I Became an Immortal in the Mountains - Chapter 6: Breaking Through to the True Martial Realm

The heavy rain gradually lessened. His soaked clothes clung uncomfortably to his skin, so Gu Yuanqing withdrew his consciousness from the mountain and returned to the house.

After changing into dry clothes and toweling off his hair, he sat cross-legged on the bed and once again entered his Mountain Observation state.

The chamber hidden deep underground was beyond his physical reach, but that didn’t stop him from reading the books within it.

With the power of Mountain Observation, anything within Beiquan Mountain lay clearly within his sight.

On the bookshelves, the most numerous tomes were sword techniques—Northern Dipper Sword Art, Wind and Rain Sword Manual, Returning Wind Snow Sword, Soft Cloud Sword, Soul-Chasing Sword Technique, and more.

There were over thirty cultivation methods in total. A rough skim told Gu Yuanqing that nearly every one of them could lead a practitioner to the True Martial realm, and five even held the potential to ascend to the Grandmaster level.

Aside from those, there were nine movement techniques, eleven fist arts, a handful of saber and spear techniques, as well as some cultivation insights and miscellaneous writings.

“No wonder this used to be a great sect. These manuals are their true foundation. Even if the imperial court emptied the Scripture Repository, just this cache alone could revive the Beiquan Sword Sect—if only someone could find it. Buried this deep underground… if not for me, who knows when they’d see the light of day again?”

Gu Yuanqing ignored the old man still busy digging holes outside and immersed himself in the study of the manuals.

He began with the five Grandmaster-tier cultivation arts. Many of these texts were filled with coded language and intentionally altered characters, but fortunately, three of them came with corresponding cultivation notes that helped clarify their secrets.

Time slipped by as he read. Only when he grew too mentally exhausted to maintain Mountain Observation did he stop to rest.

***

The next morning, Gu Yuanqing started his day by cultivating with the Heart-Zen Unity Technique, refining two wisps of spiritual energy before washing up.

The old man brought in breakfast as usual and took away the dishes from the night before.

Gu Yuanqing glanced at the old man’s retreating figure and smirked to himself.

“If he knew that the treasure he’s digging for day and night has already been found by me… what would he think?”

Morning sword practice had become a routine for Gu Yuanqing. After several months, he had already mastered his two original sword techniques to an extraordinary degree. Even a wooden sword in his hands seemed like a divine weapon.

But today, instead of practicing his usual forms, he turned to the manuals stored in the underground chamber. Naturally, his first choice was the Beiquan Sect’s signature technique—Northern Dipper Seven Swords. However, this required the North Sea Heart Scripture to activate, which he lacked. So, he chose to cultivate the Wind and Rain Sword Manual instead, which shared several principles with the Cloak Cross Sword he had practiced before.

With his exceptional talent in swordsmanship, extraordinary comprehension, and vastly improved memory, it didn’t take long for the technique to take shape in his hands. Immersed in the swordplay, his earlier resonance with Beiquan Mountain during the rain suddenly surfaced in his mind.

His sword moves began to evolve—faster, more urgent, each stroke like a gust of wind and a torrent of rain. Suddenly, sword light flashed from the wooden blade, and the air split with piercing whistles like shrieking wind and howling rain.

Outside, the old man chopping firewood abruptly looked up toward Gu Yuanqing’s courtyard.

That’s the embryonic form of sword intent. Once it fully manifests, it becomes one of the keys to the Grandmaster realm!

“Gu Yuanqing is still at the Yuan Practitioner stage. I saw him practicing before—his swordsmanship was good but nothing special. How could he suddenly form sword intent? Unless… someone else has come to Beiquan Mountain?”

“Abba abba!”

The old woman beside him, moving bundles of firewood, patted his shoulder and gestured with her hands.

Suppressing his curiosity, the old man gestured back and resumed chopping.

***

Half an hour passed.

Gu Yuanqing finally stopped, drenched in sweat, his breathing labored, steam rising from his body. His internal energy had been completely exhausted.

He felt incredible—though he didn’t know he had just formed the embryo of sword intent, he was clearly aware of his growth. When he looked back on the White Cloud Sword and Cloak Cross Sword, he now saw countless flaws.

