Martial Dao Nine Apertures

"Take off your clothes!"

Inside the Liansheng Escort Agency's cultivation chamber, Lu Li was left dazed upon hearing that.

Looking at Lin Lanyi's expression, he could not help asking:

"Do I really have to take them off?"

"Take them off!" Lin Lanyi's tone was icy, her gaze utterly upright, without the slightest stray thought.

Lu Li took a deep breath, suppressed every thought in his mind, turned his back, and slowly removed his close-fitting short shirt.

The night breeze was faintly cool, seeping in from some unknown direction and brushing over Lu Li's skin and muscles. It made him feel refreshed, and his slightly tense body gradually relaxed.

Just moments ago.

He had brought the twenty thousand taels of silver Shen Gangfu had scraped together to Lin Lanyi. After lending her the silver, Lin Lanyi had brought him to this secret chamber.

The moment they entered, Lin Lanyi had told him to take off his clothes.

"Didn't you say that secret medicine needed forty-nine days of simmering before it could be made?"

Lu Li was somewhat surprised and glanced sideways at Lin Lanyi.

Lin Lanyi furrowed her brows and slowly said, "Can't I have some finished medicine prepared beforehand?"

"Fine, then let's begin." Lu Li smacked his lips.

Lin Lanyi slightly raised her head and looked at Lu Li for quite a while before asking:

"Do you still remember the force-circulation route I explained before? Do you need me to repeat it?"

"No."

Lu Li let out a breath and looked at Lin Lanyi from the corner of his eye.

"My Root Bone is terrible, but my memory is decent."

Lin Lanyi's eyes shifted as she examined the gaunt, skeletal Lu Li for a while, then solemnly reminded him:

"If there is even the slightest mistake, at best your Primordial Unity Force will fall into disorder and run backward through your body, crippling all your martial arts. At worst, your acupoints will burst upward, and you will explode to death."

"Why is that?" Lu Li raised his eyes and asked with concern.

Lin Lanyi could not help rolling her eyes. She glared at Lu Li and asked:

"When your master examined your bones, what did he tell you?"

Lu Li thought back for a moment, then slowly said:

"Master said that even among inferior Root Bones, mine was the worst. If I wanted to break through the Gate-Breaking, there was only a sliver of hope. The chance of failure was ninety-nine percent."

"That's all?" Lin Lanyi was slightly taken aback.

Lu Li gave an "Mm" and pressed on:

"What else was there to say? Is there something I don't know?"

Lin Lanyi rubbed her brow with her hand and sighed. "So you understood nothing, yet you still rashly attempted Gate-Breaking—and failed?"

Lu Li froze for a moment. It was only Gate-Breaking. When the water came, the channel formed; it happened naturally. What did I need to know?

Lin Lanyi spoke calmly, but with an unquestionable solemnity.

"You don't know how Root Bones are classified?"

Lu Li lightly shook his head, then added, "I don't."

"Martial Dao Root Bones are divided into nine grades."

Lin Lanyi raised her eyes to Lu Li and explained, trying her best to keep her voice level. "Your Root Bone should be Lower Ninth Grade. If this attempt to improve your Root Bone succeeds, you'll become Lower Eighth Grade."

"Uh..."

"Don't speak yet. Listen until I'm done."

Before Lu Li could open his mouth, Lin Lanyi's lively eyes studied him for a moment before she continued:

"What determines our Root Bone are the Nine Great Apertures of the human body, also known as the Martial Dao Nine Apertures. Some people are blessed by fate and are born with all nine apertures open. Such people possess the legendary True Martial Bone. The opposite is someone like you, born with not a single aperture open—that is a Lower Ninth Grade Root Bone."

Lu Li pursed his lips tightly, looking rather unruly.

"The method I told you about is to use an Aperture-Opening Pill to blast open one of your nine apertures, which was sealed from birth—the Life Gate Aperture—and defy fate to change your destiny!"

Lin Lanyi spoke extremely slowly, articulating every word clearly, afraid that Lu Li would not understand.

"For those whose apertures have not opened, the life root within their bodies is weak. Whether cultivating qi and blood, Internal Force, or Primordial Unity Force, they will be slower than others. This is the 'root' in Root Bone that people often speak of."

She paused at the right moment, giving Lu Li ample time to digest and understand.

"Furthermore, without the nourishment of the great Martial Dao apertures, the density of one's bones is far weaker than that of others. Training combat techniques becomes fraught with difficulties. This is the 'bone' in Root Bone. Someone like you starts out a whole stretch behind everyone else!"

