Martial Dao

Biodata

Power Progression

Cultivation Hierarchy

Principles

Martial Dao practitioners temper their physiques and use Blood Qi as the basis for martial ability. Lin Xiaotian first learns of the system after surviving the rift mist, concluding that greater physical strength would allow his Blood Qi to absorb more energy. 2

Early cultivation revolves around stimulating, strengthening, and circulating Blood Qi. A stronger body can contain and develop more Blood Qi, while techniques, food, and medicinal pills provide the resources needed to sustain this process. 2 5 19

Natural talent remains decisive. Willpower and comprehension can help a practitioner cross the Initiation threshold, but advancement into Skin Tempering depends heavily on the nourishment of one’s Blood Qi and physical potential. 20

Root Bone and Foundation-Building

Root Bone, resources, diligence, willpower, and comprehension all influence continued advancement. Entering a martial hall does not guarantee eventual success: disciples who cannot progress are persuaded to withdraw or eliminated from formal training. More than half of Lin’s fellow entrants fail to reach Skin Tempering and leave the Huang Family Martial Hall. 22 32

Two approaches to entering External Force coexist:

• Rapid advancement — Practitioners enter External Force as soon as possible, allowing them to begin cultivating higher levels earlier. 47
• Extended foundation-building — Practitioners delay advancement to temper their Root Bone and accumulate strength. This approach costs additional resources, making it difficult for poor cultivators to sustain. Xiao Jingli does not present it as universally superior or conclusively proven. 47
• Exceptional accumulated breakthroughs — Xiao Jingxin’s unusual Root Bone allows her to advance from Blood Tempering directly to mid-stage External Force. Xiao Jingli is uncertain whether her accumulated foundation alone caused this or whether observing Lin’s practice inspired her. 53

Lin’s abundant Blood Qi does not initially remove every realm bottleneck. At Bone Tempering, strengthened pills replenish and deepen his Blood Qi without immediately allowing him to reach Blood Tempering; he attributes this delay to his ordinary Root Bone. 28 32

Realm and Actual Combat Strength

Cultivation rank does not fully determine combat performance. Techniques, Blood Qi reserves, physical toughness, speed, weapons, experience, and recovery can allow a practitioner to challenge opponents above their realm. Conversely, swift beasts attacking in coordinated swarms can threaten cultivators stronger than individual beasts. 34 39 47 55

• At Skin Tempering, Lin’s defense is already nearly comparable to Blood Tempering, according to Master Huang. 26
• At Blood Tempering, Lin’s raw physical strength initially remains below External Force; his abnormal recovery helps compensate for the difference. 47
• After further technique development, Lin overpowers Ouyang Fanke, who describes himself as nearly late-stage External Force, without having entered that realm himself. 57
• Powerful exchanges can cause oppressive discomfort even among bystanders. Circulating cultivation methods and Blood Qi helps weaker observers endure such effects. 66

Lin Xiaotian’s Exceptional Blood Qi

Lin’s Blood Qi is an unusual advantage rather than an established ability shared by all Martial Dao practitioners. Its healing, medicinal enhancement, and absorption effects supplement conventional training, but do not simply raise his realm or transform his Root Bone into an extraordinary constitution. 19 21 42

• Foundation repair — Absorbing medicinal aura repairs old injuries and inadequately nourished areas of his physical foundation, rather than merely increasing cultivation. 39
• Greater absorption capacity — Entering Blood Tempering increases the amount of medicinal energy he can absorb and gives him partial control over absorption speed. 39
• Enhanced reactions — His body reacts faster than ordinary practitioners at the same level, especially when his Blood Qi is well nourished. 42
• Resource-dependent recovery — Healing consumes nourishment stored in his Blood Qi; sustained injury can deplete those reserves, and regeneration does not make him immune to overwhelming damage. 39 51
• Indirect technique enhancement — Mysterious substances absorbed from the void help overcome the Root Bone requirements of Gale Step and Bison Force, accelerate acclimation, and strengthen his body. His Blood Qi cannot directly rewrite or upgrade a technique manual. 48
• Dangerous investigation — Probing the mysterious source connected to his Blood Qi nearly burns away his consciousness and requires powerful healing medicine and several days of recovery. 47
• Medicinal transformation — Lin later perceives that the substances responsible for improving pills have been assimilated and transformed by his Blood Qi, distinguishing them from the substances directly absorbed from the void. 70

Nianci states that her cultivation foundation has strengthened since her intimacy with Lin and that she can enter early External Force whenever she chooses. Lin suspects his unusual Blood Qi is responsible, but this is not established as a general Martial Dao cultivation method. 59

