"Internal Martial Arts, from training the strength of the entire body to cultivating internal energy, and then achieving the Grandmaster realm—this, in essence, is the stage of 'Refining Essence into Qi.'" "The ancients did not focus on muscle and bone training; in their view, that was the lesser path. They prioritized absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to refine internal energy.

After all, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was abundant in ancient times, allowing them to refine vast amounts of internal energy, which could even be stored in the Dantian. We who practice Internal Martial Arts must refine the essence and blood within our bodies just to generate a tiny bit of internal energy, and this energy is extremely scarce, confined only to the meridians." Teng Qingshan couldn't help but sigh upon hearing this.

Now, when powerhouses fight, internal energy is merely supplementary; most rely on the strength of their muscles and bones. But the ancients relied purely on powerful internal energy.

After all, when one has 'plenty of money,' one is naturally indifferent to small expenditures, whereas modern practitioners have too little 'capital'—internal energy—so little that it doesn't even warrant storage in the Dantian. "However, compared to ancient cultivation methods, Internal Martial Arts has both disadvantages and advantages." "The disadvantage is that the apex Grandmaster of Internal Martial Arts likely only equates to the limit of the Houtian realm in ancient times.

And in ancient times, there were still Xiantian powerhouses. The Xiantian realm was even divided into three major stages: 'Virtual Core,' 'Solid Core,' and 'Golden Core.' They were far, far stronger than we are now." "The advantage is that Grandmasters of Internal Martial Arts have all their meridians completely unblocked." "Whereas for the ancients, unblocking the meridians was exceedingly difficult; merely opening the Ren and Du meridians seemed an extraordinary achievement." Teng Qingshan smiled upon reading this.

Indeed, which modern Grandmaster hasn't had all their meridians completely opened—whether the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Twelve Primary Meridians, or even the myriad subtle collateral branches—all thoroughly clear. Internal energy can reach every part of the body instantaneously.

"At first, I couldn't understand. If ancient cultivators had stronger internal energy, shouldn't it have been easier for them to unblock their meridians?

Why was it harder for them than for us?" Teng Qingshan nodded slightly. "After investigation and research, I have reached some deductions." "Ancient cultivators absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, accumulating a sufficient quantity of internal energy, and then relied on this powerful internal energy to gradually clear one meridian after another.

This method is like dredging a river channel; one continuously pushes the silt and debris backward. The more debris is pushed back, the more congested the downstream channel becomes." "Although it's true that during this process of clearing meridian channels, a lot of impurities seep out through the pores, far more impurities are simply pushed back into other meridians." Teng Qingshan nodded secretly.

"Every time a meridian is opened, the 'impurities' within other meridians become denser, making the difficulty of opening the next meridian even higher." Teng Qingshan was completely captivated by this theory. "Therefore, it was extremely rare for ancient cultivators to manage to unblock the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and the Twelve Primary Meridians.

As for opening the smaller collateral branches? That was almost impossible!" Teng Qingshan agreed with a nod.

Method dictates the outcome. The ancient method of unblocking meridians was purely reliant on brute force—using powerful internal energy to constantly displace impurities.

Naturally, it became increasingly difficult the further one progressed. This wasn't their fault, considering their cultivation method primarily focused on refining powerful internal energy.

"But my Internal Martial Arts is different!" "My Internal Martial Arts trains every part of the body—muscles, fascia, bones, etc.—all undergo rigorous training, including the meridians, which become progressively wider and tougher. The impurities within the meridians were never numerous to begin with.

With continuous training, these impurities gradually seep out through the pores." "Because our internal energy is scarce, there is no severe squeezing or compression. Through years of dedicated practice, the impurities continually permeate outward, eventually allowing one to unblock all meridians and reach the Grandmaster realm." Teng Qingshan smiled as well.

He himself was an Internal Martial Arts Grandmaster and understood this point perfectly. If ancient cultivation methods relied on forcibly using internal energy to squeeze out impurities, then modern Internal Martial Arts focuses on strengthening every part of the body, including the meridians.

Those tiny channels connecting to the pores have long since expelled their impurities during training. Naturally, the impurities in the major meridians will slowly flow into some of these smaller branches and then permeate out through the pores.

Silently, through these small collateral channels, all impurities are expelled. But what about the ancients?

They started by compressing, forcing massive amounts of impurities into the collateral branches, causing the small branches to become instantly and completely blocked. The principle is: dredging is better than blocking.

"Thus, from the perspective of unblocking meridians, the cultivation of Internal Martial Arts should be far superior to the ancient methods!" Seeing this conclusion, Teng Qingshan was in complete agreement. After all, how many ancients managed to fully unblock all their meridians?

"I sometimes wonder: If an Internal Martial Arts Grandmaster could return to the era of Xia, Shang, Zhou, Spring and Autumn, Warring States, or Qin and Han—an era abundant with spiritual energy—with all meridians clear, and then practice those ancient secret arts, their potential achievements might be limitless." Finally, this Grandmaster of Internal Martial Arts from the Republic of China era clearly sighed with emotion. Loneliness of the peak.

That Grandmaster, 'Liu Shen Hou' (Monkey God Willow), also stood at the pinnacle of human capability during the Republican era. When he learned that ancient powerhouses cultivated up to three Xiantian realms, how could he not feel yearning?

Teng Qingshan finished reading 'Liu Shen Hou's' lengthy description, his own heart filled with emotion. "It's a pity I wasn't born in those distant ancient times." Teng Qingshan sighed inwardly.

