to unlocking Divine Sense and breaking through to the Fifth Tier. Lin Qing had originally thought he would have to leave the Ten-Thousand Mountains and venture into the outside world before he could encounter one. Yet through a fortunate twist of fate and the system's mighty power, he had recorded one ahead of time.

Lin Qing was no fool. The instant he saw the name of this art, he understood what had happened.

Taiyin meant the moon.

It must have been last night, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, when he drank wine and admired the moon in the courtyard. By chance, he had triggered some opportunity and inadvertently comprehended this Visualization Art.

If the moon worked, then what about the sun?

Lin Qing abruptly raised his head and looked toward the sky overhead.

It was now noon. The sun hung high above, golden sunlight pouring down like molten lava. Lin Qing narrowed his eyes and attempted to stare directly at it, hoping to imitate the way he had admired the moon last night and try recording the Solar Visualization Art.

But after only a moment, dense little black spots appeared before his eyes, like countless flying insects dancing in front of him. His eye sockets also began to ache with a sour, swelling pain.

"Tsk—"

Lin Qing hurriedly withdrew his gaze and rubbed his eyes, thinking to himself, If I keep staring like this, I'm afraid I'll comprehend glaucoma before I comprehend a Visualization Art.

When he admired the moon last night, it had hung high in the night sky, its light gentle enough for him to visualize it calmly. But the noonday sun was far too blazing. He would wait until evening, when the sun was setting and its afterglow had softened, before attempting to visualize the sun again.

Lin Qing put away the panel and rose. With the completion of the Mystic Mountain Mountain-Suppressing Stance, he could feel that his body's energy consumption had increased again. But with ten thousand gold in hand, he was full of confidence.

Lin Qing did not intend to cultivate that afternoon.

First, by the time two hours passed and the medicinal effects of the Earthheart Marrow faded, the sun would already have set. His heart was itching with anticipation, and he desperately wanted to see whether he could record it, so he temporarily set aside his afternoon cultivation.

Second, his consumption had increased, so it was time to go out and make another round of purchases.

He had always acted cautiously and never put all his eggs in one basket. Naturally, he would make this purchase at several different shops as well.

Brocade City's streets were already bustling with voices. The liveliness of the morning market had barely faded when the clamor of the noon market rose again. Shops along the streets had opened to welcome customers, hawkers' cries rose and fell, and the air was filled with the fragrance of every kind of food.

Yet when Lin Qing arrived on the main street, he felt the indistinct gazes of the people around him. The Wang Lineage's major case had caused quite a stir in the county city, and he, the Martial Suppression Office banner officer who had led it all, had become a figure of the hour.

Plans changed! He had frequently rushed back and forth to the Wang residence over the past few days, and his face had long been exposed to the public. Even if he went to several shops to buy vicious beast meat now, it would not be safe.

In the blink of an eye, he thought of two methods.

The first was naturally the Black Market. No matter how strictly the authorities regulated things, private transactions between martial artists were always unavoidable. Rather than let those martial artists conduct shady deals in all kinds of dark corners throughout the city, it was better to gather them together. Thus, the Black Market came into being. In the Summer Kingdom, even the Imperial City had Black Markets.

The second was the Wang Lineage. As a first-rate martial family, the Wang Lineage had always been involved in the vicious beast meat business. Though it was gradually declining now, it had not reached the point of collapsing overnight. Given the Wang Lineage's scale, providing a mere First-Tier Martial Artist like him with vicious beast meat would be effortless.

After giving it some simple thought, Lin Qing still decided to seek out the Wang Lineage. As the saying went, the Black Market was dangerous.