"Where was I?" Xanda palmed his face as he suddenly had a feeling that taking in this external disciple would end up bringing him trouble.
"The path to become an immortal."
"Yes. Since the first part of the Celestial path has been lost, we are only left with the martial arts path."
"There are a total of five major realms in the martial art path starting from beginning to last: External Refinement, Internal Refinement, Martial Artist, Grand Martial, and Supreme Martial."
"Supreme Martial is the last realm before you become an immortal and start using the Celestial path." Xanda explained and saw Finn raise his hand again.
"What realm are you?" Finn asked with curiosity.
Xanda smirked and gave his answer with pride, "None of your business. I ain't coming to your rescue if you get in trouble. I'm only doing this as a favor."
Finn pouted and replied, "I was just wondering. I don't want to find out later that I was taught by a bum."
"I'm going to ignore that comment since I'm definitely not a bum. If you ever become famous enough, you will understand that learning from me was your greatest blessing." Xanda heavily nodded his head, trying to give off an expert demeanor.
But with his chubby cheeks and bruises all over his body, he looked at anything but an expert. He looked more like a victim.
He didn't inspire any confidence from Finn.
Confidence that could have allowed him to know of the secret of the purple heart, though he wouldn't have had a clue to what it was anyway.
"Sure, can you explain the realms after the Supreme Martial realm? What's the difference between the martial art realms and the immortal realms?"
"Of course there is a difference and they are big!" Xanda replied.
"But there is no need to explain it to you. Getting to the External Refinement realm is already going to be difficult for you. So you can forget about any realms above the Supreme Martial realm."
"You don't know them, do you?" Finn pointed out, which caused Xanda to blush with embarrassment.
"Whether I know them or not is not what's important right now. We need to focus on what you can achieve right now."
Seeing that Xanda wasn't denying his lack of knowledge, Finn didn't continue asking and focused on the martial art realms.
These were his main priorities. He wanted to get home as soon as possible. If becoming immortal wasn't necessary to get home, then he would rather focus on what was necessary.
Luckily, it seemed that there was a lot of similarity in this world's standards and the ones back on Earth.
All the martial art realms were divided into five sub stages: early, middle, upper, peak, and transcendent.
What was different was this transcendent stage. According to Xanda, it was optional.
"Peak is the minimum requirement to reach the next realm. For those who have a lot of potential and talent, they can try to reach the transcendent stage."
"This is the stage that allows a martial artist to surpass the normal limits of their realm. Allowing them to fight across realms."
"This goes beyond what is allowed by the heavens, so reaching this stage will always trigger a tribulation. A divine punishment from the heavens. If you survive, then you will have the power to fight across realms and be untouchable in the same realm. If you fail...that's the end of your martial art journey."
Xanda patted his fat belly after finishing his explanation and looked at the noon sun. His stomach growled, and he turned to Finn.
"Let's take a break here. I'm famished."
"Wait, you didn't explain the External Refinement realm yet or how to reach it?" Finn interjected as he didn't want to stop.
"Why? You haven't even opened your spirit meridians yet. We can take our time."
Finn quickly said, "I don't want to slow down. Can you just show me a basic martial art first before you go."
Seeing that he was so stubborn, Xanda couldn't bother to argue. He flipped a few pages in the book and pointed to several diagrams and instructions.
"The pictures show the steps to reach the External Refinement realm using a now forbidden martial art called Yin and Yang Rising. This is what I'll teach you when you open your spirit meridians so you can get an early look."
"Thank you! I won't forget this." Finn said with appreciation and gratitude.
Xanda waved his hand and rolled out of the room using his wheelchair. Completely unaware that Finn was planning on practicing this forbidden martial art early.
Even if he did, he wouldn't have worried about it. This type of martial art was impossible to practice unless you could sense qi, which required having open spirit meridians.
Although Finn wasn't sure if his spirit meridians were actually open. He still wanted to try out this forbidden martial art.
His eyes were glued to the diagrams and marveled at how detailed they were.
They showed a human figure covered in lines that were completely unlike anything in the human body. In Finn's opinion, these must have been the spirit meridians.
"If only I could actually read these instructions. I don't understand how to do any of the things the diagrams are showing." Finn sighed as he thought he had to give up.
The picture showed a thousand words, but if you were illiterate, then none of those words made sense.
That was the problem Finn was facing. He got a feeling for what the diagrams were trying to tell him, but he wasn't very confident that he was right.
He could only take a guess.
"Step one seems to tell me to face the sun while sitting and taking deep breaths. Let's try it." Finn muttered to himself and went outside.
It was high noon, so the blazing sun was at its highest point.
Finn got into position. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath until his diaphragm was at its limit.
When he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he slowly breathed out before taking another deep breath.
Inhaling then exhaling.
Losing track of time, Finn began sweating. The heat of the sun was roasting him alive, but he continued.
Just as he was about to give up, Finn took another deep breath, but this time, something different happened. He felt something hot enter his nose.
It quickly traveled through his nose, throat, and settled in his lungs.
"Hot, hot, hot!"
The heat of whatever he breathed in began burning his insides. Finn wanted to breathe it out, but he couldn't. His body became as stiff as a statue.
He couldn't even open his eyes. He was trapped in his own body and could only feel himself being burned from the inside out.
Later on, Finn would learn that what he breathed in was Yang Qi directly from the sun.
The power of Yang Qi lies in its unadulterated heat and purity. It purified and cleansed everything in its path.
Usually, martial artists would absorb the Yang Qi from sunrises and sunsets since that was when the qi was at its weakest.
The same went for Yin Qi except it came from the moon.
Finn, in his ignorance, had accidentally done something that even more experienced martial artists would not dare do. He absorbed the Yang Qi from the noon sun. Yang Qi was at its peak strength.
His mortal body was completely unable to handle it.
So that burning sensation was really him being burned alive.
"AAAhhh!"
The heat was unbearable.
"Too hot! Help! Xanda, help me!" Finn screamed in his mind as he couldn't handle the pain.
He could sense the taste of death embracing him. If he couldn't get the Yang Qi out of his body, he would soon die.