Chapter 3: Embracing Dan with Qi

  Approaching midnight.

  Inside a stone house on the far left of Giant's Castle, through the window, some faint light can be seen.

  Inside the stone house, there aren't many decorations. The rough and simple style of the Kettle Bull Head tribe is evident everywhere. Except for a stone table, stone stools, and a huge stone bed against the wall, it's almost empty.

  At this moment, in the middle of the empty space in the stone house, a huge bronze cauldron was placed, with a height of more than half a person and a width that several people could encircle.

  The bonfire below is burning, the bronze cauldron is boiling, and a thick medicinal fragrance is filling the entire stone house. In the rolling boiling cauldron, in addition to a whole sheep skeleton, you can see all kinds of medicines, including rod-shaped ginseng-like medicines, nearly formed hundred-year-old He Shou Wu, turtle shells, and various strange grass roots...

  At this time, a figure that didn't seem to be very tall was sitting next to the bronze cauldron, eating and drinking with abandon. With one hand holding a sheep's ribcage, he would occasionally pick out various medicinal herbs like ginseng and He Shou Wu from the bronze cauldron, put them in his mouth, not minding the bitter taste, take two big bites, then swallow them into his belly.

  "Huff! Huff!"

  He ate at an incredible speed, as if he wasn't eating food, but rather replenishing some kind of energy need.

  It's hard to imagine how someone as thin as him can fit so much food in.

  Soon, one-third of the medicine and food in the bronze tripod was eaten up.

  "That's enough, I should be fine for the next few days."

  Ye Han let out a satisfied sigh and muttered to himself, "This batch of 'Dragon Tiger Nine Turns Strong Bone Soup' medicine uses three over 200-year-old ginseng, two nearly matured He Shou Wu, three catties of tiger bone, iron wire snake gallbladder... so many precious medicinal materials should be enough to sustain my internal fist training for the next two days. Luckily this is in a different world, otherwise even if I had all the money in my past life, it would still be unrealistic to find such aged and precious medicinal materials!"

  The so-called poor reading and rich martial arts, in ancient times, the children of poor families who wanted to make a name for themselves had only one way out, which was to study hard in a cold window. Only the children of wealthy families had the conditions to practice martial arts. Because practicing martial arts is the development of human potential, it requires sufficient nutrition and cannot lack any of the following: a good teacher, someone to take care of you, a place to practice, and most importantly, wealth.

  Only with wealth can one purchase large quantities of food and medicine, fill their belly and nourish their body, replenish the deficiencies in a timely manner, and avoid exhausting themselves.

  It's just like in ancient times, many people practiced iron sand palm, and their palms gradually became deformed, with thick calluses and twisted bones, all due to long-term grinding in hot iron sand. The deeper they practiced, the more severe the deformation of their palms became. However, those who truly understood the practice would soak their palms in medicinal water after each session, and then apply a secret ointment to nourish and warm them up. Only when their palms were warm and boneless did they consider it a great achievement. Otherwise, it was easy to ruin one's palms from practicing. But these medicinal liquids and ointments were made from extremely precious ingredients, and the older they were, the more effective they became, with prices that were not cheap. While ordinary people might be able to afford them once or twice, for those who practiced martial arts, it was a huge expense that had to be incurred year after year, month after month.

  In his past life, Ye Han was a surgeon who saved an old man's life and in return received the internal fist manual of the inner family that had been kept secret for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, he was born in the modern era where martial arts were declining, and no matter how skilled one's body was trained, it couldn't withstand bullets and firearms. However, Ye Han was still obsessed with this and even changed his career to become a coach at a Xingyiquan gym.

  At the age of thirty, Ye Han finally broke through from Ming Jin to An Jin, which is also considered a high-level master of Neijia Quan among ancient martial artists. Unfortunately, due to severe damage from modern resources, he was unable to progress further.

  Then due to an accident somehow, he was reborn in this era, but unexpectedly turned into a Minotaur of the Minotaur tribe.

  What is meant by "good fortune comes from disaster", although he died once, this world is simply a paradise for Ye Han who is obsessed with Neijiaquan. Not only is the heaven and earth's yuanqi abundant, but also because it has never been destroyed, various medicinal materials over 100 years old can be seen everywhere in the mountains and forests. With these medicinal materials to replenish his body, he tempered his body, relying on the experience of two lifetimes, especially after the bones were fixed, his cultivation entered a high-speed period. Moreover, the physical quality of the people in this world is ten times stronger than that of the previous life, Ye Han quickly surpassed the Neijiaquan realm of his previous life at a speed that made all the martial artists of his previous life stare in amazement.

