Chapter 70: The Bai Shen Fa (Extra Chapter)

"Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva, Lu Lu Yunqing…"

On the road home, Li Yuan still felt those two pendants burning in his hand, and thought to himself that he—or most people, for that matter—had overlooked this nominal parent-official.

In Zhelong Prefecture, the Divine Weapon Valley was heaven; the imperial court could only count as earth.

In Gao Liu County, before Qiu Long's death, the City Guard's standing was far above the government office's; every power within the city and every horse-bandit or mountain-bandit outside it showed reverence and submission.

By contrast, this county magistrate seemed utterly unremarkable; when people occasionally mentioned him, it was only that he revered gods and Buddhas.

"The encirclement and killing of Qiu Long—surely this county magistrate my lord had a hand in it too?"

Weighing those two pendants in his hand, Li Yuan returned to his courtyard.

His thoughts were somewhat restless; he did not touch the two pendants right away, but tossed them into the room, took up his hammer, stood in stance, and lightly pushed the Soldier Momentum.

After working up a great sweat, he began practicing the Sleeve-Flying Dagger.

With the foundation of his hammer art at Perfection, Li Yuan picked it up quickly; after practicing only six or seven days, his strength, technique, and accuracy had all improved considerably.

He could fling three blades out in one second, and against a fixed target within ten meters, his hit rate was above fifty percent; in a few more days at most he could reach Entry Level.

A moving target, within ten meters, with a hit rate above fifty percent—that counted as Entry Level for the Flying Dagger technique.

Puff puff puff~

Li Yuan raised his hand and threw three blades, stabbing them into the wooden board hanging on the courtyard wall; force pierced through the board and stabbed straight into the earthen wall.

"The Great Blood Qi Circulation really is different."

Li Yuan raised his hand and threw three more blades; each one used full strength, mobilizing the blood qi of shoulder and arm, but after only a short while, his blood qi replenished itself to fullness again.

Compared with the Small Circulation, his total qi and blood, circulation speed, and recovery speed were all nearly twice as fast.

This was an utterly terrifying gap.

Supported by his vigorous qi and blood, the speed at which he practiced his hammer art, stance work, and flying dagger technique all quickened; even his iron-forging became much faster.

It saved him quite a few pills.

……

Inside the room, candlelight flickered.

The two Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva pendants were laid out on the table; in Li Yuan's eyes, a blood-colored haze drifted, unbearably eerie and uncanny.

"No matter how you look at it, these aren't proper things."

Li Yuan's brows knit tightly.

Judging solely from the Baishen Sect's doctrine, this sect could not be called good, but neither could it be called evil; yet anything that touched upon the Bai Shen Fa was mostly not proper things.

Apart from that incense burner.

"The Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva temples have existed for a long time and are widely distributed; they may even have ties to the imperial court. If there were anything off about them, it would have been discovered long ago."

"Then, is it the followers who've gone wrong?"

Li Yuan had his guesses.

Since that ancient book mentioned false Dao, false scriptures, false gods, and false followers, with such sharp wording, it must mean the latter truly existed—and might even be quite numerous?

"Squeak squeak squeak~"

Under the desk, the little field mouse, no longer tied up, hugged his boot and trembled.

"Don't be afraid."

Tossing down a few pieces of fish scales and fish bones, Li Yuan also steeled himself—worst case he just changes his soul-bound artifact once a day; could he really be scared stiff by two unranked jade pendants?

Wooo~!

The moment Li Yuan willed it, the two pendants had already fallen onto the gray stone platform.

The not-large stone platform was now increasingly crowded; Li Yuan was even afraid of knocking something off.

【Perfect-level White Ape Cloak Hammer Art, Hundred Soldiers Familiarity, Grand Perfection-level Forging Method, Soldier-Type Talent. White Ape Cloak Hammer at Grand Perfection, Ape Arms Bee Waist, White Ape Strength】

At this point, Li Yuan's heart was already very calm; he lightly sensed his current soul-bound artifact effects.

