My Family

Chu Hongshang successfully became Shi Xueyan's disciple, and under Chen Yuan's manipulation, the plot returned to its starting point once more.

The only change might have been the Wang Family of South Mountain City.

This time, Chen Yuan had dragged the Wang Family out as a target, nearly scaring them to death.

Some jianghu people had overheard the conversation between Shi Xueyan and Chu Hongshang and spread it around.

At the same time, someone recognized Shi Xueyan's identity, and the Wang Family immediately panicked.

They had not expected Chu Hongshang to survive while the Zhu Family was wiped out first.

And Chu Hongshang had even taken Shi Xueyan as her master and joined the Myriad Demons Sect.

With such hatred toward the Wang Family, would the day she achieved success in cultivation not be the day their family was exterminated?

Thus, after several months of panic, the Wang Family decided to flee North Sea Market. They even changed their names and surnames, abandoning their ancestors altogether.

Of course, that was a matter for later.

With matters at North Sea Market settled for the time being, Chen Yuan did not leave.

He planned to cultivate the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method first and resolve the hidden danger of his uncontrollable Blood Fiend Power.

There was still a month before the Demon-Sealing Conference began, so Chen Yuan had plenty of time to prepare.

The Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method was quite unusual. It was neither an internal cultivation art nor a martial skill. Strictly speaking, it was a secret art for developing one's own potential.

The core philosophy of the Creation Dao Sect was to control one's own creation before using oneself to control the creation of heaven and earth.

The outside world was the greater heaven and earth, while the human body was the lesser heaven and earth.

The human body was incomparably profound. The Upper Dantian was located at the crown of the head and was known as Rising Yang Mansion and Kunlun Summit, where the Spirit Platform Profound Gate and the Sea of Consciousness lay. It was the spiritual root of heaven and earth.

The Middle Dantian was located at the Chest Center. From the Chengjiang point below through the twelve-story tower to the Yellow Court, the five viscera and six bowels each performed their duties. It was the foundation of the human body.

The Lower Dantian lay below the navel and was known as the Qi Sea, where life was stored. The water and fire of the heart and kidneys, the convergence of dragon and tiger, governed the balance of yin and yang. It was the profound gate of life and death.

The Creation Dao Sect believed that most people could not escape birth, aging, sickness, and death simply because they lived in a muddle, never truly grasping the mysteries of their own bodies.

Thus, one had to cultivate the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method, treating one's body as a "deity" to cultivate and thoroughly control the lesser heaven and earth within.

Supplemented by the Son of Heaven Qi-Watching Art to grasp the creation of heaven and earth, one could break through the profound gate of life and death, see the deity without decay, and live forever.

After carefully studying the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method, Chen Yuan firmly believed in its first half, but the final claim of immortality seemed somewhat exaggerated.

Even in the Primordial Era, those legendary, powerful divine and demonic experts had been unable to achieve immortality.

How many outstanding heroes and peerless geniuses had there been in the jianghu, only to become a handful of yellow earth in the end?

That so-called immortality was merely a goal the Creation Dao Sect wished to achieve. Yet even after its lineage was extinguished, no one had managed it.

And after Chen Yuan officially began cultivating the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method, he finally understood why the Creation Dao Sect's lineage had ultimately perished.

Because the threshold for cultivating this thing was far too high!

The first step, internally observing the Upper, Middle, and Lower Dantians, already required exceptionally high comprehension.

Then came visualizing the inner scenery and deity, gradually taking control of the body's mysteries. That required the cultivator's spirit to be unprecedentedly powerful.

Otherwise, one wrong step could easily lead to disordered meridians and deviation.

Fortunately, this body of Chen Yuan's possessed astonishing talent and comprehension, allowing him to cultivate the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method.

The Chu Family's ancestor had been a disciple of the Creation Dao Sect, but he likely could not cultivate the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method either. Otherwise, the Chu Family would not have fallen to such a state.

Having such a high starting point for a cultivation art was not necessarily a good thing, because it could easily become impossible to pass down.

Whether sects or aristocratic families, the cultivation arts of the Central Plains jianghu had undergone generations of inheritance and refinement. They developed from simple to complex, with low entry requirements and high potential.

Only such cultivation arts were suitable for top-tier major powers to use as their inherited techniques.

Otherwise, no matter how powerful a cultivation art or secret technique was, if only one or two people out of a sect's thousands could cultivate it, a break in inheritance could easily occur.

The Creation Dao Sect's cultivation arts were precisely like that. Their starting point was too high.

If it had been in the Central Plains, they could still have relied on the vast population to find gifted disciples.

But overseas, the population was already sparse and scattered among countless islands, making it even harder to find disciples. Thus, the Creation Dao Sect's lineage gradually died out, and its descendant disciples chose to return to the Central Plains.

However, although the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method had a high threshold, its effects were also extraordinarily miraculous.

After cultivating for only one day and making a preliminary entry, Chen Yuan felt that his control over his body had greatly increased.

Whether it was his five senses or explosive power, both had improved by a considerable degree.

And when he once again invoked killing intent and let the Blood Fiend enter his body, he could gradually control his surging qi and blood to suppress the Blood Fiend, rather than being swept along by it as it frenziedly burned his qi and blood.

Previously, Chen Yuan could maintain the Blood Fiend entering his body for at most five breaths. Now, it was roughly thirty breaths.

And that was only the absolutely safe duration. If he truly fought desperately, the Blood Fiend would not lose control within a hundred breaths and could still be suppressed afterward.

It was just that after thirty breaths, his meridians would suffer some damage from being unable to withstand the violent Blood Fiend.

As the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method gradually deepened, Chen Yuan would eventually be able to completely control the Blood Fiend Power brought by the Seven Kill Stele.

