Chapter 202: Qi Art

Mount Hengshan, four prefectures; Huizhou, eight prefectures.

Dechang Prefecture borders Zhilong on one side, and on the other lies the prefectural seat of Huizhou; within its borders are many lakes and rivers, and most cities and towns make their living from the waterways.

Passing through Mount Fajiu Mountain, one reaches the borders of Chang Fu Di Fa Jie.

Separated by a single mountain range, the two prefectures differ noticeably in customs, local flavor, and even accents.

"Dechang Prefecture!"

Streams of carts converged from every side path onto the main road. Inside the carriage, Li Yuan lifted the curtain and could already feel the damp air rushing toward him from afar.

Beside the main road flowed the great Pingjiang Canal—Dechang has many rivers, and the great canal is at its widest here.

"That is Black Water County, where ships entering Dechang Prefecture rest awhile; many merchant convoys switch to water travel here."

Inside the carriage, Wang Wang Peiyao's heart stirred with excitement.

The road is hard, and for a woman it is harder still. Over twenty days on the road without a bath, she felt as if insects were crawling all over her body.

"Mm, let's rest here for a bit, and wait for the other martial brothers."

Li Yuan let the curtain fall.

With no ambushes or pursuit from the Thousand Jun Cave people, the journey was uneventful; passing a few checkpoints cost no more than a few taels of silver.

"Giddyup!"

The driver Liu Zheng gave a light flick of the whip and drove the carriage toward Black Water County.

Though only a county, Black Water County was far livelier and more prosperous than Gao Liu. At the docks outside the city gate, a great number of ships were moored, and merchant convoys came and went without end.

Liu Liu Fuen had clearly been there many times; familiar with the place, he arranged lodging with ease and, following Fang Fang Bao Luo's wishes, went to contact the shipping fleets.

Dechang Prefecture's waterways were far more convenient and swifter than its roads, and over time many shipping fleets, large and small, had sprung up.

The small ones had two or three boats, plying nearby commanderies and counties; the large ones had dozens of ships, running between prefectures, doing very big business.

Before nightfall, Liu Liu Fuen had already contacted several shipping fleets and handed the list of prices to Fang Fang Bao Luo for them to choose from.

"Many thanks, Escort Leader Liu."

More than ten days had passed; Fang Fang Bao Luo's injuries were mostly healed. He cupped his hands in thanks to Liu Liu Fuen before discussing matters with Li Yuan.

"To guard against any Thousand Jun Cave stragglers lying in wait, we should still pick a large fleet."

Fang Fang Bao Luo offered his opinion, and Li Yuan naturally did not object; he casually chose one from among the fleets.

"The Thousand Jun Cave is destroyed. Even if a few remnants remain, they pose no threat to us. But the threat of the Xieshen Sect remains, as does the Huailong Palace."

In the room, the two spoke together; Fang Fang Bao Luo's expression was Mian Se Ning Zhong.

According to the original plan of the Divine Weapon Valley, after the whole sect relocated, it would take at most three to five years to digest the former Thousand Jun Cave territory and put down roots in Dechang Prefecture.

But news of the Xieshen Sect had thrown the original plan into disarray.

"What are the Valley Master's arrangements?"

Li Yuan asked.

"Huailong Palace summoned us several times; the Valley Master could not refuse and had to go to Huizhou City to pay respects to the Lord of Huailong Palace. His meaning was simply to wait."

"Wait?"

"Mm, wait—wait for the Xieshen Sect's next move, and for the appearance of that suspected Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing master, Li Li Yuanba."

"This…"

Li Yuan's brow furrowed slightly.

Without knowing that he himself was Li Li Yuanba, Lord Master Gongyang Yu's arrangement was not improper. After all, whether the Xieshen Sect or any other force, what they cared about most now was the Rift Sea Mysterious Whale Hammer.

Not the Divine Weapon Valley that was relocating with its entire sect.

As long as Zhou Shan Xuan kept stalling, once the Xieshen Sect confirmed the whereabouts of that Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing master Li Li Yuanba, the crisis would naturally resolve itself.

After that, one only needed to proceed slowly and steadily; Dechang Prefecture could be digested, and once the aftershocks faded, even recovering Zhilong Prefecture would not be impossible.

