Chapter 2: The Stunning Beauty

  "This situation has happened again!"

  At the fourth watch, Jiang Nan suddenly woke up, only to feel his whole body weak and numb, and he was even a little afraid of the cold winter, his physical strength was much weaker than yesterday, and he couldn't help but be shocked, hurriedly adjusting his inner breath.

  In one night, his cultivation dropped by as much as 40%, and this was not the first time it had happened. Recently, he would often wake up to find himself physically weak and his cultivation greatly damaged!

  "I have cultivated to the third peak of the tenth realm of martial arts, with a body as strong as copper and iron, impervious to heat and cold. Logically speaking, my body should only become stronger, with vigorous qi and blood, and no evil spirits invading. Not to mention that I won't get sick, even if it's a lonely ghost or a wild demon, they would be repelled by my intense yang energy and not dare to approach me! Could it be that the fourth layer of heart method of Jiang Yue Po Lang Quan that I deduced has problems?"

  Jiang Nan slightly furrowed his brow, and suddenly he noticed that there were some fallen hairs in the room. He couldn't help but let out a light hum, bent down to pick up a small handful of hair, only to see that these hairs had burn marks on them, and his heart was shocked.

  "This is...the fur of that little fox!"

  Jiang Nan only then noticed that the little fox was no longer in the room, and there were only some scattered fox hairs left behind, as if the fox had shed its skin!

  "Could it be that Zhu Zhi was right, and I really did bring back a fox spirit from the vegetable market? My cultivation has been stagnant for days, and it's not because of any problem with my mental state, but rather this fox demon is absorbing my yang energy!"

  In the eyes of Jiangnan, a flash of light, wearing a long shirt, walking out along the fallen fur. Outside the door, the moonlight is like water, quiet and terrifying, it's now the fourth watch, at the junction of autumn and winter, the cold is piercing to the bone, soon the moon will fall, the sun has not yet risen, the world is plunged into darkness.

  Jiang Nan's heart was not in the slightest disarray, his face still showed a few hints of childishness, he was only fourteen years old, but having experienced countless scenes of carnage and bloodshed during his escape, having seen all sorts of demons and ghosts feasting on human flesh amidst piles of corpses, he had long since cultivated an unshakeable heart, even if the sky were to collapse, it would not make him change color.

  The cold wind blows, and the poor people's houses are all the residences of the slaves of the Wangfu, extremely dilapidated and bleak.

  Jiang Nan calmed his mind, walked out of the slum, and arrived at the outskirts of the city. Under the moonlight, it seemed as if something was attracting him. The surrounding moonlight surged in from over ten zhang away, condensing into visible points of light that fell onto the banks of the Yangchuan River ahead.

  By the river, where moonlight gathers, a woman sat sideways with her back to him, her raven-black hair cascading down from one side of her slender shoulders like a waterfall, savoring the lunar essence.

  The moonlight is surging, the moonlight is cold and elegant. The woman wears a sable coat, the snow-white sable fur and raven-black hair cannot cover her fair jade neck. The black and white contrast with each other, like a fairy walking out of a painting.

  Her back figure is elegant and beautiful, but at the place where her hair falls, a fluffy fox tail is exposed, bringing a few points of mystery and strangeness after the beauty, which can be called dreamy and extraordinary!

  "Zhuzi was right, the fox I bought from the market is indeed a fox spirit! It seems that these days my body's yang energy has been leaking away, and it must be her secretly at work!"

  Jiang Nan took a deep breath, stepped forward, and activated the Jiangyue Broken Wave Technique. The true energy inside his body surged and flowed towards the woman in the sable coat.

  The woman seemed to be unaware, and apparently did not feel the faint murderous aura emanating from Jiang Nan's body. Instead, she slightly moved her shoulders, holding a bamboo branch in her hand, drawing something on the riverbank.

  Jiang Nan walked to the woman's side, looking at her profile, his heart slightly shaken, and even his killing intent weakened a little.

  That sable-cloaked young woman was not very old, only about twenty years of age, with a beauty that surpassed all others and an elegant demeanor.