After explaining it all in one breath, Lin Lanyi blinked at Lu Li, asking whether he understood.

"So that's how it is..." Lu Li instantly understood what this so-called Root Bone truly meant.

"I understand." Lu Li looked at Lin Lanyi expectantly and blinked as well, asking whether they could begin now.

Lin Lanyi nodded, signaling for Lu Li to sit down on the cultivation bed. They could begin.

Lu Li nodded lightly.

Once Lin Lanyi saw Lu Li seated, she confirmed once more, "Are you ready?"

Lu Li nodded again and softly said, "Mm."

Hearing that, Lin Lanyi turned her back. Then she quickly took out the Aperture-Opening Pill she had prepared long ago from her bosom, turned around, and handed it to Lu Li.

"Swallow it directly. Follow the route I told you and begin circulating your Internal Force to strike the Life Gate Acupoint at your lower back."

Lu Li casually accepted the pink silk handkerchief Lin Lanyi handed over. A faint trace of body fragrance lightly lingered around it, winding between his breaths.

It was a crisp, delicate scent like cold plum mingled with pale bamboo—cool but not frigid, elegant but not gaudy.

Lu Li hurriedly suppressed the stirrings beneath him, reached out to unfold the folded silk handkerchief, and revealed a reddish-brown pill.

Lu Li could not help thinking to himself, Such an important pill, and you just wrapped it in a handkerchief?

Perhaps seeing through his thoughts, Lin Lanyi slowly said, "This Aperture-Opening Pill fears cold. I could only carry it close to my body."

As soon as she finished speaking, a blush unconsciously surfaced on Lin Lanyi's face, yet she did not forget to remind him, "Swallow it quickly. Don't waste the medicinal effect."

Hearing this, Lu Li hurriedly swallowed it. The pill was warm and fragrant upon entering his mouth. Lin Lanyi must have warmed it with her body, and it had absorbed her scent, which was why it tasted like this.

The instant he swallowed it, Lu Li caught that faint scent of clear plum and bamboo again, making him feel refreshed and invigorated.

Lu Li's expression turned solemn.

He quickly circulated his Primordial Unity Force, coordinating with the medicinal effects of the Aperture-Opening Pill as he began striking the Life Gate Acupoint at his lower back.

Lin Lanyi had told him to use Internal Force to break open the aperture because she did not know he had already succeeded at Gate-Breaking, which was why she worried he might fail. In truth, Lu Li had already reached the fifth layer of Primordial Unity Force.

At this moment, the medicinal effect slowly seeped into his body and gradually merged with the rich, enduring Primordial Unity Force at the fifth layer. Like great waves crashing upon the shore, a fierce impact suddenly blasted toward the Life Gate Aperture at his lower back.

The fifth layer of Primordial Unity Force naturally possessed an impact countless times stronger than Internal Force.

Bang!

It was faster than expected.

A vast energy, heavy as mountains and thick as earth, gentle and enduring, erupted thunderously from the depths of the Life Gate Aperture.

This energy was steady and majestic. It first rose from below, gently nourishing his lungs and internal organs before reaching both hands. Then it sank into his legs, poured into the soles of his feet, and coursed through the texture of his leg muscles.

The originally tiny, weak "root" within his body that carried force was wrapped and scoured by this incomparably heavy, steady, and dense energy, gradually growing stronger by a full measure.

At the same time, the energy slowly released and seeped into Lu Li's bone density, bone seams, and marrow. Faint, subtle sounds of bones rang quietly within his body.

His loose bone structure was compressed bit by bit, becoming dense and solid.

His broad bone seams were filled, closed, and locked firm.

His shallow marrow was nurtured, refined, and enriched.

Finally, that energy penetrated deep into Lu Li's flesh and blood, nourishing and warming his overdrawn body. His depleted qi and blood were gradually replenished, and as his body slowly returned to normal, it continued to improve...

Who knew how much time passed.

Lu Li slowly opened his eyes, his gaze calm as still water.

By this point, not only had Lu Li successfully opened an aperture and officially raised his Root Bone by one level.

He had also replenished his depleted qi and blood. His body had returned to its former state, and was even somewhat sturdier and fuller than before.

Just then, a soft, delicate, glutinous voice with the ethereal clarity unique to a young girl sounded out:

"You've tempered your skin five times already?"