Chapter 370: Independent Cultivation
Given Lin Dong’s personality, if Feng Zhengyang wanted to kill him, he certainly had no reason not to take action against Feng Zhengyang.
However, if he really killed Feng Zhengyang, Qin Mengtai would go berserk. With Old Man Ding around, it wouldn’t be difficult to push Qin Mengtai back. But once Qin Mengtai returned to the Tianjian Sect, he would undoubtedly mobilize the sect’s forces to make a comeback. At this stage, Lin’s Inn’s only reliance was Old Man Ding, and it was utterly unable to compete with the Tianjian Sect. By then, they would not only have to abandon their business and flee but might also draw Yun Lan into a conflict with Qin Mengtai.
If he didn’t kill Feng Zhengyang, Lin Dong felt it would be a disservice to himself.
It was a tricky problem. In the end, Lin Dong decided to wait and see depending on the circumstances.
There was only a small difference between the ninth level of the Mental State phase and the first level of the Mental Reversal phase, but the gap in strength was more than ten times greater. It could be said that Lin Dong now had enough confidence to deal with a dozen or twenty versions of himself from a day ago at the same time. Even facing Qin Mengtai, though still certain to lose, he wouldn’t be as helpless as before, unable to withstand even the opponent’s released spiritual energy. At the very least, he could force Qin Mengtai to make a move.
One could kill him without making a move, while the other could kill him with just one move—this progress was quite evident.
The biggest difference between the Mental State phase and the Spiritual Mobility phase was the significant expansion of the dantian’s capacity and a qualitative change in spiritual energy. Additionally, one could project their mind and spiritual energy to form a barrier. As for the biggest difference between the Mental Reversal phase and the Mental State phase, besides the expanded dantian capacity and qualitative change in spiritual energy, there were also other notable differences.
The most important one was the ability to independently cultivate and absorb external spiritual energy. In other words, even while eating or walking on the street, spiritual energy would circulate within the body along the cultivation pathways, thereby strengthening one’s strength.
This characteristic was one of the main reasons why the strength of the first level of the Mental Reversal phase far surpassed that of the ninth level of the Mental State phase, second only to the expanded dantian capacity and the qualitative change in spiritual energy.
No matter how strong one was, even a peak warrior, the spiritual energy in their dantian was always limited. If they could cultivate independently, it meant they could continuously supply themselves with spiritual energy during battles. It could be said that as long as the battle wasn’t too intense, a peak warrior’s spiritual energy would never run out. This was even more true for those in the Mental Reversal phase with weaker strength.
Furthermore, one can practice cultivation even while eating or walking. Generally speaking, those who reach the Heart Reversal stage must possess an extraordinary passion for cultivation. Out of twelve hours in a day, at least ten are spent on cultivation. The remaining two hours are mostly used to teach disciples or handle other trivial matters that require personal attention. Even if cultivation is done on one’s own, the effect is generally similar to that of meditation; two hours of self-practice is equivalent to one hour of meditation. This means an increase of one-tenth in daily cultivation time. It may seem small, but for those who aspire to become peak warriors throughout their lives, it is absolutely invaluable.
Of course, some people dismiss this second benefit. Those who do so are true martial enthusiasts or those who seek only to enhance their strength. They spend almost all twelve hours a day cultivating, focusing solely on gathering the spiritual stones needed for cultivation and taking a few fasting pills in their spare time. They pay no attention to disciples, factions, status, or anything else—cultivation is all that matters in their minds. Such people have no spare time, so self-practice is of little use to them.
Since deciding to force his way into the Heaven Sword Sect, Lin Dong can also be considered a half-martial enthusiast. Aside from spending time with Yun Lan and Lin Shuang, as well as handling the affairs of the Lin Family Inn, he devotes almost all his remaining time to cultivation. Logically, self-practice should not bring significant benefits to Lin Dong’s cultivation, but in reality, he is likely the greatest beneficiary of self-practice in the history of the Great Han Nation. This is because, even before reaching the Heart Reversal stage, the spiritual energy within Lin Dong had already developed the habit of flowing autonomously through his meridians. This can be traced back to his time in Autumn Wind City, when he infiltrated the Heaven and Earth Cave of the Xingli Sect and used the Jinghong Stone for cultivation. By gritting his teeth to resist the stone’s pull, he managed to persevere, inadvertently causing the spiritual energy in his dantian to develop the habit of flowing independently through his meridians due to inertia.
After breaking through from the ninth level of the Mind Spirit stage to the first level of the Heart Reversal stage, the habit of self-practice formed because the spiritual energy underwent a qualitative change, shifting from gaseous to liquid form, which greatly accelerated its flow rate. Just a few rounds of cultivation were enough to establish this habit. Within three to five days, the spiritual energy would start flowing on its own without further cultivation stimulation.
The effect of self-practice is not as good as that of meditation, as the spiritual energy flows autonomously through the meridians, which is not as controllable as using one’s will to control its flow rate. As a result, it takes much longer for one cycle to complete, weakening the effectiveness.
Before the qualitative change in his spiritual energy, Lin Dong was already able to make it flow on its own through the meridians. With such a qualitative change, the likelihood of an increased flow rate is undoubtedly very high.
If the flow rate of the spiritual energy indeed increases—and even faster than that in meditation—this means that while eating, Lin Dong’s practice speed could be faster than that during meditation.
Only by trying can one determine if this is true. Lin Dong had been waiting for this day for quite some time.
