Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Explosive Growth
Five years passed in the blink of an eye. Jin Feng had now turned sixteen.
The trash Yeon Cheong-u who had died five years ago, along with his trash disciple, had nearly been forgotten by the people of the Genwon Sect.
On a quiet night as calm as a still lake, Jin Feng slowly opened his eyes.
A flash of light gleamed in his gaze. He rose from where he sat and bowed toward the grave.
“Master, five years have passed. I will dig open your grave as you instructed, so please do not be angry.”
Jin Feng dug up the soil of the grave. After clearing the dirt and removing the coffin, he opened the lid—and was utterly shocked.
Yeon Cheong-u’s corpse had disappeared without a trace.
It was unbelievable. Five years ago, he had clearly buried his master’s body with his own hands.
Inside the coffin where the body should have been, there was only a small box. The wooden box was lined with yellow silk, and upon it rested a small bronze tripod about the size of a fist.
Covered in green patina, the bronze tripod had three legs and two round handles. It carried an ancient, mysterious aura, as if echoing the dawn of some primordial civilization.
Inside the tripod floated a single drop of what appeared to be blood.
Jin Feng merely peered into the tripod when his mind began to ring, and in an instant, his consciousness blurred as though struck by lightning.
It felt as if he had fallen into an endless abyss of darkness. Black whirlpools churned violently in all directions until the sky itself turned black.
Beneath his feet stretched a desolate plain without end. At the edge of that barren land rose continuous black mountains. They were taller and longer than the Cangshan Range where the Genwon Sect stood. Their height seemed to exceed ten thousand zhang, and their length stretched for over a thousand li.
Not long after Jin Feng climbed onto one of the mountains, it suddenly began to tremble violently and lifted its head. Only then did he realize that what he had climbed was not a mountain at all, but the head of an enormous dragon. Just its head alone seemed larger than the highest peak in the Daejin Empire. The black mountain range stretching for a thousand li was actually the body of that colossal dragon.
When the great dragon let out a long roar toward the heavens, torrential rain poured down instantly, and the land transformed into an ocean. That vast water swallowed Jin Feng whole. He could not breathe. Suffocating, he struggled in agony.
Time passed. Suddenly, with a heavy thud, he escaped from that deep-sea-like illusion. Jin Feng collapsed to his knees, drenched in cold sweat, gasping for breath.
He no longer had the courage to look at that blood again. What kind of being’s blood could be so terrifying? If a single drop was like this, just how immense was the power of that being? Could this truly be the legendary mysterious dragon blood?
At that moment, the bronze tripod leapt up onto Jin Feng’s palm as though it were a living creature, then vanished in an instant.
Jin Feng was startled. The tripod had entered his body through his right palm. It traveled along his meridians toward his shoulder. A tearing pain surged through his arm as though it were being ripped apart.
Unable to endure the agony, he rolled on the ground and screamed. His skin split open, blood gushing out, as though he were being subjected to brutal dismemberment.
Half a shichen later, the bronze tripod continued along his meridians and reached his dantian.
Jin Feng went blank as though struck on the head, then lost consciousness.
When he woke, it was already deep into the night. His clothes were in tatters, and his entire body was covered in blood and a sticky black oily substance. A foul stench assaulted his nose.
Yet his body felt lighter, warmer, and more comfortable than ever before.
After inspecting his body, Jin Feng was stunned and cried out in joy. His dantian, which had once been as hard as iron and completely sealed without the slightest gap, had astonishingly opened. Though it was only about the size of a fist.
Moreover, the bronze tripod was floating inside his dantian. The mysterious blood within it rolled around, shining with a translucent brilliance.
From that mysterious blood, a thread thinner than even one-thousandth the width of a hair extended outward and began swirling at the center of his dantian. Then it flowed out of the dantian and along his meridians.
Though thinner than a strand of thread, that line contained immense power and vast true energy. As that energy struck his meridians, the previously blocked channels, which had seemed impossible to open, suddenly burst open.
As his meridians opened, intense pain surged once again. This time, Jin Feng gritted his teeth and endured it. Raising his head, he roared inwardly.
‘If there’s no pain like this, how can transformation happen?’
He clenched his teeth so tightly that blood flowed freely from his lips. His body trembled violently from the pain, but he endured it.
The pain came and went like waves.
After about half a shichen, Jin Feng exhaled a long, heavy breath.
The thread-like strand formed by the mysterious blood circulated rapidly within his body, opening all the previously blocked meridians. If his meridians had once been like a small stream with blocked water, they were now like a flowing brook. Though still narrow, they were finally open. For the first time, true energy began to flow through his meridians. To Jin Feng, the faint trickle sounded like a rushing current.
Overwhelmed with excitement, Jin Feng could not contain his joy. As true energy circulated throughout his body, he felt a sense of fullness.
The waves of pain that had surged and receded gradually disappeared.
Jin Feng looked up at the sky and shouted with joy.
