South of the Yangtze, I, Li Fuchan, am coming

"I never imagined I would attain such cultivation in a mere half year."

Li Fuchan emerged naked from the cold pool on the deserted island. The habitual gloom between his brows had faded somewhat. His eyes were gray-black, but a glimmer of golden crimson flashed deep within his pupils and vanished, like a bolt of lightning hidden in thunderclouds, yet to strike.

He had now truly understood why he had been able to leap past all six stages of Aperture Opening and reach the Outer Scenery realm directly.

It had not been some extraordinary innate talent, but damage to his body.

Ordinary cultivators had to open Six Apertures: Flying Pool, Suspended Pivot, Crimson Palace, Jade Capital, Hall Chamber, and Noon Peak.

Opening Flying Pool and Suspended Pivot set Nutritive Qi in motion and gave it a place to reside, preventing it from dispersing outside the body and being wasted. The course of this Nutritive Qi was the standard path of the Greater and Lesser Celestial Circuit arts, circulating through the twelve primary meridians and eight extraordinary vessels like the sun and moon in their courses, without the slightest deviation. Once these two apertures were open, one could cultivate through cultivation methods, no longer having to grind the apertures open through such grueling practices as medicinal baths, acupuncture, and bodily strikes.

Opening Crimson Palace and Jade Capital set Defensive Qi in motion, allowing one to actively warm the flesh, nourish the skin, enrich the tissues, and govern their opening and closing. At this stage, cultivators could draw talismans and prepare medicines. If their Crimson Palace and Jade Capital displayed the image of water and fire harmonizing and cinnabar clouds rising, they could even become alchemists.

Opening Hall Chamber and Noon Peak set Blood Qi in motion. Blood Qi was not ordinary blood, but the fundamental essence nourished by nutritive and protective qi. Its nature underwent manifold changes, and Blood Qi varied accordingly. Someone raised in fine clothes and sumptuous food, free of all cares, would have entirely different Blood Qi from someone who had wandered homeless since childhood and tasted every hardship. Their fundamental essences would likewise differ greatly.

With all Six Apertures open, they formed an unbroken ring, perfectly embodying the saying:

"Nutritive and protective qi circulate like a ring without end. Blood qi is the spirit of man."

The union of these Three Qi produced Dharma Power.

With a surge of Dharma Power, Flying Pool and Suspended Pivot collapsed into the Sea of Qi, while Crimson Palace and Jade Capital rose to become the Yang Mansion—the so-called "raising of yang." Hall Chamber and Noon Peak surged into the Great Gate. Once these Three Palaces opened, one had reached the Outer Scenery realm.

In the Demon Cave, his Three Qi had fluctuated between excess and deficiency. Stimulated further by the Flying Earthworm's Pill, his Six Apertures had been forcibly kneaded and crushed together, leaving his Three Palaces unstable. He had possessed the realm without the cultivation to match, and thus had initially been no more than a false Outer Scenery cultivator. Fortunately, after swallowing the golden and bright lights and replenishing his treasure light, he had barely managed to patch the gaps in his foundation.

"There were only five of those Pills. They must be potent medicines from ancient times, long extinct in this age. Perhaps I could find a cultivators' market and trade them away."

His brows stirred slightly, but he immediately suppressed the thought. This was not yet the time to consider such matters.

Li Fuchan took a pleated robe from his Storage Bag and put it on.

Squinting at the dark, leaden line of clouds where sea met sky, he murmured, "Now that my cultivation has advanced, cultivating the Purple Firmament Thunder-Script Treasure Talisman Register anew will yield twice the result for half the effort. I can use this chance to complete my foundation and grasp a heaven-and-earth Yang Aspect."

The foundation of Outer Scenery cultivation lay in Heaven-and-Earth Yang Images, external light, and external spirit.

"The Purple Firmament Thunder-Script Treasure Talisman Register records only three Heaven-and-Earth Yang Images. Thunderfire Illuminating the Clouds and Thunderfire Swallowing Scales have already vanished, leaving only Lightning-Struck Wood relatively intact. Thunderstorms are frequent at sea. Another two or three days should bring one."

With considerable effort, he found a dead tree. This time, however, Li Fuchan did not make a lightning rod.

With human intervention, how could it still count as a Heaven-and-Earth Yang Image? Only at this moment did understanding suddenly dawn on him.

He waited three days, and sure enough, heavenly lightning struck the dead tree.