Entry into the Martial Path

Entrance Stake Method

The Huang Family Martial Hall uses the Entrance Stake Method, also called the Stake Skill, as its entry examination. Candidates have three days to learn and perform it successfully atop raised stakes. 5 7 8

• Its mnemonic formula regulates breathing and stimulates vitality and Blood Qi. 8
• Its outward forms are flexible; only several key movements and internal principles remain constant. 8
• The key movements deliberately oppose normal bodily mechanics, making injury a common consequence of training. 7 8
• Performing the technique on level ground is insufficient; maintaining it on the stakes is the actual threshold for entry. 9
• The trial removes bodily impurities and reveals a candidate’s underlying Martial Dao potential. 11
• Of several dozen candidates in Lin’s intake, only four pass; the other successful candidates are injured during the trial. 11

Eight Extremes Mountain-Shattering Force

The Eight Extremes Mountain-Shattering Force is the Huang Family Martial Hall’s foundational cultivation manual. It is theoretically capable of leading a practitioner to Hidden Force. 15

• It emphasizes the resonance of force. 16
• When paired with the Entrance Stake Method and practiced to minor accomplishment, it can complete Skin Tempering. 17
• Hall Master Huang demonstrates the technique through eight afterimages, a violent Blood Qi eruption, and shockwaves capable of staggering weaker disciples. 16
• Lin uses the technique to guide the medicinal power of a Blood Essence Pill into his Skin Tempering breakthrough. 20
• Actual combat against the Ouyang mine’s beasts raises Lin’s mastery from minor to intermediate accomplishment, preparing him to enter Blood Tempering. The technique is also rendered as Eightfold Mountain-Shattering Force in this account. 38

Blood-Qi Resonance

Blood-Qi Resonance is an application of Blood Qi that amplifies force and transmits penetrating power. Master Huang develops this insight after secretly observing the unusual changes in Lin’s Blood Qi during initiation and subsequent training, then teaches it to Lin in the Ouyang mine. 34

• It can transmit destructive force beneath a target’s surface. Lin kills a beast when a superficially shallow blade wound carries power into its body and detonates internally. 39
• Applying it through a weapon is initially harder than using fists or palms because the weapon introduces an additional barrier between practitioner and target. Lin overcomes this through repeated combat practice. 35
• It can power Gale Step, improving the movement technique’s combat applications. Lin cautions that the result may also depend on Root Bone. 48 53
• It enables Lin to exert force far beyond the normal expectations of Blood Tempering, including against External Force opponents. 55 57 67
• The Xiao Household considers it valuable enough to seek Master Huang’s manual through political concessions and substantial expenditure; directly taking it from Lin is treated as a risk that could unite opposing factions. 53 54

Gale Step

Gale Step is a foundational Xiao Household movement technique refined over generations. Its conventional form uses a steady flow of Blood Qi and is well suited to sustained, long-distance running, but poorly suited to a cramped arena. 48 51 52

The household’s ancestors originally intended its Blood Qi to fuel sudden bursts and make the practitioner more agile in combat. The steady-flow form represents a compromise, and the elders recognize Lin’s combat application as realizing an important unrealized potential of their technique. 52

• Lin masters it in roughly a dozen days rather than the months or years anticipated by his observers. 48
• A mysterious substance with wind-like qualities indirectly enhances its effects by approximately twenty percent and saves years of acclimation. Lin estimates that Blood-Qi Resonance can provide at least another ten-percent improvement. 48
• His use of Gale Step during the Xiao Household’s combat evaluation surprises the elders and makes obtaining his method a priority for the Lineage. 51 52 53

Bison Force

Bison Force is a foundational Xiao Household technique that imitates beasts’ movements and generates protective force through Blood Qi circulation. It does not literally make the practitioner as hard as a beast. 48

• Lin’s unusual Blood Qi and absorbed substances strengthen his bones without initially increasing the technique’s external protective force. 48
• The Xiao elders recognize his mastery while he withstands coordinated attacks from their External Force daughters. 51
• Later practice produces a membrane of force and stronger inward tempering of muscles, bones, and physique. Lin regards this persistent physical strengthening as more reassuring than a temporary increase in the membrane’s defensive power. 68

Blood Qi Burning and Temporary Stimulation

Practitioners can temporarily increase their strength by burning or stimulating Blood Qi. Such boosts do not necessarily represent permanent realm advancement. Ouyang Fanke consumes a pill that makes his Blood Qi boil and sharply increases his aura after Lin overwhelms him; a similar pill was used by Xiao Jingli. 42 57

