Chapter 103: Martial Artist Sixth Level, Acupoint Opening Realm (Part 1)

"Teacher Zhang, I don't have enough money for the Cold Yang Mother Herb right now. Let me give you a portion first, consider it bought by White Jade City. I can't have you laboring to guide Miss and also losing money..."

Unaware of his inner thoughts, Yao Han stepped forward, about to pull out the twenty thousand gold coins from his bosom.

"No need. It's just a medicinal herb, nothing significant!" Zhang Xuan shook his head.

Having just felt the responsibility and sentiment of being a teacher, how could he casually take a student's money?

Besides, it was just a Cold Yang Mother Herb. Cold Yang Grass cost only a hundred gold coins per plant; the mother herb shouldn't be much more expensive. With a fortune of a million, why would he care?

The key was that he had gotten this herb by showing off, without spending a cent, so giving it away didn't hurt.

"This..." Seeing his firm attitude, Yao Han had no choice but to put the money away, unable to help sighing in admiration: "Teacher Zhang, casually giving away a herb worth a hundred thousand gold coins—such magnanimity is admirable. How laughable that I always thought you were trying to deceive our young miss..."

"What? A herb worth a hundred thousand?" Zhang Xuan's lips trembled.

This Cold Yang Mother Herb was worth a hundred thousand?

Really?

If he had known it was a hundred thousand, he would have asked for something!

Others had students offering gifts to teachers; how was he losing money...

"Yes!" Yao Han looked over with a strange expression: "Does Teacher Zhang not know the price?"

"I..." His heart bleeding, but knowing the words were spoken and couldn't be taken back, Zhang Xuan immediately straightened his face, adopting the aloof pride of a transcendent master: "Of course not. Money means nothing to me. Zhao Ya is my student; as long as it's useful to her, what's a mere hundred-thousand-gold herb? Even two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand would be nothing!"

Since it had already happened, he might as well sell a favor.

"Miss has truly found a good teacher!"

Seeing him like this, Yao Han was genuinely impressed.

No wonder Miss always praised him; just this quality alone was admirable.

Wen Xue, standing to the side, also blushed, wishing she could disappear into a crack in the ground.

He was a teacher, and a teacher with such noble ethics, yet she had mistaken him for a suitor and mocked him... How ridiculous!

Fortunately, he was magnanimous and ignored it; otherwise, with his status as an alchemy apprentice, he could have fired her on the spot, and she would never be able to return!

"Let's go back. I'll also prepare for tomorrow's pill debate."

One act of showing off, and a hundred thousand gold coins were gone... To be honest, the money wasn't a big deal; it was from White Jade City, not Zhao Ya...

Barely holding back tears, Zhang Xuan walked out.

After dinner, he returned to the academy, nearly midnight.

"Since I'm not sleepy, let me study how to break through to the Acupoint Opening Realm."

In his past life, he was a night owl; now with cultivation and a better body, even though it was late at night, he felt no drowsiness.

Today, he had revealed his cultivation at the Learning Heart Tower, showing strength at the Acupoint Opening Realm. The academy should soon take action and make him an elder.

Once an elder, he would have the chance to read in the Elder Library.

By then, he should be able to find enough martial artist sixth-level techniques to perfect the Heavenly Dao Divine Art.

Of course, before that, he could still study a bit.

After all, he had copied over a dozen technique books at Master Lu Chen's house. Although only fragments were correct and couldn't be connected, he could still look into them.

With a thought, the dozen or so books he had seen at Master Lu Chen's house appeared in his mind.

"Actually, the cultivation of the Acupoint Opening Realm is simple—it's just the order of opening acupoints!"

Glancing over these books casually, Zhang Xuan understood.

Legend has it that the human body has 108 acupoints, but only 72 can be opened, and these acupoints must be opened in a specific order. Different physiques require different sequences to achieve the best results. Without finding the method, one might only open thirty or forty acupoints in a lifetime and never progress further.

It's like clearing silt from a river: clearing from upstream to downstream cleans it thoroughly, but clearing from the middle to both ends not only fails to clean it but may even clog the river!

Because of this, opening the first acupoint is crucial; if you get it wrong, it will affect the rest.

"This 'Golden Fire Art' says to first open the Divine Power Acupoint, as strength is needed to open more important acupoints. This 'Easy Yang Art' says to first open the Central Pivot Acupoint, because it's located in the center of the body..."

The dozen or so books all had different first acupoints, each with its own reasoning.

Others might be dazzled by this, but Zhang Xuan, with the Library of Heaven's Path, could discern errors and flaws. One glance told him these were... all wrong!

"If I can't find the correct first acupoint, it's like not finding the source of a river. Once I make a mistake, future cultivation will be troublesome. Better to stop."

After studying further and finding that none of these techniques had the correct first acupoint, Zhang Xuan was about to give up when a thought struck him.

"Since the acupoints recorded in these books are all wrong, and there are only 108 acupoints in the human body, I can try them one by one. Then I'll know which is the first to open and which is the second!"

The method to open acupoints is simple: channel true energy to strike them. The key is the order. Since these were all wrong, among the 108 acupoints, one must be correct!

Others couldn't experiment, but he had no such problem!

With the Library of Heaven's Path, eliminating all errors, what remained was naturally correct!

"Let's try!"

With this thought, Zhang Xuan didn't hesitate. He found paper and pen, listed all 108 acupoints of the human body, first crossed out the wrong first acupoints from the dozen or so techniques, then also crossed out those that were in the correct positions.

After sorting, only about twenty acupoints remained out of 108.

But that was fine. Zhang Xuan casually copied a technique and replaced the part about opening the first acupoint with each of these twenty acupoints in turn.

Buzz!

The Library of Heaven's Path produced a new technique, showing its errors and flaws.

On the thirteenth attempt, his mind shook. The technique's first acupoint showed no errors at all.

"Haha, success! It's the Heart Aperture Acupoint. The library shows no errors, meaning this acupoint is the first one to open in the Acupoint Opening Realm!"

"The Heart Aperture Acupoint—this is one of the deepest hidden acupoints. If true energy isn't pure enough, a martial artist at the fifth-level peak simply can't open it. No wonder these books don't mention it..."

Having determined the first acupoint to open, Zhang Xuan was filled with excitement.

The Heart Aperture Acupoint, located deep in the heart, is one of the 36 acupoints said to be unopenable. If true energy isn't pure, not only can it not be opened, but it may also cause a deviation.

If not for the Library of Heaven's Path confirming it, he wouldn't have believed this was the first.

No wonder so many techniques in the world couldn't find the correct order—the truly correct acupoint was... one of those reputed to be unopenable.

Now it seemed that what was called unopenable wasn't really the case; as long as the right order was found, it could still be opened!