The author of the book "The Book of the Dead"

Chapter 5 A lotus in the eternal blue sky
At the Liu family residence, Liu Jue was riding a wooden horse and eating the candied fruits brought by Liang Yue.

The courtyard is not big, but unlike the Liang family’s house where vegetables are grown, it is much wider.

With his upper body naked, Liu Chong practiced external martial arts. Sometimes he stretched his limbs off the ground and looked back, sometimes he climbed onto objects and hung himself, stretching and retracting his body; sometimes he hugged his knees and raised his hands, standing on one leg.

Every move he makes is like that of an animal in the forest.

The breath was long and lingering, and Liang Yue often took ten breaths before Liu Chong completed one breath.

After a long time, Liu Chong let out a long sigh and the practice was over.

"Great martial arts." Liang Yue applauded and praised, "I have always admired martial artists like Brother Liu who are so capable of flying over eaves and walls, and are invulnerable to swords and spears. You are truly an extraordinary person."

"My dear brother, you are too kind. There is no magical power that is invulnerable. To practice martial arts, one must strengthen the muscles and bones every day. Over the years, one must sense the blood and energy of the body before one can build up internal strength. Many knights cannot make ends meet, so they often become servants of wealthy families or join the army to kill the enemy. They are not as free and easy as you are."

"The way of practicing martial arts can help you maintain your health and prolong your life. If it's convenient for you, Brother Liu, I'd like to give it a try." Liang Yue finally expressed his inner thoughts.

Liu Chong did not hide his secrets and said, "The exercise I practice is called Wuqin Daoyin Gong, which was adapted by Hua Tuo based on Zhuangzi's Erqin Xi. It was particularly popular within the Wudoumi Sect during the reign of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty. If you are interested, it would be no harm to learn it."

Next, Liu Chong explained while practicing.

"The five animals are tiger, deer, bear, ape and bird. Hua Tuo practiced them to perfection and at the age of ninety or so, his ears and eyes were sharp and his teeth were strong."

"The Five Animals are external skills. By practicing external skills and moving Qi and blood, internal strength will naturally develop. The internal strength will then feed back to the body."

"The way of internal strength has three levels: high, medium and low."

"A low-grade master has a strong body and is as strong as an ox. A mid-grade master can eat a bowl of rice a day, jump more than ten feet, and break rocks. A high-grade master has a long-lasting breath and can fight a hundred battles without losing his energy and blood due to old age."

Liu Chong is twenty-six years old and has been practicing martial arts for more than eighteen years since he was a child.

He is currently at the level of a mid-level expert, with a force of a thousand pounds. If he is dealing with an unarmored and lightly-armored enemy, he can defeat 20 at a time. If he is wearing armor, he can defeat 100 at a time.

If placed in the army, he can lead an army of a thousand men.

Liang Yue closed his eyes and sensed the internal energy and blood that Liu Chong mentioned.

Internal force is not true qi, but the principle is similar to true qi. Internal force converts the energy of the body and food into a substance like heat flow. With the blessing of internal force, a person's physical fitness will grow rapidly.

External Kung Fu is about training people's control over their own muscles.

What if you have a strong spiritual power and are born with the ability of inner vision?

Can we quickly pass through the external power stage and directly transform the internal power?

Liang Yue roughly understood the principle.

Then he practiced the Five Animal Exercises while sensing the changes in himself.

"No, push down a little more." Liu Chong pointed out the key points of the movements. He was curious about this rebellious scholar. The scholars of the time hated the sweaty and breathless martial arts the most. He didn't expect that there would be a scholar who would take the initiative to ask to practice martial arts.

However, this kid should give up soon. After all, a martial artist needs to have the spirit of Zu Ti who gets up and practices martial arts upon hearing the cock-crow.

Liang Yue fell into a state of flow, looking inward at his internal organs.

Although he looks no different from ordinary people, the quality of his soul is extremely high. After all, he is at the first level of corpse reincarnation.

While practicing, the innate spiritual silkworm lay on his shoulders and looked extremely active.

After an unknown amount of time, Liang Yue felt a warm current brewing in his lower dantian.

