Just as Li Ji issued the standby order, a fit of weird rustling was heard in the cave.
In a trice, a figure shot to the air from the pitch-black cave.
It was Fang Qiu!
“Here you are?”
Seeing Fang Qiu, Li Ji’s eyes glinted with excitement. He immediately went to greet him.
“Is everyone here?” Asked Fang Qiu.
“Yes, the whole force,” Li Ji immediately answered. “And we’ve got everything we should take with us.”
“Good.”
Fang Qiu nodded with satisfaction and said, “Ask everyone to do the speedy dive here.”
“What’s in this cave?” Li Ji inquired. “Is this cave really three kilometers deep? There must be a lot of lizards in it, am I right?”
“Its depth is indeed 3,000 meters. But since I’ve killed all the giant carnivore lizards inside, there’s no danger to go in at all. So, don’t worry,” Fang Qiu explained.
“Though we are all martial arts practitioners, the height of three kilometers is too much for us. We can’t dive at this height,” Li Ji said with a frown.
“Well,” Fang Qiu thought for a moment and then said. “Just do it. I’ll go down there and pick you up. I promise you’ll all be okay. One more thing, in order to buy time, let as many people go down at the same time as you can.”
“Okay.”
Li Ji nodded at once and said with a smile, “With your words, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I’ll go down first.”
Fang Qiu turned around and jumped into the cave.
“All personnel, prepare to do the speedy dive right off.”
Li Ji immediately turned around and shouted to the force.
Soon, under Li Ji’s arrangement, each troop was ready to go down the cave with a set of speedy-diving ropes. There were a total of 10 sets of speedy-diving ropes, so 10 troops could dive at a time. Each troop had 10 people, all wearing headlamps on their heads. After the first person descended 100 meters, the second person began the dive.
At a distance of 100 meters, it was very safe.
In addition, each soldier was wearing a head lamp, so everyone could clearly see the situation around them.
At the bottom of the cave, Fang Qiu saw the first batch of 10 soldiers quickly descending not long after he landed on the ground. Just as they were about to hit hard on the earth, Fang Qiu waved his right hand.
A stream of internal Qi surged out and fully cushioned the 10 soldiers dropping down the cave, allowing them to safely land on the ground.
A few seconds later, the second batch of 10 arrived.
In this way, every 10 seconds, a batch of 10 came in.
As they had all been trained in the special force for several years, their cooperation was perfect, and they all resolutely carried out orders and dived into the cave without any hesitation. Thanks to these well-trained soldiers, it only took 20 minutes for the entire force to land safely. And that already included the three minutes they took to get ready at the beginning.
“We still have two and a half hours.”
When the last group of soldiers landed, Fang Qiu began to plan the whole thing out in his mind.
“However, we have to cross the maze. It’ll take us about half an hour if we move fast.”
Thinking of this, Fang Qiu immediately turned to Li Ji, who was the last to land and was putting away the 10 sets of speedy-diving ropes, and said, “Come with me!”
With that, he immediately led the way.
“Follow me, all of you. Hurry up,” Li Ji called.
All the soldiers immediately followed behind Fang Qiu and entered the underground maze.
On the way, they saw many corpses of giant lizards. In particular, when they passed through the maze, they were totally astounded by the natural maze formed three kilometers deep from the earth’s surface.
Half an hour later, Fang Qiu finally led everyone into the cave.
When stepping into the cave, everyone was stunned.
“Beautiful!”
“Oh my, there’s such a big limestone cave deep underground, and it’s so beautiful?”
“Are these shining things stones?”
“What an eye-opener!”
Not only these soldiers but also Li Ji, who walked in at the end, was shocked by this scene they saw.
While they were all in a daze, Fang Qiu had already reached the oasis.
Because of the maturity of the Vigor Grass, the plants that had been eaten by Fang Qiu started to grow again, but they were only more than ten centimeters high at the moment.
This scene made Fang Qiu sigh with emotion. The life energy of this Vigor Grass was so incredibly strong. It did live up to its reputation as the magical herb that could bring the dead to life!
He carefully calculated the time.
There were two more hours left.
It went just as he planned.
“Now, we’re going to have the most rigorous training.”
Standing in the center of the oasis and looking at the 1,000 soldiers in the spacious cave, Fang Qiu said, “The oasis I’m standing on can accommodate 100 people in total. In the following training, the first 100 people who exhaust all their internal force and Outward Strength can come here, while the others can only sit in the place where you are standing now.”
“Now, let’s get this rolling.”
“All of you, go all out and use up all of your strength. My request is that you all get yourselves so exhausted that you can’t even stand up. Fight until you lose the last bit of your strength!”
At this order, the 1,000 special soldiers immediately began to fight with each other.
Li Ji participated in the fight.
Shortly after, everyone’s strength was consumed in the fierce battle, and no one could stand up again.
Fang Qiu took all the first 100 people and Li Ji to the lawn in the oasis.
“Everyone, get up,” Fang Qiu demanded.
Then, he said to Li Ji and the 100 soldiers, “Everyone, pick one blade of grass and eat it. Then, hand out the grass and let the other fellows take one.”
At his remark, everyone was sort of dumbfounded.
What was going on?
They were not only ordered to fight with each other but also were told to eat grass?
Despite their confusion, no one hesitated and did as they were told.
Soon, the 1,000 soldiers all ate the grass.
