Chapter 56: Hunyuan Strength

The human body has many meridians, the most important of which are the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and the Twelve Standard Meridians; these are all channels for the circulation of True Qi.

A Yellow Grade Low Rank technique circulates True Qi within one meridian to complete a Heavenly Cycle, while a Yellow Grade Middle Tier technique circulates True Qi within two meridians to complete a Heavenly Cycle, and a Yellow Grade High Rank technique circulates True Qi within three meridians to complete a Heavenly Cycle.

"Wild Ox Strength" is a Yellow Grade Low Rank technique, and its cultivation route is within the Yang Qiao Vessel, while "Hunyuan Strength" is a Yellow Grade High Rank technique, and its cultivation route is within these three meridians: the Yang Qiao Vessel, the Yin Qiao Vessel, and the Yang Wei Vessel.

In other words, the cultivation routes of "Wild Ox Strength" and "Hunyuan Strength" overlap by roughly one-third, which reduced the difficulty for Meng Yifan to cultivate "Hunyuan Strength" significantly.

"Begin cultivation." Meng Yifan sat cross-legged, his five centers facing Heaven, calming his mind and breath, focusing his intent on his dantian, and began to cultivate the "Hunyuan Strength" technique.

When an infant is in the mother's womb, the meridians in the body are unobstructed, but after birth, by breathing in postnatal turbid air and eating grains, some impurities gradually accumulate within the body.

As age increases, more and more impurities accumulate in the body, and the meridians slowly become blocked; eventually, the meridians will be completely clogged, the human body will be thoroughly cut off from the path of cultivation, and it will age step by step, finally returning dust to dust, earth to earth, turning into a skeleton.

Martial Dao techniques are meant to use True Qi to scour the meridians within the body, clearing out the meridians that have slowly become blocked, and then the True Qi follows the meridians to strengthen every part of the body.

In this way, not only will the human body not grow old and frail with age, but it will instead become increasingly powerful; walking on walls and leaping over roofs, or splitting stone monuments and cracking rocks, all become effortless matters.

That legendary Martial Saint can smash a great mountain with one punch and cause a river a hundred zhang wide to cease flowing with one palm; such a powerhouse is almost like a deity in the eyes of ordinary people.

What Meng Yifan needs to do now is to mobilize the True Qi, which has grown accustomed to circulating only in the Yang Qiao Vessel, to circulate within these three meridians: the Yang Qiao Vessel, the Yin Qiao Vessel, and the Yang Wei Vessel.

As long as the True Qi can follow the cultivation route of "Hunyuan Strength" and traverse one Great Heavenly Cycle, Meng Yifan will have taken the first step; according to his speculation, "Hunyuan Strength" should then appear on the Game Panel.

As for widening the meridians later, for others, this is a slow, grinding process that requires day-after-day hard work to gradually widen the meridians bit by bit to accommodate more True Qi circulating within them, but Meng Yifan has the Game Panel; once he takes the first step, he can directly use Experience Value to add proficiency later.

Meng Yifan mobilized the True Qi to begin circulating within the meridians; in the Yang Qiao Vessel, the True Qi moved very smoothly, but when it reached the Yin Qiao Vessel and the Yang Wei Vessel, the True Qi was almost unable to move an inch.

"Pain!" Meng Yifan frowned; the moment the True Qi entered the Yin Qiao Vessel, the Yin Qiao Vessel was stretched until it bulged, appearing as if it might rupture at any moment.

A sharp pain surged from the meridians, causing cold sweat to break out all over Meng Yifan's body; this kind of pain in the meridians was even more unbearable than physical pain.

Meng Yifan's physical age is only ten, and these meridians, which have never been cultivated, have already accumulated a large amount of impurities.

It is no wonder that those who cultivate know that one should cultivate early; the earlier one cultivates, the easier it is to open the meridians.

From this, one can imagine that for those who are older, their meridians are almost completely blocked, and wanting to switch to cultivating other techniques would be an extremely difficult matter.

"These two meridians have never had True Qi circulate through them; at the very beginning, I cannot transport too much True Qi, I must take it bit by bit."

Meng Yifan was no longer anxious, but instead condensed the True Qi in his body into a thin thread, extending it bit by bit through the impurities of the Yin Qiao Vessel; in this way, it was indeed not as painful as before.

Time passed bit by bit; although Meng Yifan was cautiously extending the thread of True Qi, the impurities within the Yin Qiao Vessel were truly too numerous, and some places were almost completely blocked; even if only a sliver of True Qi passed through, it made Meng Yifan feel incomparably intense pain.

In some places, it even required Meng Yifan to use the thread of True Qi to forcibly grind out a channel bit by bit; the pain at this moment was comparable to being sliced by a thousand knives—it was too painful, truly too painful.

"Hold on, this first step must be taken by myself." Meng Yifan was soaked in sweat; he endured the sharp pain and encouraged himself to persist.

Ten minutes passed, and the thread of True Qi had already traversed one-third of the Yin Qiao Vessel, but the further it went, the more intense the pain became; Meng Yifan was now trembling slightly from the pain.

At this time, he absolutely could not stop, otherwise, it would be giving up halfway, and all the suffering endured before would have been in vain.

"Persistence is victory." Meng Yifan cheered himself on internally and continued to extend the thread of True Qi; twenty minutes, thirty minutes—Meng Yifan's body shuddered slightly, and the Yin Qiao Vessel was finally traversed; although this was only a tiny route, the Yin Qiao Vessel could be considered opened.

"Next is the Yang Wei Vessel." Meng Yifan did not rest, but mobilized the thread of True Qi to continue wandering toward the Yang Wei Vessel.

Meng Yifan felt as if he were a mountain opener holding a chisel in one hand and a hammer in the other, taking it one step at a time, chiseling out a path within the meridians that could accommodate the passage of True Qi.

Every strike was comparable to stabbing a knife into his own heart; this was practically self-torture, but in order to become powerful as quickly as possible, Meng Yifan had to do this.

The sharp pain was like a tide, wave after wave, making Meng Yifan want to roll on the ground, but in order to open the meridians, he could not move recklessly and could only grit his teeth and persist.

Meng Dayong had long since stopped cultivating; seeing Meng Yifan gritting his teeth and trembling all over while still persisting in opening the meridians, he felt some heartache, but also great pride.

The path of cultivation is to defy Heaven and change one's fate; one must have this kind of will to endure hardship, be tenacious and unyielding, and forge ahead, otherwise, no matter how good one's aptitude is, it is difficult to become a true powerhouse.

Another half an hour later, Meng Yifan's body shuddered again, and the Yang Wei Vessel was also opened; although the channels in both the Yin Qiao Vessel and the Yang Wei Vessel could only accommodate a tiny thread of True Qi and seemed insignificant, they were considered opened and could accommodate a sliver of weak True Qi to circulate within the meridians.

Under normal circumstances, Meng Yifan would still need to accumulate effort day by day, persisting in circulating True Qi every day, and this tiny channel would be widened bit by bit, but he has the Game Panel and does not need to put in this hard work.

Meng Yifan opened his eyes and saw Meng Dayong looking at him with concern, his eyes filled with worry and pride.

"Yifan, the path of cultivation emphasizes gradual progress; do not be too hasty, take it slow, there is no need to rush."

The channels Meng Yifan opened in the Yin Qiao Vessel and the Yang Wei Vessel were truly too tiny; Meng Dayong, being by his side, could not sense them at all and thought that Meng Yifan had failed in the end, but this was also normal—switching cultivation techniques was never a simple matter.