Aligning the Dharma Veins, Qi Refining Cultivation

The Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed's most severely decayed parts were its internal organs. It could be said that its skin and flesh merely wrapped a pool of rotten mud; all of it was unusable.

Zhu Yu had been mentally prepared, yet he still felt nauseated and disgusted. Fighting back the urge to vomit, he coated his palms in spiritual power. One hand spread open the abdominal cavity while the other held a long, slender flesh-cutting blade. His divine sense swept through inch by inch as he carefully cleared away the decayed flesh and blood.

A full half hour passed, and more than half his spiritual power had been depleted.

What lay before him was an uneven inner cavity, its flesh and blood dark brown-black.

Zhu Yu swept it once with his divine sense, then examined it with the True Sight Eye. After confirming there was no decayed flesh left, he took the Refined Corpse Beast Oil beside him, poured out the dark brown liquid, and slowly spread it evenly and thoroughly.

After applying the corpse oil, he took the Corpse-Stitching Needle and Thread and stitched the cavity shut. He then sealed it with Orifice-Sealing Mud before sealing the other exposed openings as well.

After the entire process,

roughly three hours had passed.

"Cultivating a living corpse isn't easy either..."

Zhu Yu sighed, rose to stretch his somewhat stiff body, then swept his sleeve. An invisible force fell upon the treated Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed, and its body slowly floated up, following him out of the room.

Corpse Field.

Zhu Yu inspected the concentration of Yin Baleful Spirit Qi throughout the three mu of Corpse Field one by one. In the end, he buried the Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed in the center of the mu closest to the wooden cabin. Sensing the Yin Baleful Spirit Qi slowly gathering around the small grave mound, a thought suddenly struck him, and his gaze fixed upon it.

[Target: Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed]

[Race: Tiger]

[Bloodline: Contains a trace of an unknown tiger-type demonic beast bloodline "Unawakened"]

[Not Yet Ranked: 32%]

[Effects: Tough Hide, Hard Bones, Coarse Flesh]

[Status: Dormant]

"It really works..."

Surprise appeared on Zhu Yu's face. He had thought that a Corpse Seed probably counted as a seed, so he had given it a try. He had not expected there truly to be an information panel. His gaze then fell upon [Not Yet Ranked: 32%], and he silently said:

Establish a model. Analyze the "Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed" and match it with materials suitable for its growth.

The next instant, a panel manifested.

[Required for cultivating the "Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed": Infuse with a large amount of Corpse Qi and nurture with "none"/fresh tiger-type beast blood mixed with Tiger-Pattern Flower and Blood-Coagulating Grass. Store in a cellar rich in Divine Radiance. The longer it is kept, the higher its quality; the faster its growth rate will increase "seven days".]

Having learned this information, delight appeared on Zhu Yu's face.

In the Underworld Grounds, a single Spirit Stone could buy quite a bit of Corpse Qi.

As for fresh beast blood, he could find it at the nearby Beast Pen. Tiger-Pattern Flower and Blood-Coagulating Grass were not rare Spirit Medicine either; both were low-grade first-rank Spirit Medicine.

Tiger-Pattern Flower was the main ingredient of the low-grade spirit pill Bone-Strengthening Pill and possessed the effect of strengthening bones. Blood-Coagulating Grass was the main ingredient of the Blood Qi Pill and could replenish overflowing blood and qi.

As for a place rich in Divine Radiance, that was even simpler...

Zhu Yu recalled the information on Treasures of the World and silently made an estimate.

According to the formula provided by the True Sight Eye, preparing a jar of medicinal liquid usable ten times would require roughly two hundred jin of fresh beast blood, one Tiger-Pattern Flower, and three Blood-Coagulating Grasses. If he used worthless ordinary tiger blood, the cost would be around twenty-five low-grade Spirit Stones.

It was not too expensive, but it was not cheap either.

"I wonder how much demonic tiger blood is worth..."

Naturally, Zhu Yu wanted to maximize the medicinal liquid's effects. After pondering briefly, he did not immediately head to the neighboring Beast Pen to look for it.

The Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed had only just been planted. At the very least, he should wait for it to be nurtured for a month and awaken its remaining spirituality. Cultivating it afterward would yield twice the result with half the effort.

The most important thing for him now was to practice the Corpse Control Art. Otherwise, if the Fierce Tiger Corpse Seed was cultivated successfully but he did not dare raise the corpse because he had not practiced the art, that would truly make a laughingstock of him.

After glancing toward the Beast Pen in the distance, Zhu Yu turned and returned to the wooden cabin. Upon reaching the second floor, he casually found a clean spot, took another jade slip from the hidden pouch in his sleeve, and sent his divine sense inside.

