Strengthening Inner Breath

Duan Rong walked out of the alley by the Inner Treasury in a daze, carrying a sheathed Oxtail Saber, three qian of monthly silver in his pocket, and a small bundle containing five thin slices of deer antler velvet wrapped in straw paper.

There was no helping it. This was an aftereffect of Devour Artifact Spirit—one could also call it a side effect.

He could still clearly feel that something "foreign" had been stuffed into his mind.

But after the previous devouring, he seemed to have adapted somewhat.

Duan Rong merely felt that his mind was a little sluggish and incapable of deep thought. It was not like after the first devouring, when he had stood there blankly for ages, genuinely unable to make sense of what was happening.

Right now, he felt as though he were driving on a road full of obstacles, forced to keep weaving around them, utterly unable to pick up speed.

Duan Rong controlled his body all the way to the Middle Courtyard dining hall and stiffly finished dinner.

Afterward, he did not cultivate. Instead, he went straight back to his dormitory, bolted the door, and fell into bed.

Just like the last time he had devoured an Artifact Spirit, he slept deeply, like the dead.

A night of grand dreams!

In the dream was the back of a thin, richly dressed youth. He held a red-tasseled great saber wholly unsuited to his stature, swinging it move by move with awkward stiffness...

Duan Rong could vaguely glimpse the scenery around the youth: pavilions and towers already blurred by time. Though the backdrop was hazy, the rough outlines alone revealed the grandeur of those buildings.

This youth's identity... was probably anything but ordinary... Duan Rong thought in his sleep.

The grand dream passed without leaving a trace...

Duan Rong abruptly awoke. With a turn of his eyes, he knew that the devoured Artifact Spirit had already been digested and absorbed.

Duan Rong leaped from the bed and opened the door. Cold moonlight filled the narrow, long courtyard before the dormitory.

All around was hushed and still, with the faint chirping of insects.

Duan Rong raised his head toward the southeast. A Morning Star and a crescent cold moon shone in distant harmony.

Judging by the Morning Star's position, Duan Rong estimated the time.

It is only the Chou Hour. I slept for merely three hours.

The time needed to digest and absorb an Artifact Spirit seems to have shortened! A thoughtful look appeared in Duan Rong's eyes.

And last time, I absorbed a Not Ranked Artifact Spirit. This time, it was a Rank 1 Artifact Spirit.

Could it be that the higher an Artifact Spirit's rank, the shorter the time needed to digest and absorb it?

But higher-ranked Artifact Spirits should contain even more information, shouldn't they?

Or perhaps... higher-ranked Artifact Spirits have been steeped in the passage of time until they are more refined, with fewer stray thoughts, making them easier for divine consciousness to absorb?

These were naturally only guesses. Duan Rong did not know the true reason.

Yet the verified fact was that the higher the Artifact Spirit's rank, the shorter the time required to digest and absorb it.

As for why that was, he could investigate it slowly.

Duan Rong stepped out of his room and stood beneath the cold moonlight in the narrow courtyard.

At that moment, his mind was clear as water, and the world around him was silent. It was the perfect time to practice stance work.

Duan Rong took the folded straw-paper bundle from the inner pocket at his chest and opened it. Beneath the moonlight, he could see five thin slices of deer antler velvet, each as thin as paper and faintly purplish-red.

He pinched one slice and placed it in his mouth, rewrapped the rest, and tucked them back into his inner pocket. Then he bent his legs into a bow stance, sank his waist as if sitting in empty space, held his arms in a loose circle before him, and assumed the Hun Yuan Stance.

He remained standing for a full two hours.

Only when dawn began to brighten the sky did Duan Rong straighten his waist and disperse his power.

He knew perfectly well how exhausting the Hun Yuan Stance was when Inner Breath circulated through it. The previous afternoon, after standing for only one hour, he had felt hollow and weak inside.

Yet now, after standing for two hours, he still felt full of vigor. Though exhausted, the blood and qi throughout his body flowed strongly.

Duan Rong smacked his lips and discovered that the slice of deer antler velvet in his mouth had completely dissolved.

He immediately understood that the slice had taken effect.

As expected, medicinal nourishment is stronger than dietary nourishment!

Seeing that dawn was about to break, Duan Rong drew water from the well in the courtyard and washed away the foul sweat covering his body. Only then did he dress, return to his room, fasten his Waist Tag, pick up the sheathed Oxtail Saber beside his bed, and prepare to head to the Martial Arts Field to practice his saber forms.

The moment Duan Rong stepped out of the courtyard gate, he saw Kong Bin emerge from the neighboring Ding Courtyard dormitory.

One lived in Ding Courtyard, the other in Bing Courtyard; the two were right beside each other.

