Chapter 76: The Beginning

Late at night, Zuo Zhicheng had already arrived at the secret base to begin his daily training. The warm-up exercise was naturally the Northern Peng Hanging Heaven Style, which he had practiced tens of thousands of times. This martial skill could truly be called a divine technique for the Qi Training stage. Zuo Zhicheng estimated that even after reaching the Spirit Refining or Void Training level, this set of skills could still be used to enhance the power of Innate Primordial Breath.

Besides the Northern Peng Hanging Heaven Style, the second skill Zuo Zhicheng practiced was the Yama Golden Body. This martial skill was similar to the external training techniques from his previous life, but it was different and far more advanced and powerful. Its main focus was on training the human epidermis, specifically the outer layer of skin from the basal layer to the stratum corneum.

His main goal was not to make his skin impervious to blades and spears, which was impossible. Flesh and skin were just that—no matter how much you trained them, they could never become completely invulnerable. Overemphasizing such training would only make the skin rough and hard like that of a rhinoceros.

The Yama Golden Body aimed to channel the Innate Primordial Breath, which usually acted on the muscles and tendons, into the basal layer. In other words, it sought to create a rebounding force on the surface of the human body.

To describe it simply, it was like a force field. No matter what kind of attack struck the body, it would be deflected or even bounced back by the force of the Innate Primordial Breath on the surface, almost as if a protective film covered the skin.

If this skill were practiced to a high level, as the basal layer of the skin became increasingly resilient—meaning the output of the so-called “force field” grew stronger—becoming impervious to blades would become a trivial matter. However, achieving this level required enduring immense hardship, as every moment of invulnerability was the result of tens of thousands of training sessions.

This also caused the stratum corneum to remain the smoothest and most delicate layer on the outside due to constant vibrations. Practitioners had to use various medicinal solutions during training; otherwise, without the protection of the stratum corneum, they would face dangers like skin infections and chemical injuries.

The practitioner’s body was as if constantly exposed to the Underworld. Before gaining formidable defensive power, one first had to confront significant risks. The difficulty of training was extremely high, and progress was often slow. This was why this skill was called the Yama Golden Body.

However, Zuo Zhicheng had already mastered it, and with his experience in martial arts training, along with the detailed observations provided by his left eye, he began practicing the Yama Golden Body after preparing the medicinal solutions. He had just managed to reach the beginner stage.

After this period of intense training, the proportion of the Purple Innate Qi in Zuo Zhicheng’s body had reached 44%.

As for the translation of the ancient texts, the process was still slow. After all, he was essentially learning a completely unfamiliar language and translating highly complex ancient manuals.

In over three weeks, he had only managed to decipher the names of two manuals. These two manuals were both called the Daoist Canon—one was Volume 1, and the other was Volume 2.

Regarding the Spirit Refining method Nourishing Qi with Vast Righteousness, which trained the Power of Mind and Spirit, Zuo Zhicheng had made little progress.

…

More than two months passed in the blink of an eye. After three consecutive months of rigorous training, Zuo Zhicheng exuded a faint aura of toughness. Of course, this was just an illusion he deliberately created for others.

But regardless, even Jiang Tianzheng now believed that Zuo Zhicheng had at least a small chance of defeating Xiao Changhe.

As for the real progress during these three months, only Zuo Zhicheng himself knew.

The proportion of the Purple Innate Qi had reached 76%. Especially with the Yama Golden Body, thanks to the monitoring of his left eye and the strong foundation laid by the Northern Peng Hanging Heaven Style, he had reached the beginner stage and gained a slight rebounding force on the surface of his body.

Unfortunately, there had been no further progress in the Spirit Refining method after entering the Self Aspect stage. Zuo Zhicheng could make himself enter an extremely calm state at any time, but he struggled to use this Power of Mind and Spirit to influence or affect others.

However, compared to these, the knowledge from the two volumes of the Daoist Canon was likely to have a greater impact on the rest of his life.

Although he had only translated the table of contents and the beginning parts, that was enough for him to understand what the two volumes contained.

Volume 1 recorded the locations of all Life Groves, methods for measuring them, how to activate them, and which Dao Arts could be practiced. The most incredible part was the method for transplanting Life Groves from others.

As for Volume 2, it described something called a Life Diagram. A single Life Grove could already grant extraordinary power, but by combining different Life Groves, a Life Diagram could be formed. This represented even more dangerous and terrifying power and was the most secretive transmission of the South Saint Sect.

Unfortunately, the specific methods for cultivation had to wait until the remaining content was translated. These things could not be rushed.

So, for now, he had to focus on dealing with the matters at hand.

…

On Fulu Street, where the Chaoyang Martial Hall was located, shops were lined up everywhere, filled with merchants coming and going and towering signs.

As the oldest and most famous martial hall in Xinlu Port, many shops here employed martial artists from the Chaoyang Martial Hall for protection.

Today, the already bustling Fulu Street was packed with people. Lion and dragon dancers, acrobatic performers, and vendors selling all kinds of snacks made it feel like a festival.

All of this was because today marked the joint establishment of the Xinlu Port Martial Arts Association by eighteen martial halls and the first Xinlu Martial Arts Competition.

Zuo Zhicheng, Jiang Qing, Xiao Lan, and a group of students of various sizes followed behind Jiang Tianzheng as they headed toward the Chaoyang Martial Hall.

Although the street was lively, the students of the Haoran Martial Hall felt worried as they looked at Zuo Zhicheng’s back.

“Did you hear? Xiao Changhe said he would break Brother Cheng’s arms and legs on the stage.”

“Yeah, I heard Xiao Changhe hasn’t gone out to have fun for the past two months and has been training hard.”

“Right, it seems like just the day before yesterday, he went to the Xinlu Boxing Club and defeated that genius Wang Qiang.”

As A Fei and Big Mouth Huang talked, their worry for Zuo Zhicheng grew. Although Zuo Zhicheng had made huge progress in the past two months, his opponent was, after all, the son of the head of the Chaoyang Martial Hall, Xiao Jingyang. He had been training since he was five years old and had sparred with countless people.

Even though he had slacked off a bit in recent years, his strength was undeniable. Especially with all the rumors they had heard over the past two months, it was hard to imagine Zuo Zhicheng catching up to him in less than a year.