Inner Qi Is Born, Wisdom Born of Concentration

All the credit naturally belonged to that string of golden characters in his mind.

Yu Tunzhou was curious.

What exactly was it?

A Cultivation Method? A Divine Ability? An ancient text?

A martial inheritance left behind by the Dharma Aspect expert suppressed beneath the town?

But even if a Dharma Aspect expert was on the level of a Terrestrial Immortal, he could not casually alter a Cultivation Method left by a Human Emperor of High Antiquity, much less change even its True Intention...

This was probably far beyond the Dharma Aspect level.

Yu Tunzhou tried to get a clear look, but his head ached terribly. His mind had suffered serious damage, and he had only just caught his breath.

He could only set it aside for now.

Whatever it was, Yu Tunzhou had finally worked out what it could do.

Its immense importance and usefulness made him breathe a deep sigh of relief.

Yu Tunzhou gave a self-mocking smile. He finally had his cheat. Could a transmigrator even call himself one without a cheat?

At that moment, he threw off the sense of urgency that had been chasing at his heels for the past three years, gaining enough distance that it no longer pressed him at every step.

All methods are equal, none higher or lower...

Yu Tunzhou silently recited the words.

Unfortunately, he had no other Cultivation Methods on hand, so he could not test the golden characters' effects any further.

After resting for about another half an incense stick, his headache gradually eased. He turned his attention to the [Spark Instruction], only to freeze halfway through.

At the seventh layer of a Qi Ingestion Method, one could draw in and expel Profound Qi. This was also the key distinction between Higher Vehicle and Lower Vehicle methods. A Lower Vehicle method could be developed to the sixth layer at the absolute limit, while a Higher Vehicle method could be developed to the ninth.

Each layer could increase a cultivator's "Qi sense," until he could touch the profoundly mysterious "Qi rhythms" of the Great Dao.

According to Xie Linchuan, the legendary supreme methods could even be developed to the tenth layer!

At that point, one's Qi sense would be so strong that it was almost a direct pass to forging an immortal foundation.

Of the thirty-nine households currently in the town, those possessing a supreme Qi Ingestion Method could be counted on one hand.

Under such circumstances, as long as Yu Tunzhou mastered the original [Spark Instruction], he would have the qualification to pursue most people, even compete alongside them.

But now, according to the Method Formula, this [Spark Instruction], personally "trained" by the golden characters, seemed capable of being developed to the eleventh layer?

Yu Tunzhou could not help gaping, his expression astonished.

If even supreme methods stopped at the tenth layer, what level did the eleventh belong to?

Another step beyond the top of a hundred-foot pole?

The golden characters' effects had still exceeded his expectations.

He suppressed the turmoil in his heart and settled down to study the [Spark Instruction].

The entry point to the Method Formula was a breathing and guidance technique.

"Man is born endowed with the Qi of heaven and earth. While Qi remains, he lives; when Qi perishes, he dies..."

This Method Formula contained more than ten thousand characters, several hundred of which stressed the importance of breathing. It held that Qi was the source of all things, and that breathing was the vital link between "the small world of the human body" and "the world outside."

Reading this, Yu Tunzhou could not help nodding to himself.

His field of study in his previous life had often required him to research Daoist and Buddhist classics. He had read widely, and had frequently come across accounts related to "breathing."

For instance, Master Who Embraces Simplicity mentioned, "One who understands the way of drawing in and expelling breath can circulate Qi, and thereby prolong life."

Even when his teacher in his previous life had taught him Taijiquan to strengthen his body, the teacher had mentioned that many traditional martial arts had once had accompanying breathing methods. Sadly, most had been lost, their essence gone and their power no longer what it once was.

Besides, breathing methods were not as mysterious as people imagined.

Even an old farmer on a field ridge would unconsciously sink his breath and exert force while working.

Modern athletes, too, often had their own breathing rhythms.

In the end, it was simply a matter of following the rhythms of the human body and heaven and earth, so that this "force" could be brought to its fullest.

Yu Tunzhou sat cross-legged on the bed.

Embrace the Origin and Guard the One, let all troubles recede, hold the attention on the Dantian, guard the One and attain stillness...

Outside the window, the spring rain had just stopped. He gathered his scattered thoughts and cast aside distractions. A thought arose in his mind, and the Method Formula flowed through it. The breathing and guidance technique also gradually imprinted itself into his limbs and bones, becoming a habit, an instinct.

At first, his breathing was no different from usual.

But gradually, it grew deep, fine, and long, like a secluded mountain spring passing through stone, its slender flow unceasing. In the end, it was scarcely audible.

Deep, fine, soft, and long, without a sound.

Without realizing it, he entered the special state he experienced while practicing his forms, his mind naturally at peace.