Without hesitation, he directly swapped out the 'Grand Craftsman's Hammer' and the 'White Ape Root Diagram.'

Hum!

This swap was very fast, and the reaction was not intense; Li Yuan only felt a slight coolness at his chest, and the soul-bound artifact items had already been swapped.

"My bone structure transformation is already complete, the Cloak Hammer Art is also at Perfection, forging skill at Great Completion, and Hundred Soldiers Familiarity and Soldier-Type Talent can't be seen or touched…

Because I've already mastered most of them, the soul-bound artifact swap didn't produce much reaction?"

The soul-bound artifact swap was also deepening Li Yuan's understanding of the Soul-Bound Soldier Register; a thought flashed through his mind, and he had already detected the new soul-bound artifact items.

Very intuitive.

On the two stars representing the soul-bound artifact items, a faint blood-light glowed; the two pendants themselves showed nothing unusual.

"No feeling?"

Li Yuan was stunned for a moment; just as he was wondering whether it was because the soul-bound artifact effects of these two pendants were too incomplete, his heart suddenly jolted.

Fragmentary, broken pieces of information seeped into his mind one bit at a time.

"Offer oneself as god, seek from within oneself…"

"I am god, the flesh-body is the temple; sweep the temple to honor the god, forge the platform to serve the god…"

"Worship the god with a sincere heart, and one prayer shall be answered…"

……

The broken jade pendants brought only fragmented information, with no images or details of any cultivation practice.

Only intermittent murmurs, which gave Li Yuan a headache.

"Looks like I can't take a shortcut and learn it directly…"

Li Yuan felt a little regret, but didn't mind.

Soul-bound artifact effects are divided into two types: active and passive.

For things like martial skills, when passive, it would enhance his proficiency with that skill, increasing his cultivation speed.

When active, it would instantly grant the augmentation of the Wu Gong effect, but it couldn't be maintained for long, consumed enormous energy, and easily harmed oneself.

According to Li Yuan's own understanding.

Active was like the self-driving cars of his previous life—the car was running, but if you didn't know how to drive, you still didn't know how to drive.

Still, being able to run was enough.

"Wu Gong!"

Li Yuan's thoughts churned as he chose to Wu Gong these two jade pendants, wanting to see what this so-called Bai Shen Fa actually was.

Hum~

With just a thought, Li Yuan felt his head grow heavy.

In a daze, he seemed to see his internal organs wriggling…

"It's not 'seemed'—these really are my internal organs!"

Li Yuan gave a start, opened his eyes, and instinctively looked at his hands, feet, chest, and belly.

His gaze naturally couldn't see through skin, flesh, tendons, and bone, but he could clearly 'feel' his five viscera and six bowels, and could even 'feel' them wriggling and operating.

"H-how is this possible?"

Li Yuan stared wide-eyed, and thought of an exact word to describe it:

"Does this count as internal vision?"

He touched his chest and belly, his face full of disbelief, but soon he felt dizzy—Wu Gong-ing these two pendants was also draining his energy.

"'Revere oneself as god, the body as temple'—does this mean I need to cleanse my viscera and build a temple for the 'god'?"

Ending the Wu Gong, Li Yuan only felt his head terribly muddled, yet he remained immersed in shock.

After a long while, he finally sobered up a bit and came to his senses:

"I didn't actually see my viscera—that feeling came from 'blood qi'… my blood qi covers my whole body, flowing ceaselessly,

so I had the sensation of seeing my internal organs?"

Having roughly understood, Li Yuan's inner shock gradually subsided.

But he still found it incredibly wondrous—blood qi isn't a tentacle, so how could it present his internal organs to him so intuitively?

"Or is it because I already knew what internal organs look like in the first place?"

Li Yuan was far too curious, wishing he could immediately grab someone who understood Bai Shen Fa to ask whether they could also see so clearly.

"Is this Bai Shen Fa of a higher grade than the Soldier's Path Battle Slaughtering Hammer? Or is it because of the Weapon Master Register?"

