Sitting down heavily on the ground, Grace Walker felt utterly bored and began the cultivation practice he had recently grown accustomed to. The icy true energy within his body had been there since birth, and with the help of the Water-Fire Exquisite Pagoda, every time Grace Walker circulated this power, he would notice a slight improvement in himself.

Although he still didn’t know what this cultivation would ultimately achieve, whenever the icy true energy flowed throughout his body, a faint layer of frosty chill would form on his skin. While he hadn’t found a better way to utilize it, at least he knew he could defeat his five corpse soldiers.

Through cultivating this icy true energy, Grace Walker finally understood that his body contained eight meridians and a total of eighty-eight energy points, but this icy true energy couldn’t fully pass through all of them. While the energy could flow through every meridian, only about a dozen energy points would react slightly as the cold current passed by, absorbing or releasing some of the same icy true energy.

Chapter Ten: Smoke of War, Bandits on the Move

In his previous life, Grace Walker had studied anatomy for a while to improve his drawing skills. Besides muscles and bones, he had also dabbled in human acupoints and meridians.

His current body, however, completely defied common sense. Although there were about a dozen important energy points—such as the dantian, dazhui, baihui, and the center of the brow—that matched his memory, most of the energy points were nothing like what he remembered.

He had no memory from the original owner of this body, so Grace Walker had no way of knowing what kind of cultivation method “he” had practiced. How to circulate true energy, how to gather and unleash power, what changes occurred in battle—these were all things he could only explore on his own.

Letting out a long breath of true energy, Grace Walker finished today’s practice. He muttered to himself, “Today I’ve figured out the use of two more energy points. I now understand all thirteen energy points that can absorb and release true energy. It seems this route forms a basic cultivation method! If I keep following this path and grow stronger, I’ll be able to cultivate the other energy points in the future.”

He vaguely felt he had found his direction and was quite pleased with his progress. Following the route he had deduced, he started from the dantian and circulated the icy true energy through these thirteen energy points in sequence. Sure enough, each time the energy paused at a point, it would grow slightly stronger. When it reached the thirteenth energy point, the icy true energy suddenly surged like a wild horse breaking free, accelerating madly.

Grace Walker had already suspected something like this might happen, so he wasn’t afraid. This time, the icy true energy didn’t run amok; it simply surged from the dantian through each energy point, and at the thirteenth, it seemed to hit some obstacle before retreating like a tide back to the dantian, repeating the process over and over.

By the thirty-fourth time, the icy true energy had been amplified more than tenfold within the Water-Fire Exquisite Pagoda. The thirteenth energy point was finally breached, and the energy surged into the next, as-yet-unknown energy point.

Grace Walker didn’t know the name of this energy point; it was three inches behind the head, roughly corresponding to the Yuzhen point in Earth’s meridian system. As the icy true energy surged there, Grace Walker suddenly felt a boom! and a flash of light before his eyes.

His five senses and six perceptions expanded without limit. Every blade of grass and tree around him suddenly became vivid and lively. Hearing, sight, smell, touch—all were suddenly heightened to a new level.

Dozens of steps away, things that had been blurry now seemed magnified, allowing Grace Walker to see them clearly. Even the rustling sound of a small animal eating tree seeds atop a tree reached his ears distinctly. Just from the sound, Grace Walker could sketch out the movements and appearance of the little creature in his mind.

The icy true energy didn’t stop after breaking through the fourteenth energy point. It continued forward, breaking through the fifteenth energy point at the baihui position. Grace Walker suddenly sensed a lively, spiritual energy from the world pouring down and merging with the icy true energy, doubling its strength as it circled down past his eyes.

Pop! Crackle! Countless strange sounds seemed to echo in his mind. The icy true energy, now merged with the world’s spiritual energy, paused briefly at his brow, and Grace Walker noticed a faint ball of white light between his eyebrows.

He actually “saw” that pale transformation pearl.

Boom! The icy true energy, having passed through the ancestral aperture at his brow, now flowed unimpeded, rushing straight down and returning to the dantian.

This journey through sixteen energy points formed a complete meridian. Once it was fully opened, Grace Walker finally realized that the basic method of the original owner’s cultivation technique—the first foundational level—had been successfully mastered today.

With the initial level complete, his five senses were more than ten times sharper. Even a gentle breeze brushing his skin could be sensed, and Grace Walker could tell where the wind came from, how it changed after encountering grass, trees, or stones, and how its speed and direction shifted.

He thoroughly enjoyed this sensation.

After about ten minutes, Grace Walker faintly heard shouts and cries. He frowned slightly and pulled himself out of this marvelous state. Following the sound, he looked toward its source—it was coming from the city.

“Could something have happened?”

Grace Walker took a step forward and was startled himself. That single step covered more than ten meters, and it felt effortless, as if he still had energy to spare. But now was not the time to be pleased; he broke into a sprint.