Blood-and-Qi Tempering Technique

Serving as steward of the Spirit Plant Hall, and doing so near Dongyang Lake, was undoubtedly a fine position.

By convention, clan members who could serve as stewards in the Ancestral Grounds were generally descendants of the main branch.

Although Liu Qingyun, a descendant of a distant branch, had earned this good post partly through his years of merit and hard work,

the main reason was still that Liu Yuanchen had displayed talent in alchemy.

He was already a disciple of the Azure Elixir Sect. With his talent in alchemy, he could easily gain the attention of some mid- to high-ranking figures within the sect.

The family had ignored him before, practically pushing an alchemy master away.

Now that they wanted to curry favor with him, they found it somewhat difficult to begin.

The best choice was to give Liu Qingyun better treatment.

That way, Liu Yuanchen's impression of the family could improve somewhat.

Liu Qingyun had deep feelings for the family. Naturally, he was overwhelmed with gratitude upon receiving the family's recognition.

"Thank you, Great Elder. I will certainly give it my all and handle the reclamation of South Mountain properly."

The father and son left Eastsun Peak and returned to their residence at the foot of South Mountain.

After the family shared a meal, Liu Yuanchen left his father some Grain-Banishing Pills and Golden-Thread Rice before departing Dongyang Lake.

He took one of the family's cargo ships toward Qinghe Town.

This time, they encountered no trouble. Traveling upstream, with cultivators from the clan using their spiritual power to propel the cargo ship, it took more than half a day to reach Qinghe Town.

After disembarking, he headed straight for the Dongyang Liu Clan Elixir Shop.

When Liu Qingfeng saw him, his face broke into a broad smile. "Nephew Yuanchen, you have rendered great service to the family.

"Have you come to the shop this time to sell pills?"

Liu Yuanchen shook his head. "No. I want to buy some medicinal ingredients for alchemy."

Liu Qingfeng thumped his chest in assurance. "The family has already sent word. When you purchase resources related to alchemy from family shops, you receive a twenty percent discount.

"Though the family's shop in Qinghe Town is not large, it has every spiritual herb needed to refine common first-rank pills.

"Just tell me whatever spiritual herbs you need."

Liu Yuanchen nodded slightly. "Give me twenty sets of ingredients for Spirit-Restoring Pills and five sets of spiritual herbs for Qi-Nourishing Pills."

Qi-Nourishing Pills were first-rank mid-grade pills. When Qi-Nourishing Realm cultivators took them, they could slightly increase their cultivation speed.

The standard price of a Qi-Nourishing Pill was three Spirit Stones, while a set of spiritual herbs for one pill cost ten Spirit Stones.

His success rate in refining Spirit-Restoring Pills had already reached fifty percent. It was time to try refining Qi-Nourishing Pills.

After a flurry of activity, Liu Qingsong gathered all the spiritual herbs Liu Yuanchen needed.

"One set of Spirit-Restoring Pill ingredients costs three Spirit Stones, and one set of Qi-Nourishing Pill ingredients costs ten Spirit Stones.

"All the spiritual herbs come to a total of one hundred and ten Spirit Stones.

"With the family's twenty percent discount, you only need to pay eighty-eight Spirit Stones."

After Liu Yuanchen paid the Spirit Stones, he left the elixir shop amid Liu Qingfeng's warm send-off.

From selling Spirit-Restoring Pills, splitting the falsely reported losses with Liu Qingsong, and receiving two rewards, he had accumulated a total of one hundred and fifty-seven Spirit Stones.

After buying the spiritual herbs, he had sixty-nine left.

He had no intention of returning directly to Yujin Mountain. Instead, he wandered around the outskirts of Qingxi Town.

This return to the family had brought him considerable gains, but it had also exposed two major weaknesses.

First, his blood and qi were exceptionally strong, yet he had no reasonable explanation for it.

The simplest solution was to find a low-grade body-tempering secret art to cultivate.

