The method of visualization was not to visualize the form of clear wind and bright moon, but to visualize their spirit and intent.
The clear wind was fresh and untrammeled, caressing without force; it awakened the spirit without harming the soul. The bright moon hung high in the sky, eternal through the ages. Its Essence of the Great Yin nourished all things.
Shi Xuan's soul seemed to sit cross-legged above the Sea of Consciousness. It was as if he had stepped outside at dawn and met a gentle clear wind blowing toward him, making his spirits rise. The clear wind swept over his soul, carrying away all the acquired impurities it had gathered over time. At the same time, emotions such as anxiety, unease, excitement, and anger came because of matters and scattered with the wind, no longer leaving their marks to cloud his original spirit. Gradually, a soul of utter clarity emerged.
A round bright moon turned slowly overhead, drawing Internal Energy into itself. Then, like sweet rain descending from heaven, streams of moon essence fell upon the soul. Moving with the rhythm of the clear wind, Shi Xuan's soul absorbed the moon essence that fell upon it, nourishing his soul, while the clear wind then carried away the impurities.
After who knew how long, Shi Xuan felt that his soul had grown considerably stronger and that his absorption of essence had reached saturation. Only then did he end his visualization and withdraw from meditation.
The soul was formless and insubstantial, while Internal Energy was formless yet substantial. Between them lay a gulf as vast as heaven and earth, and Internal Energy found it difficult to nourish the soul directly. Even Qi and Blood nourishing the soul relied on the mysterious connection between body and soul. That was why visualization was needed: to build a bridge between the soul and Internal Energy, transforming the latter into essence the soul could absorb. Of course, these were merely some functions of visualization at this stage. Once one's realm became profound in the future, one could use inner visualization to draw in the corresponding laws of heaven and earth, directly absorbing the essence of heaven and earth and comprehending its laws.
After Shi Xuan awoke from meditation, he adjusted his breathing slightly and discovered that nearly all the Internal Energy he had accumulated that day had been consumed. He hastily began circulating his Internal Energy according to the route recorded in the Treasure Record's "Jade Pivot Secret Record of Qi Circulation Through the Twelve Rivers, Eight Lakes, and Seventy-Two Great Rivers." Naturally, he could currently only follow the Minor Heavenly Cycle routes contained in the Twelve Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians. Shi Xuan focused his mind and controlled the Internal Energy as it emerged from his dantian. After this visualization and the strengthening of his soul, he found his control over Internal Energy much more natural and effortless.
After several Minor Heavenly Cycles, his Internal Energy continually absorbed the heat radiating from every part of his body and had already doubled in strength. Compared to his former methods of circulation, its efficiency had increased severalfold.
Only after circulating his Internal Energy through three hundred and sixty-five Minor Heavenly Cycles did Shi Xuan stop. This number of circulations made one Major Heavenly Cycle and was exactly right: the radiating heat had just been fully absorbed. If he continued, he would likely begin transforming the very source of his body.
Based on the Internal Energy accumulated during this Major Heavenly Cycle, as well as the Internal Energy consumed in strengthening his soul through visualization, Shi Xuan roughly estimated that filling the Twelve Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians would take a little over four months. As for opening the seventy-two minor meridians, according to the "Jade Pivot Secret Record of Qi Circulation Through the Twelve Rivers, Eight Lakes, and Seventy-Two Great Rivers," it would take around seven months. As for how long it would take to strengthen his soul to the Peak Soul Strengthening Stage, Du Bai had possessed no prior experience, so Shi Xuan could not estimate it either. He simply had no idea what level of strength a soul at the Peak Soul Strengthening Stage possessed.
The troublesome issue now was that replenishing his daily expenditure of food would cost roughly two taels of silver. That was enough to arrange a fine banquet at a restaurant. Yet Shi Xuan was not even demanding skilled cooking or quality ingredients, and it still cost two taels of silver. One could imagine how much he ate. The neighbors were greatly astonished by Shi Xuan's appetite, which had grown more than twice as large as before.
By his calculations, Shi Xuan would need around seven hundred taels of silver to reach Great Accomplishment of Qi Nourishing Stage. After buying medicinal herbs for body tempering and covering the expenses of the past few months, he had less than four hundred taels remaining. He faced a shortfall of three hundred taels. An ordinary family in the Prefecture City earned only twenty or thirty taels a year.
But at this time, Shi Xuan had no desire to go out and find work to make money. Every day of cultivation brought visible progress, and he wished he could turn one day into two for training.
After considering it, Shi Xuan decided to sell the small courtyard when the time came. Once he reached Great Accomplishment of Qi Nourishing Stage, he would travel the world in search of immortals and the Dao. Other than entrusting it to Old Daoist Xu's clansmen, the small courtyard would have to be sold anyway. It was worth around two hundred and eighty taels. He was not in a hurry to sell, and the silver in hand would last another seven or eight months. If he slowly sought out a buyer, he should be able to sell it for a good price. After deducting the real estate agency's fees, payments to the yamen, and the deed tax, he should have two hundred and forty taels left in the end.
