118 Subduing Dragons and Tigers, Refining the Organs and Transforming the Marrow

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After exchanging contact information, Chen Jue casually asked Yun Xiaomei, "Will you be going into the mountains these days?"

Yun Xiaomei nodded. "Yes! The baby of the old black bear is a bit weak. I need to bring them milk these days."

Chen Jue felt a stir in his heart upon hearing this; he thought he could spend the next few days exploring that patch of forest again.

Having a prodigy like Yun Xiaomei, who grasped things so quickly, meant that his own knowledge would have an excellent partner for exchange.

...

They walked and talked until they reached a fork in the mountain path where they parted ways.

Yun Xiaomei was returning to the village to report her safety to her family, while Chen Jue planned to head back to Wazhai to replenish supplies and rest.

Since this area was near the Dulong River and Wazhai was over a hundred kilometers away, near the Nujiang River, Chen Jue had to descend from the mountain path and, upon reaching a nearby paved road, flagged down a tourist bus passing by.

Sitting on the bus, watching the mountains retreat past the window and the few low white clouds drifting in the blue sky, Chen Jue's mind was filled with the image of Yun Xiaomei, whom he had only spent half a day with.

From the ancient, untouched mountains, the two had journeyed together, crossing ridges and streams, their pace swift. By the time they parted at the fork, they had traveled over fifty kilometers in total.

Chen Jue then noticed Yun Xiaomei beginning to breathe heavily, with a fine sweat forming on her forehead—a sign that her stamina was waning. Comparing this with his own past physical growth, he roughly estimated her physical attributes.

From the perspective of attribute panels, Chen Jue was trying to find others like himself, with some kind of supernatural cultivation, to compare with.

Although Yun Xiaomei possessed strong innate bones, had forty teeth characteristic of the fleshly realm like Shakyamuni, and practiced a turtle-breath technique similar to embryo breathing, her stamina reserve was at most comparable to Chen Jue's own physical attribute level when it was about 1.5.

Besides, when Chen Jue had briefly guided her through the Tai Chi stance, he tested her strength and agility, concluding that neither would exceed a value of 1 by much.

In truth, despite Yun Xiaomei's various supernatural manifestations, her physical quality was still several times inferior to Chen Jue’s, who had exploited attribute point overflow.

Chen Jue believed that Yun Xiaomei represented the upper limit of human capability in the real world. Even ancient sages never broke through this limit, living only a few lifetimes longer than ordinary people.

However, Chen Jue found many qualities in Yun Xiaomei that he could not match.

Her aura of close affinity with nature, as if one with it, and her habits of treating all living beings equally were beyond anything Chen Jue, a worldly man, could compare to.

Moreover, by emulating nature, she could observe living creatures and create her own Xingyi-style martial arts, a skill far superior to Chen Jue’s mere habit of blindly copying predecessors’ martial arts.

"If I can integrate my own knowledge, could I create a similar style of boxing? Then develop new skills on my attribute panel?"

"The greatest function of the panel, besides breaking human limits through point allocation, might also be to correct errors..." Chen Jue gazed out the window, recalling his earlier experience learning the Great and Small Heavenly Circulation. He felt as if he had caught a spark of insight.

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In the blink of an eye, his thoughts were interrupted by the piercing horn of a speeding heavy truck on the opposite highway. Annoyed, Chen Jue muttered, "Damn!"

...

Arriving back at the small town beneath Wazhai around noon, Chen Jue ordered a table full of local dishes to reward his body after enduring hardship.

After nearly two days of compressed biscuits, his stomach lacked nourishment, and his mouth craved saltiness.

Food is the foundation of the people; even after stepping into cultivation, Chen Jue felt he could not resist the temptation of delicious meals.

"Maybe deep down, I’m just an ordinary person!"

Looking at the cleared table, Chen Jue patted his full belly, stood, paid, took a toothpick from the counter, and walked toward Wazhai while picking his teeth.

While doing so, he noticed his old teeth loosening more and more; the toothpick slipping between the gaps caused the teeth on both sides to wobble.

He guessed it was because, these past days, he had studied the tiger’s form and understood the essence of tiger, leopard, and thunder sounds, embedding martial arts into his marrow.

But Chen Jue’s constitution was extraordinary, his bones many times stronger than an average person’s. Training power into the marrow was a hundred times harder for him, as his strong bones and deep foundation slowed his progress. Thus, after so long, he hadn’t yet completely refined his marrow, reaching the hundred-day foundation stage described in boxing and alchemy texts for marrow transformation.

