Chapter Sixteen: Four Years of Harvest

  "Hurry up, wake up, Dog Egg has woken up!"

  Gou Danzi's consciousness had just returned to reality, and he was still a bit dazed when Wang Tianlei's loud voice rang in his ears. Then came the sound of "bang", the door being pushed open, and Gou Danzi's mother rushed in, crying and hugging him tightly.

  "You little scamp, you've scared your mother half to death!"

  Very helpless, very depressed, and also very unlucky.

  Things were simple, waking up in the morning to find that Dog Egg was gone again, and the old Zhou family was in an uproar, searching everywhere. Finally, they found Dog Egg lying unconscious on the ground behind a bush in their own courtyard wall. They hastily carried him back home and called for the doctor who was just about to pack his bags and leave. After a flurry of activity, things were finally settled, but Dog Egg's mother had fainted from excessive worry and shock.

  Just been carried out, the house again came Wang Tianlei's cry, said Dog Egg woke up, unexpectedly a sudden awakening from coma, rushed into the room, and then happened earlier that scene.

  The touching scene did not last long.

  After seeing that Dog Egg was awake and unharmed, everyone else also felt at ease. But as soon as they let their guard down, Dog Egg started causing trouble again.

  "What's meant by 'settling accounts after autumn' is now, isn't it?!"

  The dog egg lay helplessly on a pile of dry firewood, with his hands clasped behind his head, staring at the messy spider web above him that was blown by the wind and covered in black dust. He listened to the sound of his intestines and stomach fighting inside his belly, and the smile on his face turned somewhat bitter.

  Just one day after waking up, he was locked in the woodshed by Old Zhou, who was his father in this life. He was not allowed to eat for three days.

  Lao Zhou was a native mountain dweller, born and raised in the mountains. He was skilled at hunting in the mountains, but teaching his children was not his strong suit.

  He believed in the previous life of Dog Egg's famous saying "Under the stick, there is a filial son", and his educational approach was rough and direct. However, Dog Egg had been obedient since he was young and never gave him any excuse to scold him, so he didn't end up like this, locked in the woodshed. Generally speaking, those who were locked in the woodshed were the three dog sons.

  But this time, Dog Egg really fell down. For his behavior of running around crazily as soon as he woke up and then fainting again, Old Zhou decided not to tolerate it anymore and sent him to the woodshed, using the same method as before to deal with Big Dog, Second Dog, and Third Dog - starving him for three days.

  In the following days, Old Zhou was very satisfied with his actions this time. After being locked up for three days, that obedient dog egg came back again and never let him worry again.

  Time flies, years pass like an arrow

  Unconsciously, four years have passed, and Dog Egg is already eight years old.

  For most people, the age of four to eight is a blurry period, but also the purest period. However, for Four Dogs, these four years have been incredibly fulfilling, so much so that he wants to shout "Long live!"

  Under the joint efforts of Wang Tianlei and Lao Mangzi, in four years' time, the young people in the village have learned enough to read and write. Perhaps their cultural level is not high, but at least they can write letters. When writing letters to distant relatives, they no longer need to ask others to write on their behalf. Of course, there are still mistakes in the words and sentences that cannot be avoided.

  This is an incredible achievement.

  The dog egg child is not enthusiastic about this achievement, the only thing he cares about is that he no longer has to deliberately hide the fact that he can read and write in front of others. In the village, children of his age basically recognize a few characters, and there are even one or two "prodigies" who can recite long passages of ancient poetry and sacred texts. The parents of these "prodigies" are even hot-headed enough to want them to participate in the imperial examination.

  Gou Danzi is not a prodigy and has no interest in this cultural system that resembles ancient China's otherworldly view, he just needs others to know that he can read.

  The cultivation of the Li Huo Xin Fa went very smoothly, and after the eyes underwent a strange transformation, and also obtained the cultivation method of the Er Yi Tong Tian Jian, the most difficult part of the Li Huo Xin Fa was to absorb fire attribute energy from the heaven and earth yuan qi, and through a unique internal skill heart method, convert these fire attribute energies into the same quality fire attribute inner qi, stored within the body.