This time, everything was ready, and he grasped the Yang Aspect without incident.

"Lightning-Struck Wood" did not refer to the dead tree struck by a Thunderbolt itself, but to the majestic spectacle when thunder resounded: the pivotal mechanism that drew power down from above, the destructive might of rising Li fire, and that thread of burgeoning vitality within the dead tree.

Feeling the illusory image within the Outer Scenery of his Sea of Qi, along with a depth of Dharma Power far surpassing that in the death scenes, he showed a rare flicker of emotion in his eyes. "So this is the true Li Thunder."

The cultivation method circulated at his thought, and Li Thunder immediately began eroding the Three Calamities. Without a year's accumulation this time, it might only last two or three days.

Yet Li Fuchan remained utterly steadfast. He had no intention of finding someone with whom to link turbidity. He had spent the past half year pondering this, and only just now had he suddenly recalled something Huaqing had said in the Demon Cave.

All methods beneath heaven were called paths to utmost purity.

Until one attained divine abilities, the Three Calamities could not be cleansed completely; one had to cultivate and cleanse them continually.

But if the Three Calamities could never be completely cleansed, why did the Turbidity-Linking Method exist? And why would cleansing the Three Calamities completely cause the spirit to dissolve and the mind to perish, bringing death?

Rather than cleansing calamities, these cultivation methods seemed more like they were stripping people of the very concept of "human," refining cultivators into some supremely pure medicine. For some inexplicable reason, Li Fuchan felt that cleansing calamities ought to have a limit, but someone unknown had taken that limit away. Only then had cultivators become liable to cleanse the Three Calamities away, dissolving their spirits and annihilating their minds.

Li Fuchan immediately commanded the Thunderbolt, directing that tyrannical eroding force onto a chaotic death scene.

He had been incapable of such a thing before. Now that his Dao Attainment had advanced, he could finally attempt it.

He stared fixedly at the death scene burning beneath Golden Thunder and Li fire. Golden light blazed deep in his pupils, and he dared not even blink, afraid that this attempt would cause the death scene to manifest.

After more than an hour, the thunderfire finally stabilized within that chaotic death scene. Like a golden lock and crimson chain, it held the scene fast.

The terror that his Three Calamities were about to be erased, his spirit dissolved and his mind annihilated, vanished like smoke in an instant.

At the sight, Li Fuchan finally exhaled a breath of stale air, the corners of his lips lifting involuntarily. "If you want a good cheat, you have to make it yourself."

Now he no longer had to fear that prolonged cultivation would wear away his Three Calamities and annihilate his spirit and mind. Once Li Thunder grew stronger, it might even erase those additional death scenes one by one.

At the same time, an understanding arose naturally within his heart.

"If a death scene with a manifested setting represents a certain fatal calamity, then an unmanifested death scene is a strand of uncertain Tribulation Qi. Calamity means adversity and disaster, the beginning of all variables, and seizure through force. This corresponds precisely to the manifested death scenes, and to my way of guiding those scenes to extrapolate the future, forcibly seizing future opportunities and strength. This is the true Death Advance."

Li Fuchan had a faint premonition.

Once Li Thunder completely erased a strand of Tribulation Qi, he might obtain some inconceivable reward.

He did not rush to begin another extrapolation and Death Advance.

Instead, he sorted through his gains and practiced his swordsmanship. In the blink of an eye, another half year passed.

Only then did Li Fuchan finally leave that deserted island.

This time, however, he was not nearly so bedraggled, and there was no need to squeeze his foundation dry. He felled a few trees on the island, fashioned a small boat, and drifted away.

Standing at the bow, he looked back and watched that little patch of land gradually shrink into an inconspicuous black speck on the sea.

The sea breeze made his robes snap and flutter. He reached up to smooth the hair at his temples, tousled by the wind, and a rare ease appeared between his brows.

"This time, not only did I resolve the hidden danger of eroding the Three Calamities, but most importantly, I never came into conflict with Jia Hua. Whatever schemes there were about returning south to the old homeland, they no longer have anything to do with me. My last fatal calamity never came to pass in the Northern Lands. This time, I'll go cultivate in the South of the Yangtze."

The South of the Yangtze was a land of gifted people and numinous places, where the immortal path flourished. Most importantly, there were no bald donkeys there.

"South of the Yangtze, I, Li Fuchan, am coming!"