132: Twelve and a half feet

“Little sister thanks Shopkeeper Gong. The lotus seed soup was delicious.” Bai Youlan gracefully bowed her head in thanks, her ethereal voice echoing.

Oh? It seems the effect was good.

Jiang Hanwen’s heart settled—it’s stable!

“As long as Miss Bai likes it, if you like this dish, it’s always available.” Gong Qing smiled slightly, as if seeing money about to roll into the Tianyuan Residence.

Having eaten and chatted, Jiang Hanwen stood up and left with Bai Youlan.

The weather was cold and late, and there were few pedestrians on the main street.

If the taverns were open, there would be an orange-yellow light illuminating the road; if the grain shops were closed, it was pitch black.

One section bright, one section dark, their shadows swayed on the ground like clock hands.

Flakes of snow fell from the sky, scattering over the ground. Walking through the accumulated snow, their feet crunched on the soft white snow, making a very satisfying sound.

Quiet companionship is always brief.

In a blink, the two arrived in front of the Bai Family mansion, where they would part ways.

“Thank you for today. The lotus seed soup was very good.” Bai Youlan stood still, her expressive eyes fixed on Jiang Hanwen.

“As long as it was good. I’m off.” With a hearty laugh, Jiang Hanwen turned gracefully and disappeared into the night.

Bai Youlan looked at the dark red door studded with bronze nails, as if looking at a giant mouth that devoured people, from which a foul, fishy wind howled.

Looking up again, the gray-robed figure had already reached the corner.

The words in her mouth were hard to speak. With a sigh, the beauty still took a step towards the door... It was too late, the front door of the bookstore was already locked, so Jiang Hanwen entered through the back door.

As he passed the courtyard where guests were guided, he saw a black shadow flying through the snow, flakes of snow swept up, kicked apart, and turned into tiny ice crystals by swift leg whips.

Under the lampshade nearby, a book lay, its pale yellow pages resting on a chair: “Mysterious Steps, Blooming Lotus.”

Jiang Hanwen placed the two masks he had bought next to the book and quietly returned to his basement, without disturbing Zheng Yunxu’s Cultivation.

What he didn’t know was that ten breaths after he left...

The snow-covered ground returned to calm, and the book and masks vanished together.

The heavy snow continued, rustling as it covered everything that had happened.

In a residence built by the Huang Family, the lamp by the window was bright. A middle-aged man wearing a scholar’s cap stared at two poems before him, his eyes gleaming.

On the left, it read:

“Silver saddle gleams on a white horse, swift as a shooting star.

Kills one in ten steps, travels a thousand miles without leaving a trace.

His deed done, he brushes his clothes and leaves, deeply concealing his body and name!”

On the right, it read:

“When autumn arrives in the ninth month, on the eighth day, after my flowers bloom, all other flowers will be slain.

A soaring fragrance permeates Long’an, the entire city adorned in golden armor!”

Recalling the sound transmission from the afternoon, Jiao Mengde sighed softly, “What a pity, he is unwilling to reveal his identity.”

...For several days in a row, Jiang Hanwen hardly showed his face, quietly absorbing the water-scale iron in the basement.

Like unraveling silk from a cocoon, strands of golden-white Qi attached to his skull, drilled into it, and merged into one.

Jiang Hanwen’s physical strength rose another level, slowly moving towards Minor Perfection.

On the seventh day, as the last wisp of golden Qi was completely absorbed, all two hundred and six bones in his body had completed bone forging. From then on, Jiang Hanwen’s bones surpassed ordinary iron; even if profound steel were to clash with them, he would not necessarily be afraid.

It was like breaking a limit, his Qi and blood surged, rushing towards his chest.

His stomach rumbled, and an intense hunger fiercely tightened his belly, as if he had starved for three days and three nights. His eyes were green with hunger, and his limbs were weak like jelly, without an ounce of strength.

He quickly took out the Qi and blood pills he had made from his storage ring, throwing ten into his mouth at once. A warm, scorching current flowed down his throat, nourishing his Five Elements organs.

He felt a bit of strength return, and Jiang Hanwen let out a sigh of relief.

Two breaths later, hunger and thirst struck again.

He ate again.

And got hungry again.

After eating a full ten bottles of the pills he had made, the hunger in his body finally subsided.

His Qi and blood increased again, and the middle Dantian in his chest expanded by another two zhang, reaching twelve and a half zhang!

Jiang Hanwen opened his eyes, looking at the ceramic bottles scattered on the ground, and couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

He was truly a gold-swallowing monster. All his pills were made from aged blood ginseng and bloodline grass, plus azure spirit grass powder, making them more expensive than Qi and blood pills.

Yet, in just this quarter of an hour, over ten thousand taels of silver were thrown away.

However, exchanging money for strength was quite worth it.

Qi and blood were currently his biggest trump card in terms of raw strength. Stronger Qi and blood meant a more profound trump card.

Jiang Hanwen couldn’t help but fantasize, if one day his Qi and blood truly became like a Dragon, with a Dharmakaya that spanned heaven and earth, how wide would his Dantian need to be?

