Chapter 3: Heaven and Earth Profound Qi

Chapter 3: Heaven and Earth Profound Qi

In the dimly lit mansion of the Jian Pavilion Marquis House...

"That waste actually spent the entire day reading in the Book Repository?" Ning Qianwu sat on a jade-carved armchair, lightly stroking the two wisps of hair on his upper lip, his eyes gleaming with an intimidating sharpness.

Ning Han replied, "Reporting to Father, I find it strange as well. I thought that after Ning the Sickly came back from the dead, he would surely come seeking revenge against me and Wang Yunchong. I had already prepared countermeasures, but it seems as though he has completely forgotten how we killed him. Instead, he spent the whole day reading in the Book Repository."

Ning Han was Ning Qianwu's son, eighteen years old this year. By blood relation, Ning Xiaochuan should address him as his elder cousin.

Ning Xiaochuan's death had been orchestrated by Ning Han, who deliberately lured him to a brothel and incited him to provoke a conflict with other young nobles. In the end, Ning Xiaochuan was struck dead by a single palm strike from Wang Yunchong, the son of the Heavenly Elephant Marquis.

The incident was forcibly suppressed by several young nobles, who spread the story that Ning Xiaochuan had died of rage after failing to win the favor of a courtesan.

Dying from anger naturally couldn't be blamed on anyone else—dead men tell no tales.

But who could have predicted that Ning Xiaochuan would come back to life?

That day had left Ning Han and Wang Yunchong on edge. They weren’t afraid of Ning Xiaochuan seeking revenge—after all, he was just a sickly weakling with no strength to fight. What they feared was that he would report the incident to the elders of the Marquis House.

If the matter escalated, many people would be implicated.

Yet, Ning the Sickly had spent the entire day reading in the Book Repository. This move was truly baffling, leaving even the cunning and experienced Ning Qianwu at a loss.

After a long silence, Ning Qianwu said, "I’ve already spoken to the elders of the Marquis House. Even if that little waste lodges a complaint, it won’t cause much of a stir. The key now is to leave no traces in the brothel. Anyone who knows about this matter must be silenced permanently."

"I understand, Father!" A ruthless glint flashed in Ning Han’s eyes.

...

Night fell, but the Jian Pavilion Marquis House remained brightly lit.

The sound of swords clashing still echoed from the training grounds, where many disciples of the Marquis House practiced their swordplay under the moonlight. The sharp hum of sword energy filled the air, and when they grew tired, they sat on chairs by the training grounds, where maidservants attended to them, wiping their sweat and massaging their backs.

Meanwhile, Ning Xiaochuan sat by the window in an attic, a single lamp illuminating the book in his hands—Heaven and Earth Profound Qi.

This courtyard was relatively quiet. Apart from him and Ning Xin'er, there were only four maidservants in attendance. Compared to the bustling Jian Pavilion Marquis House, this residence was rather shabby.

According to the book, profound qi permeated the heavens and earth, but only those who possessed a Martial Arts Heart Palace could perceive its existence.

Absorbing profound qi into the body and storing it within the Martial Arts Heart Palace allowed it to circulate through the bloodstream, tempering bones, flesh, internal organs, and ultimately elevating one’s physique beyond that of an ordinary person.

Ning Xiaochuan decided to follow the book’s instructions and attempt cultivation.

First, enter a meditative state.

Achieve the State of Forgetting Both Self and Surroundings, and perceive the presence of profound qi in the heavens and earth.

Ning Xiaochuan closed his eyes. After roughly half an hour, he suddenly sensed a faint stream of qi flowing between heaven and earth, seeping into his pores like countless tiny spirit dragons. It merged with his blood, causing the blood throughout his body to boil, and his blood vessels trembled incessantly.

After one Zhou Tian Cycle, the Profound Qi flowed into his heart, storing itself within the Martial Arts Heart Palace.

The Martial Arts Heart Palace resembled a radiant star hidden at the center of his heart—vast in space, with a misty qi sea. The Martial Arts Profound Qi dispersed from his blood, surged into the Heart Palace, and stirred the qi within, making it churn violently.

The amount of Martial Arts Profound Qi in his body had increased.

Ning Xiaochuan felt the speed of blood flow in his body quicken slightly. The strength of his blood vessels and his physical body improved accordingly, and the rate at which he absorbed Heaven and Earth Profound Qi grew faster and faster.

Just like that, his blood circulated through his body thirty-six Zhou Tian Cycles.

"Boom!"

Ning Xiaochuan's heart suddenly trembled violently, and the Profound Qi between heaven and earth madly rushed into his pores.

The Martial Arts Profound Qi within his Martial Arts Heart Palace doubled in an instant.

Profound Qi Third Layer!

"Martial Arts is too easy to cultivate. In less than an hour, I’ve already advanced a whole realm." Ning Xiaochuan felt refreshed, his entire body brimming with power, without sensing the slightest difficulty in cultivation.

The Profound Qi Realm was divided into nine layers:

The first three layers—refining qi and condensing strength.

The middle three layers—qi exhaling and coiling around the body.

The last three layers—pointing qi like a sword.

Ning Xiaochuan had now reached the Profound Qi Third Layer. If he advanced one more layer to the Profound Qi Fourth Layer, his Profound Qi could burst out from his pores and envelop his skin.

When defending, the Profound Qi would be as sturdy as armor, impervious to blades.

When attacking, the Profound Qi would be as sharp as a battle sword—a single palm strike could split a tree as thick as a bowl.

Ning Xiaochuan didn’t know that the reason he could cultivate so swiftly was because the Old Marquis had once used his Earth Martial Essence to nourish his heart meridian for ten years. A vast amount of Earth Martial Essence lay hidden in his blood, and as he cultivated, this essence was gradually stimulated and released.