The body-tempering secret art would only serve as a cover. Its quality did not matter.

Second, he lacked a powerful offensive method.

When he had ambushed Chen Changming in the swamp, his full-force strike had landed on Chen Changming's face.

Yet it had only knocked out one of Chen Changming's rear molars and had not affected his combat strength at all.

If he had possessed a powerful offensive spell or an artifact with strong attacking power,

he might very well have killed Chen Changming outright then, or at least severely wounded him.

However, Liu Yuanchen had never bought an artifact.

The main reason was that most first-rank wood-element offensive artifacts were less powerful than the Azure Silk Vine.

Artifacts of other elements could also be activated with wood-element spiritual power.

It was like the pill furnace he had used before. It had nothing to do with the wood element, yet he could still activate it.

What made an artifact function were its Artifact-Refining Inscription Runes. Inscription Runes themselves had no attributes; they were merely tools that consumed spiritual power to produce specific functions.

No matter what kind of spiritual power was used, it could make the Inscription Runes function.

Because of the inherent properties of Inscription Runes, however, consuming spiritual power of different attributes produced functions of differing strength.

Using wood-element spiritual power to activate artifacts of other attributes greatly weakened their power.

Wind-Thunder also fell within the scope of the wood element and possessed tremendous killing power.

Using wood-element spiritual power to activate Wind-Thunder artifacts did not reduce their power by much.

However, Wind-Thunder artifacts were extremely rare. In a small place like Qinghe Town, they were almost never seen.

There were quite a few independent cultivators setting up street stalls around the outskirts of Qinghe Town.

Most of them had made some gains outside and either feared that shops would underpay them or had goods of questionable origin, so they chose to set up stalls.

They sold all manner of goods: pills, artifacts, spirit talismans, spiritual herb seeds, demon beast bones and scales—everything one could imagine.

Even cultivation techniques and spells were not uncommon.

There were many goods, and the prices were cheap, but the quality varied wildly.

Some people found bargains, while others were swindled.

Yet those who found bargains were few, while those who were deceived were many.

As Liu Yuanchen passed one stall, he saw more than twenty jade slips laid out there, along with several books stitched together from beast hide.

The stall owner hawked his wares. "Ancient cultivator inheritances, going cheap! These are inheritances from the Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling in Black Wolf Valley."

The moment he heard about the Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling in Black Wolf Valley, Liu Yuanchen stopped.

When he had previously taken a cargo ship back to Dongyang Lake, Chen Changming had mentioned this matter.

If they truly were ancient cultivator inheritances, he naturally had to take a look.

Seeing Liu Yuanchen stop, the stall owner perked up. "Fellow Daoist from the Azure Elixir Sect, are you looking to buy cultivation techniques and secret arts?

"These cultivation techniques and secret arts all came from the Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling in Black Wolf Valley. They are no worse than the inheritances of major powers."

Liu Yuanchen often came to Qinghe Town to buy supplies, so he knew full well what these independent cultivators were like.

"If all these were inheritances from an Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling, would you be setting up a stall here?

"If you could obtain so many inheritances, you would have long since become a Sea of Qi Realm cultivator.

"With a complete ancient cultivator inheritance and Sea of Qi Realm cultivation, establishing a sect would not be difficult."

The stall owner looked somewhat embarrassed. "Though not all of these inheritances came from the Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling, there are still some genuine items among them."

As he spoke, he picked up a somewhat worn book of beast hide. "I swear to heaven that this book absolutely came from the Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling.

"This is a rare body-tempering secret art, different from modern body-tempering secret arts.

"You can look at the general outline of this secret art. It is definitely extraordinary."

Liu Yuanchen picked up the beast-hide book and read the first two pages.

This secret art was called the Blood-and-Qi Tempering Technique, and it contained methods for strengthening one's blood and qi.

However, cultivating it required consuming a vast amount of spiritual materials.

Without sufficient resources, forcing oneself to cultivate it could damage one's foundation at best or cost one one's life at worst.

