Li Xian

Great Zhou Dynasty, Lijiang City, Dingfeng Marquis Estate.

"Martial cultivation consists of nine stages: Bright Force, Bone Tempering, Sinew Transformation, Viscera, Blood Exchange, Leakless, True Qi, Meridian Opening, and Xiantian!"

Dressed as a sword attendant, Zhang Yao was explaining martial cultivation to Li Xian in the courtyard.

"Martial cultivation begins with Bright Force. Only after developing force can you undergo External Tendon and Bone Tempering and Internal Organ Refinement, then achieve Marrow Cleansing and Blood Exchange, attaining an Impervious Body."

As she spoke, she suddenly threw a punch.

Bang!

Her delicate little hand broke through the air with a crisp report.

This was Bright Force!?

"Women have weaker sinews and bones, but with my explosive force, even three to five grown men would struggle to get close to me. That's because I've developed force and can use it to injure people."

Zhang Yao explained.

Li Xian nodded slightly, agreeing with her.

But...

"I already understand controlling force, External Tendon and Bone Tempering, and Internal Organ Refinement. I'm more interested in Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing and achieving an Impervious Body. Most importantly, how does one use an Impervious Body to accomplish Refining the Void into Reality and cultivate True Qi?"

Li Xian asked.

"Young master, when practicing martial arts, you must never reach for heights beyond your grasp. Someone with an Impervious Body already ranks among the finest in the martial world, their might shaking an entire province. As for cultivating True Qi? Such people can leap through the Dragon Gate and ascend to heaven in a single step."

Zhang Yao patiently counseled him. "Young master, you didn't undergo Foundation Establishment as a child. Starting martial training after your body has matured inevitably makes the initial progress slower. But with your ingenuity and intelligence as one of Lijiang's Four Great Talents, you should have every hope of developing Bright Force through a year of fist practice, undergoing External Tendon and Bone Tempering in three years, and achieving Internal Organ Refinement within ten years, becoming a martial artist of recognized standing. If you persevere, you might even achieve Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing in twenty or thirty years, making your name known throughout a commandery."

"So, how does one achieve Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing and an Impervious Body?"

Li Xian's thinking remained clear.

Faced with this question, Zhang Yao seemed helpless. "Someone who has achieved Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing can make a name in the martial world and dominate a region. If they join the army and take the field, they can fight a hundred men alone. Within the Marquis's Residence, only the master has that ability. I'm merely the young lady's maid. Even being allowed to practice martial arts and develop force is thanks to her kindness. Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing and an Impervious Body are like legends to me. I know very little about them."

Li Xian felt some regret.

Although the young lady of the Marquis's Residence, Liu Yanran, treated Zhang Yao as a sister, she was ultimately only a maid by background.

Being able to name all Nine Martial Realms already showed considerable knowledge. He could not ask too much of her.

"The Wind-Calming Marquis has achieved Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing?"

He considered this and asked, "Could I ask him for instruction?"

"Well..."

Zhang Yao knew perfectly well that, with his somewhat "pitiful" status, the young master had no right to seek instruction. But she could hardly say so outright, so she could only reply, "The marquis has gone to the royal capital. I'm afraid he won't return for another month or two."

"A month or two..."

Li Xian shook his head.

He could not possibly wait another month or two.

Beside him, Zhang Yao noticed his disappointment and could not bear to dampen his enthusiasm. "Young master, if you truly wish to practice martial arts to please the young lady, you could visit the newly opened Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall in Soaring Dragon Ward. Master Zhou has achieved Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing. His strength ranks among the best in all Lijiang. If you visit him, he'll surely teach you everything he knows."

"Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall?"

Li Xian nodded slightly. "All right. I'll go now."

With that, he stood up.

"Huh?"

Seeing Li Xian ready to leave at a moment's notice, Zhang Yao was taken aback. "Wait, young master. The young lady hasn't returned yet, and you're going out? Aren't you going to tell her first?"

"Tell her?"

Li Xian shook his head.

Then he asked, "Where is she?"

During the six days he had spent recovering, the young girl Zhang Yao had attended his bedside without leaving for even a moment. Throughout his nearly month-long martial training, the young lady of the Marquis's Residence, Liu Yanran, had never appeared either.

"Well..."

Zhang Yao was momentarily at a loss for words.

