The Beginning, Body Refining

"The... the gold and lead... lead and mercury, they are not within the five elements. All things are generated, born from the yang... and arise from the yin..."

A thin, small youth in green robes walked along the mountain path from Tianyu Peak to Tianhao Peak, silently reciting to himself. He limped along, carrying a large bamboo basket in his hand. This was Lin Hang, delivering food for Luo Bei.

If anyone on Shushan were to concentrate and listen to what he was reciting, they would know that he was still reciting the principles of some ordinary introductory scriptures of Shushan.

Scriptures were generally profound and difficult to read. Being able to recite them fluently aloud often made them easier to remember than reciting them silently. However, Lin Hang had a stutter, and often, after remembering a sentence, he would get stuck and forget the next sentence he had originally remembered, unable to recite it. Moreover, he was now assigned menial tasks for a lot of his time, leaving him with far less time for cultivation than ordinary disciples. Naturally, it took him longer to memorize scriptures.

In the eyes of many martial brothers, Lin Hang was not only useless but also reclusive, introverted, and unsociable. But if one were to notice the basket in the youth's hand now, they would see that not only was the basket covered with a thick cloth, but even the inside of the basket was heavily wrapped with cloth.

This was clearly done to keep the food warm.

Just because Luo Bei had shown him a little care, not looking at him with a different eye, this reclusive youth silently repaid him in this manner.

"Senior Brother Lin Hang, you're here?"

With a creak, as Lin Hang pushed open the courtyard gate, Luo Bei's clear voice came from inside.

"Lo... Luo Bei... Junior Brother..."

"Come in quickly." Luo Bei quickly opened the door and beckoned him inside.

Although it was just a simple gesture, Lin Hang felt a warmth. But... one was a genius valued by everyone on Shushan, and the other was a good-for-nothing whose two years of cultivation were worse than a beginner disciple's three months... the distance between them was truly too great.

Lin Hang silently placed the still-warm food on Luo Bei's table.

"You... you..." Lin Hang originally wanted to tell Luo Bei that Senior Brother Ming Zhe had given special instructions that if Luo Bei found the food unappetizing or had anything he liked, he could mention it. Because cultivators like Xiao Xiao basically rarely ate, the food in the ordinary Shushan mess hall was probably only of a few types. But what made Lin Hang's jaw drop was that before he could even utter a few words, Luo Bei had already finished a bowl of rice like a whirlwind and was already serving a second bowl.

"Is... is today's food very... delicious?" Seeing Luo Bei quickly finish the second bowl of rice, Lin Hang finally managed to say a complete sentence.

"Yes," Luo Bei nodded with a chuckle. "Senior Brother Lin Hang, you haven't eaten yet. I'll finish quickly so you can go back and eat too."

Lin Hang's heart warmed again. "No... no rush... I'm not hungry."

"Actually, you could have eaten before coming next time. But... Senior Brother Lin Hang, there's something I wanted to ask for your help with?"

"Wh... what?"

"My appetite seems to have been particularly large these past two days, and I always get hungry at night... Could you help me bring a bit more food for dinner...?"

"Th... this, of course, I can."

"Thank you, Senior Brother Lin Hang. Oh, right, here, take this. You can use it when you're tired from coming and going."

"This..." Lin Hang immediately saw that what Luo Bei handed him was the Divine Speed Talisman that Zi Xuangu had given Luo Bei that day. This Divine Speed Talisman was nothing to Shushan, but for Lin Hang... it was very significant.

This was not only a few talismans that could save him a lot of effort and time, but also a heavy... friendship.

"You... if you want anything else, you can tell me."

Lin Hang silently accepted the talismans Luo Bei handed him, tidied up the bowls and chopsticks that Luo Bei had finished, and as he exited the room, he said this sentence completely.

Lin Hang himself didn't realize that this was the most fluent sentence he had spoken in nearly two years.

Walking on the now dark mountain path, Lin Hang did not feel the humiliation of being a Shushan disciple who had to serve others for the first time.

Because Luo Bei treated him as a friend!

"How did Junior Brother Luo Bei's appetite become so big? He ate three bowls of rice and is still hungry at night. Tomorrow I'll bring more food and some pastries for him to eat at night." In the biting mountain wind, the thin youth's heart was filled with such warm thoughts.

***

"Uncle-Master Xiao Xiao said that based on my speed of reading and reciting scriptures, in about ten more days, I can go to Tianyu Peak to cultivate with the other martial brothers."

Watching Lin Hang's figure disappear into the dark mountain scenery, Luo Bei thought with some worry, "I wonder if they will be suspicious of my current large appetite..."

It turned out that when Luo Bei eagerly cultivated the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion that day, as the vital energy in his body circulated for the tenth cycle, his meridians felt as if they were being forcibly torn apart. An unusually intense pain shot straight into his Sea of Consciousness, making his scalp tingle and his Primordial Spirit tremble.

But before cultivating, Luo Bei knew through the direct transmission that if he lost his consciousness at this moment, the vital energy in his meridians would become uncontrollable, and the scattered vital energy would rampage through his body like a breached flood. Even if he didn't die, he would be severely injured.

External injuries were easy to treat, but internal injuries like this were the most dangerous. Cultivation was difficult, largely because of this.

Therefore, even though the vital energy passing through his meridians felt like being cut by knives and pricked by needles with every minute, Luo Bei tightly guarded his Spiritual Sense. Only after this surge of vital energy circulated through all his meridians for one cycle and returned to his Sea of Consciousness, and after he emerged from the state of internal observation and contemplation of non-self, did Luo Bei realize that he had only cultivated for half an hour but was already drenched in sweat, as if he had just been pulled out of water. Moreover, his entire body's meridians still felt like they were being torn apart, and his body trembled uncontrollably. His physical strength was almost exhausted.

