Qiankun Jue

His emotions clearly became agitated, and he quickly flipped through the mirror in his hand.

The lifelike floral bas-relief on the back of the mirror proved it was the Bronze Mirror Dongguo Haoran had given him. He had taken it out unintentionally just now, and he hadn't expected that the mystery he couldn't solve would be revealed under the moonlight. Before, to solve the mystery of the Bronze Mirror, let alone moonlight, he had even tried it under the sun. Boiling water and fire were out of the question, and he hadn't seen any clues. To think that he would stumble upon a clue in such an unexpected situation!

He reached out and stirred the cool water in the vat again, muttering, "The moon is yin, the earth is Kun, water gathers yin and reveals, Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, how could I not have thought of it..." After muttering for a while, he fell into a daze again, recalling the situation before the incident in the ancient tomb. It was precisely because he had deciphered the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams illusion in the mountains that he found the entrance to the ancient tomb, and it was because he had touched the ancient bronze mirror in the ancient tomb that the incident occurred.

Could this Bronze Mirror really be related to the ancient bronze mirror in the ancient tomb? If that were the case, the person who set up the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams formation for the ancient tomb probably aimed for this Bronze Mirror, and anyone who could break the formation could naturally solve the mystery of the ancient bronze mirror.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but pat his forehead heavily, shaking his head. Since Dongguo Haoran had given him the Bronze Mirror, he had missed something. If he hadn't had an accident in the ancient tomb, and had taken the ancient bronze mirror back for scientific instrument analysis, once a clue was found, he feared he would have already thought of a way to solve the ancient bronze mirror by breaking the ancient tomb's great formation.

Things couldn't withstand deep thought; the more he thought about it, the more surprised and uncertain he became.

Suppressing his doubts, he returned to reality. The mirror was again facing the moonlit water, and nine hazy points of light reappeared on the rippling water surface.

Niu Youdao held the Bronze Mirror in one hand and began to calculate with his fingers, slowly circling the water vat, deducing and locating the patterns on the back of the mirror.

With a clear understanding, he looked at the angle towards the moon, flipped the mirror in his hand, revealing the back facing the moonlight. His fingers tapped on the bas-relief flowers on the hundred-flower pattern, muttering, "Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Zhong, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui!"

Having confirmed the nine flowers, he squatted by the water vat. He placed the Bronze Mirror upside down on the ground, spread his palms, and brought his thumbs together side-by-side. He placed his joined thumbs on the largest flower, and his four fingers on each side pressed down on another flower. The four fingers on each side made eight, plus the joined thumbs in the middle made nine. The two thumbs, spread apart, could also represent the two dots of the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams fish eyes. With his ten fingers thus combined, it formed the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Finger Technique. He used this finger technique to press down on the nine flowers simultaneously with uniform force.

With a soft "click" from inside the Bronze Mirror, Niu Youdao's brow twitched. As expected, he needed to find the exact nine flowers and apply force together to break the mirror's seal. Even a slight misalignment would prevent it from opening.

He released his hands. The nine flowers, which had been seamlessly integrated, had now popped up, revealing gaps beneath them.

Niu Youdao took the Bronze Mirror in his hand, then shone it on the water again under the moonlight. The nine points of light had disappeared. He looked up at the sky again and couldn't help but nod slightly, muttering, "That's it! Yin breaks, Yang emerges. It seems I have to wait until tomorrow to see the sun!" He looked around, quickly entered the house, and spent the night without any desire to cultivate, quietly awaiting tomorrow's sunrise...

The next day, Xu Yitian was guarding outside. This person had always disdained speaking more than a word to Niu Youdao. Niu Youdao greeted him, but he was too lazy to waste words and court trouble, knowing that asking would be futile. After eating the breakfast provided by Xu Yitian, he returned to his courtyard.

Looking at the rising sun, Niu Youdao went back to Peach Blossom Hall to retrieve the hidden Bronze Mirror. He then found a room with a window facing the sun and opened the window. He held the back of the mirror towards the sun, and immediately a hazy golden halo appeared on the bright mirror surface. Dense golden light and shadow characters appeared on the mirror surface, with three opening golden characters attached: Qiankun Jue!

Just these three words made Niu Youdao's spirit lift. Upon closer inspection of the smaller characters, he quickly confirmed that it was indeed a cultivation technique!

However, with just this side, there weren't many words. He flipped the Bronze Mirror again and stared at the patterns on the back. The secret to breaking this Bronze Mirror was no longer a difficulty for him. After a little calculation, he held one of the flowers and rotated it gently. He heard a faint "click" and stopped. Then, facing the sun with the back of the mirror, the characters on the mirror surface had changed, continuing from the previous text. He couldn't help but chuckle softly. As expected, it was just as he thought.

He spent the entire day engrossed in the Bronze Mirror, constantly changing rooms to follow the sunlight. At noon, he even climbed onto the beams and broke open a tile to let in the light.

When the sunlight completely disappeared from the sky, Niu Youdao, hiding in the west wing room, closed the window. He reset the protruding patterns on the back of the Bronze Mirror and tapped the mirror with his finger. It made a sound as if it were a single, solid piece. Who would have imagined such a profound mystery hidden within?

By the end of this day, he had skimmed through the content hidden within the mirror like a gluttonous feast. It was truly illustrated, and it was indeed a complete set of cultivation methods, not comparable to his incomplete "Taiyi."

All the content hidden in a single mirror didn't seem excessive. As the internal mechanisms, the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams formations of the mirror shifted, the images within could change and turn pages, perfectly capable of storing all this content.

