Golden *Qi*

"What a pity! What a real pity!"

Seeing the somewhat somber atmosphere in the carriage, Deng Baiyi shook her head and sighed dramatically, patting the thick stack of Qi Talismans with a hint of boastfulness. "It's such a shame that this heroine hasn't had a chance to use these Qi Talismans I painstakingly drew! If we had fought just now, I would have sent them running with their tails between their legs!"

Xie Xuanyi couldn't help but chuckle. "Those few talismans don't seem like they'd be enough."

Deng Baiyi blinked and straightened up, resuming her student-like listening posture.

"The Qi Talismans of a Qi Refiner might work on ordinary people, the common ignorant folk."

"But they aren't very effective against desperate people."

Xie Xuanyi said calmly, "People who are willing to risk their lives won't back down. Think about it, if a fight really broke out, what would you do if they braved your talismans and got close to you?"

Deng Baiyi was momentarily stunned.

Yes, these talismans containing Qi were powerful once thrown, enough to blow off the limbs of ordinary mortals.

But there was more than one opponent, and if they got close, she hadn't yet reached the Foundation Establishment Realm of fusing Qi into her body.

Being injured or killed was a real possibility!

Realizing this, cold sweat broke out on her back.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Qi Refiners might seem lofty and untouchable, but they were still made of flesh and blood, and being struck by swords would still cause them to bleed and die!

Xie Xuanyi said slowly, "Ants can kill an elephant. This applies not only to Qi Refiners but also to cultivators who have reached higher realms. The Great Chu Dynasty's iron cavalry has trampled many extraordinary cultivators to death. Deng Baiyi, remember, even if you one day stand at the peak, never put yourself in a desperate situation."

Deng Baiyi stared blankly at the young man before her, momentarily lost in thought.

After a moment, she pursed her lips and asked cautiously, "Legend has it that sword immortals can control their swords to travel through mountains and rivers. How could the Great Chu Dynasty's iron cavalry kill such beings?"

"No matter how powerful a sword immortal is, there will come a day when their toes touch the ground."

Xie Xuanyi smiled and shook his head. "The flying sword lands, the grand formation locks them down, and then the iron cavalry charges. The Great Chu Dynasty's Dragon Shackling Formation can completely sever the Qi of a region. If the person being locked down exhausts the Qi in their body, then who wins the battle? Even with a constant stream of Qi replenishment, a sword immortal is still human, and human strength has its limits. Taking a step back, if they really use iron cavalry to charge a great cultivator, there will definitely be an incredibly powerful figure sitting behind the iron cavalry, overseeing the battle. In a battle between equals, even the slightest difference in Qi can determine the outcome. Most of the time, those hundreds of lives of the iron cavalry are sent to the sword immortal to be killed. The person sitting behind the scenes only seeks for those lives to create that slight difference that is enough to determine life and death."

Deng Baiyi listened intently, feeling as if she were there, unconsciously clenching the talismans in her hand, crumpling them into a pile of wrinkles.

"You have good talent for cultivation."

Xie Xuanyi brought the topic back, speaking softly, "Keep these talismans safe and work hard to draw a few more."

He paused.

He sighed and said with a solemn expression, "If you really want to use these talismans in a fight, perhaps not long from now… your wish will come true."

Deng Baiyi gave a muddled "oh" and then very obediently devoted her mind to the cause of drawing talismans.

However, her heart could not calm down for a long time.

Deng Baiyi suddenly felt that all of this was like a dream.

She had actually started cultivating!

Her world was no longer just Northern Prefecture. A very large door had been pushed open.

On the other side of the door was a vast and magnificent world.

Thinking about it, it was really ironic…

The person who opened this door for her, to this day, she didn't even know his name.

After saying those words, Xie Xuanyi seemed to be resting by the window with his eyes closed, but in reality, his heart was not calm either.

The higher a cultivator's spiritual realm, the more accurate their intuition.

After leaving Jade Pearl Town.

The unease in his heart grew stronger.

The drowning in the Northern Sea, the awakening in Northern Prefecture, the loss of his natal flying sword… it was hard for him to believe that all of this was a coincidence.

After spending these past few days with Deng Baiyi, Xie Xuanyi was certain of one thing.

This girl, with whom he had spent three days and nights, had not been bewitched by any demonic arts, and the Deng Estate servants who were willing to leave Jade Pearl Town with him and go to Qing Province were all normal, ordinary people.

