Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 394: 289, Storm Center

The last two pages of the booklet were all about speculation on the fourth section of the Breathing Technique and anticipation for it.

In the penultimate page, the annotator wrote:

Based on some detailed memories before Buddha was kidnapped, cultivating the fourth section of the Breathing Technique is extremely perilous. If successful, patterns like Red Lotus Karma Fire would appear on the face; if one failed, they would become a foolish child, babbling nonsense all day long.

Buddha had never taught the fourth section of the Breathing Technique to anyone else in the secret organization earlier precisely out of fear that everyone would turn into fools.

As for what exactly the blossoming of the Red Lotus Karma Fire on the face looked like, the annotator had never seen it, as Buddha never demonstrated it and only claimed to have succeeded himself.

This detail also matched up with the Knight’s Breathing Technique.

...
Qing Chen realized that this so-called ‘extremely perilous’ likely referred to that one trial by conscience.

Only those who had experienced the trial by conscience would understand how difficult it was.

Had Qing Chen not been resolute in his mind at the time, he might have become a foolish child too—talents like Lin Xiaoxiao, Ye Wan, and Li Dongze all failed to pass it.

Fortunately, Uncle Li Dong was able to adjust their breathing frequencies by controlling their pulses, leading them out of the trial by conscience. Otherwise, these three might also have ended up as fools.

It wasn’t that their talents weren’t good enough, but that the trial didn’t look at talent, only the mind.

Elder Li once mentioned that the secret organization required its followers to devote themselves unconditionally, including the bodies of female followers.

Qing Chen didn’t believe that a leader of such an organization could pass the trial by conscience.

Therefore, when the annotator said they had never seen Buddha display the Red Lotus Karma Fire, Qing Chen highly doubted Buddha had passed the trial by conscience and was just pretending to, in order to control the entire organization.

If all clues were indeed correct, and just as Qing Chen speculated,

then the Breathing Technique currently used by the Knights may very well be plundered from the Snow Mountain by ‘the last twelve Knights.’

Moreover, Yi said that the Knights heavily damaged a very tyrannical organization, a point that seemed to be corroborated by Elder Li.

Although plundering others wasn’t exactly commendable, Qing Chen almost laughed out loud when he thought about Buddha facing twelve A-Class powerhouses.

After all, he wasn’t exactly a good person either; he would have stolen it too, if it were him.

Qing Chen carefully recalled whether Uncle Li Dong had ever mentioned what the Knight’s creed was?

The Knights carved on the cliffs of Green Mountain: Belief, like the sun and the moon, is eternal.

Then, what is this belief? It is eternal youth.

What is most important to the youth? It’s the courage to never regret one’s moves.

It seemed like from beginning to end, the master never really told him to be an upright person; being upright was just the outside world’s opinion of a Knight.

So, what’s done is done, do not regret it, that is the Knight’s creed.

Qing Chen felt like he had come to an understanding.

However, there was one thing he didn’t understand: if the twelve Knights indeed kidnapped the leader of the secret organization, Buddha, and obtained the fourth section of the Breathing Technique, why didn’t they obtain the first three sections as well? Or did they actually obtain them but found the first three sections unuseful?

It is very likely that Buddha intentionally only gave them the fourth section of the Breathing Technique!

Buddha knew all too well how terrifying the trial by conscience was, so he wanted to use it to kill the Knights.

But Buddha didn’t anticipate that Ancestor of Knight, Qin Sheng, with unwavering faith, not only did not become foolish after mastering the fourth section but instead guided the Knights onto a new path because of it.

Having completed seven life-and-death trials, Uncle Li Dong had already reached the demigod level. In the standards of the Pratyutpanna Buddhism, he could already be considered as having achieved perfect enlightenment.

Wait, Qing Chen felt something was off.

In the secret organization, many people mastered the first three sections of the Breathing Technique; the Knights wouldn’t be so careless as to not confirm with others.

Therefore, the Ancestor of Knight must have obtained the first three sections of the Breathing Technique.

After all, it was downtime anyway.

Twelve A-Class powerhouses to steal from a small organization that was at best B-Class—if they had stolen yet missed something, it would be highly uncharacteristic of the Knights…

Qing Chen suspected that the Knights had kidnapped many members of the secret organization back then; it’s just that Buddha was so important that only the incident of Buddha being kidnapped was recorded in the booklet, the kidnappings of others weren’t documented, that’s all.

Then why wasn’t the first three sections of the Breathing Technique passed down by the Knight Organization?

Qing Chen speculated: the first three sections of the Breathing Technique were used to polish the ‘acupoints’ and ‘meridians’, which physically altered the body through energy.

If the body was polished, then the Knight would no longer be Ordinary People.

The fourth section of the Breathing Technique, on the contrary, could lock the Genetic lock, but couldn’t dissipate the polished acupoints and meridians, hence, the Knights who couldn’t revert back to being Ordinary People were unable to continue through the next life-and-death trial.

Even if they did, it would be useless.

Knight Vital Energy appeared in Qing Chen after the first life-and-death trial and could be used to devour the energy generated by the first three sections, thus avoiding the polishing of ‘acupoints’ and ‘meridians’ and avoiding cutting off his own path of cultivation with his own hands.

But the problem was, why didn’t other Knights after reaching B-Class use the first three sections of the Breathing Technique to strengthen the Knight Vital Energy? Why had it been lost?

Could it be that other Knights were unable to absorb the energy produced by the first three sections?

Qing Chen didn’t know; he was an exception, so it was impossible to deduce the situation of all Knights based on himself.

It could be this answer, or it might not be.

The events in the Southwest Snow Mountain were too distant in the past. Qing Chen couldn’t know what exactly happened back then. A thousand years later, all his speculations could only be just that—speculations.