Chapter 300: Cultivating in Stillness Amidst Wind and Rain

Wuu~

In the shadow beneath the eaves, that mass of light and shadow coalesced into a human form, its voice ethereal, audible only to Yan Yan Chunyang:

"Five days ago, the Prince accompanied Your Majesty in deploying the Dun Tian Zhou, likely to explore the Ninefold Gales of Heaven once more and seek the Eight Directions Temples..."

"The Eight Directions Temples."

Yan Yan Chunyang frowned slightly: "Did he give any instructions?"

"The Prince said everything has been arranged properly; the Marquis need only act to his heart's content and secure first place in the martial exhibition."

The figure in the shadow spoke.

"Securing first place in the martial exhibition will be without much turmoil; this generation of the Wudadao Sect has few notable figures. Only Long Long Xinglie, Shi Shi Qingyi, and Pei Pei Xingkong are worth a fight, yet none are match for this Marquis."

Yan Yan Chunyang rotated his bead bracelet, unconcerned: "This Marquis is merely worried; since it concerns the Dragon-Tiger Nourishing Furnace, that old dragon may not be willing to yield."

Corresponding to his own master, he naturally trusted him, but the Dragon-Tiger Nourishing Furnace is the very foundation of the Dragon-Tiger Temple; even borrowing it would be extremely, extremely difficult.

One misstep, and it would be the wrath of immortals.

"If he does not follow the rules, would that not be even better?" The figure in the shadow paced a few steps, showing some worry: "Long Long Xinglie and the others are backed by their Dao Sects after all; does the Marquis truly have confidence? Since it concerns the Prince's 'Heavenly Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing', the Marquis must not be careless."

"Without fighting, I would not claim certain victory, but..."

Yan Yan Chunyang smiled slightly, a hint of arrogance in his brow: "Seven days ago, on the ship, I dreamt into my master's 'Fumo Divine Realm'; fighting at the same realm, I can now battle my master for over a hundred moves."

Hearing this, the shadow's heart unknitted its brows, transforming into a wisp of light that sank into the bead bracelet in its hand: "In that case, it is naturally invincible."

Yan Yan Chunyang lightly rotated the beads; the bracelet on his wrist consisted of one hundred and eight beads, and upon close inspection, various patterns seemed to cover them.

As he turned them gently, streams of light of varying colors enveloped him like water, nourishing his spirit and physique.

"The Eight Directions Temples, indeed."

As Xu Xu blew a gentle breeze, Yan Yan Chunyang closed his eyes slightly: "There are still nearly two years; that time is already very long."

After descending the mountain and entering the city, Li Yuan saw ten times more experts than in the past few years combined.

The light of various weapons wove into a sea, leaving him somewhat overwhelmed.

Among them were many that made him envious; along the way, he was somewhat distracted, looking at this, looking at that.

"So many weapons above the famous rank." Before the Dragon-Tiger Gate, Li Yuan exerted great willpower to stop himself from looking left and right; such a scene of superior weapons everywhere was something he had truly never seen.

"Divine weapons are still rare."

The crowd before the mountain gate was dense, including powerful factions and even experts from other Qitadao Sects, yet there were no divine weapons.

The "Wind-Thunder Sword (Sixth Tier)" carried on the back of the young swordsman who summoned the Bai Hu shadow was merely a quasi-divine weapon.

In comparison, the disciple of the Zhenwu King was truly excessively luxurious; most Grand Masters did not even possess two divine weapons, let alone Eighth-Tier divine armor.

"The martial exhibition of the various Dao Sects is still nearly two years away; I fear the further it goes, the more experts there will be... For such a grand event, the masters of the Wudadao Sect will likely all attend in person."

Li Yuan turned these thoughts over in his mind.

He watched the spectacle for a while; large groups of young experts shuttled back and forth beneath the mountain gate, trying to trigger strange phenomena, but apart from Pei Jiu, no such experts appeared again.

Moments later, seeing there was no more spectacle to watch, Li Yuan turned and returned to the restaurant where he had been earlier.

