Chapter 32: True Yang Technique

He wondered, "Who poisoned us? Why would they do this?"

Just as he was struggling to make sense of the situation, a voice suddenly rang out beside his ear in surprise. "Huh?"

It was Yangx Kai’s voice! Su Mu hated Yangx Kai to the bone; how could he not recognize it?

He thought, "It’s him! So Yangx Kai is the one who poisoned us, that bastard! We only wanted to teach you a lesson, yet you actually resorted to such vicious means! Isn’t this too cruel?"

Su Mu wanted to curse Yangx Kai, but his consciousness rapidly blurred.

He cried out inwardly, "Damn it, am I really going to die in such a baffling way? Poor me, dying young before I could even realize my grand ambitions and great aspirations. Heaven is truly jealous of geniuses! Heaven is jealous of geniuses!"

Yangx Kai walked up to the group with brisk steps. Crouching down, he pulled off their face masks. Upon a closer look, he realized that every single one of them was a familiar face.

After pondering for a moment, Yangx Kai understood exactly what they were trying to do. They had likely suffered too much torment from him over the past few days, so they had come tonight to launch a sneak attack in retaliation. It was just that they were truly quite unlucky.

Yangx Kai weighed the Incense Burner in his hand, a wry smile on his face.

This was genuinely an accident. Normally, before going to sleep every night, Yangx Kai would store the Incense Burner away into the Wordless Black Book. However, his Cultivation session tonight had dragged on for too long. Exhausted, he had accidentally fallen asleep and forgotten to put the Incense Burner away. To make matters worse, the herbs placed inside hadn’t been fully consumed yet, and Su Mu and his gang just happened to run into the scent.

The Exotic Fragrance inside the Incense Burner packed immense power. Back when Yangx Kai first smelled it, he had only managed to take three steps before collapsing to the ground. If even someone possessing the Proud Bone Golden Form like him ended up like that, what more could be said for people like Su Mu?

Without the support of the Proud Bone Golden Form, they would likely need several days of bed rest just to recover from this single dose.

Although his own negligence played a part, the fundamental reason for their plight was their own carelessness. Had they held their breath the moment they smelled the Exotic Fragrance, they probably wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable state.

"Sigh, why bring this upon yourselves?" Yangx Kai sighed. He stored the Incense Burner into the Wordless Black Book and stared at the bodies strewn across the ground, looking somewhat troubled.

After a moment of thought, Yangx Kai ultimately dragged them all outside, dumped them in a random spot, and left them to their fate.

Returning to his wooden cabin, Yangx Kai went back to sleep.

Today’s incident served as a wake-up call for Yangx Kai—he needed to hurry up and break through the Body Tempering Realm. Right now, the Incense Burner could only be used while placed outside. However, if he broke through the Body Tempering Realm and reached the Origin Opening Realm, things wouldn’t be so troublesome. By then, the Incense Burner would still take effect even if it was kept inside the Wordless Black Book, provided the Primordial Qi within his body could connect with the Wordless Black Book.

For the next few days, Yangx Kai engaged in diligent Cultivation. Although he used the two types of herbs as sparingly as possible, their supply still dwindled by the day.

On the morning of the third day, after Yangx Kai finished practicing the Body Tempering Chapter, he inhaled a mouthful of the purple Qi from the east. With that breath, the Qi Sensing within his Meridians suddenly became incredibly energized, as if they had transformed into tiny bugs darting and surging through his Meridians.

Yangx Kai’s expression turned solemn as he hurriedly focused his mind to feel it.

The surging of the Qi Sensing caused his flesh and blood to squirm. His entire body felt tingly, accompanied by an indescribable sensation of itchiness and comfort. He didn’t know how long this state lasted. Suddenly, Yangx Kai felt his body lighten, and a burst of heat bloomed in his abdomen. At the same time, the surging of the Qi Sensing vanished without a trace, leaving it entirely Shadowless.

As his mind connected with it, that sliver of warmth in his abdomen seemed to come alive, leaping in jubilation.

Primordial Qi! He had finally taken this step. Generating Primordial Qi within the body was the most obvious hallmark of reaching the Seventh Level of Body Tempering Realm.