The second spring thunderclap of the night suddenly exploded outside the window. Thunder rumbled, and water pooled at the eaves poured down in a rush, but Yu Tunzhou did not lift an eyelid. His mind was as steady as an old monk in meditation, untouched by the slightest disturbance from outside.

Gradually, this had gone somewhat beyond the level of bodily stillness...

At this moment, his mind was not so pure and clear that it held no thoughts. Rather, he allowed all manner of thoughts to arise and fade without affecting him.

Following the Method Formula, he consciously slowed his inhalation.

In this state of stillness, it was as if he had gained a new vision. He could clearly see a clean, moist stream of air slowly flowing in through his nose. No longer rushing to fill his chest as it usually did, it seeped slowly through his throat and windpipe, sinking downward like spring rain moistening the soil...

That single breath traveled exceptionally slowly, as though it had to cross countless mountains and valleys and pass through innumerable barriers before it could reach its destination.

When the breath finally reached the end, an unprecedented sense of ease arose from within him, as if he had been born anew.

When he exhaled, he likewise did not release it all at once as in an ordinary breath. Instead, like letting out a long line, he breathed out steadily and without interruption, as though scraping the turbid Qi accumulated in his body away bit by bit.

One inhalation and one exhalation took far longer than before.

After repeating this three times, Yu Tunzhou felt dizzy, his chest tight and blocked, as though a great boulder were pressing down on him.

As his thoughts stirred, he recalled how his teacher had repeatedly instructed him while he practiced his forms in his previous life: "When drawing in and expelling breath, what matters is being natural. Force it, and it goes against you."

He began to adjust his breathing rhythm, using the path the air took into his body as a basis. He tried and corrected himself again and again, seeking neither speed nor excessive depth, until the stream flowed freely between inside and outside, without obstruction.

Let every breath return to the profound aperture, let every inhalation and exhalation follow nature.

He did not know how much time had passed. Yu Tunzhou had long since forgotten time, his surroundings, and even his own existence and breathing.

His breathing grew ever longer, the breath through his nose almost inaudible. Only the faint rise and fall of his chest and abdomen showed that he was still alive.

At this moment, his breathing seemed to resonate with the world around him, while his mind and breath were bound tightly together, indistinguishable from each other.

Only by forgetting the breath could one know its wonder; only by forgetting the spirit could one see its root.

It was during this time that it happened.

A faint warmth slowly spread through his lower abdomen. The warmth was extremely slight, yet exceptionally tenacious, like a craftsman striking fire from stone. A spark had just caught, and though it could scarcely set a plain ablaze, it had taken firm root, faint but tenacious.

This was the Dantian to which the Method Formula pointed.

Fire struck from stone, the spark would not go out; the day it set the plain ablaze would come.

Having reached this point, Yu Tunzhou could be said to have given birth to his first inner Qi and officially entered the [Spark Instruction].

From then on, whenever Yu Tunzhou inhaled, he actively drew the clear Qi outside his body through his Dantian, letting it circle there for a moment. Like wind fanning a fire, it made the spark burn brighter and the warmth grow stronger.

Yu Tunzhou suddenly sensed something.

As the spark in his Dantian grew brighter, countless points of light, fine to the extreme, appeared throughout his body. Like scattered stars, they lay dormant in silence, seeming to wait for him to use Qi as a guide to kindle them one by one.

The human body had three hundred and sixty-five major apertures.

In Qi Ingestion and Meridian Opening, the first step was the birth of inner Qi. The second was to use that inner Qi to connect all three hundred and sixty-five major apertures, thereby opening the Qi meridians.

The latter was not difficult. Once inner Qi was born, all that remained was the slow work of grinding water against stone.

Yu Tunzhou then gathered his focus and circulated the [Spark Instruction], nourishing this wisp of newborn inner Qi and slowly strengthening it.

He did not know how much time passed.

The spring rain outside had long since stopped, though water still dripped from the eaves. A fish-belly white spread across the eastern horizon, and morning light shone through the paper window, falling before the bed.

On the bed, Yu Tunzhou slowly opened his eyes and emerged from his state of stillness. The sounds around him swept in like a tide-

The drip of rainwater from the eaves, the soft rustle of wind in the branches and leaves, the chirping of insects among the bushes, and the faint crowing of a rooster in the distance...

These sounds had seemed a world away before, but now they suddenly grew clear. Bearing a substantial sense of reality, they pulled him back into this world.

The experience was very novel.

His earlier state of stillness had been like stepping into another wondrous world, where he had lingered for a long time before returning. Even the familiar scenery around him had acquired a touch of unfamiliarity.

What Yu Tunzhou was most curious about now was whether he had actually achieved Entering Meditative Concentration Through Stillness just now.

