Inside the Well-Bottom Secret Chamber, the silence was so deep that even a pin dropping could be heard.
Xia Dong sat cross-legged and placed the faintly glowing, purple-black Purple Blood Organ-Nourishing Pill into his mouth. The pill dissolved instantly, turning into an unusual, slightly fishy-sweet liquid.
The immense medicinal power did not spread recklessly through his limbs and bones like ordinary tonics. Guided by Xia Dong's divine sense, it became a stream of warmth and plunged straight toward the depths of his chest and abdomen.
Xia Dong immediately closed his eyes and sank his mind into introspection.
His powerful divine sense, at the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining, was like a lamp that illuminated even the darkest corners, revealing every detail of the hazy "inner landscape" within his body.
He clearly "saw" that the moment the mass of purple-black medicinal power touched his organs, it transformed into countless fine purple spiritual patterns, which clung densely to his fragile internal organs.
With each long, deep breath, the purple medicinal power penetrated a little farther inward.
His fragile organs, still dull in color when he had been in the Bone Forging Realm, gradually took on the lustrous sheen of purple jade under the nourishment of this immense vitality. With every beat, they seemed to grow heavier, as if they had become tangible.
"Thump... thump..."
The steady, powerful beat of his heart echoed through the chamber.
A muffled "hummm" suddenly rose from within him, as though he had pushed open a door sealed for ages. The pores across Xia Dong's body opened, and a faint layer of dark-red, rank-smelling sweat was expelled in an instant.
He had reached the Internal Strengthening Realm.
At the moment of breakthrough, the qi and blood in his body surged like a river bursting its banks. As if summoned by some unseen force, they began to rush toward his kidneys, behind his waist and abdomen, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
What astonished Xia Dong was that it was not only his boiling qi and blood. Even the Mysterious Yin Mana he had painstakingly cultivated, which usually resided in his dantian, now responded with a joyous resonance.
This cold, profound mana broke free of its usual circulation and poured into his kidneys, which were pounding wildly.
At that moment, inspiration struck, and he suddenly realized that the demonic cultivation technique known as the Profound Yin Scripture had a strange, profound connection to the martial art of Organ Strengthening.
The kidneys governed water, occupied the far north, and corresponded to black.
These attributes were undoubtedly a perfect match for the yin-natured Mysterious Yin Mana.
With every powerful pulse of his kidneys, they not only refined his martial qi and blood, which was as dense as lead and mercury, but also ceaselessly tempered his Mysterious Yin Mana. Refined in the furnace of his qi and blood, the mana, once merely cold and shadowy, gained a measure of weightiness, as if it could flow on forever without end.
Xia Dong became completely absorbed in this wondrous, subtle sense of control.
He realized that although he had only just entered the Internal Strengthening Realm, his keen awareness of every minute change within his body had already brought him close to the threshold of the legendary martial art realm known as "Seeing the Divine."
Ordinary martial artists had no divine sense. For them, trying to see the transformation of their organs in the Internal Strengthening Realm was like a blind man trying to grasp an elephant. They could only rely on the experience of their predecessors and the feedback of their own bodies, then grind away at the task through sheer effort.
Only those who cultivated to the exceedingly profound True Intent Realm, where martial intent gave rise to life, could reach the level of seeing every line in the palm of their hand.
But with the divine sense of a cultivator, he had managed to gain this ability to look within his body while still at the Organ Strengthening stage.
He slowly opened his eyes. A glimmer of blue-black light flashed across his deep-set gaze.
Now, his Mysterious Yin Mana had grown denser, and it seemed to have found a natural Divine Palace in which to reside.
With every movement, his qi and blood and mana reflected and blended with one another inside his body. Faintly, he could hear the roars of dragons and elephants, and the cries of lions and tigers.
Xia Dong let out a long breath.
"Whoosh!"
The stream of air was like a solid gray-white arrow. It slammed into the chamber's hard stone wall with a crisp crack, leaving a deep white mark behind!
A Qi Sword.
This was the true power of the internal organs.
When an Internal Strengthening Realm martial expert had trained their organs to great heights, their lungs grew strong as bellows, allowing them to kill with a single breath.
Ordinarily, only experts in the Mortal Transformation Realm could fully master and easily wield such a technique.
But Xia Dong had the aid of his divine sense, and his control over every thread of qi and blood might well surpass that of an ordinary Mortal Transformation Realm martial artist.
Of course, he had never seen a true Mortal Transformation Realm expert. All of this was only his private speculation.
What truly mattered to him now, what even made his heart surge with excitement, was something else: the secret, perfect resonance between his Mysterious Yin Mana and the martial art of Organ Strengthening, especially the connection with his kidneys.
However, this kind of cultivation involved both the internal organs and immortal-cultivation mana. Trying to feel his way through it blindly on his own would undoubtedly waste time.
"Fortunately, I have the Bronze Ancient Bell."
Without hesitation, Xia Dong sank his mind into the depths of his sea of consciousness.
At its vast, boundless center, an ancient, mottled Bronze Ancient Bell, covered in the verdigris of time, floated quietly in the darkness, radiating an aura of age that seemed to suppress all things.
With a turn of his wrist, Xia Dong took several Spirit Stones from his Storage Pouch.
Drawn by his divine sense, the pure spiritual energy within the stones was drained and poured into the Bronze Ancient Bell like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
The Spirit Stones, emptied of their spiritual energy, crumbled into heaps of gray-white powder.
"Hum."
The Ancient Bell, having absorbed enough spiritual power, trembled slightly and rang out with a vast, desolate toll that struck the depths of his soul.
Time seemed to lose all meaning in the sea of consciousness.
After an unknown interval, a new secret art, wreathed in shadowy energy, slowly appeared on the mottled bell in one twisted, blood-red character after another.
Xia Dong eagerly reached out with his divine sense and devoured the information of the secret art the bell had deduced.
"So that's how it is... Immortal cultivation techniques can be combined with martial arts like this!"
The results of the deduction completely overturned Xia Dong's previous understanding of the Profound Yin Scripture and even the techniques of the entire cultivation world.
The reason the Profound Yin Scripture's mana resonated so perfectly with his kidneys was that, from the moment this ancient technique had been created, its most central and secret principle had been to use the exceptionally domineering method of Organ Strengthening to carve out and forge an indestructible Divine Palace within the body's water-aligned kidneys!
According to the Mysterious Yin Kidney-Refining Art, which had been deduced, completed, and improved by the Bronze Ancient Bell:
Once the Kidney Water Divine Palace had been successfully forged in both kidneys, it would seize the creation of Heaven and Earth and naturally form a miniature Divine Pool of Creation within itself.
The water in this pool was no ordinary water. It was formed from the body's original kidney essence and pure Mysterious Yin Mana, compressed and blended to their limits. It was called Profound Yin Divine Water.
Since this Profound Yin Divine Water perfectly combined immortal-cultivation mana with the body's precious primordial essence, it was a wondrous substance of the utmost yin and softness.
When facing an enemy, merely bringing it forth would let him powerfully suppress fire-based divine abilities and spells.
On the other hand, because the Profound Yin Divine Water contained abundant life essence and the purest mana, it could later be used to assist in alchemy, neutralizing the medicinal properties and slightly improving the quality of the finished pills.
Martial arts tempered the body; immortal cultivation refined qi.
Within the Mysterious Yin Kidney-Refining Art, the two had somehow formed a perfect loop.
He did not know that this was the most orthodox secret transmission of the Profound Yin Scripture, something never taught to the collateral branches or ordinary disciples of the Profound Yin Sect.
"Once the Profound Yin Divine Water is formed, it seems I can look for a way to try my hand at alchemy."
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