Chapter 12: Chapter Thirteen

"The Ren Meridian is open! The first barrier of the Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield has also been broken!" The sweat was rather thick and sticky, clinging uncomfortably to his skin and clothes, but in Bai Lang's heart, waves of joy surged like a raging sea — opening the Ren Meridian meant the Small Heavenly Cycle was complete, and his Internal Force had at least tripled or quadrupled, changing from what was once a small stream into a river one could actually look at. And the capacity of his dantian's Qi Sea had also grown from a small pond to something that could be called a pool; speaking purely in terms of martial arts, he was at least ten times stronger than before.

Most crucially, he could now call himself a martial world practitioner, no longer just some "thug." However, the key thing right now was to hurry back to his lodgings, take a bath, change clothes, then sit in meditation to regulate his breathing and settle his Internal Force, and run a Heavenly Cycle to consolidate it. So Bai Lang hastily gathered his Qi and prepared to leave the spot at once.

At this moment, among the few people gathered outside, two young men directly cupped their fists and bowed, "Take me as your disciple, Master." Bai Lang had been somewhat mentally prepared for this — these people had been watching him for over a month, and he had some idea of what some of them were thinking. "Huh?" This young martial world practitioner played dumb, looking at these two youths who were actually definitely older than him.

"I want to learn real martial arts!" the two said in unison. Bai Lang laughed as well, "Next time, next time." As for teaching martial arts, he himself didn't really mind — they were all crude, shallow skills anyway, practicing them wouldn't cause any problems, and being able to strengthen the body wasn't bad either; as for whether they'd become aggressive and brawl after learning martial arts? That was a matter of personal character, and had nothing to do with him teaching martial arts.

Setting that matter aside, Bai Lang quickly crossed the park and hurried back to his rented place. He didn't even want to wash the clothes he had changed out of, so he simply threw them away. And scrubbing his own body never felt quite effective, so after washing himself with shower gel, he got dressed and went out again, heading to a bathhouse to have someone scrub his back. "Give me a good scrub all over — I think it's the grime expelled through my pores by the Internal Force after opening the Small Heavenly Cycle."

Sure enough, the stuff the scrubbing attendant scrubbed out startled even Bai Lang himself, "There's at least a jin of old grime! Damn!" The attendant seemed a bit shocked too — out of service-industry ethics he forcibly held back his disdain, but Bai Lang knew the attendant must be thinking how many years it had been since this guy had bathed......

Clearly Bai Lang felt he smelled wonderful, but what could he do about the large amount of stuff coming out of his pores, the key thing was it also stuck to his skin. Anyway, after the attendant scrubbed vigorously, Bai Lang specifically added the most expensive package, as a way of letting the attendant earn a bit more commission. The red all over, Bai Lang rinsed himself off, then soaked into the pool, and while feeling utterly blissful, he also began silently circulating his Internal Force through the Small Heavenly Cycle.

The circulation of Internal Force had never been so smooth before, and when the Internal Force that had traversed the Ren Meridian moved through the other meridians, the power it contained and the new Internal Force generated were also much stronger than before. "No wonder that Mo Di was directly taken into the inner sect — though I haven't seen him in three years, I reckon he can already be considered a skilled hand, right? At the very least he's opened more than half of the twelve regular meridians — if it's just based on my current situation......"

And the Internal Force circulation route belonging to the Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield was not the same as that of entry-level Internal Cultivation. Bai Lang tried circulating according to the Golden Bell Shield's Internal Force route — he had only broken through the first barrier now, this Internal Force circulation route was very short, just the few regular meridians traversed during the first barrier's cultivation — at the moment of breaking through, they had all been opened as well.

Once this Internal Force circulated according to the breathing method, flowing through the meridians it immediately gave Bai Lang a feeling of heaviness and sluggishness, as if a river had turned into mercury; although the circulation slowed down, the solidity and imposing force had made considerable progress. However, this kind of Internal Force would dissipate fairly quickly — he estimated it would take a period of time to fully convert all the entry-level True Qi in his dantian into the Internal Force of the Thirteen Tai Bao Horizontal Practice.

"Since that's the case, then I'll just slowly grind it out." Bai Lang made his decision.

The Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield's art, in Bai Lang's view, didn't seem to need much Heaven and Earth Origin Qi; of course, with the aid of Heaven and Earth Origin Qi cultivation might be faster, but from what he could see now, it merely excavated True Qi from the Origin-Qi-replenishing food he ate and from his own physical body — from outside to within was the Ultimate Secret of this martial art. The next day, after Bai Lang absorbed his first breath of the Sun's Purple Qi, the park that had not been open long saw those few people arrive again; once they came they first gathered around to watch, and only after Bai Lang finished a set of San Shi Er Lu Chang Quan did they cautiously approach, immediately preparing to kowtow and acknowledge him as their master.

To be able to do this — coming day after day for over a month through wind and rain to watch Bai Lang practice martial arts — these were definitely people who loved martial arts from the bottom of their hearts. Bai Lang didn't actually dislike such people; although he himself might not be that passionate about martial arts, only doing it to survive, he could understand people like them. Moreover, these few people were probably all somewhat wealthy — the one who had been watching the longest had been observing him for several months, which was almost half a day; he estimated they didn't need to earn money through work.

He looked at these people, pondered for a moment, "No need to acknowledge me as master either, giving you a bit of guidance is no problem. Let's progress together, progress together." Having said this, Bai Lang walked over to the youth who was leading them, "You've all practiced martial arts before, so let me see what you've practiced, and to what extent you've practiced it? One by one, come on."

Bai Lang didn't mind spending this bit of time — he didn't cultivate from morning till night anyway, and if he did, haste would make waste, and he feared it might damage his body instead. Those few people were also very happy; they had originally just been trying their luck, and hadn't expected this "young man" who had real skills to actually be willing to guide their martial arts.

These martial arts enthusiasts did indeed have some real ability under their hands — those who could come every day before dawn to watch Bai Lang clearly had the perseverance for martial arts practice. As Bai Lang saw it, these people had probably all formally acknowledged masters, and it seemed those masters had actually taught them some real skills. At the very least they were a bit different from the ordinary enthusiasts he usually saw, "You've learned fighting methods? You've formally acknowledged masters, haven't you."

These few people all nodded one after another, "Great Sage Splitting-Hanging, Ba Ji Quan, Xing Yi Quan, Tiger-Crane Double Form." These few people in turn reported the names of the martial arts they cultivated. "Watch me practice a set first." Bai Lang thought for a moment, and the San Shi Er Lu Chang Quan was displayed once more; this time he performed it even more slowly.

Next he had those few people practice on one side, while casually pointing out the areas they needed to pay attention to — but they were merely at the level of not having developed Jin Li, so Bai Lang's martial arts used to guide them was more than enough, more than enough. Of course, there were also people who proposed wanting to learn his San Shi Er Lu Chang Quan — these were shrewd people with good eyes, seeing at a glance that the subtlety and power of this Chang Quan surpassed the martial arts they cultivated.

Bai Lang merely smiled and didn't take up that thread — not that he didn't want to teach, it was simply that this person was overambitious; without solid foundations in their own skills they couldn't practice his San Shi Er Lu Chang Quan well — or alternatively, someone who had never learned martial arts could directly learn the San Shi Er Lu Chang Quan.

And so, in a corner of the park, a small martial arts practice group was thus formed.