Chapter 62: Divine Ability Teique, Affli Sword-Finger

  “These root tendrils are edible too! They taste a bit like scallion roots, sharp and spicy, yet quite savory. They’re just a bit tough.”

  Starving beyond endurance, An Jing couldn’t wait for the meat to finish roasting and instead picked some thick root tendrils growing ousked pig’s back to chew on.

  At first, it was merely an a driven by hunger, but to his surprise, it made his eyes light up.

  These tendrils had a peculiarly intense salty fvor. Though they were a bit hard oeeth, it was nothing for a martial artist, and they were quite satisfying to chew.

  “Meat that es with its own seasoning, huh.”

  While chewing on the root, An Jing also kept an eye on the heat of the fire.

  The tusked pig was very fatty. Simply roasting it over an open fme caused sizzling oil to seep out. With a knife, he scraped away the surface ashes and char. Underh, the pork urplish?gold hue. Fat tinuously oozed from the gaps in the meat, dripping into the fire.

  Paying o the heat, An Jing took a fierce bite. The meat was tender aremely suct.

  Although the root tendrils coexisting with the tusked pig’s flesh were scorched bck by the fire, they were actually salty and savory. Biting into them gave a crispy, charred aroma as if they were ed in breadcrumbs. They tasted twice as delicious.

  Dev it ravenously, An Jing quickly finished off a rge roasted loin, then eagerly roasted a rack of ribs and swallowed it, bones and everything.

  He ched the boo bits. His stroh ground up all the cartige a, releasing an intense aroma of fat. He swallowed that mixture of bone and flesh, feeling the abundant nutrieer his stomach, the swiftly absorbed by his thhly strengthened digestive ans.

  As his ans worked to digest and absorb the nourishment, a surge of warmth poured throughout his body, rest vigor to his weary frame.

  An Jing stood up, heat rising from his entire body.

  “Hah!”

  His previously pale cheeks now glowed with color. An Jing took deep breaths, his chest and abdomen heaving in a special rhythm.

  Then, the young martial artist began to move.

  He employed the stance?work and stepping force of the Imperial Heavehod, practig his fist teique with body and mind in unison, i and power as one, qi and blood essenited. He extracted streaks of bzing Internal Energy from every part of his body.

  Hoo—Voom—

  In that instant, as An Jing’s chest rose and fell and his fists whirled, the cavern echoed with a sound like a bellows fanning a furnace, apanied by the whoosh of heavy objects slig through the air.

  Moving and geing force with each step, An Jing practiced both his fist and sword teiques in the cavern, as though truly sparring with an invisible oppo. His expression was solemn as he executed every move to perfe. Beads of speared on his forehead, chest, and back, heat rose from his head, and even the air around him seemed to distort slightly.

  And it recisely in this state of total tration, that the purest strands of Internal Energy began to emerge throughout his viscera and all his meridians!

  Internal Energy, vital essence, blood essence, qi and blood, Innate One Qi…

  Different cultivation teiques have different names for it, but they all refer to the same thing in essence, and what they do is nearly identical.

  Namely, to nurture it to greater strength.

  Three parts cultivation, seven parts nourishment. Without suffit nourishment, where would vital essene from? Only by having strong muscles, a healthy body, and even excess nutrients stored one use cultivation teiques to refial essence.

  Were it not for the demonic beast meat from Hanging Fate Manor, An Jing could never have progressed so quickly. Moreover, these two tusked pigs with Dangkang bloodline were akin to exotic beasts, ri nutrients, more than enough to replenish what An Jing had lost through tinuous bloody battles.

  They could even offset the damage to his body caused by taking Qi Boosting Pills!

  At this moment, An Jing could clearly sehat as the Internal Energy in his body was restored, a searing ache fred through his muscles all over, especially in his chest and abdomen.

  That recisely the portion forcibly drawn out by the Qi Boosting Pills’ medial power to squeeze forth Internal Energy.

  —Pain, on the trary, is a good sign.

