As Strategist Ji spoke, a relieved smile spread across his pale face. He looked at Li Yan and said, "Are you willing to formally enter my tutelage?"
Now that Li Yan had made his decision, he didn't hesitate. "Yes," he said.
"Good! Your teacher has always been a man of simple tastes and dislikes complicated etiquette. You may kowtow to me three times, and that will count as your initiation." With that, he adjusted his posture, sitting upright and solemn behind the table. The three sticks of incense in the small cauldron before him sent wisps of smoke curling upwards, giving him the air of a sect master.
Li Yan stood up, straightened his coarse cloth clothes, and knelt before the incense table. He then kowtowed respectfully three times to Strategist Ji behind the table.
Strategist Ji stroked his beard, a faint flush appearing on his pale face, his smile widening. "Hehe, good, you may rise."
After Li Yan stood up, a look of joy also appeared on his face. He bowed once more and then knelt again before the table to listen to his teacher's instructions.
Strategist Ji said, "Now that you are a disciple of the Woodshadow Sect, your teacher will instruct you in the sect's initiation method."
Hearing this, Li Yan was taken aback. Strategist Ji saw his expression and asked, "Do you have a question?"
After a moment's hesitation, Li Yan said, "No, please continue with your instruction, Teacher."
Hearing him say this, Strategist Ji did not press further and continued, "All disciples of our sect must cultivate both martial arts and the way of herbal medicine. However, martial arts are the foundation for us practitioners of the martial world to survive. Moreover, many precious herbs and medicinal flowers grow in places rarely visited by humans, places inaccessible to ordinary people. Therefore, new disciples generally must first cultivate their martial arts to a certain level of proficiency in the first few years before they can cultivate the path of herbal medicine. Martial arts are divided into internal energy techniques and combat techniques. The internal energy technique is the mother of all skills. No matter how familiar one is with combat techniques, without the support of internal energy, one cannot unleash their true power. At most, it is just ordinary brawling. But if one's internal energy is strong, even common fist forms and martial techniques can shatter mountains and rocks, or injure peopl
Strategist Ji slowly explained everything to Li Yan, speaking for the duration of several cups of tea. He covered everything from the classification of internal energy to the major sects, the division of martial arts realms, acupoints, meridians, and so on. He also took out a small, exquisitely carved wooden figure. The figure was naked, with a crisscrossing network of red and blue lines, as well as numerous densely packed dots. Next to the dots and lines were annotations in tiny, fly-head-sized script. This wooden figure actually depicted the various meridians and acupoints within the human body. He explained each one to Li Yan in detail.
"What I have just said is the foundation of cultivation. You must remember it in detail, without any mistakes. Now, let's talk about our sect's technique. As I've said before, internal energy is the mother of all skills. The cultivation of our sect's internal energy technique is divided into ten layers and is called the 'Woodyin Art.' Its power is astonishing. It works by absorbing the qi of plants refined through our sect's secret method to strengthen the physical body, open up all the meridians in the body, and fill the body with vibrant qi. It allows the internal energy to circulate swiftly throughout the body in a full cycle, accumulating a vast amount of internal force in the dantian. When fighting, it can unleash extraordinary combat power, incomparable to the techniques of the secular sects. Your teacher has only managed to cultivate to the peak of the third layer so far."
Li Yan was greatly shocked by this, his face filled with disbelief. With his master's current martial prowess, he was already an enemy to ten thousand men, yet he had only cultivated the "Woodyin Art" to the third layer. If one were to cultivate it to the tenth layer, wouldn't they have the power of a terrestrial immortal?
Strategist Ji glanced at Li Yan and continued to speak slowly, "However, before cultivating this art, one must first cultivate our sect's 'Breath Guiding Technique.' This technique is for guiding the essence of heaven and earth to then stimulate the qi in the dantian. Only after the dantian qi has been successfully stimulated can one formally cultivate the 'Woodyin Art.'"
At this point, Strategist Ji smiled faintly. With a simultaneous flick of both his black-robed sleeves, his fair, slender hands appeared on the tabletop. In his left hand, he held a book that seemed to be made of something between gold and jade. With his right hand, he drew out a sheet of paper that was slightly larger than the book's pages. The paper was covered in densely written characters. It was clearly not a page from the book. Judging by the ink, it looked as if it had been written recently.
As Strategist Ji moved, Li Yan noticed that the material of the book in his teacher's left hand was peculiar. He had read many books since he was a child but had never seen such a material before. Furthermore, about one-third of the book was a distinctly different color from the other two-thirds, as if two books had been glued together.
Li Yan then remembered that from the moment he met his teacher yesterday until just now when he took out the paper, his teacher seemed to have only used his right hand. Whether it was testing with the needles yesterday or doing other things, he had never used his left hand. He must have been holding this book in his sleeve the whole time.
