Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

Southern Palace, Chonghua Palace.

Lu Chen placed one hand on Peng Rui's back as he sat cross-legged and circulated his internal energy, using his mental power to push the other's internal energy to circulate rapidly through his meridians.

During this period, every few days Lu Chen would spend half a day using his mental power to help Peng Rui practice his internal energy and explore the limits of the internal martial arts technique offered by Xue Ting.

So far, among the old subordinates transferred from Linqing to the Prince Ying's Palace Guard, only Peng Rui has developed internal strength.

Not long ago, Lu Chen ordered the Prince's Palace Service Department to make numerous copies of the internal martial arts techniques presented by several members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Whether they are from the Imperial Guard or eunuchs and palace maids in the Prince's Palace, as long as they have been in the Prince's Palace for more than a year and are willing to try, they can obtain a manual for self-cultivation from the Chengfeng Department.

Moreover, Lu Chen also issued a reward within the Prince's Mansion, stating that regardless of their original status, as long as they could find the Qi sensation and cultivate internal strength, they would be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver and could become his personal guards.

As expected, many people received cultivation manuals from the Chengfeng Division due to the generous reward.

Of course, Lu Chen didn't have high hopes. After a year of training, only one out of a hundred people had found the feeling of Qi.

Even if everyone in the Prince of Ying's mansion practices, it's estimated that only a few people will be able to develop internal energy.

Since cultivating internal martial arts masters relies so heavily on talent, let's take the elite route and focus on cultivating a few "geniuses" who excel in internal martial arts!

After using his mental power to assist Peng Rui's cultivation for the first time, Peng Rui secluded himself to cultivate for a few days, and his internal energy circulation speed improved again, becoming several times faster than Xue Ting had been back then.

But at this point, the speed of internal energy circulation stabilizes and can no longer be improved on its own.

At this moment, Lu Chen once again used his mental power to push his internal energy to circulate in his meridians at an even higher speed, until he started making frequent mistakes before stabilizing the speed.

Afterwards, Peng Rui secluded himself for several days to consolidate his results and further improved the speed of his self-directed energy cultivation.

This cycle continues endlessly.

More than two months have passed, and Peng Rui's speed in cultivating his internal energy has increased to an astonishing level.

The time it took to complete one major cycle was nearly fifty times shorter than when he first found the Qi sensation.

It is ten times faster than Xue Ting's cultivation speed back then.

This time, when Lu Chen's mental energy entered his body from his back, he could feel obvious resistance.

Peng Rui was his subordinate and knew that he was "using his internal energy" to help him cultivate, so it was impossible for him to actively mobilize his internal energy to resist the entry of mental energy into his body.

In other words, after only two months of cultivating Qi perception, his internal strength had already reached the point where he could form a passive defensive barrier within his body.

Can it go any faster?

Using his mental power to propel his internal energy, Lu Chen increased the speed by another 20% after several large cycles at the speed that had finally stabilized a few days ago.

The first major cycle almost went wrong several times.

Fortunately, after more than two months of training, Peng Rui's ability to control his internal energy had greatly improved. Just when his internal energy was about to deviate from its course, he managed to bring it back on track.

Unfortunately, when the second major cycle was halfway through, the internal energy finally went astray and entered a side path.

This time, Lu Chen could clearly feel that the other person's internal organs had been severely impacted.

At the same time, a trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth.

"Peng Qing, focus your energy and regulate your breathing. Do not be distracted!"

Lu Chen immediately withdrew the mental energy that was propelling his internal force forward, and used only a very low amount of force to sense the other party's injuries.

After about fifteen minutes, Peng Rui finally managed to reorganize his internal energy and store it in his dantian.

However, his internal injuries are still present, but fortunately they are not too serious. He should be able to recover after ten days to half a month of rest.

It seems that using mental power to enhance one's talent for internal energy cultivation can only go so far.

Lu Chen used his mental power to forcefully push the other party's internal energy to circulate at high speed. Compared to cultivating on his own, the speed was indeed much faster, but the probability of making mistakes also increased significantly.

With internal strength enhanced to this extent, the cost of making a mistake has become too great to bear.

Even so, Lu Chen transformed Peng Rui's aptitude for internal martial arts cultivation from mediocre to super genius in just two or three months!

The level of internal energy that Lu Chen sensed today should be barely enough for actual combat.

It took Xue Ting two or three years to reach this level of skill.

In about a year, Peng Rui should be able to reach the bottleneck that Xue Ting mentioned and become a master of internal martial arts.

In the more than ten years after encountering a bottleneck, Xue Ting's internal strength continued to increase by about 20%, and did not stagnate completely.

However, the efficiency of cultivation is getting lower and lower.

For ordinary internal martial arts masters, even someone with Xue Ting's excellent aptitude who encountered a bottleneck after ten years of training, any improvement after reaching that bottleneck would be negligible.

Therefore, many masters of internal martial arts, after encountering a bottleneck, begin to drastically reduce their training time within a few years.

He even gave up on continuing to cultivate his internal energy and instead focused on researching different ways to apply it.

But Peng Rui is different; his cultivation speed is ten times faster than Xue Ting's.

Even if the cultivation efficiency drops to less than one-fifth or even one-tenth of the original, it is still worthwhile to continue cultivating.

If one truly cultivates for ten or twenty years, one's internal strength might reach a terrifying level.

Very few people can develop a sense of Qi, and Lu Chen cannot change that.

But it would be enough to cultivate just a few top-notch experts.

. . .

midnight.

In a side room near Leitan in Xiyuan.

"It's really not easy to find an opportunity to come here and see you."

On the messy bed, Chen Furong rested her head in Wang Ziyan's arm and asked softly,

"Regarding Empress Fang's matter, what instructions does the leader have?"

"The cult leader's order is to use this opportunity to take the emperor's life!"

Wang Ziyan leaned close to Chen Furong's ear and whispered something.

"What?!"

Chen Furong's body visibly trembled.

"Actually, I did consider that the cult leader might take the opportunity to assassinate the emperor."

However, I was still quite surprised to hear you say these words.

Assassinating the emperor and organizing palace maids to cause trouble are completely different things.

If I were to organize a disturbance among the palace maids, I could find a way to make others believe that I was working for the Empress, that I would be protected by her, that my life would not be in danger, and that I would even receive benefits afterward.

They could even try to have the little palace maid whom the Empress had sent to Yikun Palace as a spy become the ringleader.

This tactic of having them assassinate the emperor wouldn't work.

Even the most ignorant palace maid knew that this was a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of her family.

I wouldn't even dare mention assassinating the emperor in front of them.

"Could it be that the cult leader wants me to take action personally?"

"Aren't you afraid you'll betray me if I force you to do a mission that guarantees your death regardless of success or failure?"

Wang Ziyan chuckled softly.

"The leader is so smart, how could he do such a stupid thing?"

Of those who infiltrated the palace back then, including you, weren't you all quick-witted?

You're an orphan whom the cult leader picked up from the roadside and raised; you don't even have a relative to take hostage.

Such a person is not fit to be a suicide squad member.