  This is the most basic principle of the vast majority of internal skills in this world. Of course, it's not easy to achieve this point. Between heaven and earth, there are countless kinds of fire-attributed yuanqi, not just one kind. Just talking about the sun on top of the head, the fire-attributed yuanqi emitted is not just over a hundred kinds. The most famous one is the true fire of the sun. This true fire can melt steel even if it's just a tiny bit. So, except for some legendary figures, very few people play with the true fire of the sun. Of course, the Li Huo Xin Fa (Fire Heart Method) is only the most basic foundation of fire, belonging to the introductory method of internal skills. Gou Danzi doesn't know these things yet, and with his current sensitivity to the heaven and earth yuanqi, he can't feel that many either.

  He has now transformed the powerful Vajra Qi Gong he originally cultivated into a Fire Internal Energy, which has been incorporated into his Breaking Slaughter Thousand Armies Fist. When this fist is unleashed, aside from its own formidable power, it also generates a scorching hot fist wind that increases its destructive potential several times over compared to an ordinary Breaking Slaughter Thousand Armies Fist.

  At the same time, he also found that when his internal energy transformed from Dahui Jin Gang Qi Gong to Lihuo Nei Qi, it seemed to have some strange effects on the solidification of the body's tendons and meridians. That is to say, what Wang Tianlei had told him before was correct, that the method of cultivating inner strength from the inside out was reasonable and accurate, and that internal strength was very helpful in enhancing one's physical strength. Internal work and external work are an interactive process.

  In a sense, Gou Dan's internal skill of boxing has already made some progress, and even in the next three years, his improvement will not be great. If he wants to force himself to improve, it may still damage his body. It can be said that his current internal and external skills have reached the limit at this age.

  He was only eight years old, an eight-year-old little kid, whose body had not fully developed, and hadn't even reached puberty. Whether it was his bones or his energy, everything was at its weakest point. If he were to forcefully increase his power at this time, even if he succeeded, his future achievements would be limited. Moreover, Dog Eggzi was extremely skeptical that forcing himself to become stronger in such a physical state would cause him to remain eight years old for the rest of his life, which was truly too embarrassing.

  So three months ago, he put all his energy into the Two Instruments Heaven Sword.

  Tuiyong Tongtian Sword, this is a strange and unusual martial art. Similarly, in Li Haoran's memory, he still didn't know that this type of martial art was called heterodox techniques.

  It was mentioned earlier that ordinary martial arts techniques involve absorbing the external heavenly and earthly primordial energy, incorporating it into the body, transforming it through internal work and mental methods, converting it into one's own internal energy. Then, this transformed internal energy nourishes and warms the body's meridians and blood, causing the internal energy to flow, expanding and contracting like the heart. This is what is meant by "from inside to outside".

  The Tuijian Tongtian Sword is a unique martial art that Dog Egg has never imagined, and he even thinks it's an entirely independent martial system outside of his cognition. Of course, this also reflects that his understanding of martial arts is not broad, and only stays at the level of wuxia and comics.

  Directly collect the evil energy, use a secret method similar to internal skill heart law, melt and refine the absorbed evil energy into unmatched sword energy, store it in the body.

  It sounds like there is no difference from the inner energy breathing technique, but in essence, the difference is huge.

  People who cultivate internal energy absorb the primordial energy of heaven and earth. The primordial energy of heaven and earth has countless types, with various properties. These countless types of primordial energy are divided into two categories: one is spiritual energy, and the other is killing energy. Only a very small portion can be absorbed and transformed by humans into internal energy. Those that can be easily absorbed and transformed by humans are called spiritual energy. The properties of spiritual energy are generally mild, even if it's like the Fire Heart Method, which absorbs and transforms fire-attributed primordial energy, these energies' properties are also mild, allowing them to be absorbed by the human body, just like drinking water, whether it's cool or warm. However, most are killing energies, which are primordial energies that cannot be absorbed and transformed into internal energy. They are like boiling water, and even touching them can cause burns.

  These evil energies have a violent attribute, but at the same time, their power is naturally not comparable to those with gentle attributes like the Heavenly Earth Yuan Qi. Just like Dog Egg's current cultivation of the Departing Fire Heart Method, which absorbs and transforms only ordinary fire-attribute yuan qi. The power of such yuan qi is far inferior to that of the True Sun Fire, by at least tens of millions of miles.

  Thus, in order to take advantage of such violent heaven and earth primordial energy, heterodox techniques were born.

