Chapter 133: Break through to the second level!

When Yan Song heard of what Li Qing Shan did during these past two days, he was beyond shocked. The sect behind the pavilion was an enormous organisation and was top in the ranks of sects even in the entire Clear River Prefecture. Families and martial groups such as the Qing Teng Mountain or the Qian family could not compare with it, let alone the Iron Fist Sect.

The pavilion sect’s main building was in the Clear River Prefecture, which was where the nobility of the Clear River area resided in. The connections that it had were vast and great. Even the Vice-leader of the Eagle Wolf Guard was noted to frequently visit that establishment and was found to be very familiar with the sect master.

Li Qing Shan was simply fearless for not just offending, but also destroying the pavilion the moment he arrived in Jia Ping City.

Li Qing Shan said: "I just wanted to mete out justice." He subconsciously pressed the handle of his wind severing knife at his waist, as he already knew where the “justice” was truly at.

    ......

There was no moon that night, and in the dead of night, in a dark house, Li Qing Shan sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

True Qi was circulating in his body endlessly, following the “Xian Tian Qi Refining Scripture” 3^rd level instructions as it flowed rounds in his body. Even if there were Qi Condensation Pills to help him, the increase seemed marginal.

The jade ring was on his fingers. In the darkness, it had no strange appearances, but it remained unresponsive to the True Qi that Li Qing Shan infused into it.

He seemed to be guarding a vast treasure vault, but he was not allowed to enter. He could only walk around outside, wondering what it contained inside.

He could hold on to it, but the treasures and collection of a golden core expert gave him temptations that he could not resist. Before he parted, the Green Ox even said: "I left you something inside."

The Green Ox was a being that could casually teach Little An a terrifying technique like the “Face of the Undead”. What kind of treasure could he have left behind for him to mention it so importantly to Qing Shan?

A legendary artifact? A technique that could overturn the oceans? A miraculous pill that could allow on to soar beyond the Nine Heavens upon consumption?

He did not dare to think of it much during his everyday life, but once he thought about it he felt increasingly curious. He sighed in his heart: “Brother Ox oh Brother Ox, what did you want to give me? Why not just pass it to me directly? Why do you have to trouble me so? Also, for you to keep it in such a manner that I have to use human methods to open this jade ring… In the beginning, when you wanted me to demonify, then you should continue to use such demonic means no?”

In spite of how he felt, he also felt that this move by the Green Ox must have its own profound meaning. The Green Ox certainly expected that he would return to the human world as a human being. The reason he gave him such a test was that he wanted him to make achievements as a human in his cultivation?

Since he didn't understand it, then he didn’t plan to think too much about it. He needed his identity as a human. For the two days since he arrived in Jia Ping City, he easily obtained up to a hundred Qi Condensation Pills. With his own cultivation strengthening, he would be able to get medicinal pills more easily and he would have more assurances for his own safety.

After all, he cannot transform himself before other people. Most of the time, he has to rely on his Qi Refining Cultivation. However, the first level of Qi Refining was simply too weak.

Suddenly he stopped cultivating. He was slowly grasping the essence of the fourth level of the “Xian Tian Qi Refining Scripture”, with each and every sentence becoming clearer and clearer.

He was trying to open the "Yang Heel Vessel"* of the Eight Wonder Meridians to break through the first level of Qi Refining to reach the second level of Qi Refining. This is the first meridian he will attempt to open, and it could be said that this would be his first step into the path of Qi Refining. It should be noted that what he was about to do had a very different meaning than that of the first 3 levels of the “Xian Tian Qi Refining Scripture”.

True Qi was flowing into his left leg and sinking to the ankle where the “Shen Acupoint” was at, where the entrance of the “Yang Heel Vessel” was positioned on. To open up the “Yang Heel Vessel, he needed to first enter through this point.

He no longer sat cross-legged on the bed and changed to a strange posture instead. He leaned forward and stretched his left leg, like he was in some kind of a yoga pose.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

Little An had been kneeling beside the bed and concentrated on reading the large pile of sutras that Li Qing Shan brought back to him. At this time, he put down his books and looked at Li Qing Shan with concern.

What Li Qing Shan wanted to do was knock on the entrance!

True Qi rushed to the Shen Acupoint like water. However, the door remained tightly shut, with no intention of opening for even the slightest moment, let alone to allow him to open the Vessel path.

