The weather outside the small wooden hut was bleak, with icy winds gusting past. Snowflakes fell from the sky, silvering the Divine Sword Sect with snow. The small valley beneath Tianqiao Peak was also cast into a rare spell of peace and quiet...
The snow had started falling during the day yesterday, lightening towards the twilight hours. However, it started to fall again during the morning today. At twilight, after an entire day of snowfall, the sky grew even more cloudy and the snow fell even harder.
The Divine Sword Sect was located within the boundaries of the Great Han Empire's Lai Province, towards the south-east area of the empire. Normally, the weather during the year was warm and humid and they had gone through several decades of winter without a single snowfall. However, after only a month into this year for some reason, when it was meant to be a chilly spring, the weather had taken a strange turn and it started snowing instead, becoming even colder than winter.
It was amongst the flurry of heavy snow that Yan Liqiang sat inside his small wooden hut, completely drenched in sweat, skin reddening as if his entire body was on fire. Following his movements, gusts of hot air poured out from the eighty-four thousand sweat glands that covered his body, almost unwittingly lifting the temperature inside the wooden hut by a few degrees as well...
Yan Liqiang had been inside his hut cultivating Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing for the entirety of the afternoon. The first time he started cultivating, it was the same as usual, but from the second time onwards, Yan Liqiang felt that it was different from normal. His body started to warm up — in the beginning, it was just the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet, and the top of his head that felt warmer. Afterwards, those gusts of hot air wove through his entire body: his palms, the soles of his feet, and his head amongst his five cores. They were like five fire dragons that erratically wound themselves along the muscle and bones of his entire body.
That feeling of comfort was incomparable. Yan Liqiang felt like his entire body was submerged in a hot spring. At the same time, with this feeling, Yan Liqiang's entire body was also sweating buckets: his shirt and trousers had long since been soaked through. He was forced to strip off his shirt, his trousers, and his shoes, leaving him wearing just a pair of shorts as he continued cultivating Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing inside that small hut without pause.
Yan Liqiang felt that this sort of phenomenon was as if his cultivation was finally about to hit a peak and break through the barrier.
Under these circumstances, Yan Liqiang completely forgot about the time as he instinctively allowed his body to continue cultivating Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing again and again.
An indefinite amount of time later, after Yan Liqiang felt those five gusts of hot air pass throughout his body numerous times, they all suddenly gathered at the very base of his spinal cord. Combining into one and together, they started travelling up his spine. His spinal column spasmed — every single vertebra popped off like fireworks. From the bone at the very bottom of his coccyx upwards, each vertebra started making a crackling noise, coming alive. Afterwards, all the joints and ligaments in his body, along with each large tendon, followed suit as they crackled and spasmed.
This type of feeling was both overwhelming and powerful at the same time. While all the joints, ligaments, and large tendons in his body were twitching involuntarily, Yan Liqiang felt as if his entire body had offloaded an extremely heavy burden. This gave him an indescribable, relaxed feeling, especially around each of his joints, ligaments, and tendons. They all suddenly felt alive, like a rusted nail soaked in engine oil, suddenly losing all the rust and becoming smooth like new. The feeling of having his entire body abruptly become nimble was indescribably refreshing.
A ray of red light appeared on Yan Liqiang's body. In the next moment, a large amount of Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth appeared next to his body, gathering to form five red curved bows.
Yan Liqiang had no recollection of the breakthrough from last time when he had passed the Horse Stance stage. However, he clearly saw everything this time. Out of the five curved bows, there was one big one and four smaller ones. After orbiting his body a couple of times, those four out of the five bows flew into his legs and arms at the same time. The final bow, which was the bigger one, sank into the middle of his spinal cord.
This was obviously the breakthrough vision of passing the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone stage. The imagery of this technique was similar to the imagery produced by advancing in the art of archery. But this bow was not the same as the other bows, these five bows were the body bow, the hand bow and the foot bow which meant that the hands and the feet could use the power gathered by the entire body. Having five bows prepared was a must-have for martial practitioners in order to reach a higher martial class and greater combat techniques. Without this sort of foundation, even if a high-level martial combat technique was taught to you, the most you could do was look the part. In a real fight, you'd be exposed, unable to withstand a single blow.
Yan Liqiang was extremely delighted; he didn't expect to pass the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone stage. He originally thought that after the stage pass phenomena had vanished, everything would stop. However, what surprised him was that just as the stage pass phenomena for the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone vanished, that irresistible force was still burning in his spine. Moreover, it rushed brutally towards the dantian and Qihai acupoint like a wild, fiery dragon after weaving around his chest area for a few brief turns.
With a loud whoosh , that fire dragon exploded where Yan Liqiang's Qihai acupoint was located.
Yan Liqiang instantly felt that a targeted bomb had hit the volcano on top of his Qihai acupoint, causing it to erupt. Before he could even start to understand what had happened, the energy generated from the explosion at his Qihai acupoint shot upwards, passing his chest and his throat as it headed straight for the top of his skull… ...
