Ancient Body-Refining Method

Clang!

A long, lingering toll of the bell came from the great road at the borderlands, whistling through all directions. Golden energy surged together like a flood.

This was Taihao golden energy. It contained not only the spiritual power accumulated over many years within the Li Ancient Secret Repository, but even more of the golden energy held within those spiritual treasures and precious artifacts. Drawn by the Taihao Emperor Bell, it kept streaking toward it, finally caught by its immense pull and circling around it.

The domineering, razor-sharp golden energy formed a massive vortex.

The fierce wind howled, uprooting ancient trees in every direction and sending emerald branches and leaves flying across the sky.

It was like a golden galaxy spiraling through the air, wondrous beyond measure.

At this moment, inside the Emperor Bell.

Xu Yan had been trapped inside for one or two hours. At first, he had been rather agitated, trying many methods without being able to leave.

But later, he discovered that this place was exceedingly safe. Not only was the bell's toll extremely faint, but the spiritual power was also exceptionally dense. The masters' divine abilities landed upon the Emperor Bell without causing the slightest movement; even inside, there was not the least ripple. It was so quiet that one could hear a needle drop.

In short, no matter which of those masters outside emerged victorious and claimed the Taihao Emperor Bell, he would surely see daylight again.

Xu Yan simply lay flat.

At this moment, he stared blankly at the inner wall of the bell.

"Ancient script... linked together, it looks like mural after mural..."

The interior was not dim. On the contrary, the Five Elements golden energy illuminated it in dazzling splendor.

Fist-sized Primordial Script covered the Emperor Bell's interior, neatly engraved across its walls.

Xu Yan studied them intently. Slowly, his mind seemed to be drawn inside.

In an instant, it was as though he had returned to that turbulent, surging primordial age.

The earliest Primordial Script had originally been created by the human race based on the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth.

The older the script, the more it resembled mountains, rivers, and all things beneath the heavens, utterly captivating to behold.

In a daze, golden light seemed to flash through Xu Yan's pupils. The Human-Serpent Script on his chest burst forth with brilliant radiance, scorching hot—but it did not hurt. Instead, it felt remarkably gentle.

By his ears, the murmurs of the primordial human race seemed to rise, crossing the river of time and echoing into the present.

"Mother said Taihao's footprints became islands.

When the waves sing, green grass grows from white bones.

The children of the great wilderness chased the sun's shadow; before three generations had passed, they were old.

Only then did they learn that what had fallen upon his shoulders was the dawn before day and night."

It was an ancient nursery rhyme, the tender child's voice clear and melodious, as though recounting the desolation and grandeur of that legend.

Within Xu Yan's pupils, countless scenes from the primordial era flickered past like images on a revolving lantern.

Taihao Sovereign bore the sun upon his back, and the human race followed him to the cliffs of the Eastern Azure Sea,

Watching that towering figure, vast enough to reach the heavens, gradually vanish.

At dusk, the sun too fell into the azure sea.

Yet when dawn rose, another young sun appeared, rising from the depths of the boundless earth abyss...

The images came in fragments, flashing back again and again.

Xu Yan was shaken to the core. He shifted his gaze to another section of the bell wall, where the dense scripts still formed myriad scenes.

"Emperor Monument, why were you erected upon the frontier?

Golden Crow, why do you hide and conceal yourself?

The soul returns home..."

Xu Yan's thoughts were instantly dragged into an ancient battlefield at some frontier!

Upon that borderland stood a tower reaching the heavens, built from the heads of countless great demons—Qiu Dragons, Zheng Beasts, Feiyi, Gudiao... A terrifying aura echoed beneath the vault of heaven as thunder tore through the sky with shrieking roars.

This monument had intimidated the Demon Race for a million years, leaving them to dare not invade human territory!

Who knew how many years later, war was rekindled across the vast, boundless battlefield. The Emperor Monument was toppled, and demons, monsters, ghosts, and fiends reappeared in the mortal world.

