Chapter 173: Going Home

After Yan Liqiang completed his morning regime of Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing Internal and External Cultivation, he moved on to start his first cultivation of the ‘Ten Dragons Ten Elephants Divine Technique’.

For a practitioner, their dantian was like a special factory; only those who owned this factory would be able to become the factory’s owner, and only then would they be considered a Martial Warrior. The fundamental reason as to why the establishment of dantian was important was because it could enable the cultivation of both internal and external martial arts. One could only truly step into the realm of profoundness once his dantian was established. This was to prevent the failure in the last step of cultivation and avoid the tragic outcome of achieving nothing.

The ‘arts’ in ‘martial arts’ referred to internal cultivation; the true Qi cultivated through the physical body of a human being. It was also the purest form of energy in the world that could be taken advantage of by other people. It indeed was the source of energy that could be harnessed inside a human body.

Yan Liqiang followed the instructions in the secret manual and sat in a full lotus position inside his room. He then began his cultivation after he calmed his breath.

Truth be told, Yan Liqiang was full of anticipation and curiosity toward his first internal martial arts cultivation. Even so, he was a bit nervous as well.

The first step of cultivating internal martial arts was to concentrate on the dantian through his breathing and guidance, grasping the existence of the void inside.

Most people regarded the first step as the hardest part. When many people established their dantians, which involved the stage where they had to concentrate on their dantian, they would waste a lot of days before they could get on the right track and truly sense the existence of their dantian. In the beginning, Yan Liqiang felt that it wouldn’t be easy to pass the stage of concentrating on his dantian. However, he didn’t expect that just by following the secret manual’s instructions, his consciousness would travel smoothly from his forehead to his philtrum, then through his throat, chest, and all the way down like splitting a bamboo without any obstructions after a moment of controlled breathing. It felt just like a lead ball being thrown into a well — that ball would continue to sink deeper into the water until it finally landed on the bottom of the well a few moments later.

When Yan Liqiang’s consciousness first entered his dantian, which was also known as Qihai, he was able to sense a boundless void in it. A large, ancient bronze cauldron could be seen floating above this space. This cauldron wasn’t some kind of treasure but a Qi cauldron that would appear after an individual had successfully established their dantian, signifying the successful attempt in doing so. The ability to harmonize the dantian and the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth was also part of the foundation of the cultivation.

Yan Liqiang had no idea what other people’s Qi cauldrons were like, but he felt that the Qi cauldron in the vast Qihai seemed to be enormous and extremely dense.

With the presence of the Qihai and the Qi cauldron, Yan Liqiang felt that this was just the first step toward his cultivation. The second step would be to possess Qi sensation and gain the ability to control Qi with one’s consciousness.

Similarly, Yan Liqiang also heard that the second step wasn’t easy to complete. However, in his case, he only had to follow the secret manual’s instructions. After a moment, he could sense a vaguely discernable Qi aura inside the boundless Qihai. Through his control of his consciousness, this Qi aura could freely move around his Qihai like a breeze or wind.

The third step of this cultivation was to pull the Qi into the cauldron and refine it.

Under Yan Liqiang’s guidance and control, the vague Qi aura immediately went into the cauldron. It was then followed by the second Qi aura, and the third, and the fourth…

After he successfully caught all nine Qi auras, Yan Liqiang then continued to activate the Qi cauldron as per the instruction from the secret manual. The entire Qi cauldron inside his dantian began to slowly glow in a blue light, as if it had been caught in a fire. In just a flash, the nine Qi auras that had been put into the cauldron began to combine as one, becoming a blue vital Qi. The vital Qi then escaped from the cauldron like a blue silk thread and began spinning around the Qi cauldron inside the dantian…

Yan Liqiang then opened his eyes after he managed to condense the vital Qi.

He gazed around his room and realized that it was already bright outside his window. The whole morning had passed and it was already afternoon.

Yan Liqiang had officially started his path of cultivation for the entire morning and was able to successfully condense his vital Qi inside his Dantian. As he moved his consciousness, the first vital Qi he had condensed quickly traveled through Yan Liqiang’s meridians like a mischievous and nimble small beetle. The sensation of the vital Qi moving throughout his body was as if he had been shocked by electricity. It was numbing and it felt quite unusual.

After experimenting a few times, Yan Liqiang’s thrilled expression was written all over his face. He touched his lower abdomen and said, “Didn’t the people at the Hall of Scriptures of the Sword Divine Sect say that the ‘Ten Dragons Ten Elephants Divine Technique’ was extremely difficult to cultivate? The disciples that choose to cultivate this technique usually take a week up to half a month to condense the first vital Qi of the ‘Ten Dragons Ten Elephants Divine Technique’. Why is it so easy for me? There was no obstacle whatsoever. Within an entire morning, I was able to condense my first vital Qi. Could this be the effect of the Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing?”

Regardless of the reason, it would always be a good thing for cultivation to progress faster. Yan Liqiang decided not to struggle with this problem anymore as it was already late. He got out of bed with renewed vigor and after a brief preparation, he ordered Goldie to stay at the courtyard to guard his home while he went out of Wuyang Village. He went down the mountain and walked along the public road toward the docks of Pingxi City and bought a round-trip ticket to Qinghe County.