Shi Shi Yulou, Xin Xin Wenhua, and others returned in turn; however, Long Long Xinglie went to receive Pei Jiu. Although relations between sects were not good, as fellow Dao Sects, proper etiquette was still required.

After this interruption, everyone lost the mood to talk; Xin Xin Wenhua was in a very bad mood and took his leave shortly after. Soon, only Shi Shi Yu Shu and Li Yuan remained in the private room.

The two wasted no time, eating most of the food and dishes on the table before returning to the mountain. Li Yuan used ten thousand taels of gold to purchase one hundred and sixty Angry-Eye Eggs; this was a friendly price, discounted.

Li Yuan felt a bit of flesh-tearing pain; he discovered that the more something deviated from what most people needed, the higher the price became, to an infuriating degree.

The reason was that those who could afford such things each possessed vast wealth.

"Too expensive."

After bidding farewell to Shi Shi Yu Shu, Li Yuan still felt the sting of the cost on his way back to the mountain; he increasingly wanted to utilize the 'Yu Xuanjing Mi Jing'.

Setting aside other things, growing various spiritual rice or even raising chickens and ducks would suffice.

"In Hengshan City, anyone who unlawfully draws weapons shall die; their sect shall be expelled from the city and fined ten thousand taels of gold!"

On the main street, elite armored soldiers patrolled, their voices deep and powerful, carrying for several li.

When people gather in large numbers, chaos easily arises; martial artists from all corners of the world assembled here, many of whom held grudges against each other, so fights and killings naturally increased.

The elite soldiers of the Dragon and Tiger Armies, numbering over twenty thousand, were dispersed throughout the various city districts, patrolling day and night to maintain order.

In the several city districts Li Yuan passed through, there were several very tall flagpoles displaying the corpses of troublemakers; crude and bloody, yet effective.

Without this, it would be impossible to intimidate many martial artists who could not even recognize a character the size of a fist.

Bang!

Passing through a certain district, Li Yuan heard a loud explosion; a figure darted out from a distant building.

That man possessed a powerful physique; with each step he could leap two zhang high, and with a single rise and fall, he crossed half the street, clearly having mastered form-transformation.

"Get out of the way!"

The man roared furiously, charging forward recklessly. Li Yuan's heart stirred, but before he could act, a patrol squad of Dragon and Tiger soldiers rushed upon him.

Bending low, their qi and blood erupted; although wearing heavy armor, their speed was a notch faster than that man's.

In groups of three, each wielding a blade or sword, they leaped as one; only a scream was heard before the bandit-like man had both arms severed and his head sliced off.

One of the soldiers flicked his wrist; that head was already impaled on a protruding iron spike on a flagpole ten zhang away, dripping with blood, extremely gruesome.

"This person violated the order by unlawfully drawing weapons; kill!"

Several patrolling soldiers spoke loudly, stabilizing the pedestrians on the long street; afterwards, they split into two groups: one to patrol, the other to seek out his sect's forces.

"Capable and decisive, proficient in combined attack methods; their hard-body cultivation and lightness skill are both commendable."

Li Yuan, who witnessed the entire event, nodded inwardly.

In this first year since entering the sect, he had only occasionally seen soldiers of the Dragon and Tiger Army; nothing else, the Dragon and Tiger Army's garrison was an area where inner sect disciples had no qualification to enter at will.

But from what he saw, the Dragon and Tiger Army lived up to its title of a strong army; whether in individual martial prowess or in armor and weapons, they surpassed the Divine Guard Army.

The quantity must also far exceed.

"Heavy armor is truly a good thing."

Li Li Yuanzhong's eyesight was excellent; that bandit was a Form-Shifting Martial Artist, his counterattack fierce, yet he still failed to pierce the armor of those three Dragon-Tiger soldiers.

The Dragon-Tiger Temple had no Divine Artisans, but its assembly-line-like forging method allowed famous artifacts and Blade-Grade armor to be widely popularized.

He had inquired: among the four types of armor in the Dragon-Tiger Army, even the lowest grade was Blade-Grade armor.

