Dust-Cleansing Body Purification

In about a quarter of an hour, it would be the Hour of the Tiger. Dong Lin had already arrived atop that thatched hut.

He sat cross-legged on the roof, facing southeast.

The first cycle of Dust-Cleansing Body Purification contained a Purple-Qi Dust-Cleansing Formula, used to draw upon the qi of heaven and earth to cleanse oneself.

At the Hour of the Tiger, one sat facing east, formed the Midnight-Noon Seal with both hands, and pressed the tongue against the palate.

Dong Lin silently circulated the technique and waited patiently.

At dawn, during the Hour of the Rabbit, as the rising sun emerged, a wisp of purple qi would be born in the void along with the great sun.

This was innate essence. It could be used to refine the turbid qi within the body, cleanse the dust and purify the body, while also assisting one's cultivation.

As a wisp of purple qi was successfully drawn into Dong Lin's body, it slowly began to circulate within him.

The acquired filth hidden within Dong Lin's mortal flesh—unseen by the eyes and imperceptible to the spirit—was gradually forced out of his body by the innate purple qi.

Thick, ink-black grime seeped from Dong Lin's pores.

If someone happened to pass by now, they would surely be shocked and might even mistake Dong Lin for a demon.

Dong Lin's entire body was now covered in filth. As the great sun slowly rose—

the purple qi vanished.

"The purple qi in this world is not of the quality described by the technique."

Having finished circulating his cultivation art, Dong Lin let out a soft sigh.

The technique claimed that all turbid impurities could be expelled in three days, but by Dong Lin's estimate, even if he made efficient use of this faint purple qi every day, it would take at least two months to achieve that effect completely.

Finding a mountain stream, Dong Lin washed away the filth covering him, then hurried back to the inner sect.

"Morning, Junior Brother. Just back from the mountains?"

The moment he arrived at the entrance to the Thunder Division, he ran into his Sixth Senior Brother, Zhang Shaoyou, who was heading out.

Zhang Shaoyou held a pile of formation flags, seemingly intending to go set up a formation.

"Morning, Sixth Senior Brother. Going out to set up a formation?"

"Mm-hmm, I took a task to help someone set up a Beast-Trapping Formation.

"If you need anything involving formations, you can come find me. I'll give you half off."

"Thank you, Senior Brother. If I need anything, I'll definitely come to you first."

Knowledge of formations was extremely important.

Out in the wilderness, if one wished to hide from prying eyes, temporarily setting up some concealment formations could achieve excellent results.

Most Rogue Cultivators who cultivated in the mountains and other desolate, uninhabited places would set up several defensive and concealment formations around their cave abodes.

Formation knowledge could be considered an exceedingly practical skill in the cultivation world.

Most cultivators might know little about alchemy or artifact forging, but they all had considerable knowledge of formations.

When venturing out for experience, formation arts were the most commonly used methods.

When I have time, I can ask Senior Brother Zhang for some guidance.

Dong Lin watched Zhang Shaoyou's hurriedly departing back and thought to himself.

For the next half month or so, Dong Lin continued cultivating. Unfortunately, his affairs were too numerous for him to settle down and enter long-term secluded cultivation.

Every morning, he had to enter the mountains and use purple qi for Dust-Cleansing Body Purification. Then, when the time came, he had to head to the spirit fields to eliminate strange insects.

After returning to Thunderwave Hall, he began using the Thunder Fang Spirit Flame to cultivate the Li Huo Heart-Protecting Seal.

With the assistance of the second-rank beast fire, the Li Huo Heart-Protecting Seal had now reached minor mastery.

Dong Lin's fire-controlling arts had also begun to show some promise.

He could be considered half a fire cultivator now.

After eating his midday meal of exotic beast meat, he began body refinement.

Dong Lin had also handed the exotic beast meat he obtained last time to steward Xue Zhan, asking him to add it to his daily meals in batches.

Under the ongoing effects of Dust-Cleansing Body Purification, Dong Lin's body-refinement speed was astonishing.

