Chapter 64: Instantaneous Meridian Opening

"You must be new here, guest," the shopkeeper said upon hearing this inquiry, as if a floodgate had been opened; once he started, he couldn't stop.

With no other guests in the shop for the moment, he was happy to chat with Chen Mo for a while.

"This courtyard once belonged to the family of Wang Dahu here. That Wang Dahu was wealthy but unkind; he had just had a son, but the child couldn't even draw a breath when he hit the ground.

You'd think he would have just buried his son peacefully, but no, he insisted on arranging a ghost marriage for him. He found a girl from somewhere and forced her into his home.

To tell you the truth, if nothing had happened after that, the girl might have had a decent life. Even if she had to remain a living widow for the rest of her days, at least she would have had enough to eat, right?" the shopkeeper said with a sigh.

Ghost marriages are divided into 'dead-dead' and 'living-dead' pairings.

A 'dead-dead' pairing is when two deceased people are married and buried together so that they have a companion in the underworld rather than being alone.

A 'living-dead' pairing is when a living person is married to a dead one, and the living person must remain chaste for the deceased. Those who can arrange a ghost marriage this way, if not from a high-ranking family, at least have considerable assets.

There will always be poor people who cannot go on and are willing to do such things; after all, even a ghost marriage is far better than selling oneself as a Slave or starving to death.

Only when people are well-fed do they have the qualifications and the state of mind to consider other problems; when people are hungry, they only think about how to get enough to eat.

"But later, no one knows how, that girl jumped into the well and died. Then, on the girl's seventh day after death, six or seven people in the Wang family died all at once. I heard they were all pushed into water vats or even face-washing basins and drowned alive.

After that, the remaining Wang family members didn't know where to hide, but they weren't in our market town anymore. This courtyard gradually fell into disrepair, and to this day, no one dares to move in." The shopkeeper sighed lightly as he said this.

"Then hasn't this courtyard ever had rumors of being haunted? You all live right next door, aren't you afraid?"

Chen Mo asked curiously. He had heard plenty of ghost stories, but this was truly the first time one was so close to him.

He was also curious about whether there were really ghosts there, and if so, whether his Blood Qi Eye could see them.

"Of course I was afraid at first, but nothing chaotic has happened since. In my opinion, even if it is a ghost, that girl is a good ghost; she hasn't come out to disturb the neighbors for so many years," the shopkeeper said with a smile again.

Just then, another table of guests walked into the shop, and he couldn't afford to gossip anymore, so he hurried up to greet them.

"I bought ten sesame flatbreads with horse meat; you try the taste first, and if it's not enough, we'll order more."

Zhao Yu brought over an oil-paper parcel containing long, crispy, hanging-oven sesame flatbreads stuffed with warm, braised horse meat.

Taking a bite, the horse meat fibers were coarse, but it was braised until extremely tender and succulent; the rich juices first soaked into the flatbread, then slowly flowed onto his palms.

Chen Mo picked up a spoon to taste the beef soup noodles first; beef was cheap in Zhu Niu Ji, and the boss was generous with the meat.

Besides several large chunks of beef, the soup also had plenty of gristle and connective tissue.

The long-simmered beef soup tasted quite delicious, and the bowl had some extra garlic sprouts added to enhance the flavor.

If one felt the clear soup wasn't flavorful enough, one could add some beef tallow chili and rice vinegar; with one mouthful of soup and noodles, it felt sour, spicy, fresh, and fragrant.

Besides beef, the soup bowl also contained some sweet potato vermicelli and dried bean curd sheets; otherwise, how could it be called beef soup noodles?

Chen Mo ate very quickly; the two large plates piled high with braised beef were almost swept clean by him in an instant.

The braised beef was simply seasoned with minced garlic, scallions, and chili oil; picking up a chopstick-full and putting it in his mouth, the taste was simple yet delicious.

As for the four-inch-long hanging-oven flatbreads stuffed with braised horse meat, he ate nine of them in one go.

Such an appetite left everyone in the shop stunned; they had seen big eaters, but never one who could eat like this.

That was a full five catties of cooked beef, and Chen Mo ate over four catties by himself, not to mention the nine flatbreads stuffed with meat, each weighing three or four taels.

An average person would be stuffed after three, but Chen Mo ate nine in a row without any change in his complexion.

"I can't eat anymore." Zhao Yu handed the remaining half of the flatbread in her hand to Chen Mo.

She was actually a decent eater, but the small bowl of beef soup noodles was quite a portion, and she had eaten a few chopsticks of braised beef; she had only managed half of the horse meat flatbread, and she really couldn't eat the rest.

Chen Mo took it and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it clean in two or three bites.

Neither of them felt there was anything wrong with this; previously, if Zhao Yu had leftover steamed buns or flatbreads, Chen Mo would always finish them—in short, food must not be wasted.

"This warrior is truly impressive," the soup shopkeeper said with a look of admiration.

Martial Dao is prosperous in Great Gan; although ordinary people cannot afford to practice martial arts, it does not prevent them from understanding Martial Dao.

At the very least, they know one thing: high-level Martial Artists can definitely eat.

