With his mastery of martial arts, Yuankong could already work backward from the circulation of inner breath in another person's dantian sea of qi to deduce their cultivation method. Even if he released Hu Xiaotian, the scoundrel might not tell him the truth. Yuankong tried pouring internal power into Hu Xiaotian's dantian sea of qi and sensed something like a cyclone spinning in reverse within it. The more internal power he poured in, the faster the cyclone spun.
Seeing that he still refused to release him, Hu Xiaotian shouted, "Don't forget, you already swore an oath before the Buddha!"
"Tell me first," Yuankong said. "If you deceive me in the slightest, I'll shatter your meridians and take your life." As he spoke, he increased the internal power pouring into Hu Xiaotian's dantian. Its overwhelming, domineering pressure left Hu Xiaotian unable to speak. To neutralize the mutant true qi entering his body, the cyclone in his dantian sea of qi spun ever faster, trying to absorb Yuankong's power and make it his own.
Yuankong had already sensed the secret of how Hu Xiaotian regulated and circulated his inner breath within his dantian sea of qi. The questions that had troubled him for years suddenly unraveled. Like a hunter holding out bait, he toyed freely with the prey before him, deducing the mysteries of the Void Art from the minute changes in Hu Xiaotian's meridians.
The flow of qi within Hu Xiaotian's body was an entirely instinctive response. His martial arts attainment fell far short of Yuankong's, but he still perceived the monk's purpose. The old monk was using this method to probe his secrets.
Yuankong frowned one moment and smiled the next, wholly absorbed in his understanding of the Void Art. At last, he seemed to enter a meditative trance. The