  Hurting now means there’s still a ce for these wounds to heal properly. If these internal injuries and old wounds were to close on their own while numb and damaged, they would bee hidden weaknesses in An Jing’s body, extremely difficult to mend iure.

  He this moment, upon sensing the pain, An Jing eled his newly regeed Internal Energy to heal these injuries.

  With each breath, his Internal Energy surged like a river, flowing along blood vessels and meridians toward the damaged areas.

  Streams of warmth spiraled and coursed, nourishing his ans and meridians.

  A burning pain, like being soaked in fiery liquor, radiated from his injuries. Yet that sensation made An Jing feel invigorated. Instinctively letting out a low shout, he strode forward, raised two fingers like a sword, and poihrough the air at the cave wall.

  His Internal Energy rose in tandem, passing through the injured, gested area of his chest and abdomen. In a fsh, it flowed through all his limbs and bones before ultimately trating at An Jing’s fiips.

  As that sword?finger was thrust, his arm and hand swelled slightly, the tendons and veins standing out, and the tips of his fingers glowed like red jade.

  Boom!!!

  An invisible burst of force shot forth, pierg the dust motes in the air. In an instant, a small depression abruptly appeared on the distant cave wall, and powdered stone fragments fell pattering to the ground.

  At that moment, An Jing gained an insight.

  Just now, he had prehehe first teique derived from his own Divine Ability!

  【Divine Ability Teique · dense Qi into a Sword】!

  “Hah… that feels good!”

  Releasing that sword?finger, An Ji out a long breath. He instantly felt the stale, oppressive qi in his chest and abdomen vanish, leaving him immeasurably refreshed, pletely at ease.

  Although his wounds throbbed intensely uhe sweep of his Internal Energy, bringing a fiery tingliion, it recisely the sign eion.

  pared to that occasional, suffog itch, most people would probably rather endure a bit more pain.

  It’s like getting a mosquito bite on the sole of your foot that itches unbearably—truly, you’d rather it hurt than itch.

  “Not bad.”

  Having observed everything from start to finish, the Sword Spirit voiced its admiration: “Your Heaven?Ordained Fate Divine Ability 【dense Qi into Armaments】 doesn’t necessarily have to use Blood Baleful Qi. Using your Internal Energy and blood essence works too; it just ’t be sustained as long.”

  “And you even had the ingenious idea of eling the Stagnant Affli Qi* from your old wounds using your Internal Energy, turning it into a move called ‘Affli Sword-Finger’—it’s both a martial teique and a healihod, and iure it might even bee a curse teique.”

  “Although only someone who possesses the dense Qi into Armaments Divine Ability master it, the fact that you created a braeique entirely on your own is proof that you are a true genius!”

  An Jing too raised his right hand, which had unleashed the ‘Affli Sword-Finger’ by eling Internal Energy before, and marveled, “This Heaven?Ordained Fate Divine Ability… is far more versatile than I imagined.”

  Blood oozed from the tips of his index and middle fingers, yet there was no pain, only the stale st of old blood.

  Gazing at his rapidly healing fingers, he sighed, “Initially, it was just a stifled feeling, like having a bloated stomach that makes you want to burp.”

  “Who would’ve thought that even something like ‘sickly qi’ could be spurred by my Divine Ability and turned into a on!”

  By this point, the internal injuries caused by An Jing’s use of Qi Boosting Pills had already begun to heal, and they would leave no lingering problems or hidden wounds behind.

  Iure, any minor internal injuries, backsh, stagnated qi, or internal threats like pill toxins or Baleful Qi would find it hard to trouble An Jing. They could even bee part of his hidden arsenal in battle.

  Of course, some potent poisons and severe internal injuries might still prove beyond the power of the ‘dense Qi into Armaments’ Divine Ability to transfer or fully cure.

  But at least An Jing would have his own uhod to mitigate them.

  (End of Chapter)

  *伤病积郁之气, more literally "Stagnant Qi Accumuted from Injury and Illness."