Chapter 23: Primordial Chaos Technique

Li Yanchu’s gaze fell upon the two thread-bound books resting on the table.

One was titled

Primordial Chaos Technique

, the other

Yin-Yang Immortal Sutra

. He opened

Primordial Chaos Technique

first, and his eyes quickly lit up with delight. This was a second-rate martial arts manual, and it was divided into three stages.

The first stage refined Primordial Chaos Force[1], reaching a realm where muscles and bones resonate in unison.

This was no balanced or gentle internal art. It was a domineering, overwhelmingly aggressive cultivation method. Primordial Chaos Force was ferocious in nature.

The second stage produced innate astral qi, rendering the body impenetrable to blades and spears, forming a qi shield around the body.

The third stage allowed one to reshape muscles and cleanse the marrow, improving their physique from the inside out, including the internal organs, and enabling external release of true qi.

After skimming through the manual, Li Yanchu couldn’t hide the joy in his eyes. As expected of a second-rate martial art, it was significantly more advanced than the blade and fist techniques he currently practiced.

Without delay, he flipped open the second book,

Yin-Yang Immortal Sutra

. He hadn’t expected this

Yin-Yang Immortal Scripture

to turn out to be yet another Daoist cultivation manual.

And despite its lofty-sounding name, Li Yanchu, who came from an orthodox lineage and had a discerning eye, could tell at a glance that it was nothing more than an unrefined, backwoods practice of little worth.

It couldn’t even begin to compare with the

Yellow Court Classics

he cultivated.

The

Yellow Court Classics

was a true orthodox technique from the Zhengyi lineage. It was one of genuine standing and reputation, not some cheap trickery.

But just as Li Yanchu finished flipping through the booklet with his fingers, he suddenly felt something was off. The book seemed to have a hidden compartment. Carefully, Li Yanchu opened the last page and retrieved the hidden layer. Inside was a yellowed alchemical recipe.

“Qi-Booster Pill?” Li Yanchu was stunned at first, then a look of wild joy lit up his eyes.

After exhausting all efforts in vain, it appeared when he least expected it.

Li Yanchu read the pill formula thoroughly and confirmed that it was a proper orthodox Daoist recipe.

Compared to the Revitalizing Pill recorded in the

Yellow Court Classic

, this Qi-Booster Pill was a lower-tier elixir. It was only useful during the Qi Cultivation Realm, and its effects were rather mild.

However, the ingredients were not particularly rare or complicated. They should be readily available at any of the major apothecaries in Wei City.

The Revitalizing Pill, while excellent, required high-grade, precious materials, so it was too rare to even begin concocting. But this Qi-Booster Pill was perfect for Li Yanchu at this stage!

According to the

Yellow Court Classic

, the first of its three realms was the Qi Cultivation Realm.

Without delay, Li Yanchu rushed to the largest apothecary in Wei City to gather the ingredients. At last, he saw a way to solve the cultivation bottleneck that had long troubled him.

However, after visiting several pharmacies throughout Wei City, he was surprised to find that none carried the full set of ingredients for the Qi-Booster Pill.

Only the largest shop promised to transfer the needed materials from their main storehouse.

Li Yanchu left a five-tael silver deposit and exited the shop.

“I didn’t expect even Qi-Booster Pill ingredients to be this scarce,” he muttered, gaining a new appreciation for the difficulty of the cultivation path.

Still, Li Yanchu was a naturally easygoing person. After all, he’d made it this far—it wasn’t worth getting impatient now.

With nothing urgent on hand, he turned his focus back to martial training.

Before diving deep into Daoist cultivation, martial arts were still an excellent means of self-preservation.

In the days that followed, Li Yanchu immersed himself in rigorous training of the Six Yang Saber Art, The Thirty-Six Divine Astral Hands, and Primordial Chaos Technique. For ordinary people, practicing even one of these disciplines required extreme caution and frequent use of medicinal wines and tonics to recover—otherwise, it would leave them with chronic internal injuries from depleted qi and blood.