But…

'I am Li Li Yuanba.'

Li Yuan felt a headache coming on.

How Li Li Yuanba should appear, and how to separate the Divine Weapon Valley—and himself—from the affair, was also a problem.

"We can only wait."

Fang Fang Bao Luo had no confidence either.

Lord Master Gongyang Yu's arrangement was not the problem. The problem was that, given the Yixieshen Sect's way of doing things, before Li Li Yuanba appeared, they might very well wipe out the entire Divine Weapon Valley.

The principle of "better kill by mistake than let one go"—the Xieshen Sect would surely know it.

Silence fell in the room. Fang Fang Bao Luo's brows were tightly knit; Li Yuan's face was also Solemn, Burdened with worries.

"Brother Li, time to eat!"

At that moment, Wang Wang Peiyao, Liu Zheng, and the others had already ordered wine and dishes. After more than ten days of dry rations, even Fang Fang Bao Luo felt his mouth had lost all taste.

After the banquet, Li Yuan returned to his room and released the little mouse he had kept cooped up the whole way. The little fellow hugged a piece of cooked meat, eating until its mouth ran with oil.

Ever since it had gained spiritual nature, it refused to eat raw meat—of course, its demand for pills had also grown considerably.

"It's hard to go from luxury to frugality."

In the room, the waiter had already brought hot water; Li Yuan sighed comfortably.

After only a dozen-odd days without a soak in the bath, he found himself oddly unaccustomed to it.

"Hah!"

After his bath, Li Yuan rose, swallowed two Zeng Xue Dan, and stood in nothing but a pair of shorts to take up the Soldier Body Stance. Xu Tui the frame, and look inward upon himself.

Beneath his skin and membrane, the two great circulations of qi-and-blood and internal force overlapped one another, yet remained sharply distinct.

Even while traveling, Li Yuan had not neglected his martial training; the abundant pills made his qi-and-blood and internal force ever more plentiful.

At the turn of his thought, the force throughout his body accelerated its flow. To the naked eye, his skin and membrane turned crimson, as though a fierce fire burned his body.

"Hah!"

"Hup!"

Li Yuan adjusted his breathing; his skin grew ever redder, and as blood coursed through it, it looked like countless coiling dragons wrapped around his body.

Each reshaping of his bone-frame, after the body-transformation, yielded enormous returns.

His physique grew day by day; now, with merely a light push into stance, the explosive power all over his body seemed ready to burst forth.

Hum!

Anguish, numbness, and searing pain surged into his heart.

Li Yuan clenched his jaw tight; sweat beaded on his brow and all over his body, wave after wave of agony from the bone-frame reshaping rolling in.

Even after enduring it many times, he still felt he could barely bear it, and let out a muffled groan.

The little mouse in the corner heard the noise, but was already used to it; it nibbled a few bites of jerky, then scurried under the bed, its tiny bean-green eyes swivelling round and round.

In a corner unseen by anyone, it also rose up on its hind legs, mimicking Li Yuan's movements, and stood in a crooked Soldier Body Stance.

"Hah!"

A long while later, as the medicinal potency was fully spent, Li Yuan collapsed to the ground as if drained of strength; the skin all over his body was still trembling.

Sinews and bones all over his body knotted and twisted, undergoing violent transformation.

"Spirit Fox Form!"

Li Yuan closed his eyes and sensed inward.

The reshaping of a spirit-beast form was far more violent than that of an ordinary beast form, but his physique was now extremely powerful, and he quickly settled down.

"Whoosh whoosh~"

Li Yuan seemed to be able to hear the sound of blood flowing at high speed.

Qi and blood, internal force, supported by the blood, circulated again and again around the heart and the waist-belly as their center, slowly growing stronger.

"Force transforms into Qi!"

Li Yuan sensed the flow of force, and the principles of the Thousand Jun Qi Art welled up in his heart.

Force transforming into Qi is the first step on the path from body-transformation to Great Completion; only when force transforms into Qi can it bear the changes of body-transformation.

The essence of body-transformation lies in change.

Internal Qi, on the other hand, can support that change.