This was precisely why, without even cultivating, merely sleeping for one night had allowed him to step into the Profound Qi Second Layer. Now, effortlessly reaching the Profound Qi Third Layer was no surprise!

The amount of Earth Martial Essence the Old Marquis had left behind was enough to turn an ordinary martial artist into a peerless expert. Ning Xiaochuan had only activated a tiny fraction of it so far. As his cultivation grew higher, this Earth Martial Essence would be released even faster.

Of course, if Ning Xiaochuan never managed to repair his heart meridian in his lifetime, he would never be able to access this power.

"The cultivation of Profound Qi is truly miraculous. Through the blood vessels, the Profound Qi is absorbed into the Heart Palace, then flows back into the blood vessels, nourishing the entire body and continuously strengthening it."

Ning Xiaochuan discovered something very interesting—whenever he circulated Martial Arts Profound Qi, the speed of his blood flow would increase.

For an ordinary person, it took about three minutes for blood to complete one full circulation through the body.

Now that Ning Xiaochuan had reached the Profound Qi Third Layer, if he deliberately cultivated, it only took two minutes for his blood to complete one Zhou Tian Cycle.

In one hour, he could complete sixty Zhou Tian Cycles.

An ordinary person could only complete forty Zhou Tian Cycles in the same time.

In other words, the higher one's cultivation level, the faster the blood circulates, and the quicker one absorbs Heaven and Earth Profound Qi.

"According to the book, completing ten Zhou Tian Cycles in one minute will trigger a transformation in the body, completely surpassing mortal flesh and evolving into a Divine Martial Body. The power unleashed would be unimaginable to ordinary people. Impressive!" Ning Xiaochuan developed a strong interest in martial cultivation.

In his past life, he had read martial arts novels where powerful cultivators trained their dantian and meridians, but those were pure nonsense. He had dissected countless corpses and never found any meridians. If the human body truly had a dantian, it would be bizarre.

However, blood vessels and the heart were undeniably real, with blood flowing to every part of the body. If Martial Arts Profound Qi could be stored in the blood, it could indeed nourish the entire body, triggering an earth-shattering transformation.

Creak!

Ning Xin'er returned from her training at the martial field and noticed the light still on in Ning Xiaochuan's room. She pushed the door open, revealing her delicate and beautiful face, and scolded, "Brother, your constitution is weak. Why aren't you resting yet?"

"Heh! I'm researching how to cultivate Martial Arts Profound Qi," Ning Xiaochuan replied with a smile.

Ning Xin'er asked, "Did you borrow a cultivation manual from the Book Repository?"

Ning Xiaochuan nodded and picked up Heaven and Earth Profound Qi from the table. "This one."

Ning Xin'er was momentarily speechless. "That's not a cultivation manual at all—just a basic book explaining Heaven and Earth Profound Qi. You can buy a copy on the street for five small coins."

"Ah! It's not a cultivation manual?" Ning Xiaochuan scratched his head. If it wasn't, then why had he been able to sense and absorb Heaven and Earth Profound Qi using the methods described in the book?

Ning Xin'er explained, "Of course, commoners who can't obtain real cultivation manuals have no choice but to rely on the basic methods in Heaven and Earth Profound Qi. But their progress is extremely slow—it might take decades just to reach the Profound Qi Third Layer, or the Fourth Layer at most."

"Not at all! I think the content in this book is excellent and orthodox, definitely written by a master," Ning Xiaochuan insisted.

Ning Xin'er said, "It was written by a remarkable master—otherwise, it wouldn’t be so widely circulated. But it’s too basic. I could recite it backward by the time I was six. Brother, you’ve never practiced martial arts before, so you don’t understand the marvels of true cultivation techniques. For example, our Jian Pavilion Marquis House’s Heart Furnace Divine Canon uses the heart as a furnace and blood as fuel, burning blood into qi."

"Reaching the first layer of the Heart Furnace Divine Canon allows one to absorb Martial Arts Profound Qi ten times faster than Heaven and Earth Profound Qi."

"Reaching the second layer makes it twenty times faster."

"That’s what a true divine cultivation technique is like. Compared to the Heart Furnace Divine Canon, Heaven and Earth Profound Qi is like dirt beneath the heavens—there’s simply no comparison."

Ning Xiaochuan, however, felt that the Heart Furnace Divine Canon seemed somewhat unorthodox. While it might indeed be fast and powerful, he doubted it was the true path—certainly not as orthodox as Heaven and Earth Profound Qi.

Therefore, he decided not to cultivate the Heart Furnace Divine Canon and instead focused on Heaven and Earth Profound Qi, using his own body to commune with the heavens and earth. If the human heart could be a furnace, then why couldn’t the heavens and earth be an even greater one?

Ning Xin'er knew that Ning Xiaochuan’s constitution was too weak to cultivate Martial Arts Profound Qi, so she didn’t argue further. To someone incapable of cultivation, was there any real difference between reading about Heaven and Earth Profound Qi and the Heart Furnace Divine Canon?

Worried about Ning Xiaochuan’s health and fearing he would stay up late reading, she forcibly dragged him to bed. Only after watching him close his eyes did she return to her own room, sitting cross-legged on her bed to circulate her bloodline and cultivate the Heart Furnace Divine Canon, refining Martial Arts Profound Qi.

Ning Xiaochuan, of course, did not sleep. Instead, he lay in bed, sensing the profound qi between heaven and earth. The qi grew active, flowing into his pores, seeping into his blood, and gathering within his heart palace.

His heart beat powerfully as a small blood-colored sword hovered in his left ventricle, flickering with faint light. Thin strands of sword energy pulsed from it, slowly merging with his blood.