Chapter 17: Full Bone Refinement |
Next up.
Ning Qi's life gradually settled down.
Ever since he moved to his new place, being close to the Scripture Pavilion made him feel like a fish in water.
He practiced martial arts every day, and spent the rest of his time soaking in the Scripture Pavilion, greedily absorbing its nourishment and turning it into his own foundation.
Thanks to that.
Ning Qi felt that when he contemplated martial arts principles, it was as if he had divine assistance—it was even more exaggerated than before.
Due to Daoist Longshan’s reminder, the other senior brothers mostly didn’t come to disturb him. Ning Qi was quite happy with this. He didn’t find it boring at all. In this life, with full-level comprehension, the joy of cultivation was infinitely magnified—it made him addicted.
Being alone made him very satisfied.
Much better than his previous life.
Ye Qinghe was still the one who came the most.
Occasionally, when a senior brother went down the mountain, they would bring back gifts for Ning Qi, all delivered by her. However, the types of gifts gradually became more uniform—they were all books.
Everyone knew.
Little Junior Brother loved reading and often stayed in the Scripture Pavilion without coming downstairs.
However.
What made Ning Qi sigh quietly was that Eighth Senior Brother wasn’t as close to him as before.
Later on, Qin Yun visited Ning Qi’s new place once, but only stayed for a short while, said a few things about cultivation, and then left—never to return again.
Now, he only saw him during holiday gatherings of the True Disciples. Of course, when they did meet, Qin Yun still smiled, and if he had gone down the mountain, he would bring books for Ning Qi—but inevitably, a sense of distance had grown.
Ning Qi could vaguely sense it.
Eighth Senior Brother seemed a bit jealous of him. He wasn’t sure whether it was because of his talent or because of their Master’s favoritism.
There was nothing he could do about it. No matter how talented he was, he couldn’t control others’ thoughts.
All he could do was stay as low-key as possible.
Most of his time was spent either cultivating in the Scripture Pavilion or in his small courtyard.
Sometimes, he would observe the natural world alone.
Gradually, this Ninth Disciple of the Zhenwu Sect became somewhat of a mysterious figure to both outer and inner sect disciples.
...
In the blink of an eye.
Nearly a year had passed.
Ning Qi was now four years old.
Inside the Scripture Pavilion, a small figure in a white Daoist robe was reading ancient texts with hands behind his back, murmuring to himself.
“This Tiger Fiend Fist is pretty interesting. If one can grasp the intent of the Tiger Fiend, it can capture the hearts of others. It’s a pretty exquisite technique.”
Ning Qi's eyes showed a hint of praise.
With a single turn of thought, he had already comprehended the Tiger Fiend Fist and even extracted its essence to incorporate into the True Martial Fist he created.
Stance techniques were methods of body tempering, and though they included fighting techniques, they were inferior compared to martial arts that focused solely on offense.
Because of that, Ning Qi would practice some offensive techniques in his spare time. Eventually, he created a True Martial Fist that encompassed all and was unmatched in offense—unrivaled in the Body Tempering Realm.
Even though his goal was the path to immortality.
He still needed techniques to defend the Dao.
Otherwise, even with a high realm, he could still get killed.
He dabbled in fist techniques, movement techniques, and blade and sword arts. The ones he focused on had all reached levels beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
This year, he had grown tremendously.
Reading every day, he had gone through at least a tenth of the books in the Scripture Pavilion, turning them into his own foundation. In terms of martial knowledge, even Qi Origin Realm experts might not match him.
Ning Qi returned the Tiger Fiend Fist manual and stretched lazily, his thoughts drifting far away.
“In one year, I’ve already achieved full bone refinement. With that, the four outer stages of body tempering are complete. Right now, my single-arm strength is five thousand jin—far more solid than my senior brothers’ foundation. When they reached this stage, they only had three thousand jin of strength.”
“But this still isn’t enough. This isn’t the perfect foundation I envisioned.”
