Chapter 6: The Minor Loop

"How did he get a quota for the Martial Academy's assessment?" Chen Fan frowned deeply.

Guan Longping had abandoned his master at a critical juncture, meaning he naturally could not join the Pure Serenity Sect like the other disciples. Moreover, his family background was ordinary, and with neither sect nor martial arts hall affiliations, how on earth had he secured an opportunity to participate in the Martial Academy's assessment?

Feng Yuancheng narrowed his eyes. "The quota he obtained was not from Yandu City. I am not entirely clear on the specifics."

Could he have joined some faction elsewhere?

Guan Longping's foundation was similar to Feng Yuancheng's, but coming from an ordinary background, his innate bone structure and comprehension actually surpassed Feng Yuancheng's. Given his talent, it should have been quite easy for him to join some minor regional sect!

Chen Fan raised his eyebrows slightly.

Zhang Fan sneered, "He dares to come to the Clear Tea Martial Academy? Isn't he afraid of us senior and junior brothers, isn't he afraid of Junior Brother Chen Fan?!"

Guan Longping's strength was not negligible. Having entered the sect a few years earlier than Zhang Fan, he had long since reached the fourth level of martial arts and had mastered the realm of microscopic perception long ago.

However, he was completely incomparable to the present Chen Fan...

"New disciples of the Martial Academy have a one-year novice period during which they cannot be challenged. Even after the novice period truly passes, do you really think he would accept a challenge from me?"

Chen Fan shook his head.

Generally, when disciples advanced to higher tiers, they could challenge those with higher rankings from a lower position, but when a higher ranking challenged a lower one, the opponent could naturally refuse!

He held Guan Longping in extreme contempt, yet he did not harbor enough hatred to specifically target him or demand his dog's life.

"Since our senior and junior brothers have reunited, let's not dwell on that miserable wretch!"

Everyone understood that no matter how strong Chen Fan was, he could not violate the normal rules originally established by the Martial Academy, and they stopped lingering on the topic.

...

After the banquet dispersed, Chen Fan returned to the inner courtyard. As he headed toward the direction of the Bright Moon Building, his footsteps suddenly paused.

A figure was waiting in the distance outside the Bright Moon Building. Catching sight of Chen Fan, the person immediately ran over.

"Junior Brother Chen Fan!"

This person was none other than Chen Fan's former fourth senior brother, Guan Longping.

Chen Fan said coldly, "The White Cloud Taoist Temple is gone, and you and I are no longer senior and junior brothers. Do not address me like that in the future!"

Guan Longping's face turned awkward. "Junior Brother Chen Fan, I... I had my reasons for not being at the Taoist Temple previously. It wasn't..."

Chen Fan shook his head.

"You don't need to explain to me."

He stepped forward directly, ignoring Guan Longping entirely.

Facing the Nineteenth Prince and four of the Four Gates and Two Halls of Yandu City, the disciples of the White Cloud Taoist Temple naturally all felt the pressure. But while ordinary people leaving was one thing, Guan Longping was a personal disciple of the master, having followed him for years. No matter his hidden difficulties, it was simply unforgivable!

With an awkward expression, Guan Longping watched helplessly as Chen Fan entered the precincts of the Bright Moon Building, lacking the courage to force his way in. He narrowed his eyes as he watched Chen Fan walk away, his expression flickering with uncertainty.

Shortly after Chen Fan left, however, a one-armed man suddenly approached Guan Longping.

"You must be Chen Fan's fourth senior brother, Guan Longping, right?"

...

In the days following the new disciple assessment at the Martial Academy, as Chen Fan traveled back and forth between the Bright Moon Building and the Myriad Illusions Hall, he frequently encountered Guan Longping along his routine paths. He had no idea where the man found such a thick skin.

Chen Fan simply could not be bothered to entertain him.

In the blink of an eye, another month passed.

Before Chen Fan's bone-forging cultivation reached great accomplishment, his Nine-Star Original Gallbladder broke through to the third realm first. With the slot now vacant, it immediately began idle-farming the Slaughter Artistic Conception!

Previously, all four of his slots were occupied, and any improvement in his Slaughter Artistic Conception had relied entirely on his own comprehension, yielding negligible progress over several months!

Once the idle-farming commenced, however, the rate of improvement shot up like a rocket, though reaching perfection would still require a number of years.

The Slaughter Artistic Conception simply did not offer as many or as great opportunities as the Lightning Artistic Conception...

A few days after the breakthrough of his Nine-Star Original Gallbladder, his true cultivation reached its limit as well, finally attaining the great accomplishment of bone-forging and the perfection of the fifth level!