"Relying on the tiger’s roar alone isn’t enough to shake all the bones. Maybe I should try the dragon’s chant?" Chen Jue glanced at the level 1 Dragon Chant Iron Cloth on his panel and then at the other two hard skills with internal strengthening effects, the Golden Bell Shield. He felt he would be busy for the next few days.

...

Back in the old house in Wazhai, Chen Jue boiled some hot water for a bath, changed out of his dirty clothes, and then took a nap.

Sleeping outdoors in the damp, cold forest was uneasy.

Although Chen Jue had embryo breathing skills, he still felt discomfort and needed a proper bed to fully restore his energy and vitality.

Perhaps because he had a long, enlightening conversation with Yun Xiaomei, resolving many doubts and untying a mental knot, he slept soundly.

Rising at 6 p.m., he felt energetic, no longer parched as he had during the day.

Actually, this kind of condition Chen Jue experienced was described in Daoist alchemy classics as the leakage of alchemical energy. Forming and nurturing the elixir required an extremely stable environment.

Once the environment changed and distractions appeared, qi and blood could not be contained, causing the alchemical energy to leak, making the formed Golden Elixir imperfect—no longer round and smooth.

...

Checking the time, Chen Jue found the food he ate at noon had completely digested during his long nap; his stomach was empty. Stretching, his muscles and bones creaked in harmony. Only then did he head into town for dinner.

On the way back as dusk fell, Chen Jue practiced night-travel skills, honing his agility and night vision, and hurried back to Wazhai.

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After two days and a night of mountain forest training, Chen Jue had unknowingly raised his night-travel skill to level 2. His eyes now shone brightly in the dark, able to perceive details previously invisible at night.

Returning to Wazhai, Chen Jue did not go to Wang Biao’s old residence but climbed to the mountaintop behind the village. In the silence and howling winds, he began practicing Dragon Chant Iron Cloth.

Previously, when training Tiger Roar Golden Bell Shield by the sea, he had mentioned that this Wudang Taihe sect’s hard training involved issuing power through the whole body, causing skin and muscles to vibrate, accompanied by a unique sound that tempered the internal organs.

If not for Chen Jue’s study of the true tiger and its form, understanding the tiger’s true essence and the tiger, leopard, and thunder sound techniques, he would have needed many free attribute points to perfect the Tiger Roar Golden Bell Shield.

As for the awakened [Tiger Roar ??] state after perfection, Chen Jue always thought those two question marks corresponded to “Dragon Chant,” likely a secret sound-striking technique similar to Tiger Roar.

When he truly mastered and studied Dragon Chant Iron Cloth, Chen Jue realized how absurd and laughable his previous assumptions were.

The so-called “Dragon Chant” was not the actual roar of a dragon.

Though the twelve forms of Xingyi boxing include a dragon form, it only takes inspiration from mankind’s imagined true meaning of dragons; no one has ever truly heard a “dragon’s chant.”

If Chen Jue could learn the tiger’s roar from a real tiger, would he have to find a real dragon to learn the dragon chant?

Or at worst, imitate an extinct dinosaur to practice?

As long as the name had “dragon,” it would suffice?

Such ideas were too unrealistic. In fact, the “dragon” in boxing and alchemy texts was a metaphor; a great dragon dwelled within the human body.

Having studied many boxing classics in the group files, Chen Jue knew that Xingyi boxing included two stance forms called Subduing Dragon and Suppressing Tiger. The training mantra was: "Subdue the true dragon, and the elixir becomes perfect; suppress the fierce tiger, and life is fortified."

The “true dragon” in this mantra referred to the human spine!

The spine is the most complex bone structure in the body, composed of 33 vertebrae. It is the body’s central axis and pillar. The spinal cord within is vital to the nervous system, controlling most bodily movements.

“Subduing the true dragon” meant training the spine to bend and turn freely, embedding martial power into the marrow—a supreme method of strengthening bones and refining marrow.

The “dragon chant” in Dragon Chant Iron Cloth was the sound of the spine’s coordinated vibrations shaking the whole skeletal system!

Tiger Roar tempers the organs; Dragon Chant refines the marrow—this was the fundamental principle of these two internal strengthening hard skills from Wudang Taihe sect.

Guaranteed for the second update~ still writing, first repaying three daily extra chapters to three alliance leaders.

(End of chapter)