He knew that the accumulation of his own True Qi was too little and that his own reserves of True Qi had not even reached the peak of a 1^st level Qi Refining Warrior. Normally, one would continuously accumulate True Qi until there was an excess, which would require months of work. Once one’s True Qi was able to form a large river, it would be able to run down and squash any obstacles to his cultivation.

Yet, what he was trying to do now was using his little stream to take down the dam in the way. The difficulty was an extreme high. However, “Ten Thousand Years are too long, and one only seeks one night” (basically means, Seize the moment!) He wanted to give it a try and do his best before he was willing to give up. He crushed a Qi Condensation pill in his mouth to replenish his True Qi in the meantime.

After trying many times, there was still no gain. He finally stopped but not because he wanted to give up. Instead, he became more and more conscientious in his manipulation of True Qi. He continued to condense his True Qi, condensing the stream into ice, before converting it into spears. By then, it had already shrunk in size by over a hundred times, yet at the same time, it was also denser by over a hundred times.

Then, when it was no longer able to condense any more, the ice spears charged forth towards the dam with an unstoppable momentum.

Feeling a sudden pain in the soles of his feet, Li Qing Shan disregarded the pain. Instead, he revealed a color of surprise on his face. This time, the True Qi was no longer blocked and it had managed to deeply pierce into the Shen Acupoint. Under his stimulation, it began to slowly inch in difficultly.

His body made a sound akin to that of a light knock, as the dam that blocked the stream before had now been penetrated and True Qi began to flow in endlessly into the “Yang Heel Vessel”.

In his body, there was a light that appeared, which was akin to the first star that lit up in the boundless universe.

However, before Li Qing Shan could be happy, his True Qi had hit another obstacle. It was the Bo Shen Acupoint also located near his heel.

The True Qi was smashed to smithereens and could no longer condense. Under the pressure of the Yang Heel Vessel, it was slowly being squeezed out.

His opening of vessels failed!

Even the perforated Shen Acupoint began to close up.

Li Qing Shan sucked in a deep breath. On that night he was praised to be a true cultivating genius by Yan Song for who knew how many times. However, he could not even open up the first Vessel he required. Ascending to the second level of Qi Refining was already so difficult. He now knew that the path of Qi Refining was not so easy as well.

Comparatively speaking, the cultivation of demons was much more brainless. All they had to do was swallow the Spiritual Qi of the Heaven and Earth, or eat spiritual plants and medicine, so as to strengthen their Demonic Qi. Once it hit a certain level, it would naturally condense to form a Demon Core. Following which their cultivation would be the same as before, where they would just endlessly guide Demonic Qi into their Demon Core. Once it hit a certain level, the heavenly thunder would descend and if one managed to survive it, once would become a Demon General whereas if one did not, one would just become a pile of ash. Simple and clean.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

 Most of the demons started off as beasts, even as plants. They all relied on their instincts to cultivate. If they required intelligence and ideas, then there would not be any demons in this world.

However, although it was simple, it required a lot of time. Not to mention plants, even a normal beast in the wild needed at least a hundred years to become a Demon General. And that was provided it had been able to eat spiritual plants such as the Spiritual Ginseng often, then it had a bit of a chance to do so. If not, usual beasts would require at least 3 to 5 hundred years to do so, and these were plenty all around.

The meridian acupuncture points, which are gifted by the heavens to the humans, are also short-cuts discovered by humans. However, no matter how good a shortcut that it, it must be taken step by step.

For people like Li Qing Shan that only started refining qi for a few days and yet wanted to open up his meridians, yet, sighing and feeling that refining qi was not easy after failure would simply appear unreasonable to other practitioners if they knew about it.

 However, Li Qing Shan was not discouraged. He grabbed a Qi Condensation Pill and put it into his mouth. He did not swallow it, and then attempted to break through again.

 With his first experience, when he broke through the Shen Acupoint again, it was much easier. After breaking through the Shen Acupoint, he did not dare to be distracted. Biting downwards, he crushed the pill in his mouth to replenish his True Qi as he attempted to break through the next barrier.

Four hours later, he had consumed 25 Qi Condensation Pills and attempted to break through 13 times. His highest achievement was breaking through 3 of the acupoints on his leg, the Shen, Bo Shen and Fu Yang acupoints. However, when the True Qi flowed up his left leg, the flowing stream stopped at the Ji Liao acupoint at his crotch.

