Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

Chen Cheng sucked in a sharp breath. His pupils contracted unconsciously, and even his voice was stiff and wooden.

“W-what was that just now… It felt like heaven, earth, and I were all ‘swept’ into the Tai Chi Qi…”

Chen Cheng calmed himself, wanting to re-enter that state.

Unfortunately, his repeated attempts were all in vain.

Even when his Heart Spirit was in complete Meditation, he couldn’t find his way back to that state.

‘It seems that was a fleeting, unpredictable opportunity from the great unknown… not something that can be controlled by human effort…’

‘Forget it. I should hurry up and cultivate…’

Chen Cheng got up and closed the door and windows.

In an instant.

The inside and outside of the meditation room were cleaved into two separate worlds, as if by a knife. Not a single sound from the outside could penetrate the room.

Chen Cheng took out a Mountain and Sea Blood-Nourishing Pill, swallowed it, and sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion.

In just a breath’s time.

A cool, refreshing medicinal energy, gentle as a spring rain, quickly permeated his entire body.

It was continuous, soothing, and long-lasting.

After some time, the Four Gods Profound Body completed a Grand Circulation.

Chen Cheng could clearly feel that the circulation speed of his Blood Qi was at least twenty percent faster than when he had used the Nine Altars Blood-Nourishing Pills.

The amount of newly generated Blood Qi and the degree to which its nourishing feedback strengthened his physique had also increased by twenty percent.

Crucially, the training progress of his Four Gods Profound Body on the panel had also increased by an additional twenty percent.

“This is amazing!”

Chen Cheng opened his eyes, a bright light clearly shining within them.

“The Mountain and Sea Sect truly lives up to its name as a Northern Great Sect! A Blood-Nourishing Pill with similar effects is a full twenty percent more potent than the Nine Altars Sect’s!”

“This small detail speaks volumes. The overall strength of the Mountain and Sea Sect must be greater than the Nine Altars Sect’s!”

‘If I can make a name for myself in the Mountain and Sea Sect… I can only imagine how priceless the expressions on Pang Shixun and Xiang Han’s faces will be when I return to Zhao City in three years.’

At this thought, Chen Cheng immediately focused his Heart Spirit and continued to cultivate with all his being.

Three years wasn’t short, but it wasn’t exactly long either.

If he wanted to return home in glory, he had to give it his all!

「The next day.」

Just as the sun’s first golden rays appeared from behind the mountains, Chen Cheng was already standing on the third-floor balcony.

The bluestone railings were still beaded with night dew.

Barefoot, he stood on the cold wooden planks and slowly began his stance, practicing the Health Tai Chi.

His arms moved as if embracing a large ball, palms facing each other, fingers slightly curled. His waist and spine relaxed and sank as his center of gravity slowly lowered…

His movements were extremely slow, not out of stiffness or hesitation, but as if time itself had slowed, causing his entire being to decelerate.

But no matter how slow his movements were, the True Intent of Harmony, Unceasing, and Nourishing Life continued to circulate normally, bringing him tangible benefits bit by bit.

Without stopping his movements, he slowly closed his eyes.

He tried his best to synchronize his movements and breathing with the rhythm of the waves rolling in from the Sea Marsh.

When the waves rose, he inhaled the new; when the ripples fell, he exhaled the old. He tried to match the rise and fall of his movements to that rhythm.

Time passed, bit by bit.

In the end, he still couldn’t find his way back to last night’s state of ‘I am heaven and earth’.

However, after adjusting the rhythm of his breathing and movements, he felt exceptionally comfortable.

People who leave their homes often have trouble acclimating to a new environment.

But at this moment, he felt particularly in tune with this new land and its waters.

The long winds, the air, the sunlight, the Mountain and Sea… being amidst it all, his body felt at ease and his Heart Spirit was cleansed, as if even his five senses and sixth sense had grown sharper.

“Hoo…”

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze falling upon the vast expanse of water.

His gaze was calm and profound.

In a daze, he felt as if he could see through the golden waves shrouded in a thin mist…

Beneath the shimmering water, a white shadow flashed past. It had a long, slender body and gleaming scales—it was definitely no ordinary fish.

“A Treasure Fish!?”

Chen Cheng collected himself and immediately looked down, confirming that there was no one else on this side of the Sea Marsh’s shore.