"To fuse a single Divine Weapon-Grade armor, at least seven hundred and thirty First-Grade armors are needed. Calculating at three hundred taels of silver per piece, that is merely over two hundred thousand taels of silver. Expensive? Truly not expensive."

Li Li Yuanzhong murmured to himself.

If there were sufficient incense, fusing weapons at the Weapon-Fusing Furnace would be more cost-effective than forging them oneself; at the very least, one would not need to search for those rare heavenly treasures and earthly gems.

But incense is hard to find; items like the Dragon-Tiger Standard heavy armor and crossbows are also difficult to gather. He could not forge them openly; let alone the imperial court, even sects would not permit it.

"Other problems all have solutions; the main issue is incense."

Li Li Yuanzhong's heart rippled.

He could not help but glance at the temple nearby. The incense in the temples of Hengshan City was extremely flourishing, with plenty of Third and Fourth-Grade incense, but he had not yet seen anything higher.

"It must be that the Dao Bureau uniformly harvests and stores it somewhere."

Li Li Yuanzhong recalled the intelligence he had heard earlier through the Listening Talisman; that group of mysterious people should be making their move after the New Year, right?

Old Daoist Li had considered robbing the robbers, but...

"There are too many experts in the city right now."

His peripheral vision swept over the rows of weapon glints around him; Li Li Yuanzhong pondered that he still needed to acquire a few pairs of high-grade boots first.

"Legend has it that under the Bai Shen Zheng Fa, there are thirteen branches, all named after gods: the Divine Foot Sutra, Divine Palm Sutra, Divine Eye Sutra, Divine Ear Sutra, Divine Organ Sutra..."

"Thirteen branches may not be the limit of the Bai Shen Fa. If, in all organs, there exists a 'God' or a 'Acupoint'..."

"The Supreme Dao is not complicated; truth resides in essence. The Niwan and all hundred joints possess gods. If there truly are a hundred gods, then the meridians I condense must at least cover all internal organs, leaving room for 'Acupoints'."

Regarding the Martial Dao, Old Daoist Li never blindly believed anyone; he believed in practice and cross-verification from multiple sources.

For now, he believed it.

Because he had truly used the Divine Foot Sutra to ignite two 'Acupoints' on the soles of his feet. Counting his dantian, his current total internal qi should be at least double that of someone with twelve Meridian Castings.

This was while the acupoints were still being nourished. He estimated that if the Divine Foot Sutra were cultivated to Xiu Zhi Qi Zhong, his total internal qi would exceed that of peers in the same realm by more than twofold.

"If there truly are a hundred gods, then my internal qi..."

Just thinking about it made Li Li Yuanzhong's heart flutter. Whether or not it was as he imagined, he wanted to cast as many meridians as possible, leaving ample room.

"This bottle of Qi-Enhancing Pills should be enough."

Exhaling a long breath to blow out the oil lamp, Li Li Yuanzhong focused his spirit and began moving his internal qi, circulating through the meridians and collaterals, exploring the unknown regions within his body drop by drop.

Meanwhile, in the Land of Spiritual Light, the visualized Spiritual Self also stood up, pushing through various stance exercises, his form changing: sometimes transforming into a spiritual ape, sometimes into an ancient elephant, sometimes into a flood dragon.

After a long while, the light and shadow shifted, beginning to outline the 'Splitting Sea Dark Whale Map' from nothingness.

"Huff!"

Inside the small temple, the faint white light gradually dimmed.

Long Xi Xiang, looking exhausted, opened his eyes and saw Jin Jin Shengwu, whose beard and hair were wild, his face filled with shock and fury.

"How many strikes?"

Long Xi Xiang asked.

"One hundred and sixty strikes."

Jin Jin Shengwu's chest heaved, somewhat annoyed: "The sword intent left by Wan Wan Zhuliu seems even stronger?"

"A Millennium-Grade talent, accompanied by two great Heavenly Fortune Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing, naturally stronger than forty-plus years ago."

Long Xi Xiang was somewhat surprised: "You could withstand one hundred and sixty strikes?"

"Still far from enough. I must withstand at least three hundred strikes before I have confidence to die together with him. A difference of over one hundred strikes..."

