Longevity Martial Arts: Starting from Inner Core Skill

Wang Sheng had come up with the ballista simply because of his interest.

He had only heard the name before, not even seeing a picture, so when he discovered it in "Mechanical Technique," he naturally wanted to bring this invention to life.

Every day, he worked on it little by little, and it took a lot of time to finally make the ballista.

Known as the "bed," the ballista is certainly not small in size; if it were to be operated by ordinary people, it would require one or two people to push it along.

Of course, for Wang Sheng, this wasn’t a problem, but in the end, he still sought out the village chief.

If they wanted to try it out, they could go directly to the gate of the stockade for a test.

Crossbow arrows have always been a major weapon; at close range, they’re not much weaker than ordinary spears and have strong penetration.

This was a ballista made of the Evil Flood Dragon’s dragon tendon, and its power was extraordinarily formidable; Wang Sheng estimated that even martial artists of the first or second level might not be able to withstand a hit if struck carelessly.

Wang Sheng made the ballista initially out of curiosity and to strengthen the defenses of the stockade, so naturally, he had to bring in the village chief.

When the village chief saw the ballista, he knew this was a new invention by Wang Sheng and was no longer surprised by such creations.

"Yun Sheng, is this a crossbow?"

Because privately owning crossbow arrows was a capital offense in the Great Zhou, the village chief had never seen a crossbow before. He had heard of them, though, and just found Wang Sheng’s to be unusually large, which took him a moment to process.

"Village chief, this is indeed a crossbow, but it’s been modified. I plan to take it to the gate to give it a try, and if it works, we will keep it there as a defensive tool."

"Good!"

The village chief was not an old-fashioned man.

While privately owning crossbow arrows was a death sentence, that also depended on the timing. The Great Zhou Court was too preoccupied to care, and under the current circumstances, anything that could save lives was considered good.

Soon, the village chief had people move the ballista to the gate of the stockade and set it up in an appropriate place.

Wang Sheng then taught several martial artists in the village how to use it.

"This ballista is used like this, and it can fire..."

The ballista he designed could fire three arrows at once, although it was somewhat hard to draw back, requiring great strength to reload the crossbow arrows.

But with martial artists around, that wasn’t a difficult task.

Wang Sheng had also made the arrows out of ironwood and blood-forged steel but hadn’t made many—only a dozen or so, along with a few ordinary arrows for testing.

For other crossbow arrows, Wang Sheng planned to let the people from the stockade make them themselves. It was okay to make them for fun, but if it became a regular activity, he definitely wouldn’t have the time for it.

Under his guidance, the arrows were quickly loaded.

"Fire!"

As the village chief gave the command, three crossbow arrows shot out like lightning, slicing through the air and landing straight into the ground far away from the stockade, burying themselves deep without a sign of how far.

This shot was deliberately aimed at the ground to gauge the power of the ballista.

The power clearly was not lacking.

Although he expected it, Wang Sheng was still excited to see it actually happening.

Since they were test arrows, they were temporarily left in the ground while the testing continued.

"Shoot towards the woods in the distance. Let’s see how far they can go."

The woods were about one thousand meters from the stockade, and from their elevated position, it was quite open, offering a good testing environment.

Because they were testing for distance, everyone raised the ballista slightly. After loading the arrows, they fired again.

The ballista, crafted using materials of grandmaster level, effortlessly covered the kilometer distance in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the arrows had reached the woods. Wang Sheng, who had exceptionally good eyesight, could clearly see just how far each arrow flew.

Despite being obstructed by ancient trees, the powerful arrows easily pierced through several large trees before disappearing into the underbrush.

Though the others couldn’t see as clearly as Wang Sheng did, they could make out enough to be impressed.

"Yun Sheng, this power..."

The potency of the ballista far surpassed the imagination of the village chief, Zhou Zhengwen.

This power could be used not just for defending the stockade— it would be more than sufficient for besieging fortresses.

"It’s pretty decent. I’ll leave it in your hands, chief. Here are the blueprints as well; you can study them and see if you can make one yourself."

Protecting the stockade couldn’t rely on a single ballista, and having made one to satisfy his own interests and curiosity was enough for Wang Sheng, who had no intention of spending time crafting another.

The village chief, naturally, had no objections; such things were better the more one had.

Wang Sheng was planning to leave when he suddenly thought of something and said, "Every afternoon, I forge iron. If anyone in the village wants to learn, they can come and study."

There were plenty of useful things in "Mechanical Technique: Azure Dragon Chapter," and Wang Sheng would only make things that interested him, even though there were many other things as well.

Not wanting to waste, Wang Sheng was willing to let anyone interested from the village learn; who knows what interesting things they could come up with.

"Thank you, Yun Sheng!"

There were no blacksmiths in the village, and it wasn’t easy to venture out elsewhere at this time. Encounters with broken metal items were actually quite a hassle, and if someone could learn blacksmithing, that would be even better.

"No problem. I forge iron every day anyway, just make sure that no more than three people come."

Dealing with too many people could be troublesome.

After giving his instructions, Wang Sheng returned to his home.

The next day, when he was forging iron, the village chief sent people over.

