Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 153 Small Goals Achieved

As the sun set in the west, Chen Xuan and his companions had to find a place sheltered from the wind and with a source of water to spend the night.

Zhao Qingluan, who had become familiar with the place over the past few days, was busy running around, collecting firewood and building a stove, without making any trouble. Although she was simple, she was not stupid and learned things quickly. With the experience she had during this period, plus her fighting skills, I think she would be able to survive well in the wilderness alone in the future.

But she kept complaining: "There's no village in front and no shop behind. There's not even a dilapidated temple or Taoist temple. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to sleep in the open air."

Xiao Ye smiled gently and said, "Sister Zhao, it's perfectly normal. After all, monks and Taoists also need to make a living. Where would the incense come from if a temple was built in a deserted place?"

"That's right," Zhao Qingluan nodded after thinking carefully, then said speechlessly, "It seems that many vernacular novels are made up. How can you go out and find a dilapidated temple or Taoist temple when it gets dark? We haven't seen any in all these days. I really want to beat up those people who made up such stories."

Xiao Ye covered her mouth with a smile and said, "Oh, if people weren't making it up, where would there be so many conflicts to see?"

"That makes sense," Zhao Qingluan agreed.

She had also read quite a few vernacular novels. After all, there was a lack of entertainment in that era, and perhaps her decision to run away from home and venture into the world was influenced by the content of the vernacular novels.

Girls naturally like to hang out with other girls, and Zhao Qingluan is no exception. These days, she has almost become sisters with Xiaocai and Xiaoye. There's no other way, as there are only three girls in the group.

Xiao Cai leaned forward and shrank her neck. "Many vernacular novels have mountain spirits and ghosts. They transform into human forms to confuse passersby, and they especially like to transform into beautiful women to seduce scholars. After they've bewitched them, they reveal their true forms and eat them. Is that true?"

Originally, Xiao Cai was the most lively one, even more lively than Zhao Qingluan, but when talking about this kind of thing, she looked timid and obviously afraid, as if monsters and demons would jump out around her at any time, especially in this desolate environment.

Zhao Qingluan laughed and said, "Little Cai, you're still practicing martial arts. There are no monsters in the world. They are just fictions. You have been out for so long. Have you ever encountered one? Even if you have, I can poke a hole in it with my gun and make it disappear into thin air."

"So is there one or not?" Xiao Cai was still struggling with this.

Zhao Qingluan shook her head with certainty and said, "There are absolutely no such filthy things in the world. The occasional rumors are all man-made tricks. The world only has powerful military forces and some creatures with special abilities. People are ignorant and spread rumors to make people panic."

"That's good, that's good," Xiao Cai patted her bulging chest and said, she didn't care so much, as long as she was sure that there was no such scary thing.

Zhao Qingluan looked at her chest, then looked down at her own chest inconspicuously. She was not younger than her, but not even half her age. She thought to herself, what's the big deal? I'll grow back, and it's still convenient for me to move around like this. Otherwise, it would be so tiring.

She muttered to herself, "Oh, instead of asking me, you might as well ask your son. He is a scholar and knows much more than me."

Gao Jingming, who was playing chess with Chen Xuan not far away, turned around and smiled, "Just as Lady Zhao said, there are no monsters in the world. However, many times, human hearts are more sinister than monsters. So, what's the difference between those evil people and monsters?"

"Then I feel relieved. After all, humans are not as scary as monsters and demons," Xiao Cai said with complete relief.

Zhao Qingluan didn't understand her logic at all, so she simply stopped thinking about it and went to get some branches to build a shelter. It could keep out the rain and the wind, and prevent her bedding from getting wet the next morning. This was all based on experience.

Everyone occasionally has some strange and fantastic ideas. Chen Xuan probably understands Xiao Cai's mentality. The reason why monsters and demons are scary is that everything about humans is not applicable to those strange things. To put it bluntly, they cannot communicate. Humans are more terrifying than monsters and demons, but relatively less scary because there are too many things that can restrain them, such as morality, law, human feelings, etc. Under these shackles, no matter how terrifying a person is, he cannot escape the cage of the world.

So we are all the same, what's there to be afraid of?
As the night deepened, everyone went to rest after eating, drinking, washing up.

Chen Xuan stayed in the carriage and did not pay much attention to matters related to his cultivation. As always, he allowed his internal energy to nourish and temper his body, flush the meridians in his body, and let nature take its course.

At a certain moment, he felt that everything was about to come to fruition, and he just needed that final touch.

He also didn't know whether there would be any abnormal phenomena when breaking through the innate realm. After all, he had no experience in this. Although it was not something shameful, the information Liu Changhe instilled in him had no reference value. This kind of thing varies from person to person. It would be bad if the noise was too loud and accidentally hurt others. So he planned to find a secluded and quiet place to do it.

After carefully looking around, I found that everyone except Geng Hong and Zhao Erhe who were on night watch had gone to bed.

Immediately, Chen Xuan left the camp silently, and after a while, he used his lightness skills to arrive at a mountain top several miles away, where there was still some light snow.

This place is remote, and even at night, Chen Xuan can see the surrounding area from far away.

Here it is.

The cold wind on the mountain top had no effect on him. He simply lay contentedly on the snow on the mountain top, with his hands supporting his head, looking at the stars in the sky and the moonlight pouring down to the earth.

