Book 1. Chapter 6. The only choice

In the secret room, Qin Yu is skimming through the books at will. It takes him only 2 hours to skim through all of the 28 external secret books once.

'Grandpa Lian was right. Practicing external techniques seems to be very painful.' The eyebrows on his little face move together tightly.

Having seen the 28 secret books, Qin Yu has some understanding of external practice. Practicing external techniques is to use various methods to strive to make the human body stronger. It means nonstop training, overcoming the maximum fatigue and surpassing the body's limits unceasingly.

Practicing internal techniques is only to absorb the holy energy of the universe, so during practice there will be no pain, and after practice the practitioner will feel fresh and cool. But practicing external techniques is to discover the body's limits and to make it go through the hardest training, so it is extremely painful and difficult. This is basically the difference between the 2 ways of practice.

External practice is painful and tiring but the practitioner cannot become a Xiantian expert. Generally, only commoners and poor people, who do not have an advantaged background, will choose to practice external techniques. The real children of powerful families all practice internal techniques, but how about Qin Yu?

He has 68 first-class internal techniques, each of which is extremely outstanding, but can he practice?

'First I'm going to look at the internal techniques. Even though my dantian is rather weird, maybe I'll be able to practice some of them.' Qin Yu decides to try his luck. Filled with hope, he opens a secret book, but he is dumbfounded at the first glance.

Shenting acupoint, Bai Hui acupoint, Fengchi acupoint, Qimen acupoint … Sanjiao Shou Shaoyang channel, Shou Taiyang channel, Shen Zu Taiyang channel …

'This…' Qin Yu's eyes pop out.

He has read many books and has also heard of these names, but the thing is … he knows the Fengchi acupoint, but does not know its position in the human body. Even though those books have illustrations, they are merely graphic outlines with no more than several channels.

Internal techniques cannot be practiced carelessly. If the energy enters a wrong channel, the practitioner will die.

'Looks like I need to go to the study and read the books on channels at once. At least I must know where the channels and acupoints are,' says Qin Yu with an unwilling look on his little face. Then he tidies up the books and goes out of the secret room.

6 days later, Qin Yu enters the secret room again.

'Ha-ha, this time I'm totally confident. I'm going to try all the 68 books out to see if I can practice any of them.' Qin Yu's face is full of excitement. After all, he is only an 8 year old boy who often dreams about becoming an expert.

In the 6 days of studying channels and acupoints, in order to fully understand them, Qin Yu also told the servants of Misty Villa to specifically make him a human-sized wooden statue of a man, and also asked old Dr. Weng Xian, a medical expert with relevant professional knowledge at Misty Villa, to draw clearly all the channels and acupoints onto the statue.

Having used a combination of the books, the wooden statue, and often inquiring of old Dr. Weng Xian, Qin Yu finally prepares to start practicing internal techniques with full confidence.

'What am I going to practice first? So it's this one, Comment on the Water Element.' Qin Yu randomly chooses a secret book as he talks to himself. This Comment on the Water Element was very famous several hundred years ago, but now only few people know about this first-class practice technique.

According to the technique, Qin Yu sits down with legs crossed and starts to practice.

The first step of internal practice is to have the energy feel, that is, to be able to feel an extremely small strand of the universe's holy energy that one absorbs. In fact, any living ordinary person in the world has been absorbing holy energy unconsciously, but because the amount of it is too small, they basically cannot feel it.

Practice, is to absorb consciously as much as possible.

After 2 hours, Qin Yu has lost his composure and cannot persevere with practice.

'Energy feel, energy feel, Grandpa Lian said talented people can have the energy feel as soon as they practice. I've been practicing for 2 hours, why don't I have any energy feel?'

After exercising for a while, Qin Yu sits quietly practicing the Comment on the Water Element again.

...

2 days later,

After having breakfast, Qin Yu continues to practice. He is very stubborn. He has always been practicing the same Comment on the Water Element again and again. Actually, to have the energy feel, it does not really matter what internal secret book he uses.

Stubborn,

Qin Yu sits down with crossed legs. He starts to picture energy moving in his channels. Afterwards, Qin Yu stops thinking. His mind is a vague blank. He goes on like that…

Suddenly — Qin Yu feels an extremely faint stream of energy slowly moving in his body. After more than 2 days of perseverance, he finally succeeds at this moment. But, in an instant, there is a surge of excitement in his heart. That tranquility in his heart and that vague blankness in his mind immediately disappear. And at the same time Qin Yu can no longer feel the energy stream.