  She is not like a mortal, beautiful as a heavenly being, her skin surpasses snow, carved and polished like jade, as if the Heavenly Emperor had used his finest and most wonderful brush to concentrate all the beauty of the world onto this one person.

  Her eyes were as enchanting as a fox's, so beautiful they took one's breath away!

  She has a breathtaking beauty and elegance, with a charming and seductive gaze, as if she were a spirit that slips into the night with the wind. Her eyes are like two bright moons, pure and radiant, sometimes full and sometimes crescent.

  She held a bamboo branch and drew intricate patterns on the ground.

  Jiang Nan lowered his head to look at the patterns, and his heart was stunned. He saw that the first picture painted by the woman was actually the first move of Jiangyue Broken Wave Fist, the Great River Emerging from the Deep Valley, not only the change of moves but even the running route of true energy!

  Just follow this picture to practice, and you can definitely cultivate the first move of Jiangyue Broken Wave Fist!

  "What she drew is even more complicated than the Jiangyue Broken Wave Fist I got..."

  Jiang Nan's slightly immature face showed a look of surprise, which soon turned into an increasingly intense and solemn expression. He could see that the woman's drawing of the Jiangyue Broken Wave Technique's first move, although slightly different from the real thing, had not lost any power, but was even more perfect and powerful than the original!

  "The second move of Jiangyue Porao Jue, a bright moon hanging in the vast sky..."

  Jiang Nan looked at the second picture and was even more shocked. The second picture was surprisingly a bright moon hanging in the sky, which had also been improved upon, surpassing the original Jiang Yue Po Lang Jue!

  Then came the third form, Great River Accompanies the Tide, and the fourth form, Bright Moon Illuminates the Great River. All of these were painted by this woman. Especially the Bright Moon Illuminates the Great River, Jiangnan had not obtained the heart method of this form, but relied on his own cleverness to deduce the incomplete heart method of the move, knowing that it was inferior to the original Jiangyue Broken Wave Fist.

  Waiting for him to see the woman's painting of the bright moon shining on the great river, his heart was even more shocked: "Wonderful, truly wonderful..."

  After the bright moon shines on the great river, there is another set of patterns, which are the subsequent moves and mental methods of Jiangyue Poran's technique, extremely subtle and extremely detailed.

  One of the four great ultimate skills of the Qi Wang Fu, the Jiang Yue Po Lang Jue that countless people have been dreaming of, has appeared in front of Jiang Nan without any reservation, and it's even more profound and perfect than the original!

  In Jiangnan, he was enchanted as if drunk, completely forgetting that the mysterious woman beside him was not human, but a fox spirit stealing his yang energy!

  This encounter is simply like a fantasy, and if you tell others about it, no one will believe you.

  "Huh? Does Jiang Yue's Breaking Wave Fist Style have an eleventh move?"

  Jiang Nan had just mastered the first ten moves and mental methods, when he suddenly saw the eleventh picture, his mind was shocked, and he exclaimed: "How is this possible? The Jiang Yue Po Lang Quan clearly only has ten moves! How can there be a sudden appearance of an eleventh move?"

  His gaze swept down, and he saw that in addition to the eleventh move of Jiangyue Broken Waves, there were seven more patterns behind it, making a total of eighteen patterns.

  "Jiangyue Broken Wave Fist has one move that represents one level of mental technique, and there are eighteen moves here. Doesn't that mean that the martial way has as many as eighteen levels?"

  Jiang Nan was shocked, this completely overturned his common sense!

  "How is it impossible?"

  A silvery, melodious voice rang out, its cold clarity jolting him out of his stunned state. It was only then that Jiang Nan remembered the fox spirit disguised as a woman standing beside him, and he hastily turned around to look, his heart skipping another beat as he saw that the stunningly beautiful woman from just moments before had vanished into thin air, leaving behind only a white fox crouching in its original spot.

  "Young master, don't be alarmed, I'm just not skilled enough and can't maintain human form for a long time."

