Sutra of Innate Qi and Mortal Shedding!

At the highest peak in the core region of the Far North.

Zhang Qingxuan stood at the summit in a green robe, its hem utterly still amid the biting wind, as though he shared some invisible understanding with this world.

"Young Master, why did we come here?" Xiao Bai asked as she looked at Zhang Qingxuan ahead of her.

She looked around—there was nothing but the howling gale.

Zhang Qingxuan did not answer.

[Ding!]

[New location—Far North check-in successful. Congratulations, Host, for obtaining the cultivation method of Threefold Reverse Life!]

A vast flood of information poured into his sea of consciousness like glacial meltwater.

It was an exquisitely profound cultivation art, one that regarded the human body as postnatal impurity. Through the method of "Reverse Refinement to Origin," it gradually shed the mortal body and returned to the state of Innate Qi.

As expected of the Three-One Sect's ultimate art. It truly was exquisite.

Zhang Qingxuan sighed softly in his mind, then shook his head slightly.

But it was still one step short—without reaching the heavens, true evolution of life could not be achieved.

He recalled Immortal Daying, that senior whose Dao heart had collapsed because of the flaws in his cultivation art.

After cultivating Threefold Reverse Life to its utmost limit, he had discovered that the "evolution of life" he sought was nothing but an illusory bubble. That kind of despair...

Since I have obtained it, it must be fate. Then let me complete this path.

The Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram slowly emerged behind Zhang Qingxuan. Its black and white fish swam and revolved, forming a strange yet harmonious contrast against the icy blue of this frigid land.

He began to deduce.

The countless Daoist scriptures he had studied diligently at Dragon Tiger Mountain in his previous life turned into innumerable fragments of golden text.

The various forms of knowledge he had learned on Douluo Continent in this life became specks of silver light.

The Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram spun faster and faster. Gold and silver intertwined and collided within it, evolving endless possibilities.

Fine beads of sweat seeped from Zhang Qingxuan's brow, only to freeze into ice crystals in an instant under the extreme cold.

He was doing something earth-shattering—using the wisdom of one man to complete an incomplete Great Dao passed down for millennia.

"The first stage, turning skin and flesh into Qi... not enough." Zhang Qingxuan's thoughts turned.

"It must incorporate the principle of 'form and spirit as one' from the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. When the skin and flesh are transformed into Qi, the soul must be tempered in tandem, allowing form and spirit to advance together."

Within the Yin-Yang Diagram, the rune representing the first stage suddenly lit up. Its structure began to reorganize and expand.

"The second stage, turning tendons, bones, and internal organs into Qi... too hasty." He continued his deduction.

"The five viscera correspond to the five elements. The sequence of Qi transformation should be restructured according to the mutual generation of the five elements. The liver belongs to wood, the heart to fire, the spleen to earth, the lungs to metal, and the kidneys to water—water generates wood, wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, and metal generates water."

"Only by cycling through them endlessly could the foundation be made stable."

The Dao-rhyme runes of the second stage instantly became ten times more complex, with the radiance of the five elements circulating within them without end.

"The third stage..." Zhang Qingxuan took a deep breath.

"Transform the entire body into Qi, becoming Innate Qi? No."

He recalled the reason for Immortal Daying's failure.

"The Qi transformed from a mortal body will ultimately retain postnatal impurities. To truly 'reach the heavens,' it is not about turning the body into Qi, but letting the body 'give birth' to Qi—using the body as a furnace and the soul as fire to refine a true Innate Qi Seed."

"Then use this seed to nourish the flesh in return, completing the evolution of life, shedding the mortal body, and achieving an Innate Dao Body!"

That was the essential difference.

The original Threefold Reverse Life was like refining a piece of iron into purer iron.

What Zhang Qingxuan wanted to do was turn iron into gold.

One hour passed.

The blizzard in the Far North had never ceased, yet within thirty yards around Zhang Qingxuan, a world of its own had formed.

The Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram slowly contracted, eventually becoming a point of intertwined black and white light that sank into his brow.

It's done!

The instant Zhang Qingxuan opened his eyes, the ten-thousand-year mystic ice atop the Far North's peak let out a crisp hum in unison.

