"This... I don't know either."
Qin Xuan was as clueless as Ke Wudi's suspicion.
However, based on Shi Chuangong's performance so far, the other party harbored no hostility towards him.
Otherwise, during the martial arts competition, he wouldn't have helped him so much, even going so far as to expend a large amount of vital energy to fight Qi Ling for his sake.
"But no matter what, I still need to thank this senior Shi Chuangong."
"When I come out of seclusion in the future, I will visit him personally."
"That would be best."
Nodding, Ke Wudi didn't linger for too long and turned to leave.
Seeing this, Qin Xuan also picked up the martial arts manual gifted by Shi Chuangong and began to examine it.
The ancient manual used a peculiar script, with the three large characters "Xia Ke Xing" written on it.
Upon opening it, he found the original verses of Xia Ke Xing along with annotations and illustrations.
Qin Xuan was puzzled.
Wasn't Xia Ke Xing a famous poem from the中古 (Middle Ancient) period, written by the Azure Lotus Sword Immortal?
Lines like "Ten steps, one kill; a thousand miles, no trace left" and "When the deed is done, brush off the sleeves and depart, hiding deep fame and name" were well-known golden phrases.
How did it suddenly become a martial arts manual?
As Qin Xuan flipped through the manual, the inner voice of Xia Ke Xing itself inevitably entered his ears.
Xia Ke Xing: Tsk, another foolish boy! If he looks at it for a lifetime, he won't be able to cultivate what's recorded within me! It's just a pity that geniuses like my master are too few. Otherwise, after thousands of years, I wouldn't have been lost to obscurity...
If he looks at it?
Hearing Xia Ke Xing's grumbling, Qin Xuan's finger, which was flipping the pages, suddenly stopped.
According to the other party, his method of understanding based on text and illustrations was completely wrong and impossible to cultivate.
Therefore, continuing to flip through it would also be meaningless.
Since that was the case, it would be better to ask Xia Ke Xing directly.
With the ability to hear inner voices, he could completely have Xia Ke Xing teach him the martial art.
Indeed, as Qin Xuan's question was posed, Xia Ke Xing let out a rather proud snort.
Xia Ke Xing: Peerless martial arts, how can they be compared to ordinary techniques? To step into the path of cultivation, you must view me with an extraordinary perspective.
"How is it extraordinary?" Qin Xuan pressed.
Xia Ke Xing: Naturally, it's by seeing mountains not as mountains.
"Seeing mountains not as mountains?"
Hearing Xia Ke Xing's words, Qin Xuan couldn't help but flip the manual back to the first page.
The content on the first page was simple, just the first line of the Xia Ke Xing poem: "Zhao ke man hu ying."
Just five simple characters, accompanied by an illustration and numerous annotations left by Shi family descendants.
Seeing this, Qin Xuan tried not to view it with his original understanding.
However, no matter how he tried, he couldn't glean anything from it.
Helpless, he could only speak again, asking Xia Ke Xing itself.
After mocking Qin Xuan as a fool, Xia Ke Xing not only failed to provide an answer but instead questioned Qin Xuan.
Xia Ke Xing: You foolish boy, what do you value most when cultivating a martial art? What is needed to cultivate a technique?
What is needed to cultivate a martial art?
After Xia Ke Xing's question, Qin Xuan suddenly recalled the scene of him practicing the True Martial Dao Scripture more than half a month ago.
At that time, after obtaining the jade slip, he didn't receive any obscure scriptures or annotations for cultivation methods.
On the contrary, he received the most basic spiritual energy circulation routes.
Where his spiritual energy should start and where it should end...
Wait, could it be?
With a flash of inspiration, Qin Xuan's gaze once again focused on the seemingly simple cultivation method.
The so-called seeing mountains not as mountains, when applied here, wouldn't it be seeing characters not as characters, and pictures not as pictures?
If so, could he visualize all the characters and images, treating them as individual lines, and thus see a different world?
No sooner said than done, Qin Xuan directly used his powerful mental energy to deliberately weaken his mind's sensitivity to characters and images.
Then, when he looked at the content in the book again, the lines and strokes were no longer in their original, fixed forms.
And when he saw the illustration that appeared to be of a scholarly, effeminate figure, the lines and strokes within the illustration seemed to align with the meridians in his body.
The vital energy within him involuntarily began to circulate along its path, gradually becoming hot and strengthening.
Ultimately, it reached a quality comparable to his spiritual energy!
"This is a cultivation method that can allow one to cultivate to the divine level?!"
After a long while, when Qin Xuan emerged from his cultivation state, the changes within him made him exclaim in surprise.
This was only the first line of Xia Ke Xing, and it had already greatly increased the quality of the vital energy within him.
If he continued to cultivate, wouldn't he be able to cultivate it to a level comparable to spiritual energy?!
Since obtaining the True Martial Dao Scripture from Chen Xuan and advancing to the Qi Refining stage, Qin Xuan had completely abandoned the cultivation methods he learned from Ke Wudi and others.
As Chen Xuan had once said, these methods might be rare and extremely powerful on Blue Star, but compared to other cultivation methods in the cultivation world, the difference was not just a little bit.
Furthermore, this type of internal circulation method had a low upper limit and was slow to cultivate.
Unless it served as a backup when the spiritual energy in Qin Xuan's body was completely insufficient, it had become a mere chicken rib for Qin Xuan, of little use.
But now, it was different.
Through the circulation of the cultivation method from the first line of Xia Ke Xing, his vital energy, which had been stagnant for some time, had become active again.
Moreover, not only that, but both the quality and quantity of his vital energy had greatly increased compared to before.
More importantly, this cultivation also replenished the congenital vital energy that Qin Xuan had lost when using the acupuncture point technique.
With this, perhaps in future cultivation, this vital energy cultivation method could catch up to his spiritual energy cultivation method.
At that time, this could become his trump card.
A means of self-preservation after his spiritual energy was depleted!
Thinking of this, the corners of Qin Xuan's mouth couldn't help but curve upwards slightly.
No one would dislike having more trump cards, and neither did he.
Impatiently flipping to the second page, Qin Xuan once again used the same method to continue cultivating his vital energy.
But unlike before.
The second line, "Wu gou shuang xue ming," and the dense characters on it were the key to cultivation.
By blurring the shapes of the characters, it was as if swords appeared within the text.
A total of twenty to thirty swords, also resembling cultivation routes like in the first illustration.
Qin Xuan was overjoyed and quickly practiced them one by one according to the pointers of the swords.
As he practiced up to the twenty-fourth sword, he felt that his vital energy had completed a full cycle from the Yingxiang acupoint to the Shangyang acupoint.
At the same time, a ball of heat was generated in his dantian, spreading throughout his body along with his various acupoints.
Qin Xuan knew that the cultivation method was working, nourishing his physical body.
But before he could rejoice, he was astonished to discover that the incredibly abundant spiritual energy within his body had, at some unknown time, been completely depleted!