chsdbacks Chapter 64, a fragment of the breathing exercise, next chapter!
Chapter 64, a fragment of the breathing exercise, next chapter!
Ye Qingxue squatted down and pulled out the dead shrubs around the grave, and suddenly noticed that the soil on the side of the grave mound was different from the other places.
The soil was relatively loose, mixed with a few pebbles, the edges of which gleamed faintly in the moonlight.
There's something down there.
Lin Yan squatted down and placed his hands on the ground, and the subtle perception of [Viewing the Mountain] unfolded.
About three feet below the soil, he sensed something of a different material.
He pulled out his knife and gently scraped away the topsoil with the tip, revealing several stacked blue bricks underneath. The bricks were fitted together perfectly, with moisture-proof lime filling the gaps between them.
Ye Qingxue was about to pry it open with her hands when Lin Yan stopped her, saying slowly, "I'll do it."
He wedged the tip of his knife into the crack in the brick and gently pried it open. The brick immediately loosened, revealing an iron box about the size of a palm underneath.
There was a mark engraved on the lid that was rusted and could not be seen clearly, but Lin Yan recognized the shape: three wolves head to tail, which was clearly the emblem of the Blood Wolf tribe.
Ye Qingxue's hands were trembling as she held the iron box.
Upon opening it, the first things revealed were several letters, each signed with the surname Lu. There was also a tattered piece of parchment, densely covered with foreign script, and a few simple drawings in the corner.
Ye Qingxue unfolded the letter and read it one page after another.
"These letters were written by Steward Lu of the Crown Prince's Office to the Northern Barbarian King's Court, dating from thirty-six years ago to twenty-two years ago. My mother hid these letters here because she was afraid they would be taken away."
She overheard them talking outside the woodshed at the Imperial Household Department and learned that Wu En's men were preparing to get rid of her.
At this point, Ye Qingxue looked up at Lin Yan, "The people from the Mountain Battalion saved her, but not long after, the people who saved her were hunted down. She never dared to tell anyone about it in her life."
Lin Yan pulled the last letter out of the iron box. The parchment contained no names or words, only a few lines of breathing guidance diagrams and several lines of small charcoal annotations beside it. Lin Yan recognized the handwriting; it was crooked and uneven, and belonged to the same hand as the incomplete book Gu Changshan had left in the cave.
Lin Yan unfolded the parchment and examined it carefully.
This diagram is no longer the three postures of the Body Tempering Realm, but the method of circulating Qi in the True Qi Realm, the path of pushing True Qi upwards along the meridians.
"The second part of the incomplete chapter of the Breathing Exercises," Lin Yan said.
Ye Qingxue took it and looked at it for a long time before suddenly asking, "How do you know me? Are you practicing the first part?"
"The first part is the Body Tempering Realm, which can temper all the bones in the body by completing three steps. I have been using these three steps, but the cultivation method after reaching the True Qi Realm is interrupted. The diagram on this page shows the missing follow-up method in the first part."
Lin Yan pointed to the lines on the diagram.
"The first part has three paths: sitting posture for the Ren meridian, standing posture for the Du meridian, and bow posture for the Chong meridian. The three paths intersect at the Dantian. I have always been opening all three paths to circulate true qi at the same time. Every time I circulate qi in my Dantian, it surges violently. According to this diagram, the cultivation of the True Qi Realm is exactly the opposite."
He moved his finger to several acupoints marked on the diagram and read out the small characters word by word: "The three meridians converge and return to one, and the true qi sinks into the sea of qi."
"The first part teaches the three paths separately, and finally they converge and burst forth in the dantian in the chest, using this convergence to break through the bottleneck and achieve great body tempering. The second part reverses this, separating the three paths that have already converged, allowing the true qi to retreat from the dantian in the chest back into the three paths and sink into the sea of qi."
When I first broke through to the True Qi Realm, I couldn't find the subsequent methods. I could only try to figure it out myself by forcibly combining the previous chapter with the Wandering Body Palm and Berserk, making the flow of True Qi in my meridians very bumpy.
Looking at his face, Ye Qingxue felt that Lin Yan was unfathomable. Normal martial artists only need to follow one lineage to become a martial artist. How could he practice three?
Lin Yan carefully folded the parchment and put it back in his pocket.
"The direction of every acupoint on this diagram matches the injuries I sustained from my reckless actions. Practicing this might help me heal the hidden injuries I got from all that reckless running around."
Ye Qingxue closed the iron box again, stood up, and patted the dirt off her knees.
Lin Yan looked at her profile. She glanced down at the wooden plaque in front of the grave and said softly, "Mother, you've hidden these things for so many years. Your daughter is handing them over for you."
The night wind had subsided considerably on the way back to the city.
Ye Qingxue suddenly spoke up: "If I remember correctly, this cultivation technique was previously in the hands of the Crown Prince."
Lin Yan nodded.
"I never expected that this technique was divided into two parts. The first part was stolen by Gu Changshan and ended up in your hands, while the second part was hidden here by my mother. Perhaps this technique was once the exclusive method of the Eastern Palace's secret guards. No wonder they have been looking for this thing."
Lin Yan gripped the hilt of the knife. "The Eastern Palace probably isn't looking for this technique. They must have a copy, but they use it to train henchmen for evil deeds. Now that it's in my hands, I'm going to use it to enhance my strength and do what I should do."
……
The Blood Wolf Clan did not give Lin Yan much time.
On the evening of the third day, Gu Li was bored in his cell when he suddenly heard a bugle call outside the window.
He stood up and peered out through the iron bars of the cell window for a long time before suddenly speaking:
"Call Lin Yan over, I have something to say to him."
When Lin Yan arrived, Gu Li was sitting cross-legged on a straw mat.
For the first time since being captured, the commander of the Blood Wolf tribe displayed a serious, almost solemn expression.
"The Great Khan has come in person."
Guli said, "The horn just now was the horn of the royal tent. Only when the Great Khan personally leads an expedition will this tune be played. The Blood Wolf tribe has committed all its forces this time, not just for Zhenbei City. The Great Khan wants to conquer the northern border in one fell swoop."
Lin Yan asked, "How many people?"
"The Blood Wolf tribe, along with other tribes, numbers at least 20,000."
Guli paused for a moment, then said, "But there is one thing you can use. The Tuoba tribe broke camp last night."
Tuoba Hong was completely unaware that the Great Khan was personally leading the expedition. He thought that the Blood Wolf Tribe was just making a routine southward raid to seize the autumn grain. The Great Khan kept it a secret from all the tribes, and secretly mobilized five thousand elite troops directly under the royal command to advance, preparing to intervene only after the Tuoba Tribe and you had fought to a standstill.
The Tuoba tribe realized they had been tricked and broke camp last night. The Khan's army is still on its way and won't reach the pass until dawn. Tonight, only the Blood Wolf tribe's old camp of three thousand troops will remain at the pass.
Lin Yan turned and walked out.
At midnight, all torches were extinguished.
Xiong Kuo led the remaining veterans of the supply battalion over the wall and crept along the low cliff to the east side of the barbarian camp.
Fang Dahai, with his severed hand in a sling, led three hundred soldiers to the west side.
Ye Qingxue's hundred light cavalry blocked the exit of the narrow passage.
Lin Yan led three hundred men to attack from the front.
This was the fastest battle ever fought.
None of the three thousand soldiers left behind by the Blood Wolf tribe expected that the Yan army, who were besieged at the pass, would launch a surprise attack in the middle of the night. Countless barbarian soldiers in the camp died in their sleep and were trampled by their comrades. Those who woke up were cut down before they could even draw their swords.