Slow Progress

"He's putting on a bold front!"

Unless one had cultivated to the realm of flying through the air and need not fear a misstep and a fall, who would dare walk up there, much less fight on it?

Such thoughts immediately rose in the hearts of Hong Jing, Wen Ninghou, and the others.

But what made their minds tremble and their bodies stiffen was that after Luo Bei spoke those words, he merely glanced at them before walking toward One Blade Heaven.

Luo Bei walked straight up to the sheer cliff, only some two feet wide—barely enough room for one person to stand.

"Master!"

On either side of the cliff lay bottomless abysses. Chaotic clouds churned below, and fierce winds howled between the mountains, making Luo Bei's eyes and nose sting. Yet his state of mind grew ever firmer instead! The scene of Yuan Tianyi bringing him to the Forbidden Death Abyss surfaced in his mind. Master, today your disciple is competing with others, but this One-Blade Cliff is a trial of life and death. Just as you said, it will surely make my true heart even more steadfast!

After drawing a deep breath, Luo Bei stepped forward and walked onto it!

"Junior Brother Luo Bei! Don't!" Lin Hang could not help crying out anxiously as Luo Bei took that step.

"Senior Brother Lin Hang, it's nothing." Luo Bei turned back and smiled faintly at Lin Hang, then continued onward.

Step by step, he walked along that One-Blade Cliff!

Step by step! Every step seemed to hammer against the hearts of everyone present.

In the blink of an eye, Luo Bei had slowly walked several zhang forward!

Before stepping up, he had even smiled faintly at Lin Hang.

Now, that smile, along with Luo Bei's utter lack of hesitation or fear, appeared to Hong Jing, Wen Ninghou, and the others as the greatest possible contempt!

Wen Ninghou's eyes instantly reddened, and the blood throughout his body surged straight to his head.

"Do you think you can scare me off like this?!"

"I refuse to believe that a disciple who only just entered the sect can walk up there while I cannot!"

Wen Ninghou too walked straight onto One-Blade Cliff!

Everyone present nearly stopped breathing as they watched Luo Bei and Wen Ninghou walk along the cliff, one ahead and one behind.

Suddenly, a fierce gust swept past, sending Cai Shu's black hair flying and making her robes flap loudly.

"Oh no!" Cai Shu's face instantly turned deathly pale. She saw both Luo Bei and Wen Ninghou sway several times atop the cliff, and each sway made her heart clench.

The wind was strong and cold. Yet Wen Ninghou's back was already drenched in cold sweat.

The flush on his face had vanished as well, leaving him frighteningly pale.

When he had first stepped onto One-Blade Cliff, his blood had surged with fervor, and he had cast aside every thought. With such vast, righteous vigor rushing through him, he feared neither ghosts nor gods, much less One-Blade Cliff.

But after taking only a few steps, the mountain wind blew over him, and he looked upon the sights on either side of the cliff. The blood that had rushed to his head instantly sank back down.

The immense mental pressure of every step hanging on the razor's edge between life and death was not something a person with his level of inner cultivation could bear.

Under such circumstances, once even the slightest fearful thought arose, it would instantly become a vast ocean, drowning every other thought within it!

After only a few dozen steps, Wen Ninghou's legs had already begun to tremble uncontrollably.

His entire Primordial Spirit trembled without cease, as if confronting some Fear Heavenly Demon.

This gust sent his body swaying wildly. After struggling to steady himself, Wen Ninghou realized that there was absolutely no way he could keep walking.

Not only could he not continue forward, he did not even dare look down. He could no longer remain standing!

Yet Luo Bei was still walking onward!

Was he truly not afraid of death?!

At the mountain summit, cold sweat streamed down Hong Jing and the others as well. Luo Bei's mere image of walking step by step along the cliff had already crushed their spirits so heavily that they lost all confidence and courage to go up there.

Luo Bei walked straight to the middle of the cliff and stopped.

After stopping, Luo Bei slowly turned around where he stood.

