Chapter Sixty-One: The Realm of Qi Gathering (Part One)

In the courtyard, Chen Yu practiced his boxing.

The primordial blood still coursed through his body, but it had become far more temperate, no longer prone to the volatile, boiling surge that followed even the slightest agitation in the past. His old blood was gone; his heart, bones, and circulation system now produced and carried only this new, primordial blood. Had he not undergone this total blood transfusion, constructing the meridians for his Qi-nurturing scripture would have required far more effort, or perhaps been entirely impossible.

Of course, his greatest gain was the breathing technique. During the transformation of his internal organs and the exchange of his blood, he had driven his breathing technique to its absolute limit. Minor flaws and errors were magnified, identified, and swiftly corrected. These past few days, the process of mapping the meridians within his body had also served as an ongoing endeavor to refine and perfect that breathing technique, ultimately merging three distinct methods into one unique art of respiration.

Whether it was his internal organs, the spiritual fluid, or his mental faculties, everything was now linked and driven by Qi. Regardless of whether he used the Spirit-Breathing Body Strengthening Technique or the Spirit-Invoking Technique, his movements and breathing now achieved equal or even superior results. His mind was vibrant, and his control was absolute.

As for the Visceral Rebirth Technique, its applicability had dropped significantly following the transformation of his organs. However, the sonic attack method he had accidentally created back then had only grown in power. He could now roar thirteen or fourteen times in one breath without consequence, unlike when he first started, when even two attempts would leave his internal organs injured.

*Whoosh—*

His fists came to a halt. Chen Yu’s abdomen swelled, and instantly, a dozen acupuncture points near his neck and upper abdomen opened. Qi surged along the meridians and gathered at his throat and tongue.

He compressed and condensed it.

He exhaled, and the breath transformed into a stream of soft, white vapor. It wobbled as it shot out a few paces before bursting in mid-air, scattering like clouds across the sky. It was silent and intangible, like a gentle breeze against the face. At first glance, it appeared weak and harmless. Yet, a smile touched his lips. There was no other way to describe it—this was exhaling like a sword.

Mythology had become reality.

The transformation that night had provided Chen Yu with inspiration. Gathering Qi to exhale like a sword was something an ordinary person could not achieve with just their lips, tongue, or abdomen, nor could a well-trained martial artist. But he was different; he truly possessed Qi. With the reinforcement of his mental energy and the constraints of his breathing technique, he could barely project his Qi four paces—roughly the distance of one *zhang*.

While it could indeed fly, and the sight of white light shooting forth with a single breath was intimidating enough, Chen Yu had no way yet to achieve the legendary feats of flying thousands of miles or killing invisibly. He could only hope that as his control over Qi deepened and his mental strength grew, such things would become possible.

He set aside what he called the "Qi Sword Technique." What Chen Yu valued more was the fact that Qi could now be projected externally. His fetal breathing could not be released from his body, and while his mental energy could, it only extended a little over a foot. The combination of the two made the external projection of Qi less of a surprise, though he had tried and failed to do so when he first condensed and nurtured it.

Now, he could.

Over the past few days, Chen Yu had formed a rough hypothesis as to why: perhaps the changes his flesh, skin, and membranes underwent during the transformation had affected the flow of Qi, allowing it to permeate outward. Furthermore, he possessed a sufficient quantity of Qi. Earlier, when nurturing his organs, acupuncture points, and flesh, his mental energy had been consumed heavily, and his fetal breathing had nearly dried up, leaving his *dantian* empty. But later, as his body transformed and the Qi-nurturing meridians were successfully built, his acupuncture points were linked into a cohesive whole, storing Qi within. With high production and low consumption, he had naturally accumulated quite a lot.

At this moment, Chen Yu gathered the Qi in his palm, shaping it into a sphere of jade-colored light that flickered like a flame.

After a moment, he waved his hand and dissipated it.

Unlike his mental energy, Qi had a slightly stronger ability to persist in the external environment, yet it was far from burning indefinitely. The external world was like a lake full of cracks, completely dried up; he felt no trace of the legendary energy factors within it. When the Qi dissipated, it was like pouring a ladle of water into a desert—it brought a fleeting glimmer of life, only to sink and vanish in an instant.

Standing in place, Chen Yu’s eyes flickered with thought. This was not the first time; his mental energy had behaved the same way—once it lacked his restraint, it would collapse and dissolve into the surrounding void. However, the Qi dissipated at a slower rate.

From his perspective, the entire world was like a sieve, automatically filtering out both mental energy and Qi, preventing them from remaining. He was currently wrapped within that sieve. Fortunately, although the outside world filtered out energy, there was no "pressure difference," so the mental energy and Qi within his body did not surge away uncontrollably.

In recent days, since he could project Qi, Chen Yu had tested it on various objects, much like when he first discovered the spiritual essence and spiritual fluid. It turned out that while Qi lacked catalytic properties, it was not entirely useless. When he covered inanimate objects with Qi, he found it difficult to permeate them. Conversely, however, the rate of evaporation was slower.

Once infused, the Qi would slowly stain and alter the object's internal structure. He did not know if it was related to him, but these altered structures closely resembled meridians.

As Qi flowed through them, it further slowed the evaporation.

He proceeded to test this on stones, wood, and water, ultimately discovering that all things had a similar capacity for holding Qi, including the corpses of animals and plants. Metal and iron, however, were much more compatible.

The highest capacity, by far, was found in spiritual plants. If the capacity of an ordinary inanimate object were considered one unit, metal and iron were twice that. As for spiritual plants, they could hold over ten units!

However, he had yet to find a use for these objects once infused with Qi. As for metal and iron, after storing a certain amount of Qi and being triggered, they could emit a faint white light. It served as illumination at night—though, even if he poured all the Qi in his body into it, it could only shine for a quarter of an hour, a truly lackluster result.

Nowadays, he had no shortage of things to do. From dawn till dusk, aside from his habitual training, he spent his time pondering his Qi, refining his breathing technique, and exploring the various peculiarities resulting from his bodily transformation.

His body was no longer ordinary; his internal organs possessed functions far exceeding those of a normal person. Take his lungs, for example: combined with the primordial blood flowing through his body, he could submerge himself in water for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense without feeling dizzy or stifled. Changes such as leaping a *zhang* high, lifting his breath to soar a few paces, possessing the strength of a hundred *jun*, having skin as tough as ox-hide, and eyesight rivaling that of a hawk were too numerous to list.

Even so, Chen Yu felt there were greater treasures within his body waiting to be unearthed.

Lately, while exploring Qi, he had not abandoned his study of his internal organs. After being infused with the "Qi Seed," there should be more to it than this.

"My organs are powerful; by this stage, there should be some peculiar manifestations."

He flooded the area with mental energy, using his microscopic perception to peer into every inch of his organs, yet he found nothing.

Chen Yu frowned. It was too normal—so normal that it paled in comparison to his bones and primordial blood. The primordial blood was dense; after many changes, it shimmered with a mottled jade luster, like rippling crushed gold. His bones were the same, becoming dense as if coated in a layer of silver frost. His internal organs had been infused with the Qi Seed, making their transformation more thorough than the others, yet they displayed nothing special. He didn't expect a natural divine ability or a treasure-like glow as one might find in stories, but there should at least be something different.