The Tiger Might Body had just crossed its threshold. Dong Lin had already completed the skin-tempering stage and begun bone-forging.

As the impurities throughout his body were cleansed away bit by bit, the efficiency of both his Qi Refining and body refinement had risen markedly.

In two days, the sect would launch a grand hunting competition.

The full name of this competition was the Dao-Xuan Grand Hunt Across All Domains.

A group of elders who had been cooped up within the mountain gates with nothing to do had pushed with all their might for this unprecedentedly massive sect competition.

It was divided into a Qi Refining division and a Foundation Establishment division.

The rewards were exceptionally generous. It was said that the first place in the Qi Refining Stage alone would receive a thousand contribution points.

There were also countless heavenly treasures and earthly riches.

Unlike sect competitions where disciples merely sparred with one another, this kind of hunting competition killed several birds with one stone and received unanimous approval from the sect's higher-ups.

It not only tempered the disciples' spell-combat abilities, but also cleared away some hidden dangers in the sect's secret realms, making future operations to search those realms for resources far more convenient.

After his previous battle with those Earthshell Beasts, Dong Lin had realized the importance of movement techniques in combat.

If his movement technique had not come into play during that earlier encounter, Dong Lin's body would likely have been smashed to pulp long ago.

Over these short two-plus weeks, Dong Lin had set aside part of his time to focus specifically on practicing his movement technique.

Pine-Wind Treading Snow had entered minor mastery, while Moon-Seizing Chasing Wind had also produced considerable results.

His progress in the Chasing Wind realm had already passed the halfway point of minor mastery, and the Moon-Seizing realm had more or less caught up with the Chasing Wind realm.

Dong Lin's movement technique had now reached the average level of a Qi Refining Stage disciple.

"Although my movement technique can't be considered a strength now, at least it won't become one of my weaknesses."

But unlike his former identity as a stationary turret mage, Dong Lin could now be considered half a battle mage.

Once the Tiger Might Body had taken initial shape, the body-refinement art granted a fist technique called the Tiger-Might Fist.

It had two moves in total: the basic move, Tiger Claw Strike, and the advanced move, Savage Tiger Pounces on the Mountain.

Dong Lin had already cultivated the basic Tiger Claw Strike to minor mastery.

Whenever he used the Tiger-Might Fist, it faintly carried a trace of tiger might, already possessing the first rudiments of a tiger's divine intent.

"This Hanging-Eyed White Tiger Painting truly deserves to be called a primal divine-intent diagram of a cultivation art."

Dong Lin knew clearly that his aptitude was not outstanding. For him to have made such progress, this divine-intent diagram had contributed greatly.

Dong Lin spent every day studying this divine-intent diagram to cultivate, and his progress was extremely gratifying.

However, Dong Lin lacked practical experience in close combat, and close combat placed tremendous importance on experience.

For a ranged mage, most spell-combat routines consisted of defense, evasion, and casting spells.

But close combat was different. Its techniques were countless, and without extensive experience fighting others, those close-combat moves would find it difficult to display their power in actual battle.

Thus, Dong Lin planned to seek out an expert in this area for a few exchanges.

Baili Tianming was an excellent choice.

Baili Tianming cultivated the Celestial Dipper Child Body Art.

It was the unique cultivation art of Bao Hei, the master of the Law Enforcement Hall, and had been inherited by his personal disciple, Baili Tianming.

Baili Tianming had followed Hall Master Bao Hei since childhood and had begun tempering his body and stretching his sinews and bones at a very young age.

In terms of foundations, Baili Tianming, as a newly inducted disciple of the Heaven Sect's Law Enforcement Hall, was not much inferior to Dong Lin in physical aptitude.

But that was only temporary.

Although the Eight-Nine Mystical Art was an immortal cultivation art that cultivated both life and destiny, its ultimate goal was to make the flesh sacred, and it leaned toward physical cultivation.

Once Dong Lin's Five-Element Escape Art reached great mastery and his body purification reached completion, he would surely leave the current Baili Tianming far behind.