  Xuanwu is an ancient martial art that combines various internal energy techniques and martial arts, incorporating the characteristics of Sha Qi to create a secret method. This method transforms violent Sha Qi that cannot be safely absorbed by martial artists into a fixed form, storing it in the body's meridians.

  Because the heterodox techniques transform extremely violent yuanqi, wanting to store it in the body like internal qi and make use of it is almost impossible. However, through heterodox techniques, this trouble can be resolved, allowing them to exist in a fixed form within the body, such as the Two Instruments Heavenly Sword. The Two Instruments Heavenly Sword is formed by condensing evil energy into unmatched sword energy using secret methods. After condensation, the violent properties of the evil energy are completely eliminated and transformed into the sword's killing power. However, not all evil energies can be refined into a Two Instruments Heavenly Sword; any heterodox technique has extremely high requirements for evil energy. For example, the Two Instruments Heavenly Sword requires simultaneously smelting two kinds of evil energy with completely opposite properties: one extreme yin and one extreme yang. Even if completed through secret methods, it cannot be stored in the body like true internal qi, used freely at will; it can only be fixed into a specific shape, hidden within the meridians. Most importantly, the meridian that hides the sword energy must have greater endurance than ordinary meridians.

  Gou Danzi was only eight years old, and his tendons and meridians had not fully developed. Even if he could find two kinds of Qi with completely opposite properties, it would be impossible for him to store them in his body. His meridians simply couldn't withstand it.

  "What a pity! I thought I had gained some capital for survival!"

  Thinking of this, Dog Egg also found it a bit funny. An eight-year-old kid growing up in a remote mountain village, yet his mind was like that of an outsider, always having the capital to save his life. He didn't know what kind of mentality this was, perhaps it was because he had read too many martial arts novels before?

  Of course, four years is not just enough to let him understand the essence of Li Huo Xin Jing and Er Yi Tong Tian Jian. For Gou Danzi, the most practical thing in four years is the complete interpretation of Li Huo Xin Fa, the most interesting thing is the cultivation of Er Yi Tong Tian Jian, and the greatest gain is his pair of strange eyes.

  After four years of training, he can now maintain his eyes in that strange state for about half an hour. After the state is lifted, there will be no extreme weakness, at least escaping with his life won't be a problem. Of course, maintaining that state still puts a great burden on his body, but after keeping it up, whether it's reaction speed, insight, control over his body and internal energy, as well as speed and strength, all of these will undergo a qualitative leap. His actual strength has increased by at least five or six times. The only pity is that this isn't the Sharingan, without the function to copy others' martial techniques.

  He had always been envious of Wu Qinglong's family archery skills, but in the end he still didn't learn it successfully. Although through careful observation, he gained a lot from Wu Qinglong's every detail when drawing his bow and shooting arrows, and his archery skills also improved greatly, but after all, he still hadn't truly mastered the Wu family's archery skills.

  "This Tai Chi Fist I've been practicing for seven whole years, and roughly grasped some of its subtleties. When cultivating the Great Power Vajra Qi Gong, it can actually strengthen the Great Power Vajra Qi Gong. Now that I've completely transformed the Great Power Vajra Qi Gong into Departing Fire Inner Qi, unexpectedly, it still strengthens! Not only that, but this Tai Chi Fist method also increasingly fortifies the body, entirely a possibly upgraded super fist method. It's really strange, why didn't I have this feeling in my previous life?!"

  After a round of Tai Chi, Dog Egg was sweating profusely, feeling as if his entire body had been washed and cleansed by an inner energy, leaving him with an indescribable sense of comfort.

  "Lately, the old man has been a bit restless, seemingly about me going out to be an apprentice. Heh heh, going out is good too, after all it's better than being stuck in this poor and remote place. Although I don't think about becoming rich and successful in the future, at least I want to take a good look at this strange world. Staying here, probably won't have many opportunities, right?"

  This is the true thoughts and reflection of Gou Danzi's heart. Although this mountain village is quiet and peaceful, and has been made into a very suitable place for retirement by Wang Tianlei, Gou Danzi is only eight years old and doesn't want to retire so early. So, he is still looking forward to going to Qingyang Village to be an apprentice, of course, he doesn't know yet what kind of path his second uncle has arranged for him.

  …………………

  Finally, the setting of heteromancy has been perfected. Of course, what is expressed in this chapter is not complete. Heteromancy is a vast system with great development potential, which will be slowly presented to everyone in future content. Click, recommend, collect.