The stone gate burst open with a thunderous crash,
Li Qingshan felt the world spin around him as an irresistible force swept him inside.
The turbulent currents of space and time tore at his consciousness,
If not for the Crystal Visualization Method having reached the Third Level of Deep Sleep, his mind as hard as crystal, he would probably have passed out long ago.
After an unknown amount of time, he crashed heavily onto the hard ground.
"Cough, cough." Li Qingshan struggled to his feet and looked around.
He was in a dim alley, the air thick with the mingled smells of coal smoke and some kind of industrial exhaust.
Faint clamor from the streets drifted over from a distance, in an accent that was both familiar and strange.
He dusted himself off and immediately checked his backpack.
The gold bars, medicines, and survival knife were all intact, which put him somewhat at ease.
He walked out of the alley, and the sight before him left him rooted to the spot.
Low brick-and-concrete buildings lined both sides of the street, their walls mottled and plastered with all sorts of small advertisements.
Bicycle bells jingled as people in plain clothes hurried past.
The cover girls on the magazines hanging at the roadside newsstand looked a little old-fashioned, while Richie Jen's "The Ends of the Earth" played from a small shop.
He could barely see any smartphones. People were using Nokias with blue or green screens, and Motorola phones.
"What era is this?"
Li Qingshan murmured to himself.
He walked up to the newsstand and pretended to browse the papers, quickly fixing his gaze on the date on the C City Evening News: August 15, 2003.
2003? Li Qingshan's heart jolted.
But as someone traveling through time for the second time, he quickly suppressed the disorientation brought on by the shift in time and space.
His most pressing task was to find out about this world and resolve his most basic survival needs.
The power of his mind quietly stirred, his mental strength spreading in ripples around him.
Li Qingshan immediately sensed something unusual about this world. There wasn't a trace of spiritual Qi in the air, but it was filled with a peculiar presence.
It was a vigorous, blazing energy, brimming with life,
Originating from the people walking the streets and alleys, especially those occasional passersby with upright figures and steady strides.
"Blood and Qi?" Li Qingshan seemed to understand.
Although this world had no spiritual Qi, martial artists' blood and Qi were exceptionally vigorous, as if everyone were a walking furnace.
He wandered aimlessly through the streets, observing this city that was both familiar and strange.
Passing a martial arts school, he saw an exaggerated advertising sign hanging at the entrance:
"Become a Sanda Champion in One Month!"
"Free Jeet Kune Do Trial Classes!"
Li Qingshan shook his head. These flashy martial arts schools were clearly not the best place to learn about this world's martial arts system.
He needed knowledge that was more fundamental and systematic.
But before that, he had to solve his money problem.
Feeling the gold bars in his backpack, Li Qingshan began keeping an eye out for pawnshops and gold stores along the street.
In the end, he stopped in front of a gold and silver jewelry shop that looked rather old-fashioned.
The shopkeeper was a lean, middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He was carefully examining a piece of gold jewelry with a magnifying glass.
"Boss, do you buy gold?"
Li Qingshan asked directly.
The shopkeeper looked up and sized him up.
"Of course, if it's good quality. How much do you have?"
Li Qingshan took a small gold bar from his backpack and placed it on the counter.
It was one of the supplies he had specially prepared for his journey through time, weighing about eighty grams and very high in purity.
The shopkeeper picked up the gold bar and examined it carefully, then weighed it on a balance. Finally, he took out a small bottle and dripped a few drops of liquid onto it to test its purity.
"Good quality. Eighty-one grams. At the current market price, how about I give you 6,500?"
The shopkeeper pushed up his glasses.
Li Qingshan knew the price was a little lower than its actual value,
But as a stranger who urgently needed cash, he didn't have much room to bargain.
"Fine, but I want cash."
The transaction was completed quickly, and Li Qingshan walked out of the gold shop with a thick stack of hundred-yuan bills.
With this money, at least he wouldn't have to worry about making a living in the short term.
As he pondered, his gaze was drawn to an inconspicuous secondhand bookstore on the street corner.
The shop was small, and three mottled characters-Ink Fragrance Studio-were written on its wooden sign. A slip of paper on the glass door read, "Discounts on used books inside."
He pushed the door open, and the bell rang out crisply.
The shop was dimly lit, and the distinctive scent of old paper and ink filled the air.
An old man wearing reading glasses sat behind the counter reading a book. Without even looking up, he said,
"Help yourself. The prices are marked."
The bookstore wasn't large. Bookshelves reaching up to the ceiling lined all four walls, their contents arranged in a jumbled mess.
Li Qingshan strolled among them, quietly extending his mental strength to sense the streams of information contained in the books.
Suddenly, several yellowed old books in a corner caught his attention.
A faint but distinct presence emanated from them.
He pulled one out. Its cover bore four forceful brush-written characters:
Introduction to Guoshu.
