9: Chapter 9 Peak of Acquired Realm, Innate Cultivation Technique

[ After thinking it over, you still decide to go into the mountains to lay low; being a wild woman isn't so bad either. ]

[ Using the silver you "sponsored" from Lin Datong, you low-key purchased a batch of supplies at the Jia Shi City market: grain, salt, fire starters, medicinal ointments, and two sets of thick cotton clothes. You also bought a copy of "Compendium of Herbs" and a few long and short blades that were quite handy. ]

[ You didn't stay in the city for long; that same evening, you left the city and headed deep into Daliang Mountain in the northwest direction. ]

[ Daliang Mountain stretches for over three hundred miles, with steep terrain, deep forests, and secluded valleys. The further you go, the rarer the signs of human life. According to local hunters, tigers and leopards roam the core area of the mountain, and some even claim to have seen giant pythons over a zhang long; ordinary people dare not venture deep inside at all. ]

[ But you are not an ordinary person. ]

[ You are a Houtian Late Stage Martial Artist. ]

[ After searching the outskirts of Daliang Mountain for three days, you finally found a naturally formed stone cave on a cliff halfway up the mountain. The entrance faced south, sheltered from the wind and sunny. The cave interior was spacious and dry, and a thin vein of groundwater seeped from the cave wall, pooling into a small shallow pond at the bottom. ]

[ You spent two days cleaning the cave, setting up a simple bed and stove, and arranging some basic alarm traps at the entrance. Branches, gravel, thin ropes—they weren't sophisticated methods, but they were enough for you to be alerted the first moment something approached. ]

[ Then, you began your life of Cultivating in the deep mountains. ]

[ Of course, the first few days were not peaceful. ]

[ Your new neighbors showed great dissatisfaction with your arrival. ]

[ First, a group of gray-furred monkeys took advantage of you being out foraging, snuck into the cave, stole most of your dry rations, and even took a few dumps on your bed. ]

[ You chased them for three miles along the mountain path, and relying on your Fleet-Footed speed advantage, you managed to snatch your food bag back from the monkey king, and incidentally, used the back of your firewood knife to teach the monkey king a lesson on how to be a monkey. ]

[ The most troublesome one was a white tiger. ]

[ Simulation Day 53. ]

[ You were washing clothes by the stream when a huge reflection suddenly appeared on the water's surface. ]

[ You whipped your head around. ]

[ A white-browed tiger was crouching on a rock less than three zhang behind you, its golden pupils staring straight at you. ]

[ It was nearly a zhang long, its shoulders higher than your knees, and the markings on its tiger body were particularly striking under the sunlight. ]

[ Your back was instantly soaked with cold sweat. ]

[ A Houtian Late Stage Martial Artist can defeat ordinary wild beasts, but even an Innate Early Stage Martial Artist would not dare to face the strength and speed of an adult white-browed tiger head-on without using True Qi. ]

[ The standoff lasted for about twenty breaths. ]

[ It tilted its head, then jumped down from the rock, took two steps towards you, lowered its head, and lapped up some water at the stream. ]

[ After drinking the water, it shook the droplets off its head, glanced at you, turned around, and sauntered away. ]

[ You maintained your sword-holding posture for a full quarter of an hour, and only after the tiger's shadow had completely disappeared into the dense forest did you let out a long breath. ]

[ In the days that followed, this tiger appeared near your cave from time to time. Sometimes it would crouch on the opposite mountain peak in the distance watching you Cultivate, and sometimes it would lie on the big rock by the stream sunbathing. ]

[ It didn't seem to have any intention of attacking you, but it didn't plan on leaving either, just wandering around your territory in such a brazen manner. ]

[ Later, you figured it out: your cave was originally within its territory. It didn't attack you, presumably because it didn't consider you a threat, nor did it consider you prey. ]

[ During this time, you also discovered that this little tiger seemed quite intelligent, different from other wild beasts. ]

[ That day, you had speared two fish and were starting a fire when it came again, crouching outside the cave entrance, staring at the grilled fish in your hand, drool dripping from its mouth, yet putting on airs and refusing to come over voluntarily. ]

[ You tried throwing that grilled fish in front of it. ]

[ It lowered its head to sniff it, picked it up, and ate it. ]

[ The next day, you found a roe deer placed at the cave entrance. ]

[ There were deep tiger paw prints on the ground next to it. ]

[ You were silent for two seconds: "... Is this a return gift?" ]

[ From then on, the human and the tiger reached a kind of tacit understanding. You called it Little Wang—even though it wasn't little at all. ]

[ During this time, no other small animals dared to run to your place and cause trouble. ]