“Next, I’ll teach you the Full-lotus Sitting Posture.”
Fang Qiu called, “Look carefully.”
Then, Fang Qiu began to demonstrate the posture while explaining the key points.
“Cross your both legs.”
While speaking, Fang Qiu sat down cross-legged.
“The spine is straight, and the two hands are woven below the Dantian. The left and right arms are slightly flung backward. The head is straight, the back of the head slightly leans back. The eyes are slightly open. The tongue gently licks the top of the palate.”
After making that remark, Fang Qiu also completed the posture.
Everyone followed Fang Qiu and sat down cross-legged in the Full-lotus Sitting Posture.
The Full-lotus Sitting Posture was the ideal sitting posture for meditation. If the sitting posture wasn’t proper, meridians would be clogged, and the Qi in them would not flow smoothly, and so the energy would not rise. As a result, the so-called Three Meridians and Seven Rounds could not be opened, causing the brain to be short of oxygen and the practitioner to be dizzy!
Hence, after one’s physical strength was exhausted, it would be easy for the person who use this posture to get peace of mind.
Fang Qiu knew it very well that the key for a martial arts practitioner to break through to the Martial Superior Realm was the peace of mind.
If one wanted to reach the Martial Superior Realm, his mind must be quiet and calm to the extreme before he triggered that transformation!
“Calm down and observe with your inner eye.”
Glancing at the 1,000 people, Fang Qiu said, “No matter if it’s internal Qi that comes from your own body or the Qi of Heaven and Earth that pours into your body, you must guide the internal Qi to enter the Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin.”
Speaking of this, Fang Qiu waved his right hand.
In the dark river below, there was a stream of water as thin as a needle surging up and gurgling toward him.
“I’ll use water to demonstrate the meridians. Watch carefully.”
Under the guidance of Fang Qiu, the water began to flow on his skin.
It was just like what he did when teaching in Elder Yi’s manor.
In this way, it was easier for them to understand.
Seeing Fang Qiu make the water flow across the surface of his body, the 1,000 special warriors were very impressed.
At the same time, they also memorized the running route of the Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin.
“Have you all learned it?” Fang Qiu asked.
Everyone nodded.
“Great.”
Fang Qiu nodded and said, “Close your eyes and meditate!”
Everyone immediately closed their eyes.
They had long been waiting for this command because everyone was very dead beat, and the Full-lotus Sitting Posture made everyone feel very comfortable. So, they all wanted to enjoy it quietly.
As expected, half an hour later, all the 1,000 soldiers entered the state of meditation!
By this time, Fang Qiu was no longer hesitant.
He directly brought out the Vigor Grass.
As soon as the Vigor Grass appeared, the energy in the cave was recharged.
Fang Qiu opened his mouth and put the Vigor Grass in it right away.
At the same time, he immediately removed the suppression of internal Qi.
At this moment—
“Woo…”
A low and deep sound of hovering airflow was heard.
The Qi of Heaven and Earth rushed out wildly from the underground maze like a raging river.
On the ground three kilometers above, the sky over the desert suddenly became overcast. Immediately, thunder rumbled and the wind howled.
If ordinary people were to see this, they would believe that a sand storm was coming, for even if it rained in the desert, it would not rain much. However, if this scene was caught by a guru, it would be a completely different event.
The guru could clearly see that the Qi of Heaven and Earth within a radius of dozens of kilometers was wildly converging into a stream, pouring from the sky right into the three-kilometer-deep chasm hidden under the giant crater of the nuclear explosion.
The Qi of Heaven and Earth was gathering frenetically.
Soon, after Fang Qiu let go of his restraint, being strongly attracted by his opened meridians, the torrents of Qi of Heaven and Earth directly formed a huge vortex above the underground cave.
The Qi of Heaven and Earth became so dense that it even began to reveal its true form.
It turned out to be waves of azure energy.
They gathered together, occupying the sky above the entire cave, forming a blue ocean as it spun at high speed, as though it had turned the cave into a sea.
Of course, because of meditation, no one in the cave noticed that they were all surrounded by the huge azure whirlpool.
“Gallbladder Meridian of Foot-shaoyang, Stomach Meridian of Foot-yangming!”
With a stir of mind, as Fang Qiu began to brace the breakthrough, a large amount of internal Qi was produced in his body and a large amount of Qi of Heaven and Earth poured in. As Fang Qiu’s mind raced, he immediately guided the energy to rush toward the last two of the 12 standard meridians.
In the twinkling of an eye, under the impact of the vast energy, Fang Qiu’s last two unopened meridians swelled up. The two meridians were so filled that countless tiny cracks appeared on their surface. A large amount of energy was faintly gushing out from these cracks, as if it was going to burst Fang Qiu’s meridians!
A violent pain struck him.
“Crunch!”
Fang Qiu didn’t dare to hesitate and immediately chewed the Vigor Grass in his mouth.
It tasted just like the ordinary grass.
Although Vigor Grass did not taste good, once it was chewed, it swiftly turned into a warm energy flow. This energy flow naturally slid down Fang Qiu’s throat even without his swallows and rushed toward the two meridians that were opening up.
No one could deny that the life energy in this Vigor Grass was simply too strong.
Just when it covered the two meridians for a few seconds, and the cracks on the two meridians that were almost about to burst open immediately closed again.
It was as miraculous as the Chinese goddess mending Heavens!