Practicing the Art of the Foolish Third Generation

At night, Xu Ying and the Snake Demon Yuan Qi hid in a ruined temple in the rocky mountains. Xu Ying started a bonfire, and Yuan Qi, the Snake Demon, drew close to the flames, warming himself.

The Snake Demon feared the cold. If his Blood Essence circulation became blocked by the cold, he would stiffen and hibernate. Therefore, he liked to stay near the fire at night.

Xu Ying gave him half a duck he had brought, while he himself made do with some dry rations.

Actually, Mount Wu Wang and Qin Yan Cave weren't that far. With their speed, they could reach it in at most a day. However, the journey was fraught with rampaging gods and demons, as well as pursuit from Nu Masters, which had delayed their travel.

Xu Ying took advantage of the twilight, still not completely dark, to explore. He saw that the ruined temple was not large. In front was a Great Hall of Heroes, but he didn't know what Deity was enshrined there. There were no statues, not even an altar.

In the backyard, there was a pavilion. Hanging inside was a Great Bronze Bell, taller than a person, already covered in rust.

Beneath the Great Bronze Bell was a hexagonal deep well. Looking down, it was pitch black, bottomless. Small, calf-thick black iron chains hung from the well walls, their other ends disappearing into the depths.

Xu Ying tugged at a black iron chain; it was extremely heavy. A rattling echo came from the well.

"The Deity enshrined here probably ran off," Xu Ying thought.

He returned to the bonfire, slowly regulating his breathing and Blood Essence. He slowly practiced the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist, saying, "Yuan Qi, I'll teach you the profound method of circulating Blood Essence in the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist. Watch first, then compare it with the scripture."

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi immediately lifted his head, watching how Xu Ying performed the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist while referencing the scripture by the firelight.

Wherever Xu Ying's Blood Essence circulated, light would appear, as if there were a great sun within his body, illuminating his internal organs, skin, and hair, making it seem as if light flowed beneath his skin!

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi was puzzled, "That's not right, did you practice it incorrectly?"

The scripture did not record the phenomenon of Xu Ying circulating his Blood Essence to form a great sun!

The old Niu family, spanning three generations, were all Snake Demons. They all cultivated the Great Sun Guiding Technique and the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist. However, the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist they cultivated was clearly different from Xu Ying's!

As Xu Ying practiced the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist, the great sun of Blood Essence within him grew stronger and stronger, causing white mist to billow from his head!

A faint fishy smell emanated from the mist. This was the impurities refined from his body by the great sun of Blood Essence tempering his flesh!

The Taiyi Guiding Technique already had Thunder Sound Body Tempering, which had long since expelled the impurities from Xu Ying's body. However, Great Sun Body Tempering could temper areas that Thunder Sound could not reach, showing that the Great Sun Guiding Technique also had its unique merits!

However, the Snake Demon Yuan Qi flipped through the scripture until it was tattered, but he couldn't find Great Sun Body Tempering!

"Stop looking. Great Sun Body Tempering is a technique I comprehended while fighting Ding Quan," Xu Ying said. "This tempering technique should be a missing part of the Great Sun Guiding Technique and the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist. It's not difficult to comprehend."

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi was quite indignant, "You can comprehend missing techniques during battle? Are you trying to trick me? Why didn't my grandfather, father, and I comprehend it? Are we all stupid?"

Xu Ying remained silent.

He was a kind-hearted youth.

He continued to circulate his Blood Essence. When his Blood Essence reached its peak, his skin seemed to crack inch by inch. His progress in martial arts had surpassed the limits his body could withstand!

In cultivating martial arts, whether the body can withstand the impact of martial power is extremely important. Forcing oneself to cultivate beyond one's limits will put immense pressure on the body. The more one practices, the less the body can endure, leading to severe internal injuries and hidden dangers!

Just as Xu Ying was about to stop, during the Great Sun tempering of his body, his internal organs suddenly reflected five-colored light!

Unknowingly, the strength of his internal organs had greatly increased, and his Blood Essence became even more vigorous!

It was as if countless air valves had opened in his pores, and Blood Essence gushed out with a hissing sound!

Simultaneously, his heartbeat pounded like a drum in the center of his body, making his chest feel heavy. It continuously generated new Blood Essence, keeping him in a state of peak Blood Essence!

Xu Ying's heart stirred, and he continued to circulate his Blood Essence.

The overflowing Blood Essence condensed behind him into malevolent energy, vital energy, and blood energy, merging together to form the form of an elephant-headed, human-bodied elephant god!

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi looked at the malevolent energy behind Xu Ying, his mind in a bit of a daze.

Xu Ying had obtained the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist that morning, and the fifth level, the Elephant God Phenomenon, was refined that day while fighting the Green Robe Deity.

Now, while teaching him this martial art, he had actually refined the sixth level of the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist!