"Logically speaking, introducing spiritual energy into the body should nourish the body, and one should feel comfortable and light. Why would the meridians be damaged, as if broken? Did I cultivate incorrectly?" After cultivating the Mahākāla Secret Method and previously reading the chapters on cultivating one's character and calming the spirit on Shushan, Luo Bei had also understood some principles. He vaguely felt that something was wrong and thought he had made a mistake in his refinement.

However, for the next two to three days, every time he cultivated according to the incantations of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion and circulated ten cycles, the meridians throughout his body felt as if they were being torn apart. Sometimes this pain could not be resolved for an entire night, like undergoing torture.

After cultivating continuously for two to three days, Luo Bei felt with his Spiritual Sense that the spiritual energy introduced into his body in his Sea of Consciousness was basically just a few faint wisps, not much different from before cultivation. It was nothing like cultivating the Mahākāla Secret Method, where he could clearly feel the spiritual energy condensing and forming a body. It was just that his strength had slightly increased compared to usual, and his appetite had greatly increased. He used to be full after two bowls of rice, but now after three bowls, he ate all the vegetables and still felt hungry in the middle of the night.

In fact, although the founding ancestor of Luofu was exceptionally talented and created the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion, like some people who attained enlightenment through Zen and understood the mysteries of heaven and earth to create peerless cultivation techniques, they had grasped the principles and created the techniques but had not reached the highest peak.

Cultivation was like walking on a road; even if you could see what was at the end of the road, you still had to take it step by step.

And the founding ancestor of Luofu also deeply felt the near-death experience of cultivating this technique. Several generations of disciples had failed to cultivate it and perished both in body and spirit, which was why he later created the Empty Life Extinguishing Sea Glazed Art.

In fact, Yuan Tianyi's Empty Life Extinguishing Sea Glazed Art was a simplified cultivation technique, relatively safe and easy to cultivate, stripped from the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion by several exceptionally talented ancestors of Luofu.

It was like the difference between the Great Capital Heavenly Technique and the Lesser Capital Heavenly Technique of Qingcheng.

For more than ten generations, it was not until the Ancestor Master who built the giant hall for transmitting scriptures within the mountain that Luofu had a place for transmitting scriptures and teaching the Dao, and thus had more and more cultivation technique inheritances and direct transmissions. By Yuan Tianyi's generation, Yuan Tianyi would know everything, as if he knew all things. But by the generation of the Ancestor Master who built the giant hall, no one had cultivated the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion.

Because even the Empty Life Extinguishing Sea Glazed Art was not something that ordinary people could cultivate. Among more than ten generations of ancestors, some did not teach the Empty Life Extinguishing Sea Glazed Art to their disciples based on their aptitude.

Therefore, although Yuan Tianyi knew through direct transmission that cultivating the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion would inevitably involve immense suffering in forging the physical body and invasions by various illusory demonic realms, and that it would involve nine major tribulations of life and death, Luo Bei could not find the specific details in his mind.

In fact, the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion, like the Empty Life Extinguishing Sea Glazed Art, were both cultivation techniques for Body Attainment of Sainthood. The initial stages of cultivation, after introducing qi into the body, were all for body tempering!

Nine parts out of ten of vital energy are for refining, and one part for nurturing. Nine out of the ten parts of spiritual energy inhaled into the body are used to temper the meridians. This tempering of the meridians is like refining steel in a hundred fires, smelted in a furnace and continuously hammered. The meridians are tempered, fused, and strengthened by the spiritual energy. The meridians inevitably suffer damage and then recover, a process that is naturally agonizing. The single remaining part of spiritual energy must then be used to repair the damaged parts within the meridians. Consequently, there isn't much spiritual energy left in the Sea of Consciousness.

Only when one reaches the third level of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion, and the internal and external meridians of the body have been tempered to a certain extent, will the cultivation of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion naturally evolve into a five-part refining and five-part nurturing process.

At that time, the remaining spiritual energy will be used to repair the body. After a considerable surplus remains, it will circulate within the body after the session concludes, allowing the cultivator to unleash incantations.

For any cultivation technique aiming for Body Attainment of Sainthood, once it reaches its final stage and one cultivates the Indestructible Golden Body, the entire body becomes a crucible for Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. Even if its connection to the world is severed, the vital energy contained within the body will be far greater than that of cultivators practicing other techniques. This is why Yuan Tianyi, even after having his connection to the world severed by Huang Wushen's peerless divine power, and momentarily struck by the God-Killing, Immortal-Destroying Three Corpses Exterminating God Arrow, was still able to unleash an incantation that even Ji Ba could not resist.

Therefore, in the end, the entire body truly becomes the world's most powerful magic treasure. Any spell that consumes immense magical power can be cast with ease. However, the progress of this cultivation is clearly much slower than other Daoist methods that focus on nine parts of preservation for every ten parts of vital energy.

Luo Bei did not understand these subtle principles, but he never doubted Yuan Tianyi's words. He only felt that his appetite had suddenly increased, attributing it to the exhaustion from resisting the pain during his nightly cultivation, which required a large expenditure of physical energy. He didn't realize that the tempering and repair of his entire body's meridians also required a substantial supply of nutrients from food. Furthermore, the impurities and waste products from the body and meridians, refined by the cultivation technique, were also expelled through the profuse sweat each night.

"Kan one, Li two, from Yin returning to Yang. Fire one, Water two, from Yang returning to Yin. Water two, Fire one..." Luo Bei unfolded the scripture on the table again. Now, Luo Bei diligently spent his days from morning until dusk learning characters and reciting scriptures. At night, when no one was around, he would cultivate Yuan Tianyi's only bestowed Luofu Art, the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion, with a clear mind and no distractions.