Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Mo Wen.”

Mo Wen nodded lightly, neither passionately nor apathetically.

Wang Yuan smiled and didn’t bother much if “Mo Wen” was Mo Wen’s name or he was requesting him not to ask.[1] He started tidying up his own bed, as the military region had prepared all the daily necessities; they only needed to bring along their personal clothing and personal necessities.

The military region of the Nineteenth army corp was relatively big. It took Mo Wen an afternoon, from noon till late afternoon, to walk and familiarize himself with the normal areas, excluding some restricted areas which he couldn’t enter.

The military region was built in the mountains on a relatively big valley, similar to the basin, but the development of the military regions had extended into the mountains, so one would need a few days to be able to finish walking through the whole military region.

Although the military region was big, the activity area was small.

After having dinner at the canteen, even the night owls would go to bed, as they had to wake up at five o’clock for their training the next morning. The intensity of their training was almost equivalent to those for the new recruits in the army; it would be torturous the next day if one didn’t rest well at night.

At four o’clock the next day, Mo Wen woke up early. To be exact, he woke up at three o’clock in the morning, as he practiced meditation on the bed for an hour before washing up.

Walking out of the dormitory, it was still dim at four o’clock even though the sky brightened earlier in the summer. The military region was still and quiet, except for the occasional barking of a dog.

Other than those on sentry and patrolling outside, it was rare to see anyone.

Mo Wen walked to the lawn next to the parade ground and started his morning practice.

To a practitioner, the body was the foundation of everything; the beginning of the practice was a training of the body. The body was like a treasure, dredging up little by little so as to explore the unlimited potentials.

Mo Wen read an abstract somewhere in an ancient literature: the way of practice originates from the body while starting from the heart; practices the body to transmute into Essence; practices the Essence to transmute into Qi; practices the Qi to transmute into Vitality; practices the Vitality to return to Emptiness, refines the Emptiness to unite to the way; the way will produce the Law, the Law shall develop all other things.

Although Mo Wen didn’t understand it fully, he knew that the first stage of his practice, as mentioned, was to practice the body to transmute into Essence. This realm emphasized on the building of the body, the practicing of the Essence Qi, Vital Qi, and Vigour Qi; followed by the practicing of the Essence to transmute it into Qi. When the Essence, Qi, and Vitality had been refined to its acme, it would be transmuted into Inner Qi.

The ancient literature recorded that these were the fundamentals of the whole Practice. However, the Inner Qi practitioners in that world were practicing otherwise. They would usually practice Inner Qi in the beginning, then pursue for stronger and greater Inner Qi Cultivation to reach a point of discharging it externally, followed by diffusing the Qi as an astral wind, which might allow them to decapitate someone who was ten meters or even 100 meters away if they were in the profound level.

There were a few high ranked experts who were said to be highly respected in the martial art circle, that didn’t pay much attention to the practice of the body. They usually practiced the Inner Qi to cut the mountains and crack rocks, to kill people invisibly, to protect their body with Qi, to soar in the air and travel with Qi, presuming that Inner Qi was the foundation of the practice.

Mo Wen was from the family of martial arts who used to think like them, but after reading voluminous of ancient literature, he realised that it was not so. He discovered a very strange problem; many of highest ranked martial art experts died young. Their lifespan was usually short, in fact, it was even shorter than the normal people who didn’t practise martial arts.

However, those who were not members of the martial art circle, laymen who practiced as a form of healthy living and bodybuilding, usually were able to enjoy longevity.

In the beginning, he thought that those martial arts practitioners in the Jianghu liked to get into fights, which left them with many hidden illnesses, but later he realised that it was not so. After many experiments and cross checking, Mo Wen found out the root cause: the martial arts practitioners neglected the practice of the body while they pursued the practice of Inner Qi, causing harm to the body and thus damaging the foundation.

Ever since knowing the erroneous area of the practice of the martial arts practitioners, Mo Wen began to research on some ancient literature and read some books regarding the lineage and descendants of ancient historical sects. Eventually, he discovered that people in the ancient times practiced from the body and gradually refined and preserved the essence; they would only start to practise Inner Qi when they were energetic and full of vitality, instead of starting off with the practice of Inner Qi.

It was said that the practitioners of the ancient times were able to fly and go through the earth, perform earth shattering feats, enjoy longevity, and were full of glory.

Even though they were just legends, Mo Wen gradually seemed to believe in it.

