After breakfast, Lu Chenzhou arrived at the gatehouse.
He had someone purchase an ordinary pet swallow, intending to keep it at home to communicate with it whenever possible and grasp its spiritual essence.
Of course, he didn’t hold much hope; this artificially bred pet swallow might have already lost its natural instincts and spiritual essence. It was just a tentative attempt.
Now that he thought about it, Brother Tiger from the Fangshan Zoo had also lost much of its natural instincts, lacking the spiritual essence of a tiger, but it still triggered inspiration within him.
So, he harbored a sliver of hope.
Inside the cage, a common swallow with a golden waist appeared somewhat listless.
Lu Chenzhou opened the cage.
"Mr. Lu, don’t open it, it may fly away," a staff member warned.
The next moment, he was stunned to see the little swallow he had never met before joyfully emerge from the cage and alight on Lu Chenzhou’s shoulder.
Is this something a martial artist can do?
Reflecting on his own narrow perspective, he left.
The world of martial artists was beyond his understanding.
Lu Chenzhou stroked the little swallow, shivering in the cold wind. During the winter, swallows from Da Xia usually migrated to places south of the equator like Australia.
Only with the arrival of spring would they return.
"Let’s go; from now on, you’ll live at my house."
Back home, Li Xianghua saw the little swallow and smiled,
"Let it live inside the house from now on; I’ve bought some mealworms and things."
Lu Chenzhou didn’t wish to imprison the little swallow forever. He thought if it proved ineffective for him to grasp the spiritual essence of the swallow, he would release it at Stone Lake in the spring.
That way, the little swallow could join the large flock.
After practicing his fist technique, Li Xianghua’s voice came through:
"Chenzhou, the little swallow isn’t eating."
Lu Chenzhou whistled, and the swallow flitted to his shoulder. He took out a mealworm, which the little swallow cocked its head at before eating.
"This Swallow Return Divine Seed is still quite formidable."
At the very least, taming swallows posed no problem.
After eating its fill, the little swallow perched on his shoulder to rest.
Lu Chenzhou practiced the Heavenly Pile, watching the swallow until two hours passed. The progression of the Heavenly Pile unknowingly improved by 1%; his pupils reflected the little swallow’s form, and he seemed to have an epiphany. Inside his acupoint, the Swallow Return Divine Seed flickered. In a trance, Lu Chenzhou’s spirit was drawn into the little swallow’s body, delving into its bloodline, following the little swallow and its ancestors across mountains and seas, sweeping through heaven and earth.
This sensation was like a dream.
Seeming real and illusory, indescribable and unclear.
He felt he had grasped something but was still missing that flash of enlightenment.
Before he could fully understand, he woke from the trance as if from a dream.
The swallow was as it was before, normal.
He looked towards the Martial Arts Tree; the leaves that belonged to "Swallow Return Fist" and "Sea-sweeping Body" showed no change, possibly because they had reached Perfection, showing nothing discernible.
In any case, Lu Chenzhou felt a small surprise inside.
His idea was genuinely effective.
The Swallow Return Divine Seed could help grasp the spiritual essence of the swallow.
This would undoubtedly aid in the practice of the Swallow Form Fist Technique.
"After spring comes, I might as well cultivate by Stone Lake, observing swallows daily to comprehend their spiritual essence and see if I can sooner enter the realm of ’Connect with the divine’ in boxing theory. Once I grasp the spiritual essence of the swallow, it will unquestionably benefit the comprehension of the tiger’s spiritual essence."
Grandmaster Yao said that another method to speed up martial arts cultivation is to improve the boxing realm. After stepping into the ’Study of Intent’ realm, he felt a significant difference, which is why he could further compress the time spent practicing fist techniques, leaving more time for Heavenly Pile cultivation and the Golden Body Skill. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel-fire.net
Grasping the spiritual essence of the swallow can be done concurrently with Heavenly Pile cultivation.
Thus, it doesn’t require additional time to be wasted.
After breakfast and before leaving home, the little swallow wanted to follow him.
"Stay at home; I’ll be back to keep you company tonight."
As if understanding his words, the little swallow went to the training room and soared around.
When tired, it would perch on a wooden pile, waiting for Lu Chenzhou to return.
Brother Tiger from Fangshan still didn’t know that the monkey had a new favorite.
At ten in the morning.
Li Gui stood with one hand behind his back, casually maneuvering with the other hand. His Tiger Form Fist Moves were written in the air like splashed ink, successfully blocking all of Lu Chenzhou’s attacks in his Inviting Tiger to Possess state. Li Gui moved swiftly onto the mechanical path as Lu Chenzhou pursued him with Tiger Shadow Mysterious Steps... An hour later, the special training with Li Gui ended.
He looked at Lu Chenzhou and smiled,
"You’ve improved quickly; with your Great Success in Tiger Spirit Divine Fist, coupled with Master Level Tiger Shadow Mysterious Steps, along with above Rank 7 Qi-Blood and the Swallow Form routines... even without Hard Qi Gong, you should be able to exchange blows with Wang Hongdao."
The finesse of the Swallow Form had a bit of an advantage over the Whale Form.
One of the reasons Lu Chenzhou was able to narrowly defeat Wang Hongdao last time was due to this.
Li Gui advised further:
"Be careful during your sparring at noon; don’t get injured."
Even with Hard Qi Gong, one is not invincible; it merely increases the margin for error in battle.
Lu Chenzhou responded:
"Don’t worry, teacher."
"Next, concentrate on perfecting your Tiger Spirit Divine Fist and refine your Qi-Blood to the limit; this will give you more time to open new acupoints and cultivate Hard Qi Gong. As for integrating the Three Major Forces and transforming them into Innate, if you don’t know how, just ask me."
In five months, Lu Chenzhou had gone from Ninth Rank to Tenth Rank, far surpassing the average level of top-class root bone martial artists and not much inferior to Martial Bone Dao Embryos.
If all goes well, Lu Chenzhou could break through the First Shackles this year.
In the past, upon reaching the martial artist realm in the sect, one could become a master.