Chapter 51 Conjectures on the Hidden Meridians

Zhao Rui looked at He Zhiyan, who wore a solemn expression as he earnestly taught the martial arts technique, and felt a wave of speechlessness rise within him.

He wondered if this guy had truly forgotten, or if he had forgotten on purpose.
If it was intentional, what possible benefit could it bring him?
And if he had genuinely forgotten, just what kind of matter could possibly have left him so unsettled that he overlooked even such a fundamental thing?

However, things had already reached this point, and excessive pondering served no purpose. Zhao Rui quickly cast away his distracting thoughts and began to earnestly study the Form-Mimicry Boxing.

This technique differed from ordinary cultivation methods, taking an unconventional path primarily focused on opening up a hidden meridian and utilizing one's internal energy to replicate the techniques of others.
Though it had no grand utility, its saving grace was—well, it didn't really have any grand utility either.
Placed in the modern era during the flourishing age of martial arts, it might still find some use in sparring partnerships. But in the past, when various sects guarded their secrets jealously and refused to share, who would ever bother practicing such a thing?

"First posture: stance of an ancient pine; internal qi arises from the Lesser Yin Meridian, flowing to the chest and abdomen. During this, agitate the true qi for ten breaths. Do not linger for long; it must be dispersed throughout the entire body..."

He Zhiyan lectured seriously and guided them earnestly. He personally approached both Zhao Rui and his companion to correct and modify their every movement, refusing to pass them until they met the standard.

Studying like this for over two hours, the two of them finally managed to memorize all the movements and the methods for circulating qi.

"Have you both understood everything?"
"If you understand, practice diligently and strive to master this technique as soon as possible... Zhao Rui, the Five Ancestors Fist possesses extraordinary might. Do you feel confident?"

Once the teaching concluded, He Zhiyan looked toward Zhao Rui and asked.

"Group Leader, what confidence could I possibly have? Right now, I'm just being forced to ride a duck onto a perch. I'll do my best."
Zhao Rui spoke the truth. This was his first time seeing this set of fist techniques; how could he possibly master it in such a short time?

Seeing this, He Zhiyan turned his gaze to Zhang Kui and asked, "What about you? The Eight Trigram Palm is relatively simpler. Don't feel pressured; I will explain things on your behalf when the time comes."

Zhang Kui wore a bitter expression, cursing him a hundred times in his heart, but matters had reached this stage, and further talk was useless.
He would just have to bite the bullet and push through.
"I'll do my best as well."

"Hurry up and familiarize yourselves with it!"
He Zhiyan sighed, and with those words, stepped out of the training room to study the martial arts mental cultivation manual he had obtained.

The martial arts mastered by students of the Martial Dao Academy were broadly divided into inner-transmitted martial arts and public martial arts.
Inner-transmitted martial arts, also known as inner-sect techniques, could only be studied by students who had gained the recognition of a specific sect, organization, or major figure, and they were strictly forbidden from being leaked outwardly.
Public martial arts were those officially promulgated by the imperial court after it opened up martial arts to the world, as well as various techniques spontaneously circulating among the common folk.
These techniques had no restrictions on who could practice them; bookstores sold their manuals, and the internet featured relevant instructional videos for these martial skills.
Many internet celebrities relied on teaching various martial arts to gain massive fanbases, becoming major influencers rivaling movie stars.

An ordinary martial arts student, lacking a deep background or heaven-sent opportunities, would most likely learn martial arts that circulated openly in the market.
This was primarily achieved through two methods: school instruction and martial arts gym mentoring. Those with exceptional talent might catch the eye of a certain teacher at the school, who would pull strings to introduce them under the banner of some prominent figure.
Alternatively, they might be noticed by an expert from a martial arts gym, taken in as an inner disciple, and taught hidden, treasured martial arts.
Those with mediocre talent had no choice but to follow the standard progression of schooling and rank examinations, practicing public martial arts available on the market and steadily engaging in hard, pragmatic cultivation step by step.
They would gradually learn advanced martial skills from higher education institutions in order to break through their personal bottlenecks.

The six martial arts assigned to Zhao Rui and the others currently belonged to public martial arts—all techniques openly made available by the court to the outside world.
They were also part of the routine martial arts practiced by the visiting students from other schools who had come for exchanges.
Though the opponents undoubtedly possessed more than just these public martial arts, beating the grass to startle the rabbit was better than nothing at all.