And without a doubt, Chen Mo belonged to this category in everyone's eyes.

Without a thousand catties of strength in one's body, how could one eat such a meal in one sitting?

After settling the bill with the boss, the two walked toward their home.

"This noodle shop tastes good; don't get up to make breakfast tomorrow, we'll come here to eat again," Chen Mo suggested on the way home.

"Okay," Zhao Yu responded with a smile.

Thus, Chen Mo's life in Zhu Niu Ji was settled; the training he did every day never stopped, accumulating Qi and Blood and practicing spear techniques.

A few days later, the market head of Zhu Niu Ji and two other local Scholars came to visit with some gifts.

The gifts they brought weren't anything valuable, which was normal; they had no requests for Chen Mo for the time being.

If they had suddenly sent heavy gifts, Chen Mo wouldn't have dared to accept them.

Additionally, every few days he still had to go to the military camp to ride horses; one reason was to practice Riding, and the other was to patrol the vicinity.

This was his duty as a Salt Transport Commissioner, and since he could do it conveniently, he did it.

After half a month of such peaceful days, Chen Mo's Dantian Internal Qi finally accumulated to over seventy percent, meeting the standard for breaking through to the Tongmai Realm.

On this day, the night moon was lonely, and Chen Mo sat cross-legged in the room that only had one Putan.

He had tidied up this room separately, intending to use it for meditation and cultivation in the future; now that he was preparing for a breakthrough, it certainly came in handy.

Regulating his physical state with every breath, he focused his mind and kept his heart as still as water; his Dantian Internal Qi was constantly mobilized and guided like waves.

Feeling his state gradually calm down, Chen Mo mobilized his Internal Qi and began to circulate it throughout his body.

The Tongmai Realm is roughly divided into two levels; guiding internal power to circulate through the meridians and completing a cycle within the body belongs to the first level.

As long as Chen Mo achieved this step now, he would have completed the most basic cultivation of the Tongmai Realm.

Upon reaching this realm, Internal Qi can be used on oneself at any time without any deliberate guidance, achieving many mysterious abilities.

The second level requires using Internal Qi to constantly nourish the meridians and acupoints, allowing one's Internal Qi to reside throughout the entire body.

Upon reaching this realm, a Martial Artist's Internal Qi can circulate throughout the body, allowing them to resist the power of some sharp weapons like a hard-body Martial Artist.

Of course, whether it is an internal Martial Artist of this realm or an external hard-body Martial Artist, they can only partially resist the power of sharp weapons and can never be completely invulnerable.

Even so, it is quite rare.

With Inner Qi reinforcing the body, a Martial Artist's speed and strength can be greatly enhanced; at this realm, there is finally no significant gap between an Inner Qi Martial Artist and an External Martial Artist.

However, for an Internal Martial Artist to reach this step, even with excellent natural talent, it requires at least thirty years of hard work, starting from sitting in meditation and regulating the breath.

Yet for an External Martial Artist to reach this realm, likewise with excellent talent, ten years is sufficient.

It is just that after an Internal Martial Artist reaches this realm, they can live to at least one hundred years old, and those who live past one hundred and ten are common.

Furthermore, until the moment of death, their cultivation strength will be maintained, with almost no decline or deterioration.

But even if an External Martial Artist reaches this step, it is very difficult to live past eighty, and once they pass fifty, their physical condition begins to collapse and decline rapidly, becoming worse day by day.

Chen Mo mobilized his Inner Qi and began to strike at his meridians; violent and surging Inner Qi poured into the meridians.

The changes were somewhat different, and Chen Mo could not help but feel puzzled.

According to the records in the technique, in this state, a Martial Artist's meridians would feel waves of stinging pain and experience much discomfort.

A Martial Artist must forcefully endure this state and continue to let the Inner Qi travel through the meridians; this is by no means an easy task.

Yet the situation he faced seemed not to be like this; the flow of Inner Qi was far smoother than he had imagined.

His meridians were like newly constructed imperial highways, and the Inner Qi was like carriages and horses, running upon them with extreme smoothness and speed.

There could only be one reason for this situation to occur.

That is, every time he underwent a Mortal Transformation, his dantian and meridians also underwent a Mortal Transformation, so the current openness of his meridians is definitely no weaker than those martial arts prodigies born with all hundred meridians unobstructed.

As such, the speed at which he cultivates Internal Martial Arts might be much faster than he imagined.

The human body has Twelve Main Meridians; the first time the Five Elements Essence-Gathering Art clears the meridians, it should open three meridians: the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, the Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian, and the Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian.

It is not that the Inner Qi does not pass through the other nine meridians, but compared to the three meridians that need to be opened, the remaining nine meridians act more as an auxiliary.

Chen Mo guided the Inner Qi to travel through the meridian acupoints; for others, there is a distinction between primary and secondary, but for him, there is no difference.

The strength of his meridians is too great; for him, there are no auxiliary paths, as all meridians are the most primary trunk lines.

The Inner Qi was like ten thousand galloping steeds, completing a cycle within Chen Mo's body in an instant.

Tongmai Realm, achieved.

(End of chapter)