The Human Body's Hidden Treasury

The night was bitterly cold.

After finishing his medicinal bath, Zhao Changhe stood behind the house and looked up at the sky.

There was no moon tonight. The clouds were growing thicker, and tiny snowflakes had already begun drifting down. It looked as though heavy snow would come again late that night.

He realized he had been in this world for less than two months, yet he was growing more and more accustomed to it... accustomed to a wooden house without heating, to judging the time and weather by the sky, to practicing martial arts, to archaic turns of phrase and the rules of the demonic path.

Accustomed to the inexplicable "server-wide announcements" appearing in the sky.

Scenes from his own world surfaced in his mind less and less often. Even Zhao Changhe found it hard to tell whether his current obsession with cultivation was about going home or making a name for himself in this chaotic world.

In any case, what occupied his thoughts most now was cultivation, and Luo Qi... along with Yue Hongling, who occasionally flashed through his mind.

Had Yue Hongling not been the first thing he saw of this world of martial artists... Zhao Changhe seriously wondered whether he would now be a marauding bandit. But with her example before him, he had kept reining in his increasingly strong mountain-bandit tendencies, unwilling to abandon the last of his conscience.

Otherwise, if they met again in the martial world, he would not know what to call her, nor have the face to meet her as openly as he had last time.

Or perhaps it did not necessarily have anything to do with Yue Hongling...

He simply did not want to destroy, with his own hands, the beauty of the martial world he had dreamed of... Yue Hongling was merely the martial world he had cherished since childhood, made real before his eyes.

Clang! Zhao Changhe drew the steel saber he had just won.

The medicinal bath was over; now it was time to practice his saber. He had no time to indulge in endless literary sighs. That was enough of that.

He needed to familiarize himself with his newly acquired saber and master it afresh, learning all its characteristics before he could make "the saber an extension of his hand." He could no longer grab any random blade and hack away as he had in his old dreams...

The fine steel saber he had just won in the wagered duel was not as exaggerated as the broad saber in his dreams. It was a standard thick-backed saber, its spine nearly a centimeter thick. The blade was fairly heavy, weighing a little over ten jin, and was perfectly suited to Zhao Changhe's current strength. His old wimpy saber, weighing two or three jin and trembling with every shake, had no force behind its cuts and really did not suit him.

Especially since the Blood Baleful Saber Technique relied on broad, sweeping movements, a heavy saber like this was exactly what he needed to bring out its full power. Unfortunately, such sabers were usually expensive, and with his previous circumstances, he really had nowhere to get one.

Zhao Changhe knew little about this saber's materials or forging techniques, but he could clearly sense its baleful aura and keen edge, which utterly surpassed his old piece of junk. A fine saber like this might cost dozens of taels of silver-considering the entire Mountain Stronghold currently possessed only three hundred taels, that money could buy enough food to feed everyone for quite some time.

Zhao Changhe played with the saber, rather reluctant to put it down. It felt even better than playing with Luo Qi's jade rabbits.

A good weapon was a martial artist's life. Truly.

Swish, swish, swish! Saber light flashed through the darkness, taking the place of tonight's moonlight.

As the falling snow grew heavier, everyone in the Mountain Stronghold retreated indoors. All fell silent except for the howling saber behind the stronghold chief's house, mingling with the shrill north wind until it was impossible to tell whose chill was whose.

Had those who had marveled at his genius while watching the fight in the branch master's courtyard that afternoon been here, they would have understood that there was no genius to speak of...

Only Xia Chichi understood: he simply practiced his saber while others rested.

There was one slight difference from his usual saber practice...

Whoosh! The figure in the snow leaped into the air, planted his foot against a tree trunk, and sent snow cascading down. Borrowing that force, he sprang up again and sailed toward a branch of another tree.

With a crack, a branch at the treetop, three zhang above the ground, broke beneath his saber.

His figure swept past the branch and landed lightly on the ground.

Zhao Changhe let out a breath and looked back, delighted. "Lightness skills really are fun. Now I finally have something to show off. Quite a haul this time... should I appoint Fang Buping captain of the supply convoy next time?"

Bloodflight Without a Trace was considered a fairly advanced lightness skill even within the Blood God Cult... Fang Buping had not given him something so good out of generosity. The fellow still had his own little scheme-because this lightness skill required considerable internal energy to use. Fang Buping very much wanted Zhao Changhe to experience the feeling of having a peerless beauty before him, only to discover he was impotent.

Yet Zhao Changhe was not impotent at all. Quite the opposite: he was a stud-his internal cultivation had already crossed the threshold into proficiency. Even if he had not yet reached the first level of the profound pass, he was now on the verge of breaking through.

To this day, Zhao Changhe had no way of knowing the name of the cultivation method Xia Longyuan had passed down. For now, he would call it the Xia Family Heart Method.

This heart method could likewise be practiced lying down or even standing. There was no need to sit in the full lotus position with the five centers facing heaven; that belonged to the Daoist schools... But it still required concentration and a calm mind, quietly looking inward and guiding the flow. Otherwise, true qi running wild could kill him.

As for whether he could practice even in his sleep like Luo Qi, this method did not seem capable of that. However, once he cultivated it deeply enough, it should be able to replace sleep itself, which amounted to the same thing.

It was all about saving time... There were so many things to practice that he wished he could stretch each day into two.

