Chapter 8: Scheming the Divine Fist with Minor Achievement in Divine Illumination

Ding Dian was shocked by Feng Yi's progress.

Feng Yi was naturally excited; this system is really powerful.

But besides being happy, he suddenly felt a chill, thinking: "This thing might be a game played by some great divine being!"

Because his current experience is just like playing a game in his previous life, he picked up a secret manual; as long as he meets the cultivation conditions, he can click to cultivate and immediately level up.

And isn't a game just something created by experts in various fields for others' entertainment and to make money for themselves? However, Feng Yi also showed a wry smile: "It doesn't matter anyway; after all, my feelings as a person in two lives are real."

Moreover, my previous life wasn't going well either; in this life, treating it as a game is also an extraordinary experience!

Feng Yi's ability to adapt to the environment is strong; after worrying, he immediately felt relieved. Seeing that his achievement points were still enough to raise the level of Divine Illumination Skill, he wanted to click the plus sign, but the system displayed: "The scripture is incomplete."

He immediately understood: Ding Dian had only passed on his introductory mnemonics; to achieve minor completion, he still lacked the method. It seems this system is also quite ordinary—it doesn't even auto-derive.

Feng Yi immediately opened his eyes and said, "Hero Ding, I already have a sense of qi; I've definitely entered the door. Continue chanting the later scriptures; as long as I achieve minor completion, I will spare no effort to help you and Miss Ling flee to safety!"

Ding Dian heard this and was stunned again.

"Do you want to hear what you're saying? You've just entered the door and already want minor completion?" Feng Yi urged: "Hurry up, haven't you stayed here long enough?"

He feared that long nights bring many dreams, so taking advantage of this undisturbed moment, he wanted to make full use of the time.

Ding Dian looked at Feng Yi, his heart filled with doubt, pacing a few steps, wondering whether he had encountered a once-in-a-thousand-years martial arts prodigy, or whether he had let down Hero Mei's earnest entrustment, with the old man sending a successor from the netherworld? It's no wonder Ding Dian thought of the netherworld; rather, Feng Yi's progress is too shocking—who in the world without internal energy could instantly generate a qi sensation? He had never seen such a thing!

Feng Yi saw his thoughts and smiled: "Hero Ding, you don't need to overthink; the deep affection between you and Miss Ling must have moved Heaven, which cannot bear to see you suffer more with her, so it sent your younger brother to your side.

For us to achieve our wishes, we must seize the time.

Moreover, this is a fortune for both of us!"

Ding Dian turned his head and saw Feng Yi's sincere expression; he wanted to examine his appearance closely, but his forehead and face were covered in bluish and purplish swellings, all from his own beatings these past days.

He made up his mind: "Exactly! No matter what, such a talent once in a hundred lifetimes is also a fortune!

For him, for me, both!"

Feng Yi's cultivation of the Divine Illumination Skill entered the door so swiftly that Ding Dian couldn't help but feel affection for talent; he closed his eyes to cultivate, listened carefully to the surroundings, sensed no one, and said: "Good, listen carefully."

He began chanting the mnemonic again: "The Way of Heaven, human affairs, what humans cannot do, Heaven's will can surely accomplish…"

"Looking around in all directions, hesitating, filling one's ambition…"

After hearing the mnemonic, Feng Yi stopped fantasizing about relying on himself and immediately clicked the plus sign after his initial glimpse of the way.

Suddenly, his dantian seemed to jump violently; true qi filled and expanded, circulating nonstop through his limbs and bones.

At that moment, Feng Yi felt his whole body swelling with pain as if about to burst, his body burning hot, his limbs like boiling; he clenched his teeth, trying as hard as possible not to let out a groan.

Ding Dian saw Feng Yi's face red as blood; upon touching his forehead, he felt it scorching hot like fire, and involuntarily exclaimed: "What's wrong with you?"

Feng Yi trembled as he said: "My whole body is swelling; I feel like a balloon about to burst..."

"Swelling to burst?"

"How is that possible?" Ding Dian felt a sudden shock, thinking: "Is this still a person? How could he reach such a realm?"

Ding Dian couldn't help but pinch his thigh hard; the pain that came let him know he wasn't dreaming.

As it turns out, martial artists, whether practicing internal school's quiet exercises or external school's movements to strengthen inner force, must coordinate posture with breathing exhalation and inhalation methods; for example, internal practitioners often use "Five Hearts Toward Heaven" or sitting cross-legged to regulate breath, while external practitioners drive internal energy with martial techniques.

