Body Tempering with Fierce Winds, Part 2

First Baihui, then Yongquan. Baihui and Yongquan are two acupoints on the human body.

The Baihui acupoint is located at the top center of the head, and the Yongquan acupoint is located in the center of the sole of the foot.

This phrase means from head to toe, from top to bottom.

Connecting to heavenly wind, opening earthly meridians, guiding wind like needles, piercing acupoints and cleansing marrow means opening up acupoints, guiding wind meridians like needles, and stimulating various acupoints on the spiritual meridians from top to bottom, cleansing the meridians and marrow.

These were the clues and answers left by Senior Sister Yao Lingyi.

After a brief contemplation, Su Qing decided to follow suit.

The spiritual energy in her dantian surged within her body, circulating through one grand cycle and one small cycle.

The Baihui acupoint at the crown of her head opened wide.

Su Qing, following the chosen wind meridian, guided the wind to rush through her acupoints.

Wind meridians were supple and resilient, not something ordinary mortals could grasp.

With Su Qing’s cultivation, she still couldn’t constrain the wind meridians for her own use; she could only go with the flow, adjusting her movements and posture to temper her body with the wind meridians.

She had already stayed at the hundred-meter mark for over two hours.

Her coarse cloth clothing had been completely destroyed by the fierce winds.

After shedding external objects, walking into the wind firsthand was a completely different sensation.

Although Su Qing’s eyes were tightly closed, she could still clearly perceive the swirling wind meridians brushing past her forehead, lips, arms, chest, abdomen, thighs, and soles, flowing freely backwards.

The body’s hard and soft curves were perceived so distinctly for the first time.

In a trance, she felt as if she too had transformed into countless curves, dissolving into the flowing wind.

It was indeed peculiar.

Whenever Su Qing tempered her body, whether in a heaven-punishing thunderstorm, or swimming with tens of thousands of creatures in the sea, or scorching in boundless, fiery earth fire, or now, melding with the sound of the wind.

She always, at these times, clearly realized that she, too, was a molecule within this vast nature.

She experienced every facet of this diverse nature with her body.

And whenever this happened, her heart would always be filled with the pain, satisfaction, and joy of a Body Cultivator proving the Dao through their body.

Therefore.

Perhaps due to this insight, although Su Qing also experienced frustrating moments where her cultivation made no progress, it was never due to inner demons or an wavering Dao Heart.

Soon, the familiar pain drew her into a state of embracing the origin and guarding the one.

The distracting thoughts in her mind were swept clean along with the wind.

She held her breath, concentrating on guiding the wind meridians with spiritual energy through her limbs and bones.

First Baihui: the Baihui acupoint at the crown of her head first revealed a point of serene spiritual light. Immediately after, acupoints on the same spiritual meridian, such as the Qianding acupoint, Shangxing acupoint, Shenting acupoint, and Suluo acupoint, successively lit up.

In the dark interior of the karst cave, looking from afar, it was like a star map gradually illuminating in the night sky.

As soon as the fierce wind entered her body, Su Qing immediately felt a chill in her mind.

After the wind pressure rushed into Baihui, it did not stop, but forcefully broke through her spiritual meridians, breaking through the remaining blocked acupoints. In an instant, Su Qing had a strange illusion: she felt as if she were a wind-blown sail, instantly expanding.

The acupoints descending from Baihui were breached one by one.

The spiritual meridians were inflated by the wind, forcibly widening by another tenth.

The several small spiritual meridians extending from the main spiritual meridian were also relentlessly surged into by the wind.

However, as newly formed spiritual meridians, they were far from as robust as the main spiritual meridians. Such fierce winds entering the body actually caused them to rupture.

Even Su Qing, who was accustomed to the pain of body tempering, couldn’t help but let out a muffled groan at this moment.

Cold sweat instantly broke out. Su Qing was glad she had chosen a wind meridian that was gentle yet firm, rather than other rigid wind meridians.

Otherwise, with the impact of the wind meridian on the Baihui acupoint just now, most of her spiritual meridians would probably have been destroyed.

Unlike scorching with earth fire, fierce winds, though gentler, brought no less of a sense of uncontrollable chaos where a slight misstep could spell ruin.

It was so painful that she couldn’t help but let out a twisted smile, but because of this, she particularly anticipated the feedback this pain would give her afterward.

The wind meridian Su Qing chose was known for its continuous flow.

Thus, it impacted from the Baihui acupoint on her head all the way to the Yongquan acupoint on the soles of her feet, expanding all thirty-six major and minor spiritual meridians throughout her body.

Within the hurricane, she stood drenched in blood, her thirty-six spiritual meridians lighting up in sequence.