At that instant, Luo Bei gave everyone present the feeling of a small tree growing from the sheer cliff. A violent wind seemed capable of snapping it and blowing it away at any moment, yet it possessed an indescribable pride and aloofness!

The moment Hong Jing and the others met Luo Bei's sharp gaze, their minds went completely blank.

And the moment Wen Ninghou met Luo Bei's eyes, he could no longer hold on. His entire body trembling, he actually collapsed facedown.

His mind completely crushed by fear, Wen Ninghou no longer even dared walk back. He could only prostrate himself before Luo Bei and slowly inch backward!

Lin Hang, Ling Dong Shan, even Miao Mu, who harbored hostility toward Luo Bei, and Xuan Wuqi, who regarded Luo Bei as an enemy—all of them, seeing this scene, felt as though a breath had lodged in their chests, making them want to raise their arms and shout aloud.

"Hand them over." Cai Shu suddenly smiled and extended her hand toward Hong Jing. Her smile was indescribably brilliant, carrying a beauty capable of toppling all beneath heaven.

"What?" Hong Jing, his mind still trembling, did not react at first. Only when he saw Cai Shu staring at his hand did he clench his fist and hand the Mysterious Fire Thunder Pearls over to her one by one.

"With him around from now on, you disciples of Jing Shen had best stop coming to trouble us." After taking the Mysterious Fire Thunder Pearls, Cai Shu turned away without another glance at Hong Jing and the others. Yet from the way she looked at Luo Bei standing atop One Blade Heaven, they all understood what she meant: unless they too could calmly walk back and forth across One Blade Heaven as Luo Bei had, they would forever be the defeated!

This time, in my clash of spirits with Hong Jing and the others, I walked across One Blade Heaven once. Just as Master said, challenging the boundary between life and death again has indeed brought considerable benefit.

But this kind of cultivation that tempers the soul and strengthens the true heart can only come through fortunate coincidence. If I deliberately try it again, it may not have the same effect.

That night, in his room on Tianhao Peak, Luo Bei slowly exhaled. He was once again drenched in sweat, as though he had just been pulled from water, and he thought this with some delight.

Although cultivating the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion required him each time to endure the agony of ruptured and tempered meridians, Luo Bei persisted every day. Each night, he continued until he had utterly exhausted his strength and could not even enter the initial state of tranquil selflessness before stopping his practice.

According to the method of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion, after the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy he absorbed had circulated through ten heavenly cycles, it would begin tempering and strengthening Luo Bei's meridians, sinews, and bones. This Body Tempering, which continuously refined his body as though it were in a furnace, produced boundless agony and required vast reserves of willpower and strength to resist. In the past, after Luo Bei completed ten heavenly cycles, he could at most endure another ten before his mind and physical strength both reached their limits, leaving him unable to continue.

But what pleasantly surprised Luo Bei today was that he had endured a full fifteen heavenly cycles before he finally could go no further and reached his limit.

Moreover, after he stopped cultivating, though his body and mind were utterly exhausted, he felt an unprecedented clarity and refreshment, as if he were floating toward immortality. After resting only a moment, Luo Bei felt his blood and qi rumbling through his body, while the strength in his arms and legs seemed so full it was about to overflow. With a crack, Luo Bei snapped off a corner of the wooden table beside his bed with a casual twist of his hand.

It seems that these days of cultivation, added to walking back and forth across One Blade Heaven today, tempering my soul, forging my will, and the Azure Snail Immortal Fruit, have allowed my Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion to make some breakthroughs.

Master said cultivating the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion was nine deaths for every chance of life and required one to suffer pain that ordinary people could not endure. Since I have progressed like this now, it seems I have not cultivated incorrectly. Cultivating the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion was simply meant to be this way.

But why has my Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art progressed so slowly?

After resting a while longer, Luo Bei forced himself to focus and look inward. He discovered that within his Sea of Consciousness, the vital energy previously condensed by the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion had seemed like faint clumps of golden mist. Now, however, it had condensed into many threads of golden vital energy, intertwined and entwined like a loose ball of golden string. Yet Luo Bei also discovered that the azure vital energy formed by his Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art had increased by only several dozen faint strands compared to his first day of cultivation.

