Half a Sheng Cauldron Boils Mountains and Rivers, Meeting the Beautiful Married Woman Again

"Good!"

"It's decided, then—you're the one."

The records from that ancient tome, Essential Guide to Tending the Field, slowly surfaced in his mind.

"Iron ox plows the earth and sows coin."

"The stone-carving child threads it through."

The acupoints throughout the human body, the twelve meridians, the methods of circulation, and the best times to cultivate were all explained one by one.

It was a truly, incomparably detailed immortal cultivation manual.

First, one had to sense the spiritual energy between heaven and earth. Once every acupoint had been filled with nine streams of spiritual energy, the First Heavenly Ladder would be complete.

For the Second Heavenly Ladder, one had to force open the major acupoints and meridians throughout the body, allowing the spiritual energy between heaven and earth to pour endlessly into the body, scouring the meridians and clearing the acupoints.

This process was meant to temper one's sinews and bones, making them tough as iron, as though one had undergone marrow cleansing and bone reforging, shedding the mortal frame and exchanging the bones.

Four lines of verse revealed its mysteries.

"Of all the ten thousand volumes of scriptures, none compares to a single true word."

Yu Ke recalled the acupoints across the human body, his divine sense sinking into them.

He moved spiritual energy through the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, circulating it through the three carts: the Lesser Heavenly Circuit's Lesser River Cart, the Greater Heavenly Circuit's Greater River Cart, and the Void-Returning Purple River Cart. He began with the Ox Cart Lesser Heavenly Circuit.

A vast surge of spiritual energy was like a general charging into battle, leading an unending flood of spiritual energy as it raced through Yu Ke's meridians.

"Lesser Heavenly Circuit, open for me!"

Pierce the acupoints!

Chisel through the gates!

Move the qi and blood, link the acupoint palaces.

Every inch the spiritual energy moved brought agonizing pain.

Yu Ke felt as though needles were stabbing him all over. He clenched his teeth desperately and balled his hands into fists.

Drenched in sweat!

His chest trembled without cease, rising and falling unstably.

Yu Ke's body seemed to have become a vast battlefield, with spiritual energy waging war within it.

Where the meridians ran and where their currents flowed gradually formed a brilliant golden thread that pierced through his entire body.

"If an immortal personally imparts the formula, seize the Northern Dipper Heavenly Circuit Wheel."

Yu Ke silently recited it in his heart.

The first cycle of spiritual energy lay within it!

He clenched his teeth even harder.

This breath!

He could not let it out—absolutely could not let it out!

The moment he exhaled, all his previous efforts would go to waste.

He remembered being worked like an ox and horse in his previous life. Now that he had been reborn!

And had encountered this grand age of cultivation, a true man ought to roam the nine heavens.

"I'm going to cultivate immortality."

An incomparably fierce conviction burst forth, allowing him to remain conscious.

Yu Ke pressed his tongue against his upper palate, also known as supporting heaven with the hand. With his tongue touching his palate, his Conception and Governing Meridians linked his breath together.

As a powerful current of spiritual energy coursed through his entire body.

He seemed to feel himself merging into one with the spiritual energy between heaven and earth.

Yu Ke's eyes suddenly flew open, radiant light shining within them.

"Turn for me!"

At this moment!

It could not break. It must not break.

Two streams of Mediating Mother Qi flowed along with the spiritual energy, still carrying momentum.

Yu Ke was going to break through several acupoints across his body in one stroke and make the spiritual energy complete a Lesser Heavenly Circuit.

It was a method recorded in the Essential Guide to Tending the Field.

"A single grain of millet hides a world."

"A half-sheng cauldron boils mountains and rivers."

Every acupoint was like a seed, like a treasure mountain—like a hidden paradise, a world.

It was plain to see!

The patriarch who wrote those lines possessed an aura vast enough to shake antiquity and dazzle the present.

The body was a cauldron, scorching and refining mountains and rivers!

Now he needed to nourish his qi and disperse it through the many major acupoints and acupoint palaces.

The spiritual energy completed two cycles of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit.

The pores all over Yu Ke's body opened wide, drawing threadlike wisps of spiritual energy into his dantian.

At his dantian, more spiritual energy rose in curling streams.

He looked inward!

The many acupoints were like crystalline treasure mountains, emitting a pearly radiance.

After three cycles of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, the spiritual energy quietly changed.

"Refine essence into qi, refine qi into spirit; refine lead into mercury, and when mercury forms the elixir, the fruit is complete."

Spiritual energy, spiritual qi, spiritual liquid, and spiritual essence.

