Chapter 5 Germination

Inner chamber.

"The medicinal power inside him is gradually weakening, completely stored in his dantian!"

In the calm expression of the woman sitting cross-legged, a hint of surprise flashed.

After observing for a long while, she slowly dissipated the Qi force hovering at her fingertips. In her perception, she confirmed that the pressure inside Lin Yuan's body was no longer expanding outward but was gradually weakening.

The dantian was completely filled with the force of the pill, gradually solidifying in the dantian and no longer flowing everywhere, allowing Lin Yuan to escape the crisis of imminent explosion and death.

After confirming that Lin Yuan was unharmed, she closed her eyes and continued to repair her internal injuries.

However, previously, the situation inside Lin Yuan's body was vastly different from the woman's perception.

Feeling the increasingly violent torrent of medicine, the dantian expanded and expanded, Lin Yuan could no longer sustain it.

"I must not die! Keep compressing!"

Exerting full effort to compress the torrent of medicine within his body, Lin Yuan's face was twisted with grimace, his eyes bulging with ferocity.

But how overwhelming the power of the pill was, far beyond what he could absorb.

"Am I going to die here?"

Unwillingness abruptly flashed across Lin Yuan's face.

He had just crossed over, and this body was already severely injured and on the brink of death. Just when it seemed like he was given hope to rise again, he was schemed against and had the pills switched.

This forced him to risk his life to seek a pill from that mysterious woman.

But he couldn't withstand the effects of the high-grade pill, and now he was about to be overwhelmed by its power, bleeding from his seven orifices to death.

"A soldier's death before success, making a hero weep in vain."

A sense of emptiness passed through Lin Yuan's heart.

"No!"

"I'm unwilling, I'm unwilling."

The screams echoed in Lin Yuan's mind. At this moment, his body, swollen to its limit, could no longer control his throat to make a sound.

The enemy who destroyed his dantian was not dead, the mortal enemy who stole his pill was not avenged, how could he be willing?

He wanted to stand back up and use his own fists to kill those enemies one by one!

Only then would he feel elated and satisfied.

Even though blood was already pouring from his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, his violent heart was roaring and howling.

But no matter what unwillingness was in Lin Yuan's heart, the violent medicinal power was wantonly destroying, raging, and crashing within him, like steam heated continuously by flames, suddenly expanding and exploding.

"Poof!" Lin Yuan couldn't help but spit out blood.

"I'm going to die!"

Lin Yuan realized in his mind, yet his heart was inexplicably dazed.

Just when he thought he was about to explode and die, a roar suddenly flashed through his mind.

Bang!

Lin Yuan felt as if he had entered chaos. There was no wind or rain here, not even a sound, as if he was placed in a silent room filled with white mist, and the extreme swelling pain in his body could no longer be felt.

"What is this?"

Just as he was puzzled, a trace of green gradually appeared in the chaotic space, a green full of vitality. Under the illumination of the green light, the body seemed to be bathing in a hot spring, incomparably warm.

Moreover, he saw that trace of green gradually transformed into a green vine, whose leaves gradually spread out, with the green bud at the top indicating that it contained infinite vitality.

"This is a newly sprouted gourd vine."

Lin Yuan's consciousness gradually clarified in the green light.

He remembered this plant.

Before crossing over, Old Man Wang next door liked to grow this stuff. His small garden was full of climbing vines on the shelves, hanging with various large and small gourds, all full of vitality, very pleasing to look at.

Seeing how interesting Old Man Wang's planting was, he even asked for two seeds, wanting to try growing some gourds himself.

As it turned out, he hadn't added enough points to his talent; two days after the seeds sprouted, they were subdued by a basin of his face-washing water, and the just-emerged seedlings wilted immediately.

In just two weeks, both gourd seedlings went to meet The Three Pure Ones.

Before Lin Yuan could think more, the gourd vine continued to emit vibrant green light.

Under this green light, a space gradually unfolded. Below the gourd vine seemed to be a pool of water, with the gourd vine's roots buried in the pool, through the lake water vaguely revealing the gourd vine roots stretching into the void, extraordinarily mysterious.

And at the end of its core root was the Healing Pill he had taken, just reduced by a circle in size from before.

The pill seemed to have grown countless transparent silk threads like silkworm strands. Lin Yuan's gaze followed the silk threads, which connected to numerous gourd vine roots.

"It's the gourd vine absorbing the pill's power to sprout." Lin Yuan understood in his heart.

Standing next to the gourd vine, Lin Yuan saw a particularly intense green light at the tip of the gourd vine, as if brewing something. Gradually, the green light faded, and a translucent droplet of dew appeared at the tip of the leaf, bending the tender bud.

Ding dong!

As the tiny drop of dew fell, the sound was as vast as a bell at dawn and dusk.

Lin Yuan only felt his soul shake; afterward, he could feel his body and limbs, the sound of the cicadas outside the house sounded more pleasing than ever.

At this moment, outside was already bright.

"Recovered!"

Lin Yuan suddenly opened his eyes, filled with determination.

To think that crossing over brought a gourd seed with him, and it had saved him from his perilous situation. Although he couldn't currently see its exact function, its ability to absorb excess medicinal effects already provided him with a foundation for soaring.

He couldn't ask for more.