Fanke incorrectly assumes that Lin’s exceptional performance must also come from burning Blood Qi, illustrating how an abnormal technique or constitution can be mistaken for a temporary, costly boost. 57

Cultivation Resources

• Medicinal pills — Strengthen the body and accelerate cultivation; martial halls retain their formulas as valuable inheritances. 11 16 Pills require digestion and may introduce impurities, so Master Huang warns Lin against careless medicinal advancement. 27
• Nourishing meals — Daily food infused with medicinal essence that supports qi and blood, though it cannot replace ordinary nutrition entirely. 19 Taking medicinal soup at noon sustains afternoon training; insufficient nourishment can damage a disciple’s foundation. 23
• Blood Essence Pill — A pill nourished by Lin’s evolved Blood Qi until it becomes top-grade, providing the medicinal power for his Skin Tempering breakthrough. 19 20 An ordinary pill costs five taels, and roughly one pill is distributed among ten people through the hall’s medicinal broth. Master Huang warns that practitioners below External Force normally waste part of its efficacy, although Lin finds that his unusual Blood Qi absorbs it without such waste. 22 27 28
• Silver — A major barrier to entry; the Huang Family Martial Hall charges five taels for the Stake Skill and twenty further taels for formal tutelage. 5 Wealth also allows talented cultivators to spend longer refining their foundations before advancing. 47
• Enhanced medicinal broth — Lin preserves the hall’s soup in a small gourd and nourishes it with Blood Qi until it develops a golden glow. It replenishes and purifies his Blood Qi and strengthens his foundation far more effectively than ordinary broth. 23
• Dragon-Tiger Pills — Master Huang supplies these alongside Blood Essence Pills to support Lin’s cultivation. Even after strengthening them, Lin must allow their medicinal power to accumulate and his Root Bone to adapt before attempting further advancement. 27 28 32
• Healing medicines — Support recovery from combat and cultivation injuries. Lin’s strengthened, supreme-grade medicine saves Qin Yueyao from her serious wounds. 28 32
• Mine-grown medicinal herbs — The Ouyang mine contains herbs nourished by mineral deposits and guarded by dangerous beasts. One rare spirit herb is said to improve the efficacy of important cultivation pills by twenty percent. 26 34 38
• Medicinal mist — The rare medicinal field’s purple-red mist is absorbed by Lin’s Blood Qi, repairing inadequately nourished parts of his foundation and supporting his Blood Tempering advancement. 38 39

Pill Quality

Pills are distinguished by the color of their halos. Higher-quality medicine offers stronger nourishment, while the hall and local Lineages generally possess limited supplies of low- or mid-grade pills. 16

Martial Hall Support and Fees

Formal Huang Family Martial Hall disciples receive a monthly pill and daily medicinal meals. After examining Lin’s unusually vast Blood Qi, Master Huang secretly doubles his daily medicinal broth allowance from one bowl to two. 19 22 23

• The five-tael entrance screening precedes the twenty-tael formal tuition charge. Senior Brother Tao later explains that achieving Skin Tempering within a month can exempt a disciple from the latter charge. 5 22
• Disciples who fail to advance face additional monthly expenses and eventual withdrawal from training. Resources become decisive once initial talent and determination have carried them through entry. 22 32
• Recognition by the master does not replace proven advancement. Tao repeatedly emphasizes External Force as the level at which a disciple’s potential receives meaningful acknowledgment. 15 23
• Martial halls supply a continuing stream of martial talent, while powerful Households possess needed cultivation resources. Master Huang describes this interdependence as a reason institutions must sometimes compromise rather than openly oppose one another. 26

