Chapter 103: Martial Artist Six Realms of Acupoint Penetration (Part 1)

"Teacher Zhang, I don't have enough money for the Cold Sun Mother Herb right now. Please accept this portion; consider it bought by our Baiyu City. We can't let you work so hard to guide our young lady only to lose money besides."

Unaware of Zhang Xuan's internal struggle, Yao Han stepped forward, ready to take out the 20,000 gold coins from his pocket.

"No need, it's just a single medicinal herb, nothing to worry about!" Zhang Xuan shook his head. He had just started to feel the responsibility and importance of being a teacher; how could he casually ask for money from his student? Besides, it was just one Cold Sun Mother Herb. A regular Cold Sun Herb only cost 100 gold coins, so the mother herb couldn't be much more expensive. With his wealth of millions, why would he care? Crucially, this herb was acquired as part of a show of strength and didn't cost him anything, so he wouldn't feel bad giving it away.

"This..." Seeing Zhang Xuan's firm stance, Yao Han had no choice but to put the money away. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Teacher Zhang, to casually give away a medicinal herb worth 100,000 gold coins—your generosity is truly admirable! It's laughable that I ever thought you were trying to deceive our young lady..."

"What? A medicinal herb worth 100,000 gold coins?" Zhang Xuan's lips twitched. This Cold Sun Mother Herb was worth 100,000? Was that true? If he had known it was worth 100,000, he definitely would have asked for some money! Others had students showing respect to their teachers; why was he the one losing money?

"Yes, it is!" Yao Han looked at him with a strange expression. "Does Teacher Zhang not know the price?" "I..." His heart bled, but he knew the words were already spoken and couldn't be taken back. Zhang Xuan immediately composed himself, assuming the haughty demeanor of a reclusive master who disdained worldly possessions. "Of course not. Money means nothing to me. Zhao Ya is my student. As long as it's useful to her, what's 100,000 gold coins for a medicinal herb? Even 200,000 or 300,000 would be trivial!"

Since the situation had already unfolded, it seemed he could only go along with it and earn some goodwill. "Our young lady truly found a good teacher!" Seeing Zhang Xuan's demeanor, Yao Han was genuinely impressed. No wonder their young lady had always praised him. Such character was truly admirable. Wen Xue, standing to the side, also blushed, wishing she could disappear into a crack in the ground. He was a teacher, and one with such high moral character, yet she had mistakenly thought he was a suitor and had ridiculed him. How ridiculous! Fortunately, he was magnanimous and ignored her, otherwise, with his status as an alchemy apprentice, he could have easily expelled her, preventing her from ever returning!

"Go back. I also need to prepare for tomorrow's pill debate!" One act of pretense, and 100,000 gold coins were gone... To be honest, it wasn't a big deal to lose the money; Baiyu City was paying for it, not Zhao Ya herself... Suppressing the urge to cry, Zhang Xuan walked out.

After dinner, he returned to the academy, where it was already close to midnight. "Anyway, I'm not tired yet, so I might as well study how to break through to the Aperture Acupoint realm!" In his previous life, he had been a night owl, and now with his improved cultivation, his body felt even better. Despite the late hour, he felt no trace of sleepiness.

Having displayed his cultivation and strength at the Aperture Acupoint realm in the Scholarly Heart Tower today, the academy should soon take action to make him an elder. Once he became an elder, he would have the opportunity to access the Elder's Library and read books there. By then, he should be able to find enough martial art manuals for the Fighter 6th Layer to perfect the Heaven's Path Divine Art. Of course, even before that, he could do some research. After all, he had copied over a dozen manuals from Master Lu Chen's home, and although the correct parts were fragmented and couldn't be connected, they were still worth studying.

With a thought, the dozen or so books he had seen at Master Lu Chen's home surfaced in his mind. "Actually, cultivating the Aperture Acupoint realm is quite simple; it's all about the sequence of opening the acupoints!" Zhang Xuan casually scanned the books and understood.

Legend had it that the human body contained 108 acupoints, but only 72 of them could be opened. Furthermore, there was a specific sequence for opening these acupoints. Due to different individual constitutions, different sequences were required to achieve the best results. If one couldn't find the correct method, they might only be able to open thirty or forty acupoints throughout their life, making further progress impossible. This was akin to cleaning sludge from a river: slowly clearing it from upstream downwards would ensure thorough cleaning, whereas clearing from the middle outwards might not only fail to clean properly but could also cause the river to become blocked! Precisely because of this, opening the very first acupoint was crucial; any mistake would negatively impact subsequent progress.

"This 'Golden Flame Art' says one must first open the Divine Strength Acupoint, as power is needed to open more important acupoints. This 'Easy Yang Manual,' however, states that the Central Acupoint should be opened first because it's located in the very center of the human body..." The first acupoint to be opened varied across the dozen or so books, each offering its own reasoning. Others might find this confusing, but Zhang Xuan, with the Heaven's Path Library, could discern errors and flaws. A single glance told him that all of these... were incorrect!

"Not finding the correct first acupoint is like not finding the source of a river. Once you get it wrong, future cultivation will be troublesome, so I might as well give up!" He studied for a while longer, finding that none of the manuals provided the correct first acupoint to open. Just as Zhang Xuan was about to give up, an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

"Since all the acupoints described in these books are incorrect, and there are only 108 acupoints in total, couldn't I just try them one by one to figure out which one opens first and which one second?" The method for opening acupoints was simple: just use true qi to impact them. The crucial part was the sequence. Since all the suggested sequences were wrong, surely one of the 108 acupoints had to be the correct first one! Others couldn't experiment this way, but he faced no such problem! With the Heaven's Path Library, by eliminating all errors, what remained would naturally be correct!

"Let's try it!" Without the slightest hesitation, Zhang Xuan grabbed paper and a pen. He listed all 108 acupoints in the human body. First, he crossed out the incorrect first acupoints mentioned in the dozen or so manuals. Then, he also crossed out the acupoints that were in correct known positions but not necessarily the first one. After organizing, only about twenty acupoints remained out of the original 108. It didn't matter. Zhang Xuan casually copied a manual, replacing the section on opening the first acupoint with each of these twenty remaining acupoints, one by one.

*Buzz!* The Heaven's Path Library displayed a new manual, revealing its errors and flaws. On the thirteenth attempt, his mind vibrated, and the first acupoint described in the manual showed no errors whatsoever.

"Haha, success! It's actually the Heart Aperture Acupoint! The Library showing no errors meant this acupoint was indeed the first one to be opened for the Aperture Acupoint realm! "The Heart Aperture Acupoint is one of the most deeply hidden acupoints. If one's true qi isn't pure, a martial artist at the peak of the Fifth Layer wouldn't be able to open it at all. No wonder none of these books mentioned it..."

Having identified the first acupoint to open, Zhang Xuan was filled with excitement. The Heart Aperture Acupoint, located deep within the heart, was one of the 36 acupoints widely considered impossible to open. If one's true qi wasn't pure, not only would it be impossible to open, but one might also suffer a qi deviation. If not for the Heaven's Path Library's confirmation, he wouldn't have dared to believe this was the first one. It was no wonder so many manuals in the world couldn't find the correct sequence; the truly correct acupoint was... one of those reputed to be unopenable. Now, it seemed, the claim of being unopenable was not true; as long as the correct sequence was found, it could indeed be successfully opened!