"Building the Emperor Monument... This legend was actually true as well..."

Xu Yan was incomparably shocked.

This book told of how, during the primordial era, the human race had lived in dire conditions, oppressed by every faction and race, even reduced to food for great demons. Then Taihao Sovereign attained the Dao, drove off the great demons, and even beheaded a million of them, piling their heads upon the frontier to intimidate the primordial demons!

When Xu Yan had first read it, he had thought it was merely human bragging.

The descriptions of that demon-head monument had been far too unrealistic. It was said that among them were even the heads of great demon progenitors such as the Northern Sea Kunpeng, utterly unbelievable.

There were many scripts upon the Emperor Bell, but only three complete and coherent passages.

Xu Yan looked toward the final one.

"Crossing Record? This was an ancient record carved by the Li Clan..."

Xu Yan carefully examined those scripts.

The Ancient Solar Record did not contain detailed records of the Li Clan Crossing, only a short passage without beginning or end.

This Crossing Record was clearly far more complete.

Before Xu Yan's eyes, the myriad scenes of the primordial era began playing out once more like a revolving lantern!

It was as though he stood within the primordial Ten-Thousand Mang Mountains. Dense ranks of Li Clan people formed a procession like a winding dragon as they made their crossing.

At the very front of the procession, sturdy young men carried an Emperor Bell.

After traveling for a time, the clan's high priest would use vast magical power to activate the Emperor Bell. Its immense toll echoed through the ancient mountain range, intimidating the Demon Race.

Xu Yan's gaze swept over the scene before finally stopping in the center of the procession. His pupils suddenly contracted.

"Li Clan Body-Refining Method..."

A group of young children walked while swaying their bodies, assuming strange and peculiar postures.

Their skin gleamed bronze-gold, and they looked incomparably strong. No demon wind could come within a zhang of them.

Xu Yan was extremely familiar with those movements.

They were precisely the body-refining art he had often practiced over the years, except it was incomplete.

After the Li Clan children finished practicing the portion Xu Yan recognized, they continued with the latter half.

A wholly new set of body-refining movements!

Xu Yan's eyes widened. He focused with every ounce of attention, his gaze locked firmly upon those movements.

Without another word, he immediately began copying them like a cat mimicking a tiger.

This was the long-lost Li Clan body-refining art.

[Opening Apertures and Clearing Meridians]—this was the stage of shedding one's mortal form and remaking one's bones.

Opening apertures meant cultivating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, while clearing meridians meant refining one's essence and body from within, enhancing physical strength.

The two could be carried out together.

Yet now that the immortal path flourished in Great Yin, the overwhelming majority of cultivators focused on cultivating qi. Clearing meridians was not valued; they merely needed to unblock their turbid meridians so that they could later form a dantian qi sea and enter the Qi Exhalation realm.

The dynasty's soldiers placed great importance on body-refining arts. Some cultivators with poor spiritual-aperture aptitude would also abandon the Dao path and focus on body refinement.

Of course, those gifted prodigies from wealthy families cultivated both qi and body.

For instance, at Prince Wu'an's Residence, whenever Xu Yan and his sworn brothers had free time as children, they would often practice body arts alongside the soldiers in the army. Afterwards, they would bathe their crowns in spiritual spring water, washing the marrow and cleansing the meridians in preparation for opening apertures in the future.

The Emperor Bell was filled with Taihao golden energy.

Xu Yan's expression turned solemn. He spread his arms, curving them in a semicircle around his body, while his black robes billowed in the fierce wind.

The essence and blood within his body seemed to stir restlessly, and even his sinews and veins trembled.

He did not stop. He crossed his arms above his shoulders, forming a hand seal similar to the Five Flowers Gathering at the Crown!

In that instant, the two spiritual apertures within his body trembled and hummed. Spiritual power flowed through his meridians, finally entering a turbid spiritual vein.