Coach Wang and the others surely had more targeted training and countermeasures, but those were not things for sparring partners like Zhao Rui to worry about.

Seeing He Zhiyan leave, Zhao Rui pushed open the door to a meditation quiet room and walked inside.

The quiet room was not small, roughly the size of a bedroom, and contained nothing other than a straw meditation mat.
The space was more than sufficient to execute fist and kick techniques.

Zhao Rui closed his eyes and meditated, contemplating the newly learned Form-Mimicry Boxing.
Completing the task didn't matter much, but he had to master this martial art; after all, it was a fine technique for concealing "heaven's secrets."

Practice made perfect. Since it involved a hidden meridian, it certainly did not fall within the twelve regular meridians or the eight extraordinary meridians.
He just wondered how this martial art managed to mobilize a hidden meridian path that was only briefly mentioned in ancient texts and never entered the realm of secular martial arts.
Logically speaking, such an awesome technique shouldn't have fallen to the status of a tasteless, chicken-ribs-like martial art, nor should it have been given such a low-sounding name.

Following He Zhiyan's explanation, Zhao Rui began to mobilize his profound passes and true qi, executing his breathing and performing the technique according to the cultivation posture of the Form-Mimicry Boxing.

"Now, the arising of degrees by the sage must respond to the heaven and earth. Therefore, heaven has its stellar degrees, earth has its meridian waters, and man has his meridians."

Zhao Rui meticulously circulated his true qi, continuously gathering and releasing the internal energy within his meridians and agitating the acupoints in the manner He Zhiyan had introduced.

"This feeling...?"
Zhao Rui frowned in contemplation. Why did it feel so similar in wondrous execution to his own experience of opening acupoints and drawing the primordial physique into his body?
It felt like... synchronization!

Zhao Rui's eyes brightened. Could it be that this martial art utilized the agitation of one's own true qi to form an energy field synchronized with the hidden meridian, thereby borrowing the hidden meridian's path to bypass normal meridian circulation and simulate various martial arts?

If that were truly the case, it would easily explain why it could only imitate yet possessed no actual might.

Because internal qi from the regular meridians simply could not circulate within the hidden meridian; the internal qi merely borrowed its pathway rather than truly flowing through it.
When the movement was executed, only a faint, agitated internal qi was feedback-looped through the synchronization of the hidden meridian, naturally failing to produce any lethal force.

There's a chance!

A surge of joy welled up in Zhao Rui's heart, and he hurriedly began to implement his theory.

Cultivation knows no passage of time; meditation passes in the blink of an eye.
By the time Zhao Rui emerged from the quiet room, the outside world was already pitch black, and even the entire Mingchan Courtyard had grown dim and dark.
Only a few dim yellow streetlamps at the entrance stood guard over this ancient-styled faux-Zen courtyard.

"Damn, it's almost twelve!"
Zhao Rui picked up his phone to check the time and was instantly startled.
He had never experienced this kind of unusual sensation before. Though he usually practiced meditation and cultivation, a few hours was normally his limit, and his physical consciousness possessed a clear sense of time.
This time, however, was different; he had felt completely absorbed in it, trapping both his essence, qi, and spirit within the cultivation, losing all track of day and night.

Filled with doubt, Zhao Rui walked over to Zhang Kui's quiet room, only to find the place already empty.
He hurriedly dialed his phone.

"Zhang, what time did you leave?"
"Don't tell me you just came out? I left after two hours; it was super simple!"
"Simple?" Zhao Rui paused, then sheepishly said, "I took a nap, haha."
"Sigh, I'm completely done for. Ever since I became a sparring partner, there's been one thing after another. I want to quit and focus on preparing for the civil service exams; I'm not going to get any good results here anyway."

Zhang Kui yawned, complained for a moment, and continued, "I'm not chatting with you anymore; I'm going to sleep. Still gotta be an ox and a horse tomorrow!"
With that, he hung up the phone.

Looking at the glowing screen of his phone, Zhao Rui grew even more puzzled. Could it be that his talent was simply too poor?
That technique was quite difficult. It was only because his inspiration mushroom had sprouted and he figured out the underlying principle that he finally gained some results.