Two young men, both appearing to be in good physical shape.

"Yun Sheng, they are the ones interested in smithing, one is named Li Yi and the other is Zhou Anping."

The two men also respectfully greeted Wang Sheng.

They knew that everything in the village had improved because of Wang Sheng.

"From now on, just come here every day to learn from me. Once you’ve learned what you need, you can leave."

Following that, Wang Sheng brought the two of them along every day as he worked the forge. Initially he taught them some basic skills, but he discovered that the two of them learned surprisingly fast and seemed quite happy about it.

Otherwise, why say that interest is the best teacher?

Both of them cherished this opportunity and studied extremely conscientiously.

Time flew by, and three months passed in the blink of an eye.

The talents of the two were quite high; although there were still some rough edges, with more practice, there wouldn’t be much of a problem—they could barely be considered ready to leave their apprenticeship.

Wang Sheng planned to give the two a simple test before letting them graduate.

During those three months, naturally Wang Sheng didn’t just stick to blacksmithing—he had also made considerable progress himself.

"Realms—

Refining Essence to Qi, Sealing Furnace: 95%

Blood Qi Smoke: 68%

Cultivation Technique—

Inner Core Skill (Refining Essence to Qi): Breakthrough +4 (16%)

Ba Duan Jin: Breakthrough +4 (20%)

Five Elements Fist: Breakthrough +2 (53%)

Yijin Scripture: Breakthrough +2 (48%)

Lifestyle—

Herb Recognition: Breakthrough +3 (30%)

Planting Skill: Breakthrough +4 (78%)

Forging: 7 (60%)

Mechanical Techniques: 6 (23%)

Martial Skills—

Baji Fist: Breakthrough +2 (30%)

Plum Flower Step: Breakthrough +2 (45%)

Six Harmonies Spear: Breakthrough +1 (75%)"

The three months he spent forging were not devoid of cultivation.

The Sealing Furnace process was nearly complete, and it would probably only be one or two weeks more before he could be considered to have truly crafted the "Dan Mother."

The progress in other skills was notable too, with forging making the most significant strides. The advancement in Mechanical Techniques was less pronounced; the "Mechanical Technique: Azure Dragon Chapter" was never an ordinary text. He had easily accessed the basics at the beginning, but now, as it became more difficult, his rate of improvement naturally slowed down.

Then there was the strength of his Blood Qi. Wang Sheng guessed it would not advance easily when he broke through to the Blood Qi Smoke stage, but he didn’t expect it to be this difficult. Although the power he gained from the improvement was solid, not much progress had been made over such a long stretch of time.

It seemed it would take quite a while before he could advance to the next realm.

However, Wang Sheng wasn’t particularly anxious; with a lifespan now over 300 years, there was no need to hurry.

What was most important at the moment was the issue of the "Dan Mother."

The "Dan Mother" was the starting point for major medicines, and Wang Sheng took it very seriously.

Time went quickly, and half a month passed – the progress meter for Refining Essence to Qi, Sealing Furnace, finally reached 99.99%. He was just one step away from condensing the Dan Mother and entering the next realm.

He didn’t hesitate, going into seclusion for cultivation, and before long, the progress bar subtly changed.

"Refining Essence to Qi, Refining"

Refining included one "Refine" character, which was the most important and time-consuming step in the process of Refining Essence to Qi.

Refining three hundred times showed the difficulty of this step.

Unless something unexpected occurred, it would take him a very long time to achieve Perfection in Refining.

After Refining, Wang Sheng didn’t immediately exit this state but instead observed his own Dan Mother.

The Alchemy Realm could be said to be the initial realm where Inner Core Skill starts to exhibit combat capabilities.

During Refining, the "spirit" and the "Qi" must not separate but must be even more closely linked, or else the spirit would scatter, and one would fall back from "Refining" to "Producing Medicine," causing severe harm to the body.

With a progress meter available, Wang Sheng was unlikely to make a mistake, so he wasn’t overly worried, but even so, he remained extremely cautious.

It was precisely because the spirit and Qi fused yet did not melt during Refining that both would improve significantly.

For Wang Sheng, this meant the enhancement of both Qi Blood Power and "spirit."

The Qi Blood Power goes without saying, as it was the source of his own strength.

And the significant improvement of the "spirit" was the source of the combat power of Inner Core Skill.

To control the wind and summon rain, or ride on a cloud—all required "spirit."

Of course, just having entered the Alchemy Realm, Wang Sheng’s Qi Blood Power or "spirit" had not begun to improve, and his combat power wasn’t yet significantly affected.

However, as he immersed himself in Refining for some time, he would gradually comprehend how to utilize "spirit," which is to say, he would master real Divine Skills!

At the same time, many Cultivation Techniques Wang Sheng practiced, such as the Yijin Scripture and Five Elements Fist, could now be effectively incorporated into the Inner Core Skill.

Refining was for crafting unparalleled medicines, and the body’s strength was the most basic element for these medicines. Conveniently, the three Cultivation Techniques, with the help of the progress meter, provided extremely potent methods for physical enhancement.

He planned to use these as nourishment to craft a truly unmatched medicine…