Moreover, one could consume the power of blood and qi to condense a kind of power known as astral force.

Astral force could be used for both attack and defense, and it could also temper one's sinews and bones.

According to the general outline, there were also certain spells that could be cast directly with astral force, and their power was immense.

Although he had never heard of astral force before, the beast-hide book described it convincingly. It was absolutely not something an independent cultivator could fabricate.

"This inheritance is somewhat interesting, but without matching spells, astral force is far too useless.

"Furthermore, increasing the power of blood and qi requires a great deal of resources.

"No wonder this inheritance from an Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling could not be sold."

The stall owner wore a helpless expression as well. "If it had matching spells, it could serve as the foundation of a mid-sized power. Why would I put it up for sale?"

"Though this body-tempering secret art consumes a great deal, Fellow Daoist is an elite disciple of the Azure Elixir Sect and has exceptionally strong blood and qi. You are perfectly suited to cultivate it.

"An ancient cultivator inheritance for only one hundred Spirit Stones. You definitely will not lose out."

Liu Yuanchen sneered. "I think you have gone mad for Spirit Stones."

He tossed the beast-hide book back onto the stall and turned to leave.

Seeing that he was about to go, the stall owner leaped out from behind the stall and grabbed Liu Yuanchen's sleeve.

"Fellow Daoist, don't go. The price can be negotiated. How about seventy Spirit Stones?"

Liu Yuanchen still intended to leave, and the stall owner voluntarily lowered the price again. "Fifty. Just fifty Spirit Stones."

Seeing the stall owner's attitude, Liu Yuanchen gained confidence in bargaining.

Liu Yuanchen halted. "If you truly want to sell it, then twenty Spirit Stones.

"If you are unwilling, stop blocking my way."

The stall owner gritted his teeth. "If Fellow Daoist truly wants it, then thirty Spirit Stones.

"I also bought this beast-hide book from someone else. Selling it for twenty Spirit Stones would mean taking a loss.

"We independent cultivators cannot compare to sect cultivators like you.

"Once we lose our capital, we cannot keep doing business."

Thirty Spirit Stones was already far below Liu Yuanchen's expected price.

If the stall owner had stubbornly held at fifty or sixty Spirit Stones, he would still have had to buy it.

After all, this secret art suited him far too well.

He pondered for a long while before slowly nodding. "Fine, thirty Spirit Stones it is.

"But I need to look at the later contents first. What if the later portions are severely incomplete? Wouldn't I be taking a loss?

"As long as this secret art can be cultivated to the Late Qi-Nourishing Stage, I will pay thirty Spirit Stones."

Seeing him relent, the stall owner was also relieved. "I placed a seal on this beast-hide book. Only the contents of the first five beast-hide pages can be viewed freely.

"Even this portion is enough to cultivate to the Late Qi-Nourishing Stage."

Liu Yuanchen read through all five of the first pages and found no problems.

He took out thirty Spirit Stones and handed them to the stall owner.

Once the stall owner removed the seal, Liu Yuanchen left the market with the beast-hide book and returned to Yujin Mountain.

This secret art could both solve the problem of his excessively strong blood and qi, while the astral force it condensed could also increase his offensive and defensive strength.

Once he cultivated this secret art, both problems he faced would be resolved.

With his problems solved, there was naturally no reason for him to remain in Qinghe Town.

After returning to Yujin Mountain, he went straight into his cave-dwelling.

After activating the defensive formation, he took out the beast-hide book and carefully read it from beginning to end.

This secret art was indeed not simple. At its highest level, it could be cultivated to the Late Sea of Qi Realm.

The astral force mentioned within was clearly different from the current path of cultivation in the Red Wasteland.

Though it also mentioned spiritual power, it held spiritual power in utter contempt.

According to the book's descriptions, spiritual power existed only to nourish the physical body.

In terms of the power of casting spells, it was simply incomparable to astral force.

Liu Yuanchen became increasingly certain that this secret art had a very long history.