"It seems my old Niu family's brains aren't really that bright," the Snake Demon Yuan Qi grumbled inwardly. "My grandfather, my father, and I aren't that smart. But there are smart ones. A Ying is so smart; if I learn from him, I won't have to think, right? Thinking doesn't do much good anyway."

Xu Ying stopped cultivating, feeling a little embarrassed.

He had come to teach the fist technique, and in a daze, he had broken through, forgetting to tell Yuan Qi the key points.

The fifth level of the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist, the Elephant God Phenomenon, was merely a vague phantom formed by Blood Essence, offering Xu Ying little improvement.

The sixth level, Blood Essence Malevolent Body, had form but no substance, yet it contained immense power, capable of providing Xu Ying double the strength, incomparable to the Elephant God Phenomenon!

The Taiyi Guiding Technique was originally a top-tier Qi cultivation method. Xu Ying's mind was pure, and he cultivated without any other thoughts, so his progress was naturally rapid.

After seven years of cultivation, Xu Ying's Blood Essence cultivation had long been god-like and demonic!

As the saying goes, "thick accumulation leads to explosive release." He had seven years of accumulation, plus extraordinary comprehension, allowing him to advance thousands of miles a day when practicing the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist.

However, with his potential exhausted, further progress would be extremely difficult.

"Brother Niu, the key to cultivating the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist lies in Blood Essence and body tempering. Only with sufficiently potent Blood Essence and a strong enough body can one cultivate to the next level. My comprehension of Great Sun Body Tempering is perfect for you."

Xu Ying meticulously explained Great Sun Body Tempering to the Snake Demon Yuan Qi. This tempering technique was indeed more suitable for the Snake Demon.

The Snake Demon's body was like a straight rod. Circulating Great Sun Body Tempering for one cycle was very simple, without needing to circulate it to limbs and other branching parts.

For example, when Xu Ying cultivated himself, besides tempering his internal organs, he also had to temper his limbs and head, which was very troublesome. Even more troublesome was tempering the fifth limb, which wasted time and Blood Essence.

Although he didn't know the use of tempering the fifth limb, if it wasn't strong, being kicked there would still hurt a lot.

Yuan Qi didn't need to do this; while others practiced once, he could practice three times.

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi practiced the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist beside the campfire, circulating the Great Sun Body Tempering. The two methods complemented each other, proceeding in parallel.

He was a Snake Demon, and practicing fist techniques was quite difficult, requiring him to contort his body into attack stances.

As a Snake Demon, to practice a martial art that didn't suit him and to persist until now, Xu Ying admired his perseverance greatly.

Xu Ying sat by the campfire, taking out the cloth bundle he had "borrowed" from Ding Quan in the firelight.

Using his snake-catching skills, he dislocated Ding Quan's bones and joints, and in the process, managed to retrieve the cloth bundle from Ding Quan's chest. He hadn't even had time to examine its contents.

The cloth bundle wasn't large. He unfolded it to find a few taels of silver shards and a handwritten manuscript.

Xu Ying put away the silver shards, rejoicing in his heart, "Now I can eat many full meals!"

This was the largest sum of money he had ever seen in his life!

Xu Ying opened the manuscript again, reading it in the firelight. It described a method for refining Qi. He skimmed through it and let out a soft sound of surprise. The Qi refining method in the manuscript was unlike any he had seen before.

He had seen fifty to sixty types of cultivation methods, all of them being guiding techniques of the Demon Race. They gathered the essence of the sun, refined essence into Qi, and strengthened their own Blood Essence, as the saying goes, "refining the surplus of the sun to supplement one's own deficiency."

However, the cultivation method recorded in Ding Quan's manuscript was about drawing power from within the human body, taking it from the body itself, without drawing a single bit from the outside!

"Could this be a method for cultivating the Secret Treasury?"

Xu Ying's heart pounded violently. He studied it carefully, but his eyes went blank.

The book spoke of a secret treasury in the human brain called the Ni Wan, surrounded by chaos, containing immense energy. By mastering the Ni Wan and drawing its power, one could refine the Hidden Scenery and achieve immortality, possessing abilities that were unfathomable to gods and ghosts!

However, the book provided no information on how to find the Ni Wan Secret Treasury, nor how to open it. Even if the cultivation method fell into his hands, he wouldn't be able to practice it!

The book only explained how to draw from the Ni Wan and refine the Hidden Scenery!

From the information revealed in the book, to become a Nu Master, one not only needed Dragon Seeking Positioning to find the location of the human body's secret treasury but also needed the help of a Great Nu Master to open it.

But even after opening the secret treasury, one wouldn't become a Nu Master!

One still needed a special cultivation method to draw power from the secret treasury and refine the Hidden Scenery.

The Hidden Scenery was not the secret treasury itself, but something refined postnatally by drawing energy from the secret treasury.

