Chapter 13: True Dragon Stance |
Inside Ning Qi’s small courtyard.
The roars of strange beasts—some low and deep, others sharp and piercing—rang out from time to time. If anyone were present, they would be utterly dumbfounded.
Ning Qi’s gaze was steady and focused, his whole being fully immersed in the world of stance techniques.
At times, he howled like Bi’an. At times, he leapt like Suanni. At times, he stabilized like Baxia suppressing the seas. And at other times, he moved like Qiu Niu crossing water…
The Nine Sons of Zhenwu stances were practiced by him with complete ease, switching between Divine Intents as smoothly as flowing water. One moment he was using the Bi’an Stance, and in the next it turned into the Chiwen Stance. The nine distinct stance techniques had become as one—merged into a single form.
If the other True Disciples saw this, they would question their very existence.
Ning Qi’s eyes gleamed with clarity.
Flashes of inspiration continuously lit up in his mind.
“Not enough! Still not enough!”
Ning Qi kept practicing while thinking. At his level, these stance techniques needed no conscious effort—they flowed naturally.
At this moment.
His skin was pulsing rhythmically, shockingly so. The previously red skin had turned iron-colored, exuding a powerful sense of density.
Ten days passed.
He suddenly advanced again—reaching the Ironhide Realm, where blades and swords could no longer harm him.
Though still young, he already outmatched many adults in combat strength.
This pace of cultivation was incredibly fast, but Ning Qi was still not satisfied.
“There’s clearly a pattern among the Nine Sons of Zhenwu stances. Just fusing them on the surface isn’t enough—the key lies in the Divine Intent!”
After reaching the Ironhide Realm the day before, Ning Qi began to see the stances in a new light.
The tempering process itself was a process of comprehension.
The higher you stand, the farther you see.
If Ning Qi were already in the Inner Origin Realm, having fully gone through the entire tempering process, he believed it would only take a quarter of an hour—or even less—to fully grasp the relationship among the Nine Sons of Zhenwu.
No matter how strong one’s comprehension, it still needed sufficient knowledge and foundation.
After all, stance techniques weren’t just about skin tempering—they encompassed the entire body-refining process.
Still.
Ten days of research was enough.
The brilliance in Ning Qi’s mind was growing stronger by the second. With a single thought, he layered Divine Intents one after another. Eventually, he began merging them—not forcefully, but by extracting the essence of each to create something new.
“Bi’an’s ferocity, Baxia’s weight, Zhaofeng’s agility, Qiu Niu’s steadiness, Yazi’s savagery…”
“The dragon birthed nine sons—each unique, yet all from the body of the true dragon!”
“To trace back to the source—is to return to the True Dragon!”
In the very instant Ning Qi grasped this insight.
The roaring of the strange beasts in the courtyard fell silent, replaced by the majestic sound of a dragon’s roar echoing through the air.
Sweat from Ning Qi’s body suddenly evaporated at an accelerated rate, forming a mist that shrouded him, concealing his figure. His movements and techniques began to transform—born of the Nine Sons of Zhenwu, yet entirely distinct. From a distance, it looked as if a juvenile true dragon was leaping within the mist.
Ning Qi felt an overwhelming sense of joy.
This was a stance technique he had created himself—so of course, he instantly reached the peak realm in it. The body-tempering efficiency soared once again, seemingly twice as effective as before!
“F*** yeah! F*** yeah! F*** yeah!”
Ning Qi laughed wildly with delight in his heart.
He didn’t stop, training until his body was utterly exhausted, then finally jumped into the medicinal bath he had prepared earlier.
Closing his eyes.
Ning Qi was still a little excited.
The sense of achievement from solving a difficult problem after intense contemplation was no less than a breakthrough in cultivation—perhaps even greater.
It was a bit like the joy he felt in his past life after solving a particularly tough math problem in high school—but way better.
“I can now say for sure—there’s definitely a stronger stance beyond the Nine Sons of Zhenwu!”
“In a sense, I worked backward. I don’t know whether this True Dragon Stance I created is the same as the original, stronger or weaker.”
“Maybe… I should ask Master?”
The thought rose in him unconsciously.
But he doubted he would get an answer.
He remembered Senior Brother Luo Wentian once saying that Master Daoist Longshan’s inheritance of Zhenwu seemed incomplete—missing some of the core elements.
Besides.
From what Ning Qi understood of Daoist Longshan.
His Master wasn’t the type to hold back. If there really were a stance stronger than the Nine Sons of Zhenwu, he would have revealed it long ago.
Still, Ning Qi planned to ask when he had the chance. If such a stance existed, it might serve as a point of comparison to improve the True Dragon Stance even further.
Even though the True Dragon Stance could already be called a peerless technique, Ning Qi still wanted to see if it could become even stronger.
Moreover.
Ning Qi felt it necessary to inform Daoist Longshan of his progress—it would impact how much freedom he’d be granted in the future.
As for the other senior brothers and sisters, he didn’t plan to tell them his current level just yet.
He was afraid it would demoralize them.
Most of them were okay—acting normally when they saw him again. But Eighth Senior Brother had been acting strange.
One day when Ning Qi went to find Qin Yun again, he realized that Eighth Senior Brother had gone into seclusion again.
“Could it be… I shocked him too hard?”
Ning Qi was a bit puzzled and planned to check on him later.
“When Master comes out of seclusion, I’ll talk to him about the Zhenwu stances and the improved Body Tempering Powder.”
Ning Qi cleared away his thoughts, emptied his mind, and focused on the medicinal bath.
A stinging, burning sensation spread across his skin—but he welcomed it. It was a sign of growing stronger.
Time flew by.
Another eight days passed.
Ning Qi didn’t see Daoist Longshan come out of seclusion—but he himself had already stepped into the Jadehide Realm.
It had taken him ten days to go from Stonehide to Ironhide, but only eight to move from Ironhide to Jadehide—even though he spent one of those days re-tempering the first three realms from scratch. That alone showed how powerful the True Dragon Stance was.
Ning Qi curiously observed the skin on his body.
Fair and lustrous like jade—completely different from before.
The Jadehide Realm was the peak of skin refinement. Not only was his body impervious to blades and swords, it could now withstand immense force—flexible yet tough.
And Ning Qi’s foundation was far more solid than others, since he was training with the peerless True Dragon Stance.
“Next up is the Flesh-Refining Realm!”
“To be honest, it’s taken me less than a month to reach perfection in skin tempering. If I continue at this pace—one realm per month—wouldn’t that mean I could finish the entire body-tempering stage and even form Inner Origin in a single year?”
Ning Qi was pleasantly surprised at first, then shook his head.
“No, tempering starts easy and gets harder. The deeper you go, the more time it takes—especially the later realms that refine internal organs. You have to be very cautious.”
“And the real reason I’m advancing so quickly is because I started off having already perfected the Divine Intent level in multiple stances—and even created the peerless True Dragon Stance.”
“But come to think of it, Eighth Senior Brother has great talent too. He started martial arts at seven and probably reached perfection in the Yazi Stance in just three or four years. Even so, it still took him eleven years to complete body tempering and form Inner Origin. That shows just how hard the later stages are.”
“Still, I’ll be much faster. My martial path is just beginning. There’ll be more opportunities to create new techniques and speed things up.”
“The True Dragon Stance… isn’t my limit.”
Ning Qi’s gaze was firm and full of confidence.
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