Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 101-Chapter 200)

Chapter 106: The Ten Layers of Qi Practitioners | Legend of the Great Sage




Li Qingshan gained a better understanding of the structure of the government. This should have been the separation of powers! Although it seemed very rough, the encompassing area they had to govern was simply too large, so it was impossible for them to have any finer methods of governance.

Out of them, the Hawkwolf Guard resembled the imperial guards and two bureaus of the Ming dynasty. Their authority even seemed slightly greater than that. Li Qingshan could not help but say, “So the Hawkwolf Guard is quite impressive.”

TL: The imperial guards and the two bureaus were a series of secret police active during the Ming dynasty. They were the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Eastern Bureau, and Western Bureau respectively. The former two managed to grow to great power before collapsing with the Ming dynasty.

Ye Dachuan said, “Yeah, so don’t hesitate anymore. A great future is awaiting you.”

Yan Song said, “And indulging yourself for free is not even the main point. It’s not like you lack the money to do that. You don’t seem like the person who would indulge in power and influence either, Qingshan. However, the Hawkwolf Guard has many spiritual artifacts, spiritual stones, pills, medicines, and cultivation methods. There’s probably not a single Qi Practitioner who wouldn’t be interested in that.”

Li Qingshan said, “Qi Practitioner? Then what are these innate masters all about?”

Li Qingshan asked with an open mind, and Yan Song gradually eased up. He was willing to serve as a guiding lantern for him. Moreover, these matters were all common knowledge in the first place.

As it turned out, there were extremely few people in this world who could practise true qi right from the beginning. These people were Qi Practitioners. However, the demand for talent to become a Qi Practitioner was extremely high, so most people did not take this path. Instead, there was another path available, which was cultivating inner force. Inner force basically had no strict demands on talent. As long as someone was not an idiot and was willing to put in the effort, basically anyone could develop inner force.

The internal martial arts that ordinary people practised were equivalent to simplified versions of qi practising methods, lowering the need for talent and making it easier to achieve. As a result, basically everyone could practise it. However, the inner force developed through this process would never be as great as true qi. And, as they never truly opened their meridians, the inner force would be restricted to the meridians; it could not nourish the organs or be released externally.

However, as long as they cultivated their inner force to the limit and subsequently broke through, they could convert it into true qi and become a Qi Practitioner, which was commonly known as innate masters.

The path of practising qi was divided into ten layers.

And, it was not as rough as the first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate divisions of the jianghu. Sometimes, it would be very difficult to distinguish if a person was at the first-rate or the second-rate because the martial arts they practised were different, so their abilities would differ drastically. The paths they took differed as well.

However, regardless of the cultivation method, the path of practising qi was about opening the eight extraordinary meridian channels, which were the Yang Heel meridian, the Yin Heel meridian, the Yang Linking meridian, the Yin Linking meridian, the Girdle meridian, the Penetrating meridian, the Conception meridian, and the Governing meridian.

The eight extraordinary meridians did not directly connect to the internal organs, nor did they link the outside with the inside, which was why they were called the extraordinary meridians. Every single one of them covered the entire body, connecting several major acupoints. With each one opened, their true qi would grow slightly stronger, and that was a layer. Completely opening all eight extraordinary meridians would be reaching the ninth layer.

Reaching the tenth layer would be even more difficult. It required the complete opening of the twelve standard meridians, which were the three yin meridians of the arm, the three yang meridians of the arm, the three yin meridians of the leg, and the three yang meridians of the leg. These twelve standard meridians criss-crossed with one another, linking the hands and feet to the internal organs and five elements. It was extremely easy to suffer from qi deviation and injure the organs, but once one broke through, they would be able to reach the tenth layer, the realm of completion, reaching the peak of Qi Practitioners.

However, Li Qingshan had not opened any meridians at all, as he walked the path of a daemon, so there were completely no meridians to consider. There were countless different types of daemons that shared very few characteristics with humans. How could a snake or a bamboo possess meridians?

But when he thought up to this point, he suddenly came up with an idea. After suppressing the ox demon and tiger demon with the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression, he was an actual human. He had recovered his original form, so was he really unable to practise qi? As it seemed, he needed to find a method of practising qi and try it. Unknowingly, he embarked on an even stranger and more unique path with that thought.

Reaching there, Yan Song even grumbled about how their status as people who started off as martial arts practitioners was just too low. After all, by the time he reached the innate realm and could practise qi, he was already quite old. Although he used the true qi he had converted from his dense inner force to open the Yang Heel meridian, breaking through to the second layer, he was unable to take another step forward. He could not open the Yin Heel meridian and break through to the third layer.

Everyone comforted him. Yan Song said, “Body Practitioners are powerful, but it’s still not the orthodox. Qingshan, you’re very young, so you must be able to reach the third layer, or even the fourth or fifth layer. If you can open your Girdle meridian and develop a sea of qi, reaching the sixth layer, you’ll be able to get promoted to a Scarlet Wolf guard and take office in the Clear River city. It’ll all be worth it if that happens.”

Yan Song was sharp-sighted. He could tell that it was impossible for Li Qingshan’s true qi to have reached the second layer. The reason why he was able to defeat him so easily was because he walked the path of a Body Practitioner. From a certain perspective, the external martial arts of the jianghu were a simplified version of Body Practitioner methods. However, Body Practitioners were the same as practitioners of external martial arts in the jianghu. They were powerful at the beginning, but they had no future. It would be very difficult to reach a higher realm, so it was not a favourable path to take.

Li Qingshan said, “Thank you for your warning, protector Yan. I will keep an eye out for it in the future.” But as a daemon, it was basically impossible for him to not be a Body Practitioner.

However, with Yan Song’s explanations, he felt everything clear up drastically. He wondered what layer of Qi Practitioners he could take on when he was daemonified. Zhuo Zhibo of Jiaping city was probably around the level of a weaker Scarlet Wolf guard as a Black Hawk commander. His strength was probably around the sixth layer, having developed a sea of qi.

He had no idea which was more powerful, the sea of qi of humans or the daemon core of daemons, but they must have been around the same. Even if the daemon core was weaker, he could just run away. As a result, he made up his mind to visit Jiaping city. Similar to how the government could provide for people, the resources they could offer did interest him.

Li Qingshan then asked, “May I ask if you have any methods of practising qi, protector Yan?”