Pushing open the courtyard door, Yang Ge immediately saw the full yard covered in yellow mud footprints.
He released the dog leash and walked into the courtyard with a gloomy face, only to see the room's door wide open, and through it, the disheveled furnishings inside...
Seeing this scene, Yang Ge should have felt relieved.
Relieved that his Flying Fish robe and ox-tail knife were stored at the base, and these intruders hadn't found them.
But looking at the messy room, all he felt was discomfort, a surge of fury rushing to his head!
He stood in the yard with an unpleasant expression for a long while, then suddenly broke into hysterical curses, "Motherfucker, motherfucker, motherfucker, what a shithole, shithole, shithole..."
Huang also ran back and forth in the yard, barking non-stop.
After venting with a torrent of curses for a good half quarter of an hour, Yang Ge, with a darkened face, shut Huang in the room.
Then he returned to the center of the courtyard, assumed the stance of Mixed Origin Stance, and circulated strength throughout his entire body!
Feeling lousy today, he wouldn't bother with farming; he decided to break through a minor realm and then go out to let off some steam...
In less than the time it took an incense stick to burn, his complexion gradually reddened, and as his breathing rhythmically fluctuated, he slightly expanded and contracted, a wisp of hot air rising from the top of his head, swirling around the Baihui acupuncture point, lingering without dispersing.
The first daunting barrier in martial arts is opening the Qi Sea to absorb energy.
In Shen Fa's words, this barrier prevents ninety-nine percent of martial practitioners!
A serious martial practitioner who wishes to overcome this barrier must first find the sensation of "strength sinking to the Dantian."
It's about sensation, not location!
Any somewhat knowledgeable person knows the Dantian is located three inches below the navel.
However, what the sensation of "strength sinking to the Dantian" feels like isn't something you can imagine just by thinking.
Even if you could imagine it, most likely it would be wrong!
For something as crucial as the Dantian, if you make a mistake, you almost never get a second chance to start over.
Therefore, to break through this barrier, the most reliable and common method is simply "grinding" ... the grind of meticulous training!
Sink your thoughts, concentrate on circulating strength over and over through the body, to comprehend the sensation of strength passing through the Dantian, to comprehend the feeling of the body's strength converging to a single point.
The innate constitution and talent of a martial practitioner oftentimes become apparent at this time.
Some, with undivided attention and a pure body, may grasp the sensation of strength sinking to the Dantian within a few months of achieving major internal strength, naturally opening their Qi Sea to absorb energy.
Others, with complicated thoughts and impure bodies, might circulate strength thousands of times around the area of the Dantian yet feel nothing but emptiness, never sensing the Dantian's existence, and thus unable to open the Qi Sea or absorb energy.
Of course, there are shortcuts.
Find a master of the Qi Sea with balanced and harmonious Inner Qi, preferably from the same lineage, to inject a thread of Inner Qi into your Dantian daily. While the Inner Qi lingers, carefully experience the sensation as if the Dantian truly exists like a physical entity.
This method, if continued for a couple of months, can enable even the most talentless practitioners to smoothly open their Qi Sea and absorb energy...
However, this shortcut is problematic: where to find a selfless Qi Sea master willing to spend months helping you open your Qi Sea and absorb energy?
From another perspective, aside from one's own parents or personal master and mistress, who would dare let someone else strike their Dantian every day?
Once the force applied is a little too strong, your body would burst like a water balloon with a hole, hissing as it spurts water outward, never mind opening the Qi Sea or absorbing energy, even keeping your accumulated internal strength would be in jeopardy!
Hence, even in prestigious sects, this shortcut is used with great caution, rarely to force growth prematurely.
Comparing these two common methods to overcome this barrier, Yang Ge wasn't much stronger than other martial practitioners.
Because he had yet to sense the existence of his Dantian.
But the so-called Grandmaster who claimed there were no bottlenecks below the True Essence Realm couldn't be so in vain!
Unable to sense the Dantian?
No problem!
He could clearly sense the channels!
They were wide and straight, empty and vast within his body, like highways!
