Chapter 451: Chapter 230: Disciple’s Plan

Translator: 549690339

Five days later, Zhou Qing received a letter and hurried to Xiangyang Prefecture.

“Greetings, Master.”

Upon meeting, Zhou Qing quickly bowed to Lu Yuan.

“Stand up.”

Lu Yuan helped his disciple up and then looked him up and down. Seeing Zhou Qing’s weather-beaten face, he couldn’t help but feel pleased, “You must be tired from the journey, huh?”

Zhou Qing shook his head, “It wasn’t too exhausting. I traveled downstream, not really in a hurry. I just took a boat.”

There was a Han River connecting Hanzhong Prefecture and Xiangyang Prefecture.

The two prefectures had convenient transportation and business routes, with frequent merchants and travelers, even large armies, mostly traveling by boat.

If Lu Yuan was really going to attack Xichuan, he would most likely take this waterway.

“Even if you were traveling by boat, the weather is very cold right now, and the humidity from the water is quite hard on you,” Lu Yuan shook his head and laughed, “Let’s not talk about that; let’s talk about serious matters. You did a great job in Xixiang Prefecture. Your master is very pleased.”

When he sent the letter last time, Zhou Qing was leading ten thousand soldiers in Xixiang Prefecture, conquering cities and territories.

Not only had they conquered the eastern five counties of the prefecture, they had also encircled the prefectural city, and could have captured it within half a month.

Leading a separate army to achieve such results was already impressive.

To be honest, without the innate experts’ leadership, Zhou Qing was already doing quite well.

However, Zhou Qing felt ashamed, “Master, you were able to conquer two prefectures within six days with two innate masters leading the charge and breaking the enemy’s defenses in one attack. After half a month, I still haven’t captured a single city. I can’t really say that I’ve done well.”

Lu Yuan smiled, “In those six days, I had two innate masters taking the lead, delivering crushing blows. You, on the other hand, didn’t have the same conditions. You had to be cautious and steady, relying solely on your martial arts abilities. This alone put you at a disadvantage from the beginning. But I called you here precisely for this matter.”

Having said this, Lu Yuan looked carefully at his disciple again and said, “It seems you have managed to settle and restrain your Inner Strength that surged after breaking through the second bizarre meridian. Have you fully mastered it now?”

“Aside from leading soldiers, I have been studying Taoist Classics every day during the past year,” Zhou Qing nodded, “After studying and experiencing the battlefield, I have begun to understand the mysteries of life and death. I think my state of mind has grown further, and I should be able to improve one or even two of my bizarre meridians.”

Experiencing life and death situations can prove effective in honing one’s state of mind.

As long as you experience life and death more frequently, you may not be able to improve your state of mind right away.

But if you give it time and reflection, combined with the study of Taoist Classics, your wisdom will naturally grow from the experiences.

And in cultivating the state of mind, there’s the concept of training amidst the mortal dust.

Walking through the mortal world, grasping power, and seeing various human hearts, you can naturally improve your state of mind, as long as you’re able to experience them without becoming obsessed.

Now Zhou Qing, as the Grand General of Changsha, leads tens of thousands of troops in battle daily. Although he rarely personally takes part in dangerous situations,

Watching the slaughter in the battlefield, watching people fighting for their lives, and witnessing countless lives fading away, he can’t help but feel a lot of emotions.

Moreover, as the top martial artist, he frequently encountered people trying to curry favor, and witness various human hearts in his daily life. Neither experience was in short supply.

The combination of the two factors, along with Zhou Qing’s diligence in studying Taoist Classics, had his state of mind growing rapidly.

Just like Lu Yuan in the past.

He experienced human hearts by working as an official while also experiencing life and death on the battlefield.

Combined, he broke through the innate realm in just sixteen years.

Now, Zhou Qing had been cultivating for thirteen years. In that time, he had progressed to where he could control four bizarre meridians. Compared to Lu Yuan, his progress was not slow.

The only difference was that his Inner Strength might not be as refined, and even if he reached the peak of a first-class martial artist, it might still not be enough to meet the requirements for breaking through to the Innate Realm.

At the same time, his soul might also be lacking. His spirit might not be able to support the Five External Bodies when communicating with the Outer World.

Then there’s the matter of state of mind.

This part was relatively simple. With Zhou Qing’s current level of advancement, he could reach the requirements for breaking through to the Innate Realm within five or six years.

The main obstacles preventing him from breaking through the Innate Realm were the first two aspects: Inner Strength and soul.

For an ordinary martial artist, it’s basically impossible to cultivate their Inner Strength and soul to the level required to break through the Innate Realm purely on their own, given the current conditions of Heaven and Earth.

Because breaking through to the Innate Realm requires extremely pure Inner Strength.

How precise does it have to be? For example, if the purity of a typical first-class peak martial artist’s Inner Strength is one, then to meet the requirements for breaking through the Innate Realm, this purity must reach three, or even four or five.

To achieve Internal Strength with at least three times the purity, Lu Yuan relied on the immortal spirit qi within the jade tablet. Lan Cai’er relied on the accumulation of the Poison Sect for hundreds of years. Li Xiong relied on massacring the entire Xichuan martial arts world and plundering the millennia of accumulation from the Jianghu sects and aristocratic families.

The methods of these three were laid out clearly.

So, think about it.

Can an ordinary martial artist refine their Inner Strength to such a degree by themselves before they die?

Also, constructing a martial arts external body requires converting the soul into Martial Dao True Intent to control an external qi field and transform it into a martial arts external body.

As a result, this process also has extremely high requirements for the soul.