"The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy here was much stronger than at Tianhao Peak, where I lived. Perhaps that was why Geli's newly inducted disciples were here."
"Master said that the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion would not conflict with other arts, so I could cultivate without worry."
Early in the morning, Luo Bei sat cross-legged in the Dao Heart Hall on Tianyu Peak, sensing the wisps of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy around him.
This Dao Heart Hall was the four-story pavilion built upon an outcropping of rock, its plaque bearing the four wildly cursive characters, Dao Heart Naturally So. Beyond its windows lay a bottomless abyss.
Of Geli's newly inducted disciples, only Luo Bei, Cai Shu, Ling Dong Shan, Lin Hang, Miao Mu, and Gongyang Jinbo remained to cultivate the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art here.
Shushan had stood for a thousand years. Each year, Geli, Tianzhu, and Jingshen each accepted new disciples, sometimes more than twenty, sometimes as few as four or five. Yet according to what Lin Hang had privately told Luo Bei, Shushan's cultivation training had long formed a tightly interlocking system. In the past, disciples were first taught the Purple Profound Qi Art, and only after passing trials were they formally taught the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art. It was the first time that disciples had been eliminated so directly and cruelly as they had this year.
Shushan was famed for cultivating flying swords. Even Yuan Tianyi considered its sword arts and sword incantations unparalleled in the world. Geli, Tianzhu, and Jingshen, Shushan's three branches, each had their own strengths. Over the centuries, Shushan had produced countless magical treasures and flying swords. Some had been obtained by Shushan disciples through chance encounters while training abroad, but most had been forged at Tianzhu Peak. The Tianzhu Peaks specialized in artifact-refining arts.
The Jingshen Peaks specialized in talisman arts, with flying swords as a supplement and spellcraft as their main focus. The Geli Peaks, meanwhile, regarded flying swords as their primary path.
Thus, the arts cultivated by these three branches differed as well. Though Shushan was not like Kunlun, whose spellcraft was foremost under heaven, it likely possessed no fewer than several hundred different cultivation arts.
Shushan was famed for its flying swords, and the Geli Peaks were in truth a pillar of Shushan. The other two branches faintly formed a mutually supporting stance around it. Thus, although Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan had not known much that day, they had been right about one thing: disciples of Geli Peak indeed had more opportunities to train abroad.
Because Shushan's most powerful arts were still its flying sword incantations!
Even Qingcheng and Kongtong, both famous for their flying swords, could only gaze at Shushan's back.
The Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art, an internal elixir Dao art, was the foundation of Shushan's many flying sword techniques!
Only by first cultivating the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art to a certain realm could one control objects, attach a wisp of one's Primordial Spirit to a flying sword, and bind it to oneself as one body. One could even use Sword Induction into Body, nourishing and tempering the flying sword with the cultivated vital essence and guided Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.
Cultivating this internal elixir Dao art was far more dangerous than searching Tianzhu Peak for herbs. Thus, Geli disciples cultivated in the Dao Heart Hall during the day, with a teacher standing guard over them.
Having already memorized this Dao art by heart, Luo Bei found the first step of Shushan's art—entering tranquility—to be no difficulty at all.
Placing his overlapping hands over his lower dantian, Luo Bei slowly inhaled and exhaled according to the art. Almost instantly, he felt faint wisps of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy slip into his body through the crown of his head.
Luo Bei immediately sensed that the spiritual energy of Tianyu Peak was pure and gentle, lacking the thick yet motley impurity of Luofu's energy.
"Is this the effect of the Jade Condensing Pill?"
Following the art, Luo Bei used only his mind to guide the spiritual energy slowly through his body and gather it in the Sea of Consciousness within his mud palace. After it circulated through three great cycles without pause, Luo Bei discovered that even the foul, murky qi tangled with the spiritual energy was instantly scattered away when stirred by the faint purple qi rising within his meridians.
That faint purple qi shrouding his meridians was the medicinal power of the Jade Condensing Pill, which had been called the "Absolute Poison Pill."
Judging from the Jade Condensing Pill's effects, Dan Lingsheng had not lied when he said the final medicinal herb was difficult to obtain. This Jade Condensing Pill was absolutely no ordinary pill.
The spiritual energy of Tianyu Peak had already been exceptionally pure and mild. With the Jade Condensing Pill dispelling foul and impure qi as well, compared with when Luo Bei had cultivated the Mahākāla Secret Method, the difference was like heaven and earth.
"How strange?"
Had some master skilled in qi-observing arts such as the Seven Apertures Eye been present, they would certainly have seen that while Luo Bei cultivated, the wisps of spiritual energy around him rushed into his body as though scrambling to be first. Luo Bei absorbed Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy far faster than the others cultivating nearby, clearly progressing much more smoothly than they were. That was indeed the case. After Yuan Tianyi had forcibly altered his innate bones and meridians with a heaven-defying secret art, Luo Bei's natural aptitude could only be described as astonishing. Cultivation did not feel difficult to him at all. Yet according to the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy he absorbed was to be gathered and refined in the Sea of Consciousness within his mud palace. By rights, given Luo Bei's absorption speed, spiritual energy should have accumulated there very quickly. But to his surprise, after the energy had circulated through his body for dozens of cycles, only a scant few wisps had accumulated in his Sea of Consciousness.
