Chapter 54

At the end of November, the first snow of winter fell in the Jade Dragon Mountains.

The snowflakes, as large as goose feathers, fell densely and profusely, covering the sky and the earth. In just half a day, the vast expanse of the Jade Dragon Mountains was blanketed in white. This perhaps indicated that the prolonged drought, which had lasted for several years, was finally coming to an end.

In the dead of night, before the first light of dawn, Chen Hai alone led the green horse, ascending to the cliff top of the West Ridge of Nantianmen Fort.

The night was shrouded in darkness. Chen Hai planted a torch in the snow, but could only see the snowflakes swirling all around. Beyond that, everything was pitch black, invisible. However, this did not hinder the faint, ethereal feeling in his chest, akin to standing on a cliff amidst a sea of clouds. He knew that the time to break through the Hand Shaoyang main meridian was ripe. Calmly and composedly, he took out the Pulse-Opening Pill he had cherished for months.

In the previous battle to break out of the Jade Dragon Mountains, Chen Hai had performed outstandingly and was rewarded with this Pulse-Opening Pill, which was stored in a small jade bottle the size of a palm.

Chen Hai poured the Pulse-Opening Pill into his palm. The dark golden pill emitted a faint luster. Focusing his mind, he could feel the pill was filled with a powerful and harmonious pure yang medicinal energy.

The Pulse-Opening Pill, refined from dozens of spiritual herbs, was an extremely special type of magical pill. After consumption, the powerful and harmonious pure yang medicinal energy would circulate in the main meridian in a specific way, assisting in breaking through the blockage of the main meridian and connecting the two kidney spirit orifices.

Chen Hai swallowed the Pulse-Opening Pill and felt a surge of heat spreading from his throat to his limbs and every part of his body.

Chen Hai did not pay attention to the spread of the pure yang medicinal energy from the Pulse-Opening Pill. This time, his divine soul did not connect with the puppet through the snake bracelet. Instead, he purely focused on the faint, ethereal feeling in his chest, akin to standing on a cliff amidst a sea of clouds. As he lost himself in the vastness of the world, this feeling reached its peak. At this moment, Chen Hai suddenly moved, clenching his fists and hammering out.

This was the Ten-Step Hammer, a technique Chen Hai had developed by combining various basic boxing techniques on the foundation of the Tiger Stance Secret Form.

At this moment, Chen Hai's divine soul was completely immersed in the feeling of standing on a cliff amidst a sea of clouds, transforming into a powerful and pure aura, like a dragon, flowing out from his arms and merging into his fists.

The fist Chen Hai hammered out suddenly burst into a faint golden light. The fist struck the green granite rock in front of him, and in the next moment, stone chips flew everywhere. The green granite rock, as hard as metal and as tall as a person, shattered into countless pieces, scattering dozens of meters away.

Chen Hai's flesh fists, protected by the golden light, remained unharmed.

This was the power of integrating martial arts true intent into martial arts secret forms and profound techniques. Although the feeling and aura Chen Hai experienced were far from a complete martial arts true intent, the power was already astonishing.

Seeing the scene before him, Chen Hai himself was somewhat shocked. The Golden Edge Spirit Ring, when releasing three golden edge sword beams, could only cut the green granite rock into this state. This meant that his punch just now was already comparable to the full force of a mid-stage Spirit Opening Realm cultivator.

Integrating a far-from-complete martial arts true intent, the power of profound techniques could be enhanced to such a high degree?

Chen Hai was both surprised and delighted. Although the consumption of this punch was also extremely astonishing, the surging heat in his body after consuming the Pulse-Opening Pill had already disappeared completely. However, he was more concerned about whether the Hand Shaoyang main meridian had been successfully opened and connected to the two kidney spirit orifices as he had anticipated.

