Chapter 305: Qi Flows Through the Body, This Daoist Is Flying

Crack!

Li Yuan opened his eyes; the dim room suddenly blazed with light, and outside in the night sky, lightning snakes flashed in timely succession.

"Drip!"

The sound of raindrops falling reached his ears, coming from outside the house and also from within his body. At first sparse, then dense, and finally like a violent storm, swift and fierce.

"Thunder Dragon True Qi!"

Li Yuan rose to his full height; a wave of cyan-black True Qi flowed out from every pore of his body like water ripples, enveloping him in a barrier visible to the naked eye.

Inside his dantian, the Thunder Dragon continued to inhale and exhale, drawing in internal energy and expelling True Qi like water droplets; the newly born Thunder Dragon True Qi was replacing the internal energy circulating in his meridians at an extremely fast speed.

There was a kind of heavy sense of fullness.

Just as forging meridians was a matter of patient grinding, transforming internal energy into True Qi was also such a laborious process; indeed, the more abundant the internal energy, the more time was required for the transformation.

This single Explosive Qi Pill saved him at least a year of patient grinding.

"This feeling..."

Li Yuan's expression was subtle; he reached out to touch the True Qi barrier swirling around him, feeling as if he were truly touching glass, rather than the intangible sensation of swirling internal energy.

He pushed the door open and stepped out; outside, dark clouds were thick, spring thunder exploded, and the wild wind drove heavy rain forward, all blocked by the True Qi barrier.

Wind and rain filled the sky, yet not a single drop could touch his body.

"This layer of True Qi barrier can resist blades, wind, rain, fire, and water, and even isolate the air inside and outside!"

Li Yuan closed his eyes, feeling the transformation of internal energy into True Qi.

True Qi originates from internal energy; the latter is compressed into the former by a specific method, similar to water, yet it remains gas.

But compared to internal energy, True Qi is far more condensed and pure, even possessing a sensation of being able to be shaped like water.

Wooo~

The blue-black True Qi flowed like water; an ape arm extended from within, and the instant it touched the rain, a large cloud of mist exploded and scattered; in an instant, the ape arm vanished.

A vicious tiger poked its head out from within, opened its mouth and emitted a low rumble of thunder, and rolling waves of qi blew away the mist.

Countless experiences in the Black Whale Mi Jing of using True Qi to outline the Picture of the Splitting Sea Black Whale had given him minute control over True Qi.

With a mere thought, the True Qi barrier swirling around him changed accordingly.

Various beast forms transformed naturally, without the slightest hesitation.

"Old Dragon Head was not entirely right; having many meridians has its own benefits!"

Li Yuan focused his spirit to perceive.

True Qi taking form is not only more like internal energy but also more substantial; in fact, whether it was the ape arm, the tiger head, or the transformation of various other forms, all were connected to the meridians.

With the thirty-six meridians piercing through his entire body, Li Yuan felt an indescribable sense of clarity, feeling as if he were "riddled with holes, allowing wind to blow freely through his body."

Various beast forms could "grow" out from any inch of his body.

Hiss!

At a certain moment, Li Yuan opened his eyes; the blue-black True Qi swirling around him converged toward his two flanks, and at a speed visible to the naked eye, outlined a pair of eagle wings over three meters long, complete with feathers!

Snap!

Under Li Yuan's focused gaze, this pair of True Qi feathers flicked lightly; accompanied by two overlapping explosions, he exerted no force with his feet, yet his body slowly rose amidst the wind and rain.

One meter, three meters...

One zhang, three zhang.

Crack!

In the night sky thick with dark clouds, the Thunder Dragon roared, and lightning snakes rolled away.

Amidst the Lei Yu, Li Yuan came through the air; from a hundred meters high, he looked down upon Hengshan City in the night rain, and a sense of exhilaration arose leisurely in his heart.

The Daoist is flying!

Li Yuan was excited in his heart; his hands and feet trembled slightly, feeling a fear of heights like standing on a cliff edge in his past life, but joy overwhelmed all of this.

Even though every flap of these eagle wings consumed a large amount of True Qi, even though the flight was very slow, and even though it required maintaining it with his whole heart and mind...

There were many drawbacks, but,

"This is also flying!"

Plop!

In his excitement, Li Yuan's eagle wings suddenly went chaotic, and his whole body plummeted from a hundred meters high, but his reaction was fast; before hitting the ground, he had already stabilized the eagle wings.

With a dive, he landed back in the courtyard.

"No good, my legs are a bit weak... With my current Wu Gong, even if I fell with my eyes closed, I would at most suffer minor injuries; why am I still afraid of heights?"

Daoist Li pounded his sore legs, unable to hide the excitement in his heart.

Although this kind of flight was slow, consumed a lot, and could be said to have many drawbacks, his heart still burned hot, feeling that he was already on the path of "ascending to immortality."

"With my current True Qi, I estimate I can maintain it for at most three minutes; it's not even as high as my jump, and moreover, I can't lift the hammer; if I lift the hammer, I simply can't fly..."

Pacing back and forth in the wind and rain for quite a few steps, Li Yuan very much wanted to let out a long roar to the sky; the benefit of meridians piercing through his whole body was a huge surprise to him.

