Chapter Ninety-One: Primordial Unity Skill

The leg technique known as Springing Kick needs little explanation. In traditional martial arts, it is one of the few true kicking arts. Most systems use the legs only for the finishing blow, while this one uses the hands to confuse the opponent. Its movements are dazzling and highly spectacular to watch.

Du Ruo did have some doubts about whether this skill could really reach the third level. With other arts, every advancement came with a clear progression: level zero was the basic routine or fundamentals, level one was the method of striking or breathing, and level two gathered everything together, including the major weapon forms. But he had never heard of any breathing method for Springing Kick, and weapons were even more impossible.

Still, he did not care much. One more means of defense was always better. What truly drew his attention was the inner art called Primordial One Breath Skill.

This inner art was directly marked with an infinite level. He did not know whether it had some extraordinary nature, or whether it was truly the sort of inner power he imagined. Du Ruo quickly calmed himself and began studying it.

After a long while, he was a little disappointed. This inner art was not the miraculous inner power of his imagination; it could not make him fly through the heavens or burrow through the earth. Instead, it was a method for regulating the body.

Through specific breathing methods and adjustments of posture, it could mobilize the body's vital essence, energy, and spirit, making them more active and easier to control, while also feeding strength back into the body itself.

Training in Primordial One Breath Skill was divided into moving practice and still practice.

Moving practice consisted of three parts: regulating the mind, regulating the breath, and regulating the body.

Regulating the mind meant concentrating attention and casting aside distracting thoughts in order to achieve mental focus and tranquility.

Regulating the breath meant adjusting the way one breathed, using breath to promote physical well-being.

Regulating the body meant adjusting posture according to the requirements of the method, and was divided into seated practice and standing practice, so that the body could reach its best state.

In truth, all the skills Du Ruo had learned possessed some aspect of inner training. For example, Xingyi Fist had standing practice, Eight Trigrams Palm had breathing methods, and Praying Mantis Fist had techniques for calming the mind.

Still practice was a meditation method in which the body refined essence into energy, refined energy into spirit, and refined spirit into emptiness.

Before practicing still training, the body needed to burn essence in order to strengthen energy, allow energy to rise and nourish spirit, and then let spirit comprehend nature so that it could in turn nourish the self. Not only was the efficiency extremely low, the cost was also enormous.

But practicing Primordial One Breath Skill meant active cultivation: the body's essence, energy, and spirit could circulate rapidly. At the end of training, one might even no longer need seated meditation, because the essence, energy, and spirit would regulate themselves and form the great heavenly circuit, turning in endless motion.

To put it simply, the last time Du Ruo had used concealed weapons, he had drained his internal energy in an instant. If he later encountered an enemy, he would have no energy to use and would have to rely on other means to fight. And last time, it had taken him more than a day of rest before that energy slowly recovered.

But if he cultivated Primordial One Breath Skill, then even if his energy were completely exhausted, he could actively drive his essence so that energy would be generated without cease. He could not restore it to full in an instant, but it would keep on coming.

What was more, after battle he would only need to sit quietly and circulate the method to replenish his energy very quickly. Its efficiency and effect were on an entirely different level.

"That's already pretty amazing. It fits my current weakness perfectly. And this moving practice may look unimpressive, but it seems kind of monstrous too. If I train the moving part of Primordial One Breath Skill well, will my experience in other boxing arts naturally rise as well? And will my attributes rise too? A perpetual motion engine for cultivation?"

The thought excited him, and he hurried to try it out.

For the rest of the day, Du Ruo kept practicing Primordial One Breath Skill: regulating the mind, regulating the breath, regulating the body, and then sitting cross-legged in meditation.

He finally reached a conclusion: yes, it worked, but the efficiency was terribly low. If he maintained it for a whole day, it would only increase his attributes by about 0.30, roughly the same as when he trained on his own. As for the other skills, the growth was only around ten points. Overall, it was about the same as before, though more evenly distributed.

Still, having to keep his breathing and mental state steady all the time was tiring. Yet being able to improve without exercising at all felt wonderful.

After finishing his tests, Du Ruo still could not resist running through a set of boxing forms before washing up and going to sleep. He had trained martial arts for so long that if he went a whole day without moving, he would feel oddly uncomfortable.

The next morning, Du Ruo rose early, with no intention of practicing boxing. He had slept too deeply the night before and had not been able to get up early, so today he decided to make a trip up the mountain. It had been several days since he last saw the cloud leopard, and he wanted to go up and visit it. Conveniently, the yellowfin tuna was still quite fresh, so perhaps he could bring it along for the leopard to taste.

"I just don't know whether it eats seafood."

As he put the tuna into a bag, Du Ruo thought to himself.

"Ring, ring, ring..."

After closing the door and walking only a short distance, he heard a phone ringing. The sound was coming from inside the room. Du Ruo usually did not bring his phone when going up the mountain, and fortunately his senses were now frighteningly sharp, otherwise he would never have heard the call.

"Who is calling so early?"

With no choice, he had to go back and answer it. Since he had heard it, ignoring it would not be appropriate.

"Hello? Yuan Yuan, you're back?"

Seeing that the call was from Xiang Yuan Yuan, Du Ruo instinctively glanced toward the second-floor balcony of the restaurant, then immediately remembered that she might have just gotten off a plane and needed him to pick her up.

