Breaking Through

Liu Xiaolou steadied himself. After resting for half a day, he began preparing to open the Neiting point. The Xiangu point was where true essence resided, the essence pool for nurturing true essence. Therefore, the preparation he needed to make was to accumulate true essence in the Xiangu point's essence pool.

On this stage, Liu Xiaolou deeply understood the principle that haste makes waste. He didn't blindly force his way into the Neiting point. Instead, he extracted all the spiritual energy stored in the three spirit stones in his hand, converted it into true essence within his body, and accumulated it in the Xiangu point's essence pool.

After the three spirit stones were completely depleted, they turned into powder and ash. At this moment, the Xiangu essence pool was like a reservoir blocked by a dam, its water level rising higher and higher, its stored power growing stronger.

Until the moment the "dam" could no longer hold.

Liu Xiaolou finally opened the floodgates, allowing the potent true essence to surge towards the Neiting point. It churned and reverberated at the Neiting point's blockage, rinsing it back and forth, before finally breaking through and flowing towards the Lidui point.

The Neiting point was responsible for regulating qi and relieving pain, treating mental disorders. After passing this hurdle, Liu Xiaolou's mind jolted, and he felt his consciousness clear significantly, his perception of his surroundings increasing by a third.

The last acupoint of each meridian was the most difficult to open. It not only related to the acupoint itself but also to one's state of mind. This state was profound and mysterious, sometimes feeling like a barren desert, other times like a sudden storm or a gentle breeze, or even a flash of inspiration, which cultivators also called enlightenment. Having experienced the life-or-death struggle at Jinping Mountain Villa, Liu Xiaolou had grasped this enlightenment, and the greatest difficulty had been overcome. The rest was to continuously flush it with true essence.

After an unknown amount of time, the moment the Lidui point was broken through by spiritual energy, all forty-five acupoints of the Foot Yangming Meridian were opened. He felt his entire being calm and centered, with a smooth flow from top to bottom, an incipient feeling of floating and flying. Of course, this so-called floating and flying was purely an illusion; he was far from reaching such a state. However, according to the Xuanzhen Scripture, reaching this point in cultivation meant he would at least no longer be plagued by gastrointestinal discomfort.

After ten years of cultivation, on this day, Liu Xiaolou finally opened four meridians and entered the Qi Refining third layer.

To reach the Qi Refining third layer, he needed to go back and open the second meridian of the three Yin meridians of the hand – the Hand Jueyin Meridian.

The Hand Jueyin Meridian had only nine acupoints on each side, but each acupoint was a major one: Tianchi, Tianquan, Quze, Ximen, Jianshi, Neiguan, Daling, Laogong, and Zhongchong. All nine major acupoints contained essence pools, making it one of the few meridians in the twelve meridians that could accumulate and nurture true essence. To open this meridian, the required spiritual energy was more than for any previous meridian.

Liu Xiaolou gathered the true essence accumulated in the spiritual pools of the now-opened Hand Taiyin, Hand Yangming, Foot Taiyin, and Foot Yangming meridians, attempting to strike the first acupoint of the Hand Jueyin Meridian, Tianchi, but found it increasingly difficult. The true essence from various locations could move freely within the four meridians, which was already commendable. This was because each had its own responsibilities and could not be easily substituted for another task.

Unfortunately, his spirit stones were all used up, so he had to find another way.

If only he had come from a renowned sect, free from the worry of spirit stones, Liu Xiaolou sighed with regret.

He took out the spiritual herb and examined it for a while but couldn't figure it out. He decided to leave his seclusion to find someone to identify the spiritual herb, to see if it could be consumed directly or exchanged for spirit stones.

Time passed unnoticed in the cave, but Liu Xiaolou estimated that since the rice cakes he brought were long gone, and he had eaten dozens of the fat fish that Big White Goose had brought, at least two months must have passed. Surely those cultivators from the Dongyang Sect wouldn't still be searching Wulong Mountain for this long?

He retraced his steps and cautiously poked his head out of the tree hole. He felt a prickle on his scalp and reached up to pinch it, only to find a large centipede that had just fallen onto his forehead.