After that, Mo Wen started to pay attention to the practice of the body and repeated the process of the practicing of the Essence to transmute it into Qi. After a while, he realised that the Inner Qi in his body had some slight changes, and unknowingly, the quality of his cultivation had a tremendous improvement.

In the ancient literature, this kind of Inner Qi, also named Genuine Qi, might seem similar to the ordinary Inner Qi, but in fact, it was worlds apart.

As Mo Wen managed to practice Genuine Qi, which increased his cultivation, he was able to frequent safely in wilderness, everglades, and even dangerous regions filled with ferocious beasts.

Mo Wen took a deep breath and began to perform a set of fighting techniques. The techniques were vigorous and powerful with bold, yet flexible strokes that allowed for endless variations.

This set of fighting techniques was called the Dragon Tiger Fist. It was a set of profound fighting techniques of the Neijia [2] to practice the body. Mo Wen found it by accident while he was travelling the world.

The concept of this set of Dragon Tiger Fist techniques was profound, as it appeared to be easy, yet it was hard to practice. Mo Wen only managed to learn the basics after practicing for three years.

Only through the Dragon Tiger Fist was Mo Wen able to complete the process of practicing the Essence to transmute into Qi, hence producing the pure Genuine Qi.

Dragon Tiger Fist consisted of two styles: Roar of the Tiger and Cries of the Dragon. One could vaguely hear the roar of the tiger and cries of the dragon in between the punches; the vehemence was great and majestic.

Dragon Tiger Fist was not exactly the typical martial art fighting strokes; it was a method for practicing the body. It stressed on the preservation of Essence Qi, Vigour Qi, and Vital Qi, the coherence of Essence, Qi, and Vitality, the movement of the essences in the whole body, and transmuting them into the strong and powerful force of the dragon and the tiger. At the turn of the hands, the force was as heavy as a mountain. Although they were not martial art fighting strokes, it integrated many strokes that allowed for endless variations, which made it terrifying.

Since Mo Wen had started embarking on the practice, he would naturally avoid the wrong path; he started from the practicing of the body with preservation of essence as the focus, and with no rush in achievement.

Mo Wen had a little success in the other lifetime with Dragon Tiger Fist. It was still very interesting to perform it again now, as it seemed to have the appearance of the rising dragon and leaping tiger. Even though the Essence Qi of his body was insufficient and without Genuine Qi, it faintly contained a sense of grandeur.

When the process of the practicing the body to transmute into Essence for the second time, it was definitely better, as it had accomplished more with less effort. However, this process was difficult. It might take eight to ten years to complete the process if it wasn’t under favorable circumstances.

Mo Wen, of that lifetime, was only at the Cultivation of practicing Essence to transmute into Qi, yet he was not knowledgeable about this realm. As for the rest of realms of practicing the Qi to transmute into Vitality, practising the Vitality to return to Emptiness and refining the Emptiness to unite to the way; they were just realms which were illusory and legendary.

An hour past unconsciously, and the sound of the whistle suddenly resonated at the parade ground. Mo Wen knew that it was the wake-up call.

True enough, after a while, a multitude of soldiers came out of their dormitories and rushed towards the parade ground for the assembly, as it was time for the morning exercise.

Other than the enlisted soldiers, there were also the university students who were there for the military exercise. The discipline of Mo Wen’s squad was quite good, as they appeared quickly at the parade ground where the Third company was supposed to be located, while some of the members of the other squads rushed there one after another.

As it was the first morning exercise, they were obviously not very efficient with a few drags and lags. It took twenty minutes, from the time of whistle, for them to complete a full assembly.

Mo Wen was naturally the first to reach the field. When he was there, the instructor by the name of Zhang Lizheng was already standing like a pillar in the field.

“From tomorrow onwards, every squad member of the squad that was unable to complete the assembly within ten minutes after the wake-up call, will be punished by having to run with a heavy load for five kilometers.

Instructor Zhang Lizheng said this with a steady and powerful tone as he swept his eyes across the students who gathered in a rush. He was obviously unsatisfied with the students completing the assembly in 20 minutes. However, since today was the first day of the military training, he spared them of the punishment today.

Footnote:

[1] Mo Wen in Mandarin means of ‘Don’t ask’. action

[2] Neijia means Internal, a type of martial arts that has the style of focusing on the manipulation of Qi are called Neijiaquan (内家拳). (Source: Wikipedia)