Nine-Turn Origin Art

Everyone left the stockade tower and returned to their respective posts.

All the wounded were arranged to stay at the old site, while those who had not been attacked temporarily moved to Vermilion Ridge.

Feng Xu went to the Blood Pool to visit Kunmu.

Of all the survivors, Kunmu was the most severely injured. Even with the Blood Pool replenishing her vitality and blood, she remained unconscious.

Baleful Qi shrouded Kunmu's entire body, having already seeped deep into her bones.

Baleful Qi could tear apart the flesh and disrupt the mind.

Once Baleful Qi entangled someone, it was extremely difficult to remove. In mild cases, one had to sacrifice cultivation to preserve one's life; in severe cases, one would mutate and lose one's mind.

Before Houtu transformed into reincarnation, aside from the World-Cleansing White Lotus, which could slowly purify Baleful Qi, all other methods could only suppress it, not remove it.

But the wounded tribespeople were about to suffer Baleful Qi erosion. They had to find a way to deal with it.

"If nothing else works, I can only take a risk."

There was a cultivation art that could not dissolve Baleful Qi, but could resolve the immediate crisis. The risk, however, was immense. The slightest mistake could severely damage one's cultivation foundation.

It was the Nine-Turn Origin Art, a technique that used Baleful Qi for cultivation.

This was Pangu's Body Tempering method, inherited by the Witches.

It refined Baleful Qi into the body, using its tearing properties to continuously strengthen oneself through cycles of destruction and restoration.

It was an extremely radical method. Even among the Witches, not everyone could succeed in cultivating it.

After Yuanshi Tianzun studied the Nine-Turn Origin Art and added his own insights, he improved it into the Eight-Nine Mystical Art.

When Feng Xu wandered through the Purple Cloud Palace in his dreams, he had once deduced the Nine-Turn Origin Art through the Eight-Nine Mystical Art.

Now that he had the foundation of the Eight-Nine Mystical Art, cultivating the Nine-Turn Origin Art would not be too difficult.

"I can only try it first. If it works, I'll be able to absorb the Baleful Qi from others."

Feng Xu had already reached Perfected Mid-Stage Earth Immortal, surpassing Feng Sui and the others in cultivation, though he usually kept a low profile.

He had now reached the fifth turn of physical cultivation, tempering skin and flesh, and the fourth turn of Primordial Spirit cultivation, transforming into a Yang Spirit.

Of course, his heavenly cycles had still been opened ahead of time, so his actual cultivation was each one realm lower.

The Eight-Nine Mystical Art cultivated from within outward, while the Nine-Turn Origin Art cultivated from without inward.

Feng Xu dispersed his Primordial Spirit throughout every part of his body. This was the riskiest step.

There was a common misconception in the Primordial World: that the Witches cultivated only the body and not the Primordial Spirit.

That was both true and false.

The Witches indeed did not cultivate the Primordial Spirit, but neither did they cultivate only the body.

As the purest body cultivators of the Primordial World, they integrated their souls into their flesh, tempering both body and soul at the same time.

Compared to the Mystic Sect's Primordial Spirit cultivation, each had its own strengths and weaknesses.

The Mystic Sect's Primordial Spirit could keep the mind clear and the spiritual platform lucid. Even if the physical body was destroyed, the Primordial Spirit could escape, effectively granting an extra life bar.

But the Primordial Spirit was connected to consciousness and was more fragile than the body. Once damaged, one might lose all combat ability and be left at another's mercy.

The Witches' method tempered soul and body together, completely crushing the Mystic Sect's method in raw attributes.

It also had none of the Primordial Spirit's weaknesses.

In battle, the body could protect the soul, and the soul could reshape the body. Even if the body and Primordial Spirit in one area were both destroyed, one would not immediately lose the ability to resist.

Against an opponent without powerful soul attacks or the ability to utterly destroy the body, they could not be killed.

However, there were countless mighty beings in the Primordial World, and attacks capable of destroying both body and soul were everywhere.

Take Xingtian, for example. His head and the portion of his soul within it had both been destroyed, leaving nothing above his neck.

In terms of cultivation methods alone, the Nine-Turn Origin Art was a brute-force build, while the Mystic Sect's Primordial Spirit was a mechanics-based build.

But in reality, the Witches inherited Pangu's bloodline. Their physical bodies and souls were far stronger than those of ordinary people.

The Twelve Ancestral Witches in particular could scarcely be harmed at their foundations without a Primordial Treasure.

To cultivate the Nine-Turn Origin Art, Feng Xu needed to merge his Primordial Spirit into his body. Since his Primordial Spirit had already taken shape, this was the most dangerous step.

Feng Xu carefully circulated the Nine-Turn Origin Art, slowly merging his Primordial Spirit into his flesh. Half of it entered every part of his body, while the other half remained within his spiritual platform.

