The Way to Wealth, A Spar

The spiritual efficacy of a vermilion fruit was actually inferior to that of a Jade Spirit Peach.

In terms of grade, vermilion fruits could only be considered ordinary spiritual fruits, while Jade Spirit Peaches were rare treasures. Their medicinal properties were mild enough to be absorbed directly, and they could even extend one's lifespan to some extent.

Vermilion fruits, on the other hand, had violent medicinal properties and needed to be refined to subdue the fire within them.

Their advantage lay in their age.

Especially in their quantity.

Mao Hong opened his mouth, wanting to call out an offer of two thousand-year-old Jade Spirit Peaches, but in the end, the words would not come out.

Even as the son of the Spirit Ape Tribe's chieftain, he could not casually produce thousand-year-old Jade Spirit Peaches.

After all, he was not the Spirit Ape Tribe chieftain's only son.

Yang Huai watched from the side. With such a good deal at hand, he naturally would not interfere.

Seeing that Mao Hong had fallen silent, he immediately knew that Mao Hong could not offer a higher price, and promptly agreed.

He casually took the two thousand-year-old vermilion fruits into his hands and inspected them briefly.

Yang Huai was not ignorant of their value. He had heard of this kind of spiritual fruit before, and had even seen other Celestials and True Adepts consume them at grand banquets. They possessed extraordinary effects: after consuming and lightly refining one, it could increase one's magical power. The fire contained within also had the miraculous ability to cleanse the marrow and purge the body.

However, he knew that thousand-year-old vermilion fruits did not keep well and required special containers. He decided to consume them directly once he returned.

Feng Ying looked the Heavenly Yang Human King Woodcarving in his hand over and over, secretly musing to himself.

This woodcarving is truly a work of divine craftsmanship. Qingli really knows the way to make money. With such skill, he is like a tiger grown wings!

With these earnings as cultivation resources, he will soon become a force to be reckoned with!

Having casually suppressed Mao Hong, Feng Ying had originally been in an excellent mood. Yet when he saw Yang Huai inspect the two thousand-year-old vermilion fruits with the air of someone who had never seen much of the world, he recalled how he had been taken advantage of earlier. Malicious thoughts surged in his heart, and he said viciously,

"I heard that Fellow Daoist Qingli has recently achieved success in his cultivation and even entered the Slaughter Hall, causing his status to rise sharply. I wonder if you dare to spar with me?"

Yang Huai glanced at him and said,

"You should call me Senior Brother! I am an inner disciple, while you are still a Daoist acolyte!"

"Pah! If I wanted to, do you think the Slaughter Hall would have fallen to you?"

Feng Ying rolled his eyes.

He was not lying. He had long since cultivated magical power. If he were willing, entering the Slaughter Hall would have been effortless. He simply had no desire to do so.

The Slaughter Hall was a massive pit.

If one stayed there too long, one's soul would inevitably be tainted by the slaughter aura within, as well as the evil thoughts of demons and fiends, affecting future cultivation.

To become the Slaughter Hall's inheritor was, in the end, merely to become a sharp knife in the kitchen's hand.

Only someone like Qingli, who had no one backing him, would be chosen.

What Feng Ying wanted was to enter the kitchen's core directly, earn Hou Feng Daoist's recognition, and claim the position of kitchen chief in the future.

His eyes shifted, and he added, "Of course, if you dare to go to the Demonstration Hall and can defeat me, what harm is there in calling you Senior Brother?"

Yang Huai cast Feng Ying a glance and snorted.

"You really are begging for a beating. Since you are begging for one, let us go to the Demonstration Hall and have ourselves a spar!"

"But you will have to wait until I refine these two vermilion fruits!"

He agreed readily.

He was not opposed to this kind of sparring in the first place, especially not against Feng Ying. He had wanted to see what methods Feng Ying possessed, and to test the depth of his own cultivation.

"Fine. Then I will wait for you at the Demonstration Hall tomorrow afternoon. Be there or be square!"

Feng Ying was overjoyed at his words. He had long wanted to beat Qingli up. He immediately turned to leave, but before departing, he looked at Mao Hong beside him and said,

"Junior Brother Mao, if you are unconvinced, you can come tomorrow as well. Do not say I failed to give you a chance when the time comes!"

With that, he left directly.

Mao Hong's expression was somewhat grim.

The Demonstration Hall was a place within the Daoist temple where disciples sparred and mutually verified their Daoist arts.

The Daoist temple prohibited private fighting, but it did not prohibit this sort of sparring and mutual verification of Daoist arts!

There was even a dedicated Demonstration Hall within the temple, where disciples could spar, derive techniques, and simulate encounters with evil entities, demons, and fiends in the wilderness.

Yet Mao Hong truly did not dare go to the Demonstration Hall with Feng Ying. All he could do was curse inwardly:

Damn Feng Ying, damn Feng Di! They are going too far!

Within the quiet chamber, Yang Huai consumed one of the thousand-year-old vermilion fruits as soon as he returned.

