Book 2 - Fame Spreads - Chapter 11 - The Three Energies

“Temper bones, condense essence into Internal Energy, and cultivate Internal Energy…this is Houtian.”
In the room, He Yiming’s slow, skeptical voice sounded.
The book lay opened in his hands as he read by the torch flame on the wall. He discovered that this was the not the complete book, but a major part of it.
However, it was still the most detailed among all the books he’d ever seen.
Other than the author’s personal experience, for the most part, it explained the essentials to break through at every layer below the tenth. The author of this book had evidently not experienced the Xiantian realm for himself, and thus, this book didn’t help He Yiming at all.
Of course, this book would prove to be extremely beneficial to the family’s third generation in the future- saving them a lot of troubles during their cultivation path.
He Yiming could even bet that although his father and third uncle had not visited this room, they had certainly read these books.
Although he wouldn’t say that they had read all, he was certain that they had at least read all the content regarding the breakthrough. Only, they had failed to advance nevertheless.
And the reason his eldest uncle and grandfather never mentioned this subject to him was that his speed was already too quick- so quick that it was simply beyond their expectations. Thus, they simply never had the chance to mention it to him.
If they had not seen his listless appearance today, they probably wouldn’t have disclosed this information to him.
Among all these books, only one book mentioned the Xiantian realm.
According to this book, the way of cultivation was divided into three daos- Essence, Qi, and Spirit.
In Houtian realm, one cultivated the physical body.
The physical body innately contained Essence. Every individual’s physical constitution differed and so did the Essence, but what cultivators cultivated… was precisely this Essence.
All the techniques, regardless of their types, paid special attention to continuous advancement and accumulation of the Essence so that one’s body could sustain the bitter cultivation practices, which then lead to the tempering muscles and bones.
If one’s muscles and bones were sturdy, one’s Essence would naturally thrive. Only after possessing a strong Essence could one begin the cultivation of Internal Energy. Cultivating Internal Energy was precisely to convert this Essence into Internal Energy.
Refining Essence into Internal Energy…is Houtian.
These words were the best portrayal of all the Houtian realm experts.
According to the book, Essence was Houtian’s Jin(energy) dao, Qi was Xiantian’s Qi dao, and Spirit was Heaven and Earth’s Spiritual dao.
The three realms had different types of cultivation. Xiantian’s Qi dao was exceedingly strong in itself. One could even say that attaining the Xiantian realm was already separating oneself from humankind to some degree.
Peak, tenth layer experts were exceedingly strong individuals who possessed tyrannical physical bodies and unmatched Internal Energy reserves.
However, confronting a million people or even a combined encirclement of a few hundred cultivators along with a troop of ordinary men who had completely disregarded their personal safety, such strong tenth layer experts could only die out in the end.
However, if one had attained the Xiantian realm, this would no longer be the case. Only under a seize of tens of thousands of ordinary cultivators would a cultivator of Xiantian realm be killed.
Moreover, Xiantian realm’s cultivators would also not choose to struggle before such a big army.
One could safely assume that after attaining the Xiantian realm, a cultivator could not be killed by relying on numbers alone.
As for Spiritual dao, the realm above, this book didn’t mention anything regarding it except for its name. He Yiming didn’t know if the original book had more entries because this copy only contained a single page about the Xiantian realm.
Perhaps it hadn’t been copied in its entirety or this section had been lost before it was copied, whatever the case, He Yiming felt extremely regretful.
However, this single page had already enabled He Yiming to somewhat understand the reason he’d not made the breakthrough after cultivating a new Internal Energy technique.
According to this book, a human body in the Houtian realm resembled a big, unfilled water tank.
Before cultivating a primary cultivation technique, the body’s essence would be refined and purified, transforming into Internal Energy, which would then eventually fill the tank.
With the constant improvement of Internal Energy, the water in the tank would also increase correspondingly.
With every layer, a human body- the water tank- would also become bigger and more stable, which would increase its holding capacity.
However, after attaining the tenth layer, water would have attained the peak and also the limits of a human body. At this point, a human body could no longer rely on Internal Energy to enlarge itself.
One could say that at this realm, the potential of a human body had already been maximised.
Therefore, the ancient cultivators came up with the idea of the above mentioned ‘Qi’.
The so-called Qi was not a reference to one’s breath, but to a strange energy that pervaded the heavens and earth.
This strange energy had many names- Worldly Yuan Qi, Worldly Spiritual Qi…so on.
After countless efforts and wasting countless lives, the ancient cultivators eventually discovered a technique to utilize the Worldly Qi.
