Chapter 200 Internal Qi
“No wonder the old faker once said that the Natural Taoist Figure had the potential to dominate a sea of stars. He really wasn’t kidding then.”
Anyway, the Xiantian Skill was devised to enhance the spiritual force in the first place. And Hua Xiangrong was a Natural Taoist Figure. If taking the two factors into consideration, it did make sense that she should gain such rapid progress.
An idea suddenly hit Li Mu—now that Hua Xiangrong’s practice speed was so fast, he might as well teach her some Taoist magic arts.
Unlike martial arts, the practice and execution of Taoist magic arts did not require much time, hard work, or repetitive exercises. As long as the practitioner’s spiritual force was adequate, and his blood, qi, and vigor of life were abundant enough to sense the Spiritual Qi power of various elements between heaven and earth, he or she would be able to master those arts. In other words, the study of Taoist magic arts was more demanding in talents than in practice time or existed experience. Thus, it was the most suited subject for Hua Xiangrong.
Accordingly, Li Mu told Hua Xiangrong his new idea.
“Sounds great. I’ll practice whatever Young Master wants me to,” responded Hua Xiangrong joyfully.
In fact, even Li Mu could tell that this girl had no interest in what she studied. The only thing she liked was to let Li Mu stay with her. The tone, the expression, and the demeanor Li Mu used when giving her lessons all made her gratified and at ease.
…
At noon, Li Mu left the Holy House.
These days, the news that he stayed overnight in Hua Xiangrong’s room at the Holy House had spread through the whole city of Chang’an. As the most eye-catching celebrity in town at the moment, every single of Li Mu’s movements were amplified. Just like the online celebrities on Earth, Li Mu was now standing in the limelight no matter where he went, not to mention that Hua Xiangrong, another glorified star, was also involved in this gossip.
However, as Li Mu departed from the Holy House, he sharply detected someone had been stalking him all the way. And this stalker’s strength was quite powerful.
“Seems that Lord Zhenxi is finally going to make his move.”
But Li Mu pretended to be totally oblivious of the stalker.
Then, he did not return to the Pig-Herding Alley but directly headed for the military grave, Chang’an Tomb.
During his round trip between Chang’an and Taibai County, Li Mu had already reviewed all the theories on earth qi and geomancy that the old faker mentioned to him. He had also roughly deduced a way to absorb the Spiritual Qi in the Earthveins. So, he needed to try it out in the military grave at once.
Time is of the essence.
At present, Li Mu must boost his strength as fast as he could.
A short while later, the military grave could already be seen from a distant.
Due to the bloody murder that happened in front of the military grave three days ago, now there were new faces of Defending Warriors guarding the place. The tomb area was closed for now, and the gate was heavily guarded. The elite soldiers of the force had put the area around the monument under tight control. A tense and solemn atmosphere permeated the main street lined by memorial arches.
However, Li Mu did not try to enter the place through the front gate.
Instead, riding on the back of the chrysanthemum leopard, he picked a deserted wall and leaped over it.
With the help of the memory on that day, Li Mu soon arrived at the central spot of the military grave where all the Earthvein and the earth qi gathered.
He scanned the place with his Third Eye and captured the moving direction and the distribution of the entire Wondrous Earthveins underground.
“Right, it’s here.”
Immediately, Li Mu sent the chrysanthemum leopard to play in the nearby area and then began to set up a magic formation.
In order to take the power of the Wondrous Earthvein, resorting to Cultivation Methods only would surely not do the trick. He must set up a formation at the place he planned to cast the Cultivation Method and utilize the force of the magic formation to drive the power of the Wondrous Earthveins to the outside before he could absorb it.
This time the formation Li Mu selected was called the Leaping Dragon Formation, which was one of the slew of formations the old faker talked about in the past. Just as its name implied, this formation had the driving force and could guide underground water and underground Spiritual Qi to where he desired them to go. It was also the best guiding formation that Li Mu was able to create for the time being.
He took out pieces of jade that he had prepared beforehand and threw them to eighteen different directions. Then, he directed his toes out, one representing Yin and the other representing Yang, and moved on the diagonals for twenty-one steps and then went straight for another twenty-one steps. After that, he picked a spot as the Formation Eye and threw the last key jade in.
The pieces of jade were all carved from high-class jade and refined in advance. They were practically incomplete Taoist instruments used to activate the formation. Considering Li Mu’s current cultivation, refining those instruments were not a challenge at all.
When it was all set, Li Mu awakened the Spiritual Qi in the air and projected it into the key jade.
The jade instruments he placed in all directions all started to glow, and then dim down. As the parts of the formation were connecting, the ground began to tremble slightly, but soon everything returned to normal.
Through the Third Eye, Li Mu saw clearly that the Spiritual Qi in the Earthveins started to surge as though asleep dragons suddenly woke up. Then, at the most critical spot where the Earthveins converged, a stream of earth qi as wide as a bucket shot up. It broke through the stratum over tens of meters thick and burst out.
“I made it!”
Li Mu rejoiced.
The process was simpler than he had imagined.
Just before he was about to enter the formation and begin absorbing the earth qi in the Wondrous Earthveins, something occurred to him. He immediately set up a small formation that would hide the aura in the vicinity and look out for any dangers for him, and then went into the formation to launch the Xiantian Skill and extract the power in the Wondrous Earthveins.
The place Li Mu sat at was precisely the spot where that stream of Spiritual Qi in the Earthveins wide as a bucket burst out.
