After the internet was disconnected, I connected to the magic world.

Lin Ze didn't wake up until noon the next day.

He was so excited that he couldn't sleep half the night after condensing a seed of fighting spirit last night.

He tossed and turned, trying to guide that faint warmth through his body, until dawn was approaching before finally succumbing to sleepiness.

The first thing I did when I woke up wasn't to reach for my phone, but to instinctively take a deep breath.

The faint warmth in my dantian was still there, quietly resting like a small worm; it wasn't a dream.

"Awesome."

Lin Ze grinned and got up to wash up.

The person in the mirror had bloodshot eyes, but their energy level was much better than yesterday, and even the dullness from years of staying up late had faded a bit.

He made himself a cup of instant noodles, ate it while sitting back down at his computer, and opened "Voice of the Magic Network".

Yesterday I was so busy condensing my battle qi seed that I only looked at the most basic introductory method.

If you really need to rely on this to build up your mental strength, you can't just practice blindly.

How to quickly condense battle qi, what are the basic combat techniques, and at what stage does the physical body begin to nourish the soul—all of these things need to be understood.

He clicked into the Warriors section and browsed through the featured posts for a long time, but the more he browsed, the less he felt it was enough.

General techniques are all commonplace; advanced skills are either kept secret or require purchasing with magic coins.

He doesn't have a single penny now, so he can't just sit and watch.

After thinking for a moment, he registered a new account, randomly choosing the ID "Wind in the Forest" and using the system's default gray rune as his profile picture, which looked completely unremarkable.

The post's title was very straightforward: "[Help Needed] I'm a newbie who just condensed my Battle Qi Seed, how can I train to advance quickly? Are there any beginner combat techniques you'd recommend?"

He wrote very simply, saying that he was a beginner and had no one to guide him, so he wanted to ask for advice from experienced people. His words revealed the awkwardness of a novice.

After clicking "post," he refreshed the page twice, and soon received a reply.

"Let's practice horse stance for three months first. What's the rush? There are no shortcuts for soldiers."

"Newcomers should honestly practice the basic general methods and not always think about crooked ways, or they might accidentally explode due to incorrect practice."

"I recommend the Mountain-Opening Fist, it's perfect for beginners. It's available in the trading area for 10 magic coins a set, not expensive."

They were all standard replies, nothing of substance.

Lin Ze wasn't in a hurry. He ate instant noodles while browsing through the buildings, occasionally noting down anything useful he found.

When he scrolled to the twentieth floor, a reply suddenly popped up, making his heart skip a beat.

"Wait a minute, something's not right. A newly formed Battle Apprentice can't even connect to the Magic Network, so how can you post on the forum?"

As soon as this sentence was uttered, the subsequent replies immediately went off-topic.

"Holy crap, it really is! A Battle Apprentice-level mental strength can't even reach 0.3, let alone trigger the magic network connection. How did you even get on here?"

"Could it be some idle mage pretending to be a warrior to mess with us?"

"It's also possible that they stole the Magic Network access from an elder in the family?"

No, a Battle Apprentice-level cultivator simply cannot withstand the mental pull of the magic network; they would faint instantly.

Lin Ze's fork froze in mid-air, and a cold sweat instantly broke out on his back.

He was so focused on asking questions that he completely forgot about this!

In the early stages, warriors have weak mental strength and cannot connect to the magic network at all; this is common knowledge on the forums.

It's suspicious that a novice warrior can browse forums and post normally; it's easy to see why.

Damn it, I overlooked that.

His mind raced, and his palms were sweating.

What if someone discovers something is wrong and starts investigating?

Although we are separated by two worlds, and the other party is unlikely to be able to find us, what if this forum has some kind of cross-world tracking method?

No, we absolutely cannot expose this.

He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, placed his fingers on the keyboard, and quickly typed a reply.

"Huh? I'm not a soldier."

I am a Dharma apprentice, and I am asking this question on behalf of my cousin from a collateral branch of the family.

