The First Sword of the Universe

Chapter 404 How to deal with Yue Laosan's internal energy?

"Ah, Brother Xu, you've caused me so much suffering!"

Duan Yu looked up at the sky and cried out, his face contorted with bitterness, as if he had eaten a bitter herb. He was filled with anguish, distress, frustration, and bitterness.

Xu Xingchen chuckled and calmly comforted her, "Relax! Relax! Maybe this will be a good thing?!"

These words earned Duan Yu a roll of his eyes!
Zhong Ling and Mu Wanqing, who were standing to the side, were both inexperienced and unaware of many things; therefore, they were completely baffled by the mystery between Xu Xingchen and Duan Yu.

Similarly, they couldn't understand how Xu Xingchen had managed to drive away Duan Yanqing, the leader of the Four Evils, using Duan Yu's birth date and time.
However, even if they didn't know the reason, they were still amazed that Xu Xingchen had managed to make the legendary Four Evils so miserable, with one dead, two fleeing, and one crippled.
This result left the two of them utterly astonished and deeply shocked!
Mu Wanqing carried the baby that Ye Erniang had kidnapped out from behind the tree and said to Xu Xingchen, "What should we do with this baby, Xu?"

Xu Xingchen glanced at the sun, which was already beginning to set in the west, and said, "That Ye Erniang must have snatched this baby from nearby; when we leave this wilderness, we can ask the local people, and we should be able to find his parents."

The baby was simple-minded and perceptive. After being freed from the embrace of that wicked old woman, Ye Erniang, he immediately became well-behaved.

Previously, when Mu Wanqing hid her behind a tree, she didn't make a fuss or cry. Now, when Mu Wanqing holds her in her arms again, she is still happy and cheerful.

After sitting on the ground crying for a long time, Yue Laosan saw that Xu Xingchen ignored him, so he could only get up from the ground in anger and anxiety, pat the dirt off his buttocks, and leap into the distant mountains and forests.

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Compared to his swift movements when he arrived, his departure was much slower.

He was only slightly faster than Mu Wanqing, which shows how astonishingly much energy he had lost!
After the figure disappeared into the woods, Yue Laosan's angry roar could be heard from afar: "Xu Xingchen, you just wait; I will definitely recover my lost internal energy, and then I will come back to take my revenge on you!"

Xu Xingchen sent his voice out: "I advise you to find a good place to cultivate in seclusion and stop causing trouble and killing innocent people everywhere; otherwise, before you can recover your strength and come to take revenge on me, your enemies will find you and beat you to death, which is very cruel!"

There was no sound coming from the forest, which clearly meant that Yue Laosan had gone far away.

Xu Xingchen carried the jade statue, and the four of them set off again.

All the way
Duan Yu was preoccupied with something on his mind, his thoughts were in turmoil, and he was unwilling to speak.

Mu Wanqing and Zhong Ling whispered amongst themselves, feeling awe towards Xu Xingchen and not daring to speak to him casually.

This gave Xu Xingchen time to think things through.

The 70% internal energy absorbed from Yue Laosan was nothing compared to Xu Xingchen's own immense and unparalleled internal energy.

However, with so much internal energy concentrated in the Tanzhong acupoint, my chest felt bloated and somewhat uncomfortable.

At this point, one only needs to activate the Qi Transformation Method of the Northern Darkness Divine Art, circulating this internal energy throughout the body for one cycle, and it will be completely transformed into one's own internal energy and integrated into one's dantian.

According to the records of the Northern Darkness Divine Skill manual, this is a perfect and rapid method for accumulating internal energy.
But Xu Xingchen did not want to do this!

Because he had some doubts about the records of the Northern Darkness Divine Art.

Even the Northern Darkness Divine Skill recorded on that silk scroll, which praised the "all rivers flow into the sea" method, was full of pride and arrogance, and boasted that it was the most top-level internal energy cultivation method in the world.

But Xu Xingchen still had reservations about it!

In his view, the internal strength that everyone cultivates is the condensation of a person's essence, energy, and spirit.

No matter how powerful your Beiming Divine Art of Qi Transformation is, even if you can erase the spiritual imprint in someone else's internal energy, how can you erase the life imprint in someone else's internal energy?
If it can be erased, can that internal force still exist?
This is just like the saying "incense is poisonous"!
Even if you filter and transform it a thousand times, you can never truly make someone else's inner strength pure and flawless.

In the world of the book, Duan Yu relied on the Northern Darkness Divine Skill to absorb the internal energy of many masters, thus establishing an unparalleled level of cultivation in a very short time.

Later, he became the emperor of the Dali Kingdom without any illness or disaster, and lived to a ripe old age until his death.
Everything looks perfect!

But for Xu Xingchen, who pursued the purest and most refined power, he dared not harbor any illusions.

Just like in the previous world, after his decisive battle in the Southern Song Dynasty palace, he still dissipated all his internal energy.

Afterwards, he spent more than half a month restoring and replenishing his internal energy in a state of harmony with nature.

Therefore, he did not want the internal energy of Yue Laosan in his Tanzhong acupoint to remain in his body for long.

After much thought, he felt that simply expelling it from his body would be a waste; it would be better to find an opportunity to inject it into Duan Yu's body to help him initially cultivate the Northern Darkness Divine Art.

