Chapter 100: Yin Yang Mill and Taiji Gang

The territory of Great Qian is vast; in terms of sheer size, it is roughly comparable to Huaxia, though their geographical shapes are entirely different.

The capital lies in the north, slightly to the east, while Xiazhou is in the west; though not at opposite ends of the world, the distance between them is still considerable.

Back then, whether little Bai Mao could fly on a sword remains unknown; in any case, escorting the injured Shen Tang from the capital to Xiazhou was truly arduous...

Now, Lu Xingzhou, at the middle stage of the sixth grade, cannot fly on his own either; he must fly on a wheelchair. Although the wheelchair is three-use across sea, land, and sky with full functionality, its speed is utterly shameful, roughly only a few dozen miles per hour, wobbling in the air like an old machine.

Menggui City is a prefectural city; this city name is somewhat pretentious, said to originate from an emperor who, while touring here, felt homesick or something similar. Anyway, when the Emperor farts, local officials treat it as an imperial decree, wrap it up, and thus it becomes Menggui City.

Lu Xingzhou maliciously wondered: if the Emperor had a dream here, what would this city be called?

Menggui City is roughly located between the capital and Xiazhou, relatively closer to Xiazhou. With no mountains or rivers obstructing the air, the old wheelchair still flew for a full day, only landing outside Menggui City at night, as A'nuo pushed the wheelchair into the city with a clatter.

Only upon arriving here does one realize how vast the gap is between Dongjiang Prefecture, a place that barely became a prefectural seat due to Xiazhou's demotion, and Menggui City, a traditional major prefecture.

The density of spiritual energy here is nearly double that of Dongjiang Prefecture; the cultivators within the city are visibly stronger overall, a tier above those in Dongjiang. On top of the city being several times larger than Dongjiang, the population is far denser, with carriages and horses everywhere and people crowding every corner.

Surrounding areas are dotted with famous mountains and great rivers, with second-grade sects standing tall, creating an imposing atmosphere.

Compared to such a place, Xiazhou is completely countryside.

Within Menggui City, there are also numerous city-mountains; though none are very high, each is rich in spiritual energy, and some even possess underground fire. Many inns in the city are built within these mountains, providing "caves" for external guests to cultivate.

This is unthinkable in Dongjiang Prefecture; Xiazhou might have had such things in early years, but forget it now.

However, the master and disciple are accustomed to this; they are not secluded cultivators, having witnessed much over the years, and there are even more prosperous places among the southern prefectures.

A'nuo pushed the wheelchair straight to an inn in the city-mountain, paid with spirit stones to book a cave, all in one smooth motion.

Instead, Pei Chuyun followed behind, her eyes spinning in circles—their Nühe Huan Sect is not like other Huan Sect elders who could open brothels everywhere; under the strong control of the imperial court, even the Demon Suppression Bureau knows with closed eyes that the Huan Sect loves running brothels, so all brothels are heavily scrutinized, making it impossible for Huan Sect members to survive.

Their stronghold lies within a secret realm in the mountains; though they also live amidst pools of wine and seas of meat, it is very different from a bustling major city.

The little demoness, having just stepped out of the thicket not long ago, turned out to be the country bumpkin entering the city; following Lu Xingzhou into the inn, she hesitated upon seeing the Shopkeeper.

The Shopkeeper looked strangely at this beautiful young woman: "Guest, do you wish to stay?"

"Digging these cave dwellings one by one into the mountains, don't they feel like grave mounds?" Pei Chuyun said, "Only the Yin Corpse Sect would be overjoyed in such a place, right?"

"?" The Shopkeeper said, "Are you here to cause trouble?"

"No, it's my first time here; I'm just curious, so I asked."

"Cultivators only care about spiritual energy; who cares about such nonsense? Believe it or not, if there really is spiritual energy in a grave mound, plenty of people would fight the dead for it!" The Shopkeeper waved his hand impatiently: "Go, go, go; I thought you were beautiful, but you turn out to be someone who can't tell sense from nonsense."

Pei Chuyun's eyes shifted lightly.

Suddenly, the Shopkeeper felt this woman was the white moonlight he had pursued for three lifetimes and three eras, tears streaming down his face: "Miss, could you smile again..."

Pei Chuyun remained expressionless: "Give me the cave dwelling next to the guest with the child I saw earlier; do you have one?"

"Yes... but since he already has a child, could you consider me? Waaah..."

The Huan Charm Technique is terrifying indeed.

Pei Chuyun easily obtained the plaque for the cave dwelling next to Lu Xingzhou, leisurely took the plaque to open the door, and slipped inside.

Then she tapped on the cave wall, pondering silently.

The structure of these cave walls is very solid; earth-shifting cannot pass through. It seems I must create some chance encounters outside... The woman met a thousand li away, he surely wouldn't suspect it is me, Pei Chuyun, in disguise, right?

At this moment, Lu Xingzhou in the next cave indeed did not know Pei Chuyun had followed; on the road, she had carefully kept her distance, and upon arriving here where everyone entered the caves, external perception was blocked, so the confiscated embroidered shoes could not yet take effect.

At this time, Lu Xingzhou was performing various muscle exercises...

A'nuo watched in horror as her master lay on the ground doing push-ups, hugging her knees and shrinking far away.

It's over; since Master got together with Mistress, he has gone mad... Even though Mistress is not here, he is still pressing against thin air.

"What are those little eyes rolling around for..." Lu Xingzhou jumped up and began practicing a set of boxing techniques recorded in the Yin Yang Ultimate Intent Art: "Don't you want to practice?"

A'nuo sniffled: "Master hasn't sparred with me in so long."

"Oh, then come on." Lu Xingzhou beckoned with his hand: "I also want to test the feeling of fully unleashing the Yin Yang Ultimate Intent Art..."