  That white fox spoke in human language, with eyebrows and eyes like the moon, identical to those of the stunningly beautiful woman from earlier. It seemed as if she had gently leaned against him, opening its mouth to say: "Young master, I recently encountered a great calamity, being secretly plotted against, losing all my cultivation, and having my divine soul scattered. I need to borrow yang energy to repair my divine soul; otherwise, it would disperse. Thank you for saving me from the hunter's hands. Without your consent, I took the liberty of borrowing 40% of your yang energy to repair my divine soul. These eighteen Jiang Yue Broken Wave Techniques are a small token of my gratitude."

  "You're being too serious. To exchange 40% of my yang energy for such a precious technique, I'd rather have you take a few more percentage points."

  Jiang Nan suppressed the turmoil in his heart, bowed his head and returned the courtesy. The white fox transformed into eighteen Jiang Yue Po Lang Jue, clearly wanting to repay a debt. Although she had stolen some of his yang energy, it only slightly damaged his cultivation and did not cause any major harm, so Jiang Nan also did not have the heart to pursue the matter.

  "Dare I ask, Miss, the Jiangyue Broken Wave Technique you drew, why does it have eighteen layers of heart method? Is there a higher realm above the divine wheel? Also, Miss, you are so proficient in the Jiangyue Broken Wave Technique, is this set of techniques truly the authentic heart method?" Nanjiang asked all the doubts in his mind at once.

  "Martial arts can connect with the divine, above the wheel of the gods is divine power."

  The white fox's eyes shone like two crescent moons in autumn, charming and captivating: "I'm not proficient in the Jiangyue Broken Wave Technique, but seeing that you're practicing this technique, I've deduced the subsequent techniques based on its characteristics. Martial arts are just the starting point of the Tao, with no end in sight. These eight diagrams represent the Eight Spiritual Realms of the Heavenly Wheel's Heart Method."

  Jiang Nan was shocked in his heart, he had heard the old slaves in the Qi Wang Fu talk about the opening of the Qi Wang, mentioning the anecdotes of this Qi Wang, saying that he could fly in the air, ride on clouds and drive fog, and had already cultivated divine powers. He originally thought it was just a legend, but now it seems that this Qi Wang may have indeed cultivated divine powers!

  "I figured out the fourth layer of Jiangyue's Broken Wave Technique, and I thought my intelligence was already rare in the world. But compared to you, Miss, I'm really just a small trickster seeing a great magician." Jiang Nan sincerely admired and couldn't help but praise her.

  "Young master, don't belittle yourself. The reason I can deduce the subsequent mental method of Jiangyue's Broken Wave is not because of my intelligence or talent, but rather from the experience and insight gained from thousands of years of cultivation. You've already made great progress in being able to deduce the fourth layer of mental method; when I was at your level, I may not have been able to do so."

  The white fox batted her eyelashes and curtsied, saying: "Young master, my divine soul has not yet fully recovered, I still need to borrow your yang energy to repair my divine soul. I hope you will fulfill me, every day lend me 40% of your yang energy."

  The young lady hesitated for a moment before saying, "You're taking in my yang energy. Doesn't that mean that when your yang energy is depleted, it will be the end of you?"

  These days, Tie Zhu has been whispering in his ear, telling all sorts of strange and bizarre stories about fox spirits absorbing yang energy to supplement their yin. Now that Jiang Nan thinks back on these things, comparing them to his current situation, he can't help but feel a little apprehensive.

  The white fox smiled and said, "A martial artist's blood and energy are vigorous, with a constant flow of yang energy, unlike those weak scholars whose yang energy is thin. You've only lost a few mouthfuls of yang energy to me, which won't be fatal, but it will affect your cultivation. However, with your talent, you can quickly recover."

  "Will losing 40% of my yang energy every day make me underdeveloped?"

  Jiang Nan looked a bit embarrassed and explained in a low voice: "I'm only fourteen years old, I'm still developing physically..."

  The white fox couldn't help but smile, her eyes curved like a crescent moon. She chuckled and said: "Don't worry, young master, I have my own limits and won't affect your development. Moreover, if you provide me with 40% of your yang energy every day until my injuries recover, I'll naturally have other benefits for you."

  Jiang Nan's eyes lit up, and he hastily agreed. The Jiangyue Broken Wave Technique that the white fox had just transformed into had already exceeded his expectations, so the "other benefits" would surely be even more astonishing!