This requires long-term accumulation; its aim is to refine that single breath of qi, making it fierce, enduring, and pure; thus martial artists also call those who cultivate qi as qi-practitioners.

When cultivation reaches a certain stage, as internal energy grows, the original meridians cannot bear it; the internal energy then autonomously expands the meridians, giving the qi-practitioner a feeling of bodily swelling—this is the normal "Muscle/Tendon Changing Marrow" phenomenon.

However, ordinary people cultivate gradually; internal energy grows slowly, meridians have been long tempered, expansion and contraction are effortless; therefore, when undergoing Muscle/Tendon Changing Marrow, the meridians already possess the capacity to bear it; upon reaching this stage, pain naturally becomes much less, even to the point of being unfelt.

However, Feng Yi fundamentally does not know internal energy; the set of "Opening Mountain Palm" he learned is merely an ordinary fist and foot technique, with no great accomplishment, and he has never generated internal energy.

He relied on the "system" to study the Divine Illumination Scripture from entry to minor completion, which was essentially instantaneous. However, at the entry stage, true qi was thin, and the meridians had first been warmed by Ding Dian's circulation of the Divine Skill, so he only felt slight numbness, not pain.

But from entry to minor completion, true qi suddenly thickened, like a river filling and bursting its banks; Feng Yi's meridians lacked the long-term nourishment of true qi, remaining fragile, just like a "Trapped Dragon Leaving the Cave," so he naturally suffered.

As for Ding Dian, he naturally saw that Feng Yi didn't know internal energy, yet hearing him chant a bit of the Divine Illumination Scripture brought him from entry to this level, with the intermediate process taking not even an hour.

This directly shattered Ding Dian's martial arts understanding of several decades. He couldn't help but fall into confusion and stupidity! Could it be that I'm really a fool?

Thinking of Ding Dian, who since childhood visited many famous masters to study martial arts, cultivating for over twenty years, and even practiced this Divine Illumination Skill for eight years, still lacking some distance from perfect merit, while Feng Yi, in less than an hour, reached the stage of Muscle/Tendon Changing Marrow—what comes next…

While he was pondering, he saw Feng Yi's veins bulging, groaning nonstop; Ding Dian knew this realm was extremely dangerous—if one move went wrong, that surge of true qi would burst through the meridians, inevitably causing a miserable death. He immediately set aside further thought, placing his palms on Feng Yi's back and abdomen, using his own true qi to protect.

Feng Yi was already sweating profusely from pain, his breathing rapid; upon receiving Ding Dian's true qi aid, he felt the wild, jumping true qi inside his body gradually calm, becoming orderly in flow; soon, he felt the soreness and swelling dissipate, his whole body harmonious and very comfortable.

Feng Yi immediately followed the mnemonic to guide true qi, passing through each meridian; he felt the warm, moist qi flow in the vessels from the crown of his head down to the abdomen, then from the abdomen out to the limbs.

In the time of a meal, Feng Yi's eight meridians were all opened, his mind united with the divine, his whole body cool and refreshing; not only was his body extremely comfortable, but the strength in his hands and feet also filled to the utmost.

Ding Dian saw Feng Yi's breath already long and slow, knowing that Feng Yi's "Divine Illumination Skill" internal energy—trapped dragon entering the sea, hungry tiger entering the forest—had already achieved minor completion in this moment.

But then he thought: this person is so heaven‑gifted a talent; if he turns to evil, who in the future could stop him?

Ding Dian came from a martial arts family; he originally also wanted to make a great career in the martial world, but after receiving Mei Niansheng's inheritance, he became even more ambitious. Only because a few years ago, at the Chrysanthemum Assembly, he met Ling Shuanghua—this then opened the life of deep romantic feelings and heroic spirit shortened.

Yet deep down he is still a man of vigor; otherwise he wouldn't have risked great danger to rescue Mei Niansheng.

However, Mei Niansheng had repeatedly urged him to use the secrets of the Divine Illumination Scripture and the Linked City Manual to benefit the masses, and not to entrust them to the wrong person! Feng Yi is extraordinarily intelligent; if his intentions are not upright, he will surely become a future calamity! Thinking thus, he walked up to Feng Yi, fixed his gaze on him, slowly raised his hand, intending to strike a palm to avoid lifelong regret!

If he struck that palm, whether Feng Yi's Divine Illumination Skill hadn't reached major completion or even if it had, his head would fear being smashed to pulp.

