571: Chapter 571 Using oneself as a furnace to refine heaven and earth into one color

Chapter 571: Using oneself as a cauldron, refining heaven and earth into a single hue

The darkness before dawn is the deepest.

Wenchuan District, eastern beach of Qingshui Bay.

The tide is currently rising.

Layer upon layer of black waves surged forward with thunderous roars, constantly battering the coastline.

In this untrod area, a figure was quietly standing in knee-deep seawater.

He was bare-chested, wearing only a pair of red shorts.

The waves roared in, violently crashing against muscles as if they were cast of steel, instantly shattering into a sky full of white foam.

Yet they could not shake this body by even the slightest fraction.

He was like a calming sea needle, with his feet deeply plowed into the sand at the bottom of the sea, his knees slightly bent, and his spine connected joint by joint like a great dragon.

His entire person presented a strange tension that was both relaxed and sinking, purely the ultimate Realm of "taking root" in internal martial arts Stance Training.

What was most surprising was that, despite being in the bone-chilling seawater, his skin exhibited the color of a red-hot branding iron.

It was as if a raging furnace was hidden within his body, continuously radiating astonishing heat outward.

Zizizi——

As soon as the seawater touched his skin, it was instantly vaporized by the terrifying high temperature, steaming up bursts of white smoke.

When the gale blew over, the white smoke was instantly swept away to the pitch-black distant sea surface, mixing with the waves.

After an unknown amount of time, this figure's shoulders sank slightly, and his eyelids slowly lifted.

In an instant, two cold flashes of lightning seemed to sweep across the dim sea surface.

His eyes were frighteningly bright in the dark, exuding a soul-capturing coercion.

"Hoo——"

Fang Cheng let out a long breath of foul air.

The white arrow of Qi pierced through the darkness before him, only to be quickly scattered by the sea breeze.

Afterwards, he raised his hand to wipe away the water stains and fine sand on his face, gazing calmly at the intersection of sea and sky.

It was now the break of dawn, with a bluish-gray sky light faintly revealing itself, heralding the imminent arrival of a new day.

Ever since the Illuminati team-building event ended that night, a full three days had passed.

During this time, aside from visiting Uncle Lin at the back-alley clinic for his surgery, he basically ran on a fixed three-point routine around the clock.

During the day, he rushed between the two new bases of the Illuminati, inspecting the construction progress, discussing matters with Lin Chuqiao and the professor, and fulfilling the duties a leader should.

At night, he returned home on Jiuchang Street, near-masochistically squeezing his physical endurance and polishing his Physical Body over and over again.

Especially for the two skills "Jiu-Jitsu" and "Qigong", their progress bars had reached a Bottleneck, and a Breakthrough was close at hand.

For this reason, every day, apart from completing the fixed fitness items of his morning exercise, he additionally practiced Qigong and Jiu-Jitsu for at least five hours.

As for Shen Wei, who was temporarily staying at his home, he had been picked up by A-Le yesterday afternoon.

Hearing A-Le say this, he had already found the traitor who betrayed them, grasped exact evidence, and was preparing to contact several Elders within the syndicate to purge the traitors.

Upon learning the news, regardless of his unhealed leg injury, Shen Wei rushed back to the Dongcheng Association in a wheelchair.

Regarding such Jianghu grudges and vendettas, Fang Cheng lacked interest and couldn't be bothered to care.

After bidding farewell to Shen Wei, he continued to plunge headfirst into Cultivating, without the slightest slack.

While practicing Qigong in the living room last night, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind.

That feeling was like being separated by a thin layer of window paper.

He could vaguely see the wider world behind the door, but it always lacked the final poke of a finger to break through.

Intuition told him that the opportunity for a Breakthrough in his own strength had arrived.

Coincidentally, the skill "Qigong" had also reached the juncture of leveling up.

To avoid making too much noise during the Breakthrough and attracting unnecessary attention, Fang Cheng drove overnight to Haitian Garden.

After a brief rest, he woke up on time at 4:30 and came to the beachside as usual for Running and morning exercises.

After completing a few fitness skill exercises, he began to Focus on Qigong Cultivation.

This practice lasted until now.

As his thoughts slightly moved, a light blue light screen quietly emerged in the darkness.

[Qigong Lv2 (496/500)]

Looking at the numbers on the panel, Fang Cheng's gaze sank slightly, and he lowered his head to look at the log records below.

From starting Stance Training practice until now, it had been over an hour, yet only a prompt of "Experience +1" appeared in the log.

In other words, from last night until now, the progress bar had remained almost motionless, as if stuck by an invisible pass.

This feeling of being just one kick away from scoring yet failing to kick it out for a long time felt exceptionally tormenting.

Fang Cheng's eyes were deep, and he couldn't help frowning in thought.

From a Breakthrough in skill Rank, it seemed to lack just that tiny bit of heat.

But it was precisely this bit of heat that made him, no matter how he exerted his strength, feel like he was doing futile work, unable to gain an inch of progress for a long time.

Could it be that he really could only rely on time-consuming grinding work, slowly and forcefully piling up experience with time?