Furthermore, after selling the small courtyard, he would need to rent a quiet residence for around four months, which would cost another dozen or so taels. Sigh, it seemed he would still be short by around eighty taels. Well, robbing some wealthy household would be no challenge at all with his Daoist magic, and it would not leave any clues. But he had always been accustomed to obeying the law; unless he was driven to the end of the road, it seemed difficult for him to make up his mind to do such a thing. He would leave that method for last, to use only if there was truly no other way. If it really came to that, he would not feel burdened by it.
Thus, Shi Xuan listed the small courtyard for sale with the real estate agency while asking Shopkeeper Liu to invite one of his friends who worked at the yamen to share a banquet and get acquainted. When he later sold the house and went to the yamen to file the deed and pay the deed tax, he would not be fleeced too badly.
Of course, Shi Xuan still devoted most of his energy to cultivation. Every day, he never relaxed in practicing the "Jade Pivot Secret Record of Qi Circulation Through the Twelve Rivers, Eight Lakes, and Seventy-Two Great Rivers" and the "True Method of Clear Wind and Bright Moon Illuminating the Spirit." Over five months, the strength of his soul advanced by leaps and bounds. He was no longer like when he had first arrived, exhausted beyond endurance after casting only one or two spells. His Internal Energy had also made great progress. Not only had he filled the Twelve Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians, but after several failures, he had finally succeeded in opening one minor meridian. Once begun, it became unstoppable, and he opened twelve in succession.
At noon that day, Shi Xuan returned to the small courtyard after lunch. Before he could even sit down, he heard the sound of the door knocker striking against the courtyard gate. Shi Xuan assumed that the real estate agency had brought someone to view the courtyard. Since he needed to cultivate each day, he had arranged for agency staff to bring people after noon, and for no more than one hour.
The real estate agency had brought people to view the place several times before, but they had never agreed on the price. Shi Xuan was in no rush; the money in his hands would still last another two or three months.
When Shi Xuan opened the courtyard gate, he was surprised to find that the person outside was not from the real estate agency, but an acquaintance: a handsome young man in his twenties, dressed in a brocade robe.
Before Old Daoist Xu left to seek immortals, he had used the Returning to Truth Scripture to create another martial art that cultivated both inner and outer aspects, the Returning to Truth Art, and left it within his lineage. The Xu Family had previously been merely a fairly wealthy merchant family, often extorted by Jianghu riffraff. Later, relying on this martial art and gathering some manuals of techniques and moves, they produced several formidable experts and gradually gained a name in the Jianghu. They bought land and settled down in Xia'an Prefecture, dealing in silk and cloth as well as illicit salt in secret, becoming a local power. However, because Old Daoist Xu himself was not particularly skilled in martial arts, the manuals he wrote were lacking in their ability to harm opponents, and they had no especially good accompanying moves. Thus, the Xu Family could only be considered a third-rate lineage in the Jianghu.
Ten years ago, Old Daoist Xu returned to Xia'an Prefecture. Though he did not return to live with the family, neither did he cut off contact with them. The Xu Family fawned over this Old Ancestor tremendously. Not only did they send him offerings every month and on every holiday, but they also selected quite a few gifted children from within the family and sent them to this immortal-like Old Ancestor for instruction. Being able to learn even the tiniest bit of the Old Ancestor's Immortal techniques would be a blessing greater than heaven.
Unfortunately, although those children possessed good talent, they seemed to have little comprehension of Daoist magic. They instead learned body tempering and Qi nourishing very quickly. Old Daoist Xu had initially held great hopes that his lineage might produce another cultivator, but as this situation continued, he abandoned the idea and devoted himself to teaching Du Bai. As for those children, once they had cultivated to become Internal Art Masters of the Qi Nourishing Stage, they were all sent back to the Xu Family, and he no longer allowed them to send any children over.
However, based on his experiences over the years fighting or discussing martial arts with martial arts masters outside, Old Daoist Xu also revised the contents of the Returning to Truth Art and added the secret formulas and moves he had collected. This counted as giving the Xu Family an explanation.
The young man who had come calling today was precisely the most gifted among that batch of children from back then—Xu Tianqi. He had been sent here at the age of ten and entered the Qi Nourishing Stage in only six years. Unfortunately, after entering the Qi Nourishing Stage, he paid no attention at all to visualization cultivation and focused only on cultivating Internal Energy. Moreover, he practiced the circulation method of the New Returning to Truth Art. After two years, he had made no great progress in Daoist magic and was subsequently sent back to the Xu Family by Old Daoist Xu.
In the Jianghu, anyone who entered the Qi Nourishing Stage before twenty was an exceptionally gifted disciple of some famous sect or great school. Therefore, Xu Tianqi's realm as an Internal Art Master at eighteen had caused quite a stir in the Jianghu. Xu Tianqi loved that feeling, and afterward he continued roaming the Jianghu. He encountered some fortunate opportunities and carved out a considerable reputation for himself—many praised him as one of the top twenty experts among the younger generation. Secretly, Xu Tianqi was not entirely convinced. He thought that if not for the Xu Family he came from being only second-rate now, after acquiring the New Returning to Truth Art, then although he still had not opened the initial Ren and Du Meridians among the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, his abundant internal energy should at least place him among the top ten. The title of one of the Four Young Masters of the Martial World was not beyond consideration.
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