Chapter 344: Future

Since the meridians' circulation makes it hard to increase power further, the focus must shift to the three dantians. The three dantians still exist; in Bai Lang's perception, these three dantians are equivalent to three vortices, drawing together and dividing the flow of true qi within the body. Bai Lang tried, and found he could not move these three dantians; after researching back and forth, he could only arrive at one result......

Since we follow nature, we might as well learn the astronomical tides, their rise and fall. One inhale and exhale of Bai Lang is one rise and fall; his qi is like the sea, endlessly surging and swelling. As for those three dantians, we just leave them be—there's nothing else we can do. With this breathing method, this martial art can naturally grow bit by bit; Bai Lang now clearly understands that what he needs to research is how to use and control this power.

The stronger his control over this power, the deeper his research, the greater the power he can unleash. 'Do I still count as an Innate Expert?' This question is actually unnecessary, because neither the Golden Bell Shield nor the White Tiger has disappeared; they've merely changed their mode of existence. The tattoos on his body remain, so the power of the White Tiger Seven Mansions remains, absorbing Bai Lang's qi to achieve different elemental powers. In the past this was aid for Bai Lang; now it has become a more practical tool.

With the power of the tattoos, Bai Lang can easily adjust his qi to any attribute as he wishes; although he could try without the tattoos, using tools is what humans do. Moreover, isn't this easier for controlling wind? Bai Lang's Tiger Form True Meaning has long been in his heart; wherever his thought goes, he can summon wind from the tiger. Bai Lang daily trained his strength at the Mountain God Temple; now it's simple—he just needs to temper his body.

Seated breathing exercises are no longer needed; so-called seated meditation is merely clearing the mind to adjust one's breath. The Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist has also changed; it is now truly the 'Southern Dipper One Lineage' divine art. Although the technique that once emitted a qi wave slicing dozens of zhang is gone, the punches and kicks within a range of several zhang, carrying wind blades, now have an attack power that cannot be matched head-on by the protective gang qi of an Innate Expert—probably so.

Bai Lang really wished someone would come over so he could kill them, but it seems the Six and a Half Hall is full of weaklings; surprisingly, no one came to assassinate him. Since no one from the Six and a Half Hall came to assassinate him, Bai Lang could instead go to the Office of the Commander of the Guard to check on the whereabouts of the others in his unit—he had wanted to do this before, but the Office of the Commander of the Guard is ultimately not a twenty‑first‑century social‑monitoring big data system; information is relatively delayed and incomplete.

Even if one is god‑like or has already achieved godhood, possessing many divine abilities, many things remain vague and hard to investigate. The Buddhist Sect adept's heart‑mind penetration, heavenly eye, heavenly ear, and fate comprehension can in an instant purge the beings of the three realms and six paths; Daoist sages naturally also possess the divine art of fate calculation to compute all beings and things, but when could such divine abilities be used casually? This involves the karma of beings......

So how could those great adepts possibly casually wield such divine abilities? And besides those whose duty lies in heaven and earth, where would anyone casually allow others to discover a treasure with such a function? Take the Book of Life and Death...... Knowing such a treasure exists, but probably no one has ever seen it. Therefore the net of this world is fundamentally not that tight......

This time Bai Lang went to the Office of the Commander of the Guard after exchanging contributions for a specially trained azure phoenix bird used to transmit messages; the bird is the size of a swan, flies very fast, and is naturally fierce and intelligent. Once tamed, it can convey messages between specific locations. Bai Lang simply had his own azure phoenix bird go to the Office of the Commander of the Guard to gather information; the other side had promised to help him check. He himself is rather lazy, so he didn't want to make a special trip.

The Mountain God Temple's appearance has changed somewhat; the half‑collapsed, dilapidated look of the front hall hasn't changed, it's just much cleaner—Bai Lang using wind to blow away dust on the ground, spider webs and trash hanging from the corridors is trivial, so though ruined it remains quite clean. The rear hall has greatly changed, becoming more like a place where one can live, and a newly built four‑sided drafty thatched pavilion has been added; Bai Lang is currently forging copper inside it.

This copper is great—it can be lifted to train strength, and smashing it hones the hardness and force of punches and kicks. At this moment what was originally a large lump of purple copper has been dented by a human‑sized pit; Bai Lang's efforts have been very effective. He is now striking it with his arms: '100, 500, 998, 999, 1000! Good! One thousand strikes achieved!' Then he switched to a hammer, clanging away.

Bai Lang has a hollow he blasted out of the mountainside here; one can walk down three steps to the lower platform. Here Bai Lang built a closable little room from wood and rope—half of it hanging in mid‑air. This is the toilet; big or small, no need to flush...... 'Heavenly water falls, heavenly excrement falls, returning to nature is best. The stench simply cannot drift upward.' Each time Bai Lang uses the privy, he feels proud of his design; here the waterfall drops at least two hundred meters, and the forest below naturally takes care of the waste.

Since his true qi changed, Bai Lang's training method has changed, and even his conduct in the world has begun to shift—becoming like a cartoon character...... The azure phoenix bird brought a thick stack of paper; if it weren't for the bird's considerable size and strength, it really couldn't have carried it back. 'Someone's whereabouts unknown? Such a thick stack of paper, written at length, and this is the conclusion? What use do I have for your Office of the Commander of the Guard?'

It seems the Adventure Hall has had an incident, and it really brought considerable influence—inside that thick stack of paper it also mentions that almost at the same time, the Great Yan saw many masters and amateurs go missing, their life or death unknown. 'Think about it: the Adventure Hall also connects the myriad worlds; most likely it has tossed these people over there...... The Adventure Hall was also torn apart by that Zeipei MilitaryAdvisor Fu; for a while it probably won't turn out well.'

Speaking of which, I don't know whether that Zeipei MilitaryAdvisor Fu has found the Tathagata Buddha, or what he could do to the Buddha if he did. Bai Lang thinks that if he really had found it, that Zeipei MilitaryAdvisor Fu might well end up still rotting in the bitter kiln—'though this guy might actually enjoy it; going in and out of the bitter kiln feels just like going home, and it feels great.' After irresponsibly badmouthing his own master, this person then recalls that he is a disciple of the King of the Bitter Kiln, wondering whether he too will have to go to the bitter kiln.

'Hard to say, hard to say.' That Zeipei MilitaryAdvisor Fu's 'old friend' the demon monk seems likewise a regular in‑and‑out character; hearing his tone, it sounds as if Zeipei MilitaryAdvisor Fu's wife and such might also be imprisoned and have penetrated some wisdom to become a bodhisattva? Anything related to him seems tied to the jail; going on like this, old man won't I eventually have to go to the bitter kiln as well?' Bai Lang thinking this also feels a bit creepy: 'I'm not a longevity species; unless I achieve External View or Cave Heaven, my lifespan is only two or three hundred years...... No, no!'