This centipede was over an inch long and wriggled incessantly. Although not a spiritual creature, its large mouthparts were extremely sharp, comparable to knives and swords. It was a Earth Dragon, unique to Wulong Mountain.

Liu Xiaolou had suffered from this centipede before; even his Qi Refining second layer skin couldn't withstand an Earth Dragon's bite. A bite would immediately leave a bloody gash. Now, holding the Earth Dragon, a thought struck him. He let it bite his hand, but it only left a white mark. He was greatly satisfied.

This was a significant effect of the Xuanzhen Cultivation Method, which cultivated both the internal and external, making the body as one.

While opening meridians, he was also forging his body.

He flicked the Earth Dragon away and crawled out of the tree hole, quietly heading down the mountain.

The sun was nearing noon, and it was becoming increasingly muggy. It must be the height of summer, though he wasn't sure which period it was. With a new meridian in his body that accepted coolness from the outside, the muggy feeling had significantly decreased.

Furthermore, when running on the mountain path, he felt much more relaxed than before. With each leap, he covered an extra foot compared to before. If that cultivator from the Dongyang Sect named Han came to chase him again, Liu Xiaolou was confident that Han wouldn't even see his back.

It was a habit of rogue cultivators on Wulong Mountain to go down the mountain before returning to it. When Liu Xiaolou reached the village at the foot of the mountain, he chatted with a certain aunt and a certain nephew, and then went to Uncle Tian's house to inquire in detail. It turned out that his seclusion had lasted for over two months!

As for the cultivators who had entered the mountain earlier, they were indeed from the Dongyang Sect, but they seemed to be looking for the wrong person, focusing their attention on his sworn brother Wei Hongqing. Wei Hongqing had not participated in the Hero Assembly and had long since disappeared without a trace, so naturally, they couldn't find him. After searching for over half a month on Wulong Mountain, they found nothing and had already left.

With this, Liu Xiaolou's heart settled, and he returned to Qianzhu Ridge with peace of mind.

He had been away for two months. The fence was still standing firmly, undamaged, because each wooden stake was deeply planted in the ground, with a very stable foundation. However, weeds had overgrown it, the tallest reaching the top, just like in the courtyard. Combined with the dilapidated thatched hut, damaged by the rain, it gave off an air of desolation and decay.

Liu Xiaolou went to the bamboo forest and chopped some long bamboo, cutting it into sections. He then went to the main house to repair the thatched hut.

The Big White Goose had returned at some point and was looking up at its master working on the roof beams.

Liu Xiaolou shouted, "Don't just stand there, weed the garden!"

So, the Big White Goose lowered its head and pecked at the weeds with its flat beak, moving quite quickly. Before long, it cleared a patch of open ground.

This creature, if you said it wasn't a spiritual creature, it could understand human speech and do human things; if you said it was a spiritual creature, it couldn't absorb the essence of the sun and moon or spiritual energy. Even if it ate something good, it would just turn it into droppings and excrete it, without showing any of the changes expected of a spiritual creature.

He supposed it was just a companion. In this Three Xuan Sect, it was just him and the goose, relying on each other.

He had done this kind of house repair work countless times, and both Liu Xiaolou and the Big White Goose were skilled. By the time night fell, the work was finished. They ate a pot of river crabs brought by the Big White Goose and then rested in the thatched hut.

The next day, Liu Xiaolou went to Ghost Dream Cliff. He pushed aside the vines covering the cave walls and stood in the stone cave for a long time. Finally, he emerged with a sigh. Wei Hongqing had truly gone and never returned.

With his master gone and no longer having this close friend, Liu Xiaolou felt a deep melancholy. The vast Wulong Mountain seemed empty, truly lonely.

Regardless, cultivation had to continue. Liu Xiaolou clenched his fist and walked away.

Turning to the foot of Ghost Dream Cliff was the rushing Wu Chao River. He pulled a bamboo raft from the grass by the riverbank. It was covered in mud but tied very sturdily and was undamaged.

This was the bamboo raft Wei Hongqing had made. Before, when going down the mountain, Wei Hongqing often made a bamboo raft and floated downstream. Liu Xiaolou had accompanied him many times, enjoying the convenience of the bamboo raft. Now that Wei Hongqing was gone, it naturally fell to him, his sworn brother, to inherit the bamboo raft.