Li Yuan mulled over it for a long time but still couldn't figure it out. Weary, he lay down. Since he began martial training, this was the first time he'd been this sleepy—he dropped off as soon as his head hit the pillow,

and when he opened his eyes again, the sun was already high in the sky.

"Damn, I slept till this hour!"

Kneading his temples, Li Yuan flipped himself upright, thought of Zhang

Ben's glaring rebuke upon his return, and decided to rest one more day.

He didn't sleep well—dreaming all night, sometimes of dissecting others, sometimes of others dissecting him.

Blood-soaked internal organs swayed through his dreams all night…

……

The Weapon Forging Shop's inner courtyard, the private school, the study.

Master Wang, who had returned home to visit his family, had left his books here. Li Yuan flipped through them—though most were miscellaneous books, some mentioned the Baishen Sect.

He discovered that only miscellaneous books mentioned it; proper historical records and the like contained not a single mention of this sect.

"Either this sect was very small in scale and existed for a very short time, or someone didn't allow it to spread. It seems the latter is more likely."

Recalling the Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva Temple, Li Yuan had some guesses in his heart. He sat in the study, flipping through the records about the Baishen Sect in those miscellaneous books.

"'Revere oneself as god, the body as temple. The god dwells in the temple, prolonging life. Revere oneself, offer to oneself, seek from oneself…'"

"'What a pity, fated never to learn Bai Shen Fa—the greatest regret of my life…'"

"'What Bai Shen Fa? It's just an extremely superior Wu Gong. What "cleanse the temple"? Which martial artist doesn't strengthen their physique and build up their body?'"

"'Mo Gong! This is even more bizarre and unfathomable than the Star-Plucking Tower's 'Ten Thousand Beasts Sitting in Forgetfulness, Dragon Demon Heart Scripture'!'"

……

The miscellaneous books were very miscellaneous—travel records, and even a few policy essays. It took Li Yuan quite a while to flip through them, but the harvest wasn't much.

"According to the books, after entering Bai Shen Fa, one can transport qi and blood, strengthening a single part of the body in ways ordinary people can't comprehend…

and from this, many Wu Gong were derived?"

Li Yuan recalled that when he Wu Gong-ed Bai Shen Fa last night, he'd been too busy being shocked and truly hadn't noticed anything else.

Bizarre, wondrous.

Li Yuan stayed in the private school all afternoon, and finally had to admit that this Bai Shen Fa was truly terrifying. Compared to it, the Soldier's Path Battle Slaughtering Hammer seemed to pale in significance.

"That's right—the Soldier's Path Battle Slaughtering Hammer is only one of the five great secret transmissions of the Divine Weapon Valley inner sect. This Bai Shen Fa must surely be the Baishen Sect's ultimate sect-guarding divine skill, right?"

Too bad, he couldn't learn it.

Good thing he couldn't learn it.

Li Yuan felt a bit of regret, and also some relief.

If Bai Shen Fa were truly placed before him, he really wasn't sure he had the confidence to stop himself from practicing it. Back then with the Soldier's Path Battle Slaughtering Hammer, he hadn't been able to resist and learned it.

"This Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva Temple…"

Arranging the books neatly one by one, Li Yuan closed the private school's door, looked toward the inner city, and felt a chill in his heart.

The fact that he could even see that pendant meant it had probably already spread widely. If it were only given to pregnant women, it really wouldn't be easy for people to discover.

After all, in these times, among ordinary households giving birth, the rate of difficult labor reached as high as thirty to forty percent…

"Junior Brother Li!"

As Li Yuan prepared to return and check on Second Sister-in-law, Yue Yue Yunjin emerged from the inner courtyard.

"Senior Brother Yue?"

Li Yuan was slightly stunned.

The Yue Yue Yunjin of this moment had lost his dejection; his whole person was radiant, his complexion far better than when they first met.

"Tomorrow, there is a gathering in the Inner City. Shall we go together?"

"Young Lady Lu's gathering?"

Li Yuan had little interest.

"No!"

Yue Yue Yunjin shook his head, a smile on the corner of his mouth:

"Now, it is Yue's own small gathering!"