Before he sank completely into that state of meditative absorption, Huang Tian swiftly returned the two martial arts manuals and headed straight back to his quarters.
Watching Huang Tian leave in such a hurry, then glancing out at the bright, blazing sun, the young clerk on the first floor wondered aloud, "I thought he would browse around the second floor and take his time choosing. Who would have guessed he'd leave so quickly today..."
No one paid heed to the young clerk's minor curiosity. Returning to his quarters, Huang Tian swallowed two Blood Condensation Pills together.
The Blood Condensation Pills dissolved the moment they touched his tongue, yet surged into his body like boiling magma.
Boom!
Like a volcanic eruption, the peerlessly violent medicinal potency burst forth, and boiling qi and blood raged like tens of thousands of wild horses breaking loose from their reins, crashing wildly through his limbs and bones!
Severe pain crashed over him. Veins twisted and bulged like coiling dragons, and the blood throughout his body felt as though it were being forged in a furnace, scalding hot to the point of near evaporation. Huang Tian could even hear the roar of his qi and blood coursing through his meridians and blood vessels, like a bursting river dyke, surging unstoppably forward!
Yet the pain did not make him knit his brows in the slightest. His frame shifted slightly, adopting a stance with agonizing slowness.
That stance resembled a dragon, a serpent, an ape, a tiger, a crane... Dozens of different forms emerged through Huang Tian's deliberate, sluggish movements.
His breathing was exceedingly heavy and deep, his movements slowed down several times over to an unsettling degree. Yet beneath this very slowness, the wildly rampaging qi and blood inside him were gradually tamed, guided by his will to circulate throughout every corner of his body.
Whoosh, whoosh—
Fierce gusts whipped Huang Tian's long hair into wild disarray. His movements paused for a heartbeat, then grew faster and faster, whipping through the air with consecutive crackling booms.
Fists, palms, legs...
Techniques of different martial arts unfolded from his hands. Gradually, the dozens upon hundreds of forms from before faded away, leaving only five silently blending archetypes.
Huang Tian curved his torso slightly, his right hand shooting out like a venomous serpent and slicing through the air with a shrill whistle that sent chills down the spine.
"Serpent!"
Murmuring softly under his breath, he shifted his technique. Sinking his hips and waist, he pushed out both palms in claws, radiating a heavy, majestic aura.
"Tiger!"
Then he stood on one leg, his arms spreading like wings as though to ride the wind away, his breath drawn out long and ethereal.
"Crane!"
Both feet touched down as he crouched low, his footwork drifting unpredictably—now squatting like an old ape, movement concealed within still repose, now frolicking like a young monkey, order hidden amidst chaos.
"Ape!"
He crossed his hands and drew them back. His body undulated and twisted, his spine arching joint by joint like a great dragon, twelve major tendons snapping taut like bowstrings. With a sharp twang, the bowstrings released, and his palms thrust forward with lightning speed. A mountain-toppling, sea-overturning force blasted a column of air over a zhang long into the void.
"Dragon!"
"Distilling the essence of all these forms, trimming them down to five...
"Yet, it is still not complete!"
These five forms were merely what remained after extracting the essence and discarding the dross from this realm's many martial arts; they had not yet integrated the profound Daoist concepts of that other world.
Lowering his hands to his waist, he closed his eyes in profound meditation. Inspirations broke the surface like fish in a lake, rippling across the water in gentle rings.
"Serpent: supple and elusive, blending the dense, chilling, penetrating true intent of the Water Phase.
"Tiger: ferocious, predatory, and unstoppable, blending the razor-sharp, lethal true intent of the Metal Phase.
"Crane: standing solitary to anchor a peak, rooted like a mountain, yet striking skyward like thunder in the clouds, blending the heavy yet uncumbersome, movement-concealed-in-stillness true intent of the Earth Phase.
"Ape: deft and nimble, blending the growth and entangling true intent of the Wood Phase.
"Dragon: hard and soft, ascending and descending, endlessly transforming, blending the violent, soaring, nirvanic true intent of the Fire Phase..."
Having established the Five Phases and Five Forms, Huang Tian cast his strikes with fluid ease across the room. His mind immersed itself in the inexplicable rhythm of his body, and gradually, drawn along by the inner resonance, the qi and blood within him boiled up with a roar!