  A few days ago, he practiced Xingyiquan in the mountains of Buxiaoshan. Under the pine forest, he finally reached a state that he had been dreaming of but never achieved in his past life. From the "one feather cannot be added, one fly cannot land" stage of transforming internal energy, he entered the state of embracing the elixir with unified body and blood.

  The wind has not yet moved, but the cicada is already aware of it; the vital energy and blood are like a flood filling the universe.

  Embracing Dan can stimulate the potential of the human body, between movement and stillness, it has almost reached the limit of the physical body in past lives. Moving like a rabbit, running like a fierce horse, in ancient times it was said to be "True Immortal on Land" which is not an exaggeration.

  Although he had only held the dan for a short time, Ye Han could already feel its benefits. Stimulating his potential was secondary; what was most important was that he had gained a hint of the dan's energy. This energy hid in his heart, and was different from the battle energy passed down by the Bei Meng Empire. It lay dormant and unseen on ordinary days, yet was incredibly mysterious and powerful. Once it erupted, its power even made Ye Han feel afraid.

  Ye Han had once tried to stir the thread of energy within his heart, and in an instant, a power three times greater than his total strength burst forth. Although it could only last for a brief moment, the cost was Ye Han's physical energy being severely depleted, leaving him unable to even move his little finger for a whole day and night.

  But that's already terrifying. If you can burst out with three times your own strength in an instant when dueling with someone, it's enough to annihilate any opponent of the same level or even higher.

  Moreover, this extraordinary energy enhanced Ye Han's senses in a geometric manner, making the world seem to slow down before his eyes and ears. He could see ants crawling tens of meters away and hear the sound of mosquitoes flapping their wings. Even during battles, the weaknesses of his opponents would be magnified dramatically in his eyes.

  Of course, Ye Han would not give up on the combat aura of the Beastmen Empire, also known as the "Dòu Qì" in human language. This is a kind of extremely terrifying power. Having been in this world for over a decade, Ye Han knew that some of the strongest beings in this world could shatter the sky and knock down stars from the ninth heaven, with strength beyond imagination.

  No need to say more, Ye Han had once seen Hunt lead as a 9th-level warrior, and once when he burst out with all his combat power, he punched a giant wild elephant to death.

  This matter thoroughly shocked Ye Han at that time, knowing that he had underestimated this world from start to finish.

  But that doesn't mean Ye Han thinks that the power of Dou Qi or Zhan Qi is much higher than the realm of Xingyiquan, a kind of internal boxing in his previous life.

  In his view, it's like the contrast between high martial arts and low martial arts. The Xingyiquan of past lives emphasized "intention", but actually placed more importance on developing human potential. A person's body is a small universe, containing countless mysteries and wonders. So-called internal martial arts are just a key to unlock these secrets. In this life, the aura and battle energy, due to the thickness of the heaven and earth's primordial energy, can easily obtain great power, but in contrast, control over the body and spirit becomes much coarser.

  In short, these are two completely different systems.

  Ye Han's beastman Dou Qi, is the Iron Hoof tribe's unique "Earth Battle Qi", which is a very practical combat technique in the tribe.

  Moreover, he has a special identity and has not been allowed to practice the "Minotaur Totem Pillar" of the tribal royal family's direct line, because he is not a pure Kaito tribe, but a hybrid of humans and cattle-headed people. His mother was said to be a human female slave who died in childbirth with him.

  Fortunately, the Iron Hoof tribe was far away from the dispute, so he didn't suffer from discrimination. At this point, when he passed on the improved Xingyiquan moves to the tribespeople, no one would consider him an outsider anymore.

  Perhaps it was because he killed his mother at birth, or perhaps it was just because of his bloodline that Ye Han's relationship with the leader of the Iron Hoof tribe, "Leili", who was also his biological father, was not very close. The two would almost only meet once a year during major tribal festivals, and at other times, Leili mostly had an attitude of ignoring Ye Han.

  This was also in line with Ye Han's intentions. As a grown man who already had an independent personality in his past life, he really couldn't treat this sudden appearance of a father with a normal attitude.

  Besides, whether it's Xingyiquan or the habits that are vastly different from ordinary people, there were too many secrets on him, and he wasn't used to being stared at by others, which was just what he wanted.

  It was also because of this that after independence, Ye Han changed his name to Ye Han-Katell despite others' opposition, in order not to forget the past.

  ......