Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

”Phew...” Lai Mao exhaled in relief, turned back into the room, and resumed copying the techniques.

The other party seemed easy to deal with. As long as he cooperated diligently, there was a good chance he could stay alive.

Returning to his room with the two manuals, Lin Zheyu saw Little Black lying on the floor, fast asleep.

Lately, it had been following Liang Yuhan and her daughter Liang Yunhui around the market. Liang Yunhui was fond of it and often bought it treats and roasted meat. Lin Zheyu sometimes worried the little creature might actually get stolen away by them.

Purple Yang Saber Technique and Spirit-Wondrous Movement Technique. Both are rather standard, but decent nonetheless. The Purple Yang Saber Technique isn’t much use to me, but this Spirit-Wondrous Movement Technique might be worth studying, Lin Zheyu thought as he flipped through the two manuals.

In terms of sophistication, the Spirit-Wondrous Movement Technique was a tier above the original Golden Goose Technique. However, after multiple refinements and enhancements, the Golden Goose Technique had already far surpassed ordinary movement techniques; among second-rate techniques, it could be considered top-tier, and perhaps even comparable to first-rate lightness techniques.

The concepts and maneuvers in the Spirit-Wondrous Technique are quite innovative. I’ll integrate them into the Golden Goose Technique during my next refinement.

Sitting under an oil lamp, he committed the contents to memory. The manuals weren’t long. If they were meant for beginners, they would have included detailed notes on possible mistakes and points of caution, but these were written by Lai Mao for an expert like Lin Zheyu, so only the key cultivation methods, techniques, breathing patterns, and auxiliary elixirs were listed. In less than half an hour, Lin Zheyu had memorized both manuals completely.

***

Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, seven days had gone by. On average, Lai Mao delivered two technique manuals to Lin Zheyu each day.

”This is the last manual. Can you give me the antidote now?”

Handing over the final manual, Lai Mao looked at Lin Zheyu with anticipation. Over the past few days, he had cooperated fully with no tricks and no attempts to flee.

”How do you feel right now?” Lin Zheyu asked, his expression slightly strange.

According to the Toxicology Codex, after taking the Corpse Insect Pill, the poison would flare up every seven days, causing intense heart spasms and an unbearable, all-consuming itch, as if one were being gnawed by ten thousand insects. Yet from the look on Lai Mao, he seemed completely fine.

”Huh? What am I supposed to feel?” Lai Mao asked, puzzled. He didn’t understand what Lin Zheyu meant by that.

”It’s fine, there’s no rush. If you notice anything wrong with your body in the next two days, come to me immediately. I’ll be staying in the inn,” Lin Zheyu said with a smile.

With that, he turned and walked back to his room, leaving Lai Mao staring after him in confusion, fear, and unease.

”He’s... testing poison on me?” Lai Mao swallowed hard, cursing Lai Chang bitterly in his heart. If that bastard hadn’t caused trouble, he wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable situation.

”He must have developed the antidote already... right?” Lai Mao muttered anxiously.

He himself had once tested poisons on his enemies, without any antidote, and thus he knew how terrifying that was. He didn’t know whether Lin Zheyu was testing a refined, proven toxin to see if it affected fourth transformation martial artists, or experimenting with an entirely new formula. If it was the latter, he was in deep trouble. All he could do was pray that Lin Zheyu was testing a mature poison with a ready antidote already in hand.

***

Lin Zheyu paid no attention to Lai Mao’s worries. His objective had already been achieved, so Lai Mao was no longer of any importance. He had obtained thirteen technique manuals from him. If he could sell them all, they would fetch a tidy sum of silver, assuming he could find buyers. Selling techniques in the black market required luck, after all. Sometimes, one might not sell a single book for days.

”Blood Saber Art... another saber technique?” Lin Zheyu muttered as he flipped open the first page of one of the manuals.

Lai Mao specialized in the saber, so among the thirteen manuals, six were saber techniques. Two of them were short-saber techniques, likely the ones Lai Chang had practiced. The rest of the manuals included one lightness technique, one fist technique, one palm art, and three burst-type combat skills. Including the Blood Saber Art, there were thirteen in total.

Another burst-type martial skill? However, with this one... apparently it’s about reversing Yin and Yang, overturning the flow of the body, and within the clash, unleashing power far beyond one’s limits! A forbidden art of reversal, eh? This truly is a remarkable technique.

A glint of surprise flashed across Lin Zheyu’s face.