But after Li Yanchu used enhanced century-old herbal decoctions to replenish qi and blood and strengthen tendons and bones, his cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds. He had no such worries.

His training advanced at incredible speed.

In just seven days, he had fully mastered all twelve layers of the Six Yang Saber Art, completed the entire The Thirty-Six Divine Astral Hands, and reached the second stage of Primordial Chaos Technique, developing protective qi shield around his body.

His rapid progress in Primordial Chaos Technique was due in part to its similarities in the first stage with the bone-strengthening and blood-invigorating methods of the Six Yang Saber Art. That he advanced so swiftly was also thanks to his ability to consume century-old medicinal decoctions as easily as drinking water or eating rice.

For ordinary martial artists, even encountering such a tonic once in their life would be a miracle. Even the wealthiest families couldn’t afford to sustain such consumption. After all, century-old divine herbs were considered rare treasures in the

jianghu

, and they were nearly impossible to find.

In just these seven days, Li Yanchu had enhanced divine medicine three times, spending a total of three-hundred points of merit.

***

On this day, after finishing a meal at the Taiping Inn across the street, Li Yanchu returned to the Daoist temple. Though he was now wealthy, he didn’t go to the inn every day just to splurge. The reason for his visit was the gracious invitation from the mature and charming innkeeper. It was her way of expressing gratitude for saving her life. She had personally invited Li Yanchu to dine regularly at the inn, free of charge.

At a place where he didn’t have to cook and where he could sponge off meals, Li Yanchu, despite his celestial and Daoist demeanor, didn’t put on any airs at all. He went over every day; after all, it was right across the street.

The innkeeper lady never said anything aloud, but the joy in her eyes was hard to hide. Over the past few days, the staff had all noticed that she treated Li Yanchu differently. As for the cold and aloof Fang Qinglan, she seemed to grow even more distant toward Li Yanchu.

To be precise, she wasn’t always cold. When the two were alone, sparring or training, Fang Qinglan didn’t display that sense of distance. Only when the innkeeper was present did she revert to that frosty swordswoman persona.

Just earlier, when the innkeeper was laughing at Li Yanchu’s teasing, her charm in that moment was nearly irresistible. Fang Qinglan, who’d been smiling softly, suddenly stood and left. She left behind a stunning, graceful silhouette.

Li Yanchu didn’t rush back into training right away but instead sat at the table, letting the innkeeper’s earlier words echo in his mind, “Daoist Master Li, do you like the older sister more... or the younger one?”

With her mature allure and sweet, delicate voice, the innkeeper knew just how to tug at a man’s heart.

Seeing Fang Qinglan leave, Li Yanchu of course knew how to respond.

Sure enough, when the innkeeper heard him say “older sister,” she beamed like a blooming flower, even giving him a kiss before she contentedly swayed her curvaceous figure as she left.

This kind of life... isn’t half bad

, Li Yanchu thought to himself.

Today, instead of diving back into cultivation, he was preparing to enhance his mastered martial arts once more!

He had already completed both the Six Yang Saber Art and The Thirty-Six Divine Astral Hands.

“Enhance! Enhance!” As Li Yanchu’s voice fell, three hundred points of merit were consumed.

The two martial arts manuals began to transform before his eyes, shifting like a revolving lantern display. The Six Yang Saber Art was conferred up to the eighteenth level!

The Thirty-Six Divine Astral Hands

gained eight more moves, each fierce and lethal in execution. It also incorporated body training techniques and hard qigong techniques that tempered the bones and blood.

“Oh? This has already reached the level of a second-rate martial art,” Li Yanchu murmured in surprise.

Having cultivated the second-rate martial art Primordial Chaos Technique himself, he now had a deeper understanding of how martial manuals changed after being conferred.

1. Primordial Chaos is an ancient, central concept of Daoist philosophy and meditation practice. Hun means undifferentiated unity, the state of mind and being that occurs when one does not divide the world into concepts. In other words, hun is equivalent to inner silence. Yuan means origin or original. ☜