Chapter 73
Nowadays, the "five residences and eight palaces" was the most popular and developed training system. Although everyone had their own style of training, none had left out the five residences and eight palaces.
The five residence and eight palaces had various functions and uses; however, the most important aspect was the natal residence.
One could see its importance simply from the word "natal." Fire was a.s.sociated with the heart, wood with the liver, earth with the spleen, metal with the lungs, and water with the kidney. They collectively const.i.tuted the source of elemental energy. The natal residence was able to store a huge amount of elemental energy, but its most important use was to absorb elemental energy and channel it elsewhere.
During combat, the natal residence was responsible for channeling one’s elemental energy.
During the process of training, elemental energy needed to make a Circulatory Cycle Revolution. The purpose of the Circulatory Circle Revolution was to purify and compress elemental energy. The purification of elemental energy was to get rid of its impurities, allowing one to obtain a purer form of elemental energy. Meanwhile, the compression of elemental energy allowed one to store a greater amount of elemental energy.
No matter how weak or strong a person was, the natal residence would have to transfer and bear the weight of an abundant amount of elemental energy. However, it would need only a small amount of elemental energy to injure the natal residence.
Those high-level elementalists all had a high concentration of elemental energy in their bodies, making them extremely strong. Those who specialized in body-tempering had bodies that were comparable to the bodies of dire beasts.
When one’s base level was low, their body would be very weak, so during the initial stages of their training, many people tended to choose training grounds with elemental energy that was mild in nature. When such elemental energy was purified and compressed, it would not inflict any injury on one’s body.
No one would joke around with their natal residence because once the natal residence became injured, it would be very troublesome.
When the sharp elemental energy gushed into Ai Hui’s natal residence, his natal residence was immediately injured.
Along with indescribable piercing pain, countless fine lacerations appeared all over his lungs.
However, he did not stop. Even though the process was painful and torturous, he was reenergized by the influx of elemental energy into his lungs. Yet this was not enough, as he still had to direct the elemental energy to complete a Circulatory Cycle.
As the elemental energy endlessly gushed into his lungs, Ai Hui quickly discovered that he could not channel so much elemental energy.
His base level was too low, and since the capacity of his natal residence was not high enough, its ability to channel energy was limited. Furthermore, the elemental energy that surged through his body was not only pure in nature, but its amount was tremendous as well.
As the elemental energy continued to gush into his natal residence, the number of wounds in his lungs increased rapidly.
It was a very precarious situation!
If he could not quickly come up with a plan, his natal residence would be ripped to pieces by the sharp, slas.h.i.+ng elemental energy. The wounds in his lungs were becoming increasingly wider, and it began bleeding more and more.
The blood foamed up from his lungs and entered Ai Hui’s mouth as he breathed. The familiar, sweet scent of blood brought Ai Hui
How many times had he encountered death?
Live or die? It would all depend on what he would do next.
His hair stood on end as a s.h.i.+ver went down his spine.
He could not remember anything, but he soon felt a familiar presence. Like a veteran warrior that stepped onto the battleground once more, a peculiar flame lit up in his previously ice-cold eyes.
His attention became unusually focused, and his brain began working extremely fast. His surroundings slowed down and became silent.
The surging elemental energy in his body was like a group of sharks, destroying his vitality.
It was sharper, purer, and more congealed than the metal elemental energy on the first level. It was like…elemental energy needles…
Elemental energy needles...
Ai Hui seemed to catch on to something.
They were indeed similar to elemental energy needles; in fact, from their shape and nature, their intrinsic qualities seemed to be exactly the same as that of elemental energy needles. The only difference was that they were not conjured by Ai Hui himself.
He thought about how difficult it was for him to conjure elemental energy needles, and how hard it was to sustain them. After spending so much time and effort, he could still only weave a meager amount. Yet right now, there were so many elemental energy needles, making him feel embarra.s.sed of his incapability.
Wait, there were so many elemental energy needles...
As if a light bulb suddenly lit up in his mind, Ai Hui suddenly thought of the [Twin Weaving Technique]!
In the [Twin Weaving Technique], Ai Hui had never been able to understand how the elements energy needles reacted to each other. All the details of Senior Mingxiu’s demonstration emerged in his mind as he clearly remembered that there was only one "invisible string" when Senior Ming Hui was controlling two elemental energy needles.
She must have used the reaction between the two elemental energy needles to control the other needle.
Yes, it must be!
He finally figured out what was going on.
Was it possible for him to control a few elemental energy needles, and then use their reactions to channel this elemental energy?
Ai Hui’s simplified version of the [Twin Weaving Technique] skipped this step by using muscle control to coordinate between the twin needles. He did not have enough elemental energy for such complicated coordination of the needles.
However, right now, his body was filled with a large amount of elemental energy, and hence, he did not have to worry about the depletion of elemental energy. Another fortunate fact was that the part of the body that controlled the elemental energy needles was the natal residence.
If the difficulty level of controlling elemental energy from the outside of his body was "difficult," the difficulty level of controlling elemental energy in the natal residence would be "amateur." He was a master in the aspect of his natal residence.
At this moment, Ai Hui’s state of mind was clear and bright. He did not know if this plan would work, but he had no other choice. Other people might find it very difficult to fight for their lives when encountering death, but to Ai Hui, this was an experience that he was used to.
He locked onto one of the densely packed elemental energy needles and started to experiment with it.
It started off smoothly as the elemental energy needle floated in the air. However, he could not control it to interact with the other elemental energy needles.
What surprised him was that there did exist a reaction between the elemental energy needles. However, this reaction was very weak. It was so weak that it could not even make the other needle tremble.
He was not discouraged, though. To him, this was a very high-level technique, and even if he understood the principles behind the technique, it would still be very difficult for him to actually execute it.
It appeared that the reaction field between the elemental energy needles was not responsible for the intensification of the reaction between them, but rather, it was due to some type of unique technique.
Could it be that he had overlooked something by mistake?
He carefully recalled every single detail in Senior Mingxiu’s demonstration, before suddenly remembering something that he had neglected.
At that time, when Senior Mingxiu had stretched her body, she had formed an alluring image. Faint mist had appeared and lingered around her, continuously changed its shape, while numerous specks of light had appeared in the water ripples that she had created. These light specks would randomly illuminate and extinguish themselves, resembling a lake that was filled with twinkling stars.
These were the two things that he had yet to understand.
Even now, he did not know what it was, but he still decided to give it a try.
He decided to start by mimicking Senior Mingxiu’s movements. That image was incomparably harmonized and filled with strength and beauty. It had left an extremely deep impression on Ai Hui.
Senior Mingxiu did not have a muscular body, but Ai Hui saw strength and power in her movements.
Ai Hui did not care that his body was hovering in the air. His arms stretched forward comfortably, and each of his fingers was spread wide open. All the muscles in his body were slightly tensed, and his legs were curled up, s.h.i.+fting his body’s center of gravity to a perfect position.
Ai Hui had remarkable control over his muscles. Furthermore, he had a very accurate impression of Senior Mingxiu’s movements, so his posture was exactly the same as hers.
Exactly the same!
The moment he a.s.sumed that posture, he could feel a transformation begin to take place in his body.