It was not a sound, but the resonance of matter's essence when the rules of the world were stirred.

The brand-new Threefold Reverse Life—no, perhaps it should be called the Sutra of Innate Qi and Mortal Shedding—had been completely imprinted deep within the foundation of his Dao.

First stage: transform skin and flesh into Qi, tempering form and spirit together. Not only was its power multiplied, it also laid a solid foundation for the soul in the stages to come.

Second stage: transform tendons, bones, and internal organs into Qi. The five elements cycled endlessly, sustaining one another in a self-contained loop, leaving no fear of exhausting one's energy.

Third stage: condense an Innate Qi Seed, nourish the mortal body in return, shed postnatal impurities, and achieve an Innate Dao Body. Once this realm was attained, it would be a true evolution of life. From then on, one would no longer be an ordinary living being.

"Young Master, your hair..." Xiao Bai suddenly cried out.

Hearing her, Zhang Qingxuan lowered his head. A lock of hair fell before his eyes—his long, ink-black hair had turned pure white like ice and snow.

It was not the withered white of old age, but a crystalline white that contained a mysterious Dao-rhyme.

With a thought, he activated the newly created cultivation art.

Boom!

Centered on him, the snow within three hundred yards exploded violently, revealing the ten-thousand-year ice beneath. His white hair moved without wind, every strand flowing with a faint, lustrous white glow.

Beneath his skin, silver streams of light could vaguely be seen surging through his meridians. They were the signs of newly born Innate Qi.

"Power..." Zhang Qingxuan clenched his fist, compressing the air into visible ripples.

"It has increased by more than threefold, and this is only the realm of initially transforming skin and flesh into Qi in the first stage."

He released his fist and dispersed the cultivation art.

His white hair swiftly turned black again, returning to normal. The aura around him also receded like the tide, turning him back into what appeared to be an ordinary youth in green.

"Let's go. Back to the Li Family." Zhang Qingxuan turned and headed down the mountain.

"Oh, okay!" Xiao Bai hurried after him. She had a stomach full of questions—what cultivation art had the Young Master used just now, why had his hair turned white, and why had his aura risen so dramatically...

But she did not ask anything.

Some secrets would naturally be told when the Young Master wished to tell them. She only needed to know that he had become even stronger. That was enough.

Meanwhile, in Spirit City.

After joining Spirit Hall, the Li Family had been granted an independent courtyard in the inner city.

At this moment, Li Yingxue lay listlessly on a swing in the courtyard, swaying back and forth without much enthusiasm.

Fifteen years old, a level thirty-eight Soul Elder—such a result was astonishing even among Spirit Hall's younger generation.

But precisely because she was too outstanding, she had fallen into a kind of "invincible loneliness."

Those stronger than her were at least two years older. Winning against them meant bullying children, while losing would be even more embarrassing. Among those her age, there were only a handful who could withstand ten of her moves.

"So boring..." She let out a long sigh and flipped off the swing, landing as lightly as a swallow.

"Why is everyone so easy to beat? Didn't Big Brother say that there were always greater people beyond people and higher mountains beyond mountains?"

Yang Wanqing emerged from the house carrying a fruit platter. Seeing her daughter like this, she could not help but smile. "All right, stop complaining. The reason you surpass your peers by so much is because of your brother's guidance, isn't it?"

"Otherwise, with your innate level-eight Soul Power talent, reaching level thirty-three by now would already be your limit."

Hearing this, Li Yingxue immediately puffed out her chest, as proud as a little peacock. "Of course! Who do you think my brother is—the number one genius of Douluo Continent!"

"Yes, yes." Yang Wanqing set the fruit platter on the stone table, her eyes full of tenderness.

She did not deny her daughter's words.

Her son, Zhang Qingxuan, was a miracle in himself.

Not only was he powerful himself, he was like a sun, illuminating and warming the entire Li Family.

Without him, her husband Li Yuntian would likely never have had any hope of becoming a Title Douluo; she herself might not even have reached Soul Douluo; and the Li Family could never have leapt from a family in a remote border town to an important ally of Spirit Hall in just a few years.