With a whoosh, Luo Bei concentrated and threw a punch with all his strength. His intent followed his will, and he felt his blood and qi surge. The punch carried ample force and produced a faint explosive crack in the air. The azure vital energy within him also circulated, flowing through the meridians of both arms. Yet Luo Bei saw that only a faint azure glow appeared over his hand. Compared to the cluster of azure light Cai Shu and Hong Jing had brought forth during their fight, this faint glow fell far short; even compared to Ling Dong Shan and the others, it was greatly inferior.

Could it be that they did not heed Dan Lingsheng's words and secretly practiced even while resting at night?

That would violate teacher's instructions, and if discovered, they would receive severe punishment. Tomorrow, I'll secretly ask Cai Shu, Ling Dong Shan, and the others.

Feeling hungry, Luo Bei took a steamed bun from the table and slowly chewed as he thought this.

At this moment, Luo Bei had no idea that his Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art was progressing slowly not because he spent too little time cultivating, nor because his method was wrong. In truth, with willpower as firm as his and such courageous, relentless diligence, if he cultivated only the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art, he would likely have become Shushan's fastest-advancing cultivator in centuries.

The reason his Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art progressed so slowly was solely because he cultivated the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion!

At the beginning of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion's first level, Blood Refinement Mercury Paste, ten parts of qi were divided into nine parts for refinement and one part for nourishment. Nine parts of vital energy were used to temper and repair damaged meridians and flesh, while the remaining one part of true qi was slowly used for nourishment. That single portion of vital energy was barely enough to moisten the meridians and flesh. Luo Bei's meridians and flesh were like parched earth lacking rain, while the vital energy condensed by the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art was naturally gentle and nourishing. As it flowed through Luo Bei's body, it was like parched land suddenly receiving sweet rain—how could it not desperately absorb it?

Thus, of the vital energy condensed by the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art, nine-tenths were invisibly absorbed by Luo Bei's meridians and flesh, leaving at most one-tenth behind. As a result, his cultivation speed for this art naturally dropped by nearly tenfold.

Yet this nourishment provided excellent assistance to the cultivation of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion. A night of tempering, followed by a full day of nourishment, made it possible for Luo Bei's progress in the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion to be even faster than Yuan Tianyi had anticipated.

For even Yuan Tianyi had not expected that Luo Bei's group would be directly taught the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art, nor had he expected that this art would offer such powerful support to the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion.

And Shushan's decision to teach Luo Bei and the others the Great Dao Direct Pointing Cui Xu Art directly was not unrelated to him either. Thus, the karmic threads of this world, past and future alike, were truly beyond anyone's ability to see through.

What even Luo Bei himself did not know was that in less than a month, he had already broken through the first level of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion: Blood Refinement Mercury Paste!

After reaching this realm, Luo Bei's blood and qi would, under the impetus of the remaining golden vital energy condensed in his Sea of Consciousness by the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion, churn and surge without pause. His blood and qi would become heavier and more condensed, their ability to nourish his body increasing severalfold, while his strength would continue to grow.

After breaking through the first level, the second level would involve vital energy driving blood and qi to temper bones and skin. By then, Luo Bei's body would become exceedingly tough. Even ordinary Martial Masters in the world who did not cultivate Daoist Arts might not be able to harm him.

At the same time, from the beginning of the first level's cultivation, the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion had continuously tempered Luo Bei's meridians. Cultivators of inner alchemy Daoist Arts usually referred to themselves as furnaces and cauldrons, likening the human body to a vessel that contained cultivated vital energy. The most profound aspect of this Body Attainment of Sainthood art, unmatched under heaven in Luofu, was that it continuously transformed this "furnace and cauldron," allowing it to contain ever more vital energy until all was finally fused into one, no longer distinguishable from each other.

If Luo Bei had known this, then upon entering tranquility and looking inward again, he would likely have discovered that his mud pill Sea of Consciousness, where threads of golden and azure vital energy drifted, had already become far more spacious than when he first began cultivating.