The Eagle and the Serpent

Spring passed and autumn came, the seasons cycling in their turn.

In the secret chamber of the Tiger Hill Mountain cave dwelling, another full year of time slipped away in silence.

Throughout this year, a vast quantity of Qi-Gathering Pill were swallowed into his belly like roasted beans.

The Mysterious Yin Mana within Xia Dong's dantian grew increasingly profound and solidified, naturally breaking through to the third level of Qi Refining.

What stirred his heart even more was that the foundation chapter of the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art, which points directly to the origin of life, had finally touched that "perfection" barrier—a goal just one final step away—under the day-after-day tempering of innate "Qi."

Xia Dong knew well that crossing this step was a heaven-defying act of transforming mortal roots into spiritual roots; it allowed for not even the slightest carelessness.

He did not rush for success, but instead halted all cultivation, spending three full days bathing, changing clothes, and clearing his mind of desires to adjust his body, spirit, and blood to their peak state.

However, when he truly began to assault the perfection realm of the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art foundation chapter, he realized this hurdle was far more difficult than he had imagined.

This was not a barrier that could be forcibly broken through by swallowing pills or frantically absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The cultivation jade slip had long stated clearly: to reshape one's root vessel, one must perform the most thorough smelting and sublimation of the three treasures of the human body—"Essence," "Qi," and "Spirit."

Xia Dong sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, his divine sense guiding these three forces to converge within his body thousands of times.

Yet, no matter how he tried, a barrier always remained between Essence, Qi, and Spirit; he could never achieve a true, seamless, and unified fusion.

"Where exactly did I go wrong?"

Xia Dong's brows locked tighter and tighter, countless cultivation mantras colliding chaotically in his mind. As time passed, an extremely intense sense of irritability surged uncontrollably from the depths of his heart.

Gradually, the blood in his body began to flow in reverse, and the once-docile Mysterious Yin Mana began to charge left and right through his meridians like a startled venomous snake, while his sea of consciousness was stirred by waves of piercing pain.

"Not good!"

Xia Dong opened his eyes abruptly, his face turning deathly pale as a mouthful of blood surged to his throat.

Breaking out in a cold sweat, he immediately forced the circulation of his cultivation technique to a halt.

"I was too impatient... a transformation involving the origin of the Great Dao cannot be forced." Xia Dong gasped for breath.

He stood up, deciding to pause his breakthrough, and swam out of the secret chamber along the underground passage, intending to go to the Hidden Valley outside Tiger Hill Mountain to catch his breath and calm his extremely chaotic state of mind.

Splash.

Xia Dong broke through the water. Just as he stood by the pool in the Hidden Valley and had not yet managed to take a few breaths of fresh air, his keen divine sense captured a sound of air being torn apart with extreme violence.

Screech!

A shrill eagle cry that could pierce metal and crack stone echoed through the clouds.

Xia Dong's heart stirred. He immediately restrained his blood and Qi, activated Crane Shadow Step, and leaped silently onto the canopy of a towering ancient tree. He spread his fifth-level Qi Refining divine sense out like ripples, carefully looking toward the direction of the sound.

Below the cliff, a tragic life-and-death struggle was unfolding.

Of the two sides, one was the dark green snake from outside the cave dwelling; the other was a massive black eagle with a wingspan of over two zhang, its feathers shimmering with a cold, metallic light like steel!

Birds of prey are the natural nemesis of snakes, and this black eagle was clearly no ordinary creature. Not only were its iron talons as sharp as knives, but its diving speed was like a bolt of black lightning.

Clang!

The black eagle dove from high altitude, its iron talons clawing fiercely into the scales on the snake's back, producing a harsh sound like metal striking stone and tearing away several dark green scales, causing blood to splatter instantly.

The snake, feeling the pain, let out a hissing roar. Its massive body lashed out, opening its blood-red maw to bite at the black eagle, but the eagle nimbly flapped its wings and evaded.

In the initial clash, the snake was completely at a disadvantage, and its body was soon torn with multiple wounds by the black eagle's terrifying speed and iron talons.

Xia Dong observed from above, initially thinking that the gate-guarding snake would surely die today, but gradually, he noticed a trace of something extremely strange.

Although the snake appeared to be taking a beating, its movements lacked any panic. In its repeated dodging and coiling, its massive body faintly displayed a peculiar rhythm.

