Chapter 176: Opening the Heavenly Eye

"Madam, we are going to Xiazhou to gain a firm foothold, recruit troops, and buy horses; we are going to accomplish a great cause, and a good alchemist is also indispensable." He Chunhua naturally knew very well how to coax his wife. "Shi Huan City has many Dao Sects and is full of talent; finding a suitable candidate here is better than hiring one after going to Xiazhou. From this point of view, Chuan'er may not be insensible." Lady Ying trusted her husband the most, and at this moment, her anger turned into suspicion: "It's just a monkey; can it really refine good pills?"

"I have heard of the Thousand-Heart Flow's reputation." He Chunhua had ambitions for the world, so naturally, he also studied various Dao Sects. "It is famous for its alchemy. Although it is a monster sect, the pills refined by Medicine Apes are even better than those of human pharmacists; this is called specialization in the arts. If we go to hire a reputable alchemist, we might not be able to find one even if we double this price."

High-skilled talent was never cheap, not to mention that the talent was hired in the auxiliary capital Shi Huan, but had to go to Xiazhou to work, and the salary also had to include various implicit costs such as relocation fees.

Of course, He Chunhua didn't know that the reason why this Medicine Ape of the Thousand-Heart Flow was cheap was for another reason.

Cheap has cheap tricks.

Lady Ying had lived in Qiansong County for a long time, and her impression of monsters was that they were fierce and rough, only doing things like robbing and looting. Suddenly hearing that a monkey could do such fine work, she felt very fresh.

He Lingchuan returned to his guest room, stuffed two jin of juicy melons to the monkey, and a batch of medicinal materials: "Please help me refine Soul-Hooking Incense."

As the name suggests, this incense is used to hook the living souls of people, and often plays a role in the hands of those with ulterior motives. Ordinary pharmacies and alchemists don't sell it; if you express an urgent desire to buy it, you might even be reported.

But the ape monster Lingguang obviously didn't have such a strong sense of morality, took the things and said: "It can be taken in an hour."

It wasn't in a hurry to open the furnace to refine medicine, but took the melon to the basin to wash it clean, broke it open, and tasted it slowly.

He Lingchuan ignored it, took out the tofu he bought at the market, and went to the open space outside the house to practice the blade.

He exchanged for a set of movement techniques and a set of blade techniques from the Panlong City Merit Department with his military exploits. Although these two had to be combined in the end, at his current level, he could only practice them separately first.

Any blade technique like flowing clouds and water, any earth-shattering move, he shouldn't even think about it at the beginning.

He could only practice with tofu.

He spread a whole piece of water tofu on his palm and shaved it with a long blade.

The primary requirement is to shave it as thin as a cicada's wing, and every piece must be translucent.

Before getting the essentials, He Lingchuan never knew that the prerequisite for being a good swordsman was to first become a good cook. But the general summary of the blade technique clearly stated that "stability" and "accuracy" were the foundation of martial arts, and one could not be lazy at all, just like the foundation of a hundred-foot-high building.

As for moves, skills, and supernatural powers, as for the idea that only speed is invincible in martial arts, those were all superstructure.

If the foundation is not solid, the superstructure will not be firm.

He Lingchuan shaved ten times, basically all tofu slices as thin as tree leaves.

Mao Tao applauded on the side: "Young Master is amazing; this is the first time you've practiced shaving and you have this level!"

He Lingchuan glared at him fiercely, took the tofu slice and held it up to the light—

Not transparent, failure! This was not his first time.

He had already practiced for five days in the dream, especially the first day, which was simply a tragedy; he had shaved off a layer of skin from his own palm.

Now, when he shaved to the thirtieth time under Mao Tao's nose, his blade shook with his hand, and the tofu was shaved with jagged edges.

It's really damn hard.

When he finished ruining a piece of tofu, Mao Tao, who was standing on the side, hurriedly handed over another piece.

Today's task was to shave fifty pieces of tofu.

Of course, the people in the Panlong Dream couldn't bear to waste food like this, so another option was to use paper, stack a hundred thin sheets together, and shave them with a blade. Every time a sheet was shaved off, the ones underneath couldn't move.

This method sounded much easier than shaving tofu, and the paper could be reused; He Lingchuan also practiced like this in the dream.

The two months of comfortable life after crossing into this world did make him have the idea of muddling along and staying in a corner; after all, striving for strength was too difficult, and how could it be as comfortable as lying flat?

However, the two thrilling adventures later, whether it was being deceived by National Master Sun to the Panlong Desert, or the fierce battle with the rebel army at County Magistrate Lake, made him see the gap between himself and his opponents.

He could win and survive, eight parts relying on luck, having nothing to do with strength.

Even though He Chunhua determined that his eldest son was a lucky general, He Lingchuan himself understood that people couldn't live on good luck forever.

This world was far more dangerous than his previous life, and the masses were all floating in the mud. If he wanted to live for a long time, he could only rely on the blade in his hand to open up the wasteland and get ashore.

Half a year ago, he was still slacking off at work and idling in his spare time, and the most annoying thing was that his salary wasn't enough to spend, not life, death, and the future.

Thinking back now, it feels like a lifetime ago.

... No, he had indeed been reborn.

When He Lingchuan finished shaving the forty-ninth piece of tofu, his right hand could no longer lift the blade. In this freezing weather, he actually broke into a sweat.