But Ding Dian, as a person, places great importance on keeping one's word.

He turned his thoughts: "I have already reached an agreement with him; if I strike now, wouldn't that be going back on my word, a petty person?"

His raised right hand lingered, not yet falling.

Feng Yi's life hung on Ding Dian's single thought, yet it remained unknown.

Even if he knew, he lacked the ability to change it.

In Ding Dian's wavering between gain and loss, he saw Feng Yi's eyes suddenly open, divine light flashing; seeing Ding Dian holding his palm aloft, facing him, he couldn't help but stare.

But then he sprang up violently, striking a palm against the stone wall inside the prison.

With a "crack—", the blue stone wall scattered chips everywhere. This palm's power was actually so astonishing that Feng Yi really felt speechless, for it exceeded his psychological expectation.

His thoughts turned, and he saw the "Heart Method" column on the interface.

【Heart Method: Divine Illumination Skill (minor achievement) + Note: 'Great accomplishment' requires achievement points 90…】

Achievement points: 11】

Feng Yi thought that even if Ding Dian passed on all the scriptures, this 'task accomplished' would earn him no more achievement points, and besides, the level of pure blue furnace fire would certainly need to be higher.

He thought, having achieved minor success in the Divine Illumination Classic, was no different from an ordinary person's ten or twenty years of effort; merely, this Opening Mountain Palm should not yet have unleashed the energy its internal strength ought to have.

If there were another martial art to complement it, only then would it be truly perfect.

Feng Yi, well-read and knowledgeable, knew this Opening Mountain Palm was merely an external martial art, yet its power was already such; if combined with Ding Dian's Shadowless Divine Fist, who knows how it would be? After a brief thought, he looked at Ding Dian and said, 'Senior Ding, have I achieved minor mastery?'

Ding Dian saw Feng Yi's eyes gleaming with sharp light, and this palm's power was not weak; clearly it was the feeling of cultivated internal energy.

Thinking of how he had previously looked down on Feng Yi, he couldn't help feeling a bit ashamed: 'Ding Dian, Ding Dian, from now on you must not underestimate people; who knows if there isn't someone smarter than you in the world, or a martial art superior to the Divine Illumination Skill!'

But after the shame, he also couldn't help feeling a twinge of jealousy, thinking that if he had Feng Yi's talent, his divine skill would already have been perfected, and he could go see Shuanghua.

Ding Dian glanced at Feng Yi and coldly snorted, 'Not bad, kid—I actually underestimated you!'

He felt ashamed but showed none of it.

Feng Yi waved his hand and said, 'No problem, no problem!'

He appeared quite humble, but the smile at the corner of his mouth couldn't be suppressed.

He could put on an act in front of Ding Dian, so why let it pass? Seeing his appearance, Ding Dian felt a bit annoyed and shouted, 'Take this punch!'

Before his words faded, 'whoosh—', a sandbag-sized fist slammed straight into the opponent's chest, 'whoosh—', the iron chains exploded with sound, clearly the force was not small.

Feng Yi, startled, thrust out his right palm. After practicing the Divine Illumination Skill, his senses and limbs were far more agile than before.

With a 'bang', their fists and palms met.

Ding Dian stood unmoving; Feng Yi swayed, lost his footing, and stepped back, but his thoughts were extremely quick—left palm yin, right palm yang, using the Opening Mountain Palm to protect his whole body, guarding against Ding Dian's follow‑up moves.

Ding Dian had not yet mastered the Divine Illumination Skill, but he was nevertheless a proper expert trained by a renowned master—nothing like Feng Yi's wild, unorthodox way could compare.

However, Ding Dian did not press the attack; his two gazes, like rainbows and lightning, were fixed on Feng Yi's face.

Feng Yi calmly said, 'Senior Ding, a hero of outstanding caliber, I have long admired you; yet why do you act thus?'

His tone was courteous and respectful, but his face showed a hint of indignation.

He felt that if not for his internal strength having greatly improved, blocking that punch would break his arm, not blocking would break his sternum.

Combined with the way he was looking at him and his palm so close, could it be that he wanted to change the hexagram and kill him?

In the midst of his thoughts, Ding Dian burst into a loud laugh and said, 'Good, this is my fault. Today you need only agree to one thing for me, and I will not only transmit the entire Divine Illumination Classic to you, but also teach you a set of Shadowless Divine Fist, so that you may become a peerless figure under heaven.'