This bit of progress was just a drop in the bucket. He needed to keep working hard.

After tending to his spirit gathering grass and replenishing the Spirit Rain Technique, Jiang Hanwen returned to the ground.

This time, he had not only Breakthrough in his body.

After several days of snow, the small courtyard had over a foot of accumulated snow, covering his ankles.

The sunlight, without its golden hue but carrying a hazy warmth, shone on the snow, sparkling and reflecting beautiful mirror-like light.

“Kuchi~”

Jiang Hanwen lay down directly in the snow in a big ‘X’ shape, closed his eyes, and reviewed everything he had comprehended that day.

Around him, wisps of quiet snowflakes rose again, swirling in the courtyard like mist and rain.

Once the snowflakes had played enough, with a whoosh, they surged from all directions around Jiang Hanwen, pressing in frantically.

When the fluffy snow was compressed, it became ice. A layer of ice, a full meter thick, froze Jiang Hanwen.

The ice continued to thicken, until it reached three meters. A large, house-high block of ice lay in the courtyard before the snowflakes stopped condensing.

Jiang Hanwen opened his eyes. The force of the ice should be enough to deal with an ordinary Qi Induction Realm cultivator. Below one hundred thousand jin, one shouldn’t even think about getting out.

“Crack~”

A crack appeared in the middle of the transparent ice block, followed by dense, intricate fissures. His Qi and blood surged, Jiang Hanwen’s palm glowed faintly red, and with a gentle lift of his hand, the indestructible block of ice shattered like paper, scattering into pieces of ice on the ground.

Then, Jiang Hanwen lowered both hands to his waist and began practicing his punches in the courtyard.

“Whoosh!”

“Clang!”

Each movement inevitably stirred up a flurry of snowflakes, and the fierce, cold wind carved smooth icy paths directly into the ground.

The powerful, unreasonable force was probably two hundred thousand jin. If this hit a person, it could probably make them explode like a smashed watermelon with just a gust of wind.

This was the new boxing technique Jiang Hanwen had comprehended in the snow, besides Spells, perfectly fusing Qi and blood with Spiritual Qi. It was currently his strongest offensive method.

If not for the “Badao Skill”, he wouldn’t have been able to comprehend it.

Facts prove that if talent is ordinary, then accumulate.

For himself, who pursued eternal life, quantitative change leading to qualitative change was a very correct Dao.

After finishing his punches, Jiang Hanwen stomped his foot. With a dull thud, the ice shattered into tiny ice crystals. He waved his hand, and they rose like flying snow, disappearing into the sky.

Chair!

With a thought, the surrounding snowflakes instantly condensed into a chair. Jiang Hanwen sat down and tapped the ice surface. It was very solid, with no hollow thud.

Besides the boxing technique, the Snow Summoning Spell he had comprehended, and the other few Spells he had learned, also had fundamental differences.

Other Spells were like solving problems with a formula; no matter how skilled one became, there was always a basic formula in one’s mind.

But the Snow Summoning Spell was different. As long as he had enough Spiritual Qi, Jiang Hanwen could play with it however he wanted. He could even build a Gundam to fight without any problem, completely in a state of doing as he pleased.

And—

Jiang Hanwen opened his palm, a ball of Spiritual Qi resting in the center of his hand.

Previously, Spiritual Qi was gaseous, but now it had a gelatinous feel, with faint blue crystal points mixed within, somewhat like jelly in water, ethereal yet present, its general form discernible.

Jiang Hanwen had a premonition that if he were to now turn his focus solely on the Snow Summoning Spell and the Spirit Rain Technique, there was a high probability that he could, within five years, completely condense the semi-gelatinous Spiritual Qi into a liquid state, Breakthrough to the Condensing Spring Realm.

However, he always felt that something wasn't quite right with this approach.

He still remembered discussing it with Zhuang Kongming.

The other party mentioned forming a Five Elements ring in the Dantian to forcefully compress Spiritual Qi.

From Qi Induction to Condensing Spring was a qualitative leap, compressing Spiritual Qi into a liquid state, geometrically increasing the quality and quantity of Spiritual Qi in the Dantian.

Zhuang Kongming needed to form a Five Elements ring to forcefully compress it, but for himself, it seemed completely unnecessary. He only needed to proceed step by step, continuing to ponder the Snow Summoning Spell.

Was it because the Snow Summoning Spell was something he had comprehended himself, or was it due to his Immaculate Body?

If it was due to comprehension, then could the five Spells, including the Spirit Rain Technique, which he now used with extreme proficiency, be elevated further to achieve the same freedom as the Snow Summoning Spell?

Unfortunately, Jiang Hanwen was unclear about this knowledge, and the entire Zhuang Family library also lacked it.

He had originally planned to simply focus on making money, and after Breakthrough to Condensing Spring, he would go to the city and buy a Legacy for Alchemy.

But now, it seemed that wasn't the case. He first needed to understand the true meaning represented by Breakthrough to Qi Induction before he could make a choice.