As he neared the kitchen, Shi Xuan suddenly thought of the possibility that some airborne deadly poison might appear later. He hurriedly stopped, gritted his teeth against the expense, and stuck an Earth Armor Talisman onto himself. Once activated, the ground squirmed, and yellow earth crawled up from beneath his feet over his body. Within a few breaths, he was covered in a layer of dirt, looking like a terracotta warrior. At the same time, he cast a Dust Removal Incantation over his face before continuing toward the kitchen.
The moment he stepped inside, the fragrance of medicine rushed at him. By the smell of it, all three portions were harmless and pollution-free.
Shi Xuan wrote the large characters Jia, B, and Bing on the three medicine jars, then found three bowls and marked their rims with Jia, B, and Bing as well. He pasted on the tray a Dust Prevention Talisman he had drawn in the past and activated it, then forced the medicinal liquids into their corresponding bowls. Shi Xuan thought smugly, Even in ancient times, without a laboratory environment, I can still carry out sterile procedures. Daoist magic truly is miraculous.
Carrying the tray into the courtyard, he stopped where four dogs were tethered in the corner. He set the tray down, formed an incantation seal with his hands, stepped through the Seven Star Steps, and muttered a spell, mobilizing the energy within his body. A moment later, he used the Immobilization Incantation to freeze the four dogs in place. Shi Xuan quickly poured the three bowls of medicine down the throats of two black dogs and one yellow dog, then retreated to one side to wait for the effects to emerge.
After a few breaths, one of the black dogs suddenly convulsed all over, foamed at the mouth, and bled from its eyes. It struggled but could not move. Before long, it went still. Only because the Immobilization Incantation remained in effect did it stay standing instead of collapsing. Cold sweat drenched Shi Xuan. Good thing I ran an experiment. Maybe he could sell this stuff as a secret deadly-poison formula for a good price someday. As for why he would not use it himself, the main reason was that, judging by the effect, it neither turned anyone into a puddle of blood nor produced a cloud of yellow smoke. It seemed useful only against ordinary people and martial artists; whether it would have any real effect on cultivators with some cultivation was hard to say.
The other two dogs looked wildly excited, their eyes reddening as they began barking without showing any other abnormalities. Yet after only a short while, the yellow dog suddenly exerted itself and actually broke free of the Immobilization Incantation's binding power. It began racing madly around the courtyard. If the walls had not been so high, it likely could have leaped straight over them. Shi Xuan watched for a moment and was just about to step forward to compare it with the remaining black dog when the yellow dog gradually slowed. In the end, it whimpered and fell to the ground, motionless.
Shi Xuan stepped forward and examined it carefully. He found that it had merely fainted, though its body was limp and weak, as if it had drained an enormous amount of vitality. This prescription looked more like a stimulant, harmful rather than beneficial to the body.
Shi Xuan returned to the corner and watched the remaining black dog until the Immobilization Incantation wore off. The dog had merely discharged a layer of black substance from its body, and once the spell's power passed, it became lively and vigorous instead. Now Shi Xuan had a clear understanding of the prescription, but for the sake of caution, he decided to wait another night and check on the two dogs again tomorrow.
Because the medicinal bath prescription and the oral prescription used the same ingredients, differing only in their proportions, he could now determine the medicinal bath formula as well. Still, caution came first, so he would test it on the remaining dog.
The results of the experiment satisfied Shi Xuan greatly. After the yellow dog finished its medicinal bath, it displayed no adverse symptoms. It merely rubbed itself back and forth as though its bones itched, but by evening it had recovered. Shi Xuan guessed that this was a sign of the medicine's effects seeping through its skin.
After rushing about all day, Shi Xuan was exhausted as well. After going out for dinner, he returned, meditated and regulated his breathing for a short while, then went to sleep.
The night passed without incident.
The next day, Shi Xuan rose early. Both dogs that had taken medicine were still alive and well, though the yellow dog that had consumed the suspected stimulant looked much older. It lay listlessly in the corner.
Having confirmed the medicines' effects, Shi Xuan felt greatly reassured. Today, he would begin cultivating his body.
The human body and soul shared a mysterious and intimate connection. Thus, people with strong bodies often had better spirits, while those with weak bodies were mentally listless. Body Tempering and Soul Nurturing meant strengthening the body through various external martial arts and using it to nourish the soul in return. Once the body was trained to a certain limit, Internal Energy would naturally arise, and the soul would simultaneously break through into the Qi Nourishing and Soul Strengthening Stage.
If one had not trained the body to its limit yet forcibly cultivated internal techniques to enter the Qi Nourishing Stage, the body would be unable to bear the depletion of Refining Essence into Qi, leaving hidden injuries behind. In severe cases, it would drain the body hollow and lead to consumption. Of course, even after entering the Qi Nourishing Stage, one still needed to replenish large amounts of nutrients every day to make up for the expenditure of Refining Essence into Qi. Otherwise, if the flesh only gave and took nothing in, all manner of illnesses would likewise arise. That was why martial practitioners consumed so many resources; without money or the backing of a powerful force, it was difficult for a warrior to master profound martial arts.
After lunch, Shi Xuan looked at the bowl of medicine before him. After calming his mind and steadying his breath for a moment, he drained it in one gulp. Then he removed his Daoist robe, bared his upper body, and walked into the courtyard.
Shi Xuan felt the medicine he had swallowed turn into a stream of heat that spread toward every corner of his body. Taking his stance, he began cultivating according to the opening form of the Ten Dragons Subduing Demons Fist from the Treasure Record.
