Chapter 13: Entering

Su Xing entered sleep in a curled-up posture.

This is actually a type of nourishing method in the Tiger Demon Art, called the Tiger Den Posture.

The Tiger Demon Art is actually a variant of Xingyi Quan, with the form of a tiger and the intent of a demon, but this is the secret of practicing the art. In nourishing and training, it is mostly important to imitate the tiger's form, and it also takes the tiger's ferocity and strength as the main point.

The Tiger Den Posture looks like a bad sleeping posture. If an ordinary person sleeps like this, they will either have stiff muscles and bones or wake up with a stiff neck. In short, don't expect comfort, and it is harmful to the body. But when he uses it, it is secretly circulating blood and qi, sensing and controlling the micro-manipulation of blood and qi, making progress on top of Dark Jin, accumulating bit by bit to reach the level of Hua Jin.

National Arts have intent. To reach Dark Jin from Ming Jin, one must have this intent.

If it is other national techniques, whether it is Xingyi, Bagua, Taiji, etc., understanding this layer of intent feels like a matter of luck. Either it is experienced in life and death, or sought in all things, or it is patriotism, or concern for the world, or trivial matters of life. This intent will accompany the martial artist who practices National Arts for a lifetime. Once the intent is damaged, their power will decline, and it may even cause blood and qi to reverse, leading to sudden death.

But the Tiger Demon Art takes a different path. It is extremely difficult to enter, and eight or nine out of ten die suddenly. But once one understands how to keep a point of spiritual consciousness awake amidst countless distracting thoughts and demonic thoughts, this intent is actually formed. Once one enters the hall, the transition from Ming Jin to Dark Jin is a matter of course.

Su Xing slept for ten full hours. After he got up and stretched his body, he felt refreshed.

He had been busy before, either struggling for survival in the Dream World, fighting Yakshas, or returning to treat and wake people up, and facing aberrations and parasites. He had no spare time to carefully organize his gains, and he didn't even have time to rest.

After these ten hours of sleep, Su Xing felt as if he had been reborn. His bones crackled and popped. He began to slowly perform the Tiger Claw Posture, Tiger Leap Posture, and Tiger Tail Posture. After several stances, he felt that his arms and legs had endless strength, and he felt great all over. He couldn't help but roar to the sky, his voice like thunder, and also like a tiger's roar.

After a long time, Su Xing stopped his stance and slowly circulated his blood and qi to return to normal.

He had already understood the true intent of the Tiger Demon Art.

Suppress!

Suppress distracting thoughts, demonic thoughts, and evil thoughts.

A point of spiritual consciousness does not sleep; this spiritual consciousness is him, and those countless negative distracting thoughts and demonic thoughts are this world.

The form is like a tiger, the intent is like a demon, and the true self is to suppress both the tiger and the demon!

Only in this way could he obtain the true intent of the Tiger Demon Art, and only then would he have the resources to continue advancing.

When Su Xing came back to his senses, he saw Ya Made and Xu Shilan watching him quietly not far away. Until he looked at the two, they smiled at him. At the same time, Xu Shilan walked over with a notebook and said: "Yesterday you mentioned several types of horrors, namely aberration, pollution, erosion, and parasitism. Besides aberration, which we know is purely physical body and consciousness change, what are the characteristics and differences of pollution, erosion, and parasitism?"

Su Xing recalled the information he got from his predecessors and answered casually: "Pollution is the type of Pink Snake we encountered before. Its mere existence will cause changes in its surrounding environment, causing all life and non-life within this environment to converge toward it."

Xu Shilan asked seriously: "Is it radiation? Or microorganisms? It can't be an intelligent nano-system, right?"

Su Xing spread his hands and said: "Sorry, I don't know exactly what it is. Even for that Pink Snake, it was because the predecessors mentioned it a lot and it was closest to our sector, and we just happened to encounter the awakened person it parasitized. Otherwise, I wouldn't have even encountered a single polluted existence."

Xu Shilan nodded and recorded: "Pollution is the subtle change of the surrounding environment and life. Is it okay to record it like this? Then what is erosion?"

Su Xing said: "Curse... you've seen Grudge, right?"

Ya Made and Xu Shilan shook their heads at the same time.

Su Xing covered his head and said: "Right, you are all people from hundreds of years later... It's roughly similar to a curse effect without a physical body. At first, it is not obvious, or the signs are very slight, but over time, this erosion effect will change into various horrors, or even reverse cause and effect. For example, erosion turns into an invincible evil ghost, kills you, and then sends your body back to the day you were first eroded, letting you eat it and become infected with erosion, thus forming a time loop similar to this. In short, I haven't encountered erosion either, but this thing has no specific subject; it is something similar to a curse."

Su Xing originally thought they wouldn't understand, but when he finished speaking, their expressions changed, and their faces became serious.

"Meme."

The two said these two words in unison.

However, they seemed to have some taboos, or didn't want to talk deeply, so Xu Shilan continued to ask: "Aberration, pollution, erosion, these three are all there, then what about parasitism?"

Su Xing continued to recite according to the information in his memory: "So-called parasitism means that when you don't notice, the horror attaches to you, then absorbs your nutrients, and finally sucks you dry."

