Lord of the Desert

Chapter 414: Enlightenment
August 20th.

Hong Fan woke up before dawn and could not enter into a state of meditation for a long time, so he could only practice the Foundation Building Fist over and over again in the yard.

At the exact time of Mao, the morning sun began to rise behind heavy clouds. Not long after, heavy rain rolled down, making the sky and the earth dark.

At noon, the rain gradually stopped.

Hong Fan left Chaori Mansion in a carriage escorted by the guards. Along the way, he watched the silver puddles that occasionally flashed beside the carriage and arrived at Xijing Zhangwu Academy on time.

He came here today to get the martial arts code.

In front of Xu Guinian, Hong Fan checked the integrity of the copied copy of "The Blazing Explosion Codex" and promised to remember it and destroy it.

After signing and sealing the receipt, he hurried back to Asahi Prefecture.

The rain got heavier along the way.

Sandalwood incense was lit in the study in advance.

Hong Fan sat quietly at the table, listening to the sound of rain outside the eaves, which kept ringing in his ears, creating an extraordinary tranquility.

Not until this tranquility penetrated into his bones and lungs did he open the scripture and read it carefully.

【Burning Explosion Code.】

The five large regular characters are listed on the far right.

Immediately to the left of the title is the general outline.

[To seize the spirit of heaven externally, the Nine Returns rely on the Pearl of Purple Mansion; to refine the vitality internally, the flame of red furnace is supported by Samadhi.]

It invigorates blood circulation, strengthens tendons and bones, and unclogs meridians; Dantian becomes the mother, and the body is permeated with blazing fire.

Purple and red intersect, connecting the inside and the outside; seeing what has never been seen, feeling what has never been felt.

Be careful at the beginning and the end, and accumulate small things to make great achievements; from separation to combination, they will flow together to the end.

Keep to the track and follow the path, refine the five internal organs and obtain the five spirits; separate the muscles and clarify the principles, reach the extreme of emptiness and maintain deep stillness.

In this way, one sees all things working together, observes their cycles, escapes from the ordinary body, sees the true nature, and becomes a celestial being.

It can be proved step by step:

There is no birth or death, no hindrance or retreat;

Use your heart to be true to yourself and suppress all evil;

If there are thoughts outside of the body, all dharmas will be endured.

In this way, the three realms are clear and pure, and this is the ultimate of human beings; in this way, one abandons existence and realizes emptiness, and explores the principles of the heavens.

A heart as red as fire, transcending the ordinary and becoming a saint. 】

The first sentence emphasizes both spirit and flesh, the second sentence is about the state of power, the third sentence is about the interaction between heaven and man, the fourth sentence is about innateness, the fifth sentence is about magnetism, the sixth sentence is about heaven and man, and then the characteristics of the three realms are listed, and finally it points directly to the artistic conception.

The entire outline consists of 170 words, covering the entire process of cultivation from the inner vision realm to the limit of heaven and man. It is concise and has a higher meaning than Duan Tiannan’s previous oral narration.

And this is just the outline.

Hong Fan read it silently three times, and felt his heart burning like fire, filled with the joy of enlightenment - although what he obtained this time was only the part below Yuanci in "The Blazing Explosion Codex", it was far superior to Yanliu Gong.

The full text of the Blazing Codex is divided into six parts, namely general outline, practice, visualization, breakthroughs, maintenance, and conquest.

Among them, cultivation is a method of opening up the meridians from inner vision to the innate six harmonies, visualization is a method of spiritual training, breaking through the barriers is a skill of seeking assistance when encountering obstacles, maintenance is a method of strengthening the body, and conquest is a method of killing.

Hong Fan spent an hour reading it carefully, and his greatest gain was the visualization method and the maintenance method.

The former involves repeatedly visualizing compression and explosion to temper the spirit, while the latter uses special micro-qi blasting to destroy meridians, bones and flesh, and then maintains and repairs them to make them tougher.

As for the transformation of the practice method itself, it is a more complicated process.

For different martial arts, the unblocking of meridians and the tempering of spirit are common progress, so there is no need to start from scratch when changing to a new martial art. It is mainly divided into three steps:
The first step is to cultivate and familiarize yourself with the new type of Qi. If there is a significant gap in the quality of the technique, you need to make up for it both mentally and physically;
Secondly, when the progress of the new method catches up with the original method, the one-time dispersal of power will completely transform it;
Finally, I practiced the matching killing method...

By the time Hong Fan had completely memorized the text of "The Blazing Explosion Codex", it was already afternoon.

At this time, the rain was extremely heavy, and the city of Xijing was shrouded in a sky cave, dark and gloomy.

Hong Fan closed his eyes slightly, watching the bean-sized raindrops exploding on the window. He seemed to see balls of lightning rolling like millstones in the clouds, then falling onto the roof and crashing along the beams, and finally seeping into the ground through the shaking pillars.

Enter into a state of meditation, and the thunder will fade away temporarily.

