Chapter 14 — Travelling to the Horizon

"Internal martial arts—from training the strength of the whole body to forging inner force, and then on to the realm of grandmaster—are in fact the stage of refining essence into qi."

"The ancients paid no attention to training muscle and bone; in their eyes, that was a minor art. What they valued was drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and refining it into inner force. After all, in ancient times that energy was abundant, and a great quantity of inner force could be refined—enough even to be stored in the dantian. We who practice internal martial arts, by contrast, refine only a trace of inner force from the essence and blood within our bodies—a paltry amount. And it remains confined to the meridians."

Teng Xuanji heard this and sighed with emotion as well.

In battles among today's strong, inner force is only a supplement; most rely on the strength of muscle and bone.

The ancients, by contrast, relied purely on powerful inner force.

After all, those with plenty of money don't much care; but for modern people, that capital of inner force is far too scarce—so scarce that there is no need to store it in the dantian at all.

"Yet compared with the cultivation methods of the ancients, internal martial arts has both weaknesses and strengths."

"The weakness is that the very pinnacle of internal martial arts—the grandmaster—is probably only the equal of an ancient practitioner at the limit of the post-heaven stage. In ancient times there were also pre-heaven masters. The pre-heaven realm was even divided into three great stages: the void core, the solid core, and the golden core. Far, far stronger than what we have today."

"The strength is that the grandmasters of internal martial arts have all their meridians fully opened."

"For the ancients, opening the meridians was extremely difficult; opening the Ren and Du meridians seems to have been a remarkable achievement."

Teng Xuanji smiled when he read this.

Indeed. Which of today's grandmasters has not opened every meridian in the body completely—whether the eight extraordinary vessels, the twelve principal channels, or even the various fine branch channels—all thoroughly clear? Inner force can in an instant reach every part of the body.

"At first I did not understand. Ancient cultivators had stronger inner force, so it should have been easier for them to open their meridians. How could it be harder for them than for us?"

Teng Xuanji nodded slightly.

"After inquiry and investigation, I arrived at certain conjectures."

"The ancient cultivators drew in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, accumulated enough inner force, and then, relying on that powerful inner force, gradually forced open the meridians one by one. This method is like clearing a river channel: the silt and refuse are steadily pushed back; and the more refuse is pushed back, the more congested the channel behind it becomes."

"It is true that during this process of opening the meridians, a good deal of impurity seeped out through the pores. But even more impurity was pushed back into the other meridians."

Teng Xuanji nodded inwardly.

"Each time a meridian is opened, the impurity in the remaining meridians grows denser, and opening the next meridian becomes all the harder." Teng Xuanji was entirely captivated by this inference. "So for an ancient cultivator to open the eight extraordinary vessels and the twelve principal channels was extremely rare. As for opening the fine branch channels—that was all but impossible."

Teng Xuanji nodded in agreement.

Method determines outcome.

That ancient method of opening the meridians relied purely on brute force, on powerful inner force ceaselessly crowding out impurity; so naturally it grew harder the further one went. Nor should the ancients be blamed—after all, the method they cultivated was chiefly aimed at refining powerful inner force.

"But my internal martial arts is different."

"In internal martial arts, every part of the body is trained—muscle, fascia, bone, and the rest. Even the meridians are stimulated in training, growing ever broader and more resilient. There was never much impurity in the meridians to begin with, and as training proceeds it seeps gradually out through the pores."

"Because our inner force is so scant, there is no squeezing at all. With years and months of practice, the impurity keeps seeping out, and one day the meridians will all be opened, and the realm of grandmaster reached."

Teng Xuanji smiled too.

He was himself a grandmaster of inner force, and he understood this.

If the ancient method was to force impurity back by inner force,

then internal martial arts today strengthens every part of the body, the meridians included. Those tiny meridians connecting to the pores—in training, the impurity in the branch channels seeps out through the pores long before. Naturally, the impurity in the principal meridians also flows slowly into the branch channels, and then seeps out through the pores.

Silently, imperceptibly, through one small branch channel after another, all the impurity seeps away.

But the ancients?

From the very start they squeezed, driving great quantities of impurity into the branch channels and clogging them completely in an instant.

Better to guide than to block—that is the principle.

"So in terms of opening the meridians, the practice of internal martial arts should be far superior to the ancient methods."

Seeing this conclusion, Teng Xuanji agreed wholeheartedly.

After all, how many of the ancients managed to open every meridian in the body?

"Sometimes I wonder: if a grandmaster of inner force could return to the Xia, Shang, and Zhou, to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, to Qin and Han—that age when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was abundant—with every meridian in his body open, and then cultivate the various secret methods of antiquity, his achievements would surely know no bounds." In the end, this grandmaster of the Republican era was clearly overcome with emotion.

Great mastery is lonely.

That Grandmaster Liu Shenhou, in the Republican era, likewise stood at the summit of human power. When he learned that the ancient masters had cultivated through three great pre-heaven realms, how could his heart not yearn?

Having read this long account by Liu Shenhou, Teng Xuanji was moved as well.

"My regret—that I could not be born in the distant past."

Teng Xuanji sighed inwardly. In this modern society he already counted as a figure at the very pinnacle, a grandmaster; yet in the distant past, one who had achieved great mastery of the post-heaven stage was merely an ordinary expert, not even having touched the gate of the pre-heaven. Of that age when masters were as numerous as clouds, Teng Xuanji could not help but feel his blood race at the mere imagining.

"I truly do not know why, from the Sui and Tang onward, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth began to dwindle." Teng Xuanji mused, then continued leafing through this Chronicle of the Millennium.

The Chronicle of the Millennium was indeed a book recording the training methods of the Divine Thief Sect.

The latter part of the book was devoted purely to the monkey-style boxing, from the rudiments to grandmaster level. Though there were methods to follow, it was extremely hard for an ordinary person even to develop inner force, let alone become a grandmaster.

"Hm?"

When Teng Xuanji turned to the last few pages, he could not help but start.

"Our Divine Thief Sect once handed down several ancient secret manuals. At first I did not take them seriously, but after investigating the secrets of ancient cultivation, I learned that these manuals are genuine. Only—the spiritual energy of heaven and earth has dwindled, and these manuals are of no use now."