According to what Xie Linchuan had said, he had indeed seen his "inner landscape," such as his Dantian, Qi meridians, and those major apertures answering one another across the distance.

If he really had, was entering Meditative Concentration an inherent part of the [Spark Instruction], or did he, Yu Tunzhou, actually possess considerable aptitude for cultivation as well?

Yu Tunzhou thought it over and decided it should be the latter. His heart suddenly brightened, and he felt that in this life he had finally waited for the clouds to part and reveal the moon. At last, things were beginning to look up.

He had been somewhat worried that the golden characters could help him elevate Cultivation Methods more easily, but could not help him cultivate.

If his own aptitude were poor, then even possessing a peerless art would be for nothing.

Fortunately, he, Yu Tunzhou, did have a little talent, having entered the first layer of the [Spark Instruction] in a single night.

Yu Tunzhou did not hurry to get up.

Without a teacher to guide him, he had all the more reason to ponder things for himself.

Feeling the wisp of Qi in his Dantian, Yu Tunzhou carefully recalled what he had experienced and gained. When he looked over the Method Formula again, he immediately gained new insights.

The True Intention of drawing in and expelling breath lay in separating the clear from the turbid, expelling the turbid Qi from the body and taking in the clear Qi between heaven and earth.

Eight characters summed it up best: exhale ever so finely, inhale ever so steadily.

After entering stillness just now, he had unknowingly followed this principle. He had sensed the stream of Qi connecting the worlds inside and outside him, eventually kindling the spark in his Dantian and giving birth to his first wisp of inner Qi.

Next, he would have to continually nourish this wisp of inner Qi, letting it flow through his body and kindle the sparks in his major apertures. Eventually, it would form a circulation through his Qi meridians, rising and falling like the tides, spontaneously from within.

When it was about time,

Yu Tunzhou got up, pushed open the door, and stretched his limbs. After sitting cross-legged all night, his legs were only a little sore and numb. Overall, he did not feel tired; instead, he felt somewhat refreshed.

As the wisp of Qi in his Dantian circulated, the soreness and numbness in his legs also quickly faded.

His inner Qi had only just been born, so its nourishment of his body was not yet obvious, but there was already a subtle effect.

Joy flowed through Yu Tunzhou's heart. From now on, he would not have to sleep at night and could nourish his Qi instead.

Rounding up, living one day was the same as living two.

At that moment, he also clearly noticed that his "sense of smell" had grown much sharper.

No!

This is Qi sense!

Having entered the [Spark Instruction], he now possessed a faint, elementary Qi sense.

Yu Tunzhou was curious about it-

When he developed the [Spark Instruction] to the tenth layer, or even the eleventh, just how strong would his Qi sense become?

Would he, like the predecessors Master Zhang had mentioned as examples, also be able to perceive the Qi rhythms of the Great Dao, such as those of the twenty-four solar terms?

Green bamboo formed a forest, and a mountain stream ran through the quiet.

The daylight was dim, and the forest shadowy. Once the morning mist rose, it took on something of the air of an immortal realm. The crisp scent unique to bamboo filled the air, mingling with the dampness of the soil.

Deep in the bamboo forest, the stems and branches of several old bamboo plants curved slightly, casting a patch of shade. Directly beneath them, Xie Linchuan sat cross-legged on a bluestone.

The stone on which he sat was part of the boulder their Evergreen Mountain founding master had sat upon when he created the [Eastern Pole Longevity Qi Ingestion Instruction] in years past. Most of the boulder remained at the sect's mountain gate.

The bamboo forest, too, had been created as an almost one-to-one reproduction of the environment in which the founding master had created the method.

All of it was simply so that the disciples could better comprehend the founding master's State of Mind when he had created the method.

Over the course of the night, Xie Linchuan had used the surroundings and the founding master's handwritten notes to raise his comprehension of the [Eastern Pole Longevity Qi Ingestion Instruction]'s True Intention to sixty percent.

The Qi Ingestion Instruction itself had also reached completion at the third layer.

And it had been only nine days since he obtained it.

Such a cultivation speed ranked among the best of Evergreen Mountain's disciples throughout its history.

Once Grandmaster-Uncle Zhang learned of it, even if he did not praise him openly, he should understand in his heart that Xie Linchuan was no longer the wastrel he had once been, and would likewise be able to shoulder the family's name in the future.

At this moment,

Xie Linchuan was facing a choice.

During his cultivation the previous night, his State of Mind had happened to rise to a new level, and he had gained some insights of his own into this Qi Ingestion Method.

Two paths now lay before him. One was to continue pondering the founding master's State of Mind and intent back then. The other was to forge his own path, establish a new True Intention, and turn another's method into his own.

These were two entirely different paths.

If he took the first, nothing would prevent him from developing the Qi Ingestion Method to the tenth layer, but he could develop its True Intention to ninety percent at most.