Mao Tao stared at him with burning eyes, and He Lingchuan said angrily: "What are you looking at? You shave the last piece!"

"Me?" Mao Tao was startled, but actually agreed. "Alright."

He also spread out the tofu, pulled out a short dagger from his boot, and flipped it left and right.

"...?" Why did Mao Tao's movements look so smooth? In just a few breaths, the tofu was shaved, and Mao Tao held up a few pieces of tofu with the dagger, smiling: "Young Master, please look!"

Although it still couldn't reach as thin as a cicada's wing, each piece of tofu was uniform in thickness like a tree leaf.

You have to know that he wielded the dagger freely, in one go, without stopping in the middle; this difficulty was much greater, and the technique was exceptionally skilled.

He Lingchuan grabbed his collar: "Have you practiced secretly before?"

"Yes, this is our way of making a living; how could we not practice?" Mao Tao used to be a sand bandit and knew that his strength was not as good as others, so he had to find a way to win by a margin in technique.

He comforted He Lingchuan in the tone of someone who had been there: "Young Master, don't be discouraged; with your aptitude, you will succeed in seven or eight days."

"Discouraged? Which dog eye of yours saw me discouraged?" Young Master He scoffed, and ordered him to get a rope to tie between two trees.

The blade practice came to an end, and next was the movement technique.

The rope was as thick as a little finger, tied neither loose nor tight according to the requirements, and slightly sagging.

He Lingchuan jumped up and stepped on it with one foot. There was nothing to borrow force from above or below, and he swayed twice, hurriedly sinking his Qi into his dantian, and finally stood firm.

The original body had practiced on plum blossom stakes, and his sense of balance was not bad, so this didn't stump him.

So next was to put both hands behind his back, close his eyes, and stand still.

He didn't close his eyes for two breaths before He Lingchuan felt the world spinning.

He hurriedly opened his eyes and found that he had fallen, almost head-first.

When a person closes their eyes, their sense of balance is not good.

He jumped onto the rope again, and this time before he stood firm, a strong wind blew...

"Again!"

Mao Tao watched from below with eager eyes: "Young Master, to what extent does this need to be practiced?"

He Lingchuan gritted his teeth: "Change the rope to a thin thread, and I can still run freely on it with my eyes closed; that counts as small success."

"Then what about great success?"

"Standing on a thin thread with eyes closed and shaving tofu quickly, each piece shaved as thin as a cicada's wing, and continuously."

"..."

"Young Master." Mao Tao said cautiously, "Take me with you. Even if I don't succeed in the end, I can always make a living in a circus."

He Lingchuan touched a locust stone and hit it toward his face.

Mao Tao let out a strange cry and dodged.

This exertion made the rope sway endlessly, causing He Lingchuan to spend a lot of effort to find his balance again.

"Eh, this method is also good, killing two birds with one stone." Both practicing movement techniques and practicing throwing accuracy.

Hu Min said that throwing and archery are the same; both need to practice accuracy and hand feel.

"Pick it back for me!" He touched two more locust stones and aimed at Mao Tao's butt.

For the next half hour, the small courtyard was in chaos.

The servants of the He residence came and went, seeing this scene, they were either amused or shook their heads; the young master wouldn't stop, and as soon as he arrived in Shi Huan, he started playing around again.

Afterward, the Medicine Ape Lingguang appeared, landing lightly on the rope, holding a bundle of black incense in its hand: "Master, the... incense you wanted is refined."

It seemed as light as nothing, and the rope didn't even move.

He Lingchuan looked down and saw its ten toes hooked firmly onto the rope, steady beyond words.

How much effort did he have to put in to catch up with someone else's innate talent? He sighed, took the incense bundle: "Thanks! If you have time, please help me refine Yin-Yang Powder; here is the prescription."

He Lingchuan returned to the room, closed the doors and windows, and lit a candle.

When the candle flame was straight up and steady, he lit the Soul-Hooking Incense, sat cross-legged on the couch, and began to enter meditation.

After closing his eyes, the world fell into darkness. He Lingchuan could only hear his own breathing, long and regular, and smell the peculiar scent of the Soul-Hooking Incense lingering around.

He recited the mental method in the Zi Wu Art, and gradually even his own breathing sound couldn't be heard, but some blurred images began to appear in his mind.

It seemed to be the furniture in this guest room, but there was no color, no light and dark, only lines and outlines.

He Lingchuan understood that this was because he was not using his eyes to observe the surroundings, but was trying to open the so-called "Heavenly Eye" in the Zi Wu Art. To put it simply, it was spiritual sense.

This feeling was very strange and difficult to describe in words; perhaps it was similar to a bat using echolocation to "see" objects? The Zi Wu Art had a special chapter in the general outline of the mental method, explaining how to cultivate and practice spiritual sense.

Ancient immortals could expand their spiritual sense to avoid danger, and it was even more effective than the five senses. He Lingchuan saw this chapter as a treasure; after all, whether it was a large-scale battle or an individual fight, it was full of uncertainty. You never know who will ambush in the dark, who is shooting cold arrows, and who is dumping shit on your head...

The first expansion of spiritual sense was exceptionally important, and the difficulty was also very high. If it failed, it would take at least three to five months to try again, so He Lingchuan specially asked the Medicine Ape to refine Soul-Hooking Incense to assist.

In the silence, the scent of the medicine seemed to disappear, but the things he "saw" in his mind became more and more, and clearer and clearer.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 177 =====