Night fell, and the Rear Mountain lay silent.
Moonlight spilled like water over the forest clearing, gilding everything around it with a faint sheen of silver.
The occasional cry of a night owl sounded in the distance, making the mountain forest seem all the more deep and still.
Carrying a lantern, Mo Yun found a large rock sheltered from the wind and sat down. The lantern's dim yellow glow flickered in the night breeze, stretching his shadow long.
He took the yellowed book from inside his robe. The three archaic characters for Tiger-Crouching Force loomed faintly on its cover in the lamplight.
"Internal energy..." Mo Yun murmured, a glimmer of anticipation flashing in his eyes.
He drew a deep breath and opened the first page.
The pages had grown somewhat brittle, rustling softly as he turned them. The handwriting was neat and forceful, every stroke carrying an air of steady composure.
Mo Yun read word by word, his expression intent.
"Force is the mother of energy. Energy is the commander of force. Force follows intent, and energy follows force..."
The opening passage laid out the general principles of internal energy cultivation. Mo Yun read it several times before he barely managed to grasp its meaning.
Simply put, internal energy cultivation used specific breathing methods and mental guidance to condense and strengthen force energy within the body, then nourish the body from within, ultimately surpassing human limits.
"It's a little like the internal energy arts in films and television from my previous life, but more specific and more focused on practical results."
Mo Yun nodded thoughtfully and continued turning the pages.
Next came the actual cultivation method.
"Refine essence into energy. Through a specific breathing rhythm and mental guidance, transform the blood qi within the body into force energy and store it in the dantian. The key to mental guidance lies in the Spirit-Intent Diagram..."
Mo Yun studied it carefully, committing every step firmly to memory.
The key to refining essence into energy lay in transformation. It was not simple accumulation, but the conversion of blood qi, a tangible substance, into force energy, an intangible power.
This process required a special breathing method to complement it.
The book recorded a detailed breathing method called the Tiger-Breath Method.
Inhalation had to be deep and slow, with the breath felt sinking into the dantian like a fierce tiger swallowing its prey.
Exhalation had to be steady and even, with the breath felt spreading out through every limb and bone like a fierce tiger patrolling its territory.
Every breath had to set the body's blood qi circulating, transforming it into force energy thread by thread.
Mo Yun tried breathing according to the method in the book.
He inhaled deeply, sinking the breath into his dantian.
Then he slowly exhaled, feeling the breath disperse throughout his body.
Once, twice, three times...
He closed his eyes and carefully sensed the changes within him.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, his brow faintly furrowed.
It worked, but the effect was minuscule.
He could feel that his breathing had indeed transformed a trace of blood qi into force energy, but the pace was outrageously slow.
"So this is how difficult internal energy cultivation is..."
Mo Yun pondered.
No wonder Commander Li had said the hardest part of internal energy cultivation was the first step: resonating with the Spirit-Intent Diagram and comprehending martial truth.
He had already taken that first step and qualified to cultivate, but only when he actually tried it did he discover that even with that qualification, gaining initial mastery was no easy task.
"It seems internal energy cultivation really isn't something that can be accomplished overnight."
Undiscouraged, Mo Yun continued leafing through the book.
The next few pages recorded various problems that might arise during cultivation, along with their solutions.
For instance, what to do if his breath went astray, if force energy would not condense, or if he grew dizzy during cultivation.
Mo Yun memorized them all, then took out the Spirit-Intent Diagram.
Tiger's Roar in the Mountains!
He moved the lantern closer and unrolled the parchment.
The painting still depicted a vast mountain forest, with ancient trees towering into the sky and mist drifting among them. At its center, the fierce tiger roared with its head raised, so lifelike that it seemed about to leap out of the painting.
Mo Yun gazed at it intently.
Soon, that wondrous sensation welled up in his heart again.
In a daze, he seemed to truly be standing within that mountain forest.
Towering ancient trees surrounded him, thick fallen leaves lay beneath his feet, and the fresh scent of earth and vegetation filled the air.