'Be cool, be cool,' talks Qin Yu to himself. Then he uses the method of the Comment on the Water Element trying to re-enter the state that he achieved just now. After a while, Qin Yu can really feel a faint energy stream in his body again.

At this moment, using the method of the Comment on the Water Element, Qin Yu starts to let the energy flow a Small Round in his channels. As it flows, Qin Yu feels this energy stream more and more clearly. After circulating the energy in a Small Round, Qin Yu wants to make this stream of holy energy merge with his dantian.

But … 'What is this? My dantian really can't accumulate internal energy?' Qin Yu is dumbfounded. He discovers that the holy energy which has just run a Small Round dissipates into the outside world from inside the body. The dantian is empty as before.

'It looks like Uncle Feng was right. My dantian is different from those of other people. It basically can't accumulate internal energy. In practicing internal techniques, the internal energy is stored solely in the dantian. Since my dantian can't store it, what's the point in keeping practicing?' At this moment, Qin Yu finally understands.

Even though there are countless different internal energy techniques in the world, they all share one characteristic — all of the internal energy that is absorbed and transformed is stored at the Qihai acupoint, which also means it is stored in the dantian. If the dantian is unable to accumulate internal energy, then what is the use of practice?

Suddenly, Qin Yu inattentively notices that golden Ancestral Dragon Art book. Among these internal technique books, only this secret book, which is written on gold paper, looks extremely glamorous. Qin Yu reaches out his hand and gets the Ancestral Dragon Art.

The Ancestral Dragon Art is very thin, with only 3 pages. But the writing on the gold paper is in small characters and the 3 gold pages have a lot of contents.

Qin Yu attempts to practice according to the pithy method of the Ancestral Dragon Art. In a short while, he feels an energy stream in his body. This Ancestral Dragon Art is really fantastic — the amount of holy energy absorbed is much greater than it was just now. Moreover, the circulation speed of the energy is extremely high. But when Qin Yu channels the internal energy he wants to store into the dantian, the same situation arises.

The dantian seems like a funnel — all of the internal energy poured into it will be gone, and it is unable to store anything.

Qin Yu looks as if he is at his wits' end.

Afterwards, he laughs and thinks: 'Well, it looks like I can't slack off. I even thought that there wouldn't be pain and wanted to find a way to practice internal techniques. But this dantian is just like a funnel, draining all the internal energy it has. How can I possibly practice internal techniques?'

However, he looks as if he cares nothing at all.

In fact, he has prepared himself for failure earlier. After all, the first person who said he is unable to do internal practice was Fengyuzi, one of the 3 great Shangxian of the Chu kingdom. When such a person makes an assertion, it is very unlikely to be wrong.

'External techniques, yeah, from now on, I'm going to practice external techniques with all my power.' His eyes glitter. After reading those 28 external secret books, he laughs: 'No one on the Qian Long continent has practiced external techniques to the Xiantian level. Let me be the first to reach the Xiantian level through external practice!'

Qin Yu after all is an 8 year old kid. He still has the disposition of a child as before.

Using external techniques to reach the Xiantian level is truly something that has never been done before. How formidable would a Xiantian level external expert really be? This is an enigma.

...

2 days later, in the morning, in Qin Yu's study,

Qin Yu is holding a book and reading it quietly. On his sides, there are 2 huge bookcases. At first glance, these 2 large bookcases have at least more than 1000 books of various kinds. Xiao Hei is also sitting around in the study so as not to disturb its little master.

'Third Prince, 8 external experts have arrived. They are led by Lord Vice-Manager of His Highness's mansion. He said he brought them here for you to choose an external technique master,' says a servant respectfully after walking to the outside of the study's door.

Qin Yu's eyes immediately brighten. He puts the book down at once. His heart has a burst of excitement. At that time he and Lian Yan already talked about this. Lian Yan also sent a letter to inform the people in the mansion. When East Vanquishing Prince Qin De knew about this, he specifically arranged for some great experts in the army and several great external experts of the 3 Eastern region counties to go to the villa together.

'They're finally here after 2 days. Kang An, be quick and lead the way!'

'Yes.' Kang An immediately leads the way respectfully. Qin Yu goes out of the study and follows him to the west garden.