HSSB205: The youngest Martial Scholar
Yan Zhaoge was shocked.
Looking at Feng Yunsheng, the corners of his mouth twitched, “Junior apprentice-sister Feng, I very seriously, very solemnly believe that I need to raise my attainment in formations, putting in some hard work in that area.”
Feng Yunsheng was surprised as she carefully appraised Yan Zhaoge, saying somewhat helplessly after a while, “With you like that, senior apprentice-brother Yan, doesn’t this make other people not know where to place their face even more?”
“At least now, I feel like I am an idiot.”
Yan Zhaoge was silent for a moment before he suddenly laughed, “It’s fine. Anyway, most of the time, when you think like that, it’s actually not wrong. Maligning me once in a while is also from the impression I gave you. In truth, it also cannot be considered as you maligning me.”
Hearing Yan Zhaoge’s words, Feng Yunsheng refocused on him once more, her gaze getting softer and softer.
Yan Zhaoge turned to look at Ying Longtu by the side, placing his hand on the latter’s wrist and checking for a while before smiling, “Longtu’s improvement is very fast ah.”
Although he seemed a little slow, upon receiving Yan Zhaoge’s praise, Ying Longtu smiled very happily.
Feng Yunsheng smiled, “The Big Dipper Body is truly remarkable; even eldest apprentice-uncle, Master and the others find Longtu’s rate of progress stunning.”
Yan Zhaoge and Feng Yunsheng no longer continued conversing via aura-qi for their discussion on Ying Longtu, instead conversing normally.
Hearing their words, the other younger disciples also gazed over curiously.
Ying Longtu momentarily became the focal point of everyone’s gazes.
There was no choice; despite only having been brought to Broad Creed Mountain for over half a year, the talent and potential Ying Longtu displayed was really too shocking.
As one of the six great Sacred Grounds, all those disciples who were able to make it into Broad Creed Mountain were one of ten thousand.
In Broad Creed Mountain, everyone was also very outstanding. Perhaps it wasn’t so easily visible, requiring those geniuses amongst geniuses like Xu Fei, Lu Wen, Yan Zhaoge, Feng Yunsheng and Sikong Qing to reveal their excellence even amongst them.
However, while before them, these others seemed rather ordinary, out of Broad Creed Mountain, amongst other first and second-rate powers, all of them were genius-level figures.
But it was in such an environment that Ying Longtu displayed a rate of improvement that left all the younger disciples stunned.
This child who seemed even a little unintelligent in his regular life, when cultivating, could not be described as improving one day a thousand li-one day ten thousand li was more appropriate to describe it.
Even Yuan Zhengfeng had been shocked; this little freak’s cultivation speed in the Body Refinement realm was even faster than Yan Di’s in the past.
Suddenly descending from nowhere, then coming up from behind to surpass them-this gave the other younger disciples immense pressure.
In constantly taking care of Ying Longtu, other than helping him in his day-to-day living, Feng Yunsheng was also preventing others from bullying him and rejecting him, preventing others from secretly setting him up to fall due to his usually rather unintelligent brain.
While Ying Longtu was obedient and loved to learn, he was indeed usually rather unintelligent. Sometimes, even being secretly misled by others, having committed an error, he might still not realise it.
Yan Zhaoge surveyed his surroundings, saying calmly, “Big Dipper Body, also known as the Thirty Six Acupoints True Dragon Body, or the Big Dipper Dragon Body.”
“Qi and blood at birth being strong like a dragon’s or elephant’s, mind clear as water and a mirror.”
Yan Zhaoge said, “As long as it is related to the qi and blood of the fleshly body, Longtu can virtually accomplish it in a single go, equivalent to having successfully cultivated it in his mother’s womb.”
“Therefore, in terms of fleshly body cultivation, he is very possibly the strongest in this world, with no one above him.”
“And in other areas, like the adjusting of the qi, the tempering of inner qi and its accumulation as well as many other areas, he also possesses a great advantage, the background gifted to him at birth being one of the best in this world.”