After a moment, she replied, "The young lady is still at Pinewind Academy."

"When will she return?"

"I don't know yet..."

"Forget it, then."

Li Xian paid it no further mind.

If she was displeased, so be it.

It did not matter.

"Young master..."

Zhang Yao hurriedly called out again, hesitating. "Without the young lady's or madam's permission, you might not be able to leave the estate."

"People are born free. So long as my heart remains unfettered, no one can bind me."

Li Xian looked at the young girl. "Thank you for looking after me this past month."

"You're too kind, young master. I was only..."

"I know. You were doing your duty."

Li Xian smiled and turned back into his room.

Seeing this, Zhang Yao opened her mouth to ask him to seek the young lady's permission before leaving. But recalling how the young lady had hurried about all month without ever visiting him, she did not know how to begin making such a request.

Inside the room.

Li Xian was very interested in "Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing" and "Impervious Body."

The subsequent stages of "Refining the Void into Reality," "All Hundred Meridians Unblocked," and "Returning to the Pre-Heavenly State" filled him with even greater longing.

In his previous life, he had been frail since childhood and abandoned by his parents. Fortunately, a Daoist had adopted him and taught him methods of nourishing his body, allowing him to grow to adulthood.

After witnessing the Daoist pass away peacefully at the end of his natural lifespan, and seeing how mortals were subject to birth, aging, illness, and death, he had felt keenly the fragility of the human body. He continued cultivating diligently, relying on his martial talent of [One Proof, Eternal Proof, never regressing]. After three years of arduous training, he finally achieved Embracing Qi and Forming a Core, reaching the pinnacle of martial arts.

To break beyond his limits, he tested the world with his fists, challenging countless powerful opponents and winning every battle, but indirectly encroaching on many people's interests.

Even someone as powerful as a Core-Embracing Grandmaster was still Mortal Flesh. In the end, a single bullet easily took his life.

When he woke again, he had become Li Xian, the son-in-law of the Dingfeng Marquis Estate.

In his former world, True Qi and Xiantian were merely fictional inventions.

Here...

In just one month, he had encountered such supernatural power. It immediately set his heart soaring with longing.

"True Qi and Xiantian."

Li Xian pondered. "Unfortunately, the memories Li Xian left me are incomplete. A bookworm, he believed all pursuits were lowly and only scholarship stood above them, regarding martial artists as vulgar brutes. So I'll ultimately have to explore the mysteries of this world's martial arts myself."

After a moment, he found his supplementary identity document.

As for anything else...

There was no need to bring it.

For Liu Yanran's sake, "Li Xian" had severed ties with his teachers, family, relatives, and friends, abandoning everything to marry into the Marquis's Residence.

But for various reasons, the Marquis's Residence had never added him to its household register.

Thus, he was still a free man.

Besides, even if he had transferred his registration and married into the household...

Considering the contempt the people of the Marquis's Residence held for "Li Xian," he would certainly have left anyway, since he had no taste for being abused.

His month of martial training had been precisely so he could leave smoothly.

Putting away the document, Li Xian left the inner courtyard with nothing else to his name.

The Dingfeng Marquis Residence was sizable, occupying a hundred mu in Lijiang City, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold.

Besides three wives and two young ladies, nearly a hundred guards, grooms, kitchen servants, and maids lived there.

As Li Xian approached the main gate to leave, he encountered two guards.

The Marquis's Residence's guards had all attained Bone-Tempering Achievement and would have been considered elite soldiers in the army.

Neither greeted him upon seeing him, and their gazes carried a certain insolence.

When they noticed he intended to leave the courtyard, one hurried forward to stop him. "Hey, wait. Li Xian, you're going out? Do you have the young lady's or madam's permission?"

"I can't go out?"

"You've entered our Dingfeng Marquis Estate. From now on, everything you do concerns our estate's reputation. Without a reason and permission, naturally you cannot go out as you please."

The other man moved to block him as well.

His gaze swept over Li Xian, sizing him up.

That look...

So brazen. Wasn't he afraid of being beaten to death?

Fortunately, he preferred persuading people through reason. He was not the sort to beat someone to death over a glare, so he began explaining. "In practice, I'm no different from a man who married into the Marquis's Residence. But in legal status, I haven't been added to the household register. I am the Marquis's Residence's son-in-law. Whether you acknowledge that or not, neither of you has the right to interfere with my coming and going from the Marquis's Residence. Forcibly blocking me is a servant bullying his master..."