In this modern society, he was already considered a peak Grandmaster, yet in the distant past, achieving Great Accomplishment in Houtian was merely standard for an expert, not even touching the threshold of the Xiantian realm. That era, teeming with masters, made Teng Qingshan's blood boil just imagining it.

"I truly don't know why the spiritual energy of heaven and earth began to sharply decline starting from the Sui and Tang dynasties," Teng Qingshan mused, then continued flipping through this copy of Chronicles of a Thousand Years. The book Chronicles of a Thousand Years was indeed a text detailing the cultivation methods of the Divine Thief Sect.

The latter part of the book purely expounded on the training methods for 'Monkey Fist,' from introductory level to Grandmaster. While there was a clear path to follow, it was incredibly difficult for ordinary people to even generate internal energy, let alone become a Grandmaster.

"Eh..." As Teng Qingshan turned to the last few pages, he couldn't help but be startled. "My Divine Thief Sect once passed down several ancient secret manuals.

At first, I didn't take these manuals seriously, but after investigating the secrets of ancient cultivation, I realized these manuals were genuine. It's just that with the sharp decline in spiritual energy, these manuals are now useless." "However, apart from cultivation manuals, there is also one supreme lightness skill manual from our sect: Journey to the Horizon.

This ancient manual doesn't focus on cultivating internal energy, but purely on methods to use internal energy. I have been a Grandmaster for twenty years, so my accumulation of internal energy is not small.

After attempting it once, I found that a single activation depleted all my internal energy! I could only marvel...

the internal energy of the ancients was so profound." Teng Qingshan couldn't help but offer a wry smile at this point. Modern Internal Martial Arts Grandmaster combat usually involves only occasional bursts of internal energy, as the internal energy within the body is scarce—so scarce it doesn't need storage in the Dantian.

But the ancients? They could fill their Dantian, which implied an astonishing quantity of internal energy.

"My greatest pride, Liu Shen Hou, was my agility and speed. But I discovered that executing Journey to the Horizon, even just once, drained my internal energy entirely.

Yet, the speed... it was truly too fast, too fast.

I couldn't bear to let such a secret manual vanish, so I recorded it at the end of this book." The last few pages of Chronicles of a Thousand Years contained the description of this supreme movement technique manual—Journey to the Horizon. In the era of the Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Qin, and Han dynasties, this manual might have been precious.

But in this current age, this manual could, at most, serve as a 'collector's item'; its practical use was extremely limited. After all, one activation could deplete the internal energy of an Internal Martial Arts Grandmaster; who would dare use it?

Without internal energy during combat meant extreme danger. "Journey to the Horizon, I wonder just how powerful it is." Teng Qingshan read carefully.

According to the description in the manual, a practitioner who reached the Xiantian Golden Core realm could achieve the highest level effect, 'A Short Distance Becomes the Horizon,' when employing Journey to the Horizon. "What a waste, such a waste." Teng Qingshan closely observed the execution method, unable to stop his lamentations.

* As the sun rose, within the courtyard of the dwelling where Teng Qingshan resided, a figure was tracing peculiar footfalls upon the concrete ground, leaving behind a series of recessed footprints. These indented footprints were deliberately placed by Teng Qingshan, referencing the foot positions described in Journey to the Horizon, which he was now practicing incessantly.

According to the manual, this most fundamental set of footwork in Journey to the Horizon, though seemingly simple, contained infinite mysteries. "This footwork is indeed somewhat unusual." Teng Qingshan followed the sequence, treading the steps from deep in the night until now.

As he practiced longer, he gradually noticed a special pattern embedded within the footwork. This pattern could not be summarized by logic.

Yet, Teng Qingshan could feel it. "Just practicing the footwork is useless.

With the agility forged by my Twelve Forms of Xingyi, it's no less potent than this," Teng Qingshan paused. "It seems this 'Journey to the Horizon' footwork can only exert its true strength when genuinely combined with internal energy." Teng Qingshan, having been a super assassin, possessed an excellent memory.

The brief few thousand characters of the Journey to the Horizon manual, along with its three footwork diagrams and six meridian pathway diagrams, were already deeply imprinted in his mind. "Let's try it; I want to see just how formidable this 'Journey to the Horizon' is." Teng Qingshan felt an itch in his heart, mirroring the Republic of China Grandmaster 'Liu Shen Hou,' and couldn't resist the urge; he decided to test it out.

"Energy enters the Chongmen, travels straight down, passing through Xuehai, Diji, Shangqiu, meeting at Dadu, returning..." The method of channeling energy was still crystal clear in Teng Qingshan's mind. As the internal energy circulated within his body, Teng Qingshan's entire being transformed into a streak of lightning, shooting fiercely forward.

Swish! In an instant, he vanished within the courtyard.

"Stop!" Teng Qingshan abruptly cut off the internal energy circulation. "In the blink of an eye, I've already leaped out of the courtyard.

That's at least thirty meters." Teng Qingshan looked back; he was already in a small grove outside the courtyard boundary. Teng Qingshan was utterly stunned by the terrifying speed.

A single tiger leap from him covered only ten meters, yet this was thirty meters in the time it took to blink. "The internal energy consumption is too fast.

The moment I activated it, I stopped, but half of my internal energy was already depleted." Teng Qingshan finally understood what 'Liu Shen Hou' had described; if his reaction had been slightly slower, the internal energy he possessed might have been completely exhausted. "Incredible, but I dare not waste it like this during actual combat," Teng Qingshan sighed internally.

This Journey to the Horizon lightness skill was indeed miraculous, but the internal energy drain was simply too astonishing.