Chen Hai, whose essence and energy were completely depleted, took out a Spirit Nourishing Pill and sat cross-legged in the snow to regulate his breath and cultivate his essence. When the time passed midnight and the first light of dawn began to rise, he absorbed the heavenly and earthly qi, and through the puppet, he saw two streams of condensed essence and energy flowing into the two kidney spirit orifices, merging with the heavenly and earthly qi to form golden true essence.

As Chen Hai had anticipated, his Hand Shaoyang main meridian was successfully opened. In the moment he hammered out the Ten-Step Hammer, he had already advanced to the mid-stage of the Profound Realm.

Although the powerful medicinal energy provided by the Pulse-Opening Pill was crucial, Chen Hai knew that he mainly relied on the far-from-complete martial arts true intent to drive the pure yang medicinal energy and the essence and energy of his limbs, breaking through the Hand Shaoyang main meridian in one go.

This punch also gave Chen Hai great confidence.

Although it was very difficult to re-cultivate martial arts after his cultivation was ruined, he only needed to comprehend the true intent of the Dao that corresponded to different main meridians. Advancing to the Spirit Opening Realm would no longer be an unattainable goal.

And once he successfully advanced to the Spirit Opening Realm, because he had a much deeper foundation in comprehending martial arts true intent than other Spirit Opening Realm cultivators, his potential for subsequent cultivation would be even harder to estimate.

Nantianmen Fort was adjacent to the Yellow Dragon Abyss, and the spiritual qi was much more abundant than in Chenqiao Fort. After cultivating for a full hour, Chen Hai felt that he could no longer absorb any more heavenly and earthly qi.

After practicing the Ten-Kill War Halberd a few more times and seeing the sky turn light, Chen Hai extinguished the torch, tidied up, and led the green horse to prepare to go down the mountain.

The green horse was also a reward from the Protector General's Mansion for his previous battle achievements.

Like human cultivation, the green horse, as a high-quality steed, also needed careful care and training to eventually become a fine horse.

In addition to feeding it one Essence Pill every day to strengthen its blood and qi, Chen Hai, even if he had no time, would still have young people like Shen Xiu take the green horse to climb the West Ridge peak every day to train its bones and muscles.

Of course, the consumption of raising a green horse was no less than that of a Purple Robe Disciple's daily cultivation. It was fortunate that the income from the Medicine Garden and the Armory could support such a large amount of consumption; otherwise, only noble families could afford to raise such a fine horse.

Chen Hai led the horse down the West Ridge peak. At some point, Wu Meng had quietly waited at the entrance to the West Ridge peak.

Seeing Chen Hai come down the mountain, Wu Meng also put away the Spirit Pattern Sword he had been using to hone his sword true intent and walked silently towards Nantianmen Fort.

Chen Hai had asked Wu Meng not to follow him, but Wu Meng insisted on following Chen Lie's orders and performing his duties. Every morning, when Chen Hai climbed the West Ridge peak to cultivate, Wu Meng would wait at the entrance to the West Ridge peak.

Wu Meng's cultivation was two to three levels higher than Chen Hai's, and he insisted on following Chen Lie's orders. Even though Chen Hai knew that Wu Meng did not really recognize him and perhaps still regarded him as a worthless person, he had no way to deal with Wu Meng.

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Back in the fort, after a short rest, the watchtower sounded a loud horn, and the three hundred soldiers began their daily training.

Li Hu served as the chief officer of Nantianmen Fort. After Chen Lie became the deputy commander of the Jade Dragon Camp, Li Xianghai promoted Chen Hai to the deputy chief officer of Nantianmen Fort, giving him the authority to command the three hundred soldiers, but also the responsibility to train them.

Chen Hai did not want to do it, but this was also a good intention from Li Xianghai, who was cultivating him in Chen Lie's name. He could not refuse.

In the Wuwei Army, apart from the strict requirements for cultivation by the main commanders, the various secretaries and clerks who assisted the main commanders placed more emphasis on their ability to handle military affairs.

