Jiang Fei had never before leveled up any martial skill two ranks in a row, not once in all this time. In fact, among his current martial skills, aside from the newly upgraded Qimen Dunjia, none had ever reached the second level before!
Lightness Skill ‘Threefold Cloud’, the incomplete version of Taiji Fist, Dugu Nine Swords — Jiang Fei had only managed to raise each of these to the first level.
Some, like Dugu Nine Swords, he had wanted to advance further, but lacked the necessary skill points and had to give up.
Others, like the ‘Threefold Cloud’ lightness skill and the incomplete Taiji Fist, he *could* have raised to the second or even third level, but he felt it wasn’t worth it. He’d rather save the skill points for more useful martial skills later on.
This time, however, Jiang Fei barely hesitated before instinctively deciding to level up ‘Qimen Dunjia’—a skill he initially considered rather useless, like bland food you can’t enjoy but hate to waste—by two whole levels in one go.
The reason was simple: after learning Qimen Dunjia, his understanding of the Nine Palaces, the Primordial Eight Trigrams, and related mysteries had instantly deepened exponentially. Compared to the first level of Qimen Dunjia, his diligent studying over the past half-month seemed as insignificant as a single drop of water in a vast river.
And he had only mastered the *first* level! He immediately found his comprehension of the “Tui Bei Tu” (The Back Prediction Book) had greatly increased. Just by recalling its contents, he could now perceive unusual insights he’d never noticed before!
Admittedly, Huang Yaoshi’s Qimen Dunjia wasn’t focused on prediction or fortune-telling; it leaned more towards geomancy (Feng Shui), terrain analysis, land surveying (Kan Yu), and formation arrays. In the novels *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* and *The Return of the Condor Heroes*, Huang Yaoshi featured prominently, but no one ever saw Master Huang playing the charlatan and telling fortunes.
However, many principles are interconnected; mastery in one area leads to understanding in a hundred others. Although Qimen Dunjia and the Tui Bei Tu focused on different applications, their foundational principles were the same. They shared the same origin!
After learning Qimen Dunjia, Jiang Fei had built a solid foundation. Re-examining the Tui Bei Tu became much easier. Many things now seemed self-evident.
It was like Zhang Wuji mastering the Nine Yang Manual; afterwards, learning any other martial art became effortless. What took others a year to achieve, he might accomplish in mere hours!
So, the moment Jiang Fei mastered the first level of Qimen Dunjia, he immediately had this epiphany.
His mind was now filled not only with knowledge about formation arrays and geomancy, but he also gained many insights into the Tui Bei Tu’s interpretations based on the I Ching and the Eight Trigrams. He even felt a vague, intuitive sense, a kind of perception that seemed to premonitively sense events about to happen!
Faced with this miraculous feeling, Jiang Fei, of course, didn’t think twice. He directly chose to upgrade Qimen Dunjia again.
The first level was still somewhat superficial; his understanding of the profound mysteries wasn’t deep enough, so his comprehension of the Tui Bei Tu remained unclear and blurry.
Jiang Fei felt that if he could completely master both Qimen Dunjia and the Tui Bei Tu, it might indeed be possible, just as Master Xuanji had said, to uncover certain great secrets and perhaps even see through the void of reality itself!
Soon, after spending two hundred skill points, Jiang Fei’s Qimen Dunjia naturally advanced to the second level.
Martial Skill: Qimen Dunjia, Level 2 (0/450)
Seeing the skill points required to reach the final, perfected level, Jiang Fei couldn’t help but click his tongue in surprise. The requirement for this level was more than double the previous one, almost matching the 500 points needed for the second level of Dugu Nine Swords!
This indicated that Qimen Dunjia, if truly mastered to perfection, was likely no ordinary martial skill. It was probably an incredibly powerful ability that might prove immensely useful.
Quickly, Jiang Fei closed his eyes again.
He couldn’t clearly describe his current state. Why did he feel this ethereal, almost intangible connection to something vague, a sensation of premonition?
This feeling wasn’t the instinctual alertness an animal feels before danger, nor was it due to heightened perception. As a martial arts expert, Jiang Fei knew exactly what heightened perception felt like—like during his duel with Miyamoto Kazuma, where he could clearly sense everything happening around him.
This current feeling far surpassed mere perception; it was closer to precognition!
Perception and precognition differ by only one word, but their meanings are worlds apart.
Perception uses hearing, sight, even smell to detect someone who already has ill intentions towards you, perhaps as they just begin their attack posture, allowing you to detect and defend against it. Precognition, however, doesn’t rely on the five senses at all. It uses an intangible, spiritual faculty to predict events about to happen—events that previously showed not the slightest sign and are fundamentally undetectable by human means!
