Chapter 11: The Three Fields United, Inner and Outer Worlds

“So this is the Bone-shrinking Art? Truly marvelous!” After his body’s transformation was complete, Lu Sheng swiftly found a bone-shrinking technique from the inheritance he had received and began to practice it.

With his spirit now increased to 18.66, it didn’t take long for Lu Sheng to master this method. Channeling his profound energy and employing the Bone-shrinking Art, in the blink of an eye, Lu Sheng shrank from a tall man of five feet four inches to a child not even three feet tall. In the cramped passageway, he moved with newfound agility.

“The twelve primary meridians correspond to twelve regions on the body’s surface, called the Twelve Skin Divisions, encompassing the entire skin of the body.

“Thus, once a martial artist has cultivated profound energy and cleared the twelve meridians, their energy can penetrate the Twelve Skin Divisions, tempering the skin and membranes.

“A martial artist does not only possess iron bones and steel tendons, but their skin is also exceptionally tough and flexible.

“They can control their body to expand or contract within certain limits, enabling techniques like the Bone-shrinking Art.

“Moreover, when profound energy is channeled to the surface, the martial artist’s body becomes as sharp as a blade, with formidable defense.

“It can even barely withstand the external release of a Grand Martial Master’s profound energy!”

———

Now possessing a shred of power to contend against a Grand Martial Master, Lu Sheng finally felt a measure of relief and began contemplating his next stage of training:

“The saying goes, ‘Externally train the tendons, bones, and skin; internally cultivate a single breath.’ Once the tendons, bones, and skin are tempered, the next step is to internally refine the breath of profound energy, using it to strengthen the five viscera and six bowels—”

“Increasing the resilience of the internal organs and enhancing the body’s endurance during bursts of power!”

The martial arts system in this world was exceptionally well-developed. Any weakness could become a target for exploitation.

No matter how well the tendons, bones, and skin were tempered, if the organs remained fragile, an enemy could strike directly through with penetrating force.

Hence, at the Martial Master level, the focus of physical training was on refining the organs, remedying this vital shortcoming.

Additionally, after the organs were tempered, a Martial Master’s breath became much longer, and their capacity for sustained outbursts grew immensely.

Below the Martial Master rank, one could only sustain full-speed, full-power bursts for a very short time.

But once a Martial Master had succeeded in organ refinement, even at full speed and power, they could persist for over a quarter of an hour.

On open ground, a Martial Master sprinting at a speed of twenty zhang per second for a quarter of an hour could cover forty li—

Compared to ordinary horses, they were already superior!

Thus, Martial Masters were said to be swifter than galloping steeds!

This was also why, when Lu Sheng previously encountered the Ten Thousand Venom Howl, he didn’t hesitate to activate his preparations and flee at once—

Without reaching the Martial Master realm, one simply couldn’t contend with those who had!

———

“Besides tempering the internal organs, a Martial Master must continually absorb the vital energy of heaven and earth, accumulate profound energy, and expand the dantian.”

“According to the Hunyuan Technique’s method of condensing energy into spirals, a Martial Master can form up to nine layers of energy spirals, expanding the dantian to its utmost limit.”

In this world’s terminology, the body possesses upper, middle, and lower dantians, governing the head, chest, and abdomen, respectively. When all three dantians are fully expanded, they begin to overlap.

At that moment, the martial artist can sense the principles of heaven and earth and fuse the three dantians into one, creating an Inner World.

When the inner and outer worlds merge, and one achieves unity with heaven and man, they are qualified to become a Great Grandmaster!

Therefore, every martial artist strives to expand their dantians to the limit, laying the groundwork for this future fusion.

“However, to expand the dantian, the body must be strong enough—

“If the flesh isn’t robust, forceful expansion could injure the dantian, or even harm the body itself.”

———

“It seems I’ll need to remain at the Martial Master stage for a while.” As he thought of the three dantians he had developed, Lu Sheng reflected inwardly.

Leaving aside the need to strengthen his body, even the expansion of the three dantians would require much of his attention.

———

“Many martial artists, eager to raise their realm, only open the lower dantian at first. Only after refining it to the utmost and becoming a Grand Martial Master do they open the middle dantian.”

“Hunyuan Technique, however, opens the middle dantian early. To avoid slowing cultivation, there is a method within that links the middle and lower dantians—”

“As long as one progresses, the other advances as well!”

As the world’s most supreme technique, the Hunyuan Technique was famed for its depth, yet its cultivation speed was not slow. Its only drawback was the requirement to absorb vast amounts of vital energy during practice—

For the imperial family of Great Jing, with its countless spirit herbs and the White Jade Tower gathering energy, this was no disadvantage.

Yet, for this reason, many who acquired the technique could not practice it, lacking the necessary resources.

Even many of the Lu clan within Great Jing, due to insufficient resources, practiced other methods instead.

“Ordinary people can’t gather vital energy, but as long as I have enough merit, supplying energy is no problem for me.

