Chapter 34: Wu Xia Body, Millions of Catties!

When reaching the peak of the Zhou Tian realm with 54 meridians, one gains an additional 4,320 Zhou of power—that’s over eight hundred thousand catties of strength!

However, the imperial family possesses the Dong Huang Scripture, the First Pi Pulse Technique of Dayu, which opens 62 meridians, adding eight more Zhou Tian meridians—equivalent to roughly six hundred thousand catties of extra power.

But this is not Li Hao’s limit.

The Tai Yin Meridian equals ten meridians—2,480 Zhou, nearly five hundred thousand catties!

Moreover, Li Hao’s pulse-opening cultivation method is not limited to the Long He Divine Meridian; the Nine Revolutions Star Scripture is also a pulse-opening technique, along with three upper- and mid-grade pulse-opening methods and several lower-grade ones.

Yet the lower-grade pulse-opening methods only open the easiest major meridians, already covered by the upper- and mid-grade methods, rendering them useless.

But the Nine Revolutions Star Scripture plus the three upper- and mid-grade pulse-opening methods enabled Li Hao to open major meridians beyond those covered by the Long He Divine Meridian—his total number of opened meridians is now 69, surpassing even the imperial family’s Dong Huang Scripture! Li Hao was not satisfied—he now intended to use his bodily insight to deduce the fourth layer of the Tai Chu Scripture, shattering the Tong You Body! “The first chapter gathers the yin-yang forces of heaven and earth; the second layer is the stars of the cosmos; the third layer is the subtle You meridians within the human body; the fourth layer—I hope to open the Tai Yang Meridian, uniting yin and yang!”

Li Hao’s idea was not fanciful; with his fifth-stage bodily Dao insight, he was already half a master in body refinement.

What is a master? One who creates martial arts and founds a sect! Li Hao did not know how the original fourth layer of Tai Chu was cultivated, nor did he need to—Li family had never assembled the full text, likely destroyed long ago, reduced to dust in history.

If so, he would write a new chapter for this supreme body-refinement art!

Let the pearl no longer be shrouded in dust!

Several days later.

By the Black Water Demon Lake.

Li Hao sat outside the fishing platform when suddenly he gained insight—his blood qi surged, bones trembled beneath his skin, internal energy raced through his 69 major meridians, then surged violently toward his skull, as if about to burst his brain!

This was extremely perilous, but Li Hao’s control over his body was already microscopic—he could fold and seal his ears at will, every bone as nimble as fingers, fully controllable and responsive!

With a sudden boom, his brain vibrated, waves of swelling pain surged through him.

Li Hao gritted his teeth, enduring until the energy violently erupted—finding a gap, it finally burst forth, then flowed back along the same path into his body, forming a cycle!

Li Hao’s eyes gleamed with brilliant light, thrilled and exhilarated.

Finally—it worked! The Tai Yin Meridian is a wandering meridian, appearing anywhere on the body at different times, nearly impossible to locate and master—hence its name, You Meridian, meaning “hidden, unfindable as the netherworld.”

But the Tai Yang Meridian is fixed—within the skull.

Yet compared to the Tai Yin Meridian, the Tai Yang Meridian is even more perilous; no one dares attempt it—failure means either becoming a mute, crippled fool, or exploding one’s skull to death!

Though one meridian equals ten, the vast risk for merely ten extra meridians’ power means nine out of ten people would never choose it.

Because nearly everyone who tried failed.

Only a few martial madmen or peerless geniuses would dare such madness! Now that the Tai Yang Meridian was opened, Li Hao instantly felt the You Meridian find an anchor—it ceased drifting, gradually drawing closer to the Tai Yang Meridian, entwining with it.

“Yin and yang unite—I name this fourth layer… Wu Xia Body!”

Li Hao called up his interface; as he willed it, the Tai Chu Scripture on the panel truly advanced to the fourth layer—its name now: Wu Xia Body, Minor Completion!

Li Hao immediately activated the yin and yang meridians, circulating and refining the internal energy repeatedly, honing the flow.

Soon, beneath the entwined yin-yang currents, a faint special vortex force emerged.

Through the energy whirlpool, Li Hao faintly glimpsed a golden light within his skull.

He tried to reach it with his energy—but it was impossibly distant, unreachable.

“Legends say the human body has 108 major meridians—if all were opened, perhaps… I could reach that golden light.” A sudden clarity dawned in Li Hao’s mind.

This insight came from the bodily Dao—his rich cultivation memories granted him an extraordinary understanding of his flesh and blood.

Body refinement is by no means simple, nor is it as useless as Grandpa and the others claimed. On the contrary, Li Hao believed the problem lay in the low tier of body-refinement techniques in Tingyu Tower—even the Thousand Serpent Saint Body, ranked on the sixth floor, could only reach the Ji Hun realm at its fourth layer, while other cultivation methods reached the pinnacle.