He opened to the title page. It had been published in 1983, and the author was listed as Li Cunyi.
Li Qingshan's heart stirred. He kept searching and found
Boxing Classic, Xingyi Boxing Manual, Treatise on Taiji Boxing, and a series of other books on Guoshu.
These books were clearly old. Their pages had yellowed, and their corners were worn, but they were still in fairly good condition.
He carried the stack to the counter.
The old man finally looked up and pushed his reading glasses higher.
"Oh, young man, you're interested in these old relics? These days everyone's into Sanda and taekwondo."
"Just looking around,"
Li Qingshan said with a smile,
"How much for these books?"
The old man flipped through the pages.
"They're old things nobody wants anymore. Give me fifty yuan, and you can take them all."
After paying, Li Qingshan carried the heavy stack of books and found a nearby hotel to stay in.
The room was simple but clean, just right for quiet study.
After locking the door, he eagerly opened Introduction to Guoshu.
It began by stating its purpose: "Guoshu is Chinese martial arts.
No performances, no competitions-only killing the enemy and defending one's home and country."
As he read further, Li Qingshan gained a preliminary understanding of this world's martial arts system.
Guoshu was divided into three major realms: Manifest Jin, Hidden Jin, and Transformation Jin, each with its own fine gradations.
At the Manifest Jin stage, one trained the strength of the sinews and bones. Every punch and kick had form and substance. At the highest level, one possessed a thousand jin of strength; splitting steles and cracking rocks was nothing difficult.
One trained the strength of the whole body, then concentrated it,
So that when one's fist struck out, it could make the air explode, its might astonishing. This was what people meant by "a thousand gold cannot buy the sound of a single crack,"
And it was the realm of Manifest Jin.
Hidden Jin went a step further, training the power of the mind and controlling the Yuan Qi in the pores,
Adjusting the center of gravity at the spine and coccyx until the outer membranes of the sinews and bones throughout the body were connected, then releasing Hidden Jin,
This was what people called "opening the Ren and Du meridians." The main channels along the spine were the Ren and Du meridians,
The Yuan Qi produced in the body through movement passed through the pores and was transformed into Hidden Jin, which one could strike out with.
It trained penetrating force, allowing one to injure an enemy's internal organs without leaving a trace.
Transformation Jin, meanwhile, was the realm of a grandmaster,
Connecting the whole body, regulating the internal organs, recognizing and mastering every organ inside and outside the body,
Then training them, so that in the end, strength reached the teeth, tongue, fingernails, and hair-the Four Extremities-and Hidden Jin spread throughout the whole body,
Until one reached the state where not even a feather could be added and not even a fly could land. That was Transformation Jin.
When a martial artist reached this realm, their internal organs were clean and sound, their sinews and bones throughout the body strong, and their bone marrow full.
As long as they maintained themselves properly, living to a hundred and thirty or forty would be no problem.
They were no longer within the realm of ordinary people.
The more Li Qingshan read, the more astonished he became. This Guoshu system was exquisitely profound, focused on developing the human body's potential and pursuing the path of becoming a saint through the flesh.
Although its path differed from the Crystal Visualization Method he cultivated, the levels described in the book were already far beyond those of ordinary people.
He closed his eyes and focused his mind, sinking his consciousness into the cultivation of the "Crystal Visualization Method."
His mental power was as clear and transparent as crystal, reflecting everything around him.
At the same time, he tried to circulate the blood and Qi within his body according to the descriptions in the "Boxing Classic."
Something extraordinary happened.
In this world, cultivating the "Crystal Visualization Method" was especially smooth, particularly when it came to sensing the circulation of blood and Qi.
He could clearly "see" the blood coursing through his body, his heart beating powerfully, and his internal organs trembling faintly with each breath.
This worked perfectly in tandem with the results of the "Crystal Visualization Method"'s mind cultivation.
He tried using the Manifest Jin method of exerting force and threw a punch.
"Whoosh!" The air rang with a clear whistle as his punch landed with far greater force than he could muster in his original world.
Even more remarkably, with the Third Level of Deep Sleep supporting him,
his body seemed tireless, practicing the techniques from the books one punch after another.
The Three-Body Posture from the "Xingyi Boxing Manual,"
the Silk-Reeling Jin from the "Treatise on Taiji Boxing,"
and the techniques for exerting force in the "Boxing Classic"-these Guoshu essentials rapidly fused in his mind, and he mastered them through practice with his body.
Suddenly, he sensed something and stopped his stance.
His mental power detected someone practicing in the next room. The subtlety of their blood and Qi circulation was far beyond that of an ordinary person.
"Knock, knock, knock." A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.
Li Qingshan opened the door and saw a hotel attendant, a young man in his early twenties, holding a thermos.
"Boss, I brought you some hot water."
"Thanks."