Once it is blocked, the True Qi would flow backwards just like a boat in reverse currents. The acupoints that were broken through before would then close up again. Along the Yang Heel Vessel, there were a total of 12 acupoints. If it were an ordinary Qi Refining Practitioner, he could probably only give up now.

Li Qing Shan was evidently indifferent to this. Anyways, the medicinal power that he had not been able to digest were all taken advantaged of by the demon core. The demon core was not wasteful or picky and he did not have to worry about wastage or the possibilities of dangers from the accumulation of medicinal power. This let Li Qing Shan experiment in a more reckless fashion for if he succeeded it would be a good thing, but if he did not there would be nothing bad about it.

And he felt that as long as the acupoints were perforated through before, even if they closed up again, it would be slightly easier to open them up next time. Along this process, Li Qing Shan had also accumulated quite a bit of experience and had greater understanding of the 4^th level of the “Xian Tian Qi Refining Scripture”.

Li Qing Shan considered for a moment before taking out another medicinal pill. It was as if it had just hit dawn and the pill resembled the clear dewdrops stuck on the flower petals. Rather than a Qi Condensation Pill, it was the Dewdrop Pill he had acquired from Diao Fei. This was what Diao Fei was keeping for himself to reach the 4^th level of Qi Refining. To use it to break through to the second level of Qi Refining was wasteful, but for a person with no reserves like Li Qing Shan, it was somehow appropriate.

However, if he failed to break through upon eating it, he would have wasted a pill of great quality.

Without too much hesitation, Li Qing Shan decided to take a gamble.

When the Dewdrop pill slid into his abdomen from the throat, Li Qing Shan clearly felt its cool and rounded texture. Yet, as soon as it entered his abdomen, it turned into a stirring flood.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

When the torrents merged into his True Qi, it immediately merged with the stream in his body, which caused it to become a rampaging river which broke past his Shen, Bo Shen and Fu Yang acupoints with almost no obstruction. Only after breaking through the Ju Liao acupoint and reaching his shoulder to reach the Yu Shu acupoint did it meet slight resistance.

 However, Li Qing Shan had already gathered all his focus, how could he be stopped here? The three acupoints on his shoulders were all broken through subsequently as well.

At this time, there appeared to be some insufficiencies in his True Qi, but he had already made preparations long ago. Consuming one Qi Condensation Pill after another, he managed to take this momentum to push his True Qi to break through another 4 acupoints on his face: Di Cang, Ju Liao, Cheng Qi and Qing Ming acupoints respectively.

The True Qi had already come very close to the brain and now required extreme caution when handling it. Plenty of Qi Refining experts lost control of their True Qi at this moment and caused it to rush towards the brain which resulted in them becoming retarded. Li Qing Shan obviously did not want such a result.

Up till now, there was no danger as he broke through the acupoints, and within his body, 11 points lit up, like the stars in a dark universe. A dim line connected these points as if it were a constellation.

The last point on the constellation was located at the Feng Chi acupoint behind his brain. As long as he managed to open up this acupoint, then he would have succeeded in opening up his Yang Heel Vessel and would have opened up a path for True Qi to circulate in his body, which was the so called 2nd Level Qi Refining level.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

However, he had almost no True Qi left, and the medicinal powers from Qi Condensation Pills were not able to replenish his True Qi from such a distance. It was like an army that was broken off from its supply troops, which would soon fall into chaos and doom.

He only felt extreme exhaustion, as if he had undergone a very difficult journey up till now. He could clearly see the end point, yet he was unable to take another step. As long as the True Qi struck the Feng Chi acupoint, then that would be the moment that his previous efforts would go to waste. However, he was not able to stop the True Qi from going onwards.

Was he going to fail?

Done done note: Attached below is a picture of the Yang Heel Vessel path. It actually does exist and is based off Traditional Chinese Medicine knowledge of the human body. The Yang Heel Vessel Path is one of 8 miraculous meridian paths in our body. When there is an excess of Yang Qi in our body, it is difficult for us to fall asleep and we experience insomnia. If there is an issue in the Yang Heel Vessel Path, there will be a condition in which the muscles inside the body relax whereas the muscles outside the body end up paralysed. A main symptom of your Yang Heel Vessel having issues is when you start having headaches and insomnia when you attempt to sleep!

If you guys like these extra tidbits of info do let me know. I’ll try to keep them up for future chapters!

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