No, absolutely not!

The flash of inspiration from last night floated up into his mind once more.

Fang Cheng raised his eyes, looking toward the surging sea surface before him.

The night had not yet faded, and the waves battered the coastline again and again, their rich sounds echoing between heaven and earth.

At this moment, his state was just like this sea shrouded in darkness.

Seemingly quiet on the surface, it accumulated astonishing power internally, struggling to find an outlet for release.

In martial arts cultivation, when reaching a high depth, what one cultivated was the perception and imitation of the rules of heaven and earth.

Especially for Qigong, this profound and wondrous skill, it paid even more attention to the unity of internal and external, the Fusion of spirit and Physical Body.

It was by no means something that could achieve the legendary transcendent Realm solely by stubborn practice and hard grinding.

"Just what is lacking?"

Fang Cheng murmured to himself.

He was not anxious, always maintaining a calm mindset.

He only vaguely felt that this missing thing was crucial to him.

Perhaps it also involved the direction after the Qigong skill leveled up.

While racking his brains in deep thought, Fang Cheng's gaze fell on that blurry horizon in the distance.

At this time, it was the critical node of the alternation between day and night.

In the eastern sky, the darkness that was originally thick as ink seemed to be torn open by a force.

A faint fish-belly white was just emerging from the intersection of sea and sky.

The black sea surface, which was originally frighteningly deep, was thus dyed with a hazy filter.

This subtle change in astronomical phenomena, falling into Fang Cheng's eyes, was like a startling clap of thunder.

"When Yin reaches its extreme, Yang is born; when extremes meet, they reverse!"

Fang Cheng chanted in a low voice, vaguely grasping that fleeting flash of inspiration.

The operation of heaven and earth and all things in nature are not static, but seek balance within constant "change".

When darkness reaches its extreme, it becomes light; when cold reaches its extreme, it becomes warmth.

In the past, he always blindly pursued rigidity, fierceness, and explosiveness, immersing himself in the destructive power caused by his fists.

Like fire, he only cared about burning fiercely and venting recklessly.

This actually fell into a lower tier, opposing the grand trend of heaven and earth.

A true Grandmaster should not blindly oppose, but rather go with the flow, borrowing the power of heaven and earth to forge one's own path.

Thinking of this, Fang Cheng took a deep breath, no longer fixating on the numbers on the panel.

Instead, he completely sank his mind and soul, re-sensing that endlessly surging warm current within his body.

He slightly closed his eyes, adjusting his breathing.

His breath was long and steady, faintly harmonizing with the surging and falling waves.

Every time he inhaled, the water mist pervading around seemed to be devoured by a giant whale, forming a visible Qi cyclone that drilled into his nasal cavity.

Every time he exhaled, amidst the rising and falling of his chest, a scorching wave of Qi gushed out, forcefully forcing back and scattering the waves beating before him.

This was not pure physical strength, but the concrete manifestation after the high Fusion of spirit and True Qi.

It was the interference effect produced on the natural environment after the life magnetic field became strong to a certain extent.

As his mind and soul opened up to the outside world, Fang Cheng no longer intentionally suppressed the violent and restless power within his body.

Instead, following the generating Qi mechanism between heaven and earth, he completely let go of the restraints on True Qi.

Boom——

A cluster of golden flames, pure to the point of being flawless, gushed out from every pore.

Shrouding his entire person within it, as if transforming into a golden divine statue.

The surrounding bone-chilling seawater, upon contacting this Innate yang-vigorous Qi, instantly began to boil.

"Puff, puff, puff——"

Within a radius of several meters centered around Fang Cheng, the sea surface surged violently, resembling a pot of boiling water.

Large groups of thick white steam rose into the air, yet they were not blown away by the sea breeze, but instead hovered around Fang Cheng's body as if imbued with spirituality.

Viewed from afar, it seemed as if an active volcano erupting out of thin air had been born on the pitch-black sea surface.

No, more accurately speaking, it was a sun breaking through the darkness!

Fang Cheng's brows twitched, and he opened his eyes once more.

In the darkness, two substantive flashes of brilliant light burst out from his pupils.

Since the True Qi within his body was like fire, the external environment was like water.

Why not emulate that upcoming gushing morning sun?

When one thought is clear, a hundred thoughts are smooth.

At this moment, the human body's small Universe and heaven and earth's large Universe produced a wonderful resonance.

As the fish-belly white on the horizon gradually expanded, the True Qi that had long accumulated within Fang Cheng's body also responded to the dawn's call, erupting without reservation.

Transforming oneself into the sun, boiling the sea into clouds.

In this darkest moment, he was undoubtedly a morning sun rising from sea level, radiating boundless light and possessing unmatched dominance.

The surrounding seawater was continuously boiled by the terrifying high temperature, and the white steam surged like a cloud wall, almost completely obscuring his figure.

And right at this moment of water and fire agitating, inspiration struck Fang Cheng, his feet slowly waded through the seawater, his hands held an empty circle, striking the opening stance of Punching techniques.

Sinking Qi to the Dantian, guarding Qiankun with intent.