Our home is in a remote, large plane with poor magic network signal. My cousin doesn't have a stable connection to the magic network, and I managed to connect once, so I'm asking around for him.

After typing, he read it again, deliberately adding a youthful tone, making him sound like a naive young man from a small-town family who had never seen the world.

After thinking for a moment, he added, "Warriors and mages aren't separated where I'm from. My cousin isn't naturally strong enough, so he can only play as a warrior. I'm just asking for him. Is that okay?"

After sending it, he stared at the screen, his heart pounding.

This lie wasn't perfectly convincing; whether it would work depended entirely on whether the other party believed it.

Fortunately, there are many idle people on the forum, and no one is fixated on this point.

"Oh, so you're a relative of the Master's family. I see."

"Remote planes are really troublesome. The magic network doesn't cover them, and warriors can't even access the forums. It's terrible."

"Let me tell you the truth: beginners shouldn't do anything fancy. First, master the basic stance training and condense your battle qi until it can cover your whole body. Then you will naturally advance to the level of a battle master."

"Combat skills aren't urgent. Without sufficient battle qi to support them, learning them will just be a waste of time and energy."

"The person upstairs is right. If you really want to speed things up, hunt more magical beasts and use their blood essence to temper your body. It's twice as fast as training by death."

It's dangerous; even in your remote dimensions, you probably don't have the conditions.

The topic quickly veered back to cultivation techniques, and no one doubted his identity anymore.

Lin Ze let out a long sigh of relief; the sweat on his back had cooled down.

That was close; we almost lost right at the start.

He dared not ask questions in a novice's tone again, and following the persona of "apprentice mage from a remote plane," he asked a few more questions, trying to subtly inquire about the details of the warrior system.

After talking for more than half an hour, he finally figured out the approach.

The path of a warrior is a constant struggle against physical limitations.

Battle energy comes from blood and qi, resides in the dantian, and is used to temper muscles, bones, and flesh, building up layer by layer.

From apprentice to master to grandmaster, it's all about physical training; spiritual power increases only slightly, almost negligibly, along with the physical body.

Only when one reaches the Battle Master realm, when battle qi begins to nourish the internal organs, will spiritual power increase significantly.

To truly reach the Battle Saint realm where "the physical body nourishes the soul," one must not even dream of it without decades of arduous cultivation.

And most importantly—

These people have absolutely no idea what "meridians" are.

Lin Ze searched through all the posts, and everyone said that the circulation of battle qi "goes along the flesh and blood" and "seeps into the bones".

At most, they would mention "battle aura passage," but even that passage was vague, and no one could clearly explain its specific route.

It's like a group of people walking in the dark, only knowing the general direction, but not knowing there's a path under their feet.

As for mages, they rely entirely on mental power to communicate with the magic network. Their spell models are all built in their consciousness, and their understanding of their bodies is not as good as that of warriors.

Lin Ze stroked his chin, and a thought slowly emerged in his mind.

That's not right.

Battle Qi resides in the dantian, circulating throughout the body to temper the physical form...

This sounds just like the internal energy in those martial arts novels he used to read online.

Their internal energy has proper meridian pathways, including the twelve regular meridians, the eight extraordinary meridians, and acupoints one after another. It emphasizes circulating energy along the meridians, making it extremely efficient.

If you follow the meridian pathways with your fighting spirit, wouldn't it be much faster than practicing blindly?

If it were truly possible to refine essence into qi and qi into spirit, as the Taoists say, wouldn't the speed at which one's spiritual power grow be able to take off?

Once the idea popped into my head, it grew wildly like weeds.

Western magic and warrior systems have both reached a dead end.

One relied on the magic network, the other focused on the physical body; neither thought of exploring the body's potential further.

But our ancestors in the East had already thoroughly studied the human body!

Lin Ze became more and more excited as he thought about it, and his fingers even trembled a little.

While others only have one path, he holds two systems of civilization in his hands.

If we could combine the two, not only would it accelerate the growth of mental strength, but it might also lead to a completely different path.

A true path to immortality that belongs to him alone.