Chapter 4

In a nameless small mountain near Xigong Town, a thin figure flickered, palms flying, practicing martial arts. The owner of that thin figure was Su Han.

Su Han practiced the family martial art, the Three Yang Palm, for a while. Suddenly, he felt a闷 in his chest, and a mouthful of fresh blood spurted out, landing on the ground, creating a shocking red mark.

"Damn it!! It’s really no use!! I have indeed become a useless waste!! Damn it!!" Su Han knelt on the ground, his heart filled with pain, and he hammered the ground fiercely with his fists. Countless broken stones pierced his hands, and blood slowly flowed from his tender hands, but he did not feel any pain. Compared to the pain in his heart, the pain in his hands was nothing.

Martial arts in the world are divided into nine grades. Grades below the third are considered lower-grade martial arts, grades from the third to the sixth are considered middle-grade martial arts, and grades from the sixth to the ninth are considered upper-grade martial arts.

In addition, there are ungraded martial arts. So-called ungraded martial arts are like Black Tiger Heart Snatching and Monkey Peach Stealing, which are ordinary martial arts with no additional attributes.

The Three Yang Palm, passed down in Su Han’s family, is a third-grade lower-grade martial art. Once it reaches the grand completion stage, every movement will generate a rolling heat wave, making the enemy feel as if they are being burned by flames, which is extremely extraordinary.

Martial arts with grades require internal energy to be activated to exert their power. Su Han could not even complete a set of the Three Yang Palm because his dantian was damaged. Even if he had more advanced martial arts, he could not practice them.

"No! I must cultivate internal energy!!"

Su Han followed the heart method to circulate the Three Yang Power. A thread of internal energy circulated through his body’s meridians. With each cycle, that thread of internal energy grew a little. However, after he completed three full cycles according to the Three Yang Power, he found, to his dismay, that the internal energy he had cultivated, like the past few days, completely dissipated and could not be condensed into his dantian.

Su Han’s face turned pale: "Indeed, my dantian is too severely damaged to cultivate."

The dantian is the life of a martial artist. All cultivated internal energy converges in the dantian. Once the dantian is destroyed, the martial artist can no longer cultivate internal energy, and their martial life ends.

The Great Yan Dynasty was established on martial arts, with a strong martial culture. The fastest way to rise to prominence and gain power is to cultivate martial arts, join the army, and earn military merit to be ennobled.

If a person cannot cultivate martial arts, they can only farm, engage in commerce, or take the imperial examinations. To rise to prominence and gain power, it would take a great deal of time and effort, and it would be very difficult to achieve significant success, let alone compete with powerful families like the Yongsheng Marquis.

Thinking of his inability to continue cultivating martial arts, Su Han felt a chill in his heart. Over the past few days, he had tasted despair many times, but he still tried hard to practice, hoping for a miracle. However, each practice only made him more desperate.

The Su family could stand in Xigong Town because their patriarch, Su Yan, was a peak seventh-level innate spirit realm expert and had recruited many high-level guards. Otherwise, their assets would have been completely divided by other forces.

Many people coveted the Su family’s assets. In such a situation, the best future for Su Han, who could not cultivate, would be to be assigned to manage a shop in the Su family and live a mediocre life. If the Su family declined, he might even be killed by the Su family’s enemies.

Just as Su Han felt a chill and despair, a flash of inspiration came to him, and he remembered the mysterious text that appeared before he fell unconscious.

As the mysterious text flashed through Su Han’s mind, his spirit unconsciously entered a mysterious state, naturally and effortlessly, like breathing, entering the inner vision realm, which only innate experts can enter.

"Is this my sea of consciousness?"

Su Han’s consciousness entered his sea of consciousness. He saw a vast, boundless golden ocean behind a gray mist, with rolling golden waves, exuding an ancient, sacred, and great aura.

Seeing the golden ocean, Su Han was filled with awe. Although the Su family was weak, they had many books about martial arts cultivation, and the sea of consciousness was described in some of them. He had never heard of any human having a golden sea of consciousness.

A water-blue light floated in the center of the golden ocean, exuding a noble and sacred aura. The blue light almost shattered Su Han’s soul.

Under that terrifying power, Su Han could not take a single step into the golden ocean within his sea of consciousness. His soul continuously warned him that if he took a step into the golden ocean, his soul would be shattered and cease to exist in this world.

Just as Su Han was about to give up and exit the inner vision state, a blue light shot out from the light ball and landed on Su Han’s body.

In the next moment, Su Han appeared at the center of the golden ocean. Looking up, he saw a blue crystal-like eye surrounded by blue light. The eye was closed, but it exuded boundless dignity, sanctity, and coldness. He felt that if the eye opened, something incredibly terrifying would happen.

"The Nine Heavens True Water Technique!"

Suddenly, a series of strange and profound runes condensed into a blue light and shot out from the blue eye, illuminating Su Han’s body. A mysterious and profound cultivation technique was imprinted on Su Han’s soul.

As soon as the technique was imprinted on Su Han’s soul, he became immersed in it. His body began to move according to a mysterious trajectory, and a thread of internal energy began to circulate in a profound pattern, completing thirty-six cycles in one breath.