[ Three months later. ]

[ Deep in Daliang Mountain, by a secluded pond. ]

[ The afternoon sun shone through the layered canopy, shattering into countless golden light spots on the water's surface. ]

[ Little Wang was sprawled out on a large rock by the pond, eyes half-closed, belly facing the sky, its thick tail flicking lazily. ]

[ You sat next to it, one hand lazily stroking the short fur on its head. When your rough palm brushed against the soft fluff behind its tiger ears, Little Wang let out a muffled "Wu wu." If one ignored its size, the sound was exactly like a giant cat acting spoiled. ]

[ It stretched contentedly, rolled over, and fully exposed its round belly to you. ]

[ The corners of your mouth curled up slightly, and your palm pressed onto its belly. The tiger fur was much softer than expected, and underneath was a layer of thick fat and muscle, with its warm body temperature transmitting through your palm. ]

[ You simply lay down, resting the back of your head on Little Wang's soft belly, looking up at the dappled sunlight through the branches and leaves. ]

[ Little Wang's breathing was slow and rhythmic, the rise and fall of its chest causing the back of your head to gently bob up and down. ]

[ You closed your eyes. ]

[ In these three months, with the blessing of Martial Arts Prodigy, your Cultivation speed was absurdly fast. ]

[ With the circulation of Mysterious Tiger Force's Internal Energy, the Meridian paths that previously required repeated trial and error to sort out could now almost instinctively find the optimal solution. Every time you circulated your energy, the Internal Energy took the most efficient route, without the slightest waste. ]

[ In three months, you pushed yourself directly from Houtian Late Stage to Post-Heaven Peak. ]

[ For an ordinary Martial Artist, this span would take at least two to three years; for those with bad luck, they might not even achieve it in five or ten years. ]

[ But problems followed. ]

[ Mysterious Tiger Force, an Innate-grade Cultivation Technique, follows a rigid and fierce path. ]

[ However, your physical foundation is that of a woman, with relatively slender and flexible Meridians, and your Innate endowment leans towards the yin-soft. During these three months of high-intensity Cultivation, you have increasingly clearly felt a problem: the tolerance of your Meridians is nearing its limit. ]

[ You tried to use Mysterious Tiger Force to break through the Innate barrier, but the Qi vortex in your Dantian was like a trapped beast crashing around in a narrow cage, causing your Meridians to ache from being stretched. In the most severe instance, you even felt a micro-tear in a Meridian near the Shaohai acupoint in your left arm. ]

[ Martial Arts Prodigy allowed you to clearly perceive this danger; if you forcibly broke through to Innate, your Meridians would suffer irreversible damage. ]

[ By then, even if you saved your life, there would be no possibility of further Breakthroughs in your lifetime. ]

[ You verified this conclusion in your mind over and over again, and the answer was the same every time. ]

[ It wasn't that you weren't working hard enough, nor that you lacked talent. ]

[ It was the Cultivation Technique that was wrong. ]

[ Mysterious Tiger Force was originally designed for strong, burly men; using it to Cultivate to Post-Heaven Peak was already something you barely managed with the blessing of Martial Arts Prodigy. To go any further... would be gambling with your life. ]

[ You need a Cultivation Technique suitable for your Physique. ]

[ But you are in the deep mountains, not even seeing a shadow of a person. Where would you find a Cultivation Technique? ]

[ Do you have to leave the mountains? Is a Milk Dragon still a Dragon? ]

[ You lay on Little Wang's belly, staring at the dappled light through the canopy, lost in thought for a long time. ]

[ Then you made a bold decision. ]

[ Cultivation Techniques are all created by predecessors; you are now a Martial Arts Prodigy, why can't you create one yourself? ]

[ You sat up from Little Wang's belly and patted its head: "Little Wang, your big brother is going to do something big." ]

[ Little Wang lazily lifted its eyelids, yawned, and didn't take your grand declaration to heart at all. ]

[ Thus, you began your "Grand Plan to Create a Cultivation Technique." ]

[ Step one: Analyze the Meridian paths and force-generation principles of Mysterious Tiger Force to find the key nodes unsuitable for your Physique. You performed this step very smoothly; Martial Arts Prodigy made your perception of Internal Energy circulation extremely acute. In three days, you marked out all the problematic points of Mysterious Tiger Force, with a total of seventeen Meridian paths needing modification. ]

[ Step two: Design alternative paths. This step also went well; relying on intuition and repeated experimentation, you designed five alternative routes within two weeks. ]

[ Step three: Integrate them into a complete Cultivation Technique system. ]