While earth-shattering changes were taking place within his body, his exterior remained calm. His internal energy flowed through his meridians as usual, linking the eight extraordinary meridians and even the hidden meridians. Only the Ren and Du meridians, the bridge between heaven and earth, lacked a single iota of maturity, and were already in imminent danger from the natural impact of years of internal energy.

Chen Xuan just lay on the top of the mountain looking at the night sky. At a certain moment, the slight barrier between the Ren and Du meridians was completely eliminated by the silent erosion of his internal strength. From then on, the two bridges of heaven and earth were connected, and his internal strength formed a large circulation!
At this step, it is the last prerequisite to step into the innate realm. It can even be said that the whole body has squeezed into the gate of the innate realm. Whether one can truly stand firm depends on the individual.

When the Ren and Du meridians in his body were connected to form a large circulation, his vast internal energy seemed to have a place to vent, and it was as if all rivers had found a place to go, and they all rushed towards the Ren and Du meridians.

The internal force that flows into the Ren and Du meridians circulates along the Great Circle on its own. Every time it circulates, the already extremely pure and condensed internal force becomes even more condensed, and its own nature also changes.

To make an inappropriate analogy, if the previous internal force is compared to qi, then the internal force after the great circulation is now transforming into liquid state, the total amount is decreasing, but the quality is increasing!

"Is this the innate true qi?" Chen Xuan muttered in his heart as he felt the changes in his body.

When the innate true qi quietly formed in his body, it was like a river finding its own destination, flowing along the Ren and Du meridians, heading towards the Qi Hai Dantian, like the water of a river flowing into the sea.

Qihai Dantian is one of the acupoints in the human body. It is the place where true qi returns to its source. Like the human meridians, it is between existence and non-existence. Ordinary people cannot feel it, but for those who practice martial arts, it is real.

It is like a separate small world hidden in the human body. It requires a special force to feel it, influence it, and break through the boundary between that small world and the big world of the human body before it can truly appear in the senses.

Under the impact of the innate true qi, the boundary between the Dantian Qi Sea and the human body's larger world was easily broken, as fragile as an eggshell.

In fact, many martial artists are in great danger at this step. Once the two bridges of heaven and earth are connected, the innate true qi formed by the internal force will have no outlet, and the qi sea and dantian cannot be opened. The internal force and true qi in the meridians will conflict with each other, which can cause damage to the meridians at the very least, regression in cultivation at the worst, and even life-threatening in severe cases!

This is by no means an exaggeration. The already formed true qi cannot be easily reversed and returned to internal force. It will conflict with the internal force and endanger oneself.

Many people cannot open the Qi Hai Dantian at this critical step, and usually choose to minimize the harm, that is, to expel the already formed innate true qi from the body. However, that is equivalent to permanently abandoning part of the original internal strength, which is a regression in cultivation. That is considered lucky, but there are many cases of death if it is not handled in time.

This shows how rare it is to be born with talent.

Therefore, there is a reason why innate talents are rare. A person with innate talents can be called a master, but no matter how powerful one’s acquired training is, he is just a good hand. The gap between them is like heaven and earth.

More than 90% of martial artists in the world are stuck at this step. One step makes a world of difference. If you want to go further, you have to take risks, otherwise you will sink in the acquired realm.

The reason why Chen Xuan was able to achieve the goal in one go was that his terrifying talent was too profound. He didn't even have to actively open up his meridians, as his internal energy naturally flowed through them. Who could compare to him?
Moreover, the Ze Yuan Jue he practiced was the ultimate martial art among the supreme martial arts. His internal strength was far more refined and condensed than that of ordinary people. It could be said that he could open his Qi Sea and step into the innate realm without any effort.

His internal energy continuously flowed into the two bridges of heaven and earth, forming innate true qi that entered the qi sea and dantian.

At the beginning, the Qi Hai Dan Tian can be described as an infinitesimal singularity. As the true Qi flows in, the singularity begins to expand...

When all of Chen Xuan's internal energy turned into true qi and poured into his dantian, his dantian became like a pond, filled with innate true qi.

Only at this point did he truly step into the innate realm!

Although all his internal energy turned into innate true qi and flowed into his qi sea, he did not feel empty, but felt more fulfilled.

When one has just entered the innate realm, the size of the dantian represents the lower limit of a person in this realm, not the upper limit. However, a high lower limit will affect the performance of one's strength.

For some people at this stage, their Dantian is like a small puddle or bucket, while Chen Xuan's is directly like a pond. This is related to his previous accumulation. It is equivalent to that he has just stepped into this realm, and the total amount of true energy is equivalent to the mid-level. This is related to the practice method. The previous internal force was extremely pure and condensed.

How to say it, Chen Xuan estimated that the ratio of internal force converted into innate true qi was about ten to three, and many people took this step. Even if they practiced advanced techniques, ten to one was considered rare, and there were many people who practiced superficial techniques, with a ratio of dozens to one or even a hundred to one.

This is also why it is easier to reach the innate level by practicing superior martial arts.

Everything happened silently and nothing unusual happened. Chen Xuan's previous worries were unnecessary.

At this moment, after he had completely stepped into the Xiantian realm, a thought moved his mind, and the Xiantian true qi surged out from the sea of ​​qi, flowing along the meridians and flowing through his limbs and bones. The feeling of comfort was indescribable, and his whole body felt light and airy, as if he was about to fly away on the wind...

(End of this chapter)