Technique Breakthrough

Under the cover of night, Nanmo City was like an immensely vast, wild beast, coiled within the even more expansive and primal wilderness of the Southern Border.

This was the southernmost tip of the Luoyu Immortal Sect's territory, a border city in the truest sense.

As the sun set, the people working in the various logging areas, farms, fisheries, spirit fields, and plantations outside the city began to find a moment's respite, with some already heading back.

It was at times like these that the Corpse Buriers seemed particularly conspicuous.

People avoided them like the plague, fearing even the slightest proximity!

This was because they were steeped in the stench of death, a concentrated miasma of various decaying corpses that made them appear like walking dead. Even the Strange Owls, which favored carrion, couldn't resist approaching them, often to their own detriment.

Du En had long grown accustomed to these strange glances. He walked with steady, unhurried steps, calm and composed.

Looking up into the distance, to the north, a city wall stood, blocking his view.

That was the southern wall of Nanmo Border City.

Majestic and towering, it reached dozens of feet high, stretching endlessly. It was like a sigh-inducing precipice, firmly barring the newly settled lower-class cultivators from peace and stability.

His gaze shifted downwards, towards the city gate. The main thoroughfare, a wide and sturdy road serving as the transportation hub, was flanked by large expanses of crowded shacks, which was also where people like Du En lived.

The shack district outside the city.

The Corpse Buriers resided in a specific area of this district, a small courtyard at the end of the road. It was rather peculiar, and Du En always felt something was off, though he hadn't found out what.

The first thing he did upon returning was to bathe.

Wei Ming was the most impatient. The others also couldn't stand the peculiar looks they received, and after a day of labor, they were already drenched in sweat, their clothes sticking uncomfortably to their skin.

Therefore, they all wanted to quickly wash up and change.

Only Du En took out a stove and began to boil corpses, no, boil owls.

This way, he could preserve the most fat and grease. The taste was unpleasant, but it didn't matter; he didn't care.

The others cared a great deal.

"Boss Du, can you please be a bit more considerate? At least move it outside the courtyard to cook!"

With this unspoken plea in their hearts, and much to Wei Ming's surprise, none of the other Seniors spoke up.

Although their eyes held a hint of resentment, they seemed to find the situation… acceptable?

So, after burying bodies for so long, people really do become perverted, don't they?

I don't want this!

The more Wei Ming thought about it, the more he trembled with fear.

After washing up, he looked towards Du En again. Du En was skillfully boiling the owl. In the boiling water, with hands that no longer feared scalding water after cultivation, he directly plucked feathers and gutted the bird, pulling out clumps of steaming, foul-smelling innards and feathers.

Noticing Wei Ming's gaze, he turned his head and asked, "What? Have you changed your mind...?"

"Thanks, goodnight, bye!"

As he spoke, Wei Ming turned and fled, shutting the door behind him.

Du En pondered for a moment, understanding Wei Ming's thoughts. He didn't mind, replaced the water in the pot, and tossed in the cleaned owl. While it stewed, he queued up to bathe.

By the time he finished bathing and washing his clothes, drying them under the eaves, the stew was almost ready. He sprinkled in some salt for simple seasoning and could start eating.

The taste was truly awful!

It was like boiling rotten corpses!

Du En ate more than half of it with a straight face, about four to five catties of meat and fat. He ate and digested, finally filling his stomach. He then looked at the others in the courtyard, who had just finished cooking their coarse rice, and asked, "You guys really don't want any? It's such a waste to throw it away."

"No, no, no!"

The others responded in unison.

Du En said nothing, simply tossing the leftovers by the side of the courtyard gate, along with the pile of feathers and innards, waiting to clean them up in a few days.

After a light digestion and a short nap, he woke up to find that everyone else was already fast asleep in the middle of the night.

The fatigue had mostly subsided, and his energy had returned, allowing him to focus entirely on cultivation.

"Let's begin."

Thinking this, he sat down and began to cultivate.

He sensed the spiritual energy, mixed it with magic power, sent it out from his dantian, circulated it through his meridians, completing a full cycle, refining spiritual energy into magic power.

Yellow Earth, simple and unadorned, accumulated steadily, strong and resilient, steady and unwavering.

With each cycle of cultivation, he gained a deeper understanding of the Yellow Earth Technique, a low-grade cultivation method. Involuntarily, it felt like falling sand in the air, accumulating on the ground, slowly building up.

Du En stopped cultivating, calming his mentally fatigued mind.

Cultivating with complete focus was no easy task.

Especially in the stage of Beginner's Practice, it required intense, wholehearted dedication. He had to constantly guide and pull, preventing the circulation from stopping, ultimately completing a full cycle through all his meridians, a Great Heavenly Cycle.

This consumed a tremendous amount of mental energy.

He felt that this cultivation method was not quite right. Normally, at the Early Qi Refining stage, and with a low-grade technique, the circulation should not require a full Great Heavenly Cycle through the entire body.

It should focus on the main meridians first, then the secondary meridians, and finally all the meridians, progressing from a Small Heavenly Cycle to a Great Heavenly Cycle, step by step.

"Of course, the current situation isn't necessarily bad. Directly opening up all the meridians and starting with the Great Heavenly Cycle circulation from the beginning, if it can be practiced, the foundation will be extremely solid, and it will also offset the effects of forced growth."

He really couldn't understand the Luoyu Immortal Sect's intentions. If they regarded them as mere leeks to be harvested, why bother with this?

Du En shook his head, no longer dwelling on it, and continued to cultivate.

He focused his entire mind and soul.

Then, he successfully circulated the energy and retracted it.

As the pale yellow gaseous Magic Power returned to the Lower Dantian's Sea of Qi, it was a natural progression. Numerous insights burst forth in his mind, as if a door had opened, revealing the path ahead.

[Yellow Earth Technique (Initial Glimpse 0/20)]

Breakthrough!

Du En opened his eyes, a flash of earthy yellow light streaking through them.

His previously exhausted and drained spirit surged, leaving him with no trace of fatigue, his eyes shining brightly.

I can continue cultivating.

He closed his eyes again and persevered.

As he circulated the technique, the changes felt exceptionally pronounced!

The efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy had increased by ten percent.

At the same time, his meridians felt like roads. The Magic Power, mixed with spiritual energy, easily pushed open the door of the Dantian. Then, like stepping onto a small skateboard, it traveled rapidly along this path, which, though still uneven, was generally straight.

Du En's mind was no longer entirely focused on pulling and dragging. Instead, it now served as a brake and shock absorber. He now had to worry about it moving too fast and taking the wrong path.

It was a truly luxurious sensation.

His slight distraction only lasted this long.

With renewed focus, his Magic Power became purer through gradual accumulation, and his body, nourished by the Magic Power's circulation, visibly became stronger and tougher.

One successful cycle, then another.

Taking advantage of the exhilaration from his breakthrough, coupled with the obvious physical strengthening, he rapidly circulated the technique three more times in this state of both mind and body benefiting, taking an hour and a half.

Although he was mentally and physically exhausted at this moment, the loose, thin cluster of pale yellow gaseous Magic Power in his Dantian's Sea of Qi, which was originally the size of a pigeon's egg, had now widened by a fraction, becoming one-third more condensed. The yellow was deeper, a shade darker.

The effects were significant right after the breakthrough!