The unification of all forms is the process of taking oneself as the core and accommodating the myriad transformations.

"Hah!"

"Hup!"

Li Yuan adjusted his breathing again and again to cope with the turbulent flow of internal force within his body.

The step of transforming force into Qi is relatively harder for those who carry many kinds of force, but for Li Yuan, this step was no great difficulty.

Hum~

As his breathing changed, the force around Li Yuan's body changed with it, and in the end, the many strands of force wove together like a millstone being slowly pushed.

Gradually, the circulation of force slowed; the turbulent forces, through repeated collision and grinding, gave birth to a wisp of internal Qi.

"Hiss!"

Li Yuan opened his eyes, crooked a finger, and a wisp of pale-red internal Qi emerged from his fingertip—faint, yet it did not disperse.

The greatest difference between internal force and internal Qi lies in the fact that internal force dissipates the instant it leaves the body, whereas internal Qi can, to a certain extent, hold together and not disperse.

The reason force reaches one chi and Qi reaches three zhang also lies in this.

"Pfft~"

Li Yuan flicked a finger, and a streak of red light sliced through the darkness, landing on the wall with a sharp "hiss."

The thick wall-brick was pierced clean through.

"Internal Qi is more condensed and far more powerful; a single wisp of internal Qi is enough to match the burst of a dozen or more wisps of internal force."

Li Yuan bent and stretched his five fingers, sending wisps of internal Qi darting into the wall like hidden weapons, with sharp "hiss" and "pfft" sounds.

He leaned in for a look and saw the marks on the wall-brick were all different—some pierced straight through, some cracked in a circle, some eaten away into a patch.

"Qi and blood come from blood, internal force comes from qi and blood, internal Qi comes from internal force… the nature of the internal force also, to a certain extent, decides the nature of the internal Qi."

Li Yuan muttered to himself.

The Thousand Jun Qi Art is supremely yang and supremely firm, but because the Wu Gong learned differs and the internal force nurtured differs, the manifestation likewise differs.

The benefit of his bearing many forms and nurturing many kinds of internal force did not vanish after transforming force into Qi; on the contrary, the advantage became even more pronounced.

"If I can grind and melt all my internal force into internal Qi, the internal Qi will naturally encompass the natures of every kind of internal force."

Li Yuan's eyes were very bright.

Transforming force into Qi is a slow, patient grind; ten days ago, he had already condensed a wisp of internal Qi, but it was clearly still not enough to replace the great circulation of internal force.

"Hah!"

Li Yuan rose to his full height and slowly pushed into the Soldier Body Stance.

The Thousand Jun Qi Art is the very essence of the Soldier Dao Combat-Slaying Hammer; the Soldier Body Stance driven by Qi Art looked the same as before on the surface, but in truth the change was equally enormous.

Driven by internal Qi, Li Yuan felt that every move and posture contained tremendous force, and the circulation of internal Qi quickened along with it.

A moment later, Li Yuan took a Replenishing Origin Pill, and once he had recovered his peak and his spirit was sufficient, he stripped off his clothes and lay down.

He closed his eyes slightly and sensed the Rift Sea Shan Xuan Whale Hammer.

Hum!

In the next instant, he had once again arrived within the Shan Xuan Bing Mi Jing.

Whoosh!

Li Yuan opened his eyes and stretched out this body of true Qi.

"Every little bit of progress can be synchronously reflected in the body—truly incredible…"

Feeling the thousand-jun inner Qi coursing through his body, Li Yuan clicked his tongue in amazement, marveling once again at how fearsome this hammer was.

Glancing at the five figures on the final three hundred steps, Li Yuan turned around and, right there on that step, began performing the Soldier Body Form.

This Shan Xuan Bing Mi Jing could completely reflect his Wu Gong progress—it was the best martial practice ground.

Every time he made progress, Li Yuan would come here to practice martial arts.

Whooosh~

A long while later, Li Yuan's stance shifted; the hammer in his palm broke through the wind with a *zheng zheng* ringing—this was Soldier Strike.

"Thousand Jun Qi Art!"

After familiarizing himself with the changes of the Qi Art, Li Yuan shook the hammer in his palm, turned, and charged toward the final three hundred steps.