Hong Fan used the new method to circulate the Qi for the first time, and after half a quarter of an hour he obtained the first ray of blazing fire Qi.

When you come out of meditation, consciousness returns.

Outside, the storm was raging, crushing the rain from the sky.

Inside the house, a person was sitting cross-legged, looking happy and content.

Like a dewdrop on a blade of grass.

······
same day.

Northwest of Liangzhou, ten miles southwest of Shakou Wei Suo.

The team of 1,200 people took their final rest among the sand dunes.

"In the past six months, with the help of muskets, the number of civilians entering the swamp to hunt has tripled, and seven snake-people villages have been destroyed."

Hongwu heated the pancake with his hands and handed one to Ge Tianlang.

"This time the snake people gathered to invade our border in large numbers to fight back and also to test the bottom line of our new weapon."

"It's time to explore."

Hong Cheng, the leader, took over the conversation.

"If they don't fight this battle, we will have to fight sooner or later. A dozen or twenty people won't count. We have to test it in a big battle..."

Before they had said a few words, they saw a rider on a horse coming down the sand dune and galloping towards them, so they dismounted.

"Captain, the garrison has ordered our troops to rush to the rescue at full speed!"

He knelt on one knee and said urgently.

"What's the situation like ahead?"

Hong Cheng threw the water bag at his waist and asked solemnly.

"Captain, the snake people completed the third reinforcement this morning, with a total of 1,500 soldiers. The one who led the reinforcements is a five-sacrifice snake person, who seems to be Chi Lin's deputy general Broken Tooth a few years ago. Now, Guard Hu and General Chu are trying their best to resist, and the defense line is becoming increasingly tight."

The scout finished speaking in one breath and then drank some water.

"Another Five Priests?"

Hong Cheng's face darkened.

He looked at Hongwu and Hongsheng beside him - the former was wearing heavy armor, and the latter was carrying a straight sword wrapped in white cloth - the two of them looked at each other and nodded to him.

"All troops ready for battle, we will set off in half an hour."

Hong Cheng issued a military order.

The silent team quickly woke up.

The heavy infantry assisted each other in putting on their armor, the flintlock rifles stacked on the carts were distributed according to their names, and the two hundred heavy cavalry fed the horses the last of their fine grains...

Then the entire army left its baggage behind and marched in a line, approaching the battlefield half an hour later.

When he stepped on the sand ridge, the first thing Hong Sheng saw was the Starry Oasis that reflected the sky like a sapphire.

To the north of the oasis, the Wei Suo fortress stood by the water, surrounded by a twelve-meter-high wall with a circumference of four miles and rammed earth and broken bricks.

The snake people in the west and north of the city were attacking in two directions. Hu Ang and Chu Meng each took their personal guards to stand on the top of the city to fight against the powerful enemy, which was extremely difficult.

Even from a distance of several miles, the sounds of the defenders' fierce fighting could still be clearly heard. The khaki-colored city walls were mottled with red and black, like the edge of a guillotine stained with blood.

Hong Cheng looked at this scene from afar, swallowed silently, and looked behind him. Below the sand slope, in front of the formation were 800 musketeers wearing light armor and holding long-pole flintlock rifles; in the middle of the formation were five trial-made thousand-jin field cannons towed by camels and oxen; at the end of the formation were 200 hammer-shield heavy infantry led by Feng Qing and Gan Deshou, who were based on the Hundred Victory Army, and among them, there was one martial artist for every five men.

A total of 200 heavy cavalrymen reined in their horses, holding spears and standing on both wings, ready to go.

Scanning the more than a thousand pairs of black and white eyes one by one, Hong Cheng felt his heart pounding. He drew out his sword with one hand and held up the flag with the other.

"Array up!"

He shouted the order at the top of his lungs.

Sand rolled in the sky, and the two armies moved like insects and ants.

The human race lined up on high ground, each taking their positions.

Broken Tooth retreated from the top of the city wall and led 500 snakemen reserve troops to attack head-on.

Enemies are extremely jealous when they meet.

When the armies were a hundred meters apart, the first round of gunfire rang out.

In the next thirty seconds, eight hundred spears fired six waves of lead bullets in three-stage shooting, nearly sixteen hundred bullets, knocking down more than two hundred snake people like chopping wood.

When the remaining snakemen approached the battle formation, they were greeted by a volley of five eight-jin shotgun shells.

The iron rain roared, killing more than sixty snakemen at once and creating five gaps in their formation.

Broken Tooth was already confused at this time.

As a veteran general, it was not unaware that the human race had a new type of featherless iron crossbow that fired as fast as thunder - this battle was fought for this very reason - however, before the actual battle, no snakeman could have anticipated that its destructive power would be so horrific, so that more than half of the 500 snakemen suffered casualties before they even had a chance to engage.

And this is just the beginning of the combination punch.

As soon as the cannon fire stopped, Feng Qing and others roared and led the heavy armored soldiers to cross the formation to the top. At the same time, the heavy cavalry on the flank also encircled them from behind.