In the evening, Yan Liqiang was already standing at the town entrance of Liuhe Town.

“Ah, Liqiang is back from Pingxi City…”

“Liuhe Town’s first rank amongst the top three is back…”

When the townspeople saw Yan Liqiang back at in town, all of them greeted him with enthusiasm and smiles on their faces. As he passed by Butcher Liu’s meat stall, both father and son were smiling like rotten pears while bowing and scraping when they saw Yan Liqiang back in town.

Ever since he experienced the catastrophe of life and death last time, out of all the people in this town, he wished that Butcher Liu and his son would encounter misfortunes upon seeing their smiling faces. Most of the time they would not associate with each other very often. However, the uncles, aunts, and neighbors were deeply sympathetic toward the sufferings of the Liu Clan.

Yan Liqiang gave everyone smiles and nods as he warmly greeted them. After those past experiences, Yan Liqiang could now clearly see through the hearts of others. He understood what the fickleness of human nature meant. The expression he displayed on his exterior was calm and open-minded.

A bunch of kids even ran around and followed Yan Liqiang from behind as he walked back to the Yan Residence. “Brother Liqiang, can you teach us a few moves?”

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“Alright, pay attention. Let’s start from the Horse Stance…” While the kids were watching, Yan Liqiang quickly demonstrated a standard action of squatting in a Horse Stance and he explained his own understanding of this move: “This is a basic skill. When you are able to squat for about four hours straight, I will teach you another move that’s more impressive. Each of you can compete for the top three in the future too…”

When the kids were satisfied, they decided not to bother Yan Liqiang anymore.

Before he could reach the gate to his home, Yan Liqiang saw a few chimney columns and a row of houses built from bricks and tiles with a brilliant sign that said ‘Yan Blades’ in front of him.

Compared to half a year ago, the scale of the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop had expanded to four times its original size. The Yan Clan bought the land that was originally located near the river, adding two more water hammers to their facilities. Yan Liqiang could also hear the clinking sounds in full swing coming from the workshop from afar.

Since many people lived in this area, the Yan Clan’s newly built courtyard was situated behind the blacksmith workshop. There were two gates in between the workshop and his house, and two smaller doors in the middle which connected the two areas. There was an alley situated in the middle as well.

When he approached the door to the blacksmith workshop, someone came out from inside. The first thing this person saw when he lifted up his head was Yan Liqiang.

“Ah, Young Master Yan…” Zhou Hongda, who was wearing a steward uniform, immediately expressed his surprise when he saw Yan Liqiang standing in front of him.

“Am I still able to make it for dinner at home?” Yan Liqiang rubbed his stomach as he flashed a smile at Zhou Hongda.

“Of course you can. I will go and arrange things for Young Master now…”

“Oh right, where’s my father?”

“He’s at the workshop. I will go call him…”

“No need. Please get on with your work, Steward Zhou. I will go inside by myself…”

Yan Liqiang smiled before he quickly went inside the blacksmith workshop.

Despite the cold weather, the blacksmith workshop was sweltering hot. Yan Dechang was wearing a short vest as he briefed a bunch of new recruits on how to use quench artifacts using oil…

“Father…” Yan Dechang only turned around when Liqiang called out. He was quite surprised to see his son again.

“Ah, Liqiang, why are you back?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to come home. Right, where’s Brother Tiezhu?”

Yan Dechang sighed, “Tiezhu went out to do something important. The weather has been cold for the past two days, so old people in particular have it hard during this time period. Because of that, his uncle-in-law passed away last night. When Tiezhu received the news early that morning, he and his daughter-in-law quickly went over to his uncle-in-law’s house to help out…”

…

Yan Liqiang’s return instantly enlivened the atmosphere in the Yan Residence’s courtyard. Mother Wu and a number of hired maids were busy preparing dinner for him inside the house.

Yan Liqiang specially asked someone to bring up a bottle of wine so that he and his father could have dinner and drink while they chatted. They continued their meal until the dead of night.

“I never thought that we could spend our days like this as father and son. During our most difficult times, I remember that you didn’t have any milk to drink, and I had to borrow some rice from Manager Xiong too. After working on the forge every day, I would make some rice gruel with a bit of salt for you. In just a blink of an eye, you’ve grown so much. Our days were spent in disruption…” Yan Dechang’s face was already red from drinking a bit of wine. He was slightly tipsy as he sighed.

“Oh right, Father, I came back this time because have something I want to discuss with you!” Yan Liqiang said as he put down his wine cup.

“What is it?”

“I met someone yesterday at Pingxi City…” Yan Liqiang proceeded to relay the story of how he met Sun Bingchen to Yan Dechang.

Upon listening to Yan Liqiang’s story, Yan Dechang seemed to have lost the tipsy feeling in his head in an instant. His eyes grew wider all of the sudden as he stared at Yan Liqiang. “Liqiang, you are not lying to me, are you? How does such an important officer like the Patrol Inspector still lack an attendant?”

“I am not lying to you, really. This is the reason why I rushed back home to discuss this with you…”

Yan Dechang’s expression quickly turned solemn…