Given Duan Yu's kind nature, even if he mastered the Northern Darkness Divine Art, he wouldn't pose much of a threat to the world.

Moreover, his intervention and disruption ruined many of Duan Yu's opportunities.

This internal energy can be considered compensation for Duan Yu!

The four walked for half a day, and as it was getting dark, they finally arrived at a village.

When I went inside and asked, it turned out to be quite a coincidence.

In this village, a young couple lost their baby this morning while they were out working. Following word of mouth from the neighbors, the young couple who had lost their child quickly arrived at the village entrance.

The baby in Mu Wanqing's arms saw the couple and immediately danced with joy, crying out, "Mother! Mother! Hug me! Mother!"

The young couple stepped forward and took the baby that Mu Wanqing handed over.

Overwhelmed with joy at having lost it and found it again, the two burst into tears!

Among Xu Xingchen and the other three.
Duan Yu's mood didn't recover all afternoon!

Mu Wanqing is aloof and doesn't like to talk much!
Zhong Ling is lively by nature, but it's just the cunning of a young girl.

None of these three were very good at these kinds of polite remarks.

So, in the end, it was Xu Xingchen who spoke up and explained the whole story.

He vividly recounted how he and his companions encountered the wicked woman who had kidnapped the baby, and how they outwitted and outmaneuvered her.

This story discards any trace of the other three of the Four Evils, focusing solely on the exciting and arduous battle between the four of them and the wicked Ye Erniang.

In the end, the four cleverly tricked the baby out of Ye Erniang's hands and scared her away.
The story was so captivating and full of twists and turns that the villagers gathered around the four of them gasped in amazement. Their emotions rose and fell with Xu Xingchen's narration, their expressions shifting from tension to sighs, joy, and wonder.
Duan Yu, Mu Wanqing, and Zhong Ling, who were standing to the side, listened to Xu Xingchen, whom they considered unfathomable, making up stories and boasting to the villagers in front of them. Their eyes were filled with complex and incomprehensible disbelief.

The young couple and the villagers, to thank Xu Xingchen and his companions for successfully rescuing their child, specially reserved two clean, empty rooms for the four of them to rest in.

Zhong Ling and Mu Wanqing shared a room, while Duan Yu and Xu Xingchen shared a room.

A little while later, the young couple brought over some simple food for the four of them to eat.

The couple then left the room, expressing their deepest gratitude.

Zhong Ling, being the most lively and active, asked the question that had been buried in her heart for a long time: "Brother Xu, why don't we just tell them the story of how we rescued the child? Why make up such a story?"

Upon hearing this, Duan Yu and Mu Wanqing also looked over, waiting for Xu Xingchen's explanation.

Xu Xingchen noticed that no villagers were approaching within a hundred meters, then smiled and said, "Most people in the world are foolish; if I were to tell them directly that I easily defeated Ye Erniang and snatched the baby back, they would be happy, but they would inevitably have some doubts."

"Because the three of you don't look very old; while I am actually older than you, I don't look much older."

"That's the crux of the problem."

"In their minds, how could the four of us, so young, possibly be a match for the Four Evils?"

"They certainly wouldn't believe that my martial arts skills are better than those Four Evils."

"But what if I said that the four of us, through a battle of wits and courage, managed to snatch the baby from Ye Erniang's hands?"

"This is the kind of explanation that will fit the villagers' expectations, so they won't be suspicious or have any doubts; they'll truly believe and be grateful to the four of us."

Duan Yu shook his head and said, "Living like this, with so much scheming; Brother Xu, aren't you tired of living like this?"

Xu Xingchen said, "Someone like me possesses considerable martial arts skills; there are very few people in the world who can make me go against my will; most of the time, I can do as I please and act as I please."

"I could either impulsively fabricate such a wonderful story for the villagers, or I could simply return the baby to the couple, say nothing, and walk away."

"All actions shall be in accordance with my heart and my will!"

At this point, Xu Xingchen looked at Zhong Ling, Mu Wanqing, and the thoughtful Duan Yu, and continued, "Brother Duan, your experiences these past few days have been quite colorful; but many times, you were often not in control of your own destiny and were subject to the control of others. How did you feel about that feeling of powerlessness?"

Duan Yu looked up at Xu Xingchen: "Brother Xu, are you trying to persuade me to practice martial arts?"

Xu Xingchen nodded and said, "That's right!"

Zhong Ling chimed in, "Young Master Duan, what's wrong with practicing martial arts? With martial arts, you can not only fly around freely, but you also won't be bullied. If you encounter any evildoers, you can teach them a lesson. Young Master Duan, you really should practice martial arts."

Mu Wanqing had already learned some things about Duan Yu from Zhong Ling. At this moment, she looked at Duan Yu with disdain and said coldly, "Placing one's own life and safety under the mercy and pity of others is an extremely foolish thing to do!"

Duan Yu listened to the three men's advice, which was either well-intentioned or disdainful, and didn't say much on the surface, but he was stubbornly muttering to himself.

"Does learning martial arts solve everything?"

"Can the hardships of ordinary people, the harvests of farmers, and the business of small merchants be resolved through martial arts?"

(End of this chapter)