Several months later.
Blazing Mountain, in the Southern Territory of Eastern Maitreya Province.
Early summer was already more than halfway through.
Beneath the scorching summer sunlight, the mountain vegetation presented a lush, luxuriant scene.
The rocky hollows and crevices were baked burning hot by the sun. A few barely perceptible wisps of white smoke rose from them, only to vanish without a trace at a brush of wind.
In a secluded chamber within the mountain, Chen Heng sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion.
His broad sleeves hung naturally from his knees as he formed hand seals, using his Qi-Refining Method to slowly wear away the last strand of essence remaining in the porcelain bottle from Huaiwu Cave.
This essence had been left by a beast-bird comparable to a second-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and had been obtained by Qin Xian and the other Blood Lotus Sect cultivators.
In quality, it surpassed even the Gudiao he had slain.
But precisely because its quality was high, Chen Heng had no other way than to patiently grind away at the essence's outer apertures.
He ground it down bit by bit into the purest primordial essence and drew it into his qi channels.
Even with the assistance of the Dynamic and Still Thunder-Sound Guidance Technique, the whole process could not be accomplished in a day. The repeated wearing and grinding was exceedingly tedious.
Thunderous sound arose from the spirit of his brain, descended to harmonize the six viscera and connect the five organs, and washed through the sinews, bones, blood, and qi of his entire body. It united his strength into a whole, continually shaking and wearing away the essence.
Between movement and stillness, fierceness and silence, it was like the two energies of yin and yang, one exerting and the other transforming.
Heaven and