Chen Yuan also swallowed and refined the Radiant Extreme Qi-Congealing Pill he had looted from the Zhu Family.

Pills produced by such top-tier great sects had virtually no side effects. Once the medicinal power entered his body, it silently nourished and smoothly strengthened his internal force.

After cultivating through several cycles, Chen Yuan's internal force and true qi surged by a great deal. With the pill's aid, he directly stepped into the middle stage of the Qi Forging Realm.

"This Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method truly deserves its status as a heaven-grade art."

Chen Yuan let out a long breath and sighed.

Although he had relied on a pill to enter the middle stage of the Qi Forging Realm this time, the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method had actually played the greatest role.

The Radiant Extreme Qi-Congealing Pill was remarkably effective for Blood-Shifting Realm martial artists, but for Qi Forging Realm martial artists, it was merely for routine cultivation assistance. One pill could not raise a minor realm.

Chen Yuan had broken through because the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method allowed him to initially control the mysteries of his body.

Whether his meridians or acupoints, Chen Yuan understood their operating patterns like the back of his hand. It was equivalent to developing his own potential all over again, leaving his body's strength somewhat hollow instead.

Once a pill filled that void in his strength, entering the middle stage of the Qi Forging Realm naturally followed.

Although this secret art could not directly enhance one's strength and possessed little offensive power,

once one entered its gates and controlled the body's mysteries, both cultivation speed and command of other martial skills could increase dramatically.

After stabilizing his cultivation, Chen Yuan finally set out for Demon-Sealing Valley to prepare for the Demon-Sealing Conference.

Cultivating the Inner Scenery Deity Visualization Method could not be achieved overnight. For now, Chen Yuan's preliminary mastery was enough.

What remained was to observe the inner scenery daily, develop the mysteries of the human body, and gradually control the deity of the inner scenery. Once he achieved great mastery, the Blood Fiend would no longer lose control.

Three days after Chen Yuan left North Sea Market, five jianghu people dressed in golden brocade robes and wearing golden-feathered phoenix crowns appeared there, riding fiery red divine steeds.

These five carried an imposing air of nobility. Their magnificent horses were clearly rare mutant divine steeds, while the sword and saber scabbards at their sides were all incomparably luxurious. They were obviously from a top-tier major power.

"Junior Brother Zhu, I heard you were born in North Sea Market?"

Among the five, a martial artist in his thirties with two neatly groomed mustaches spoke up.

"That is correct. Not far from North Sea Market lies Lone Mountain City, where my Zhu Family is located.

There is nothing particularly new in this little place of North Sea Market, though its fish, shrimp, and seafood are somewhat novel.

You senior brothers have traveled far. Why not visit my Zhu Family to rest for a while and sample the local specialties before continuing on?"

A young martial artist of around twenty-four or twenty-five smiled as he invited them.

He bore a thirty percent resemblance to Zhu Chengan, though he was younger and more handsome. He was none other than Zhu Chengzong, the fifth son of the Zhu Family, who had joined Yongzhou's great sect, the Radiant Extreme Sect.

"Junior Brother Zhu has not returned home in a long time. How could you pass by your own doorstep without entering?"

A senior brother smiled. "There are still two months until Patriarch Murong's birthday. Let us rest at Junior Brother Zhu's home for a few days. What do you all think?"

The other Radiant Extreme Sect disciples present did not refuse and all voiced their agreement.

They were all direct-line inheritors of the Radiant Extreme Sect. However, Zhu Chengzong's master was an exceptionally powerful elder within the sect, so they were willing to give Zhu Chengzong this courtesy.

Thus, led by Zhu Chengzong, the group passed through North Sea Market and headed straight for Lone Mountain City.

As they passed along the central road of North Sea Market, Zhu Chengzong spotted a pool of blood on the ground.

The Zhu Family's severed heads had sat there for several days until they stank, and they had only been cleaned away two days ago.

Had Zhu Chengzong arrived two days earlier, he could at least have collected his family's bodies intact.

At this moment, he assumed it was merely blood left behind by jianghu people who had fought and been injured on the road, so he paid it no mind at all.

When they returned to Lone Mountain City, however, Zhu Chengzong began to feel that something was strange.

The expressions of those coming and going through Lone Mountain City changed slightly when they saw Zhu Chengzong, and their gazes were exceedingly strange.

Everyone in Lone Mountain City knew that he had joined the Radiant Extreme Sect, and the Zhu Family itself already dominated Lone Mountain City.

Thus, whenever they saw him return, everyone in Lone Mountain City would rush to flatter him, greet him, and bow in salute.

But this time, not a single person greeted or saluted him. They even seemed somewhat eager to avoid him.

For some reason, Zhu Chengzong felt a trace of foreboding in his heart.

When he returned to Zhu Family Manor, Zhu Chengzong's expression changed drastically.

The once splendid and magnificent Zhu Family Manor was now utterly dilapidated. Bloodstains covered the area, and even the gold-inlaid plaque had been torn down.

A faint stench of rotting corpses drifted from within the manor, and numerous bodies could vaguely be seen lying inside.

Chen Yuan had not looted much from the Zhu Family.

But after the Zhu Family was destroyed, those who held grudges against them, along with the bolder ones, had entered Zhu Family Manor and plundered it, carrying away every valuable item before directly leaving Lone Mountain City.

After all, so many people had taken part in the looting that even if Zhu Chengzong returned, he would never be able to find them.

A senior brother from the Radiant Extreme Sect glanced at Zhu Family Manor and lightly shook his head. "It seems Lone Mountain City suffered a massacre some time ago. The entire family must have been wiped out, leaving no one behind, not even anyone to collect the bodies. Whose family was so miserable?"

Zhu Chengzong stared blankly at the ruined Zhu Family Manor. "My family."

Senior Brother: "..."