Body refiners are neglected for multiple reasons—besides the difficulty of cultivation, Li Hao also believed the lack of techniques was a key factor.

Even the Li family’s collection of body-refinement techniques was so sparse—what of other places?

Li Hao looked at the interface: the Wu Xia Body had changed from Minor Completion to Major Completion! The union of yin and yang meridians now connected all major meridians, instantly gathering and coordinating all internal energy—like erecting a dragon’s spine within his body! Li Hao tested it—suddenly punched.

Whoosh! The fist wind roared like a tiger, depressing the water surface dozens of feet ahead and sending out a wave ripple seven to eight meters in diameter! If this punch landed solidly, it would rival a cannonball hitting water—exploding into a colossal splash!

Li Hao froze, eyes wide with shock. Through his refined bodily awareness, he knew just how terrifying the power of that punch had been.

With all major meridians condensed, his strength had doubled! He now had the yin-yang meridians active, plus his original 69 major meridians—totaling 89 meridians.

Each major meridian provided 248 Zhou—his total strength reached four million five hundred thousand catties!

With double the burst, it approached nine million catties! This neared ten million catties of divine strength—even a Zhou Tian realm true dragon could not possess such ferocious power.

Even imperial geniuses, mastering top-tier qi-circulation and pulse-opening techniques, only had two million catties of strength—unless they activated two meridians. A single meridian alone could not instantly unify all major meridians to unleash double power! “No wonder Uncle Nine is so terrifying—two meridians united, instantly doubling strength. Unbelievable.”

Li Hao’s eyes glowed with strange brilliance—he dared not imagine what would happen if all 108 meridians were opened! Remember, a normal Zhou Tian cultivator had only twenty thousand catties of strength.

Though that’s the lower bound—the absolute minimum—nine out of ten Zhou Tian tenth-layer cultivators had at least hundreds of thousands of catties—but compared to Li Hao, the gap was still immense.

“With my current strength, even the elite Zhou Tian tenth-layer warriors of Yuan Company could be crushed effortlessly!”

Li Hao thought to himself.

Yuan Company elites, even at tenth layer, had only fifty thousand catties of strength—helpless as infants before him.

Imperial geniuses had four times that strength; he had four times their strength! Li Hao retracted his fist, calmed his breath.

After unleashing the double yin-yang power, he felt his stamina heavily drained—he couldn’t use it often, but in critical clashes, it could deliver a fatal strike! When his body relaxed again, Li Hao looked toward the demon lake—but saw no sign of Second Uncle. He had gone to track the demon dragon’s whereabouts, and Li Hao had no idea where he’d vanished.

The demon lake stretched thousands of li, its waters deep—hiding a demon dragon within was truly hard to detect.

At that moment, a faint rustle reached his ears.

Li Hao’s ears twitched—he spun around instantly. Among the withered yellow leaves, a snow-white figure stirred, as if hiding.

He flickered forward, appearing before the figure—it was a tiny white fox, no bigger than a newborn puppy.

He studied it closely—the fox carried no demonic aura; clearly an ordinary wild fox.

“Little thing, how did you get here? Where are your parents?”

Li Hao bent down, lifting the fox from the leaves.

The fox’s ears bore a streak of orange-red—likely a hybrid of white and red foxes. As Li Hao held it, it immediately pushed with its tiny paws, struggling to escape.

Li Hao placed it on his palm, scanning around—but saw no adult fox. Had this little one sneaked out of its den alone?

Seeing this, Li Hao set it back on the ground, waiting for its parents to find it.

The fox struggled painfully through the leaves—too small, moving slowly, utterly unagile.

Li Hao smiled, ignoring it, returning to the lakeside to resume fishing.

Soon, a figure flew back—it was Li Mu.

Li Hao saw his empty hands and knew the dragon hunt had failed. Grandpa had searched countless times over the past half-year—the demon dragon was clearly cautious and cunning; after all, one capable of catching Li Mu’s attention must have lived for millennia.

“Hmph.”

Seeing Li Hao’s cheerful grin, Li Mu snorted irritably, flicking his sleeve: “And you? Empty-handed again?”

“Caught a small one—Tong Li realm,” Li Hao chuckled.

Li Mu rolled his eyes, even angrier.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Li Mu barely managed to catch a Tong Li realm fish demon, avoiding the shame of returning empty-handed, then took Li Hao back to Qingzhou City.

Before leaving, Li Hao noticed the little fox had crawled far away, still unclaimed. He asked Grandpa to check—Grandpa searched everywhere, finding only a pool of blood and some white fox fur—evidence the adult fox had been devoured by some beast.

Such things were common in the wild. Li Hao sighed, found the dazed little fox crawling aimlessly, and carried it back to Qingzhou City with him.

Among the withered yellow leaves of Shanhe Courtyard, a new streak of white now remained.

(End of Chapter)