22 Practices the body to transmute into Essence, Dragon Tiger Fis (1/2)

”Mo Wen.”

Mo Wen nodded lightly, neither passionately nor apathetically.

Wang Yuan smiled and didn't bother much if ”Mo Wen” was Mo Wen's name or he was requesting him not to ask.[1] He started tidying up his own bed, as the military region had prepared all the daily necessities; they only needed to bring along their personal clothing and personal necessities.

The military region of the Nineteenth army corp was relatively big. It took Mo Wen an afternoon, from noon till late afternoon, to walk and familiarize himself with the normal areas, excluding some restricted areas which he couldn't enter.

The military region was built in the mountains on a relatively big valley, similar to the basin, but the development of the military regions had extended into the mountains, so one would need a few days to be able to finish walking through the whole military region.

Although the military region was big, the activity area was small.

After having dinner at the canteen, even the night owls would go to bed, as they had to wake up at five o'clock for their training the next morning. The intensity of their training was almost equivalent to those for the new recruits in the army; it would be torturous the next day if one didn't rest well at night.

At four o'clock the next day, Mo Wen woke up early. To be exact, he woke up at three o'clock in the morning, as he practiced meditation on the bed for an hour before washing up.

Walking out of the dormitory, it was still dim at four o'clock even though the sky brightened earlier in the summer. The military region was still and quiet, except for the occasional barking of a dog.

Other than those on sentry and patrolling outside, it was rare to see anyone.

Mo Wen walked to the lawn next to the parade ground and started his morning practice.

To a practitioner, the body was the foundation of everything; the beginning of the practice was a training of the body. The body was like a treasure, dredging up little by little so as to explore the unlimited potentials.

Mo Wen read an abstract somewhere in an ancient literature: the way of practice originates from the body while starting from the heart; practices the body to transmute into Essence; practices the Essence to transmute into Qi; practices the Qi to transmute into Vitality; practices the Vitality to return to Emptiness, refines the Emptiness to unite to the way; the way will produce the Law, the Law shall develop all other things.

Although Mo Wen didn't understand it fully, he knew that the first stage of his practice, as mentioned, was to practice the body to transmute into Essence. This realm emphasized on the building of the body, the practicing of the Essence Qi, Vital Qi, and Vigour Qi; followed by the practicing of the Essence to transmute it into Qi. When the Essence, Qi, and Vitality had been refined to its acme, it would be transmuted into Inner Qi.

The ancient literature recorded that these were the fundamentals of the whole Practice. However, the Inner Qi practitioners in that world were practicing otherwise. They would usually practice Inner Qi in the beginning, then pursue for stronger and greater Inner Qi Cultivation to reach a point of discharging it externally, followed by diffusing the Qi as an astral wind, which might allow them to decapitate someone who was ten meters or even 100 meters away if they were in the profound level.

There were a few high ranked experts who were said to be highly respected in the martial art circle, that didn't pay much attention to the practice of the body. They usually practiced the Inner Qi to cut the mountains and crack rocks, to kill people invisibly, to protect their body with Qi, to soar in the air and travel with Qi, presuming that Inner Qi was the foundation of the practice.

Mo Wen was from the family of martial arts who used to think like them, but after reading voluminous of ancient literature, he realised that it was not so. He discovered a very strange problem; many of highest ranked martial art experts died young. Their lifespan was usually short, in fact, it was even shorter than the normal people who didn't practise martial arts.

However, those who were not members of the martial art circle, laymen who practiced as a form of healthy living and bodybuilding, usually were able to enjoy longevity.

In the beginning, he thought that those martial arts practitioners in the Jianghu liked to get into fights, which left them with many hidden illnesses, but later he realised that it was not so. After many experiments and cross checking, Mo Wen found out the root cause: the martial arts practitioners neglected the practice of the body while they pursued the practice of Inner Qi, causing harm to the body and thus damaging the foundation.

Ever since knowing the erroneous area of the practice of the martial arts practitioners, Mo Wen began to research on some ancient literature and read some books regarding the lineage and descendants of ancient historical sects. Eventually, he discovered that people in the ancient times practiced from the body and gradually refined and preserved the essence; they would only start to practise Inner Qi when they were energetic and full of vitality, instead of starting off with the practice of Inner Qi.

It was said that the practitioners of the ancient times were able to fly and go through the earth, perform earth shattering feats, enjoy longevity, and were full of glory.

Even though they were just legends, Mo Wen gradually seemed to believe in it.

After that, Mo Wen started to pay attention to the practice of the body and repeated the process of the practicing of the Essence to transmute it into Qi. After a while, he realised that the Inner Qi in his body had some slight changes, and unknowingly, the quality of his cultivation had a tremendous improvement.