Compared side-by-side, precognition is undoubtedly infinitely sharper than perception. It falls completely outside the realm of scientific explanation, aligning more with the traditional concept of a ‘sixth sense’.
“This feeling… is truly marvelous,” Jiang Fei murmured, slowly opening his eyes. They shone brightly as he gazed ahead, as if he weren’t looking at empty air but seeing something fascinating and wondrous.
This was different from possessing great martial prowess, different from the ability to soar through the skies or move unhindered underground, to be invincible. This was something profoundly mysterious, almost touching upon the realm of the ineffable ‘Dao’!
Jiang Fei tried using this strange, mystical feeling to calculate his own fate, to see if he could discern what future events awaited him, to see if he had any romantic misfortunes (peach blossom calamities) coming his way…
The result was a confused haze, dizzying and unclear; he couldn’t make out anything. Then Jiang Fei suddenly remembered: even his master, Xuanji, had said his destiny was unprecedentedly peculiar, a chaotic mix where Yin and Yang were indistinguishable. Trying to see clearly into it himself probably wouldn’t be easy.
“Forget it for now. I’ll try calculating for others later, see if it works, if I can perceive some of those marvelous things,” Jiang Fei pondered internally.
For now, since he had learned Qimen Dunjia and his mind was filled with this knowledge of the I Ching and Eight Trigrams—knowledge impossible to forget—of course, he had to take out the “Tui Bei Tu” and delve into its depths once more!
————————————————————
The October National Day holiday passed, and in the blink of an eye, the summer heat retreated, giving way to late autumn.
In Jin City, the weather had just started cooling down with each autumn rain, while he’d heard some places in the northeast had already seen their first snowfall.
This year’s snow seemed to arrive a bit earlier than usual.
“Weren’t you always talking about taking your Tibetan Mastiff and that hawk of yours hunting?” Ye Yuanyuan drove her SUV into Dao Village.
This was the first time she had sought out Jiang Fei since he ‘humiliated’ and ‘teased’ her in Flower City over a month ago. Enough time had passed that the awkwardness from Jiang Fei’s jesting had mostly faded. As long as Jiang Fei didn’t bring it up, she wouldn’t feel embarrassed.
Jiang Fei’s eyes lit up with pleasant surprise. “You remembered? What, are you planning a hunting trip too?”
Ye Yuanyuan nodded coolly. “I go to the hunting grounds to play around this time every year, if I have the time.”
“Where? That largest hunting ground hub near Beijing you mentioned? Or the one near the primitive forests of Changbai Mountain?” Jiang Fei said, rubbing his hands together eagerly.
True men often have restless elements ingrained in their bones, much like how many men are fascinated by war. Hunting and war are somewhat similar; both provide a thrill. This was Jiang Fei’s original purpose for raising the mastiff and the eagle.
The few hills around Dao Village still had plenty of pheasants and rabbits, but Jiang Fei had long lost the initial novelty and grown somewhat bored. He hadn’t felt much interest in hunting there lately, instead wondering how he might get a chance to go after bigger game…
Ye Yuanyuan was an exception among women.
She had a violent streak. Often, she was more bloodthirsty and cold than men, so Jiang Fei wasn’t surprised she enjoyed hunting too.
“To Beijing. The hunting grounds there recently expanded. The open hunting area is nearly two hundred square kilometers now. Besides, a major new venue just got its operating license not long ago. It has the most prey, including the fiercest. It’s the perfect time to go. It won’t be as interesting later on,” Ye Yuanyuan said.
Opening a hunting ground is no simple matter; it’s harder than starting most companies. The required permits are the most difficult part.
First, the wildlife protection departments—not just one or two, but many need to be dealt with. Without strong connections and background, you’ll get stuck right here. Secondly, another essential requirement for a hunting ground is firearms and ammunition!
The domestic situation speaks for itself. Not just firearms; even controlled knives are explicitly banned. The difficulty of opening a hunting ground is almost higher than opening a shooting range!
Therefore, the scarcity of domestic hunting grounds isn’t due to a lack of wealthy people or enthusiasts, but because the related procedures are too hard to obtain.
“Beijing sounds good! When do we leave?” Jiang Fei agreed.
Although his first choice would be primitive forests, or the Amazon rainforest, or the African savannah—taking Simba and his eagle on a crazy adventure—that was obviously too ambitious and couldn’t be achieved short-term. A trip to a large hunting ground would be a good alternative.
“We can leave tomorrow,” Ye Yuanyuan said.
She glanced at the mastiff, which seemed to understand their conversation and was getting excited like Jiang Fei, panting with its long tongue out, its head like a lion’s. She added, “But if you want to bring your mastiff, we’ll have to drive to Beijing ourselves…”