Yan Zhaoge stroked his lower chin, “Therefore, in the early stages of cultivation, in the Body Refinement realm, his speedy improvement is only natural.”
Feng Yunsheng nodded.
The Body Refinement realm had ten levels, with the body-tempering, the meridian-connecting and the qi-directing stages, following which was its peak stage, the Inner Discernment stage. Basically, these were all related to qi and blood as well as muscles and bones.
Starting out at the early body-tempering stage, one would first seek to strengthen their flesh and blood, tempering the flesh of the entire body till it was filled with power, much stronger as well as more agile than that of ordinary people.
Afterwards, in the mid body-tempering stage, the muscles were trained to become tougher, tempering the body a step further as the entire body’s explosive power was strengthened.
In the late body-tempering stage, where the bones and blood resonated, it was the first time the bones were being cultivated in as their toughness and resilience were increased greatly, the entire person’s strength and agility increasing an entire level.
Afterwards, they would begin pushing past the first major bottleneck for Martial Artists, moving towards the meridian-connecting stage.
Having successfully connected the body’s meridians, they could be considered as having stepped into the early meridian-connecting stage. Afterward, they would unceasingly strengthen and expand the meridians, till they were about three times larger than they had been before, with the Martial Artist being said to have reached the mid meridian-connecting stage.
Afterwards, having connected all the meridians of the entire body meant that they would have reached the late meridian-connecting stage, having set up a good foundation for their future cultivation a step further.
After the late meridian-connecting stage, one could begin to cultivate in qi. Those who successfully cultivated out a breath of inner qi which did not dissipate could be known as qi-directing Martial Artists.
In the early qi-directing stage, the qi and blood was vigorous. Through inhaling and exhaling, speeding up and moderating the circulation of qi, conditioning the qi and blood, one’s strength would be increased greatly.
The mid qi-directing stage saw a very important process where a qi ocean was opened within the dantian, one’s inner qi growing greatly.
The late qi-directing stage was also known as the marrow-washing stage, wherein a martial practitioner would work on the marrows within their bones for the first time, relying on the moderation of the qi and blood, the inside and outside coming together as one, the inner qi entering deep into the bone marrows, from there achieving an initial level of switching out one’s bones and being reborn. Its special characteristic was inner qi entering the bones, the sound of thunder washing one’s marrows.
Finally, the peak stage of the Body Refinement realm was known as the Inner Discernment stage. Having attained it, one could look within their body, gradually gaining a grasp of their internal condition, also feeling the acupoints of their entire body.
At this point, a Martial Artist could be said to have reached the peak of the Body Refinement realm, beginning their attempts to cultivate their inner qi into aura-qi. On the successful production of aura-qi, they would have entered the Martial Scholar realm.
Yan Zhaoge patted Ying Longtu’s shoulder, “To Longtu, the ten levels of Body Refinement only consist of from the seventh to eighth level, opening a qi ocean within the dantian, and from the ninth to tenth level, Inner Discernment. These two bottlenecks require some time in earnest cultivation, while the others can just be casually breezed past.”
At this point, Yan Zhaoge also felt rather emotional as he looked at Ying Longtu, “Only having officially cultivated for half a year? Already at the Inner Discernment stage, an unprecedented record since following the Great Calamity.”
He smiled, “It is still too early to say for my father’s other records, but the title of the Youngest Martial Scholar will definitely be broken by Longtu.”
Hearing his words, the other disciples all exhaled a cold breath, the gazes with which they looked at Ying Longtu instead calming greatly.
Yan Zhaoge smiled, “I still haven’t finished. From cultivating inner qi into aura-qi and breaking through into the Martial Scholar realm, Longtu will also have to work hard. However, the mid inner aura Martial Scholar realm, washing and refining the internal organs with the aura-qi, and the early outer aura Martial Scholar realm, with the second washing of the bones within the marrows, would still be a piece of cake for him.”
Everyone smiled bitterly.
When the advantage possessed was just too immense, other instead wouldn’t be able to feel jealous.
Especially seeing the slow, clueless Ying Longtu-getting along with him well was actually also not hard.