The instant the Xiantian Skill was turned on, Li Mu felt that a rising wave of the Spiritual Qi, which was as vast as the sea, surrounded him. As he opened his mouth to breathe, what he inhaled seemed no longer the normal air but liquefied Spiritual Qi.
His innumerable pores opened wide. The Spiritual Qi in the Earthveins poured through the pores and into his body.
In that instant, Li Mu felt like a piece of sponge that was absorbing water wildly, or else, like a balloon that was swelling at a fast rate.
The natural energy that countless practitioners could only dream of was gushing into Li Mu’s body like swallows returning to their nest.
The Xiantian Skill was exerted to the utmost in a trice. It started refining the power from the Wondrous Earthveins like mad, controlling this power and transporting it into his body to nourish his physique. Meanwhile, some of it was also running frenetically in his meridians and blood veins. Like flood rushing into dried out riverbeds, the energy was constantly washing away the sand and ooze that logged in his meridians and veins as well as widening and deepening them!
Li Mu was seized by a fit of ecstasy.
“This is the feeling of producing internal qi!”
“Did I finally succeed in producing internal qi?”
He saw a shred of hope.
As he executed the Xiantian Skill, Li Mu concentrated his mind to try to restrain and refine the Spiritual Qi in the Earthveins that flowed into his body, making it follow the route set by the Xiantian Skill and circulate around. Therefore, the Spiritual Qi kept washing his meridians, nurturing his flesh, warming up his organs.
Time flew by.
Before he realized it, the daytime came to an end.
When streetlight lit up, Li Mu called a halt on this practice.
He just had to halt.
Because he felt his body was about to be completely saturated by the Spiritual Qi. As if a balloon swelling to the utmost point, if the air continued to pump in, it would burst open.
It was only because Li Mu had had his body strengthened to the maximum by the Zhenwu Boxing that he could fully absorb the Spiritual Qi and keep doing so for such a long time when the earth qi from Wondrous Earthvein was basically spurting out. If any other expert did it, even if he was a peerless master in the Natural Realm, he would have long since been stuffed to death dozens of times.
Finally, Li Mu terminated the Leaping Dragon Formation.
The earth qi in the underground Wondrous Earthvein was no longer gushing.
But he did not hasten to take off right away. Instead, he continued to cast the Xiantian Skill inside the formation that had already stopped working.
Now, he was doing it not for extracting but for completely refining a large amount of Spiritual Qi he drew from Earthveins into his body so as to make it his own.
Two more hours later.
A hint of delight crept onto Li Mu’s face.
Because he had felt the warm current of internal qi at last.
This time, it was neither an inspiration spurred by watching Hua Xiangrong’s Taoist Figure dance nor an outburst of the power he accumulated before. Instead, it was the real process of producing internal qi. The warm current, which was as soothing as hot springs, was spreading along the Eight Extra-Meridians. At first, the current was as thin as a hairline. But as more Spiritual Qi of the Earthvein inside his body was refined, the warm currents became wider and wider. Eventually, it turned into a river and started roaming across Li Mu’s meridians.
Very soon, four hours flew by.
At that time, night had fully descended. The sky was dark, the cloud was floating very low.
Li Mu was now wrapped by layers of smoke similar to the white mist at dusk. As he inhaled and exhaled, a flow of white air like a dragon would slide out from his nostrils and entwined around his body before creeping into his pores and disappearing, forming a bizarre circulation system.
In fact, it was a sign of the successful refining of qi.
At the moment, inside Li Mu’s meridians, a warm stream as thick as the little finger was flowing to all his limbs and bones along the Eight Extra-Meridians. At last, it settled in his belly and kept issuing warmth as if it were a small sun.
Two more hours passed.
The sky was getting lighter and lighter.
Li Mu heaved with a long breath and then opened his eyes.
His eyes were shining like twinkling stars in the darkness, and there was a certain color in his pupils that was brighter than usual times.
“I finally nailed it!”
He opened his mouth and took a deep breath.
Like a whale sucking seawater, all the white smoke curling around him was instantly siphoned into his mouth and nostrils.
Then, Li Mu slowly got to his feet.
A smile spread across his face as if he had just relieved of a heavy load.
After spending so much time groping for the right method of producing internal qi and enduring so many setbacks, he finally found it! Now, sensing the circulating warm current that was streaming down his meridians like hot spring, he did have an impulse to let loose a cry of joy.
A rock that had been pressing upon his heart since he came to this world was finally shattered today.
He finally succeeded in producing the internal qi.
The old faker had underlined the function of internal qi more than once. Now that he had transported Li Mu to this planet, he certainly had higher hopes for him than merely making him study a bit of the Xiantian Skill and Zhenwu Boxing. It was plain that the old faker wished he would achieve something big in martial arts. But without the internal qi, how could he ever do that? Li Mu was well aware of the importance of the internal qi, and that was why he exerted himself to learn how to produce internal qi.
For martial arts practitioners, if he chose to practice his external traits, like his physique, he could not cultivate his internal ones, like his spirit.
Likewise, if he chose to practice his internal traits, he could not cultivate his external ones.
No matter which road he took, he would only walk on one leg. So, how to outtake all the other talents in the universe?
He had to practice both the internal and external traits so as to possess both a strong physique and a tough spirit.
Now, Li Mu’s ‘second leg’ eventually came into being.
Indeed, the wonders of internal qi could not be thoroughly depicted by words.