Then-
Roar!!!
A tiger's roar shook heaven and earth!
Mo Yun felt his very soul trembling. That roar seemed to explode directly inside his mind, stunning him completely.
But this time, he did not withdraw instantly as he had during the day.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to hold on.
Roar!!
A second roar followed close behind, even fiercer than the first!
Mo Yun felt as though his head would burst. His temples throbbed violently, and his ears rang.
Still, he did not retreat.
He knew this was the crucial moment.
To truly gain initial mastery of the Tiger-Crouching Force, he had to withstand the impact of these roars and comprehend the martial truth contained within them.
Roar!!!
The third roar exploded in his mind like thunder!
Mo Yun shuddered all over. His vision went black, and he nearly fainted on the spot.
But at that very instant, he faintly caught hold of something!
It was an aura.
An aura that looked down upon all beneath heaven, supreme and unrivaled!
As though, between heaven and earth, among all living things, the fierce tiger was the mightiest existence. The mountain forest was its territory, the beasts its subjects, and nothing could make it bow its head.
Is this the martial truth of the Tiger-Crouching Force?
Something stirred in Mo Yun's heart, and his consciousness instantly withdrew from that mountain forest.
He opened his eyes and gulped for air, his forehead already covered in cold sweat.
Yet a smile appeared on his face.
For he knew that the aura he had just caught hold of was the very core of the Tiger-Crouching Force!
The might of a fierce tiger struck awe into every beast.
The essence of the Tiger-Crouching Force lay neither in exquisite moves nor in abundant force energy, but in that innate, all-crushing majesty!
"So that's it..."
Mo Yun closed his eyes, carefully savoring the insight he had just gained.
This time, he had thoroughly grasped the essence of Tiger's Roar in the Mountains. From now on, he would no longer need to deliberately study the Spirit-Intent Diagram to cultivate the Tiger-Crouching Force.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, settled into position, and began cultivating according to the Tiger-Crouching Force's breathing method.
This time, he progressed a little faster, but overall it was still fairly slow. He would need to spend a great deal of time grinding away and enduring.
Time passed little by little.
The moonlight slowly shifted overhead, and the shadows of the trees swayed.
The pale blue Virtual Panel appeared automatically, hovering before his retinas.
Mo Yun focused on it. A new line had quietly appeared in the martial arts field.
[Martial arts: Nameless Fist Technique (minor attainment), Tiger-Crouching Fist (minor attainment), Tiger-Crouching Stance (initial grasp), Tiger-Crouching Force (not yet initiated)]
Everything else remained unchanged. The only addition was the Tiger-Crouching Force, in which he had yet to gain initial mastery.
Mo Yun was not surprised. He continued cultivating for a while, then stopped to estimate his progress.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and rubbed his temples.
"At this rate, slowly grinding away on my own, it'll probably take years to gain initial mastery..."
"By the time those years have passed, even the daylilies will have gone cold!"
Mo Yun shook his head and decisively abandoned the idea of gaining initial mastery through grueling cultivation.
"Forget it. Adding points is more practical. I'd better keep practicing the Nameless Fist Technique. That's what suits me!"
He grinned, tucked the Tiger-Crouching Force manual and the Tiger's Roar in the Mountains diagram securely inside his robe, and stood up.
For him, adding points was the royal road.
As for cultivating on his own? He was better off picking the soft persimmons.
He currently had only one black point. His most pressing task was to achieve a breakthrough in stance training.
"Back to practicing!"
Mo Yun loosened his muscles and joints, settled into position, and began practicing the Nameless Fist Technique.
Under the moonlight, his figure darted and twisted through the forest clearing, his fists whipping up howling winds, fierce as a tiger.
Once, twice, three times...
Sweat soaked his clothes, but he showed no intention of stopping.
His progress in the Nameless Fist Technique advanced a thousand miles a day. He was confident that, given a little more time, he would reach the threshold of integrated mastery.
When that happened, the White Mark would fill another stretch, bringing him closer to condensing a white point.
"The future looks bright!"
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