Feng Yi's heart sank; he had just exchanged a palm with Ding Dian and was clearly at a disadvantage, while Ding Dian still appeared completely at ease. Evidently he was ultimately inferior to Ding Dian, but his words were very respectful, so the request he made must be extremely demanding.

Feng Yi, having thought this through, said, 'Do you trust my words?'

Ding Dian looked up and laughed, saying, 'If I didn't trust you, why would I transmit the Divine Illumination Skill to you?'

Feng Yi remained silent.

Seeing his hesitant expression, Ding Dian couldn't help but laugh and say, 'Are you afraid of my request, thinking you can't fulfill it?'

Feng Yi suddenly flung himself forward in a kowtow and loudly declared, 'Whatever I have achieved today is entirely thanks to Senior Ding's noble righteousness; I will never forget this great kindness. Please give your instructions, Senior Ding—I will not refuse!' As he spoke, he crawled on the ground and kowtowed three times with thud—thud—thud.

Feng Yi had even knelt to that ruffian Ling Tui Si; since Ding Dian had granted him the favor of imparting his art, returning the bow was only proper, so this was sincere.

Moreover, he felt that if he didn't give Ding Dian a Calming Pill, he'd also fear that this guy might have a fit and kill him.

Because what he had just seen upon opening his eyes was Ding Dian holding up his palm, staring straight at him, and combined with the present demand, he was obviously afraid of raising a tiger to become a threat, so he had developed murderous intent.

Ding Dian stared at him without blinking for a while, and light flickered in his eyes.

After a moment, Ding Dian reached out and lifted Feng Yi up, saying, 'I will teach you the Divine Illumination Skill; I can bear these three heads of yours.'

Moreover, it also shows that you are not an ungrateful, profiteering petty person.

Furthermore, your martial arts talent is so exceptional that I have never seen its like in my life!

His expression suddenly darkened, and he said coldly, 'Although I teach you the Divine Illumination Skill, I certainly have an ulterior motive; however, when Hero Mei passed on the Divine Illumination Skill and the Linked City Manual to me back then, he hoped I would use the treasure wisely for the benefit of the masses.'

And I, Ding Dian, am unworthy, having failed his elder's expectations!

Feng Yi secretly let out a breath of relief; it turned out he was afraid of me, so he wanted to kill me to prevent future trouble, eh!

Immediately, he solemnly said, 'Hero Ding, although I, Feng Yi, am nobody, I also know the difference between right and wrong, and the principle of acting without guilt to one's conscience.'

Today, having the fortune to meet Hero Ding and receive his instruction, I will naturally fulfill Hero Mei's heavy trust on your behalf, certainly not disappointing you; nor will I let Hero Mei suffer shame in the afterlife!

Although Ding Dian's heart only held Ling Shuanghua, yet regarding Mei Niansheng's heavy trust, he felt deep shame; at this moment, moved by Feng Yi's sincere words, his blood surged, and he immediately clapped his hands, saying, 'Well said! A true man conducts himself, seeking only to be guiltless before his conscience.'

Ding Dian then added slowly, 'Don't blame me for being long-winded. It's just that the inner energy of the Divine Illumination Skill is rare under heaven; therefore, Hero Mei repeatedly urged me that the Divine Illumination Skill must never be given to a person lacking virtue, lest it bring calamity to the martial world.'

Though our acquaintance is shallow, I speak deeply: I only hope that in the future you will absolutely not do evil; otherwise, not only will people not let you off, but heaven will surely exact retribution!

Feng Yi knew from the original plot that Ding Dian would transmit the Divine Illumination Scripture to Di Yun; it was because Di Yun's good heart moved him, knowing he could use it properly and would not endanger the martial world.

But the two had been together for over three years, almost constantly side by side, whereas with himself it had only been a few short days; his inner turmoil was therefore understandable.

Feng Yi gazed at Ding Dian for a while before saying, 'Hero Ding, I would never dare to do evil, but to have a temper as good as yours is also absolutely impossible!'

Hearing these words, Ding Dian felt both annoyed and amused, thinking that although he had always been proud, this brat had twice shown contempt. He suddenly patted his shoulder and said earnestly, 'The world is unpredictable; should you one day meet someone you truly love, you may well end up like me.'

Feng Yi smiled and let it go, as if it were just a breeze passing by his ear.

Fondness?

Can loving others surpass loving oneself?

He, Feng Yi, simply does not believe it! (End of chapter)