Therefore, he didn't need to proceed step by step like other martial artists—opening the Qi Sea to absorb Inner Qi, circulating Qi to unblock meridian points...
Instead, he could directly channel Inner Strength into his meridians, then have it rush back to the Dantian from all directions!
Of course, this unconventional method required extremely high standards of Inner Strength control!
After all, it involved recklessly hammering away at the Dantian...
But with the constitution of a junior Grandmaster, his control over Inner Strength had been exquisitely precise from the start!
While other martial artists of modest Inner Strength success could only wield their Inner Strength like a hammer, Yang Ge had already been able to play a thousand blossoms with his Inner Strength.
After enduring four months of grueling effort, his control over his own Inner Strength had reached the miraculous realm of splitting strength into threads!
If it weren't for this, he could not have executed the deadly move—Capturing Wind and Shadows—as smoothly as silk in the moment he grasped the essence of Chaotic Wind Leg.
Therefore, releasing Inner Strength into all meridians and forcing it back to the Dantian might seem like a desperate gamble fraught with danger.
But if you were to ask Yang Ge's understanding of it, he would only reply with one phrase, "Nothing special, just familiarity!"
After entering meditation, Yang Ge's breathing grew longer and deeper, his chest heaving more dramatically, and his complexion gradually turned purplish...
After an indeterminate amount of time.
A "plop" was heard.
A surprisingly pungent and forceful stream of air created a whirlwind in the small courtyard!
Yang Ge, as if unburdened of a heavy load, slowly relaxed his tensed body, and his complexion slowly returned to normal.
Yet he did not open his eyes, still maintaining the posture of Primordial Pile, as an invisible layer of airflow slowly enveloped his body, repelling any floating dust in the air before it could get close to him.
He maintained this stance for more than an hour.
When the setting sun had crossed the top of the wall and cast straight rays upon his eyes, he suddenly opened them and leapt two to three zhang high, kicking forcefully towards the southeastern corner of the courtyard's pond while still in mid-air.
"Boom."
A three-foot-high splash erupted from the pond, and the rocks within that served as a miniature landscape cracked apart with countless fissures.
Yang Ge gracefully landed, gently grasping his fist as he pondered the tumultuous surge different from the Inner Strength he was used to, "Oh, so this is what Inner Qi is all about!"
In his current perception, the biggest difference between Inner Strength and Inner Qi lay in the fact that Inner Strength traveled through muscles and bones, while Inner Qi traveled through meridians!
This distinction meant that the power of Inner Strength depended on the physical foundation of the body, the robustness of muscles, bones, and the abundance of blood energy—hence Inner Strength was naturally strong!
Whereas the power of Inner Qi depended both on the power of the Inner Qi itself and the responsiveness of the meridians...
If one were to make a comparison...
Inner Strength was like a fist—the power to strike someone depended on whether your fist was hard and strong enough.
Inner Qi was like firearms—the power to strike someone depended both on the caliber of the weapon and the firing speed.
Of course, technique was also very important, but even for a marksman, one can't deny the importance of a good gun, right?
This is what the old saying means: Without practicing skill, all your martial arts will go to waste no matter how old you get; without practicing your internal strength, it's like a rudderless ship!
Yang Ge slowly clenched and unclenched his fist, getting used to the method of employing Inner Qi while thinking to himself, 'I wonder if Chaotic Wind Leg has any bridging techniques for the Qi Sea Realm. If not, it can only be used as a fighting technique...'
"Thump, thump, thump."
Suddenly, someone knocked on the courtyard door.
Yang Ge turned his head and called out, "Who is it?"
Fang Ke's voice came from outside, "Boss, I've found the person..."
Yang Ge strode over to the door, pulled it open, and said coldly, "Where?"
As Fang Ke suddenly found himself overshadowed by Yang Ge's presence, a nameless oppression weighed on his chest; he hastily bowed and said in a low voice, "Yuelai Inn!"
Yang Ge pursed his lips forcefully and said, "Alert the brothers, grab the weapons, we're going to meet those two Northeastern tigers!"