After seeing Bi Qiong off, Xu Yuan sat down on the floor. The moonlight outside the window remained unchanged, but more than half of his earlier excitement had dissipated.
It was as though someone had poured a basin of cold water over him, chilling him to the bone.
If things were truly as Bi Qiong said, then was his desperate cultivation now actually speeding up his own death?
And if he wanted to avoid that outcome, the only way seemed to be to evade the mine overseer's notice before drawing attention, find a quiet place with no one around, and soar to the heavens in a single step by successfully reaching Qi Refining.
To achieve that, Jade Marrow Crystals could indeed be of the greatest use. Aside from serving as the primary ingredient for Qi Gathering Pills, which Qi Refiners consumed directly, they could also be eaten outright to increase the spiritual resonance within one's body.
As he weighed every possibility, Xu Yuan's greatest concern remained whether Bi Qiong could be trusted. Since that was the case, he would simply make himself someone she could trust.
He casually opened the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art beside him. Tomorrow night, he would be able to get started. Three days later, he ought to have cultivated spiritual qi.
At a critical moment like this, whoever was stronger would seize the initiative!
The next day, Xu Yuan went mining as usual. With a sense of urgency in his heart, he did not even bother pretending this time and directly mined enough ore for twelve people.
The overseer stared at him in astonishment, his eyes brimming with appreciation for such a fine beast of burden.
As the saying went, with talent like you around, why would I worry about failing to meet this quarter's performance targets?
He exchanged all the black iron ore for dried meat. After returning home, Xu Yuan used gold to add traits to it again.
Then he continued cultivating the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art.
The remaining movements and visualization diagrams were undoubtedly harder than the earlier ones, but the boost to Xu Yuan's comprehension granted by his Innate Martial Bones was truly more than enough.
About two and a half hours later, Xu Yuan's movements suddenly stopped. His whole body abruptly drew in, and he settled like an old monk in meditation.
The final movement of the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art: Embracing the Green Pine.
Sweat still covered Xu Yuan's forehead. His loose hair veiled his eyes, while his robe clung tightly to his body, making him look rather bedraggled.
Yet Xu Yuan seemed entirely unaware of it. His mind had already calmed. After the thirty-fifth movement, the qi and blood throughout his body had boiled over, only to ebb away like ocean tides the instant he stopped.
Between that extreme movement and extreme stillness, Xu Yuan seemed to have touched upon something profoundly mysterious. Drawn by that thread of qi, a wisp of qi and blood within the sea of blood in his flesh suddenly seemed to heed some kind of summons. It actually broke away from his veins and headed straight toward his chest.
Along the way, that stream of qi and blood grew lighter and fainter. By the time it reached his chest, only a few wisps remained.
Yet even those few wisps were enough. The instant they came into being, Xu Yuan suddenly felt his body lighten. Relying on that strand of spiritual qi in his chest, he felt as though he had formed some connection with the vast, hazy heavens and earth.
His ears became clearer and his eyes brighter, but that was not all. Xu Yuan felt that with the birth of the first strand of qi, his mind too seemed to be growing clearer. Many things he had forgotten in the past now surfaced one after another.
"Strange. I heard those immortal slaves who had cultivated spiritual qi in their chests say before that spiritual qi merely nourished the body and had no other wondrous uses. Why does mine feel different?"
Xu Yuan pondered for a moment, then understood. The other immortal slaves in the mining district had all been force-fed spiritual qi through pills rather than cultivating it themselves. On top of that, they had no cultivation methods to guide them and lacked bodies suited to Qi Refining. Naturally, they could not control it properly, so they lost out on many of spiritual qi's wondrous uses.
He had also often heard that once someone took fewer pills, the spiritual qi they had nurtured would slowly grow thinner until it vanished into nothing.
"Sure enough, external things can only be aids. On the great path of cultivation, I still have to rely on myself."
Rising to his feet, Xu Yuan did not try to cultivate another strand of spiritual qi. Instead, he studied the two combat techniques recorded in the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art.
The first was the Wooden Man Stake, which could be cultivated once one had mastered the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art.
Though this method was called the Wooden Man Stake, it did not actually require him to practice any sort of stance. Rather, it required him to visualize himself standing like a piece of wood, thereby avoiding disturbances from the outside world.
Thus, aside from being used in battle, this technique was actually of immense benefit to cultivation as well.
When cultivators trained, they would inevitably encounter interference from inner demons. With this method, one could keep one's mind tranquil.
And for Xu Yuan as he was now, if Bi Qiong had lied to him, he would also have a way to deal with her bewitching talismans.
The other technique was the Heart-Intent Fist.
It took the essence of the twenty-three movements in the complete method and combined them into an incomparably fierce and powerful punch. When throwing the punch, its practitioner could also visualize the most unstoppable thing in their heart.
Strengthen the fist with intent; let intent shatter all things, and the fist would shatter all things.
"Choosing this method before really was the best decision I ever made."
Muttering to himself, Xu Yuan began training these two combat techniques again beneath the moonlight.
The powerful body granted by his Innate Martial Bones displayed another benefit at this moment. His body's ability to withstand pressure was truly far greater than that of others who had yet to set foot upon the immortal path.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed.
Early one morning, Xu Yuan woke from his bed. He had slept only three hours the night before, but aside from feeling slightly mentally fatigued, his body had almost completely recovered.
"Compared to that so-called endurance and distance, these Innate Martial Bones are the true sacred body of a beast of burden, aren't they?"
With a laugh, Xu Yuan pushed open the door and walked out. His neighbor Wang Quan greeted him, then braced himself against the corner of a wall as he headed toward the mine tunnel.
Xu Yuan shook his head slightly. He thought that with Wang Quan's self-abandoning state, he probably would not even need to wait until he was old enough to be discarded. In another year or so, he would eliminate himself.
But Xu Yuan could barely protect himself right now, so he had little mind to persuade Wang Quan. Besides, according to Bi Qiong, if he did not have this trait system, then in these pitch-black mine tunnels, living happily for each day one remained alive, like Wang Quan did, might actually have been better.
But there were no ifs. Since he had such an opportunity, he had to seize it firmly. Climbing out of this mine tunnel was only the beginning.
Following the address Bi Qiong had left before departing, Xu Yuan searched until he reached a secluded corner of the residential district.
When he arrived before a house with a red lantern hanging outside its door, Xu Yuan stepped forward and knocked.
"It's me, Xu Yuan."
The moment his words fell, there was a bang as the doors suddenly flew open to either side. Bi Qiong emerged from within, her face full of excitement.
"Boss Xu, I knew you'd come."
That doesn't look like you knew at all. Xu Yuan silently muttered, then nodded. "Are we heading down into the mine tunnel now?"
"Wait for me to prepare a few things." With that, Bi Qiong turned and ran back into the house. A moment later, she came out carrying a lotus-leaf pouch.
"Let's settle this in advance. You'll be doing the most work, so you get two shares of the Jade Marrow Crystals, and I get one."
Xu Yuan: "?"
"What about the other seventy percent?"
"Seventy percent?" Bi Qiong patted the pouch in her hand. "That seventy percent belongs to someone else."
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