Among the techniques Lin Zheyu had obtained from Lai Mao, only the Spirit-Wondrous Movement Technique proved useful, as it could further enhance the Golden Goose Technique. The rest were of little value to his martial path, serving only to broaden his theoretical understanding.

At first, Lin Zheyu had thought Lai Mao was hiding something, refusing to hand over the secret art Lai Chang once used to unleash his potential. To his surprise, Lai Mao had simply saved it for last.

Although the Blood Saber Art appeared to be a saber technique, it was actually two distinct techniques in one: the Forbidden Reversal Method and the Blood Saber Form. The Forbidden Reversal Method resembled the Boiling Blood Secret Art in that both stimulated the body’s latent potential, allowing bursts of power far beyond one’s normal strength. Yet the method described in the Forbidden Reversal text was astonishingly unorthodox; its very name hinted at its extraordinary nature.

”No wonder it’s called the Blood Saber Art. If something goes wrong during practice, one’s body might just explode,” Lin Zheyu muttered to himself.

Despite his grumbling, he took great interest in the Forbidden Reversal Method contained within the Blood Saber Art. It functioned almost opposite to the Boiling Blood Secret Art. By reversing the circulation of blood qi through the body’s acupoints, each completed cycle inverted the flow once. After nine such reversals, the body reached its limit, and one’s strength surged to nearly six times its original level. It far surpassed the Boiling Blood Secret Art in power.

”What a stroke of genius. The way of martial cultivation is truly vast and profound; there’s no end to the marvels people can devise.” Lin Zheyu sighed in admiration.

Yet a question surfaced in his mind. All of these secret arts that burned essence, qi, and spirit to unleash potential achieved their effect by temporarily purifying blood qi. In other words, through the Forbidden Reversal Method, one’s blood qi could be refined to six times its normal purity. But was there an upper limit to this?

If someone at the ninth transformation of blood qi used such a technique, would it still multiply their power this much? If so, does that mean the Ninth Transformation isn’t truly the limit of the Blood Qi Realm? And if I directly use the Boiling Blood Secret Art to enhance myself, could I push beyond that boundary altogether?

Lin Zheyu’s thoughts churned restlessly.

Ever since he had used Origin Force to upgrade the Boiling Blood Secret Art and discovered its ability to purify blood qi, he had begun pondering such questions. In the Blood Qi Realm, every third transformation marked a threshold, and crossing it led to a tremendous leap in power. Back when he advanced from the peak of the second transformation to the third, his strength had increased severalfold.

At the peak of the second transformation, Lin Zheyu could only leave a two-millimeter dent in an iron-birch post. But after completing his qualitative transformation and advancing to the third transformation, his strength underwent an earth-shaking change, and the mark he left deepened to two full centimeters.

So he did not doubt that purifying blood qi could drastically boost one’s strength. What he wondered was whether a martial artist at the ninth transformation could still gain such amplification through a secret art. If so, the hidden principles behind it would be fascinating indeed.

Perhaps I should just use the Boiling Blood Secret Art to strengthen myself. It’d be a good way to test this theory.

With the 40 units of Origin Force he has stored, he estimated he could trigger three or four successive qualitative transformations, bringing himself close to the ninth transformation.

No, not yet... Not yet. The mental exhaustion afterward will be unbearable. It’d definitely be far worse than when I advanced the Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual, and it’ll last for days.

Forcing down the impulse, Lin Zheyu dispelled the thought.

Each time he used a single unit of Origin Force to enhance the Boiling Blood Secret Art, he needed about ten days to recover from the mental strain. Using all 40 would likely take him over a year to recover. Not only would it waste many chances to acquire more Origin Force, but it’d also inflict unbearable suffering. Unless absolutely necessary, or if he reached the ninth transformation through other techniques and could advance no further, he would not resort to it again.

However, even if he did utilize this method of cultivation, he would be using the Forbidden Reversal Method instead. Its effects were even stronger, but he did not yet know how much essence, qi, and spirit it consumed. If it demanded more than the previous art, he feared that using even 1 unit of Origin Force might overdraw his mind completely, killing him on the spot.

”I’ll try cultivating it first. Though both methods involve circulating qi through the acupoints, the Forbidden Reversal Method uses fewer, but many are extremely dangerous. One mistake could lead to disastrous consequences,” Lin Zheyu muttered to himself.

He memorized the Forbidden Reversal Method two or three times over, ensuring every detail was correct before beginning practice. Having experience with the Boiling Blood Secret Art, he grasped this one swiftly.