The moment he swallowed it, he felt a ball of violent flame slide down his throat. Blazing heat radiated from his stomach, rushing into the energy channels throughout his body and causing the magical power within them to quake. A mass of fiery-red spirituality sought to use that magical power to burrow into the depths of his soul, but in an instant, a tangible talisman surged forth from the depths of Yang Huai's magical power and suppressed it. It emitted intense fluctuations of magical power, swallowing and refining it, then feeding the result back into the Heavenly Yang Golden Light Talisman.

Yang Huai circulated the magical power refined by the Heavenly Yang Golden Light Talisman, slowly refining the medicinal properties of the thousand-year-old vermilion fruit. Most of it was bound within his dantian and gradually refined to increase his magical power, while a smaller portion transformed into pure medicinal essence and scattered through his limbs and bones, helping him break through the hidden apertures of the Greater Circulatory Cycle.

Before long, Yang Huai could feel the remaining hidden apertures and meridians surrounding his mud pellet palace being nourished and opened by the medicinal properties of the thousand-year-old vermilion fruit. At this moment, the circulation of his qi and blood throughout his body became incomparably smooth. As the Greater Circulatory Cycle revolved, the intangible qi and blood leaking from his body gradually drew inward, collapsed, and contracted toward a certain place within him, producing a transformation that returned to simplicity and truth.

At that moment, the information within the Bronze Mirror in the depths of his sea of consciousness changed once more.

Anchored Object.

[Name: Qingli]

[Age: Eleven]

...

[First Realm: Foundation Establishment (Purple Mansion: 15/30)]

[Heavenly Origin Pure Spirit Codex: Heavenly Yang Golden Light Talisman (55/100)]

[Lesser Circulatory Cycle Method: 90/100 (Great Mastery)]

...

[Twenty-Two Primordial Patterns (22/22)]

The Lesser Circulatory Cycle Method had completely reached the pinnacle of Great Mastery. Beyond that, only the realm of Great Perfection remained.

One spiritual peach and one thousand-year-old vermilion fruit had saved him at least a dozen years of bitter cultivation, allowing him to step into Great Perfection in a single stride!

My wife once said that the sign of the Lesser Circulatory Cycle Method reaching Great Perfection is for the mortal body to transform into a Dao body. The first step is to condense a spark of pure essence fire in the middle dantian, using it to knead and refine form and spirit. Only when spirit is whole, qi is sufficient, essence, qi, and spirit have all reached their peak, and yin and yang are united in balance, can one forge the orthodox foundation of the Nine Heavens Orthodox Path. A saint embryo cultivated from such a foundation will surpass that of other seekers of the Dao by far!

But the process is immensely arduous. It also requires a hundred days of Foundation Establishment and many secret medicines. My physique already far surpasses that of ordinary Daoist acolytes, and there are even innate Geng Metal spirit bones deep within my muscles and skeleton. A single thousand-year-old vermilion fruit may not necessarily be enough!

Yang Huai mused inwardly.

Although Yuan Xiuxiu had never properly explained the path beyond Foundation Establishment to him, he had some guesses regarding the cultivation of the Nine Heavens Orthodox Path.

Yang Huai estimated that the cultivation method of the Azure Talisman Divine Land might begin with refining essence into qi, unlike the Xi Huang Kingdom, which began by nurturing the spirit and strengthening the soul, then used the spirit to refine the body and the body to nurture qi. Yet in the end, the paths should lead to the same destination. They might even complement each other, for in his memories, which of those ancient sages had not united form and spirit, crossed the sea of suffering with their fleshly bodies, and attained the highest Dao fruit?

If they can complement one another, then perhaps it would be no different from the ancient god path that Glory Hall boasts about. Ancient gods generally cultivated both body and soul. Not only were their souls powerful, but their bodies were also terrifying enough to rival those demon beasts. The Daoist temple takes soul-based Daoist arts as its foundation, while the Nine Heavens Orthodox Path uses essence to establish its foundation. If I can find what the two have in common, would that not leave vast potential?

As the medicinal properties of the thousand-year-old vermilion fruit within his body were gradually refined, Yang Huai could clearly feel his gaseous magical power growing thicker. However, there was still some distance to go before it filled his entire Purple Mansion, liquefied his magical power, and transformed it into a jade-liquid state.

Yang Huai glanced at the last vermilion fruit in his hand. He did not swallow it immediately, intending instead to refine it tomorrow.

He did not harbor any urge to seek quick success.

This mindset actually accorded well with the core of Daoist cultivation.

At this moment, only one thought remained in Yang Huai's mind.

How should he defeat Feng Ying tomorrow?

Feng Ying had cultivated his fundamental method longer than Yang Huai had, and his family background was illustrious. He could casually produce spiritual fruits as precious as thousand-year-old vermilion fruits, so his magical power was surely more profound.

Since he could produce the Soul-Calming Spirit-Severing Technique and the Metal Origin Five Aggregates Diagram, he presumably lacked no secret techniques either.

Most of what Yang Huai had, Feng Ying had as well.

Then a thought suddenly stirred in Yang Huai's mind.

No, I still have a powerful ally!