If a martial arts expert knew that this technique could complete thirty-six cycles in the first practice, they would be shocked to the point of dropping their eyes.

In the Great Yan Dynasty, cultivation techniques are divided into four levels: ungraded, lower-grade, middle-grade, and upper-grade. Ungraded techniques are the most widespread, and many people practice them to strengthen their bodies and temper their physiques.

Ungraded techniques can only circulate internal energy for one cycle, or even half a cycle, in each practice. More would harm the body. Lower-grade techniques are divided into three grades, and each grade can circulate the corresponding number of cycles. The Three Yang Power of the Su family is a third-grade technique, and each practice can complete three cycles. This is already a very impressive technique in Xigong Town.

Middle-grade and upper-grade techniques are held by the military, the royal family, and major sects and are not easily leaked.

If someone knew that Su Han’s technique could complete thirty-six cycles from the start, it would certainly cause many powerful figures to fight over it, plunging the entire Great Yan Dynasty into a bloodbath.

After Su Han’s internal energy completed thirty-six cycles, it changed again. A gentle internal energy flowed along his meridians toward his dantian. Once it entered the dantian, the gentle internal energy slowly leaked out from the damaged area, but a small amount of pure internal energy remained in the dantian, and Su Han’s damaged dantian was slightly repaired by the gentle internal energy.

The gentle internal energy that leaked out from Su Han’s dantian was about to dissipate in his body, like the internal energy he had cultivated in the past. A blue light shot out from the stone eye and landed on the gentle internal energy, giving it a strange power, and it continued to flow along unopened meridians.

The meridians the gentle internal energy flowed through were unopened in Su Han’s body. For every inch it advanced, Su Han felt as if he was being cut by a knife.

The intense pain could drive ordinary people mad, but Su Han felt a sense of clarity. If he could get through this, he might be able to reverse his damaged dantian and inability to cultivate. If he couldn’t, he would be a useless waste, living a mediocre life, with no control over his own fate.

"I absolutely must get through this!! I will no longer be crushed like an ant. I must protect my family! I must control my own destiny!!" Thinking of how he was casually knocked away and almost killed by Yun Tianhai, Su Han felt a deep sense of humiliation and anger, and a fierce rage surged in his heart, supporting him from passing out from the pain.

Under the excruciating pain, Su Han’s body was tense, his face twisted, and sweat poured down like rain. He clenched his fists in agony, and drops of blood dripped from his hands to the ground. His body trembled, as if it might collapse at any moment.

Under the blue light from the mysterious stone eye in his sea of consciousness, the gentle internal energy firmly circulated in Su Han’s unopened meridians and eventually formed a powerful vortex three inches above his dantian.

As soon as the vortex formed, a large amount of internal energy in Su Han’s body was attracted and converged into the vortex, forming a new dantian.

As the new dantian formed, Su Han felt a strong sense of joy: "Is this the legendary middle dantian?"

Ordinary martial artists can only rely on the lower dantian for their entire lives. In legends, some extraordinary geniuses are born with two dantians, which can cultivate simultaneously, making their cultivation speed much faster than ordinary people. Their two dantians can carry more internal energy, making them far more powerful than their peers. Such geniuses are favored by heaven and can easily break through to the innate realm.

Yun Tianhai, according to legend, was a born genius with two dantians. This is why he could cultivate to the eighth-level innate spirit realm at just eighteen, becoming the top young expert in the Great Yan Dynasty.

Su Han’s talent, compared to Yun Tianhai, was like an ant compared to a dragon, with a vast gap.

At the moment the middle dantian formed, a thread of internal energy flowed out from it and circulated through even more complex meridians.

This time, the meridians were even more complex. The internal energy could only advance a short distance before it was almost exhausted, making it impossible to complete a full cycle.

A blue energy shot out from the stone eye and merged with the internal energy, forming a strange, extremely cold internal energy that could freeze stars, time, and space.

This strange internal energy continuously circulated and opened Su Han’s unfamiliar meridians, absorbing a blue energy from the stone eye every time it circulated.

Finally, the strange internal energy flowed into Su Han’s sea of consciousness, forming a blue vortex as bright as a star.

As soon as the blue vortex formed, a torrent of internal energy spread to Su Han’s limbs and bones, making his bones crackle like popping beans. The torrent of internal energy continuously strengthened and reinforced Su Han’s bones, and every inch of his bones underwent a remarkable transformation, eventually becoming as hard as iron, reaching the third-level innate bone-strengthening realm!

After the third-level innate bone-strengthening realm, the strange internal energy did not disappear but continued to circulate through Su Han’s body, opening more complex meridians, and eventually converged into the middle dantian, reaching the fourth-level innate qi-condensing realm!

The third-level innate bone-strengthening realm involves strengthening every inch of the body’s bones, making them as hard as iron and the body robust. The fourth-level innate qi-condensing realm involves making internal energy flow through the entire body, enhancing oneself in battle, and giving every movement great power.

Many people can only reach the fourth-level innate qi-condensing realm in their entire lives. Now, at a young age, Su Han had already reached the fourth-level innate qi-condensing realm. If this were known, it would shock many people.

Geniuses like Yun Tianhai are rare. In Xigong Town, there are only a few young men who can reach the fourth-level innate qi-condensing realm by the age of fifteen.

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