After a good while, he restrained his desire to continue trying, turned back into the room, and took out the five pieces of night-travel gear.

Coarse hemp clothes, cloth shoes, a human-skin mask, an iron ghost mask, and a bamboo hat.

"Hoo!"

Adjusting himself before the mirror, Li Yuan lightly pressed the bamboo hat, the corners of his mouth curling slightly; whenever he went out at night in the rain, he always felt very happy:

"As a direct disciple of the Great Dragon Gate Master, a new talent of Dragon and Tiger, capturing thieves within the realm... never mind, this Daoist just wants to eat black!"

While his mind turned, Li Yuan counted the various items on the gray Dingxin Dingxin Shitai.

Mainly boots.

Boots were rare; up to now, he only had three pairs of fifth-tier and two pairs of fourth-tier, but with his current lightness skill, bolstered by five pairs of boots, no one below the Grandmaster realm could possibly be faster than him.

Whoosh!

Pushing the door open, Li Yuan strode into the wind and rain, heading straight for the southeast quarter of the city.

He was going to meet that divine thief.

Whoosh, whoosh~

Weaving through the shadows of the night rain, deftly avoiding the patrolling soldiers, Li Yuan sighed comfortably; with thirty-six qi meridians fully connected, his lightness skill had increased by forty to fifty percent out of thin air.

As true qi circulated, his speed was greater, his movements more agile, and his footfalls quieter, more concealed.

Still, even so, he was cautious; with the various sects' martial displays drawing near, Mount Hengshan hid dragons and crouching tigers—who could say there wasn't a Grandmaster stationed here?

"Hm, people from Fire Dragon Temple are here… huh? Shi Shi Yu Shu—oh, he invited me to a banquet earlier, I turned him down."

Hearing that name, Ouyang Ying's voice caught for a beat, and he clenched his teeth.

"Everyone, go search!"

"Yes!"

Several hundred government office Runners, as if granted amnesty, scattered along with the Wutang experts and vanished into the rainy night, going house to house in their search.

"My Yun Xiang Ding!"

Under the eaves, Ouyang Ying pressed a hand to his chest, feeling nothing but stifled frustration:

"Ding Xiu, you old fool, still in the mood to visit the pleasure quarters at a time like this…"

Ouyang Ying's heart was uneasy; he was an official dispatched from the capital and knew very well how much importance the imperial court placed on incense offerings.

A decade's worth of incense offerings from the various prefectures lost—if he couldn't recover it, he'd at least have his salary docked; if someone impeached him, he might even be stripped of his post.

After summoning and berating several batches of government office Runners in a row, he finally returned to his room, panting heavily.

The moment he stepped inside, his vision went black.

The once-tidy room had been ransacked into a shambles; a letter was nailed to the wall, full of mockery and derision.

【That cauldron is quite fine, I've taken it. Hmm, in ten years, I'll come again—hope the Superintendent keeps gathering incense offerings diligently, don't let me down.

Oh, by then the Superintendent will probably be gone?

Signed, Brother Brother Sikong!】

"Aaargh!"

Ouyang Ying let out a furious roar and tore the letter to shreds; then, suddenly remembering something, his face changed drastically: "My things!"

He cried out, strode quickly into the inner room, and triggered the mechanism of the hidden chamber; seeing the items hadn't been rifled through, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hidden well, aren't they."

Suddenly, Ouyang Ying's heart lurched violently, and a voice dripping with mockery rang out by his ear.

"Not good!"

He turned and reached for his blade, but his vision only blurred, and the wooden box in the hidden chamber had vanished:

"Many thanks to the Superintendent for his generous gift, I'm deeply grateful!"

"Brother Brother Sikong!"

A furious roar startled the entire prefecture government office; the government office Runners and Wutang experts who hadn't yet left hurried back, only to see a figure flip up onto the roof, an enormous bundle on his back, about to slip away.

"Ding Xiu!"

Suddenly, a strange shout came from afar.

Ouyang Ying vaulted onto the roof and saw a blast of qi erupt in the wind and rain.

Before long, a tall, imposing old man who radiated authority without anger landed on the eaves of the government office; he released the cloth scrap in his hand, his face ashen.

"Where is he?"

Ouyang Ying was furious.

Ding Xiu swept him a cold glance, turned, and bellowed as he departed:

"Search the city!"

In the territory of a Daoist sect, there were few experts at the government office.

In the wind and rain, a figure dropped to the ground and hid in the shadows; he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes gleaming:

"That old fellow's stash is pretty deep, pity there were no spirit pills. Sigh, Dragon Tiger Temple is heavily guarded, and there's Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing too—otherwise, that would be the real fat sheep."

Weighing the bundle in his hand, Brother Brother Sikong tore the mask from his face, swiftly disguised himself, with no intention of lingering, preparing to leave the city at once.

Suddenly, his steps halted; he raised his head warily, only to see, on the eaves nearby, a figure in hemp clothes and a bamboo hat wearing a ghost-face mask, watching him with great interest.

Or rather, watching the bundle on his back.

That gaze…

"Damn, ran into a robber!"