The Immortal Seeker: Legend of Bronze Mirror
Chapter 63 - 59 Six Yang

Chapter 63: Chapter 59 Six Yang

Xu Qing stood in the courtyard, bathed in sunlight.

Bull Demon Strong Fist is a masculine fist skill, best practiced during the daytime for optimal effect.

However, it was now close to winter. Even though the sun was shining, the north wind still made the courtyard chilly. But Xu Qing was not afraid; his body could now withstand cold water baths in this weather.

Wearing thin training clothes, Xu Qing moved through the motions of punches and kicks, shaking his limbs.

Thanks to the foundation laid by Crane Form Skill and Eight Diagram Wandering Palm, Xu Qing’s limb coordination far exceeded the requirements of Bull Demon Strong Fist.

In a state of Absolute Focus, Xu Qing quickly grasped the basics.

"Indeed, martial arts truly require a physical gift; without the foundation laid by Crane Form Skill and Eight Diagram Wandering Palm, even if I understood all the moves of Bull Demon Strong Fist, I wouldn’t be able to perform some actions correctly or they would distort, not achieving the desired effect," Xu Qing reflected during his training.

His body’s martial arts aptitude was originally mediocre, but the Crane Form Skill and Eight Diagram Wandering Palm potentially enhanced his physical qualifications for martial arts training.

Otherwise, even with his current Divine Soul strength, without the basis of Crane Form Skill and Eight Diagram Wandering Palm, cultivating Bull Demon Strong Fist would still present many challenges.

It would not be as smooth as it was now.

But ordinary people lack Xu Qing’s opportunities; just cultivating Crane Form Skill could take at least a decade, and by then starting Bull Demon Strong Fist would mean missing the prime training period, resulting in diminished returns.

Thus, even with the talent improvements from Crane Form Skill and Eight Diagram Wandering Palm, there isn’t enough time.

Xu Qing’s path is truly inimitable for most people.

Bull Demon Strong Fist consists of three techniques: Bull Demon Horn, Bull Demon Stepping Hoof, and Bull Demon Skin Movement, each with over a hundred variations.

Bull Demon Horn increases muscular strength, Stepping Hoof is for Muscle Training, and Skin Movement increases the skin’s resistance to blows.

Xu Qing progressed fastest with Bull Demon Stepping Hoof. Since Crane Form Skill inherently covers the effects of Stepping Hoof.

The difference is that Bull Demon Stepping Hoof has a more significant strengthening effect on the sinews than Crane Form Skill.

While Crane Form Skill’s contribution to muscle training strength has become negligible, Bull Demon Stepping Hoof still offers notable results.

Strong muscles build strong bones.

Practicing Bull Demon Stepping Hoof, coupled with Crane Call which further strengthens the spine, enhanced the effects.

Xu Qing gained clear insights.

Although his martial arts had reached the level of Bone Training, the process of Muscle Training was still far from complete. "Bone Training" only means he could focus more on professional bone training and doesn’t imply the end of Muscle Training.

"Looking at it this way, my current methods for Bone Training are still too limited and singular. While strengthening the spine improves my physique, the scope of bone training is not comprehensive enough."

The more he cultivated, the more he realized the endlessness of Martial Arts Training, and how far he was from the legendary Hua Realm Divine Strength in terms of unlocking the human body’s potential.

"Hands, feet, waist, legs, spine, and head – these are the Six Yang. In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the hand represents the starting and main point of flow for Hand Three Yang meridians, the foot for Foot Three Yang meridians, the waist involves the Foot Taiyang Bladder Meridian, legs relate to Foot Three Yang Meridians, the spine is connected to the Six Yang Meridians, and the head is where the chiefs of all Six Yang converge. The three techniques of Bull Demon Strong Fist, are actually to cultivate these Six Yang areas; upon mastering them, one achieves ’Yang Fire’ and is also known as Bright Strength."

Xu Qing’s training brought him deeper insights.

In fact, he had inadvertently cultivated Bright Strength before, but that was the Bright Strength from fist skill combat techniques, where he understood the phenomenon without understanding the underlying principles, merely reaching the ’initial glimpse into the path’ stage.