A person’s very first wisp of Primordial Qi would always be born within the Dantian. At this stage, the Primordial Qi was incredibly insignificant and fundamentally incapable of supporting a martial artist in combat. Once used, this wisp of Primordial Qi would dissipate. Since the body’s internal Circulation had yet to be opened, Condensing it again would take quite a bit of effort.

However, because Primordial Qi had been generated within the body, a martial artist could now begin to Cultivate Martial Skills.

These were leagues apart from the Basic Techniques taught at Lingxiao Pavilion, like the Long Fist and whip kicks. Martial Skills were techniques that utilized Primordial Qi to exert their effects, serving as the very foundation of a martial artist’s combat prowess.

The exact same punch would yield entirely different results when thrown by someone at the Sixth Level of Body Tempering Realm versus the Seventh Level of Body Tempering Realm. If a full-powered punch at the Sixth Level of Body Tempering Realm could generate two hundred catties of Power Dao, then utilizing Primordial Qi at the Seventh Level of Body Tempering Realm could unleash five hundred or even a thousand catties of Power Dao.

Of course, while in the Body Tempering Realm, an average martial artist would not lightly use Martial Skills because recovering Primordial Qi was no easy feat. Only upon reaching the Origin Opening Realm could one use Primordial Qi in combat to their heart’s content. By then, even if their Primordial Qi were entirely depleted, they could rapidly restore it through their Cultivation arts. The root of it all lay in the ability to recover swiftly.

Therefore, starting from the Seventh Level of Body Tempering Realm, what a martial artist needed to do was use this single wisp of Primordial Qi as a foundation to multiply and strengthen it. The most common method to achieve this was through Cultivating Martial Skills!

When executing any Martial Skill, the Primordial Qi required the coordination of several, a dozen, or even more Meridians. It had to flow according to a specific sequence and path to manifest as a distinct Martial Skill.

Strengthening Primordial Qi through the Cultivation of Martial Skills in order to open the body’s internal Circulation and reach the Origin Opening Realm was something every martial artist would do. Naturally, Yangx Kai was no exception.

After realizing that he had reached the Seventh Level of Body Tempering Realm, Yangx Kai quickly calmed his excitement, hurried back inside the room, and summoned the Wordless Black Book.

He flipped directly to the fourth page and focused his mind to sense it.

Over the past few days, he had attempted to break the seal on the fourth page with every minor breakthrough, but he had never succeeded. Yangx Kai estimated that the fourth page would only undergo a change once he reached the Seventh Level of Body Tempering Realm, the true watershed of the Body Tempering Realm. His guess was right on the mark!

After sensing it for less than a moment, streaks of dazzling golden light surfaced on the fourth page. Just like the previous times, this golden light broke free from the confines of the page and shot straight into Yangx Kai’s head.

A surge of new information suddenly flooded his mind. True Yang Technique! This was the reward the Black Book had bestowed upon him after his recent breakthrough. However, upon reviewing the details closely, Yangx Kai’s expression turned peculiar.

This True Yang Technique was quite different from standard Martial Skills. Ordinary Martial Skills had fixed attack patterns. Even if they allowed for variations, they never strayed from their fundamental Sect. They possessed a core framework, and if one deviated beyond that scope, it would no longer be considered the respective Martial Skill.

But the True Yang Technique had none of that. It lacked fixed attack patterns. It was ever-changing and completely adaptable to one’s will. Or rather, it simply had no moves at all. This was the first difference.

The True Yang Technique was also simple to Cultivate, but it came with strict prerequisites for the Cultivation environment.

One could only Cultivate the True Yang Technique in an environment brimming with Yang Qi.

However, once the True Yang Essence Qi Cultivated through this Technique reached a certain threshold within the body, it would condense from vapor into liquid, accumulating within the Dantian.

This was something no other Martial Skill or Technique could achieve. Every martial artist’s body had a saturation point. Once their Cultivation reached its zenith, it became impossible to increase the Primordial Qi within their bodies any further, unless they broke past their own limits.