Everyone knew that Chen Hai's cultivation had been ruined and that it was extremely difficult for him to re-cultivate. Cultivating him in other areas would give him a chance to obtain a high position in the military even if his cultivation could not break through, which was a good intention.

Fortunately, with the assistance of Zhao Shan, Shen Kun, and Ge Tong, Chen Hai was not too busy. He also specially selected more than thirty soldiers with a martial arts foundation from the three hundred and trained them as his personal troops.

When they were trapped in the Jade Dragon Mountains, Li Xianghai and other Spirit Opening Realm cultivators were severely injured by the Reverse Spirit Powder, but Chen Hai and the three hundred Dao Soldiers managed to break through the encirclement of tens of thousands of rebel soldiers, demonstrating the formidable combat power of this small elite force composed of Profound Realm Dao Soldiers.

Although the Nantianmen Fort garrison also had three hundred soldiers, they were far from comparable to the three hundred Dao Soldiers who broke out of the Jade Dragon Mountains. There was a world of difference.

Ordinary training could make the three hundred soldiers follow orders, but it could not significantly enhance the individual combat power of each soldier.

The Yellow Dragon Abyss Dao Academy was just established, and the newly recruited one to two thousand Dao Soldiers, even if they could all advance to the Profound Realm within one or two years, would mainly be supplied to the Jade Dragon Camp. Nantianmen Fort could at most receive three to five Black Robe Dao Soldiers to assist Chen Hai, Shen Kun, and others.

Nantianmen Fort needed a batch of elite soldiers and had to find a way to cultivate them.

According to the rules, even if martial arts secret forms were Chen Hai's private teachings and not related to the sect, they could not be taught to too many people; otherwise, it would be competing with the sect and the academy for business.

Sometimes, under special circumstances, such as the Grand Protector General's Mansion urgently needing to enhance the combat power of the Jade Dragon Camp, there would be some leniency in this regard.

This time, more than half of the newly recruited Dao Soldiers at the Yellow Dragon Abyss Dao Academy came from humble backgrounds, which was a special case under special circumstances. Chen Lie, Chai Teng, and others' personal guards, which were limited to five hundred people according to military regulations, were also allowed to expand to one thousand people, which was another special case.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to significantly enhance the combat power of the Jade Dragon Camp in a short time.

Chen Hai, being one of the few "second-generation officials" in the Jade Dragon Mountains, naturally had his selection of three to forty elite soldiers and private teaching of martial arts secret techniques tacitly accepted.

The huge consumption resulting from this needed to be privately subsidized by Chen Hai, which was equivalent to him cultivating these more than thirty elite soldiers as his personal troops.

This was a privilege that only Chen Hai could enjoy. At the very least, he could place these more than thirty private troops under the compilation of Chen Lie's personal guards. Others, even the chief officer of Nantianmen Fort, Li Hu, did not have this privilege—Li Clan also did not want their clan's secret techniques to spread without restriction.

Chen Hai integrated sixteen basic martial arts secret forms into basic footwork, basic boxing techniques, and basic halberd techniques and taught them to the selected elite soldiers. During this period, he exchanged more profound techniques from the academy and disassembled a total of one hundred and sixty-seven basic secret forms.

The truly advanced martial arts secret forms that integrated the雏形 of martial arts true intent, he only taught a few trusted people like Ge Tong and Shen Kun.

In Nantianmen Fort, Chen Hai practiced and trained the soldiers every day, while Ge Tong, Shen Kun, and others also supervised the construction of the fort walls and the building of a larger and more solid new fort. Life was both fulfilling and leisurely.

At noon that day, Zhou Jun and Zhou Jingyuan unexpectedly came to Nantianmen Fort to find Chen Hai.

In addition to bringing the repaired Qingyun Spirit Armor by Zhao Ruhui, they had also visited the mountain villagers and finally confirmed a hidden spiritual spring resource that could be used to rebuild the Medicine Garden. They came to find Chen Hai to personally inspect the site.