Zhao Changhe lay quietly on his bed, carefully examining himself inwardly. Unbidden, the image of Luo Qi lying on the bed and watching him practice his saber flashed through his mind.

It was as though he were experiencing what Luo Qi had experienced back then... Unfortunately, there was no reversal of roles, no little enchantress standing in the doorway practicing her saber for him to watch.

He had reached the brink of a breakthrough less than ten days after receiving the Xia Family Heart Method. Naturally, this was not because he was an exceptional genius, but thanks to the trace of qi Xia Longyuan had left behind, sparing him the process of cultivating from scratch until he could perceive his own qi.

Moreover, internal and external cultivation actually reinforced one another, making cultivation easier.

The healthier someone was, the more they practiced their punches and saber every day, the less "blockage" there would naturally be in their meridians and acupoints, and the more easily true qi could circulate. The idea of a sickly person cultivating exceptionally powerful internal arts hardly sounded credible. Conversely, mysterious true qi could also improve one's innate constitution, increase strength, and promote blood circulation.

Internal or external, stripped to its essence, it was all about developing the human body.

So although it took more time, cultivating both internally and externally had always been the royal road, far more beneficial than specializing in just one, whether for cultivation itself or actual combat.

According to one theory, at greater depths, internal and external cultivation merged into one; ultimately, they were the same thing. This was related to the opening of the human body's hidden treasury after breaking through the nine profound passes. Zhao Changhe was not yet qualified to experience that level. He only felt that, although this cultivation took a great deal of time, its results were excellent.

Just the way his true qi had spontaneously helped smooth the medicinal energy during his bath earlier already made it worthwhile.

He simply had yet to discover any particularly miraculous properties, probably because his cultivation was still too shallow... Today, he could try breaking through the internal profound pass and see whether truly entering the first level would let him discover the wonders of internal cultivation.

The profound pass of internal cultivation was, frankly, a little embarrassing.

Because, in the narrow sense, the "profound pass acupoint" was actually the perineum point... So breaking through the first profound pass meant opening the perineum point.

When he guided his true qi to thrust against that spot over and over, it always felt rather like having sex with himself... He wondered what Luo Qi and Yue Hongling thought when they practiced... They probably were not as ridiculous as he, Zhao Changhe, was.

Breaking through the pass was actually very painful. Once the pain hit, many people struggled to concentrate on circulating their energy, which was why it posed a barrier. But this was orthodox internal cultivation, after all, and the pain was entirely ordinary. After the baptism of the Blood Baleful Art, Zhao Changhe practically felt as though a mosquito had bitten him; it barely stirred a ripple. He increased the force and thrust a dozen or so times, then pierced right through.

Zhao Changhe distinctly felt strands of coolness spreading from the profound pass and seeping into every limb and bone. Even his mind gave a jolt, seeming much more alert. He could no longer sense any remnant of Xia Longyuan in that original wisp of qi. It was now entirely the qi he had cultivated himself, circulating warmly along the method's prescribed route, peaceful and vast, as though a star chart had unfolded inside his body. His dantian shone like a bright moon, while his acupoints glittered like stars.

He slowly opened his eyes.

There was no lamp in the room, and everything was pitch-black. Even the night vision granted by his original eyes behind the head had struggled to distinguish details in this darkness, but now he found he could see very clearly.

Even the grain of the wood on the walls was plainly visible.

His hearing had also improved. Snowflakes drifting down outside the window should have made no sound, yet at that instant, he seemed able to hear a soft rustling before everything fell quiet again.

The resolution has gone up. That was his first reaction.

His second reaction made his heart skip a beat... Why did the various effects accompanying his eyes behind the head feel just like those of internal cultivation after breaking through a profound pass? And now that he had broken through himself, it seemed he could further strengthen those effects...

Could these eyes behind the head amount to a free level of the profound pass? Then what level would let him see things behind him?

Zhao Changhe could no longer sit still. He got up to rummage through the stack of books he had brought back that afternoon. Among them were the Blood God Cult's scriptures, which naturally included explanations of the human body's profound passes and Secret Storehouse from the cult's perspective.

"The human body's hidden treasury is supernatural power."

"When ordinary people break through a profound pass and open the eye aperture, they merely sharpen their sight, see farther, and discern the finest details. Only the supernatural powers of the Secret Storehouse allow one to see what lies behind, gaze across ten thousand li, behold the joys and sorrows of the mortal world, and perceive the principles of the Heavenly Dao. All the myriad forms of the world enter one's eyes. This may be called the heavenly eye ability."

"Our Blood God, blah, blah, blah..."

Zhao Changhe no longer had the mind to read whatever boasting followed...

The heavenly eye ability...

The cheat he had previously used mainly to peek at people bathing apparently belonged to a realm pursued by the grandmasters on the Heaven, Earth, and Human Rankings-and it could even evolve.

And he had the nerve to say he had only uncovered the second Position Card a few days ago... In truth, even now, he still had not fully figured out the first eye card.

Zhao Changhe lay on his bed in a daze, his thoughts wandering somewhere even he could not say. Before he knew it, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

That night, he dreamed.

He dreamed that beneath the tranquil night sky, the blind woman stood with her eyes gently closed, seeming both near and far, like a goddess of the night.

"I never expected... that you would break through the first level both internally and externally so quickly."

"I finally fucking found you! Send me back!"

"But you... do you really still want to go back?"