After attaining the tenth layer’s peak, they would try to connect with the Worldly Qi and try to absorb this boundless energy in their bodies.
After entering the body, this Qi would naturally transform into a new energy, and the power of this new energy could easily allow a human’s body to break its previous limits.
Although it was said that if the water tank ruptured, the body would also die out as a result, as long as one could absorb the Worldly Qi, one could easily forge another water tank which would be inconceivably huge.
This was precisely the so-called ‘if the old doesn’t leave, new will not come.’ Only after experiencing ‘destruction and reestablishment’ would one be able to attain the Xiantian realm.
Putting down the book in his hand, He Yiming bitterly smiled.
No wonder he didn’t feel any reaction after cultivating [Power Secrets]. Although he had converted all the Essence of his body into Internal Energy and his body now stood at the peak of the Houtian realm, his water tank had no more holding capacity at all.
To step further, he had to break the limits and connect with the Worldly Qi. Only then he could obtain a new scope.
Although the words in the book seemed quite simple and easy, he’d been racking his brain for so long but had not feel any sort of worldly power around his body at all.
If this book had not talked in such a confident manner and his grandfather had not preserved this book as if it was the family heirloom, and if he’d not cultivated Xiantian battle skills and thus knew that difference between the two genres of cultivators was so huge that it defied reason, he wouldn’t have believed that some Qi permeated the entire world.
He faintly shook his head. In order to break through the tenth layer’s peak, he would apparently need to establish a friendship with this Worldly Qi- the very existence of which felt skeptical to him. This didn’t seem easy.
Of course, if it was easy, He Wude would have entered the Xiantian realm long ago.
Suddenly the room’s door opened and He Wude entered.
He Yiming faintly started, “Grandfather, one day has passed?”
He Wude faintly shook his head and brought out a bamboo basket from his back. Taking out a bowl, he said, “I know you probably aren’t feeling hungry, but you should still eat something and take a rest.”
He Yiming astoundedly glanced at the bowl. Bamboo shoot roasted meat, roasted chicken wings..so on- although these few dishes were merely part of the family’s daily meals, this part was his favourite among the daily meals.
Feeling warm inside, he respectfully said, “Yes, grandfather.”
With his current strength, whether he didn’t drink a drop of water for a few days or ate like a pig, he wouldn’t have to face any problem at all. Although the old man also knew this, he couldn’t help but bring some food. As he looked at He Yiming happily eating away, he also smiled.
Sweeping his gaze around, He Wude faintly smiled, “Yiming, why are you reading this book?”
He Yiming’s heart faintly stirred before he asked, “Grandfather, where did this book come from?”
He Wude deeply sighed, “Back in the day, when I was a pill-helper, I casually copied this book in my free time.”
He Yiming blinked his eyes. He felt certain that this certainly had a story behind, but since the Lord Master was not willing to divulge, he didn’t follow up either. After thinking for a bit, he said, “Grandfather, this seems incomplete.”
“This is indeed an incomplete book. However, it is still enough to be our family’s heirloom.”
He Yiming faintly nodded. He’d no qualms on this at all. However, the issue was that this incomplete book didn’t hold much value to him.
He Wude suddenly slapped his forehead and said, “Right! There seems to be one more page. It fell down due to carelessness. I think…”
He Yiming’s eyes brightened up. Not to mention a full page, he would be fine even it was a part of page.
He Wude’s brows faintly creased as he said, “That page mentioned the method to break through tenth layer’s peak and enter the Xiantian realm. Where did I end up putting it?”
He Yiming’s breath suddenly quickened.
At this moment, he forgot that if such a good method existed, how come the Lord Master hadn’t used it?
He Wude thought for a while before he suddenly turned around and left. When he returned back, one of his hands held a paper.
“Ten years ago, I always kept this paper right next to me. However, in recent years, I have understood that Xiantian is hopeless for me, so I just put it in the bookshelf outside. If I hadn’t seen you flipping through this book, I wouldn’t have thought about it at all.”
The old man sighed relentlessly. His memory had started to gradually fall off.
He Yiming accepted the paper from his grandfather, not minding the old man’s blabbering.
On the front side, he didn’t find anything relevant.
He impatiently flipped the page around and quickly swept his vision downwards.
Sure enough, it mentioned the author’s own experience and the method he’d used to break through the tenth layer’s peak and attain the Xiantian realm.
However, when he saw the method, even he who had cultivated his Internal Energy to the tenth layer’s peak by himself couldn’t help but curse towards the heavens, “Inhuman….!”