Since Shi Xuan had already familiarized himself with the Ten Dragons Subduing Demons Fist's ten moves that morning, he now performed them relatively smoothly, from the opening Savage Dragon Twisting Waist and Azure Dragon Subduing Waves all the way to the closing Golden Dragon Wagging Tail and Heavenly Dragon Descends.
As he performed each move, Shi Xuan felt the heat flowing in tandem with his fist forms. Whenever a move was thrown, more of the hot current gathered wherever his muscles were tautest and exerted the most force. Pressed from within and without, the impurities in his body seeped out through his pores, carried along by the coordination of his fist technique and the heat.
The longer Shi Xuan practiced, the more invigorated he felt. He went through the Ten Dragons Subduing Demons Fist from beginning to end and then from end to beginning more than a dozen times, growing slower and slower with each round. By the end, he resembled someone practicing Taiji in later generations. Yet Shi Xuan found this slowness wonderfully satisfying. With the medicine's effects supporting him, he felt every neglected corner of his body and every deep layer of muscle begin to tremble in time with his fist forms.
Had anyone been watching, they would have seen heat steaming from Shi Xuan's body, making him seem shrouded in a thin mist. The strongest heat rose from his head like white smoke. It was as though wind swirled around him, blowing a circle more than ten feet across into the dirt.
After Shi Xuan's fist forms slowed to their utmost limit, they began to quicken again. In the end, each punch made Wind's Sound howl through the air, while the joints throughout his body crackled in a dense barrage like beans popping in a wok.
Gradually, Shi Xuan entered a state of utter clarity. It seemed as though he could see his own soul and flesh: the soul within, the body without. With every punch, he felt as if body and soul struck together. At the same time, the power of his body's Qi and Blood flowed inward without end, nourishing the soul and allowing it to slowly grow stronger.
The more Shi Xuan fought, the more exhilarated he became. His spirit grew brighter and brighter, while a surge seemed ready to burst forth from within his chest. After Golden Dragon Wagging Tail, his left hand drew back, his body turned, and every muscle in his body exerted force. His right hand shot diagonally downward like Mount Tai pressing down from above—this was Heavenly Dragon Descends.
As the punch flew out, the strength throughout his body and the surging force in his heart seemed to pour forth through that fist. A crisp crack rang through the air, and a fierce gust actually snapped a small branch from a tree more than twenty feet away.
After throwing that punch, Shi Xuan withdrew his stance and stopped. His heart was incomparably unrestrained, and though every muscle in his body ached, they brimmed with power. Yet he was drenched in sweat and covered with a layer of black grime, which made him feel rather uncomfortable.
Shi Xuan therefore strode quickly to the well, drew a bucket of water, found a rag, and scrubbed the grime from his body. He immediately felt refreshed from head to toe. The medicinal bath had been heated according to the calculated timing and was now ready at precisely the right moment. Shi Xuan went to the kitchen, stepped into the vat, and sat down cross-legged. As the temperature rose, he felt the medicine seep from his skin into his muscles, even showing signs of penetrating deeper into his bones. Following the Treasure Record's instructions, Shi Xuan began regulating his breath. He sensed the balanced yet interactive state of the body as a whole—one meaning of "Qi" in Qi Refining: the ability to control and coordinate the strength of every part of the body, eliminate harm, and restore the body to equilibrium.
As Shi Xuan regulated his breath, he endured the discomfort of numb itching. He sensed the strength in every part of his body and maintained it in a state of overall balance. In this state, anything that disrupted the body's balance and caused harm would be expelled as the body shifted back toward equilibrium. There was naturally a limit to this, which was why the harmful components in medicine had to be kept to an appropriate amount. This was also what made a prescription valuable. Thus, the harmful portions of the external medicine were slowly expelled from his body, and in the process, they also carried away harmful substances buried deep within him, even in his bones. The beneficial portions of the medicine, meanwhile, replaced those substances and nourished his body.
Normally, when regulating one's breath and practicing Qi, harmful substances deep within the bones were extremely difficult to expel. They did not yet threaten the body's equilibrium, so they could only be forced out after the body grew still stronger and one's "Qi" reached a very powerful level. Shi Xuan might not have been able to reach that level until one or two realms later.
Amid the numb itching, Shi Xuan maintained this breathing-regulation state. Practicing "Qi" at such intensity was also somewhat beneficial to the soul. Only after half an hour, when he felt the medicine's effects gradually fading, did he climb out of the vat and dry himself off. He felt light and incomparably comfortable, his mind clear and ethereal, his senses sharp. His soul's strength had improved slightly again, and even his previous minor internal injury had healed. He had originally judged that it would take half a month to recover; this was the benefit of practicing "Qi."
After this day of body tempering, Shi Xuan assessed the strength of his flesh and soul before bed. He initially concluded that if he continued twice a day, morning and evening, he would enter the Qi Nourishing and Soul Strengthening Stage after five months. His physical strength would also far surpass what it had been before. After all, the Ten Dragons Subduing Demons Fist and this prescription were vastly better than his previous methods. They could train areas he had previously been unable to reach, and even where they trained the same areas, their effects were much greater. Truly worthy of content from a supreme cultivation method. Still, while practicing the Ten Dragons Subduing Demons Fist, he felt that he had yet to grasp the martial art's true essence. He needed to work even harder.
Over the following months, Shi Xuan kept a low profile and rarely went out. Apart from leaving to eat and purchase medicine, he remained in the courtyard, studying and practicing the Ten Dragons Subduing Demons Fist twice a day. In his remaining free time, he reviewed the various spells this body had learned before, and both his body and soul improved greatly. At the same time, he recalled the knowledge and experiences Old Daoist Xu had shared, preparing himself for future travels across the world in search of immortals and the Dao.
Before you continue