Now through the systematic cultivation of Bull Demon Strong Fist, Xu Qing finally understood the underlying principles of "Bright Strength".

Once Bull Demon Strong Fist achieves Great Success, the power of "Bright Strength" unleashed would be incomparable to the past. Moreover, the might of "Yang Fire" mentioned in the description of Bull Demon Strong Fist can ward off evil.

While cultivating the Bull Demon Strong Fist, he compared it with the Eight Diagram Wandering Palm and Crane Form Skill. Xu Qing discovered that these three different training methods could actually complement and elucidate each other.

However, once these issues are involved, he must activate the "Absolute Focus" mode, which consumes a vast amount of physical strength and Qi-Blood.

In comparison, the energy used in preparing the eight-part essays feels negligible.

Clearly, overcoming the challenging questions in Martial Arts requires far greater expenditure of "Absolute Focus" than preparing eight-part essays.

It’s no surprise because Xu Qing has memories from his past life of researching ancient history, which means he had a solid foundation in classical literature. Coupled with Feng Xifeng’s secret manual on eight-part essay and guidance from Feng Wu, he had far superior educational resources in this area compared to those for Martial Arts training.

Though the master introduces the path, cultivation depends on the individual.

But without that master, without a key to the door, how can one enter?

For instance, the monkey on Fangcun Mountain received guidance from Master Puti; even including the seven years spent chopping wood in the mountains, it took just about ten years to develop astonishing capabilities. This shows the monkey’s high talent. But without Master Puti, even giving the monkey hundreds of years more, he would remain just a monkey.

Fortunately, Xu Qing has the Bronze Mirror, otherwise, practicing Martial Arts in isolation could have likely led to paralysis or even hemiplegia by now...

Before he knew it, a month had passed.

Xu Qing punched a wooden board in front of him, shattering it effortlessly.

During the punch, his fist was engorged, and his skin slightly bluish. This was a characteristic of Bull Demon Skin Movement. Without this movement of Qi-Blood, even if the wooden board broke, his skin would have been scraped, causing minor injuries.

Afterward, he used his keen Divine Soul to feel his waist, chest, and limbs; his muscles had notably thickened.

This was also because, after achieving Great Success in Eight Diagram Wandering Palm, his body almost reached the maturity of an eighteen-year-old, which is why his muscles grew so distinctly within such a short time.

Moreover, in Martial Arts, without a strong torso, even if the limbs are strong, they are just rootless driftwood.

Without Crane Call’s spine training, this muscle increase over time would burden the torso, causing latent damage.

However...

Xu Qing lightly leaped onto a large water jar, performing the movement techniques of the Eight Diagram Wandering Palm. Soon, his shoulder touched a sandbag hanging from a branch of the Old Wutong Tree.

Xu Qing lowered his center of gravity to avoid falling off the water jar, but he couldn’t help but sigh.

"Indeed, cultivating the Bull Demon Strong Fist reduces some of the flexibility from the Eight Diagram Wandering Body Palm Method."

"This is also because my body isn’t fully adapted to its current state yet."

"Fortunately, I’m aware of this issue and it’s still possible to compensate."

Xu Qing definitely wanted to have the best of both worlds.

Moreover, in his heart, he valued the importance of the flexibility offered by movement techniques over the strength provided by the Bull Demon Strong Fist. Given that to train the flesh to be invulnerable to strong bows and deadly crossbows still seemed a far-off goal, the importance of dodging visible and hidden attacks is self-evident.

It’s not much if you can’t overcome the enemy, but making it impossible for the enemy to hit you is the key to an invincible position.

"Actually, the difficulty of previously practicing the Eight Diagram Wandering Body Palm Method wasn’t high enough, I’ll add some difficulty for myself." Xu Qing thought of a way, which was to rub smooth tung oil on the edge of the large jar; adding this and considering the influence of increased muscle on flexibility, the difficulty of cultivating the movement technique of Eight Diagram Wandering Palm would surge. The effectiveness of successful practice is thus obvious without saying.