Things like intent and State of Mind could not perfectly match anyone but the creator, unless by some fortuitous chance one gained insights beyond them.

The second path, however, was to make the Qi Ingestion Method entirely his own. Ten-tenths True Intention would be inevitable, for it was essentially the same as creating the Qi Ingestion Method anew. Cultivators of later generations would have to take his State of Mind and intent as their standard.

As far as Xie Linchuan knew, Evergreen Mountain actually had as many as thirty-five branches of this Qi Ingestion Method, all left behind by predecessors who had forged their own paths.

If he succeeded, his would be the thirty-sixth branch.

But how difficult it was to create the Qi Ingestion Method anew.

In Evergreen Mountain's thousands of years of history, only thirty-five people had succeeded.

Many people had even considered this path a pointless way to invite trouble upon oneself.

That was because ninety percent True Intention would still allow one to forge a Higher Vehicle foundation, or even an immortal foundation.

The path of transforming a method could take one another step beyond the top of a hundred-foot pole, but once one failed, one could only abandon the art and find another Qi Ingestion Method to cultivate from the beginning.

And he was in Luofu Grotto-Heaven, with the Dao struggle imminent. He had no time to start over. If he failed, he would miss a critical juncture in the Dao struggle, and afterward it would be difficult for him to compete with his peers.

Xie Linchuan sat cross-legged for a long time, unable to decide, until he suddenly recalled how he had asked his Grandmaster-Uncle the previous day why he was so certain Yu Tunzhou could enter Meditative Concentration on his own. The fellow had not even heard the essentials and techniques for entering it.

His Grandmaster-Uncle had asked him a question.

What was bodily stillness?

The question was so simple it required no thought.

Sit still and focus the mind, casting aside distracting thoughts. As long as an ordinary person was willing to settle down and empty his mind, he could also reach this point; it was merely a question of how long he could maintain it.

His Grandmaster-Uncle then asked whether Xie Linchuan, having already achieved Entering Meditative Concentration Through Stillness, could enter a state of bodily stillness while practicing his forms, or even go a step further, and maintain it for tens of minutes or an hour.

Xie Linchuan's expression changed. He asked whether Yu Tunzhou could do it.

The answer was naturally yes.

In the end, his Grandmaster-Uncle had offered only one assessment of Yu Tunzhou.

"A person who has always done his best to be himself is a True Person, whether he is one or not."

Xie Linchuan did not yet know what that assessment meant, but he understood very clearly how remarkable it was to maintain bodily stillness while practicing forms, or even go a step further, for tens of minutes!

For him, the gate to Meditative Concentration was within arm's reach.

This step might take years, even a decade or more, yet it might also happen in the very next instant.

Relying on a visualization method to enter Meditative Concentration was the proper path, but it was also the greatest shortcut under heaven, and a shortcut could not lead to the third step.

After Entering Meditative Concentration Through Stillness came Wisdom Born of Concentration.

Nature Cultivation was far more difficult than Life Cultivation because many of its barriers could only be understood and seen through by oneself; there was no method to follow, nothing to rely on.

Even scions of great clans like them, who had cultivated visualization methods early and swiftly entered Meditative Concentration, often needed years, or even more than a decade, to break through.

But someone like Yu Tunzhou was different.

If he could enter Meditative Concentration on his own, then once he obtained a visualization method, he could quickly take his first steps in it. He could also use it to master Wisdom Born of Concentration, and even glimpse the threshold of a higher realm.

Those who attained Wisdom Born of Concentration held the pearl of wisdom in their grasp, their bodies like great pills. The mysteries of their bodies' workings were reflected in their minds as clearly as the lines on their palms, providing benefits vital to their subsequent cultivation, far beyond what ordinary introspection in Meditative Concentration could offer.

Yu Tunzhou had come from the countryside, yet he had attained such cultivation of his State of Mind... This had given Xie Linchuan quite a shock at the time.

At that thought.

Xie Linchuan, standing amid the bamboo grove, suddenly made up his mind, and a mighty surge of heroic spirit rose in his chest.

Talents and heroes under heaven were as numerous as carp crossing a river, and dragons and phoenixes among men were by no means few.

If he did not dare contend for the lead in the first realm of cultivation, could not look down upon all other heroes and advance another step from the top of a hundred-foot pole, how could he speak of one day competing with others on the same stage, surpassing his peers, and reaching the summit of the Great Dao?!

Once his resolve was set, all other thoughts vanished.

Xie Linchuan slowly closed his eyes and let his mind sink into his body once more. This time, no hesitation remained in his heart, only stillness-

He would walk his own path, establish his True Intention anew, turn the ancestral method into his own, and establish Evergreen Mountain's thirty-sixth lineage!