"How dare you!"

Before Li Xian could finish, the guard angrily interrupted him. "I am Zhang Qing, a first-class guard of the Marquis's Residence! You dare demean me with your words? Get back inside!"

"I'm simply helping you understand the circumstances."

Li Xian patiently explained, "Neither of you has the right to question me about going out. By stopping me now, you're the ones at fault first. Of course, people have always been unwilling to admit their own mistakes. Even when they're wrong, they shift the blame onto others. But that means you'll have to bear every consequence of how this situation develops. If you end up getting beaten, sobbing your eyes out and wishing you'd acted differently, how embarrassing would that be..."

Before he could finish, the guard named Zhang Qing barked, "I told you to get back inside! Are you deaf!?"

The other guard could stand no more. "What a load of prattling nonsense!"

He reached straight for Li Xian's shoulder.

A pathetic wretch our young lady used as a shield. Seize him first.

His five fingers curled, and his hand shot out swiftly. He intended to clamp down on Li Xian's shoulder blade and subdue him in one move.

Yet almost as soon as he struck, Li Xian moved too.

When he had told Zhang Yao, "I already understand controlling force, External Tendon and Bone Tempering, and Internal Organ Refinement," he had not been joking.

Nor had his accomplishments after nearly a month of martial training been empty words.

As he moved, his sinews and bones rang out together. His arm wound upward like a python along the guard's reaching arm. Though he struck later, he arrived first, clamping onto the guard's shoulder blade like lightning. His fingers exerted force and wrenched...

Crack!

"Aah!"

An agonized scream instantly rang through the gateway.

Under the shock of pain, half the guard's body seemed to lose all strength, and he immediately crumpled.

The other guard, Zhang Qing, stared wide-eyed, both shocked and furious.

But...

His fury outweighed his shock.

"Li Xian! You've got some nerve!"

Roaring furiously, Zhang Qing surged with strength, gathered Bright Force, and drove a fierce, overbearing punch straight at his face.

Had an ordinary person taken that punch, losing half their teeth would have been getting off lightly.

But almost as soon as he punched, the twitching muscles driven by his gathering force had already shown Li Xian the punch's trajectory.

He shifted his right foot half a step back, leaned his upper body aside, and parried with his left hand. The punch aimed straight at his face was deflected to one side, passing almost flush against the outline of his ear and striking empty air.

In the instant they exchanged blows, his entire body had drawn open, his feet settling into a bow-shaped stance.

And the arrow on that drawn bow was his right palm, following immediately after the parry.

Bow-Stance Thrusting Fist!

While Zhang Qing's punch was deflected and his body was still pitching forward uncontrollably, Li Xian drove in to within a foot of him with a simple Bow-Stance Thrusting Fist.

At such close range, Li Xian's right palm shot skyward and slammed hard into Zhang Qing's chin.

Force erupted!

From below to above!

The savage power instantly battered Zhang Qing's mouth loose, sent teeth flying, and launched his eighty-odd-kilogram body straight into the air.

But that was not the end!

After sending Zhang Qing a foot into the air with a Bow-Stance Thrusting Fist delivered with his palm instead of his fist, he stepped forward. His straightened arm abruptly bent, his elbow pressed down, then jolted and smashed!

Bang!

Crack!

A dull impact and the sound of breaking ribs rang out together.

With his feet a foot off the ground, Zhang Qing was smashed a meter backward. Upon landing, his body slammed heavily against the main gate's threshold. His mouth was full of blood, his face white as paper.

His eyes, fixed on Li Xian, brimmed with panic, pain, and disbelief.

"You... you..."

"I knew this would happen."

Meeting his terrified gaze, Li Xian spoke words that immediately put people at ease. "All right. Although you were both unruly just now, I'm no demon. You're not strong. It would be hard for you to qualify to die at my hands."

Smiling, he waved, stepped through the gate, and left the Marquis's Residence.

Only after he had left did a number of people inside the Marquis's Residence come rushing over at the news.

Before long, a startled cry rang through the residence.

"The live-in son-in-law is turning on his masters!"

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(End of chapter)