Su Qing entered a state of selfless advancement, even forgetting the boundless pain.

With the same earnestness she used to forge Man Qing Sword, she repeatedly tempered herself with the wind meridians.

She watched as these blade-like fragments of fierce wind, under the soothing influence of her own spiritual power, transformed into pure spiritual power, repairing the violently damaged spiritual meridians and acupoints.

After the first round of acupoint冲ing, Su Qing suddenly regained her senses.

The wind meridian was not yet exhausted. It wrapped around her, pushing her towards the cave entrance.

Although it was a wind meridian that had inflicted pain like blades and swords upon her, at this moment, she felt a sense of familiarity, perhaps because they had just gotten along well.

She had been tempering her body with Tier 3 Earth Fire for over ten years.

After experiencing the ten days and nights of scorching by Tier 4 Earth Fire, Ten Million, further body tempering with Earth Fire no longer yielded significant benefits.

Who would have thought that the fierce winds merely a hundred meters underground could injure her to this extent? The more severely she was injured, the more she gained.

And the underground karst cave was thousands of meters deep.

The current record hadn’t exceeded two thousand meters.

Su Qing just thought about it and felt the joy of a mouse falling into a rice bin.

The first round ended, and she was badly injured.

Although she hadn’t shown signs of physical merging yet, she decided to go out first to heal her body, summarize the gains and losses of tempering with wind meridians, and then fight again.

Thinking this, Su Qing no longer resisted. With a light leap, she allowed the fierce winds to throw her out of the cave.

Even though she had forgotten time in the karst cave, she knew she had walked for a long time, barely reaching the hundred-meter mark.

Now, being blasted out by the wind was surprisingly fast, taking less than three seconds.

Su Qing touched her back, which had suffered secondary damage from hitting the bed, and couldn’t help but show the same grimacing expression as her seniors. It was purely from pain.

She pulled out a simple cloth garment, casually draped it over herself, found a large rock not far away, and sat down to heal.

She didn’t know how many days and nights had passed in the karst cave.

When Su Qing emerged, it was already deep night. Crystal-clear dew drops condensed on the grass leaves.

The air was slightly damp, making the clothes she wore feel somewhat heavier.

The mountain wind stirred the strands of hair by her ears.

The wind on the Body School mountain peak had always been fiercer, so much so that the vegetation grew low and gnarled.

But after a bloody session of fierce wind body tempering, Su Qing actually felt a touch of gentleness in the mountain wind now.

She looked up, seeing the night sky like ink, the bright moon rising high, the bustling markets in the heavens, stars like boiling bubbles, and the Milky Way inverted.

It was audacious to say, but when she recalled the hundreds of acupoints on her body, scattered everywhere, and saw them shining brightly in the night, she also felt that she contained thousands of stars within herself.

In this instant, Su Qing felt a sense of ease and tranquility akin to the unity of heaven and man.

Her Lingtong “dinged,” pushing her current progress: [Exploration Distance: One hundred forty-eight meters, Ranking: One thousand three hundred twenty-fifth.]

Still in the bottom ranks. Although the ranking wasn’t ideal, the benefits she gained were substantial.

Su Qing was quietly lost in thought when she heard a voice in the distance, “How does your first fierce wind body tempering feel?”

She looked towards the source of the voice. It was Senior Sister Zhu Xu talking to her.

Senior Sister Zhu Xu lay on the hillside, spiritual energy overflowing around her, surging into her body. It seemed she was also recovering from injuries.

As she spoke, her facial muscles moved, revealing the same grimacing expression that seemed to be permanently etched on the faces of Body School cultivators.

She was also heavily injured.

Su Qing was still wearing clothes, but she had let down her hair to casually cover herself, because her flesh and blood were scabbing over, making it impossible to wear clothes.

Senior Sister Zhu Xu had sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, a wild beauty.

Her muscles were beautifully sculpted, beyond words.

The lines of her body, rising and falling like mountains, curved gracefully in the moonlight.

Her exposed muscles were like rocks weathered by the mountain wind, and her waist and abdomen were as taut as a drawn bowstring, harboring terrifying explosive power.

Su Qing glanced at her, then couldn’t help but look a second, and a third time.

She silently touched her own waist and abdomen, discerning a somewhat bitter disparity.

Zhu Xu propped her head up, generously allowing Su Qing to look, and curved her lips, smiling. “How is my practice?”

Su Qing didn’t speak, but the envy on her fellow disciple’s face was the greatest praise for a Body Cultivator.