Next came the official start of cultivation.

Feng Xu drew a portion of Kunmu's Baleful Qi into his body and began the first turn, tempering skin and flesh.

Once he gradually became proficient in the first-turn heavenly cycle, he continued absorbing the Baleful Qi within Kunmu.

Perhaps because there was not much Baleful Qi, the process was not as painful as he had imagined.

Overall, it felt similar to having a fever in his previous life, only accompanied by far sharper stabbing pain.

Kunmu's expression gradually relaxed, though fine sweat still covered her forehead.

Feng Xu continued increasing the intensity, absorbing all the Baleful Qi he could. As for the portion that had seeped into her bones, he truly could not draw it out.

Huu—

Feng Xu stopped cultivating and let out a long breath.

But Kunmu's condition was still far from reassuring.

It would not pose a major problem in the short term, but the Baleful Qi would continue to affect Kunmu and grow stronger as she became stronger.

Finding nothing wrong with himself, Feng Xu inscribed the Nine-Turn Origin Art onto Kunmu's body in the form of a Battle Mark.

Battle Marks took effect slowly and gently, so there was no need to worry about Kunmu's ability to endure it.

"You can count this as a blessing in disguise. But from now on, you must often calm your mind and guard your nature, lest it affect your sanity."

Feng Xu spoke to himself as he looked at Kunmu, then walked out of the Blood Pool.

He absorbed the Baleful Qi from each of the tribespeople at the old site.

Their injuries were not as severe, and the Baleful Qi had not yet penetrated their bones.

Feng Xu then went to the place where corpses were collectively burned and absorbed all the lingering Baleful Qi.

Suddenly, Feng Xu felt the world spin as his consciousness began to blur.

Because Feng Xu had retained only half his Primordial Spirit, the strength of his body and Primordial Spirit had become unbalanced. Then, when the Baleful Qi came into contact with the Dharma power within him, it suddenly erupted, pushing him to the brink of losing control.

Supreme Star Platform, respond without cease.

Drive out evil, bind demons, preserve life and protect the body.

Wisdom clear and pure, mind and spirit peaceful.

The three souls endure forever; the seven spirits suffer no loss.

Feng Xu sat in meditation, silently reciting the Mind-Cleansing Spirit Incantation to suppress the Baleful Qi within his body while beginning Primordial Spirit cultivation.

Once the situation had temporarily eased, he immediately rushed to the Vermilion Ridge warehouse.

After greeting the warehouse keeper, he went straight to the innermost area, opened the locked iron door, and entered the Earth-Vein Spirit Pool to cultivate.

While suppressing the Baleful Qi in his body, Feng Xu considered a solution.

Baleful Qi conflicted with Dharma power. Forced suppression simply would not work.

Baleful Qi could not be expelled. Surely he could not disperse all his Dharma power? Then all these years of effort would be wasted.

Was there a way to keep the two apart for the time being?

Feng Xu suddenly thought of the Supreme One's Golden Core cultivation method.

Perhaps he could condense the Baleful Qi into a Baleful Core.

But before that, he needed to raise the strength of his Primordial Spirit.

Feng Xu stopped Body Tempering and focused solely on cultivating his Primordial Spirit.

With the Spirit Pool's enhancement, the faster speed of rebuilding after dispersing his cultivation, and the additional boost from Merit, only seven days passed before his Primordial Spirit was fully restored.

Next, he used the power of Merit to suppress the Baleful Qi and condense it into a Baleful Core.

Then, using the Supreme One's principles contained within Taiji Fist to harmonize them, he finally kept the Baleful Qi and Dharma power in balance.

Feng Xu also used this opportunity to break through his bottleneck and reach Late Earth Immortal.

Yet although the Baleful Core in his body posed no immediate danger, it remained a hidden threat in the long run.

"Once it reaches the critical point, should I shatter the core and form a nascent soul, like they do in novels?"

Feng Xu was only thinking casually. The things in novels had no concrete method, so it was best not to try them.

His body was stable for now. The Baleful Core would only erupt out of control once it became powerful enough, and that would not happen anytime soon. He still had time to seek a solution.

"The World-Cleansing White Lotus in the Merit Mall requires one million Merit Points. I've saved for so many years, but most of it went into refining my natal Dharma Treasure. Now I only have two hundred thousand left."

His natal Dharma Treasure had yet to be completed, but more than half his Merit had already been spent.

Feng Xu returned to the warehouse, where the keeper was anxiously waiting above.

Seeing that Feng Xu was unharmed, he told him to go to the stockade tower, where Feng Sui was waiting.

"What happened?"

Feng Xu looked at the warehouse keeper, Feng Zheng, and asked.

"Those Poison Bees haven't left. It seems they've settled down nearby. They come almost every day, and no one dares to leave their homes. Everyone is terrified."