Chapter 63 Is My Golden Finger Broken?

Morning sunlight streamed through the window, falling upon Feng Xue's face. As the alarm clock rang, Feng Xue mustered immense willpower to break free from the embrace of the quilt, retrieving his garments from the Pot-Heaven Bag to change.

Thanks to this precious item, given Lucheng's damp and bone-chilling winter cold, had his clothes been left hanging in the room, getting up in the morning would undoubtedly have subjected him to a thoroughly freezing jolt.

"I'll try lowering the output power of the Fire-Conjuring Incantation later to see if I can develop magical tools like a Garment-Warming Incantation or Space-Heating Incantation."

Retaining the habit from his days as a web novel author, Feng Xue absentmindedly pulled out a notebook and jotted down the thought. Right above this entry was "Development of a Charging Magical Tool Based on the Lightning-Conjuring Incantation."

Dallying as he dressed, Feng Xue sensed the concentration of primordial energy in the room. Before he could even speak, Moying swallowed up the residual energy in a single whale-like gulp, then drifted over to his side with an expression that clearly said, "I know what you're about to make me do."

Feng Xue merely chuckled at this, picked up the scroll from the bedside table and tucked it into his robe, and then pushed open his bedroom door.

"I figured you'd be waking up around now. Go wash up, breakfast will be ready in a moment!"

Liu Yunxi's voice drifted over from not far away. Without bothering to check if she could see him, Feng Xue simply nodded to himself, took out a jade medallion inscribed with the character [Purify], channeled his magic power to cast it around his body, and then rinsed his mouth with a little water, which counted as washing up. As the Dietary Art unfolded, Feng Xue's daily routine officially began.

Ever since accidentally learning about the concept of camp-and-guard Qi yesterday, Feng Xue had put a bit more thought into his breakfast today. As his focus locked in, the feeling of the "warm current" broken down by the Dietary Art dispersing throughout his limbs and bones became even more detailed.

Not wanting this sensation to vanish, Feng Xue took a few bites and stood up. Amidst Liu Yunxi's bewildered expression—wondering, "There's nothing wrong with the taste today, is there?"—he began practicing his Body-Forging Technique of his own accord.

As movements akin to calisthenics commenced, those delicate wisps of warm current began to dissolve into his body, gradually disappearing without a trace, yet Feng Xue still managed to faintly grasp a sliver of the sensation.

Without wasting a breath, he immediately sat back down and gorged himself once more. As soon as the warm current surged, he resumed the Body-Forging Technique.

Repeating this cycle five times, even with the blessing of the Dietary Art, Feng Xue felt a slight bloating in his abdomen, prompting him to finally stop eating. He stepped out of the room, stood in the courtyard, watched the crowds passing by outside, and began holding the static stance facing the winter morning sun and biting wind.

As the duration of his stance increased, he gradually began to hear the drumbeat of his own heartbeat, feel the expansion and contraction of his arteries, and sense the surging of his bloodline. That sensation was somewhat akin to holding a conch shell to one's ear and listening to the rise and fall of the tide.

Amidst this perception, Feng Xue slowly developed a feeling akin to blind men touching an elephant; it seemed as though he were tracing the distribution of the blood vessels within his body along with the surging of the blood.

"Is this similar to 'Inner Vision'?" As a web-novel writer, Feng Xue instantly formed a comparable hypothesis in his mind. Although it fell far short of the clarity of true "Inner Vision" where one could vividly observe the interior of the body, it at least counted as "Inner Tactility" (Note ①).

"So that's how it is. This is the sensation of 'Qi and Blood' in the static stance? But my cultivation is still shallow, so I can only perceive the 'Blood,' while the 'Qi' traveling through the meridians is still far behind."

Following the descriptions in the secret manual, Feng Xue continuously adjusted his standing posture in rhythm with his breathing and pulse, making his muscles cycle between relaxation and tension, little by little feeling the warmth transmitted through the blood vessels into his limbs and bones.

"Indeed, this sensation is identical to the warm current obtained from the Dietary Art. The difference is that the Dietary Art extracts energy, the Body-Forging Technique absorbs energy, and the static stance perceives energy. Following this pattern, the dynamic stance should be about guiding or controlling energy."

Pondering this internally, Feng Xue began mapping this logic onto the theory he saw yesterday—"Camp and Guard circulate continuously, the five viscera generate the five Qis"—and found it fit without any flaws. As for whether this was strictly true, Feng Xue didn't really care; after all, the lexicon of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon was closer to a philosophical reference anyway. Qi might not strictly be Qi; it could also be energy, nutrients, or blood circulation. Since that was the case, why couldn't he use this logical framework to fill in content that matched the setting?

If he had been given any other golden finger, he probably wouldn't have dared to do this, but who made his current cheat code "Fate Lock"?

As long as it doesn't kill you, push it to the brink of death—this was his core mindset and logic. In fact, the more reckless, the better. Half-baked outcomes like hemiplegia or paralysis were precisely what needed to be avoided. As for actually becoming paralyzed... if he really became paralyzed, he'd just have Moying toss him onto a locomotive and head to other worlds to see if there was a way to fix it!

Just as Feng Xue was entertaining extremely dangerous thoughts in his mind, a ragged figure appeared on the street. With a bitter expression and clothing that had clearly seen better days, the person even carried an unpleasant smell of old age. Passersby, regardless of wealth, subconsciously steered clear of him.

Yet this person seemed unbothered, simply walking past one luxurious mansion after another. He didn't dare knock on doors or ring bells; whenever he saw someone, he would simply bow with cupped hands, attempting to beg for a few mouthfuls of food.

Beggars were not particularly common in Lucheng County, but neither could they be called rare. After all, farmers' resilience to risk was terribly weak in this era; a slight mishap at home inevitably triggered a famine. If it were a wealthier village, neighbors might lend a helping hand, but more often than not, they had no choice but to come into the city to beg for scraps—at the very least, they could rely on the warm outer walls of brothels and opium dens to try and survive the bitter winter.

However, how many estate owners would be up at this hour, and among the servants forced to work early in the morning on such a freezing day, which of them didn't harbor a bit of resentment? If the master of the house was benevolent, fine, but what right did a mere servant have to play the philanthropist? Not to mention, if you give alms today, what will you do when they return tomorrow?

Yet beggars understood the realities of the world. Once dawn broke, they had no choice but to move about; if they waited for someone else to come chase them off, they might well receive a severe beating.

Having met with closed doors all the way, the beggar eventually wandered outside Feng Xue's yard. Seeing Feng Xue standing in the courtyard, he immediately bowed with cupped hands and pleaded:

"Have pity, master, spare a bite to eat..."

Although Feng Xue was engrossed in the experience brought by the static stance, he hadn't entirely shut off his perception. Hearing the voice, he didn't open his eyes, but instead swept his over-the-shoulder peripheral vision across. Seeing that it was a beggar, he couldn't help but frown slightly.

However, since this world possessed an underworld bureaucracy system, Feng Xue couldn't entirely disregard whether concepts like hidden virtue or karmic merit existed here. Still, having heard too many stories about fake beggars before transmigrating, when preparing to accumulate some hidden virtue, he decided to first activate his Heaven-Longevity Observation to check whether the beggar was genuine by observing the shift in his own intention to give alms and any changes in the beggar's remaining lifespan.

However...

"Wait, why does this person have no remaining lifespan at all?!"