This made him curious about the book. What kind of book would a person carry with them at all times? But he knew this was not something he could ask about now. After all, he had just been initiated. Perhaps in the future, when he was more familiar with his teacher, he could satisfy his curiosity.
As if he hadn't noticed the curiosity in Li Yan's eyes, Strategist Ji passed the paper covered in words to him and said, "This is our sect's 'Breath Guiding Technique.' Your teacher will now impart it to you. You can study it carefully later. If there is anything you don't understand, your teacher will answer your questions. This qi is divided into prenatal and postnatal. When a baby is in the mother's womb, it has prenatal qi and can breathe without using its mouth or nose. After a person is born, they switch to breathing with their mouth and nose, which is postnatal qi, and they lose their prenatal qi..." This explanation lasted for a full quarter of an hour. After he finished, Strategist Ji fell silent, watching Li Yan, who was looking down in thought, occasionally picking up the small wooden figure and the "Breath Guiding Technique" to study them. He then tucked his hands back into his sleeves, placed them on his abdomen, and closed his eyes to meditate.
Li Yan studied for a long while. Finally, after confirming that he had memorized the cultivation method and the paths of some key meridians, he felt relieved. He had been afraid that since he had never been exposed to internal energy before, if it were too profound, he would have many questions, which would be embarrassing in front of his teacher. Now that he felt he understood it correctly, he felt much more at ease. He thought for a moment, 'Perhaps this is just because it's an introductory method.'
He looked up at his master and said tentatively, "Teacher, disciple feels... that I can preliminarily comprehend this introductory method."
Strategist Ji opened his eyes at his words and looked at Li Yan with a smile. He then slowly asked a few key questions. Seeing that Li Yan answered fluently, he looked very pleased. "Then from today on, you shall begin cultivating this method. Your teacher estimates that in as little as three to five days, or as long as ten days to half a month, you will be able to stimulate the qi in your dantian. Also, now that you have memorized this technique sheet, hand it over to me to be destroyed. It is not that I don't trust you, but this is a common practice among all major sects in the martial world. Except for the original copies of the technique books, everything else is passed down orally. Even if there are occasional notes, they must be destroyed immediately afterward to prevent them from being lost or stolen by evil people. Even the original copies of the technique books can generally only be kept by the sect master."
Li Yan didn't find anything wrong with this. Putting himself in their shoes, he understood that something so vital to a sect's survival couldn't possibly be written down casually on paper. If it were, the major sects would have no secrets to speak of.
He respectfully handed the sheet of the "Breath Guiding Technique" back to his teacher. Strategist Ji took it with a smile and tucked it into his sleeve. As for how it would be handled, Li Yan knew better than to ask. Strategist Ji then pointed to the small wooden figure covered in meridian lines and said, "Take this with you. This requires a long time to familiarize yourself with and memorize."
Li Yan took the small wooden figure from the table as instructed. He guessed that this wooden figure was just exquisitely carved, and that every martial sect probably had similar introductory items. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain these invisible, intangible meridians and acupoints with words alone. He then bid farewell to Strategist Ji and left the stone house.
After he left, Strategist Ji watched the doorway with narrowed eyes. After a while, he let out a faint sigh and muttered to himself, "His aptitude is much worse than the last one's. I wonder how long it will take him to reach the peak of the first layer. My time is running out, and this poison is becoming harder and harder to suppress. Alas!" With that, he waved his right sleeve towards the door several zhang away. The door closed silently. If Marshal Hong had seen this, he would have been scared out of his wits. Even a peerless master at the Transformation Realm in the current martial world could not accomplish such a feat from several zhang away with such ease. If one were to force it, they would have to be at least a Transformation Realm master, and the distance would have to be more than halved. Only by sinking their qi to their dantian and unleashing a torrent of internal energy could they do it, but the door would likely have been shattered into pieces in the process.
After doing this, Strategist Ji's left hand emerged from his sleeve. The book that was neither gold nor jade and the sheet of the "Breath Guiding Technique" appeared on the table. He skillfully flipped the book to the one-third mark, where the color changed, and placed it flat on the table. He placed his hands on the latter half of the opened book and silently circulated a profound art. After some time, the book showed no reaction. He then tried turning the book in different directions, horizontally and vertically, inputting internal energy or tapping it, but the book remained unchanged. Finally, he did something strange. He picked up the book and pressed the latter two-thirds of it against his forehead, like a scholar who, when faced with a difficult problem, would close his eyes and place a book on his forehead to think. He remained motionless like this for a long time. Then, a sigh echoed in the room. "Still not working. I've tried all sorts of methods over the years, but I still can't open it. How many l