Snake people are indeed not afraid of death, but they do not accept meaningless death.

When the formation was completely broken, Broken Tooth let out a long roar towards the sky, negotiated with another snakeman commander through the air, and decided to withdraw.

The encounter instantly turned into a pursuit battle.

The snakemen under the city fled in all directions, but unfortunately Chu Meng was seriously injured and Hu Ang was almost exhausted and unable to pursue them.

Only a few people from the Hong family were unwilling to let Broken Tooth go when they saw this good opportunity.

Hong Sheng wielded a three-foot fire blade and attacked from the center, while Hong Wu and Ge Tianlang assisted on the left and right, using the Seven-Step Cage and Vortex Palm to harass and delay the opponent.

The four-man team advanced several miles in an instant.

During this period, Hongwu and Ge Tianlang exchanged injuries and gradually fell behind.

There was only one man and one knife left in the wind and sand, chasing relentlessly.

After fighting for dozens of rounds, both sides were exhausted, and Hong Sheng's sword swings became heavier as he took steps.

At this point, he can and should retreat.

As the proud son of the Hong family, Hong Sheng is worth more than a ton of gold. He has never been in desperate situations in his life. In the past 24 years, whenever there was a dangerous situation, everyone told him to retreat.

It is easy to retreat.

But for a warrior, every time he retreats, he will eventually become a burden ten or a hundred times heavier - the arrogance of being the center of attention, the pressure of being the center of attention, the worry of running out of talent, the despair of being unable to break the Yuan magnetic force of his family's martial arts...

As the eldest son of the Hong family, he was born with more than most people.

But how can this be enough?
Since he started practicing martial arts, Hong Sheng often wondered whether he was born into a noble family, whether he had practiced the Ten Classics, whether he had a lucky star, or whether he had extraordinary talent...

Or what?

The future is brighter, so we should retreat?
【This time, I won’t retreat! 】

Hong Sheng gritted his teeth and went forward again.

Mingshen chopped the snake man's forearm, breaking scales and penetrating bones, boiling blood, and carbonizing flesh.

The desperate situation has come, Broken Tooth uses the bone-locking knife and the long tail to kill.

There was a sound of metal clashing.

Hong Sheng rolled several meters away, and the Mingshen, which contained all his fighting power, fell three meters away, piercing the ground with a vibration.

The state of mind suddenly regresses and the terror of life and death appears.

The past years were like colorful lanterns and horses. When Hong Sheng thought about it now, he felt that he had been walking on clouds and mist, floating in the sky, always looking up but never stepping down.

Broken Tooth suddenly came close and chopped with great force.

Hong Sheng held his arms horizontally and pressed his left knee to the ground, sinking three inches into the sand.

"How can you defeat me with external force?"

The snake man continued to exert force with a vicious smile, and after a moment he pressed his claws on his shoulder and broke it.

Blood splattered, blurring my eyes.

Then the sky and the earth turned red.

[It turns out that it’s not that I don’t understand, but that I don’t dare…]

Hong Sheng closed his eyes and felt that all gains and losses were fading away.

The only one standing in the darkness is the self that refuses to accept.

At this moment, he heard the sound of fire:
Know me;

Selflessness;

Give up everything in your body and ask me to prove myself.

[Please me, prove me! ]

Hong Sheng roared with all his strength, squeezing out all the inner energy in his body. He then felt a large amount of fire-type spiritual energy coming to him, gathering in his palm first and then escaping like a flying bird.

The red flames surged and hit Broken Tooth's head closely. When the flames died down, only a corpse with charred features was left.

"Flame Roar? I performed the Flame Roar by myself?!"

Hong Sheng pushed the snake corpse away and staggered to his feet, staring blankly at his half-burnt palm. He felt his innate fire spiritual energy gathering on top of his head like wolf smoke and pouring into the major acupoints throughout his body.

"Brother Sheng, have you climbed the ladder to heaven?!"

Hongwu's excited voice came from behind.

Seeing his nephew break through the bottleneck and kill the innate in the formation, he pressed the wound on his waist with one hand and shouted to come up to congratulate him.

Then Hong Sheng was seen standing there in a daze, with tears in his eyes.

"what happened?"

Hongwu asked in a low voice.

"It's okay, nephew is just shocked at his own stupidity."

Hong Sheng lowered his eyes slightly, letting his tears fall onto the sand.

"For many years, I have been self-righteous or self-pitying, but now I have finally realized my mistake..."

"It turns out that the road to martial arts is just as he said, it really is right under my feet."

PS: The general outline of "The Blazing Explosion Codex" is partly taken from "Tao Te Ching", "Heavenly Immortal Golden Elixir Heart Method" and "Great Wisdom Treatise".

Black Monkey cured the electronic sheep's tail, and struck while the iron was hot to complete all the achievements in the second round, so I wrote a little less in the past half month.

(End of this chapter)