He instantly stripped off his outer shirt, took a piece of Golden-backed Exotic Bear Dried Meat, and stuffed it into his mouth to chew.

He stepped onto the railing and leaped down.

The next moment, the bone-chilling waves of the marsh completely enveloped him.

Cold!

Even with his current physical strength, he shivered instinctively. His pores contracted, and a fine layer of goosebumps rose on his skin.

But soon, as the Golden-backed Exotic Bear Dried Meat entered his stomach, a warm current spread through his body, instantly protecting him from the cold.

Of course, he could also form a Transforming Force Barrier to ward off the cold, but that would be a waste of stamina.

Covering only his vital spots with the Transforming Force Barrier was the most cost-effective choice.

His body unfurled in the water like a White Dragon, swiftly closing in on the location where he had just spotted the Treasure Fish.

He hadn’t trained his Wandering Dragon Technique for a long time, so its training progress hadn’t advanced an inch.

But thanks to the solidified panel stats from the Vertical Eye Mark, Chen Cheng’s existing underwater abilities hadn’t become rusty or regressed in the slightest.

His swimming style underwater wasn’t a conventional human stroke, but rather like a White Dragon, undulating its body.

By using Water Manipulation to borrow the water’s momentum, his efforts were twice as effective.

At critical moments, he could even use the Entwining Trait to build up speed. Each undulation of his body added another layer of acceleration, stacking one upon the other, until he was even faster than he was on land.

In no time, he had reached the vicinity of the area he had locked onto earlier.

This patch of water was exceptionally clear. Sunlight penetrated the surface, was shattered by the ripples, and transformed into shimmering golden flecks that scattered across the white sand below.

Chen Cheng hovered in the water and looked down to see his shadow cast below. A few small fish were scattered around, leisurely swishing their tails, as if suspended in a void with nothing to support them.

However, the clarity was limited to the shallows.

The vast expanse of water ahead gradually turned dark green, then deep blue, and finally pitch black.

The darker the color, the deeper the water.

Beneath those pitch-black areas were surely bottomless, invisible danger zones.

Chen Cheng had no doubt that giant deep-water creatures, ten or even a hundred times more ferocious than the Iron-Bone Crocodile Eel, were hiding in there.

Just as this thought flashed through his mind, a long, slender white shadow suddenly streaked through a patch of tender green seaweed in the distance.

The white shadow appeared among the seaweed for only a brief moment, as if someone had unfurled a bolt of fine white silk underwater, only to have it swiftly pulled back by the current.

Chen Cheng’s gaze focused. He activated his Endless Moon Breath and silently approached in that direction.

The seaweed grew denser, its tender green fronds swaying in the water like a young woman’s beautiful hair.

He pushed aside a clump of seaweed and stared intently, his expression instantly becoming complicated.

Ahead, the white shadow reappeared, but it wasn’t a Treasure Fish.

It was a woman.

She was suspended in the clear shallow water, completely unclothed.

Her jet-black hair fanned out like ink, obscuring most of her face, revealing only a sliver of her smooth, white chin and her slightly pursed lips.

Her shoulders were round, her collarbones distinct, and her waist so slender it seemed as though it would snap with a gentle pull from the current.

Her skin was snow-white, so white it was almost translucent. Sunlight cascaded through the water’s surface, casting mottled light and shadows on her body, making her skin appear even more lustrous, like a piece of fine jade.

Seaweed swayed beneath her bare, jade-like feet, and a few small fish darted past her toes.

She was perfectly still, as if asleep, or perhaps listening to a sound from the depths that only she could hear.

Suddenly.

She suddenly whirled around, her gaze fixed on a dense clump of seaweed ahead.

There was nothing unusual there.

On her exceptionally beautiful face, the anger slowly faded, and her furrowed brow gradually relaxed.

However.

What she didn’t know was that Chen Cheng had anticipated her movement and hidden back behind the seaweed half a step ahead.

Through the swaying seaweed, in the fleeting gaps, Chen Cheng could still see her.

‘There are giants in the deep water… but what about the shallows?’

SWOOSH—

Just then, a golden fish’s shadow shot out at high speed from a patch of seaweed on the other side.

The woman reacted extremely quickly, giving chase at once.