What truly made him sigh with emotion as he caressed the mirror was the complexity and precision of its internal structure. Even with the technological means of his previous life, it would have been difficult to create, let alone replicate. The forging craftsmanship of this world far exceeded his imagination!

It was precisely because of this that he had enough confidence to believe that the cultivation method hidden within was definitely not simple. No wonder Dongguo Haoran said he lost his life for this thing.

The mystery of the Bronze Mirror was solved, and the contents within made Niu Youdao eagerly anticipate.

In the following days, he meticulously studied the "Qiankun Jue." With a clear understanding, he officially began his cultivation.

A little more than half a month later, he felt the power of the "Qiankun Jue." His cultivation progress was not comparable to the "Shangqing Heart Sutra," and it was even significantly faster than his cultivation of "Taiyi." As soon as he circulated his energy, the Taiyi True Qi was stirred into a frenzy, unlike when cultivating the "Shangqing Heart Sutra," where it was difficult to shake that Taiyi True Qi, further increasing his confidence in continuing to cultivate.

The only thing he regretted was that if he had known the Bronze Mirror was like this, he would have stayed in Xiaomiao Village. Why come here to be soft-imprisoned?

However, on the other hand, if he had stayed in Xiaomiao Village, he would have worried about filling his stomach. For cultivators, wealth, companions, Dharma, and land – could any of these be lacking? Staying here, at least for now, meant he wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing. He could only comfort himself this way.

A few more days passed, and Niu Youdao clearly felt that the integrated True Qi within his body had a sense of Heaven and Earth Qiankun, with the division of yin and yang. One stream of True Qi in his body was hot, and the other was cold.

A few more days later, the suspended Taiyi True Qi seemed exceptionally fragile under the tempering of the cold and hot True Qi. It finally couldn't hold on, breaking and shrinking into four masses, two slightly glowing with golden light, and two slightly glowing with silver light.

One mass of golden light and one mass of silver light matched, intertwined, and rotated continuously, forming two pairs. As each pair rushed towards the Ren and Du meridians, they encountered the obstacles left by Dongguo Haoran within his body. The thirty-three Protective Talismans were like a spider web, connecting blood qi and occupying thirty-three acupoints!

Originally, there were thirty-six. One was used when killing the monster in the small mountain temple, another was used when he almost froze to death while drifting on the bamboo raft, and another was wasted when resisting Tang Susu's fatal palm strike, leaving thirty-three!

When the Taiyi True Qi collided with the spider web, it was repelled. Niu Youdao intentionally tried the reaction of the Qiankun True Qi, deliberately guiding it to collide.

Just like last time, the power rebounded from the Protective Talismans. The paired golden and silver lights were pushed away, but they didn't fly far. The golden and silver masses, rotating rapidly, shed most of their force. This scene gave Niu Youdao a sudden realization. He immediately guided the golden and silver masses forward, no longer colliding head-on. Instead, after approaching, he separated the two and began to rotate around the threads of the bloody spider web, refining it like the Taiyi True Qi, using the Qiankun True Qi with its different cold and hot properties to temper it.

As expected, the tempered parts of the bloody spider web threads gradually emitted blood mist. This was not his blood, but the blood that Dongguo Haoran had infused into his body when he cast the spell.

What shocked and delighted Niu Youdao was that the Qiankun True Qi not only refined the foreign blood qi on the Protective Talismans but also refined the foreign True Qi within them. After refinement, it was absorbed and merged into the Qiankun True Qi under the rotation of Qiankun!

The Protective Talismans were formed by Dongguo Haoran infusing his remaining cultivation into his body before his death. Such powerful foreign True Qi, yet the Qiankun True Qi could refine and absorb it as its own. Did this mean he could receive Dongguo Haoran's cultivation?

Upon confirming this, Niu Youdao was ecstatic. Dongguo Haoran's cultivation was incredibly powerful for him!

He could clearly feel that absorbing Dongguo Haoran's True Qi to improve his cultivation progress was far beyond his own cultivation progress. The difference in progress could be described in thousands or hundreds of times.

Perceiving with his True Qi, the Qiankun True Qi he cultivated was like the difference between an ant and a large tree compared to the occupying Protective Talismans. To refine even one Protective Talisman would likely not be achievable in a short period.

However, precisely because of this, the cultivation contained within the thirty-three Protective Talismans could be imagined.

Niu Youdao never expected such an unexpected surprise. He also didn't notice that faint blood mist was slowly drifting out of his pores, which was the reason for refining and clearing the residual blood left by Dongguo Haoran in his body, causing a faint smell of blood to fill the room again...

"Elder! I heard Senior Sister is marrying Niu Youdao?"

Tang Susu was offering incense to the statue of the sect's founder in front of the incense burner when Song Yanqing, who rushed into the hall, looked as if he was going crazy. He rushed behind her and loudly questioned her.

Tang Susu, who had just inserted the incense, turned around abruptly, her eyes filled with murderous intent. She stared coldly at the agitated Song Yanqing and sternly said, "Do you still have any rules? What do you think you're doing? Do you think the rules of our Shangqing Sect can't deal with you?"

As if doused with a basin of cold water, Song Yanqing was startled. His agitated expression quickly faded, and he calmed down. The Shangqing Sect was indeed wary of the Song family's power, but if he truly angered them, they could kill him as easily as crushing an ant.

After Song Yanqing respectfully performed the ritual, he asked with a conflicted expression, "Elder, is it true?"

Tang Susu, slowly turning around, calmly replied, "What if it's true?"

Song Yanqing's face immediately showed grief and indignation. "Elder, you promised me that you would marry Senior Sister to me. Why are you going back on your word?"