Chapter 65: The Wonderful Uses of Inner Qi

Chen Mo felt the flow and changes of Inner Qi within his body; having entered the Tongmai Realm, for the first time, he could truly utilize the power of Inner Qi.

As Inner Qi circulates throughout the body, it possesses many incredible abilities, the most significant of which is the ability to lock one's own vital essence so it does not leak out.

Internal Martial Artists live long lives; besides being able to maintain the balance of their five viscera and nourish their physical bodies, the more important reason is that their vital essence leaks out less.

External Martial Artists, by enhancing their physical bodies, can greatly boost their own vital essence in a short period of time.

But they cannot lock it in; as time passes, the physical essence will continuously leak out.

Not to mention that external hard arts are inherently rigid and overbearing, so it is perfectly normal to be left with hidden injuries and ailments during training.

If Chen Mo can reach this step in his prime, locking his vigorous physical essence so it does not leak, then his peak strength period and lifespan will far exceed those of many External Martial Artists, and even many top-tier Internal Martial Artists may not be able to compare to him.

Looking at the world today, it is highly probable that only he can achieve this.

Whether it is internal arts or external arts, anyone who can have his level of attainment at his age can already be called a heaven-sent genius.

However, to practice both internally and externally and reach this realm simultaneously in one's prime—the difficulty of this is certainly not something an ordinary person could accomplish.

If not for Chen Mo working hard enough at his cultivation, insisting on eating a large amount of food every day so that the Transformation Pearl could accumulate Qi and Blood to undergo Mortal Transformation, he might not have been able to achieve this either.

With Inner Qi circulating, Chen Mo locked his own vital essence in an instant; in this state, even though his physical strength is strong enough, the Qi and Blood he consumes will not be more than that of an ordinary person.

Only when practicing or unleashing his full strength will his Qi and Blood consumption return to the state of a normal External Martial Artist.

In this way, it can be considered as indirectly accelerating the speed of his own Qi and Blood accumulation.

With less daily consumption, more of the Qi and Blood he absorbs can be provided to the Transformation Pearl.

It is just that he still has to estimate exactly how much the speed can be increased.

With Inner Qi circulating through the meridians, not only can it lock the physical essence from leaking, but Chen Mo can also better control his own strength.

External martial arts are rigid and overbearing; he can certainly control his own strength in daily life, but once he strikes with full force, when a fight becomes intense, it is hard to say if he can still control his strength perfectly.

He can strike out, but he might not be able to pull back; this is not a flaw in the external martial arts, but simply because Chen Mo currently has too little experience, and his own strength is increasing slightly faster than that of a normal External Martial Artist.

As his training time increases, his control over himself will gradually reach this step.

And this meticulous control brought about by Inner Qi circulating throughout the body is just helping him reach this step first.

Possessing such perfect control over his own strength, when Chen Mo fights with opponents of the same level, not to mention having the upper hand, at the very least he will not fall into a disadvantage.

Unlike before when he fought others, appearing to win quickly, it was actually just a crushing of pure strength.

If there were truly someone with strength equal to his and experience and techniques even richer than his, Chen Mo could at most manage not to be defeated; wanting to win would be very difficult.

Now that he can perfectly master his own strength, he says he will use one part of his force and will absolutely not exert two.

Whether fighting others or sparring, Chen Mo can control his own strength; with the blessing of this state, when he goes to practice spear techniques again, his progress will definitely be much faster than before.

Furthermore, with this Inner Qi circulating throughout his body, he can finally gradually use Inner Qi to bless his five senses.

The so-called five senses refer to eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and body.

Body refers to the sense of touch, which can allow Chen Mo's hands and even his entire skin to perceive everything he comes into contact with in the outside world more meticulously.

But wanting to achieve this is not that easy; at the very least, Chen Mo cannot do it at all right now.

With his current Inner Qi cultivation, he can at most support himself in blessing his ears with Inner Qi, making him clearer about external sounds.

With his heart following his thoughts, Chen Mo slowly opened his eyes to end this breakthrough.

Previously, when he opened his Eye of Blood Qi, he saw some things that most likely did not belong to this world; at the very least, ordinary people absolutely cannot see them.