Puff—
An invisible barrier was breached by the burst of floodwaters. His qi and blood underwent a qualitative change, becoming denser, richer with vitality, heavy and potent like liquid mercury. Flowing ceaselessly, waves of warmth spread through his limbs and bones.
The second transformation of qi and blood, the eighth rank of the martial path—achieved!
Yet this was not his greatest harvest of the day.
Huang Tian discovered that as he struck with each move, the wild, violent spiritual qi of heaven and earth was rapidly pouring into his body.
If an outsider witnessed this, they would be utterly stunned, for typically, only martial artists at the perfection of the third transformation of qi and blood would attempt to absorb spiritual qi in order to break through into the middle three ranks.
For martial artists below the third transformation of qi and blood, skin, flesh, tendons, and bones had not been tempered to the necessary degree. Forcibly absorbing spiritual qi was no different from courting self-destruction.
Yet here and now, Huang Tian, with only the second transformation of qi and blood, was absorbing spiritual qi. Even though this violent spiritual qi battered his bones, tendons, and meridians upon entering his body... it was tolerable!
His body could completely withstand the infusion of spiritual qi!
"Why is this? What is the cause?"
He reviewed his thoughts swiftly and quickly identified the most likely explanation. "Thunder Sound Body Forging!"
Thunder Sound Body Forging had not only accelerated his cultivation by harmonizing with his Tiger Crane Jin, but had also tempered his membranes and skeletal frame on a deeper level, allowing his current physical resilience to rival that of a martial artist with the third transformation of qi and blood!
In other words, he was both a seventh-rank martial artist and not one. His physical resilience was no different from a seventh-rank's, but the quality of his qi and blood power was still slightly lacking. Yet he had successfully drawn spiritual qi into his body, making him stronger than many seventh-rank martial artists.
It was truly bizarre.
"No need to overthink it. Now that spiritual qi has entered my body and merged with my qi and blood, true qi has been born within me. And with true qi, the moves I've initially created by blending insights from two worlds can unleash some of their true power..."
His posture shifted.
Like a serpent: Spirit Serpent Coils the Mist!
Like a tiger: Ferocious Tiger Roars in the Forest!
Like a crane: Immortal Crane Anchors the Mountain!
Like an ape: Mysterious Ape Plucks the Moon!
Like a dragon: Cloud Dragon's Nine Manifestations!
Finally, the five forms merged into one!
"Borrow form from the five spirits, grasp the intent and transcend the form; let the five forms cycle in endless rebirth, moving with the transience of clouds, striking with the inscrutability of a dragon. Heart unites with intent, intent unites with qi, qi unites with force!"
His eyes flashed with sudden enlightenment. An ordinary palm strike naturally underwent a profound metamorphosis.
His five fingers curled slightly, resembling neither claw nor palm.
His knees bent slightly as though mounted upon a qilin; his elbows sank as though weighted by a thousand jin; his armpits left room for an egg, neither pinched tight nor flared wide.
"Roar—"
A barely audible roar sounded. In Huang Tian's palm, crimson qi and blood power intertwined and surged with shimmering true qi. In a flash, it condensed into a foot-long dragon of crimson gold, with majestic horns and five claws protruding from its belly!
Though small, the dragon possessed solemn majesty and harbored peerlessly domineering power. Huang Tian was nearly certain that unleashing this crimson-gold dragon would be enough to blast a city wall several zhang high and over a dozen zhang long into complete ruins!
Such power was far beyond the capability of martial artists of the lower three ranks; even a sixth-rank martial artist could not match it!
"Combining martial arts and Daoist methods from two worlds, I have finally taken the first step on my own path!
"Hmm, let us call it the Five Phases Five Forms Cloud Dragon Free Hand!"
As the saying goes:
Clouds follow the dragon's surge, veiled in heaven's dome,
Breathing the Five Phases in harmony with the great void.
Scales and claws suddenly flash, startling the rolling thunder,
Ninefold transformations contained to forge the radiant pearl.
Myriad forms rise and fall, attuned to each breath,
A thousand jin reined and released in a fleeting instant.
Do not say empty form holds no true intent,
For within this universe, the profound mystery is revealed!
Chapter 65