Chapter 66: You Qin Learns of An Yu's Constitution

After checking the changes in his body, Qin Anyu picked up the blunt sword and resumed his "self-harming" routine... striking his body vigorously.

He did not stop until his entire body ached and not a single tiny spot had been missed, after which he finally ceased and walked out of the room.

The people from the Putian Sect had all left, leaving the courtyard completely empty. Last night, the four of them had claimed a large courtyard to stay in, while the people from the Qihuang Pharmacy found alternative lodging elsewhere.

Qin Youqin was in the courtyard practicing the movements of the *Nine Transformations Body*, currently executing the fifth posture.

Not wanting to disturb her, Qin Anyu stood quietly by the doorway and watched, his heart filled with extreme astonishment.

In just these few short days, she was able to execute the fifth movement to perfection, and the starting posture for the sixth was also remarkably flawless. This was truly impressive.

When she reached about fifteen percent into the sixth movement, her face contorted in pain, and she staggered and fell.

The moment she fell, she caught sight of Qin Anyu, and her face instantly flushed red.

The posture in which she had fallen was simply too unsightly, and she felt terribly embarrassed.

Qin Anyu smiled and said, "To be able to reach this point is quite impressive, only slightly inferior to mine. Keep persisting, and your body will become extraordinarily powerful."

Lying weakly on the ground, Qin Youqin let out a faint voice, "Yes."

Paying her no further mind, Qin Anyu drew the blunt sword and began practicing the thirteen fundamental sword techniques.

Such daily practice gave him a renewed appreciation for these basic movements.

In the past, practicing these movements was merely to make the routines look more standard, but now he realized how superficial that notion had been.

Basic movements might appear simple and conventional, but they were actually the foundation of swordsmanship. Any complex move evolved from these fundamental actions; for instance, the self-created technique "Drawing Sword Style" was a fusion of six basic movements: sweeping, thrusting, intercepting, wiping, raising, and hanging.

Before creating this move, he had considered using his former offensive techniques, but he forcibly stopped himself, and finally, a flash of inspiration led him to instinctively execute this one.

Facts proved that this move was immensely powerful. Had the people of the Putian Sect not lacked martial virtue and swarmed him all together, he was confident he could have defeated those three hundred and odd Qi Refinement realm cultivators without even using sword intent.

When he finished the third basic movement, Qin Youqin finally managed to get up. Walking over to him, she asked, "Eldest Young Master, does using true qi to impact the meridians and acupoints hurt very much?"

Qin Anyu slung the sword behind his back. "What do you mean?"

"Last night, I still heard Second Young Master and Young Miss crying out in pain so much they haven't gotten out of bed yet. But I feel like the elasticity of my meridians has increased by fifteen percent, and it didn't hurt all that much to me."

Qin Anyu looked at her in astonishment. "You didn't feel any pain?"

"Just a tiny bit, but well within a tolerable range."

"How did you do it? Did any anomalies occur? Tell me everything."

His cultivation level was still merely at the Qi Refinement realm; even with vast soul power, his consciousness could not leave his body, so he couldn't check her internally and had to rely solely on her account.

After listening to her explanation, he immediately gave her a thumbs-up. "Remarkable."

Conducting body tempering once a day greatly enhanced their soul power. After tempering their bodies with pheasant vine, all three of them were capable of internal vision, which was why he had imparted the method of widening meridians to them, allowing them to manage it on their own.

This method had been figured out by the Qin Clan. To describe it simply, it was very straightforward: condense true qi into a cone, and then use the true qi to push that cone forward along the meridians, thereby expanding them.

While this method sounded simple, it was far from easy to execute. First, condensing the true qi into a cone required a cultivation technique; second, the excruciating pain during the process needed to be mitigated; and third, any potential damage to the meridians required healing, and even if undamaged, they still needed nourishment. Thus, it was a comprehensive engineering project.

Because he possessed a blunt physique with tightly closed and blocked meridians, the expansion process was agonizingly painful. However, his previous self had been different—born with naturally broad meridians and excellent resilience. Even under those favorable conditions, expanding them by twelve percent had brought agonizing pain.

Qin Youqin was different still. Her meridians were even broader and possessed greater resilience, which was why she only began to feel unbearable pain when expanding them to fifteen percent.

He had previously only thought her talent was exceptional, but he had never expected it to be this astonishing.

He then said, "Youqin, continue expanding them until you reach your limit. With broader meridians, you can now accommodate more true qi; with wider and deeper acupoints, you can store more true essence in the future. Your stamina will surpass others, your explosive power will be greater, and your survivability will exceed that of ordinary people."

Qin Youqin nodded. "Eldest Young Master, I will work hard."

Qin Anyu smiled. "You are already working very hard now."

She pouted slightly. "I feel like I'm still far behind Eldest Young Master. Eldest Young Master, why do you need to use so many mineral materials? Is your physical constitution different from ours?"

Qin Anyu had no intention of keeping it from her and told her about his blunt physique, leaving her dumbfounded.

So Eldest Young Master had a blunt physique, which explained why his path of cultivation had been so arduous. She couldn't help feeling a pang of heartache for him.

After a long moment, she asked, "Eldest Young Master, was your slow progress in the past entirely due to your physical constitution?"

Qin Anyu gave a bitter smile. "How could it not be?"

She immediately clapped her hands. "It's a good thing Eldest Young Master found a method, so your strength has improved this fast. That secret realm is truly wonderful."

She attributed her own ability to cultivate entirely to the secret realm beneath the Cliff of Despair.

Still, this worked out fine; his sudden mutation always needed some origin story.

She then asked again, "Eldest Young Master, how long will you keep up this kind of body tempering?"

Qin Anyu smiled and replied, "Until every single acupoint is unlocked and every single meridian is opened."

"When will that be?"

He gave a bitter smile. "Who knows?"

"Ai-ya, Eldest Young Master, you are the true pillar of perseverance. If I had that kind of constitution, I probably would have given up long ago."

Qin Anyu did not reply. He picked up the blunt sword and resumed practicing his basic movements.

No matter how long he had to persist, he would never give up.

Now that he had a method, and as the Wuwu Immortal Emperor destined to ascend to a higher plane, how could he possibly give up?

Upon stepping outside and seeing the two of them practicing basic movements, Qin Lingxue also took out her sword to practice.

In the secret realm beneath the Cliff of Despair, she had already grown accustomed to this style of cultivation.

Breakfast was still prepared by the people from the Qihuang Pharmacy. After finishing the meal, Qin Anyu continued lecturing them on medicinal herbs.

Though he seemed to be merely imparting knowledge, he actually gained immense rewards himself.

Through the lectures, memories regarding herbal knowledge were unearthed, which was equivalent to reviewing them. An even greater reward was that he could feel his soul ocean expanding and his sea of consciousness broadening.

This was the result of numerous memories being dug up, leading to a gradual expansion of his brain capacity, as well as the ongoing effects of the massive amount of herbal essence he had previously absorbed.

On the afternoon of the second day, he finished lecturing on all the herbs in the pharmacopoeia, and then introduced nine additional ones he had seen on his way here, such as the pheasant vine and returning-lotus vine, which caught them completely off guard.

They had assumed he would only lecture on the herbs in the pharmacopoeia, or at most the bitter fruit he had mentioned earlier, never expecting there to be others. This left them moved to tears, and they bluntly declared their wish to take him as their master.

How could Qin Anyu possibly take them as disciples? He wasn't even willing to accept them as registered disciples, so after dinner, he chased them away.