If what the book said was true, then in the era when astral force was prevalent, spiritual power should have been suppressed.

The Red Wasteland's cultivation system had already been much the same as it was now thousands of years ago. This secret art must have been created at least several thousand years ago.

It seemed that the owner of the Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling in Black Wolf Valley had acquired this secret art elsewhere.

After all, the Ancient Cultivator's Cave-Dwelling had also yielded Blood Jade Pills, and pills generally could not be stored for more than five hundred years.

The entire secret art could be divided into three parts. The first part was a method for strengthening blood and qi.

Its contents were complete, but after cultivating the Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood Technique, Liu Yuanchen had developed high standards and found this secret art somewhat crude.

Presumably, even in the era of ancient cultivators, this secret art had not counted as an exceptional inheritance.

Liu Yuanchen did not care whether it was exceptional or not. As long as it worked, that was enough.

However, condensing astral force with this secret art required sufficiently strong blood and qi.

If one's blood and qi were not strong enough, condensing astral force would consume too much and could very likely injure one's internal organs.

The section on strengthening blood and qi was called the Guiding Technique.

The Guiding Technique consisted merely of some unusual movements combined with methods for circulating the power of blood and qi. It did not appear difficult.

Yet after performing the movements described in the Guiding Technique for just over twenty breaths, he was already drenched in sweat.

Every movement looked simple, but actually performing them was extraordinarily awkward.

After persisting for the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Liu Yuanchen felt that the power of blood and qi within his body had actually increased by a trace.

Once he finished, he only felt an all-over sense of ease. Even the circulation of his spiritual power had become much smoother.

He was merely a little hungry. It seemed that while the Guiding Technique strengthened blood and qi, it also consumed quite a bit.

After swallowing a Grain-Banishing Pill, the hunger vanished instantly.

As long as he ate some Grain-Banishing Pills, he could strengthen his blood and qi through the Guiding Technique. That was a worthwhile trade.

There was also some Golden-Thread Rice planted in the Blessed Land Embryo, and it grew very quickly. He could refine Grain-Banishing Pills whenever he wanted, so he did not lack such things at all.

Even the Guiding Technique alone was worth thirty Spirit Stones.

The second part of the Blood-and-Qi Tempering Technique was condensing astral force.

This process was extremely difficult. One first needed to use blood and qi to condense an Astral Force Seed.

Afterward, each time one circulated the Force-Condensing Secret Art, the Astral Force Seed would consume blood and qi and transform it into astral force.

However, condensing an Astral Force Seed was exceedingly difficult. Not only did it require an enormous amount of blood and qi, it also had to be slowly refined into shape.

If his cultivation had not strengthened his qi and blood, Liu Yuanchen would not have dared cultivate this thing.

Of course, there were faster methods.

He could find materials containing Astral Force, refine them into an Astral Force Seed, and then absorb it into his body.

Such methods were not uncommon in the world of immortal cultivation. For example, there were similar means for breaking through to the Sea of Qi Realm.

Before breaking through, one could refine a drop of liquid spiritual power into the body.

At the moment of breakthrough, this liquid spiritual power could serve as a catalyst to condense gaseous spiritual power into liquid, greatly reducing the difficulty.

Of course, the drawbacks were enormous.

Sea of Qi Realm cultivators who broke through this way would have permanently impure spiritual power.

Their cultivation in the Sea of Qi Realm would become exceedingly difficult, and breaking through to the Condensed Origin Realm would be almost impossible.

Although the book did not say so, using external aid to condense an Astral Force Seed likely came with similar drawbacks.

Naturally, Liu Yuanchen would not choose such a method. With the Blessed Land Embryo and the Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood Technique, he only needed to cultivate step by step to reach the Spirit Platform Realm.

No matter how good a secret technique was, it could not come at the cost of one's future path.

The third part of the secret technique tempered the sinews and bones. It could not be used at all before Astral Force was cultivated, so it was useless for now.

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