"Bang," a small fist came flying; Lu Xingzhou blocked it, and the whole person soared as if riding clouds and mist, then "slapped" against the cave wall, slowly sliding down.

"Are you Nezha or what..."

A'nuo's face turned green; she hurriedly ran over: "Master, what's wrong... When you were at the seventh grade before, you could withstand fifty percent of my fifth-grade attacks. Now we've both advanced a grade, and I'm only using thirty percent..."

Lu Xingzhou struggled to get up, his expression calm: "Nothing; the Power Pill you bumped into before had an effect that was a bit too good..."

"But Master, you..." A'nuo hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping.

You advanced through the major bottleneck of the middle three grades, and you obtained the Yin Yang Ultimate Intent Art; shouldn't your combat power have skyrocketed compared to before... Why has it actually weakened...

Lu Xingzhou kept a straight face and said nothing.

Precisely because he felt much stronger than before, thinking he could show off as a master, he didn't use his full strength. He didn't expect the little thing, after taking the Power Pill, to have grown even more terrifyingly, and in a moment of carelessness...

However, speaking of which, taking that punch revealed a previously undiscovered benefit of the Yin Yang Ultimate Intent Art.

As A'nuo's fist force penetrated, the Yin and Yang energies within his body rotated like millstones, grinding away her force entirely; in the end, he only failed to withstand the impact force and was knocked flying backward, but suffered not a single internal injury.

A'nuo also noticed; after checking, she sighed with relief: "As long as there's no injury... Master's technique is a bit special."

Lu Xingzhou also felt it; he never expected this art to have special benefits in taking beatings. He thought for a moment, then beckoned to A'nuo again: "Try another punch."

A'nuo carefully reduced her power to ten percent; Lu Xingzhou shook his head: "Still thirty percent."

A'nuo's face turned green: "Don't, Master..."

"Say thirty percent, then thirty percent; I won't get hurt, so what are you afraid of..."

Helpless, A'nuo could only exert thirty percent of her strength and threw another punch.

Lu Xingzhou responded with a punch of his own.

A'nuo's vision blurred; she felt as if red and blue energies were spiraling on Master's fist, but upon closer inspection, there was nothing. Before she could figure it out, the two fists collided.

It felt like watching a firecracker that seemed completely harmless, only for it to suddenly explode; the water and fire energies clashed, yet produced an effect far exceeding one plus one. A'nuo felt the explosive force crash upon her; she too failed to withstand the power and was knocked flying backward, "bang" against the wall, slowly sliding down.

"Pat," A'nuo sat heavily on the ground, looking at her master with eyes full of grievance: "Master, you did this on purpose, didn't you?"

Lu Xingzhou picked her up, kissed her cheek, and apologized with a smile: "How could it be on purpose? Even Master himself doesn't know exactly how effective this move is."

"Is this drawing power from both the water and fire legs and blending them?" A'nuo asked curiously, "But this burst is quite different from the spiral qi force you used before; does it have a name?"

"Mm, the thing that just dissolved your power inside your body is called Yin-Yang Grind. And this one where water and fire explode into each other to produce tremendous force is called Taiji Tiangang. Both are techniques recorded within the Yin-Yang Extreme Intent Art. I wonder if you can learn it…"

Anuo's cultivation method was no method at all—pure self-accumulation and eruption of energy—so she could learn the vast majority of single-attribute techniques, but whether she could learn this special kind of yin-yang fusion was unknown.

Anuo was clearly quite interested: "I want to learn it, I want to learn it!"

"Alright~ watch your master's movements. The fist gathers in like this, the Qi inside the body circulates like so…"

Inside the cave abode, the tiny little figure followed behind her master, mimicking her master's movements. Under the glow of the night-luminescent pearls, two shadows—one large, one small—were cast upon the ground. It was very warm and cozy.

In truth, calling her "master"—this was actually Anuo's very first time following her master to learn a technique and practice boxing… because her master couldn't stand up before.

What he had taught was only knowledge, pill-crafting, how to handle affairs, and the countless stories Anuo had never heard in this world—the Thirty-Six Stratagems, all manner of schemes and stratagems.

When it came to actual fighting, Anuo had learned more from Yuan Muyu—that was her true master.

Unfortunately, even in this very first time learning to practice boxing, Anuo still couldn't master this ultimate technique of her master's. That special quality of being born with yin and yang Qi coexisting within the body—barely anyone in this world possessed it. If Lu Xingzhou hadn't obtained the Water and Fire Legs, he probably wouldn't have been able to cultivate the Yin-Yang Extreme Intent Art either.

"Forget it." Master and disciple, exhausted together, collapsed onto the ground and smiled at each other.

Anuo said with a grin: "Anyway, Anuo has never learned master's cultivation before, so let's just leave it at that."

"Who says you haven't? Wasn't the Soul Banner art taught by me?"

"I don't have a Soul Banner." Anuo's eyes rolled around: "How about master gives me one in the future?"

Lu Xingzhou stroked his chin: "Just getting a single Soul Banner isn't a big problem, but this thing requires a lot of killing. Master ultimately doesn't hope you walk that kind of path."

Saying so, he cupped Anuo's little cheeks and gave them a rub: "Based on my Anuo's attributes, you were supposed to be a fairy who heals the wounded and rescues the dying…"

Anuo blinked at him, broke into a grin, and didn't answer.

Pei Chuyun was about to go mad.

She didn't know what this master and disciple pair had come to Dream Return City for. She had assumed they were just stopping over midway and would leave after resting, but as it turned out, they had stayed inside the cave abode for three whole days straight, without even moving an inch.

Staring at the empty cave abode entrance day after day without moving a muscle—could anyone imagine what that felt like?!

(End of this chapter)