When Kong Bin saw Duan Rong, he moved closer and whispered, "Have you heard?"

"What?"

"Li Chong is dead!"

Duan Rong stopped short in shock. "Dead? How did he die?"

"The servant overseer assigned to him scolded him, and the night before last, he hanged himself from the beam in his dorm room with his belt. I only found out because Zhang Zheng mentioned it. Li Chong's uncle even went to the Front Courtyard yesterday and made a huge scene." Kong Bin looked at Duan Rong, then suddenly asked, "Brother Rong, how is your Inner Power Cultivation Method coming along? Have you managed it yet?"

Using Li Chong's death as an opening, Kong Bin was probing Duan Rong, trying to find out how far his Inner Breath cultivation had progressed.

"Not yet." Duan Rong's heart shook as he answered coldly.

Hearing this, Kong Bin glanced at Duan Rong's stunned expression and felt a faint surge of delight.

Yesterday, he had caught a wisp of Inner Breath for an instant. Though the moment he tried to circulate it, his Mental Strength scattered, and the Inner Breath dispersed as well.

Still, he believed that after three days of practice, he would certainly be able to achieve the initial circulation of Inner Breath.

Judging from Duan Rong's appearance, he probably had not even found the way in yet.

Kong Bin's mood immediately improved. He said no more, left Duan Rong behind, and headed toward the Martial Arts Field.

During this period, Kong Bin had suffered one blow after another from Duan Rong. His drugging scheme had been exposed, he had been suppressed in the assessment, and even his attempt to befriend Duan Rong had been met with cold water.

Kong Bin did not like to talk, but he was extremely proud at heart. On the examination day three days later, he hoped to win back a round and suppress Duan Rong instead.

Duan Rong was immersed in the shock of Li Chong's death and did not notice that Kong Bin had already left. He remained standing blankly at the dormitory gate.

The last time he had seen Li Chong had been on the day of the assessment.

But he had already forgotten—when had Li Chong left that day?

Perhaps no one had noticed.

Duan Rong had originally thought Li Chong was more dangerous than Kong Bin. Now it seemed he had truly overestimated him. The boy had been far too fragile!

Duan Rong recalled the children from his previous life, the ones in the news who wanted to die over the slightest little matter.

This fellow really was a tragedy!

Li Chong was clearly an utter fool at interpersonal dealings, yet he had bared his fangs and brandished his claws, constantly courting death.

Duan Rong suddenly recalled something a writer from his previous life had once said: If you carefully study the most detestable people, you will always find that they are merely pitiable people.

After sighing over it for a while, Duan Rong slowly made his way to the Martial Arts Field.

Putting his thoughts in order, he found a secluded corner, gripped his saber, and began practicing the forms.

After last night's digestion of the devoured Artifact Spirit, Duan Rong's grasp of the Five Tigers Herd Sheep Saber Martial Skill had already reached the realm of mastery.

However, he had yet to complete the first level of Inner Breath in his Inner Power Cultivation Method.

Inner Power Cultivation Methods were, after all, the work of a millstone grinding water.

The strengthening of Inner Breath within the meridians also had to be accumulated strand by strand.

Though after digesting and absorbing the Artifact Spirit, he had become thoroughly familiar with circulating Inner Breath, its growth was not something that could be achieved overnight.

No one could grow fat with a single bite!

After finishing the forms and eating breakfast at the dining hall, Duan Rong returned to the Martial Arts Field and began stance work again with a slice of deer antler velvet in his mouth.

Other than eating and sleeping, Duan Rong devoted nearly all his energy to strengthening his Inner Breath through stance work.

With the medicinal nourishment of the deer antler velvet slices, Duan Rong discovered that no matter how long he stood, he no longer felt depleted.

One slice of Blood Antler Velvet every two hours.

Including the two hours in the dormitory courtyard, Duan Rong stood for a full ten hours. By the time he returned to his dormitory and climbed into bed, it was already the Chou Hour deep into the night.

Though exhausted, Duan Rong fell asleep smiling.

The next morning, when Duan Rong once again came from the dormitory courtyard to the Martial Arts Field, he discovered that the Inner Breath in his meridians had grown as thick as a strand of hair and about three cun long.

That was already remarkable!

It had been formed by the convergence and fusion of five wisps of Inner Breath!

This Inner Breath coiled within his Dantian and responded to his Mental Strength at a single call.

A thought suddenly stirred in Duan Rong's mind. He wanted to try the method of circulating Inner Breath while executing a move.

Practicing inner power through stance work was meant to strengthen Inner Breath!

But circulating Inner Breath during an attack was the union of qi and force, also known as Inner Breath Power!

This was also the fusion of inner power and combat technique. Only then could Martial Arts unleash their true might.