It was not the brute force of a simple beast fight, but a trajectory that was extremely harmonious and continuous! The snake's body was at times taut like a full bow, at others soft and yielding like flowing water, each twist of its torso cleverly neutralizing the black eagle's most lethal impacts.

"This rhythm..." Xia Dong's pupils constricted, his heart jolting violently.

He suddenly realized that the snake's dodging and coiling on the edge of life and death actually matched the profound insight of "Extreme Yin giving birth to Yang, seeking life within death" from the Profound Yin Scripture he was cultivating.

Even the arc of its undulating body faintly conformed to the natural principles of the Great Dao.

Just then, the situation on the battlefield changed abruptly.

The black eagle seemed to lose patience, letting out a sharp, long cry and pushing its speed to the limit. Like a black meteorite, it dove straight for the snake's most lethal "seven-inch" vital point, determined to kill with a single strike.

Facing this fatal blow, the snake did not dodge.

Squelch!

The black eagle's iron talons pierced deep into the snake's seven-inch point, blood gushing wildly. But at this critical moment, the snake's previously soft body erupted with unimaginable power. Enduring the lethal agony, it coiled its body violently, like a dark green iron chain, and locked tightly around the black eagle's torso.

The black eagle was terrified, frantically pecking at the snake's head and beating its iron wings desperately.

However, the snake's constriction was already set.

Its muscle contractions were not rigid, but followed the frequency of the eagle's struggle, tightening inward in waves like the tide.

The more the black eagle struggled, the tighter the snake coiled. That constriction, containing the principles of nature, squeezed the black eagle's life force away bit by bit.

Crack... crack...

The teeth-grinding sound of shattering bones echoed through the Hidden Valley. The black eagle's struggles grew weaker and weaker, until finally, with a shrill, mournful cry, its wings hung limp, and it fell completely silent.

The snake had miraculously counter-killed its natural predator.

Xia Dong held his breath on the tree canopy; the shock brought to him by this tragic battle was beyond measure.

The giant serpent released the battered corpse of the black eagle, itself already at the end of its tether. Dragging its blood-drenched body, it clamped its jaws onto the black eagle's head, its jawbone unhinging at an impossible angle as it struggled with immense difficulty to swallow its massive natural predator bit by bit.

After finishing its meal, the giant serpent lacked even the strength to crawl back to its cave, curling into a ball right there at the foot of the cliff.

Xia Dong focused his gaze, and with the keen perception of his fifth-layer Qi Refining cultivation, he observed the serpent's massive, coiled body. With its head and tail meeting, it faintly resembled the embryonic form of an ancient and profound character: "Dao."

Huu... haa...

With the massive black eagle swallowed in its belly, the serpent's body began to rise and fall in a rhythmic, extremely slow breathing pattern.

In that moment, it was as if a bolt of lightning had struck Xia Dong's mind.

He stared fixedly at the rising and falling body of the serpent; the scene before his eyes gradually blurred, replaced by a microcosm of the Great Dao in motion.

"A life-and-death struggle is the pinnacle of 'Essence'; the head and tail connecting, coiled as one, is the harmony of 'Spirit'; and that continuous, lingering rise and fall—digesting external matter to nourish the self—is the circulation of 'Qi'..."

Xia Dong muttered to himself.

At the brink of life and death, the giant serpent had not divided its power into three parts to fight its predator; instead, it had twisted its will to survive (Spirit), its physical instinct (Essence), and the rhythm of heaven and earth (Qi) into a single, unbreakable rope. Only by doing so could it counter-kill the black eagle and devour its powerful foe in such a desperate situation.

The so-called refining of the Three Treasures was not about forcibly kneading them together, but rather allowing them to function like this serpent—forming a perfect, endless loop of head-to-tail connection amidst the natural alternation of "life and death" and "motion and stillness."

Click.

As this flash of enlightenment flowed through his heart, Xia Dong clearly heard the bottleneck that had plagued him for so long finally crack open.

His once chaotic and restless state of mind became as clear as a polished mirror in that instant.

Xia Dong revealed a faint smile. He tossed some rare medicinal herbs with healing properties toward the leeward side where he had been before, then unfurled his body like a white crane returning to its nest, diving back into the underground passage along the pool without a moment's hesitation.

Back in the secret chamber.

Seclusion, time to push for perfection.