The transformation between these four different states was also a necessary path toward entering higher realms.

The final spiritual essence was a state that spiritual energy could only transform into after Foundation Establishment.

Only upon entering the gate of Foundation Establishment could one be called a cultivator!

After the ninth cycle of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, the spiritual energy became spiritual qi, then transformed into spiritual liquid.

"Disperse!"

The acupoints were like mountains, the sinews and meridians like the sky, and the spiritual energy like clouds on the horizon.

Like!

A vigorous autumn rain.

Falling in a mighty torrent among the mountains.

All the flush on Yu Ke's body faded away.

He sat cross-legged!

When he opened his eyes again, the spiritual energy had been refined into his body, and the many acupoint treasure mountains once more released intoxicating splendor.

At last, long-lost joy appeared on Yu Ke's face.

He had finally opened the Lesser Heavenly Circuit linking the lower dantian to the upper dantian. This meant that he had entered the major completion stage of the Second Heavenly Ladder.

However!

Yu Ke knew that he was still some distance from the perfected realm, because two hundred and eighty-four acupoints had yet to be incorporated into the circuit.

Only when all seven hundred and twenty acupoints had been incorporated into the circulation throughout his body could he reach the perfected realm of the Second Heavenly Ladder.

Unfortunately!

The two wisps of Mediating Mother Qi Yu Ke possessed had already been completely exhausted. Thus, his plan to strike for perfection could only be set aside for now, awaiting the next opportunity.

Without Mediating Mother Qi!

From here on, he could only rely on slow, painstaking effort to continue cultivating.

He recalled how his former self had spent a full four years opening every acupoint, then attempted to use Foundation Establishment to force open the "Divine Heaven Point."

The result was that everything turned to ashes!

This lesson made Yu Ke deeply understand that the path of cultivation could not be rushed. He had to advance steadily and fight each battle on solid ground.

Take it as a warning!

It was like having a curvaceous beauty in an enticing outfit before him—he still could not rush things, or there would be serious consequences.

He absolutely needed protection... on hand.

Yu Ke nodded. Foundation Establishment had to be planned out gradually!

Within the Second Heavenly Ladder realm, there were three miraculous traits:

[Gold Muscle and Jade Meridians]

[Copper Skin and Iron Bones]

[Mercury Blood and Silver Marrow]

His original body had possessed one of them, [Gold Muscle and Jade Meridians], but it had all been destroyed after his failed Foundation Establishment.

If he could possess all of them, it would mean that his Second Heavenly Ladder realm was stable.

Then Foundation Establishment would be as certain as ten against one.

Foundation Establishment also had grades one through nine, and above the ninth grade was Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment. He would have to consider all of that in the future.

Fortunately!

He could cultivate now, and had also escaped the possibility of dying suddenly.

At that thought, Yu Ke could not stop the smile from curling at the corners of his lips.

Just then!

Yu Ke sniffed, and a smell drifted over.

"Ugh!"

He nearly threw up and could not help saying:

"Who shit their pants?"

Yu Ke came back to himself and saw that his arms were covered in reddish-brown foul-smelling sludge.

That smell was simply something else!

It was even more potent than opening a jar of old pickled cabbage that had sat for decades.

It had been the same last time, but the smell had not been this strong.

All the stagnant blood in his sinews and meridians had been expelled, along with some waste residue.

Inside, everything was clear and bright.

He hurried into the bathroom. Each of the four courtyards in the outer sect had one.

A thorough scrubbing!

He felt refreshed in both body and mind.

By then, the midday sun had shone in as well.

It was quite bright and beautiful.

It was the seventh day since he had transmigrated. He had resolved the cultivation problem left behind by the original owner, and there were still more than two months before the assessment.

The major completion stage of the Second Heavenly Ladder was still not stable enough!

Aristocratic family disciples like Yu Ke were mostly at the perfected stage of the Second Heavenly Ladder.

It seemed he still had to continue cultivating until perfection.

With that, he walked outside, scooped a large bowl full of Spirit Rice, and prepared to cook himself a meal.

"I'm hungry."

He pushed open the door and saw!

A strikingly beautiful sight at the entrance.

Yu Ke narrowed his eyes slightly.

He had run into that beautiful married woman from last time again.

Her long purple dress was rather tight-fitting.

It made her curves astonishingly pronounced, especially exaggerated.

From behind!

That shape—pears and peaches.

Cook first. He could look again later.

Strangely enough!

After noticing him, the beautiful married woman walked straight toward him.