At this very moment, he encountered the first bottleneck in his cultivation since he began practicing.

"Before the sixth level of true cultivation, one only needs to circulate true essence to temper the body. When ordinary people encounter a bottleneck and their cultivation stalls, it is because their tempering progress has stagnated, whereas for me, idle-farming is enough. But upon reaching the sixth level, one must condense the minor internal circulation; relying solely on circulating true cultivation makes it impossible to break through this boundary."

Chen Fan had long been mentally prepared, so he was naturally unsurprised.

After briefly adjusting his state, he directly consumed the White Jade Crimson Sun Pill and began condensing the qi-and-blood circulation according to the methods he had heard during lectures and explanations.

The true essence within his body drove and permeated his qi and blood, traversing the twelve regular meridians and the hundred skeletal bones, gradually forming a special, recurrently looping system...

Loop after loop!

Yet whenever Chen Fan stopped, both the true essence and the qi and blood would also come to a halt, completely unable to circulate automatically.

Chen Fan tried time and again, his true essence driving the rotation of his qi and blood.

The result, however, left him disappointed. Clearly, the medicinal power of the White Jade Crimson Sun Pill was ample, yet he remained utterly unable to complete the construction of the minor internal circulation within his body!

"How is this possible? With the medicinal potency of an Earth-grade pill and my current realm, how could I fail to break through a mere sixth level?!"

Chen Fan was struck with dismay, feeling deeply irritated and upset.

Naturally, there remained a gap between theory and practice.

Hesitating for a moment, he ended his seclusion directly and went to seek an audience with Ye Wuji.

...

Inside the Martial Academy's Central Hall, within Ye Wuji's office, Ye Wuji looked with a frown at the sudden arrival of Chen Fan, feeling somewhat astonished:

"The key to breaking through the sixth level? Have you already completed your bone-forging practice and arrived at the threshold of the sixth level?"

It had not even been a full year since Chen Fan broke through to the fifth level!

Although comprehension of realms was generally more difficult than improving one's cultivation, Chen Fan reaching the limit of the fifth level so rapidly still left him astounded.

Chen Fan cleared his throat and vaguely replied:

"Not quite yet, but I lack a sufficiently clear understanding of breaking through the sixth-level qi-and-blood circulation, so I wished to consult Academy Dean Ye..."

Ye Wuji gave Chen Fan a deep look, laughed wryly, and shook his head:

"For someone with supreme comprehension like you, finding the breakthrough in qi-and-blood circulation should not be difficult. You only need to give careful thought to the relationship between qi and blood and true essence..."

Chen Fan frowned and said, "Abundant qi and blood make the refining speed of true essence faster, and true essence refining the body can in turn feed back into and enhance qi and blood... The two complement each other and share a close relationship."

He had long since heard the Martial Academy instructors speak of these things, and he could sense them through his own cultivation.

Aside from individual innate bone structure, the factor that exerted the greatest influence on the speed of true cultivation practice was precisely qi and blood!

The crux of breaking through the sixth level of the Body Tempering Realm and condensing the minor circulation lay in how to unify true essence and qi and blood!

Ye Wuji smiled and nodded:

"True essence and qi and blood are closely intertwined; powerful qi and blood forge powerful true essence. The sixth-level qi-and-blood circulation is called the circulation of qi and blood, but in truth, it requires the synchronous circulation of both, complementing and achieving one another. Since you are at the limit of qi and blood and possess vigorous vitality, logically speaking, you should hold a greater advantage at this step than others..."

Chen Fan frowned and nodded.

Yet relying solely on Ye Wuji's words, how could he possibly gain a clear understanding? He still failed to grasp the crucial point.

Seeing Chen Fan's expression, Ye Wuji smiled faintly and extended his hand:

"You can channel your true essence into my body and experience for yourself what a true qi-and-blood circulation is."

Great joy welled up in Chen Fan's heart, and he quickly cupped his fists to thank Ye Wuji.

To read ten thousand books was to travel ten thousand miles.

No matter how many theories one understood, how could they compare to practical experience!

He immediately reached out, pressed his hand against Ye Wuji, and channeled his true essence into Ye Wuji's body.

In truth, had there been any intent to resist, given Ye Wuji's strength, Chen Fan's true essence would have been completely expelled by Ye Wuji's protective true essence the very instant it entered!

A martial artist's true essence possessed immense destructiveness once it left the body; if one allowed another's true essence to enter their body, a single thought from the other party could shatter one's meridians and internal organs, causing irreversible damage!