Jin Jin Shengwu frowned tightly; this was already his best performance in over thirty fierce battles.

"Again!"

Jin Jin Shengwu gritted his teeth.

Long Xi Xiang did not refuse; with such a supreme grandmaster present, he could familiarize himself more with Wan Wan Zhuliu's Liu De Dao Fa and accumulate chances of victory.

Vroom~

Divine light spread; Long Xi Xiang closed his eyes.

"Three hundred strikes..."

Long Xi Xiang's small temple was locked up for over ten days. By the time the New Year festivities were over, Li Li Yuanzhong still had not seen Old Dragon Head, leaving him, who wanted to ask about the details of meridian unblocking, no choice but to seek out Dou Yue and Long Long Xinglie.

With the approaching Martial Arts Tournament of the Various Dao, the Dragon-Tiger Temple was bustling and busy; a venue capable of accommodating so many martial artists was a massive undertaking.

Hoo~

In the small courtyard, the wind roared like a tiger.

Li Li Yuanzhong practiced the Xu Tui stance; his movements were slow and gentle, yet with every gesture, the airflow of the entire courtyard was stirred by him, swirling around his body like a living creature.

His tendons and bones trembled violently; the large tendons beneath his skin tightened and loosened alternately. Every time he snapped and released, the sound seemed capable of shaking the entire small courtyard.

"Crack!"

After a long while, Li Li Yuanzhong opened his eyes. He clenched his five fingers, then released them. His arm swung like a snake, seemingly boneless. When tightened, it emitted a thunderous roar, scattering the airflow throughout the courtyard.

"Snake Form Eight Transformations, Great Perfection achieved."

Opening his pores, intense sweat filled the small courtyard. Li Li Yuanzhong flicked his sleeves to blow it away, his eyes shining brightly.

Time flowed like water, passing in the snap of a finger.

More than twenty days had passed. The three top-tier stance arts—Tiger Form Spirit Communion, Python Star-Devouring, and Snake Form Eight Transformations—had all been pushed to Grand Completion, reshaping his body, and the Hundred Beasts Thunder Dragon had gained several more degrees of power.

"Just one more Dragon-Tiger Heaven-Shaking Hammer, and I'll have all hundred forms!"

Li Yuan closed his eyes slightly. After the six stance arts reached Grand Completion, the absolute-skill-level stance art contained within them—'Dragon Snake Nine Transformations'—naturally surfaced.

"Dragon Snake Nine Transformations—this stance art is far more complex than Long Chan or Heaven-Shaking Stance."

After a brief moment of sensing, when he opened his eyes again, the sky had already darkened. Li Yuan was in a great mood, so he cooked a big pot of spirit rice and cracked a few Angry-Eye Eggs to reward himself.

"Hoo!"

In the night, Li Yuan lifted his hammer and moved, his motions light, slow, and soundless. After a moment, he slowly gathered his stance.

"At most half a month, the Dragon-Tiger Heaven-Shaking Hammer can be cultivated to the seventh layer… the hundred forms are within reach!"

Murmuring to himself, Li Yuan drew in a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, freshened up briefly, then returned to his room to sit in meditation and continue deducing the Rending Sea Mystic Whale Diagram.

More than twenty days passed. Seven Qi-Augmenting Pills were used up, and the qi channels in his body increased from twelve to twenty-six, nearly covering his entire body.

The pity was that, without the follow-up cultivation method of the Bai Shen Fa, he had yet to find the 'spirit' in his other organs.

"The acupoints can be searched for slowly. First, I should forge the qi channels and break through to Organ Refining… The limit of qi channels should be thirty-six?"

With these thoughts, Li Yuan focused his mind and steadied his breath.

Hum~

In the place of spiritual light, the visualized spirit-self had already vanished.

In its place was a Rending Sea Mystic Whale Diagram stretched open like a drawn bow, its imagery already vivid and lifelike.

Wooo~

Suddenly, Li Yuan sensed a familiar ripple of aura.

"It's here?"

Li Yuan's mind shifted, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw the bronze pagoda standing before him.