Notable Practitioners

• Lin Xiaotian — Enters the Huang Family Martial Hall despite mediocre innate martial talent. His exceptional Blood Qi heals training injuries, enhances pills, and allows him to reach Skin Tempering. 9 18 20 He subsequently reaches Bone Tempering and Blood Tempering, masters additional movement and defensive techniques, and challenges External Force practitioners without entering their realm. He is still identified as a Blood Tempering practitioner during his confrontation with a Clan Elder. 27 39 48 55 57 67
• Senior Brother Tao — Huang Family Martial Hall instructor who teaches the Entrance Stake Method and explains the Blood Qi-centered foundations of early cultivation. 5 8 He also explains training expenses, disciplines gossiping disciples, and stresses the importance of attaining External Force. 22 23
• Hall Master Huang — An Internal Force practitioner who demonstrates the Eight Extremes Mountain-Shattering Force and oversees the martial hall. 15 16 Observing Lin inspires his development of Blood-Qi Resonance. Ouyang Zhentian acknowledges his improved strength and believes he has a chance to enter Hidden Force, although no breakthrough is confirmed. 33 34
• Qin Yueyao (Qin Household’s daughter) — An External Force martial artist rumored to have survived an encounter with an Internal Force expert. 20 She identifies herself as a late starter and recognizes Lin’s unusual strength at Skin Tempering. After recovering from serious wounds, her speed causes a watcher and the Ouyang Household to suspect she has reached Internal Force. 21 31
• Ouyang Dongli — An older Internal Force expert connected to the Ouyang Household and Lin’s abduction. His investigations into a new martial path and advancement beyond Internal Force leave research notes that become important to the pursuit of Hidden Force. 15 21 38 45
• Ouyang Zhentian — Ouyang Household Head whose strength is at least Internal Force. Despite his imposing public presence, he admits that his Martial Dao cultivation is declining and seeks a hidden opportunity to restore or advance it. 25 37 38
• Ouyang Nianci — A talented practitioner who delays entering External Force to refine her foundation. After her relationship with Lin, she states that her foundation has strengthened enough for her to enter early External Force at will. Her subsequent breakthrough begins with a display stronger than ordinary External Force advancement, which Lin expects could yield at least mid-stage strength; its completion is not established in that passage. 47 59 60
• Xiao Jingxin — A Xiao Household prodigy with unusual Root Bone. She accumulates strength during Blood Tempering, then advances directly to mid-stage External Force after observing Lin’s practice. 53
• Xiao Wanyin — Uncle Ming’s daughter and a mid-stage External Force practitioner involved in Lin’s combat evaluation. 50
• Xiao Jingli — An early-stage External Force practitioner who provides Lin with the Xiao Household’s foundational manuals and explains competing approaches to foundation-building. 47 48 57
• Ouyang Fanke — An External Force practitioner who describes himself as nearly late-stage but is overpowered by Lin’s Blood-Qi Resonance despite consuming a temporary Blood Qi-stimulating pill. 57

Limits and Higher Powers

Martial Dao is portrayed as formidable within Long River Town, but it may not represent the world’s highest form of power. Song Wanyan states that the Martial Dao of the world is insufficient to resolve her predicament, while her memory-sealing techniques and other supernatural abilities appear distinct from ordinary martial cultivation. 14

Hidden Force remains only a theoretical destination for the Huang Family Martial Hall’s teachings. Although an older expert was rumored to have found a path toward it, no resident of Long River Town is known to have achieved the realm. 15

Lin later concludes that a power capable of altering the memories of an entire town has transcended conventional Martial Dao and might remain beyond him even at Hidden Force. He therefore resolves to surpass Hidden Force rather than regard it as an adequate endpoint. 22 47

The Path of Hidden Force

The pursuit of Hidden Force becomes a central source of competition among the town’s Lineages and martial halls. Ouyang Nianci explains that the demand for information about Dongli concerns this path, while Ouyang Zhentian offers Master Huang access to Dongli’s research and information about a mysterious opportunity in exchange for noninterference. 35 38

Local manuals may theoretically reach Hidden Force, but practical advancement beyond Internal Force remains extremely difficult. Xiao Jingli associates the missing knowledge with experts in County Town. Nianci later states that the coveted opportunity might break County Town’s control over the town’s Martial Dao resources. 45 59

The Mist-Filled World

Lin identifies the mist-filled world beneath the fissure as a key to further Martial Dao advancement. The town’s factions covet access to it, but he believes their ordinary practitioners would die there: his own Blood Qi can withstand and exploit the mist in a way theirs cannot. He speculates that County Town may possess a method for making use of it, but this remains unconfirmed. 59

Decline and Political Dependence

Martial strength is not necessarily permanent. Ouyang Zhentian’s declining cultivation threatens the balance within his Household and leaves Nianci vulnerable to its internal power struggle. The possibility of restoring strength or finding a higher realm drives both negotiations between experts and conflict among factions. 37 38 59

Martial knowledge is also a political asset. The Xiao Household’s pursuit of Blood-Qi Resonance and Lin’s improved combat application of Gale Step demonstrates that a technique capable of changing a Lineage’s strength can prompt recruitment offers, expensive concessions, and coercive attempts to secure its transmission. 52 53 54 55

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