In an instant, a great amount of information flooded into his mind.

A short while later.

"Phew..."

Zhu Yu let out a soft breath, opened his eyes, and rubbed his swollen brow before summoning his own panel.

[Zhu Yu]

[Age: 17/120]

[Spirit Root: Wood, Earth "Third Grade"]

[Attributes: Body 2.5, Spirit 36.2]

[Cultivation: Early Qi Refining "51%" Trait: Erosion]

[Technique: "Basic Visualization Diagram" Minor Achievement "68/1000" Trait: Spirit Condensing]

[Arts: First-rank high-grade: Cicada Pact (Incomplete) "Not Initiated",

First-rank low-grade: Gold-Chewing Iron-Eating (Incomplete) "Not Initiated"

First-rank low-grade: Corpse Control Art "Not Initiated"]

[Life-Bound: Underworld Yin-Nurturing Locust Tree]

Over the past two days, under the constant nourishment of spiritual power, his physique had increased by a full 0.8, bringing him another step closer to the physique required for the Qi Refining Realm.

Zhu Yu's gaze swept over the panel and settled on the Corpse Control Art. He smiled in satisfaction. "At last, I have an art that isn't incomplete."

He then closed his eyes and concentrated, recalling the information concerning the Corpse Control Art.

Along with a mass of explanatory text, a Dharma Vein Diagram appeared in his mind. It resembled a winding insect and was formed from six lines predominantly black, blended with other colors. Alongside it appeared the spiritual materials required to cultivate the art.

The main material was a pair of compound eyes from a first-rank mid-grade demonic insect, the Corpse Beetle.

The supplementary spiritual materials included the shed shell of a first-rank mid-grade demonic insect, the Soul-Parasite Insect; the wing feathers of a first-rank low-grade demonic insect, the Dream-Catching Butterfly; Spirit Spring water...

Compared with the Dharma Vein Diagram of Gold-Chewing Iron-Eating, the Corpse Control Art was clearly much simpler. This also meant that it was far weaker than the former.

Zhu Yu considered for a moment, then silently said:

Establish a model. Using my Human Body Heaven and Earth Meridian Diagram as the foundation, deduce and analyze the Dharma Veins suitable for the Corpse Control Art.

As the thought fell, the panel changed.

[Suitable Dharma Veins for the art "Corpse Control Art": Analysis progress "1%". Estimated analysis time: "half a quarter-hour".]

Zhu Yu nodded in satisfaction, pausing the analysis of Gold-Chewing Iron-Eating and beginning the analysis of the Corpse Control Art.

Half a quarter-hour later.

A Human Body Heaven and Earth Meridian Diagram appeared in Zhu Yu's mind. At the back of its neck, faint white light cut across six Dharma Veins, outlining an insect-like Dharma Vein.

"Not bad."

Zhu Yu was overjoyed. With the suitable Dharma Veins analyzed by the Eye of Truth, once the spiritual materials for constructing the art arrived, he could begin cultivating it directly.

Suppressing his excitement, he instructed the True Sight Eye to continue analyzing Gold-Chewing Iron-Eating. Then he closed his eyes, concentrated his spirit, and began his first meditation since breaking through to Qi Refining.

Just as before, he easily entered deep meditation.

Within the dim space of consciousness, the blurry outline of a Three-Ring Pattern emerged. His consciousness became the tip of a brush, calmly and steadily tracing its lines.

The moment the lines of the inner ring appeared, green and yellow motes of light suddenly poured into his consciousness space. Before Zhu Yu could react, one green mote and one yellow mote had already settled within it.

After they settled in,

the other yellow and green motes slowly faded away.

When Zhu Yu came back to himself, he saw that the inner ring he had just drawn had twisted and dissipated. The wood and earth spiritual energy that had settled within it vanished as well.

So this was Qi Refining cultivation...

The thought flashed through Zhu Yu's mind, and he continued meditating as he traced the Three-Ring Pattern. Whenever the inner ring took shape, wood and earth spiritual energy surged toward it like a swarm.

He tried using his divine sense to block it, and it did work. However, as more and more wood and earth spiritual energy gathered, the rate at which his divine sense was consumed soared. Before the spiritual energy could interfere, his drawing failed due to excessive divine sense consumption.

After several attempts in a row,

Zhu Yu had no choice but to abandon the method of blocking spiritual energy with divine sense. He obediently waited for one strand each of wood and earth spiritual energy to settle in, then attempted to suppress and soothe them while splitting his spirit to draw the Three-Ring Pattern.

No wonder Senior Brother Xiang and the others had always refused to break through...