Chapter 171: Dragon and Tiger Golden Body

"Oh?"

The old monk raises his eyebrows, his chopsticks not slowing down at all.

It looks more like a polite response, with no surprise in it.

"Master, are you not surprised at all?"

Liang Qu holds his chin, as if acting for the air. He thought the old monk would have some emotional expression.

"Reciting is easy to achieve, but character is hard to obtain. If you are willing to put in the effort and want to master the method, it is not difficult."

The old monk finishes eating, places the chopsticks horizontally on the edge of the bowl, and aligns them with the edge of the table.

"Daoist techniques emphasize the Dantian, sinking a breath into the lower Dantian, then walking through the middle Dantian, and finally coming out from the upper Dantian.

Or not walking through the lower Dantian, not walking through the middle Dantian, and going straight to the upper Dantian in one step.

However, Buddhism did not talk about Dantian in the past. Talking about Dantian in the past would be considered a crooked path.

It's just not talking about it; people's hands are still hands, and people's viscera are still viscera. Cultivation is still cultivation.

They will all pass through, regardless of the terminology; it's just a different way of cognition.

When I was young, I read through the classics, histories, and philosophers, passed the imperial examination, and was good friends with Daoist friend Ge Jianhong of Louguan Terrace. We often sat and discussed the Way, with many arguments.

Is a single way of cognition completely correct? Is it completely fitting?

People have five senses, so there are only five senses?

Knowing how to cognize the same thing from different angles, drawing inferences from one instance, is very beneficial, so I also use the Dantian theory."

"Master was also a provincial graduate?"

Liang Qu captures the keyword.

"Past events."

The old monk doesn't say much.

Liang Qu falls into deep thought. He didn't expect the old monk to be a talent when he was young. Passing the provincial examination is harder than practicing martial arts.

It's just that calculating the days, the old monk must have been in the Great Qian Dynasty when he was young?

Could it be a provincial graduate of the previous dynasty?

Great Shun has been established for more than sixty years. If it were an ordinary person, even if he passed the provincial examination at twenty, he would be an octogenarian this year, with half a foot in the coffin.

Perfected Form is different; the lifespan is long.

But Liang Qu doesn't care too much. A

The Great Shun adopted a policy of appeasement; as long as there were no conflicts of interest, it wouldn't matter.

Only those officials with high prestige who were loyal to the previous dynasty and posed a threat to the new one needed to be eradicated.

……

Inside the quiet room.

Five oil lamps flickered slightly, making the room as bright as day.

This was no exaggeration.

Inside the lamps was Jinming oil, a high-grade lamp oil formulated by the Ministry of Works.

Unlike ordinary lamp oil, the flame produced by Jinming oil was bright white rather than dark yellow; it had high luminosity, was more comfortable, and didn't produce much heat, so one wouldn't feel hot after staying for a long time.

It was just that the price was also high.

For an ordinary person, the lamp oil consumed by one lamp in a night cost three or four wen, but Jinming oil cost ten times that.

The five-wick oil lamp was a lamp stand with five branches, branching out like a tree crown to expand the range of illumination.

Burning it for one night meant using up nearly one tael and five qian of silver.

An average eighth-rank official couldn't afford to burn it at all, and even if they could, they wouldn't be willing to use a five-wick lamp.

Fortunately, Liang Qu had money; counting what he had saved before, his current total savings reached a staggering seven hundred and eighty-four taels!

Burning it entirely on lamp oil, he could burn it for five hundred nights!

Taking a few nights to practice his arts was a trivial matter.

Over a dozen thin wooden boards were unfolded one by one; Liang Qu hung them on the wall, sat cross-legged on a cushion, and looked around, taking it all in at a glance.

Liang Qu had already read seven or eight-tenths of the cultivation technique given by the old monk while traveling by boat last night, but he had held back from practicing it, waiting just for his return today.

If there were any mishaps in front of the old monk, he couldn't just stand by and watch, could he?

A comprehensive look at the entire "Vajra Sutra of Subduing Dragons and Tigers" showed it was quite different from the "Wansheng Baoyuan."

The "Wansheng Baoyuan" cultivated the internal, excelled in endurance, and could achieve no internal energy wastage, no external energy leakage, prolong life, repair hidden injuries, and increase essence, qi, and spirit.

