Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

"Concentrate entirely on guiding your internal energy; do not become distracted!"

Lu Chen gave the order in a deep voice.

"I want to see just how fast this internal energy can circulate!"

After speaking, Lu Chen began to gradually increase the speed at which his mental energy moved within Peng Rui's body.

Having practiced this technique for over a month, Lu Chen was very familiar with which meridians it passed through, and his mental energy moved faster and faster.

After just a few major cycles, the operating speed reached about twenty times that of Peng Rui's own internal energy.

Suddenly, the flow of internal energy deviated from its original meridians, and Peng Rui's body trembled violently.

Lu Chen's mental power also stopped immediately.

Fortunately, Peng Rui's internal energy was very weak at the moment, so even if he made a mistake, the damage to his body was extremely limited, and he recovered in just a few minutes.

When Lu Chen used his mental power to fight against the external internal force of "Ghost's Sorrow," he suddenly withdrew his mental power, causing the internal force to lose its target and backfire, which made the opponent spit out a mouthful of blood.

This is still an extremely crude application of external internal force that does not pay attention to the circulation of meridians.

Lu Chen believed that if internal martial arts masters like "Guoshanfeng" and Xue Ting made a mistake while exerting their full power and suffered a backlash from their internal energy, their injuries would be much more severe than those of "Guijianchou".

They could lose their fighting ability directly, or even die on the spot.

The method I just figured out—using mental power to help others cultivate internal energy—is still controlled by the cultivator himself, who controls the flow of internal energy along the meridians.

The telekinetic force propelled it forward, essentially like forcibly attaching a turbine engine to a slow-moving bicycle and throwing it onto a highway.

Cultivators have never adapted to such a fast speed of internal energy circulation, so the difficulty of controlling the direction is unimaginable.

Even a small oversight can cause a deviation from the original meridians, resulting in a backlash against oneself. This is bound to happen and cannot be avoided.

This method can only be used on people like Peng Rui who have just developed a little internal strength.

After resting for a while, Lu Chen stopped speeding up and maintained his mental power at about twenty times the speed of Peng Rui's own internal energy circulation, pushing his internal energy through more than a dozen large cycles.

There were two more mishaps along the way, but each time the interval was longer than the last.

Clearly, Peng Rui himself is gradually adapting to the state of high-speed internal energy circulation.

"Peng Rui, try running a loop yourself!"

Lu Chen reduced the intensity of his mental power to a level where he could barely sense the internal force and had almost no influence on its operation.

It took me two whole hours to help Peng Rui circulate his internal energy at high speed.

Although it increased his internal energy cultivation efficiency twentyfold, making him several times faster than Xue Ting, a genius with outstanding talent.

However, this method is based on taking up Lu Chen's own time and energy.

How could Lu Chen possibly spend so much time every day helping his subordinates cultivate their internal energy?

If it cannot solve the problem once and for all, this method is rather useless.

Moreover, even if Lu Chen were willing to spend one or two hours every day to train a few trusted experts, it would only be possible in the early stages when his internal strength was still weak.

As internal strength increases, the cost of making mistakes also increases.

If you forcefully use your mental power to propel your internal energy at high speed, you may accidentally suffer a backlash from the internal energy and be seriously injured.

Half an hour later.

"Your Highness, this time I circulated my internal energy on my own, and my speed was even faster."

After another cycle ended and his internal energy returned to his dantian, Peng Rui slowly opened his eyes.

"Moreover, I can clearly feel that with Your Highness's help, my internal strength has increased slightly in just two or three hours."

"I am very pleased with the results achieved today."

During this half hour, Lu Chen used his mental power to sense Peng Rui's internal energy circulation.

Even in the first cycle after I withdrew my mental power, the speed at which my internal energy circulated in my meridians was more than twice that of the beginning.

The cycle that was just completed was even close to Xue Ting's level back then.

It seems that the human body, including the brain, nerves, and meridians, has a function similar to muscle memory.

Having personally experienced the state of internal energy being propelled by mental power and circulating at high speed within the meridians, even after the propulsion of mental power is lost, the feeling of that high-speed circulation state still remains.

Once you get back on your own, it's easy to find your rhythm.

At this moment, although the speed of internal energy circulation is far less than when it is propelled by mental power, it is still much faster than the original speed.

Moreover, as the internal energy completes its cycle again and again, the speed continues to increase.

Lu Chen currently does not know the limit to the growth rate of this internal energy circulation speed.

Even in its current state, he forcibly used his mental power to transform a subordinate who, despite having found the feeling of Qi and cultivated a trace of internal strength, was of mediocre talent into a genius who could practice internal martial arts on par with Xue Ting.

"Peng Qing, I hereby promote you to the rank of centurion of the sixth grade of the Imperial Guard and reward you with a thousand taels of silver."

Lu Chen spoke up,

"From today onwards, you have only one task: to practice your internal energy diligently every day and make your internal energy circulate as quickly as possible."

When you encounter a bottleneck and can no longer accelerate, I will help you as I do today.

"I want to see just where the limits of this internal martial arts technique truly lie!"

. . .

Inside a luxurious private room at Yihonglou.

"Your Highness, I invited Prince Yan to the brothel alley yesterday, but he refused."

Guo Shoulu reported to Lu Chen.

"It's probably because he's become very familiar with me and has come to regard me, a notorious playboy from the Marquis of Wuding's household, as a harmless drinking buddy."

This time, he didn't make excuses; he told me directly that Duan Chaoyong had sent him to leave the capital to "purchase medicine."

I then arranged with him to see him off outside Xuanwu Gate tomorrow.

"In order not to alert the enemy, I have never asked you to inquire about the time when Prince Yan left the capital."

The judgment I made about this person's previous solo departures from the capital was based solely on his excuses for declining your invitations.

Lu Chen nodded.

"This guy is a very vigilant veteran. Every time he gets a message, he sends people to follow him, but no one knows how he left the capital or where he went."

This time, we finally have the exact departure time and location of this person from Beijing.

"Your Highness, when people drink too much, they can remain vigilant once or twice, but if it happens too often, they will eventually reveal their true colors."

Guo Shoulu continued,

"I recently hosted a banquet for Prince Yan in Goulan Hutong. After drinking, I saw him playing pitch-pot with several girls and noticed something amiss."

At first, this person just pretended, throwing casually, and his skill level was about the same as the others.

Later, seeing that he was about to lose, he was provoked by the words of several girls and threw three arrows in succession, hitting the target every time.

I pretended to be drunk at the time, but I was actually observing him the whole time and saw it clearly.

Wang Ziyan's technique for throwing arrows was extremely tricky, clearly showing that he had undergone long-term training.

I suspect that this person is not the apprentice of a quack doctor who only knows alchemy, but a hidden master of concealed weapons.

As far as I know, very few people in the martial arts world only practice hidden weapons; masters of hidden weapons are often also good at other martial arts.

Although we now know the exact time he left the capital through Xuanwu Gate, it would be difficult for ordinary people to keep up with him.