I don’t know how to describe this flow of heat in words, I just felt that my movements became a lot lighter.

Liang Yue stopped, opened his eyes, looked at his hands, felt a little excited, and his breathing became a little rapid.

Is this the mysterious inner force?
After traveling through time for many years, he finally understood the martial arts power that he longed for in his previous life.

What excited him was not this, but the ability of Taiyi Corpse Guarding Technique; using the powerful spirit of a cultivator to practice this kind of mortal secret technique could be said to be a dimensionality reduction attack, like turning on the simple speed-pass mode of the game.

Liu Chong smiled as expected and said, "The most important thing in martial arts training is perseverance. I practiced external skills for a year before I could barely sense the Qi."

Liang Yue suddenly struck Liu Chong with a palm.

Such power naturally could not hurt Liu Chong, but he noticed something unusual.

"What? You developed internal strength?" Liu Chong could never have imagined that this brother was actually a rare genius. "Brother, it's a pity for you to study... No, what's the point of practicing martial arts?"

The nobles could be the Grand Commander, while the warriors could only be the generals under him. In the next two days, Liang Yue fought against Liu Chong.

The more Liu Chong fought, the more frightened he became. This kid had a great learning ability and quickly mastered the fighting style.

The next day.

Liang Yue, with a sword on his waist and a package on his back, ran quickly in the forest.

His body was as light as a bird's and his strength increased by more than ten pounds.

"If I keep practicing like this, it shouldn't be a problem for me to live past 80, right?" Liang Yue thought.

In the next few days, Liang Yue practiced martial arts as soon as he got out of school, and his appetite doubled.

Liang Yue felt that he would soon have a year's worth of internal strength.

The stage from one year's internal strength to ten years' internal strength is called the lower grade.

Ten to thirty years is medium quality.

Going above that is the top grade, and top grade masters can easily live to be eighty years old.

This day, night.

In the dormitory courtyard, Liang Yue, shirtless, was leaping and jumping, practicing the Five Animal Exercises, his sweat steaming like hot air.

After a long time, the exercise is over.

There is a ball of heat the size of a little finger in the lower abdomen. With the blessing of the heat, the physical fitness in all aspects of the body is greatly enhanced.

Suddenly, the internal force seemed to be running around in his body like a headless fly. Liang Yue's face turned pale and he was sweating profusely.

"What... is going on?" Liang Yue's facial features were distorted, and he felt like someone was punching his internal organs.

He quickly sat cross-legged and looked inward.

The lower dantian is a gloomy and dark chaotic space.

A ball of fire kept moving like a meteor.

This is internal strength.

Suddenly, the innate spiritual silkworm appeared, and its chubby body instantly moved in front of the fireball, swallowing the fireball bit by bit as if it was chewing mulberry leaves.

In a short while, all the internal strength Liang Yue had worked so hard to cultivate was wasted.

After a while, the innate spiritual silkworm spit out nebula-like white light, which contained rich vitality.

Liang Yue's mind fell, and turned into heart fire that fell into his dantian.

In an instant, the Dantian became bright and the sky was red. At the same time, a soul identical to Liang Yue appeared.

In front of the translucent soul, the heart fire fell into the white light, and the two began to intersect.

In an instant, it was just like "the blue dragon rode on fire to swim in the lotus pond, and the white tiger stirred up waves to leave the cave."

The heart and kidney interact, and water and fire are in harmony.

The essence, energy and spirit are united for a long time, and then a ray of tranquil and empty milky white light is born.

It is so mysterious and wonderful that it is beyond words.

The moment the spiritual light is born, you feel refreshed and all fatigue disappears.

"Could this... be... true energy?" Liang Yue suddenly understood and was extremely excited.

Done! It’s finally done!
If his heart wasn't in his body, he would have jumped up and cheered immediately.

After five years of research, hard work paid off and finally saw the light! Who would have thought that the method of moving qi and blood practiced by martial artists could produce incredible effects with spiritual silkworms.

God knows how difficult this road is.

The spiritual energy is annihilated. In the Dharma Ending Age, this wisp of true energy is like a bright lamp in a dark room and a lotus in the eternal blue sky.

(End of this chapter)