It wasn’t that he had practiced incorrectly before—it was his newfound understanding. Like learning the numbers one and two as a child, but not knowing that infinite decimals exist between them.

He collapsed into a chair, gasping for air, replaying the shifts in his swordplay in his mind.

“It’s not that I learned a better sword technique—it’s that Mountain Observation has changed me.”

“To observe the mountain is not just to look at a mountain—but to understand the world itself. The Dao follows nature. Cultivating any technique, be it sword or spell, is ultimately a process of learning about the world.”

“To put it in terms from my previous life: before, seeing a mountain was just seeing a mountain. But now… I’ve touched the threshold of realizing that seeing a mountain is not a mountain.”

Enlightenments flowed through his heart. Gu Yuanqing felt that his entire perspective on cultivation had elevated.

“Time for a break—then I’ll return to studying the texts. These techniques may not surpass the Heart-Zen Unity Technique, but they can deepen my understanding of cultivation. And every step forward is built on steady accumulation.”

***

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, several more months had passed. It had been nearly eight months since Gu Yuanqing arrived at Beiquan Mountain.

The weather had turned cold, and the mountain was now blanketed in white snow.

The old man was still digging, searching fruitlessly. But Gu Yuanqing… was no longer the same.
Although his passive traits—talent and comprehension—hadn’t changed yet, the mountain now provided him with four wisps of spiritual energy daily, showing that the spiritualization of Beiquan Mountain had progressed significantly.

He had refined 394 acupoints throughout his body, meticulously selected through studying dozens of cultivation manuals and various martial techniques.

***

One night, he sat cross-legged on his bed, circulating his internal energy. The 365 acupoints he had aligned for the core array began to glow faintly. His energy surged through his meridians, linking the points together. The great Celestial Array was beginning to take shape.

Then suddenly—

His energy went out of control. The array shattered. Gu Yuanqing let out a muffled groan as bl00d trickled from the corner of his mouth.

“No… it’s still wrong. At least thirteen of the chosen acupoints are incorrect.”

The human body has countless acupoints—just the major ones number over 720. The difficulty wasn’t refining them, but connecting them into a formation. Only by using refined acupoints as nodes and guiding them with energy could one construct an array and open the True Martial Hidden Repository.

The combinations were endless. Even with his exceptional perception, Gu Yuanqing couldn’t find the right method quickly.

He drew in a wisp of energy from the mountain, which quickly healed his internal injuries.

After a long while, Gu Yuanqing opened his eyes and stared at the cultivation route he had mapped out. He sank into thought, then made a decision.

“Enough. This will be my final attempt. Trying to deduce a method to open the Divine Martial Repository using only techniques for the Celestial and Profound Martial Repositories… that was just a fantasy.”

“The Dao gives fifty paths; the Great Evolution uses forty-nine—there is always the one path that escapes. But my foundation is too weak, and my resources too few. I was being overly ambitious.”

Having made up his mind, Gu Yuanqing readjusted his method.

He redirected his energy through 108 acupoints. His breath suddenly shifted—smooth, unified, and completely internalized.

“It’s time… to open the True Martial Repository.”

He focused his mind into his Crimson Palace. With the support of the formation, ripples stirred within. Hidden within the mustard-seed dimension, the True Martial Repository revealed its form and was instantly locked onto by his consciousness.

His cultivation method shifted. The refined acupoints blazed to life, their combined energy piercing into the Repository and pulling it into the material world.

Beads of sweat dripped down his face. Gu Yuanqing poured every ounce of strength into the effort. His expression twisted from the exertion.

Boom!

The Repository fell into the Crimson Palace.

His body sank heavily. The bed frame cracked beneath him, and he landed on the ground, which also caved slightly—like he had suddenly turned into a mountain.

His consciousness flickered. The Repository almost slipped back into the mustard-seed realm, but Gu Yuanqing quickly stabilized the formation and channeled his energy into it again.

Within the True Martial Repository, chaos stirred. Earth, fire, wind, and water surged in all directions.

Who knew how much time passed?

Finally, the Repository stabilized.

Gu Yuanqing let out a long breath and turned his attention inward—to begin exploring his True Martial Repository…