"No, I'm still at home. Xiao Juan told me you've come back, so I called you."

Xiang Yuan Yuan's voice came through the line, somewhat lazy, as though she were still lying in bed, or else had been thoroughly drunk the day before.

"Yes, I'm back. Is there something you need?"

"Do you have time? Come over to my place."

"Huh? What happened? Are you in trouble?"

Du Ruo was somewhat surprised. His first thought was that she must have run into trouble and needed him to go help resolve it.

"What trouble? It's about the liquor. It's finished soaking. Since you're home, just drive over and pick it up. I don't trust sending it by courier, and with that much of it I can't take it on a plane."

She explained briefly.

"Finished soaking? All right, I'll drive over now. Send me the location."

Du Ruo was instantly delighted. He hurried to the kitchen, put the tuna back in the refrigerator, then went to find the car keys. He figured the tuna could stay in the fridge, and it would not matter if he brought it to the cloud leopard in a few days.

"Bring a larger vehicle, one with a bigger load capacity. That tiger-bone infusion weighs ten kilograms, and with the herbs and everything else, it yielded nearly seven hundred jin of liquor. Even if I keep only twenty percent, that's still about five hundred and fifty jin. Your car might not be able to handle it."

Xiang Yuan Yuan reminded him.

"Fine, fine. Send me the location. I'm leaving now."

After hanging up, Du Ruo thought for a moment and called his sister, Du Na. Her husband had just bought a new BMW SUV, and the trunk was quite spacious. It should be no problem for carrying five or six hundred jin of liquor.

After ending the call, Du Ruo packed some fruit and tea into the car.

By the time he reached the town, his sister Du Na was already standing downstairs with the keys in hand.

"Have you got yourself a girlfriend?"

Du Na was still a little curious. So early in the morning, he had called to say he wanted to borrow their car. She had thought he must have found a girlfriend and needed a decent car to keep up appearances.

"No. Keep the car for now. I need to go to Fujian to haul something back. The trunk in this car is big enough, and I'll return it to you tomorrow."

Du Ruo swapped the keys and headed toward the BMW parked beside them.

"You brat. I can barely bring myself to drive my brand-new car, and you're taking it to haul cargo. What are you hauling anyway? Don't tell me it's rebar and cement."

Hearing that it was not about a girlfriend but about transporting goods, Du Na immediately lost interest in lending the car.

"Good stuff. Don't worry, there won't be any problems."

Du Ruo did not look back and drove off.

"Mom, I just heard Uncle's voice. Did Uncle bring fish over?"

Ya Ya, wearing little slippers and rubbing her eyes, ran out. Right now, the thing she liked most was seeing her uncle. As soon as she saw him, she could eat fish.

"No fish. What are you doing up so early? Go back to sleep. There are plenty of fish in your dreams."

Du Na replied irritably, then picked Ya Ya up and carried her back to the bedroom.

"The fish in my dreams is too big, Ya Ya can't eat it..."

...

Du Ruo drove without stopping, covering more than six hundred kilometers in one stretch. Seven and a half hours passed, and he did not even stop once to use the restroom.

Xiang Yuan Yuan's home was in the county seat, but the grounds were vast, enclosed by high walls. From afar it looked like an estate, visible long before one reached it.

"Yuan Yuan, where's the liquor?"

From a long way off, Du Ruo saw Xiang Yuan Yuan crouching without the slightest trace of refined lady-like grace at the impressive front gate. He hurriedly parked the car, and the first thing he did after getting out was ask about the tiger-bone liquor.

"Drive the car in. The liquor is in the cellar. I'll take you to see it in a moment."

Xiang Yuan Yuan was dressed in short sleeves and shorts, her hair hanging loosely over her shoulders. She looked somewhat sleep-deprived, one hand propping up her head. Only after seeing Du Ruo arrive did she get up and, with some effort, push open the gate so he could drive in.

Du Ruo had no choice but to get back in and drive inside.

Only once he was in did he realize that the courtyard was probably the size of a small football field. On one side stood several enormous vats; directly ahead, facing the main entrance, was a row of buildings with a rather archaic style, yet full of grandeur. On the other side were parked several cars, and Du Ruo parked his own among them.

"Wow, Yuan Yuan, you really are a landowner, aren't you?"

After looking around, Du Ruo could not help but exclaim.

"It's all right. This is ancestral property. Come on, I'll take you to the cellar."

Xiang Yuan Yuan did not seem to care much. In her view, her family merely had a bigger house. As for how much money they had, she had no idea. In any case, she had never lacked money.

"No rush. Since it's my first time here, aren't your father and mother at home? I should at least greet them first."

By then Du Ruo was no longer in a hurry either. He took the fruit and tea from the car. The liquor was not going anywhere. Since this was his first visit as a friend, it would be improper not to pay respects to the elders first.

"Oh, come with me. They just heard that you were coming, and they should be sitting in the living room."

Xiang Yuan Yuan finally looked a little more awake, though her face was still somewhat pale. She led Du Ruo toward the central hall.

"What's wrong? You don't look very well."

Du Ruo also noticed her condition. He could not help moving a little closer, since when she walked her eyes were nearly closed, and he was afraid she might suddenly stumble.