Pondering for a long time without finding an answer, Zhao Rui shook his head, turned to close the training room door, entered the security defense password, and left the premises.

The moonlight in the early hours of the morning was cold, clear, and bright. Wisps of radiance spilled silver brilliance through the gaps in the clouds, resembling the fire of cold nuclear fusion—mysterious and cool.

Leaving the Mingchan Courtyard, Zhao Rui felt a sudden surge of playfulness. He set the recently learned Flying Swallow Vault into motion, his feet tapping lightly and empty in the air, his figure transforming into a swift swallow that spread its wings and flew into the dense woods.

Human beings had harbored the dream of flight since ancient times; how many extreme sports daredevils in his past life had braved life and death, leaping down from airplanes just to experience the thrill of soaring through the sky?
At this moment, Zhao Rui was like a child who had obtained a beloved toy, leaping and bounding through the dense forest, thoroughly enjoying himself.
In an instant, small birds in the woods were startled into flight, letting out noisy yet crisp chirps.

"Kid, did you just learn lightness kung fu?"
Just as Zhao Rui was indulging in the application of his lightness skill and enjoying the joy of flight, a resonant voice drifted leisurely from the direction of the Mingchan Temple.
The voice seemed close yet far away, distant yet right beside his ear, winding and intermittent, impossible to pin down.

Startled, Zhao Rui suffered a destabilization of his internal breath and began to drop downward from mid-air.
Fortunately, his internal energy was profound and his reaction timely; he twisted his body in mid-air, shifting to the Swimming Dragon Step, elevated his figure with a single bound, grabbed a tree branch with one hand, and flipped up onto the canopy.

"Which teacher is present here? The student did not mean to trespass and will leave right away."
Zhao Rui quickly spoke in a clear voice.

"What kind of lightness skill do you call that? You barely clear a zhang off the ground, and your aerial hang time lasts only a few breaths."
The words had barely faded when Zhao Rui saw a figure dart rapidly out from the direction of the Mingchan Courtyard. The figure was half-real and half-illusory, akin to a phantom, making it impossible to discern clearly in the night.

The speed of the movement was such that in the blink of an eye, it reached the edge of the forest. The figure flicked a sleeve, stirring the branches and leaves into a rustling sound, and then shot straight upward vertically like a rocket.

This sight made Zhao Rui's eyes bulge wide, leaving him too breathless to even dare let out a sound.
The figure moved like a dragon leaping out of an abyss, sometimes circling and hovering, sometimes charging straight into the clouds. The momentum of the ascent seemed entirely unrelated to gravity, showing not the slightest sign of decay.

Ascending fifty or sixty meters high, the figure finally moved like a swimming dragon, tracing an illusory streak across the sky and vanishing swiftly back into the Mingchan Courtyard.

"Kid, that's what you call flying; you still have a long road ahead of you."
"Teacher!"
"I am not from your school; there is no need for you to seek me out. Seeing you perform like that today stirred my emotions—haha, take this as a gift!"

With those words, a golden streak pierced the night sky, defying the moonlight to cross a distance of several hundred meters straight down into Zhao Rui's hand.

"This..."
Looking at the USB flash drive in his hand, Zhao Rui was left torn between laughter and tears. Senior, you really do keep up with current trends and follow fashion closely!

"Thank you, Teacher! This student will not disturb your rest any longer!"
Zhao Rui quickly bowed in salute, but hearing no response and pausing slightly, he leaped down from the tree branch and sped far away.

Ten-odd minutes later, Zhao Rui pushed open the door to his home with a fluttering heart, hurried to his computer, plugged in the USB drive, and turned on the machine.

This was a vertical ascent of fifty or sixty meters—what kind of concept was that? Zhao Rui couldn't even fathom it. If it wasn't a parlor trick or acrobatics, just how high must that person's martial prowess be?
A grandmaster? A grandmaster could never achieve such a feat; it fell far short.
This wasn't simply possessing great strength and stomping the ground to spring up eight or ten meters.
The erratic shifting of the figure and the circular circulation of internal power during the process completely transcended anything Zhao Rui could imagine.