Sitting cross-legged, Lin Dong focused his mind, waiting for the spiritual energy that had flowed out on its own to return to his dantian. At his command, the crystal-clear spiritual energy, like flowing crystal, rushed out at great speed from the still-forming dantian and then swiftly moved through the meridians, like snakes or fish. If he didn’t concentrate, it was even possible for his will to fail to keep up with the speed of the spiritual energy. Of course, even if he couldn’t keep up, it wasn’t a big problem to intercept it ahead—thanks to inertia, even those in the Spiritual Mobility stage wouldn’t encounter any issues. Otherwise, 99% of people wouldn’t dare to practice.
After one full cycle, Lin Dong suddenly opened his eyes. Upon inward inspection, the spiritual energy continued to burst out of his dantian and circulate rapidly along the established path.
After the spiritual energy had flowed autonomously through the meridians for one full cycle, a hint of disappointment appeared in Lin Dong’s eyes.
Compared to meditation, the speed of self-practice was barely any different—there was little distinction between the two. In other words, after breaking through to the Heart Reversal stage, the speed of self-practice did increase, but it was only equal to that of meditation.
The only advantage was that he no longer needed to meditate; lying in bed sleeping had the same effect as practicing while sitting. The problem was that the room provided a practice boost, so Lin Dong had to stay there constantly. If the effects were the same, it was not as good as meditation—at least with meditation, he could pass the time, which was better than lying in bed sleeping or daydreaming all day.
After testing, since the benefits were limited, Lin Dong could only accept it reluctantly.
Fortunately, entering the Heart Reversal stage brought numerous advantages. Before the breakthrough, besides looking forward to self-practice, another major benefit was the Sky Command Technique.
The Sky Command Technique had four stages, and Lin Dong had already reached a masterful level in the first two stages: the Earth Command stage and the Air Command stage.
In the Realm of Control, once mastered, any physical object can become an ideal weapon. A knife can be used as a sword or an axe, and a sword can be used as a knife or a spear… Even an ordinary bench can be used as any of these weapons, with no difference in effectiveness compared to the actual weapons in this realm. In other words, with the Realm of Control, a bench can be used to chop off someone’s head or pierce them through.
In the Realm of Air Control, once mastered, one can control any object in mid-air. As long as one is a martial artist at the Mental State stage, they can project their spiritual energy outward. A martial artist at the first level of this stage can grab a bench located about ten meters away by using their entire body’s spiritual energy in a claw-like manner, and after retracting it, they can pick up the bench from afar. After doing this three to five times, their spiritual energy will be almost exhausted. A martial artist at the second level of this stage can do it about twenty to thirty times, with the number increasing as their strength grows. For a powerful warrior at the first level of the Reverse Mental State stage, ignoring self-practice, they can do it tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times.
On the surface, the Realm of Air Control seems similar to projecting spiritual energy, but in reality, there is a huge difference. Firstly, it comes to spiritual energy consumption. As early as his first level of the Mental State stage, Lin Dong could grab a bench ten meters away thousands of times before his spiritual energy was depleted—a number comparable to that of a martial artist at the eighth level of this stage. With Lin Dong’s current level of spiritual energy, ignoring factors like physical endurance, he can grab objects continuously for three to five months without any problem.
This means that using the Realm of Air Control to retrieve objects, if the same amount of spiritual energy is used to grab a bench or something else, the speed and strength will be a hundred or even a thousand times greater. This is also the main reason why the Realm of Air Control can be used as an offensive method.
Another aspect is the number of objects that can be controlled. A normal martial artist at the first level of the Mental State stage can theoretically project their spiritual energy throughout their body, but the easiest places to control it are the hands. If they want to retrieve two objects at the same time, at a distance of ten meters, they would need to send them down at least a hundred to eighteen times each. For a powerful warrior at the Reverse Mental State stage, whose control over projected spiritual energy is a hundred or a thousand times greater, they can still only control two objects at a time with ease.
In contrast, the Realm of Air Control has no such limits. As long as there is enough spiritual energy and fast enough reaction speed, one can control a hundred or even a thousand objects with ease.
The third realm of the Sky Control Art is the Boundless Control Realm. Due to his rapidly improving comprehension ability, which had reached an astonishing level, Lin Dong had already grasped half of the incantations. In his understanding, this Boundless Control Realm should allow one to control any living being—as long as there was sufficient spiritual energy, nothing could escape control.
Previously, Lin Dong had not used this ability because his spiritual energy was insufficient. But now, he had enough.
In the past, if Lin Dong wanted to bring someone close, he could only use the Air Control Realm by targeting the person’s clothes and controlling them to pull the person over. If the person struggled, he had to increase his spiritual energy to exert greater pressure on the clothes, which greatly increased energy consumption. Basically, with the strength of an eighth-level Mind Realm practitioner, Lin Dong could fully control a seventh-level Mind Realm warrior, but it became more difficult against an eighth-level practitioner, and against a ninth-level practitioner, it was easy to be pushed away.
After mastering the Boundless Control Realm, one could directly target vital points. The most obvious one was the neck—there was no need to control the entire person’s clothes, reducing the target area by dozens of times. Moreover, targeting vital points made resistance even more difficult. Used properly, the power of the Boundless Control Realm was absolutely over a hundred times greater than that of the Air Control Realm.
Lin Dong opened the door and decided to find someone to test its power.