“I can cultivate now! My meridians are open, and my dantian is unlocked! I’m no longer trash!”
Tears burst forth uncontrollably. No one who had not experienced it could ever understand that suffering.
From a young age, Jin Feng had no aptitude for martial arts. Even after ten years of cultivation, he had made little progress. Mockery and ridicule had been his daily life. Everyone except his master looked down on him. Who could truly understand that kind of pain?
The true energy circulated once around his body and returned to the dantian. Once inside, it did not remain still but continued to surge. It then rushed out again, circulating through his meridians. What was even more astonishing was that as the energy flowed from the dantian, strands of true energy also began to appear throughout his meridians, merging with it. They continued to condense, growing thicker as if snow gathering into a mass. What had been as thin as a hair grew to the thickness of a chopstick.
The true energy that emerged from his meridians was the accumulation he had built during his past cultivation.
Because his meridians had been blocked, he had been unable to cultivate properly or advance in realm. Logically, he should not have been able to accumulate any true energy at all. However, the Paedarayeop Geumgyeong he had cultivated was mysterious and profound. Not only did it strengthen his foundation, it also generated true energy and stored it throughout his body.
The reason this energy had not been discovered was because his meridians had been blocked and unable to circulate it. Now that his meridians were open and energy could flow, it finally revealed itself.
As the thicker true energy circulated, he felt a powerful surge of strength throughout his body, causing him to tremble.
“Such a miraculous bronze tripod and mysterious dragon blood. The power contained in just a single thread of that blood is already this immense! Of course, the Paedarayeop Geumgyeong also played a huge role. I once thought this technique was useless, but that wasn’t the case at all. It too is incredibly profound. Even someone like me, who was deemed useless, was able to generate true energy. With such abundant power, my cultivation realm should continue to rise!”
As soon as Jin Feng thought this, the true energy within his body surged like a fountain. He quickly reached the second level of the Houtian Realm, but he was not satisfied and pressed on, aiming for the third level.
To reach the third level of the Houtian Realm required a substantial amount of true energy. Jin Feng gathered all the energy within his body. The true energy thickened to the size of a little finger. As he gathered it, his body trembled violently, and pain surged through every meridian. A groan escaped his lips. But soon after, the true energy poured forth like a waterfall, and in an instant, he reached the third level of the Houtian Realm.
Jin Feng clenched his fist tightly. He could feel power expanding within his body. He threw a punch forward. With a loud explosion, the air trembled.
He estimated that his fist possessed a strength of at least eight hundred jin. That was the strength equivalent to one and a half tigers.
The first level of the Houtian Realm required a hundred jin of strength, the second two hundred, the third five hundred, and the fourth one thousand jin. Strength was the key benchmark separating realms, and advancement required corresponding physical power. Five hundred jin equated to the strength of a single tiger.
Jin Feng had only just reached the third level of the Houtian Realm, yet his strength had already reached eight hundred jin. He was about one and a half times stronger than other cultivators at the same level.
Jin Feng struck a tree about the thickness of a bowl beside the grave. With a sharp cracking sound, the thick tree snapped in a single blow.
He felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration. Lifting his head, he laughed loudly toward the sky. The waste who had once been unable to cultivate had now become a third-level Houtian Realm cultivator—truly exhilarating beyond measure.
The disappearance of his master’s body also made him feel that there must be a reason behind it, filling him with hopeful thoughts.
“Master, where did you go? Since your body is not in the grave, you must not have truly passed away. And you even left me such a treasure… Knowing that you may still be alive brings me great comfort. Master, please do not worry about me. From now on, I will cultivate diligently and find you!”
Jin Feng was truly delighted, thinking that not only could he now cultivate, but his master might still be alive.
He examined the box that had contained the bronze tripod, checked to see if anything else remained inside, then placed the box back into the coffin and covered the grave again.
His body, covered in mud and emitting a foul odor, made him let out a wry smile.
“Jin Feng, how can you be this filthy!”
He immediately went to a nearby stream to wash himself. After bathing, he changed into worn but clean clothes. Then he returned to the grave, sat down beside it, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
April 15.
The fifteenth of every month was the day Genwon Sect disciples received their resources.
On the Dragon Vein Continent, martial practitioners were held in the highest regard. They were those who could absorb primordial energy and condense it into true energy, and further refine it into origin energy. At the pinnacle of martial arts, one could possess power capable of overturning heaven and earth.
Martial practitioners could gather primordial energy not only by absorbing it directly from heaven and earth, but also through other means—such as absorbing the primordial energy contained within spirit stones. The energy within spirit stones far exceeded the average density of primordial energy in the world. By absorbing it, cultivation speed increased significantly, allowing one to advance through realms much faster.
Outer sect disciples of the Genwon Sect typically received three spirit stones each month. Jin Feng, as an outer sect disciple, was no exception.
On this day, Jin Feng packed his belongings and set out toward the outer sect of the Genwon Sect.