Yet Ye Wuji trusted Chen Fan, and thus deliberately suppressed his true essence, allowing Chen Fan's true essence to pass into him freely!

A thread of Chen Fan's true essence entered Ye Wuji's body, and as he silently experienced the peculiarity of Ye Wuji's internal qi-and-blood circulation, feeling the characteristic way true essence and qi and blood complemented one another, a look of sudden enlightenment dawned upon his face...

"So that's how it is..."

After experiencing it for the span of an incense stick, Chen Fan withdrew his true essence and cupped his fists in gratitude.

Chen Fan possessed formidable comprehension to begin with; he had simply lacked sufficient understanding of the qi-and-blood circulation. Now, with Ye Wuji's pointers and the chance to personally experience it, many things naturally became clear in his mind.

He immediately took his leave of Ye Wuji and returned once more to the practice chamber in the Bright Sun Building.

After spending a day and a night in seclusion, when he emerged once more, he had officially completed the condensation of his qi-and-blood circulation!

He had stepped into the sixth level!

...

"How wondrous. Although I have only completed the qi-and-blood circulation and my total volume of true essence and qi and blood have not yet increased, my overall strength has grown by an unknown margin!"

Once this step was completed, Chen Fan's endurance increased dramatically.

With true essence and qi and blood complementing each other and the minor circulation in operation, even if Chen Fan did not drive his true cultivation to condense true essence, the minor circulation would automatically run to absorb the elemental energy between heaven and earth and convert it into true essence!

His physical stamina could reach a nearly infinite effect...

Of course, this was not true infinite physical stamina, but an approximation that allowed the recovery rate of true essence to increase massively.

If he were to use certain secret arts and ultimate techniques that instantly erupted with the majority of his true essence, instantaneous recovery would still be impossible.

However, for ordinary moves, as long as the ambient elemental energy was sufficient, he could use them virtually without limit!

The sixth level was a threshold that ordinary martial artists found difficult to cross. Even those with standard first-tier foundations would encounter their greatest bottleneck here, and many who failed to find the door would never break through.

Without exceptional circumstances, those with second-tier foundations and below could forget about condensing the qi-and-blood circulation and stepping into the sixth level for the rest of their lives!

"Now that I have condensed the minor circulation, I can resume idle-farming the sixth-level true cultivation!"

Moreover, the idle-farming for this tier progressed even faster than Chen Fan's fifth or fourth levels, and could be completed in three to four months.

"Once the qi-and-blood circulation is formed, this tier of true cultivation no longer tempers the body, but instead condenses more true essence to merge into the circulation. The total volume of true essence in my body will also increase significantly, and once it reaches the limit, I can attempt to leverage the artistic conception to stir the power of heaven and earth..."

That Zhan Yi was already at the limit of the sixth level, and having already stirred a portion of the power of heaven and earth, he had reached this very final step!

"I hear that those with special physical constitutions, once they reach the limit of qi and blood, achieve the unity of technique and comprehension of artistic conception, can enter the Grandmaster realm directly without needing to stir the power of heaven and earth—they are naturally attuned to heaven and earth."

Recalling Li Linliu from back then, Chen Fan felt a deep sense of envy in his heart...

Such people could manipulate the power of heaven and earth the moment they comprehended an artistic conception!

He narrowed his eyes:

"With my special talent, it will take only a few months to reach the limit of the sixth level. I have also comprehended an artistic conception, lacking only the final threshold of stirring heaven and earth. I can indeed prepare methods for breaking through to the Grandmaster realm in advance."

The difficult part for Chen Fan was precisely stirring the power of heaven and earth!

During the days that followed, while engaging in bitter cultivation, he also frequently ran to the Scripture Pavilion and Ye Wuji's place.

On this particular day, the sound of a bell suddenly echoed throughout the Martial Academy.

Chen Fan's expression in the Scripture Pavilion shifted slightly, and he immediately put down the book in his hand.

"What has happened again??"

The ringing of the academy bell invariably signified major events!

He could not help but worry, especially since the previous demonic calamity had dealt such a devastating blow to Qinghe County.

He hurried toward the Myriad Phenomena Plaza, and along the way, he saw quite a few martial artists wearing white silk scarves.

Ahead of the crowd, senior academy figures such as Ye Wuji and Mao Wangchen all wore expressions of sorrow, with white mourning bands tied around their heads!

Chen Fan frowned deeply and walked straight to Ye Wuji's side. "Academy Dean Ye, what has happened?"

Ye Wuji sighed:

"His Majesty, the Emperor of Great Qian... has passed away!"