This was easy for the two to understand. Xu Shilan said while recording: "Is it like microbial infection?"

Su Xing shook his head and said: "No, it refers to everything, material, non-material. For example, parasitic horror can parasitize your shadow, voice, or even memory. And what it extracts is not just flesh and blood. I heard from the predecessors that some people were sucked by parasitic types until even the concept of their existence disappeared, and then the predecessors forgot who that person was and what they had done. The only thing they remembered was that a parasitic horror killed someone among them who didn't exist."

The two were stunned for a moment, and then they felt creepy from the bottom of their hearts.

Xu Shilan still wanted to ask, but Su Xing shook his head and said: "These are for now. Now we must go to the Dream World immediately."

Both nodded, but Xu Shilan still asked: "Why so urgent?"

Su Xing took the two towards the sleep pod room, saying as he walked: "This is also a lesson learned. You are probably hungry now, right? I am too, and very hungry. A predecessor's predecessor had a painful lesson: they were hungry for several days before they had to enter the Dream World, but as soon as they entered, they were attacked. Although it was not a strange, monster, or horror, even if it was just an attack by ordinary people, if you are hungry and have no strength, you can hardly resist. So we must enter while we have strength to deal with the unknown of the Dream World."

Both understood. Then they followed Su Xing to the sleep pod room, watched Su Xing lie down in one of the empty seats, and then Su Xing signaled the two to lie down as well. When the two did so, Su Xing said: "Main Brain, open Dream World downward piercing, team mode."

The Main Brain's voice also sounded on their retinas and in their minds.

"Open Dream World downward piercing, do you agree to team up, do you open piercing?"

The three chose to confirm at the same time. The next moment, the three disappeared from the sleep pod at the same time.

"Red Cloak, Red Lantern, supporting the Qing and destroying the foreign has magical powers!"

"Divine art protects the body, invulnerable to swords and guns!"

"White Sheep descends to the world, the cycle of heaven. Vacuum hometown, unborn mother, grant me magical powers, save all living beings."

April 3, 1900 AD, outside the city of Xuanhua Prefecture, Qing Dynasty.

Baseline Reality 0.9 Dream World, the Main Brain will inform the maintenance personnel of the time and place when they enter the Dream World, which is something that worlds below Baseline Reality 0.9 do not have.

Su Xing and the three stood on the side of the road outside Xuanhua Prefecture city, watching a group of women dressed in red clothes and red pants, holding red lanterns, shouting slogans as they entered Xuanhua Prefecture city with a group of thin villagers.

"1900? Red Lantern Society?"

Su Xing touched his chin and recalled carefully.

Having practiced National Arts, not only was his body strong, but his spirit was also clear. Many past memories could be easily remembered.

"April 3rd... There are still three months until July 14th when the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Tianjin, so this time should happen to be the honeymoon period between Cixi and the Boxer Rebellion."

Su Xing was not a professional historian, but these were all knowledge he learned in junior high and high school history textbooks.

Su Xing remembered all this information. At the same time, he also knew about the Boxer Rebellion and its branch, the Red Lantern Society. Before the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, these militia organizations were valued by Empress Dowager Cixi and were considered semi-officially recognized folk organizations that could resist foreigners. But after the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, Cixi changed her initial attitude. Fearing the powerful strength of the foreigners, Cixi issued an order to join forces with the foreigners to exterminate the Boxer Rebellion and the Red Lantern Society.

However, before this, the Boxer Rebellion and the Red Lantern Society could walk and act freely in the Zhili region. Of course, it might also be a historical deviation, a singularity belonging to this world.

Gurgle.

A sound came from Su Xing's stomach. He rubbed his stomach, no longer looking at the Red Lantern Society team, and turned to Ya Made and Xu Shilan: "Let's go, let's enter the city to eat."

The two naturally didn't care.

They were too far from this era, unlike Su Xing who had to learn this history when he was in school. For example, Ya Made was a veteran born, raised, and surviving on the battlefield. He was proficient in weapons, combat, and some knowledge about weapons or biochemical beasts, but if you asked him about history... he probably only knew about the East and West of the Third World War.

As for Xu Shilan, she probably knew about this era, but she was eight or nine hundred years away from it, and the Fourth World War broke out in her era, so she probably didn't learn history knowledge of this era.

Neither of them was familiar with this Dream World, so they could only follow Su Xing.

When walking towards the prefecture city, Ya Made asked: "We don't have money, how do we eat?"

Xu Shilan also said: "Or should we go earn money first? What are the characteristics of this world? What is the fastest way to earn money?"

Ya Made looked at the surrounding crowd and the city wall of this classical city. He took a deep breath and said: "I smell the smell of war. Since it is war, then it is either an arms dealer or a mercenary. These two are the most profitable, so let's be mercenaries."

Su Xing shook his head. He took the two to the city gate, his eyes looking at a certain place in the crowd.

There were a few people who were clearly not villagers. They were looking at Ya Made with hateful eyes. Two of them had long hands and feet. Although they deliberately lowered their bodies, their height was clearly a head taller than the thin villagers, and there was divine light in their eyes, and calluses on their palms...

Martial artists.

"Don't worry, money..."

"Will deliver itself to the door."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 14 =====