The one who was truly suspicious was the mysterious white-robed Taoist in Deng Baiyi's story.

A prophecy that tied Deng Baiyi and him together.

Now, to find clues about his natal flying sword.

He had to go to Carp Tide City.

Xie Xuanyi knew very well that if the Deng family was not acting strangely, then the road to Carp Tide City would not be peaceful.

That seemingly coincidental "cry for help."

Xie Xuanyi didn't believe it was accidental.

That was why he told Deng Baiyi to draw more talismans, so they could come in handy.

Xie Xuanyi had always trusted his intuition.

He felt that the previous "cry for help" incident would not end just because the Deng Estate caravan had left.

It was obvious.

Ever since he woke up in Jade Pearl Town, he had been caught in some kind of game.

Deng Baiyi was a pawn, and so was he.

Xie Xuanyi tried his best to piece together these chaotic clues, pondering hard, but to no avail...

He suddenly felt a little regretful.

Back then, he only cultivated one sword technique, preferring to drink and sleep in his remaining time, unwilling to delve into any techniques other than the Sword Dao.

At this moment, if he had even a slight understanding of the Eight Trigrams and could perform the art of "divination," to catch a glimpse of the secrets of heaven, he wouldn't be so passive.

"Thinking too much is useless. In the current situation, I can only take it one step at a time."

Xie Xuanyi shook his head, no longer dwelling on these vexing matters, and instead focused his mind on cultivation.

He never expected that this would be another vexing matter—

Qi gathered quickly, but it could never enter his body!

In a sense... Deng Baiyi, who had just entered the Qi Refining stage, was cultivating faster than Xie Xuanyi.

Xie Xuanyi's expression didn't change.

He had a good attitude. If it didn't work once, he would try ten times, and if it didn't work ten times, he would try a hundred times. In these past few days, he had tried to impact his acupoints with Qi nearly a thousand times!

Nearly a thousand attempts to absorb the Qi of heaven and earth, and none of them succeeded... this could already be described as "lacking talent."

Back then, Xie Xuanyi succeeded in opening his acupoint on his first try.

But now, after nearly a thousand attempts, he had only just "moistened" one acupoint.

The Laogong Acupoint in the palm of his hand.

As soon as this acupoint was opened, Xie Xuanyi immediately noticed something different.

He calmed his mind and carefully observed this acupoint. After "internal viewing," he discovered that the Laogong Acupoint was emitting a fluorescent glow!

The Qi that merged into this acupoint was different from the Qi of heaven and earth outside, flowing with a faint golden radiance!

"Wait... Golden Qi?"

Xie Xuanyi stared at the golden glow in his palm, his back faintly sweating.

Just as cultivators have different levels of cultivation, so does Qi.

Normally, the Qi that roams freely between heaven and earth is invisible, formless, colorless, and tasteless. After being forcibly condensed by cultivators using their spiritual power, it will appear as a faint white color.

The greater the density and the higher the purity, the closer the color of the Qi of heaven and earth will be to silvery-white!

And after being absorbed into the body, the Qi of heaven and earth becomes a part of the cultivator's body.

It can be said that the cultivation of most cultivators is the cultivation of that "breath"!

Only great cultivators who have transcended the Grotto-Heaven Realm will possess the so-called "Golden Qi"—

Xie Xuanyi suddenly realized a possibility.

It wasn't that his body couldn't merge with the Qi of heaven and earth. It was that the natural Qi produced in this world was of too low a quality.

This body was very "picky."

These past few days, his nearly thousand attempts had all been effective!

Each time, his body was "feeding"!

It was just that after gathering the consumption of a thousand Qi, he had barely condensed a strand of high-quality Qi!

This discovery left Xie Xuanyi in complete silence.

"So... I need to condense Golden Qi in every acupoint before I can enter the Foundation Establishment Realm?"

He silently stared at the speck of fluorescence in his palm, as small as a grain of rice.

Outrageous, too outrageous.

Relying on the Qi of heaven and earth to fill the acupoints?

That was simply a fool's dream!

Even if the Great Luo Golden Immortal came, this cultivation method would be impossible!

"To advance to the second realm, I must solve the problem of 'Golden Qi'."

Xie Xuanyi took a deep breath and murmured in his heart, "It's impossible to complete the advancement by relying on the Qi that normally roams between heaven and earth."

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