Li Qingshan took the thermos. His gaze inadvertently swept over the young man's hands: his knuckles were thick, and his palms were covered in heavy calluses. The calluses at the base of his thumb in particular were clearly the result of long practice with some kind of weapon.
The attendant seemed to notice his gaze and said with a cheerful smile,
"It gets a little noisy in the hallway at night. Please bear with us. Things have been unsettled around here lately. If you need anything, just call us."
Li Qingshan understood perfectly well: this attendant was no ordinary hotel employee.
But he didn't call him out. He simply went along with what the man had said.
"Thanks for the warning. I'll be careful."
The attendant nodded, then asked casually,
"You look unfamiliar. You're not from around here, are you? What brings you to City C?"
"I'm here to visit relatives,"
Li Qingshan said, partly truthfully and partly not.
"And look around while I'm at it."
The attendant gave him a meaningful look.
"City C has deep waters these days.
It's good for young people to read books. It's best not to wade into certain muddy waters."
With that, he turned and left.
Li Qingshan closed the door, understanding full well.
The attendant had clearly been warning him about something, and had indirectly confirmed that the Guoshu world in this place was far from peaceful.
He immersed himself once more in the study of Guoshu, comparing several classic texts and gradually piecing together a complete system of cultivation.
The more he read, the more familiar this world's martial arts system seemed to him,
and the more it resembled the martial arts world in his previous life's novel "Romance of Dragons and Snakes."
Could it really be such a coincidence that "Great Emperor of the Cosmos" in his previous world and this world were branches of the same lineage?
If so, then the "Great Dao of the Golden Elixir" mentioned in "Introduction to Guoshu"-the realm said to lie beyond Transformation Jin-was no mere fantasy.
Condensing the blood and Qi throughout one's body into an elixir and attaining inconceivable supernatural abilities-that was Holding the Elixir, Elixir Jin.
And perhaps even a realm beyond that:
Gang Jin
Breaking the Void and Seeing the Indestructible God.
If his guess was right, and the timeline fit, then this was the year before Wang Chao met Tang Zichen and began learning martial arts.
The future Guoshu grandmaster, the Primordial Heavenly King, should still be an ordinary high school student at this point, not yet having met his guide, Tang Zichen.
"'Romance of Dragons and Snakes,' 'Great Emperor of the Cosmos'..." Li Qingshan murmured to himself.
At the thought, a surge of excitement rose in Li Qingshan's heart.
It meant he not only knew how this world would unfold,
but also knew which opportunities he could seize,
and which people he should befriend or avoid.
He immediately began to make plans:
First, he needed to build a solid foundation in Guoshu. Then he would look for the right opportunity to meet Tang Zichen or Wang Chao.
After all, Tang Zichen might very well already be in the country by then.
"If I could get guidance from Tang Zichen, or build a friendship with Wang Chao, it would greatly benefit my Guoshu cultivation."
Li Qingshan thought to himself,
"Besides, I know what major events will happen over the next few years. That's an enormous advantage."
In the deep quiet of night, Li Qingshan stood by the window, gazing out at this unfamiliar yet familiar city.
In 2003, City C's night sky still showed many stars, while the lights on the tower cranes at distant construction sites stood like watchful giants.
He knew this world was far more complicated than he had imagined.
The Guoshu experts hidden among the common folk, the people who seemed ordinary yet possessed extraordinary skills-they made up an invisible underworld.
And in this underworld, he was both an outsider and a seeker of the Dao.
His mental power quietly stirred, spreading out around him like a net.
He could sense several presences scattered across the city, their blood and Qi burning as brightly as torches.
Some were steady as mountains,
some blazed like fire,
and some moved like the wind.
"Manifest Jin, Hidden Jin, Transformation Jin,"
Li Qingshan murmured softly,
"Let's see just how brilliant the martial arts of this world really are."
In this unfamiliar world, he needed to raise his strength as quickly as possible, and the combination of Guoshu and mind cultivation might be his greatest advantage.
From far away, a faint whistle of a fist cutting through the air reached his ears. Someone was practicing punches in the dead of night.
Li Qingshan smiled faintly. It seemed this world's underworld was already beginning to reveal its true face to him.
Night deepened, but Li Qingshan felt no desire to sleep.
He sat cross-legged, circulating the "Crystal Visualization Method" while mentally working through Guoshu techniques.
The Third Level of Deep Sleep allowed him to practice physically while cultivating his mind. This remarkable state made his progress astonishingly fast.
The fierce power of Manifest Jin,
the subtle softness of Hidden Jin,
the effortless harmony of Transformation Jin-
all kinds of boxing principles flowed through his mind.
Though the two systems of cultivation followed different paths, Li Qingshan found that the mental control granted by his mind power made learning Guoshu twice as effective with half the effort,
especially when it came to controlling his body's smallest movements. He had an advantage beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Outside the window, the first ray of dawn cut through the night sky.