"The minor official Ding Quan must have been cultivating the Ni Wan Secret Treasury and refined the Hidden Scenery Ni Wan Palace. Even though his cultivation was imperfect, his strength was already terrifying. This shows that the Zhou family's true Hidden Scenery method must be even more powerful!"

Xu Ying put away the scripture Ding Quan had copied and thought, "However, with my Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist breaking through to the sixth level, I'm not afraid of Ding Quan. If I fight him again, without Yuan Qi's help, I'll definitely be able to win!"

He had that confidence!

The cultivation methods of the Demon Race, combined with martial arts skills, were absolutely no less than the Nu Arts of a Nu Master!

Suddenly, the sound of waves crashing against the shore came, growing louder and louder. Xu Ying quickly looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the Snake Demon Yuan Qi had reached a critical juncture in his cultivation, with a brilliant light erupting from within him!

"Roar--"

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi opened his mouth, but a melodious elephant's cry erupted, deafening!

This was the sign of Blood Essence circulating throughout his body, cultivating the fourth level of Divine Elephant Strength!

Not only that, but Blood Essence overflowed from all parts of his body, gradually forming a divine being with an elephant's head and a human's body behind him!

This was the sign of the fifth level of the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist!

"I... I've cultivated the fifth level of the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist! I've cultivated Divine Elephant Strength, the Elephant God's phenomenon!"

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi was both shocked and overjoyed. He suddenly swam out of the dilapidated temple, coiled his tail around a large stone weighing two to three thousand catties outside the temple, and flicked its tip, sending the stone flying into the sky!

Yuan Qi laughed heartily, his long tongue undulating like waves, very agile.

As he laughed, he suddenly burst into tears.

For three generations, for two to three hundred years, no snake had ever cultivated the fourth level of the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist. Now, with Xu Ying's guidance, he had cultivated to the fifth level in just a short while!

He had never imagined that cultivation could be so easy, so simple!

"It won't be long before I can cultivate to the sixth level, and even shapeshift into a human! Once I shapeshift into a human, wouldn't my progress in practicing fist techniques be a thousand miles a day?" He was extremely excited.

Of course, his one hundred and twenty years of arduous cultivation had brought his Blood Essence to the right level, and by obtaining the correct method for practicing the Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist, he was able to progress so rapidly.

Suddenly, Xu Ying raised his hand and extinguished the campfire, saying in a low voice, "You just broke through, and the circulation of Blood Essence within you made elephant cries, which will surely alert the nearby Deities and the constables pursuing us. We must leave quickly!"

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi's heart grew solemn. He hurriedly followed Xu Ying and whispered, "Traveling at night is extremely dangerous; the nights in Lingling are not safe!"

Xu Ying also didn't want to travel at night. The mountain forests were dense under the moonlight, making it difficult to discern directions in the deep mountains. Not only was it easy to get lost, but with a moment's carelessness, one could fall into an abyss or encounter fierce beasts.

However, they had no choice but to leave. If they were cornered by the pursuers in the dilapidated temple, they would be doomed!

The man and the snake groped in the dark, carefully walking down the mountain. Suddenly, the sound of surging waves came from afar, growing louder and louder, and in an instant, it turned into a deafening sound like the sky collapsing and the earth cracking!

The ground beneath Xu Ying's feet trembled violently. He quickly leaped onto a towering tree beside him.

The young man leaped several times, reaching the treetop. He followed the sound with his eyes and was stunned.

Under the moonlight, amidst the vast mountains, a brilliant white line rose higher and higher. It was a river wider and fiercer than the Xiao River and the Xiang River, appearing out of nowhere, its waters surging, submerging everything in its path!

"Impossible, there's no such river around Lingling!" Xu Ying stared, dumbfounded.

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi also climbed onto a branch. After a brief glance from afar, he saw ghost fires flickering erratically in the river. He suddenly remembered a similar event recorded in an ancient book he had read and exclaimed, "It's the River of Oblivion!"

His voice became sharp, hurting his ears, "The River of Oblivion from the Underworld has changed its course! Hurry up the mountain! Let's go up the mountain quickly!"

He leaped down from the tree at top speed. Xu Ying also jumped down from the tree, and the man and snake sped towards the dilapidated temple on the mountain peak.

The River of Oblivion, which came from the Underworld, surged and churned, flowing from amidst the mountains. Wherever it passed, flowers and grass withered, trees died, and all birds and beasts lost their vitality!

Strangely enough, the river, which was over a hundred zhang above the ground, seemed to be confined by invisible banks. The water did not flood everywhere but flowed along the invisible riverbed.

However, the stone mountain where Xu Ying and the others were located was right in the center of the riverbed!

---- Many thanks to Cang Hai X Kuang Ren, Shen Chao _ Qi Qi, Cheng Feng 2015, Fei Xiang Jia Ba Jie, 8538fg, San Sheng Yuan Yi Lei Na, and other alliance leaders for their rewards. I am immensely grateful and deeply moved by this chapter!