Unlike the golden vital essence refined from the golden True Sun Fire of the Mahākāla Secret Method, the vital essence refined by the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art was bluish-green.
What Luo Bei saw now, in tranquil Internal observation, was several drifting strands of green silk within the vast Sea of Consciousness in his mud palace.
"Perhaps Shushan's art was naturally this slow at the beginning."
Though Luo Bei felt puzzled, he did not dwell on it. He merely continued to practice according to the art with single-minded focus.
What he did not know was that when Ling Dong Shan performed Internal observation, despite absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy several times slower than Luo Bei, he already had several times more threadlike vital essence than Luo Bei.
High above the eighth ring island of the Kunlun Nine Layered Islands, a man dressed in plain, unadorned cloth robes sat suspended in the empty sky, utterly unsupported.
This was a height beyond the reach of even certain ancient strange birds. Not only was the air thin and the cold bone-piercing, but this place also had its own unique astral winds. Within the span of a few finger snaps, dozens of tangible astral winds and high-altitude ice crystals slashed toward the man like sharp blades.
The man remained seated without moving, yet a layer of transparent radiance enveloped him. The blade-like astral winds and ice crystals continuously burst against the transparent barrier around him, creating a spectacular sight.
This man was actually cultivating an art while resisting heaven and earth's might.
"Master!"
Suddenly, the man pressed both hands down into the air and rose to his feet in midair, calling out in delighted surprise.
Huang Wushen appeared not far before him, his eyes closed.
Facing this plainly dressed man, who was both delighted and respectful upon seeing him, Huang Wushen seemed to show a rare trace of satisfaction. "Qi Lianliancheng, your Great Dao Like Heaven Incantation is only one step away from forming a Nascent Soul."
"Qi Lianliancheng!"
So this plainly dressed man, cultivating while resisting heaven and earth's might, was actually Qi Lianliancheng, one of Huang Wushen's four personal disciples and, among Kunlun's current second-generation disciples, perhaps the one with the most profound cultivation!
"Yes, Master. This disciple is dull-witted and still one step away from cultivating a Nascent Soul." Qi Lianliancheng stood with his hands hanging at his sides and nodded respectfully.
"You need not be so modest." Huang Wushen said, "To reach the point of forming a Nascent Soul in merely forty years, with only one step remaining, there have not been many in Kunlun over the past thousand years whose progress was as swift as yours."
"Yet compared to Master, I still fall far short. Even compared to that... to Yuan Tianyi of that day, I am profoundly inferior." Qi Lianliancheng drew a deep breath and spoke with force.
"Your original heart is firm, and you possess such resolve. Your future accomplishments may not necessarily fall beneath mine." Huang Wushen opened his left palm. A bead the size of an egg, radiating red light and sending out ripples of magical power, floated before Qi Lianliancheng.
"Flood Dragon Pill!"
The moment Qi Lianliancheng saw the bead, his expression changed. He cried out in shock.
It was no wonder he reacted so strongly, for this bead was actually a genuine Flood Dragon Inner Core!
Flood dragons were naturally born extraordinary creatures, ancient divine beasts. They were born with Spiritual Sense and understood cultivation by nature. So long as they cultivated an inner core, one day they could ride wind and rain, transform into true Five-Clawed Golden Dragons, shatter the void, and depart—becoming beings comparable to the Tribulation Transcending True Immortals of the cultivation world.
Among ordinary Strange Beasts, flood dragons, innately skilled in wind, water, thunder, and lightning arts, were naturally at the very pinnacle.
Perhaps a Crimson Python cultivated for ten thousand years was still inferior to a flood dragon cultivated for a thousand.
The inner cores cultivated by ordinary Spirit Beasts were already rare treasures to cultivators. Judging from this fiery red Flood Dragon Pill, it had at least a thousand years of refinement!
So long as he refined this inner core and made it his own, Qi Lianliancheng could directly achieve Golden Core Great Accomplishment, break through several barriers in one stroke, and cultivate a Nascent Soul outright!
"Master... this is..." Thus, staring at the Flood Dragon Inner Core floating before him, Qi Lianliancheng was so overwhelmed that he did not dare reach out and touch it.
"If you consume this inner core, you should be able to cultivate a Nascent Soul." Huang Wushen's expression did not change in the slightest as he said calmly, "After cultivating a Nascent Soul, take Qionglai and the others out of the mountains."
"Out of the mountains?" Qi Lianliancheng, whose original heart had long been tempered into firmness, took several deep breaths before steadying himself. Looking at Huang Wushen, he asked, "What does Master wish us to do? Like Senior Brother Bao Tu and the others, go abroad to train by eliminating demons and monsters?"
"For several hundred years, the world's fortune has been shifting. Dao wanes and demons rise. There are ever more people cultivating demonic arts and devilish techniques. If measures are not taken, it may brew another Great Blood Demon Cataclysm like the one several hundred years ago."
"The shift in fortune has reached such a degree!" Qi Lianliancheng's entire body jolted.
"You have already seen Yuan Tianyi's cultivation and the power of Luofu Technique." Huang Wushen also let out a deep breath. "Though Yuan Tianyi has now fallen, Elder Yi received a heavenly omen yesterday. Using divinatory arts, he calculated that Luofu has gained a successor. This child will surely become a great calamity for Kunlun. After leaving the mountains, your task is to find him. No matter the cost, kill him!"
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