“One year to complete the outer four stages. To fully complete the inner four stages and merge them into one, reaching the Inner Origin Realm, I’ll probably need another two years. That means reaching Inner Origin at age six.”
“Compared to ordinary people, this speed is already extremely fast—but I can go even faster.”
Ning Qi looked out the window of the pavilion.
In truth, he could have stepped into the Organ Refinement Stage a month ago, but he chose not to.
Sometimes, going slow is the way to go fast.
“This past year, aside from martial training, I’ve actually spent a lot of energy on creating a new stance technique. Maybe it’s because I’ve reached the limits, but creating this new stance is harder than I imagined—it took me so much time.”
“But it’s close now. In my eyes, stance techniques no longer hold any secrets. I’ve comprehended over a hundred of them. In a few more days, this supreme stance technique will be complete!”
Ning Qi’s eyes were full of anticipation.
In his view, above the peerless stance technique was the supreme stance technique.
If he succeeded, he was confident he could generate internal strength within a year and step into the Inner Origin Realm.
That would make a huge difference. That’s also why he didn’t break through to the Organ Refinement Stage for now—if he did, he’d have to spend even more time rebuilding his foundation with the supreme stance technique. But if he only needed to retrain the outer four stages, it would be much easier.
“Observing the myriad phenomena of the world to gain inspiration—the True Dragon may be powerful, but in the end, it’s just one of the myriad.”
“Time—if it can be saved, then it should be saved.”
Ning Qi turned and picked up a book by his side.
Xue Mei Manor Miscellany.
He gently caressed the cover but didn’t open it.
He already knew what was written inside.
It recorded the chivalrous deeds of the manor’s founders—Young Lord Ning Ye and Plum Sword Jiang Xuemei.
At the very end was a brief line:
“In the twenty-seventh year of Yongxin, Xue Mei Manor was slaughtered by a mysterious force. Not a single soul survived. A deep regret.”
It was brought back and placed in the Scripture Pavilion two years ago when Senior Brother went traveling.
Ning Qi exhaled softly.
“Back then, that Lord Feng retreated because of Master. So his realm probably wasn’t above the Core Formation Realm—most likely the second stage of the Qi Origin Realm, the Jade Liquid Stage.”
“The lifespan of someone in the Qi Origin Realm is four hundred years. I just hope... you weren’t killed by someone else.”
If possible.
Ning Qi still wanted to do it with his own hands.
He believed that when he reached the Qi Origin Realm, squashing that guy should be no problem.
Putting down the miscellany, Ning Qi looked outside the pavilion.
Sure enough, a familiar lazy voice rang out.
“Little Nine, ready to head out?”
Ye Qinghe pushed open the door and walked in, a look of knew you’d be here on her face.
Looking at the endless sea of books inside the Scripture Pavilion, her head throbbed.
“We’re leaving soon, and you’re still here reading. Might as well call you Bookworm!”
Ye Qinghe bent down and poked Ning Qi’s cheek with her jade-like finger.
Ning Qi instinctively swatted her hand away and smiled:
“You weren’t here yet, were you?”
“Let’s go.”
Ning Qi took the lead and walked outside.
“Little Nine, you’re actually the one who suggested going out today. As your senior sister, I’ve got to show you around properly—don’t let yourself get too stuffy.” Ye Qinghe perked up with excitement.
Ning Qi shook his head with a laugh.
The supreme stance technique he envisioned had to do with the phenomena of nature. Normally, he only observed clouds and snow in the safe parts of Zhenwu Mountain, but lately he felt he needed a spark—so he decided to take a walk around the mountain’s outskirts.
However, the outer regions of Zhenwu Mountain hadn’t been cleared, and might contain exotic beasts. For safety, he asked Ye Qinghe to tag along as his bodyguard.
He cherished his life and didn’t think that just because he had completed bone refinement he was invincible—wandering off alone and running into a powerful beast would be the end of him.
What he didn’t expect was that Ye Qinghe was even more excited than he was.