And now it is also late at night; if he opens his Ear Consciousness, it is hard to say whether he will hear some things he shouldn't hear.

He doesn't have a Gong and Drum on hand for defense, so if he hears something he shouldn't, that would be difficult to handle.

Feeling the full Inner Qi within his body, Chen Mo lay back on his bed; the leisurely sound of a Gong and Drum rang out not far away, spreading from far to near throughout the entire market.

Hearing this sound, Chen Mo felt much more at ease, and only then did he dare to open his Ear Consciousness to test its specific effect.

The night was incomparably quiet, yet Chen Mo still heard over a dozen sounds drilling into his ears; many insects were lying on trees chirping incessantly, someone was tossing and turning on a bed, and someone else was snoring.

Listening carefully again, Chen Mo could sort out the sources of these sounds one by one.

More than ten zhang away, a night watchman was walking away; the sound of his footsteps was not loud, and furthermore, there were many courtyard walls in between; under normal circumstances, he would not be able to hear it at all.

Only at this moment could he hear it clearly.

Opening his Ear Consciousness, there were too many sounds he could hear clearly, which also provided a certain improvement to his own strength.

Whether he wants to ambush an enemy or scout the enemy's movements on the battlefield, this can be considered a quite useful ability.

Likewise, the consumption of his own Inner Qi through this method is also very high; although Chen Mo did not open it for long, his own Inner Qi had already been consumed by nearly one-tenth.

Even though the Inner Qi has now completed its circulation within his body, even if he is not deliberately practicing, the Inner Qi will slowly recover over time.

But having consumed so much, he would need at least half an hour to recover, and to recover this Inner Qi, he would also have to consume a portion of his Blood Qi.

There is no way around it; currently, he only has three meridians that have completed this circulation, and the remaining nine meridians have not yet fully participated, so the speed of recovery is not fast.

However, given the condition of his meridians and acupoints, Chen Mo estimates that if he practices steadily for a year or so, even if he cannot open them all, he can basically open most of them.

And if it were other Internal Martial Artists, it would take at least ten years of hard work to possibly reach this step.

Even some with relatively poor natural talent might toil for a lifetime and still not reach this realm.

After feeling the effect of Inner Qi blessing his ears, Chen Mo lay on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day was still the same as usual: washing, eating, and practicing.

"I'm going to the military camp this afternoon and will probably spend the night there. Be careful sleeping alone tonight; bolt the door tightly and don't forget to add the door-bracing pole."

With a bundle on his back, Chen Mo carefully gave instructions to Zhao Yu.

The so-called door-bracing pole is two sturdy jujube wood poles, with one end bracing the door and the other end placed in a notch on the bluestone floor.

This way, even if a thief could pick the door bolt, they would never be able to easily open the courtyard gate.

Unless that person's strength is great enough to directly push and snap these two door-bracing poles, but if that were truly the case, then in reality, no amount of defense would be of much use.

"Alright, then I'll pack some food for you to keep and eat at night." Zhao Yu was not very surprised by this; Chen Mo would occasionally spend the night at the military camp before.

After tidying up a bit, carrying some of their own food, five jin of cooked beef he had just bought, and most importantly, a Gong and Drum, Chen Mo set off for the military camp.

A barrack room that was cleaned by someone every day was his place to stay here.

He dealt with a casual meal in the evening, and by the time night fell, most people in the military camp had already gone to sleep.

Only then did Chen Mo rise from his bed, pick up the Gong and Drum, and walk outside.

The most important purpose of coming here today was to find a way to explore those eerie creatures; he had not forgotten this matter.

The military camp at night was incomparably quiet; apart from a few patrolling soldiers beating gongs, there was no one else, and Chen Mo tapped his feet against the ground, his extremely precise exertion of force making him like a gust of Wind.

Without being discovered by anyone, he quietly moved away from the military camp.

Although Chen Mo needed to investigate those secrets, this matter could not be discovered by others, so he could only act alone.

Outside the military camp, moonlight spilled down, as if paving the land with a layer of flowing silver gauze.

Chen Mo condensed his own Qi and Blood to stimulate his eyes, opening the Blood Qi Eye to observe the phenomena of heaven and earth.

Thanks to book friend Long Zhanyiye for the tip.

(End of this chapter)