"Senior, what kind of treasure did you give me? A top-tier cultivation technique? Just like Zhang Wuji falling off a cliff and learning the Nine Yang Divine Skill?"
Zhao Rui harbored suspicions in his heart.

As the computer booted up and recognized the USB drive, an eye-catching warning screen quickly appeared on the display interface: "Virus detected, 1, 2..."

Damn it!
Zhao Rui felt a black line cross his forehead. Kill it!
It was just a virus, after all.

"The Great Sorrow Scripture of Yin and Yang—this film is sponsored and broadcast by Universal Pictures..."
During the Tianqi reign, court eunuchs held power and the people lived in dire poverty. A chivalrous heroine mastered peerless martial arts, vowing to eliminate evils for the people and eradicate the eunuch faction...

Zhao Rui took a deep breath, suppressed the urge to smash his computer, and patiently watched this grade-three adult film featuring a twisting plot and a heroine who made many sacrifices.

"Thank you for watching!"
As the film ended, the entire screen returned to calm, and the media player automatically reverted to its initial interface.

Gone?
Gone! Zhao Rui felt a slight tightness in his chest.
It felt just like telling your wife the lottery numbers you picked, hearing on television that those numbers won five million, waiting at home in absolute joy and excitement for her return, only for her to walk through the door and say she forgot to buy the ticket!

Namo Amitabha!
Zhao Rui silently recited the calming incantation, soothing his restless and gain-anxious heart.

"My cultivation is still insufficient; a tranquil heart brings natural coolness."
Zhao Rui couldn't help but chuckle self-deprecatingly. Late at night like this, he had truly been left alternately startled and delighted, pleased and exasperated by that fellow.

Having tossed and turned for the better part of the night, Zhao Rui finally fell into a peaceful sleep past two in the morning.

The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, just as he entered the Mingchan Courtyard, He Zhiyan gathered all the members of the sparring group together.

"There's no need to report back to your teams these few days; all of you come here. Let's handle the matters at hand first. Report on your situations—how is your training going?"

The others successively reported their progress. Aside from Zhao Rui and Zhang Kui, the rest were third-year students with ample experience in this kind of sparring work.
Basically, they could all simulate around seventy or eighty percent of the techniques, and after another day or two of polishing, they would be able to wield them as naturally as their own arms and move with complete ease.

Once the others finished their introductions, He Zhiyan looked toward Zhao Rui and Zhang Kui. Though he said nothing, his gaze was filled with inquiry.

"I've already learned how to circulate the technique, though I'm still a bit unfamiliar with it. Just practicing for another morning will do, and by the afternoon I'll try learning the new martial art."
Seeing this, Zhang Kui spoke up first.

"What about you, Zhao Rui?"
"I'm still learning."
Zhao Rui scratched his head, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"Hurry up and get on with it!"
He Zhiyan frowned slightly, though he found it hard to say much more. Letting out a heavy puff of turbid air, he waved his hand to signal everyone to return to their respective practices.

"How did you practice so fast?"
On the way to the training room, Zhao Rui curiously asked Zhang Kui.

"What's so hard about that? You just have to gather and disperse the internal power a few more times so it naturally diffuses into the internal organs and flesh,"
"Then, following the breathing method of the Form-Mimicry Boxing, you can mobilize that dispersed internal power within the muscles and execute the movements of the simulated fist technique!"

"Can it even be done that way?"
Zhao Rui realized his thoughts had gone off in the wrong direction. It was like using a sponge to absorb water; everyone else was absorbing the water inside the sponge, while he had tried absorbing the water in the pipe wrapped by the sponge.
Moreover, he had used the complex logic of frequency resonance to extract the water.

No wonder his own attempts had been so laborious.
"Did you not discover any hidden meridian?" Zhao Rui asked tentatively.
"What hidden meridian? Isn't the hidden meridian Senior Brother He talked about just referring to that internal power dispersed throughout the muscles?"
"Ha! So that's how it was!"
Zhao Rui said sheepishly. Fine, he had overthought it.

"Let's go. Another busy day ahead."
Zhao Rui smiled, picked a quiet room alongside Zhang Kui, and stepped inside.

The matter of the hidden meridian certainly couldn't be as casual as Zhang Kui described; what he himself had perceived ought to be the true reality.
It was just that everything still required further verification and contemplation.