“Even if I cultivate all three dantians simultaneously, I can support it fully!

“This not only allows me to store more profound energy, but after becoming a Martial Patriarch, I won’t need to worry about expanding the upper dantian.

“I might even, upon resonating with heaven and earth, directly form an Inner World and reach the peak of the Martial Patriarch realm!”

“Therefore, I now need to merge my spirit with profound energy, guide it into the upper dantian, and begin cultivation there!”

Thanks to the Three Treasures Wishful Art, Lu Sheng could not only fully control his own essence, energy, and spirit, but with his enhanced spiritual power, had already opened the upper dantian—a feat most only accomplished when advancing to Martial Patriarch.

As long as he could guide profound energy in, he could begin training the upper dantian.

This was, in fact, already entering the cultivation of the Martial Patriarch stage.

———

“Inner energy is the manifestation of essence and energy; profound energy is the fusion of inner energy with the vital energy of heaven and earth.”

“Therefore, profound energy contains the qualities of one’s essence and energy.”

Contemplating the nature of profound energy, Lu Sheng mused:

“Refining essence into energy, and energy into spirit—once a martial artist cultivates inner energy, it can already nourish the spirit.

“But when inner energy is depleted, it must be replenished by the body’s essence—

“At this point, refining energy into spirit can easily lead to physical exhaustion.

“Only after cultivating profound energy, with the inexhaustible supplementation of heaven and earth’s vital energy, does it become more suitable for nourishing one’s spirit.”

“The method for this is to open the Nine Divine Orifices of the human body!”

The Nine Divine Orifices were this world’s term for the nine bodily apertures.

All intelligent beings under heaven have nine orifices.

Creatures lacking intelligence are of myriad shapes and forms—some have only eight apertures, some have countless ones… Such beings must reach a certain stage before they can develop intelligence.

By then, they either form new apertures or unify the many into nine that they can control—

Ultimately, it always comes back to nine apertures!

The reason lies in the fact that the nine apertures pertain to spiritual power; hence, they are called Divine Orifices—

Distinct from the Power Orifices of the Wu tribe!

“Therefore, only Martial Masters can generally open the Divine Orifices!”

“After opening the Divine Orifices with profound energy and nourishing the spirit, a Martial Master’s profound energy contains a strand of spiritual power.

“With this, they can use flowing profound energy to sense their own body condition—

“To perform what is known as internal vision.

“They can also sense others’ body conditions, to heal or treat injuries!”

“Likewise, with such deep knowledge of their own physical state, Martial Masters dare to refine even the most delicate internal organs,

“And can adapt their arts and techniques to their unique constitutions—

“That is why they are called Martial Masters!”

“Furthermore, the reason Grand Martial Masters can project their profound energy externally, apart from having more refined and abundant energy, is because it contains enough spiritual power—

“Allowing the energy to exist outside the body without being quickly assimilated by the ambient vital energy.”

Thus, only Grand Martial Masters can emit profound energy externally!

———

“The body’s nine apertures include seven yang orifices—the eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth—located above and openly visible, hence called yang orifices; and two yin orifices, one anterior and one posterior, below and usually hidden, thus called yin orifices.”

“If someone is born with open yang orifices, it signifies abundant yang energy and natural divine strength.”

“If someone is born with open yin orifices, it indicates plentiful yin energy and innate swiftness.”

“If all nine orifices are innately open, it means both yin and yang energies are sufficient, granting both divine strength and speed, and also a rich spirit—making it easier to consolidate spiritual power and open the upper dantian!”

“This is known as the Innate All-Orifices Constitution, one of the several gifted physiques among martial artists.”

Reflecting, Lu Sheng considered the condition of his own body:

“Those with natural gifts have various talents; according to memory, this body of mine possesses the Innate All-Orifices Constitution.

“However, the gift isn’t particularly strong—only the mouth and posterior yin orifices are innately open.”

“With such a constitution, the main benefit is a stronger ability to digest and absorb, far inferior to those with natural divine strength or speed.”

The mouth and posterior yin orifices refer to the oral cavity and the anus. Because these two divine orifices were innately open, Lu Sheng’s memories included many recollections of consuming decoctions and other peculiar things, all concocted by Lu Hai, a physician, to stimulate the abilities of these orifices.

“Still, even so, having these two innately open divine orifices is enough for me to direct profound energy into them and merge a strand of spirit with the energy!”

“Moreover, since my spirit is already condensed through the Spirit Refining method, once a thread merges with the profound energy—”

“I can fuse all my spirit into it,

“Achieving the Unity of Spirit and Energy!”

No need to slowly polish the spirit, no need to painstakingly blend it with profound energy… As long as a single thread of spiritual power merges, the Unity of Spirit and Energy—essential for advancing to Martial Patriarch—can be instantly achieved.

This is the great advantage of being able to perceive the spirit and condense it through spirit-refining techniques!

And now, Lu Sheng had reached this very point.