Yan Liqiang only felt like something had briefly shocked his mind. Following that, he felt as if all the power in his body and all the heat from his Qihai acupoint that had gone up to his skull was sucked away by that something inside his mind.
Before he lost consciousness, Yan Liqiang vaguely seemed to witness that the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth had gathered itself again next to his body, forming a strange image of a giant, crude cauldron with four legs. It caged his entire body within itself and then sank into the midst of his dantian Qihai acupoint.
This was the sign success establishing dantian. Could it be that he had passed both the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone and establishing dantian stages? Was he now a Martial Warrior?
This hard-to-believe idea appeared in Yan Liqiang's mind. However, following that, without giving him the chance to think about it more or verify it, the heated air that had just appeared from his Qihai acupoint and all the power in his body were suddenly sucked away almost entirely. His vision grayed out and he abruptly fainted.
...
An indefinite amount of time later, Yan Liqiang woke up, finding himself lying on floor of the small wooden hut.
Remembering the way he had just fainted, Yan Liqiang braced himself against the floor, straightened his waist, and then jumped upright in one swift move.
It was just a single movement, but Yan Liqian was already able to feel that his movements were much more agile than normal and it seemed to be easier to exert force. He hurriedly checked his own body and discovered nothing much out of the ordinary. He only had the faintest feeling of something slightly different than usual somewhere in his lower abdomen.
Remembering the strange phenomena that happened right before he passed out, Yan Liqiang gulped and carefully closed his eyes. He directed his consciousness to sink towards the location of his Qihai acupoint on his lower abdomen.
When he previously did this, there was no use as all he could feel was utter darkness. But at this moment, when his consciousness sank into the Qihai acupoint on his lower abdomen, Yan Liqiang felt like he had entered the midst of a hazy blue ruin. Within that ruin, he could see tiny, minuscule red lights spinning silently but steadily, like little lanterns.
The foundation had been established… he had apparently progressed into a Martial Warrior...
Yan Liqiang gaped, eyes were wide and his mouth was open, almost unable to believe what he could feel. He tested it multiple times and found the sight that he could sense and see was exactly like the descriptions he had heard of countless times that described the Martial Warrior realm after establishing the foundation.
Other people would still require a very long time to establish dantian after passing the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone stage. He had heard from a few of the disciples from the Divine Sword Sect who had exceptional level cultivation speeds that they still needed at least another six to twelve months of cultivation before they could establish dantian and finish the final foundation step. There were even some who couldn't pass this stage throughout their entire lives, unable to finish the last step before foundation. How could he possibly have passed two stages in succession over the course of one day? That was too outrageous. Who would ever believe him if he said anything?
Yan Liqiang was frozen for quite a while. He did not dare to believe that he had apparently established his foundation and had somehow become a Martial Warrior.
Could this also be a manifestation of how great the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone technique was? In his mind, Yan Liqiang asked himself this repeatedly as this was the only possible answer.
Remembering that strange devouring power that was in his mind just before he passed out, Yan Liqiang hesitated for a moment and then hurriedly went to check to see if there was anything abnormal in his own mind.
Yan Liqiang saw it...
That caused him to be utterly surprised. The thing that he originally thought he would never see again while he was alive was currently floating inside his mind's eye and he could now perceive it clearly.
That thing immediately transformed into a star, glittering at him within his mind, giving off a light that was both mysterious and had a hidden depth.
...
It was pitch-black outside the window. After staring intently at that thing inside his mind for a while, Yan Liqiang finally opened his eyes, his heart racing a little.
There was no light in the hut, but Yan Liqiang could still vaguely see the things inside the room with his two eyes. He turned to look towards the water clock within the room and discovered that the water clock was showing past three in the morning. It was getting close to the time when he usually woke up and prepared to go to work.
Seeing the time, Yan Liqiang smoothed out his emotions and hurriedly put on his clothes, socks, and shoes. After cleaning himself up in the room, he picked up a lantern and opened the door...
As soon as Yan Liqiang opened the door, a flurry of snowflakes bound by the icy wind blew straight into his face.
The snow still hadn't stopped falling, but Yan Liqiang would not let himself stop either. He would not lower the expectations he had for himself.
He packed up the tools he used daily and put some cleaning solution into the bucket. Just as Yan Liqiang was about to walk out of the yard, another lantern along with two familiar silhouettes appeared before him.
Gu Zexuan had wrapped himself firmly — he stamped his feet and breathed warm air into his hands. "Let's go. All the mountain roads are blocked off by the snow. If we don't help you with the task today, then you can work until tomorrow evening and you still won't be done. Zhao Huipeng and I will come with you today to see what the toilets are really like on Tianqiao Peak with our very own eyes. Ah, I never expected the day to come when someone as handsome and charming as myself would have to get up in the middle of the night to clean toilets."
The slightly inarticulate Zhao Huipeng didn't say anything. He merely smiled at Yan Liqiang awkwardly.
Yan Liqiang's heart melted. He didn't say much else, as it didn't need to be said. He led the two straight up towards the mountain...
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