Lying in the wooden tub, his body steeped in the cool spirit liquid, Xiao Yan found himself drinking deep of that surge of fullness within him. By the ordinary pattern of breakthroughs, there always came a period of settling once one reached the seventh rank — but Xiao Yan, aided by the Foundation Liquid, had skipped that interval entirely and arrived at the phase of abundance.
He sat quietly in the tub for a while, and only when the tide of joy had gradually calmed did he rise to his feet at a lazy pace, his bare body beaded with pale-green droplets that, under the sunlight, flashed with a strange and varied sheen. He stretched languidly, and the bones within him, as though reborn, gave out a crisp, crackling chorus.
He turned his neck with a casual tilt, and, his right hand sweeping toward the bed, sent a burst of suction shooting forth; the pull instantly rolled his clothing into his palm.
"Not bad. The Dou Qi is indeed considerably fuller now. With the suction I can produce at present, I ought to be able to lift the weight of a person, shouldn't I?" Once he had dressed, Xiao Yan's brow knitted slightly and he murmured to himself. "Pity, though — this 'Suction Palm' seems to have little real power of attack. The so-called forced extraction of an opponent's blood can only work against those far inferior in rank; set against a foe of the same rank or higher, it's a case of a long pole being unable to reach..."
At the thought, Xiao Yan let out an aggrieved sigh. This, after all, was to be counted his very first Dou Technique.
He pressed his lips together, and had just set one foot toward climbing out of the tub when something stirred abruptly in his mind.
A faint, nameless light kindled in his eyes. Xiao Yan's right palm slowly curled, his gaze fixed unblinkingly upon his own hand; after a moment, the palm, at a distance of half a chi, took aim at a vase.
He wet his lips. The Dou Qi within him, following no particular channel, simply burst straight out from his palm...
To let Dou Qi forth externally — that could barely be managed even at the level of a Great Dou Master. So Xiao Yan's attempt served little purpose save to raise a breeze of no great account.
The light wind spurted from his palm, rattling the vase violently for a moment, almost toppling it from the table...
The Dou Qi had not been released outward, yet Xiao Yan was in no way disappointed. Instead, his face lit with delight; he rubbed his hands in excitement, retreated several paces, and leveled his right palm at the vase once more.
"Suction Palm!" With a light cry, a mighty pull seized the vase and dragged it hurtling toward Xiao Yan.
Just as the vase was about to reach three feet before him, Xiao Yan's suction abruptly snapped shut; the Dou Qi in his body poured out in full from his palm, and at once a fierce blast of wind pressure struck hard against the vase racing toward him.
"Boom!"
The two pulls, opposed in direction, met in mid-air, and the vase at the center of the collision shattered with a roar into a spray of fine shards that shot in every direction.
Gazing at the effect his palm had produced, Xiao Yan's young face brimmed with delighted surprise. The destructive power born of the clash between suction and forward recoil far exceeded what he had expected.
Though the richly replenished Dou Qi within him had been drained dry by the recoil force he had just conjured, Xiao Yan was nonetheless wildly excited — that recoil he had unleashed by the most elementary means of channeling, a way that cost the most energy and yielded but a pitiful effect. If only he had a Dou Technique, akin to the Suction Palm, dedicated to letting out a recoil force, then, with the pair working in tandem, he dared be certain that the result would be supremely ferocious!
"Little fellow, not bad... to actually think of using this trick to strengthen the Suction Palm." The ring upon his finger flashed faintly, and Yao Lao drifted out to gaze at the shards scattered about the room; he nodded slightly, a note of praise in his voice.
Xiao Yan grinned slyly, his eyes rolling about Yao Lao, his whole face a portrait of sycophancy.
"If there existed a Dou Technique dedicated to unleashing recoil force, and one refined it to the height of perfection, then this low-grade Xuan-rank Suction Palm of yours might, in sheer power of attack, rival a mid- or even high-grade Xuan-rank technique..." As though he had not noticed Xiao Yan's expression, Yao Lao went on, lost in his own thought.
"Master, you know well how rare auxiliary techniques like this are. I only won my Suction Palm by a stroke of luck — and now where am I to find an auxiliary technique to match it?" Xiao Yan scratched his head, in seeming helplessness.
"None of your innocent airs. What you're really after is to wheedle something out of me." Yao Lao rolled his eyes and curled his lip.
"Men have thought of this idea before you, never doubt it. But the two techniques are both auxiliary ones of the class people dismiss as chicken ribs — hard to come by. So few, in the end, have ever truly gathered them both."
"Not even Master has one?" At these words, Xiao Yan's face fell at once, his spirits sinking. Without a Dou Technique devoted to recoil force, relying on his own Dou Qi to spur it forth was, beyond question, an act that cost more than it gained.
Watching Xiao Yan's dejected look, Yao Lao shook his head in amusement, and, rubbing his brow with his fingers, mused aloud: "Ages ago, someone begged me to refine a pill, and in return I seem to have accepted such a technique. At the time, had I not happened to have a spare elixir at hand, I'd never have dealt with the man. That was so long ago that, had you not jogged my memory today, I doubt I should ever have recalled it."
"There... found it." He drew his fingers from his brow and, under Xiao Yan's eyes brimming with frantic joy, tapped them lightly upon the youth's forehead.
At the touch, Xiao Yan's head swelled faintly; a great mass of information came pouring in, and only after a long while did it gradually become clear.
"Blow-Flame Palm: low-grade Xuan rank — can produce a mighty blast of wind pressure!"
The bald, simple description, together with the homespun name, made those four characters "low-grade Xuan rank" seem pitiably humble.
"The founder of this thing was a blacksmith who spent his life hammering iron. For the sake of his furnace flame, he stumbled quite inexplicably upon this blow-flame technique..." Gazing at Xiao Yan's stiffening face, Yao Lao teased with a wry laugh.
Xiao Yan rolled his eyes, secretly admiring the blacksmith's knack — creating a Dou Technique was nothing so easy as forging a length of steel.
The Blow-Flame Palm was not difficult to learn. Under Yao Lao's guidance, Xiao Yan, within two hours, had already grasped the essentials of its knack.
Standing in the room, Xiao Yan eyed cagerly the one vase within it, drew a deep breath, and curled his palm — the suction roared out. "Suction Palm!"
Caught in the fierce pull, the vase flew straight for Xiao Yan.
His eyes fixed unblinking upon the approaching vase, Xiao Yan promptly dissolved his Suction Palm, then let the Dou Qi in his body run along the channels of the Blow-Flame Palm.
"Blow-Flame Palm!"
Just as the vase was about to smash against his skull, a formidable blast of wind pressure whipped ferociously out of Xiao Yan's palm, and at once the room filled with churning dust.
"Boom!"
Another crisp muffled crash — this time the vase was blown cleanly into a cloud of dust by the two opposing forces.
"Excellent..."
Coughing through the dust, his body coated in white powder, Xiao Yan beheld the result and his eyes lit up. Provided he could shift between the two techniques to the height of perfection, he would surely be able to teach any unwary opponent a very severe lesson.
He brushed the white dust from his clothes, knowing well in his heart that, in the final three months ahead, he had gained one more training task.
Three months hence, and it would be his coming-of-age ceremony...
"Heh. No doubt many are looking forward to seeing me make a fool of myself again?" In the disordered room, the youth let out a soft, cold laugh.