Anyway, he finally survived this crisis. Thinking of this, Lin Yuan immediately got up and walked toward the inner chamber.

He stopped at the inner door.

"Young lady's great kindness, I will remember in my heart. If there is anything I can do in the future, Lin Yuan will not dare to refuse!"

Standing outside, Lin Yuan clasped his hands and spoke loudly.

The woman inside gently opened her eyes, then closed them again.

No response.

Seeing this, Lin Yuan didn't continue to speak, lest he disturb the white-clothed woman's meditation, and turned toward the kitchen, cooking a pot of porridge.

This time, he was full of strength, with time to make better food, he added smoked meat to the porridge. As last time, he placed a bowl at the inner chamber's entrance, the rest went into his stomach.

After finishing everything, Lin Yuan sat cross-legged on the grassy mat again.

"Martial arts, only martial arts, can allow me to establish myself in this world. The high-level cultivators of this world are like the immortals fantasized in the previous life, moving mountains and seas, plucking stars and catching the moon, extremely terrifying."

"Without martial power, even if I accumulate wealth using the methods of the previous life, I'm afraid I can't keep it."

"And more importantly, if I want to avenge my blood feud, I must have strong martial arts." Lin Yuan's thoughts struck like bolts of lightning.

Finally settling on martial power, the most important and urgent key point.

"Wang Mingyong! I suppose you are very pleased and proud now. But rest assured, what's mine, I will take back." Lin Yuan seemed to be talking to himself, but this thought constantly circled in his mind, long unable to dissipate.

He would never allow that thief to go unpunished. After harming him, without paying any price, he would never tolerate it.

What was lost must be retrieved by his hands!

Lin Yuan took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled to calm his turbulent thoughts.

"Eight-step Breaking Fist, the cultivation technique practiced by martial arts apprentices in the village. It is also currently the only Qi-Blood main cultivation technique in the village." Lin Yuan contemplated.

Carefully recalling all the martial techniques learned by his predecessor, only two or three came to mind. Though he had heard of many martial techniques, the only one truly mastered by his predecessor was the Eight-step Breaking Fist.

"The initial phase of martial arts can be called the Qi-Blood realm. The Qi-Blood realm requires the cultivation of one's Qi-Blood, skin membrane, bones, and tendons. Once the four martial arts have been successfully cultivated, the next realm can be pursued."

Thinking of this, Lin Yuan could not help but smile wryly.

His predecessor's martial arts cultivation merely mastered one technique, the Eight-step Breaking Fist, while lacking techniques for skin membrane, bones, and tendons, not even learning the methods of operating bone and tendon techniques.

Yet even so, merely mastering a primary Qi-Blood technique, he had become a genius-like figure in the neighboring villages around Bull Horn Village.

The high difficulty of cultivating martial arts techniques and the slow progress of cultivation could be seen at a glance.

"The Eight-step Breaking Fist emphasizes Qi-Blood, the Wild Bull Strength emphasizes the skin membrane, the Stone Opening hand emphasizes the skeleton, and the Serpent Dragon Walk emphasizes the tendons. Of the four techniques, only the Eight-step Breaking Fist is deeply mastered." Lin Yuan sorted through the memories in his mind.

"There's also the barely understood operating method of the Wild Bull Strength, and some scattered, unremarkable moves."

"Starting with the Eight-step Breaking Fist it is!" Lin Yuan silently recited in his heart.

The improvement of martial power lies in the gradual accumulation of internal Qi-Blood. To practice this Eight-step Breaking Fist, one must derive the unique Qi-Blood of the Eight-step Breaking Fist according to its essence. As long as this unique Qi-Blood is produced, it can be considered as an entry-level understanding.

After entry comes proficiency, small success, great success, and ultimately perfection. Once Qi-Blood is derived, one continues to temper oneself, accumulating the power of Qi-Blood, to further comprehend the next essential principle of this martial art.

Speaking of the Eight-step Breaking Fist, each step is accompanied by a punch, and each punch by a sound, eight steps and eight sounds. Mastery is simply achieving one step, one punch, one sound.

After breaking through a realm, the speed of deriving Qi-Blood inside the body also accelerates, thereby pushing one's strength to the next realm.

Two conditions are required for a breakthrough.

The first is the abundance of the body's Qi-Blood strength. Without sufficient accumulation, there is no foundation for understanding the essential concept of the next realm. Without the accumulation of this realm, the following realm is just an unreachable fantasy.

The second is the level of comprehension of the cultivation technique's own profound meaning. Only with sufficient insight into the current realm can there be an opportunity to break through to the next realm.

Therefore, the two conditions for breaking through realms complement each other. An ordinary person, without Qi-Blood, has no possibility of comprehending the martial essence of the next realm.

Lin Yuan stood up, then commenced the starting posture of the Eight-step Breaking Fist.

Recalling the key points of the Eight-step Breaking Fist's movements, Lin Yuan immediately began practicing, performing according to the previous owner's understanding of the key points.

After going through it once, hardly having time to comprehend a moment.

"Boom!"

His consciousness was suddenly drawn to the gourd.

In front of him, the top of the originally smooth vine slowly grew a leaf, as the leaf gradually grew larger, its veins seemed increasingly profound, and Lin Yuan couldn't help but look closely at that leaf.