Cultivating it to a profound level allowed one to grasp the energy flow of both enemy and self, achieving the ability to anticipate the enemy's moves.

The most peculiar thing was that such a "quiet" technique was extremely grand in combat, like a rolling great river, crushing everything with overwhelming force.

The "Vajra Sutra of Subduing Dragons and Tigers" was different; its main features were three: Strengthening Qi, Golden Body, and Warding Off Evil.

Strengthening Qi allowed the whole body's qi and blood to accumulate deeply, improved quality, and accelerated the progress of cultivation.

The Golden Body part was very interesting and also confirmed why the old monk said he was extremely suitable for this technique.

Ordinary people practicing this method condensed an ordinary golden body, training externally and strengthening internally, solidifying their physique and healing injuries, primarily for being resistant to beatings.

And on this basis, it derived the golden body characteristic—all evil cannot invade!

Those whose qi is not upright are evil.

Gloom, poison, baleful energy, miasma, yin, gu... all belong to this category!

Martial cultivation is an increase of the "root," weakening external influences.

The golden body further elevates the "root" several times in certain aspects, reaching a very high level within the same realm!

At this level, it was already a top-tier body-tempering technique.

Those possessing dragon tendons and tiger bones could even cultivate the Dragon-Tiger Golden Body on the basis of an ordinary golden body, forming a Dragon-Tiger aura!

Dragon-Tiger Golden Body: Indestructible, carrying dragon roars and tiger howls when attacking, deterring ghosts and spirits, and slaying demons!

An ordinary golden body only wards off evil, but the Dragon-Tiger Golden Body slays evil!

It was a level higher than an ordinary golden body!

Of course, everything is relative; Liang Qu's Dragon-Tiger Golden Body, even if cultivated to a very profound level, would be nothing more than something a Perfected Form Grandmaster could poke a finger through at his current Blood Barrier realm.

At most, it would be like turning rice paper into thick rice paper.

"Hoo!"

Liang Qu exhaled a turbid breath, sat cross-legged, looked over the energy circulation diagram again, and silently recited the mantra in his heart.

With the foundation of the "Wansheng Baoyuan" to stabilize his spirit, Liang Qu calmed his mind in the blink of an eye and practiced according to the technique.

Inside the west wing, the old monk twirled his prayer beads, his movements slowing slightly.

A breeze brushed over the jujube tree's tender buds, stirring up wisps of water ripples.

The lamp flames swayed.

Amidst rhythmic, reciprocating breathing, Liang Qu sat like a centipede perched on a high mountain, spitting out a precious pearl.

He could feel his muscles and bones being stretched, his qi and blood surging, boiling like rolling water, flowing through his whole body.

A scorching fire qi surged upward, shooting from his tailbone all the way to his crown.

It wasn't even late April, yet it felt like the sweltering dog days of summer; he was drenched in sweat, and his whole body felt a stinging sensation.

It wasn't that something had gone wrong with his cultivation; practicing this technique was supposed to have such a reaction.

A quarter of an hour later, Liang Qu's body was exhausted, reaching its limit, and he relaxed his strength.

As soon as the breathing technique for circulating qi and blood ended, that painful sensation vanished instantly.

"The old monk didn't appear, which means there's no problem with the way of cultivation.

It's just that, unlike the 'Wansheng Baoyuan' which makes one feel more energetic as they practice, this 'Vajra Sutra of Subduing Dragons and Tigers' is so exhausting; it actually feels like breaking through a barrier.

If someone with a weak physique practiced it rashly, they might hurt themselves."

Liang Qu pondered the difference between the two techniques.

One trained internally to strengthen externally, the other trained externally to strengthen internally.

The old monk was right; they really could be practiced simultaneously.

It's not easy for ordinary people to get one supreme technique, let alone obtaining two easily and being able to cultivate both.

He had already entered the Spirit Stabilization realm in "Wansheng Baoyuan," allowing it to circulate in his body on its own, so he could run both techniques simultaneously without needing to split his focus.

If it weren't for the support of the "Wansheng Baoyuan" while practicing the "Vajra Sutra of Subduing Dragons and Tigers" earlier, he feared he wouldn't have been able to persist for even half a quarter of an hour.