Zhu Xu then burst into hearty laughter, the sound echoing through the valley and drifting far on the wind. Until someone protested, “Zhu Xu, keep your voice down. I’m already in pain, and your laughter just adds insult to injury.”

Su Qing then pulled herself away from that bit of bitterness, remembering the question her senior sister had just asked her.

She nodded and replied, “Although it was quite painful, I gained some insights.”

Zhu Xu smiled at her junior sister’s humility. She raised an eyebrow. “I’m afraid it’s not just ‘some’ insights, is it?”

She emphasized the words “some” when she spoke.

Su Qing didn’t know why Senior Sister Zhu Xu said that. She asked in confusion, “What does Senior Sister mean by that?”

Zhu Xu said, “You forgot you can’t see yourself. Quickly conjure a mirror, and you’ll know. Before Zhang Mingliang entered the karst cave, he told me that Junior Sister had been in there for seven days and still hadn’t come out, fearing she might also turn into a smooth bamboo pole, and asked me to keep an eye out. Now it seems he should worry about himself.”

Although Su Qing was puzzled, she followed the instructions.

After a water mirror condensed and floated in the air, reflecting her face, she discovered that several faint patterns had appeared on her shoulder and neck at some unknown time. T

hey resembled both auspicious clouds and bird feathers, extending from her left shoulder all the way to her neck.

‘What is this?’

She wanted to investigate it closely, but when her fingertips touched them, these patterns suddenly vanished, as if sinking beneath her skin.
Su Qing was surprised. “What is this?”

Zhu Xu never built suspense; she said cheerfully, “This is a wind pattern. Fierce winds are originally formed from spiritual energy. After prolonged tempering of the physical body with it, by chance, this spiritual energy is inevitably compressed under the skin and into the meridians. Then, resonating with the body’s own spiritual energy, traces of wind paths and wind veins naturally appear.”

Su Qing carefully pondered the meaning behind Zhu Xu’s words, frowned, and had not yet fully understood.

Then she heard another voice from afar say impatiently, “Zhu Xu, it’s not an exam, you’re just force-feeding textbook definitions. How can Junior Sister understand? She hasn’t even learned this yet!”

The voice then explained, her words flowing smoothly, “All things in the world leave traces of their existence, and wind is no different. Just like the crescent-shaped sand dunes formed by wind in the desert, or the wind-eroded rock pillars standing by the sea, or the numerous traces left by wind in plateaus or canyons. Does Junior Sister understand this point?”

Su Qing vaguely understood, and nodded. “I understand.”

The senior sister said with satisfaction, ‘It’s only with such smart junior sisters that teaching feels rewarding.’ “We humans are also like this. Wind will surely leave its mark. You can understand the wind paths appearing on our bodies as similar to the imprints left by wind on sand dunes, rock pillars, plateaus, and canyons.”

“So…” Su Qing looked up and said, “Each of us is also a landscape in this world, which is why we can bear the traces left by the wind.”
Zhu Xu’s eyes widened slightly, a hint of realization appearing on her face. The other voice was also surprised for a moment, seemingly moved by this statement. Her voice became much lighter, with a hint of a smile. “Precisely! We Body Cultivators cultivate the body. Didn’t those bald monks say that one is all, and all is one? Seeing the Buddha-land in dust, and the Buddha in a leaf? Why aren’t we considered landscapes? Perhaps we ourselves are small worlds.”

In fact, once one’s cultivation reached Spirit Transformation, one could create a portable grotto-heaven within their body.

Wasn’t this power the best embodiment of “the body is the world”? And they, Body Cultivators, in their daily interaction with their bodies, perceived this point even earlier.

Su Qing silently recited this insight several times in her heart, and instantly felt a vast expanse open within her. She then asked, “I already understand the origin of these wind patterns, but what are their benefits?”

She recalled the scene in the underground karst cave when she was enveloped by the wind meridians and merged with the wind. Presumably, these were the traces left from that time.

Zhu Xu replied, “Ordinary Body Cultivators need at least two or three years to perceive the existence of wind patterns, and making them manifest on the body is even more difficult. I have never seen anyone, on their first attempt at body tempering with wind, manage to make the wind leave patterns on their body. Even a talented Body Cultivator like myself took a full month.”

This drew discontent from another senior sister, who said, “Talk all you want, but don’t praise yourself without reason.”

Zhu Xu mumbled, ‘Could Junior Sister be a genius?’ A sense of competitiveness inexplicably ignited within her. “I’ll state it first, no matter how much of a genius Junior Sister you are, I have lived for decades longer, and I will be the one to surpass the two-thousand-meter mark first, surpassing Yao Lingyi.”