Tai Chi, Cloud Hands, rise!

With this movement, the Qi mechanisms all over his body were guided.

Those white water vapors that had just risen, following the waving of his palms, turned into wisps of Qi force, entangling around the sides of his palms.

This time, he did not deliberately pursue lethality, but completely integrated his intent into the surrounding environment.

With the soothing and rounded sweeping of his arms, those water vapors that should have originally escaped in all directions were actually forcibly captured by an invisible magnetic field.

Fang Cheng's boxing frame slowly operated, and the dense steam rotated accordingly, interweaving and entangling with the golden flames.

They no longer dissipated, but condensed layer upon layer on the periphery of that golden halo.

On the inside was the fire that burned the heavens, and on the periphery was the mighty water vapor.

Water and fire are inherently incompatible, but under the guidance of Fang Cheng's Fist Intent, which was close to the "Dao", it unexpectedly presented a wonderful symbiotic state.

This was precisely what the Taoists called the phenomenon of water and fire completing each other and the harmony of Yin and Yang.

Compared to the momentum during his practice on the shores of Cuihai Lake, the commotion at this moment appeared grander, yet also more condensed and introverted.

There was no violent Qi wave impact, only a deep, heavy, and terrifying sense of oppression quietly permeating around.

At the same time, the panel flashed with light.

The long-dormant prompt message finally began to jump and emerge.

[You profoundly comprehended the natural Law of water and fire generating each other, Qigong experience + 1]

[You are trying to construct your own unique Qi field Domain, Qigong experience + 1]

...

Fang Cheng's movements became slower and slower until they came to a complete standstill.

The Aura all over his body, however, climbed to its peak at this moment.

A translucent Domain several meters in diameter slowly took shape on the sea surface with him as the center.

When the waves crashed in, they were pushed aside by the invisible Qi force; when the gale swept over, it was like hitting a wall, unable to penetrate this Domain by even a sliver.

Within this Domain, an independent circulatory System distinct from the outside world had truly formed.

Golden flames gushed to form the core, and mighty water vapor wrapped around to form the wall.

Water and fire fused and complemented each other, constructing a round barrier intertwined with water and fire.

The flames scorched the water vapor, turning it into continuous white mist; the white mist encountered wind and condensed into dew, falling back onto the firewood-like flames, only to vaporize once more.

Under the domination of his will, the two—one rigid and one soft, one hot and one cold—achieved a perfect dynamic balance.

Just at the instant this Qi field Domain was completely formed.

The red sun that had been brewing on the horizon for a long time finally broke through the last layer of cloud mist, abruptly leaping out of sea level.

Ten thousand rays of golden light pierced the firmament like sharp swords, pouring down onto the vast sea surface, and also shining into the strange Domain constructed by Fang Cheng's True Qi.

The first wisp of pure yang purple Qi between heaven and earth echoed from afar with the Innate True Fire within Fang Cheng's body.

A wondrous spectacle was born.

Sunlight penetrated that high-density spherical water mist, and after countless complex refractions and scatterings, it stirred up an extremely gorgeous circular halo on the periphery of the golden flames around Fang Cheng's body.

Seven-colored rainbow light flowed endlessly, resembling the halo of wisdom behind the head of a god or Buddha.

Along with the intake and output of breath, it sometimes expanded like a wheel and sometimes contracted like a bead.

At this moment, Fang Cheng's figure became blurry and sacred amidst the interlaced light and shadow.

He was no longer a mere Martial Artist, seemingly transforming into the Incarnation of the Dominator of this sea area.

With every gesture, he triggered anomalies of heaven and earth, interpreting the natural Law of water and fire completing each other and Yin and Yang coexisting.

This was the Grandmaster's bearing—using oneself as a cauldron, refining heaven and earth into a single hue.

As the last wisp of comprehension melted into his heart, Fang Cheng slowly withdrew his stance, pressing his palms vacuously, sinking Qi to the Dantian.

"Withdraw."

Reciting silently in his heart, his intent swung out like a blade, instantly cutting off the violent output of True Qi.

In an instant, the golden flames and water mist filling the sky rolled back like a giant whale swallowing water, plunging entirely into his body and returning to peace.

The boiling sea surface instantly subsided, leaving only the tiny rustling sound of the breeze sweeping across the waves.

The newly risen sunlight pierced through the clouds and mists, shining unhinderedly onto Fang Cheng.

The crystal-clear sweat beads on the surface of his skin gleamed with a gem-like luster under the morning sun.

His entire person exuded a rounded and transparent sense of comprehending the ultimate principles of heaven and earth.

He slowly opened his eyes.

The depths of his pupils seemed to similarly hide two great suns, golden lights glittering, so dazzling that people dared not look straight at them.

That was the external manifestation after essence, Qi, and spirit overflowed to the extreme.

At the same time, a line of incomparably dazzling golden text slowly unfolded before his eyes.

[Congratulations, through efforts far exceeding ordinary people and deep comprehension of the ultimate principles of heaven and earth, your skill has broken its shackles and successfully promoted to the Grandmaster Realm!]

[Qigong Lv3 (0/1000)]