Su Qing had already resolved to explore the interior of the karst cave. She would certainly attempt to break through the two-thousand-meter mark; it was just not for this moment.

As for rankings, she wasn’t very concerned.

‘Probably.’

“As for the benefits of wind patterns, how should I put it?”

Zhu Xu approached, pushing aside her loose long hair to reveal her neck. There, a feather-like wind pattern prominently appeared. Only then did Su Qing notice that Zhu Xu also had several wind patterns on her body, all fully formed and much more exquisite and mature than her own.

“Mostly, they increase agility, or enhance perception of wind attributes… These are traces left by something akin to natural laws, so the benefits will certainly not be few. Each person’s wind patterns are different; it depends on how you use them.”

After the three conversed for a while, they all quieted their minds and focused on their cultivation.

Perhaps the recent discussion about Body Cultivators had given the three of them a fresh perspective.

Before long, the spiritual energy in this area subtly began to churn, condensing into wind, surging into their bodies.

All three of them, by unspoken agreement, showed signs of impending breakthroughs.

Su Qing slowly inhaled and exhaled, her breathing steady and long.

She absorbed the spiritual energy from heaven and earth, digesting the stormy feast within her body.

As if sensing something, the immortal bone in her dantian hummed, releasing pure spiritual energy to aid her healing.

The warm spiritual energy continuously circulated through her body, completing grand and small cycles.

Her damaged spiritual meridians were like withered vines meeting spring, revitalized with life.

The broken areas, guided by spiritual energy, reconnected and slowly mended into stronger, wider spiritual meridians.

After the tiny spiritual meridians were repaired, they were a finger-width wider than before, and the previous blockages were gone.

Her broken bones grew with a rustling sound, a faint noise only Su Qing could hear. Spiritual energy flowed and spread like a net.

As it passed, charred scabs and dead skin occasionally fell off, revealing newly grown, healthy-looking flesh beneath.

This session of cultivation truly exemplified the saying “no destruction, no construction.” It was indeed a fruitful endeavor.
In a trance, Su Qing touched the threshold between Foundation Establishment Layer 7 and Layer 8.

Originally, she could only see that obstruction, but had been unable to gauge how far she was from it.

Now, she saw it exceptionally clearly.

Cultivation became difficult to advance after reaching the late Foundation Establishment stage.

Many cultivators were stuck at one layer for decades, and not a few wasted a hundred years of their lifespan without advancing.

Although they had the Sword School as a backing, the number of students who failed and had to repeat a year was not small.

As a diligent student who ate and cultivated diligently, Su Qing still wanted to successfully advance and graduate.

She spent her days and nights with geniuses, and their brilliant radiance reflected in her eyes also made her realize the gap between her and true geniuses.

This gap made her both envious and admiring, yet also inspired her to strive relentlessly.

Therefore, although Su Qing somewhat knew that her cultivation was relatively smooth, she never truly felt it. Little did she know that her speed, in the eyes of others, had already entered the ranks of geniuses.

Su Qing made an estimate in her mind. After perhaps three to five more sessions of body tempering with fierce winds, she would likely reach Foundation Establishment Layer 8.

The third secret realm, which had the highest attrition rate, was coming soon, and she wanted more means to survive.
T

he Pill School had twelve Pill Pavilions, thirty-six Pill Towers, plus a Tier 9 Earth Fire.

The Artifact School had its Forging Hall, high-tier artifact spirits, and countless heavenly treasures and earthly wonders to draw upon.

The Array School had its Battle Array Diagram, Array Storage Tower, eighty-one large and small array steles, not to mention countless high-tier arrays within the sect.

The Talisman School had its Talisman Dao Field, Brush-Washing Pond, Brush Tomb, and Paper-Making Pavilion.

The Beast School also had the Myriad Beast Garden, suitable for various types of spirit beasts with different climates and sceneries, the Beast Fighting Arena for training spirit beasts, the Nursery for raising young spirit beasts, and even a separate small kitchen for spirit beast meals.

Only the Body School was destitute.

The sect disciples used the heavens as their canopy and the earth as their bed. Even the grass on their mountain peak was shorter than that of other sects.

Although there was Small Mirror Lake for healing, it was shared with other sects and not exclusive to the Body School.

Su Qing originally thought it was because Body Cultivators didn’t engage in production, only causing destruction.

Now that she thought about it, the Sword School’s history was not long, and the many buildings and collections of other sects were not entirely accumulated over generations.

It was very possible that many were also founded by the Sword School’s funding during the initial planning of the sect.

Thinking this way, the origins of the Body School’s only unique feature, the underground karst cave, must not be simple.

She grew increasingly curious about what kind of treasure was hidden beneath.