Eight bright moons hung high in the sky, some full and some waning, their luminous white light illuminating everything on the ground.
Jiang Yan headed toward the cultivation stone chambers. After perfecting his body, he still needed to hurry to the county academy to practice a cultivation method. If he could master it before the Prefecture Academy examination, he would be completely confident of gaining admission to the Prefecture Academy.
At midnight, there was no one around the cultivation stone chambers. Two stone lions still stood guard, one on either side, though these two looked a little smaller.
The several stone chambers stood apart from one another to prevent mutual disturbance.
After he presented his Command Tally, the formation on a stone chamber near the innermost end opened, and Jiang Yan walked straight inside.
The chamber was simply furnished: a meditation cushion on the left and a bookshelf on the right. The shelves held cultivation notes that were of considerable help for cultivation below the eighth rank.
Insights into cultivation above the eighth rank were all in the clan head's keeping. If anyone sought to break through to the eighth rank, the clan head would naturally oversee and protect them personally.
There were also formation markings in a corner—a Spirit Gathering Formation that could be activated with the Command Tally. However, Jiang Yan had yet to refine Qi and had no use for Spiritual Qi.
Renting even the lowest-grade stone chamber at the Dao academy cost ten Talisman Money a day. One like this already counted as superior quality. He did not know its price, but it certainly would not be cheap.
Jiang Yan, however, could use it for free. The Jiang Household's monthly allowance included plenty of cultivation resources, and the stone chambers were naturally among them.
Jiang Yan sat cross-legged on the cushion, grabbed Golden Toad, held him upside down, and dumped everything out in one go. Then he sent Golden Toad outside to guard the door.
Only after setting all the flesh-and-blood essences to one side did Jiang Yan take out the Stone Book again.
Cultivating the immortal Dao naturally required resources, and many resources worked best when used alive. To prevent those resources from resisting, the chambers had been specially fitted with restrictions capable of trapping people and suppressing objects.
Jiang Yan had come precisely to borrow that power. He activated the restrictions with his Command Tally and directed the invisible force to press down on the Stone Book.
Since he could not discern anything with the naked eye, he might as well try something more forceful. The old goat, a mongrel monster who had not even entered the ranks, had carried it around for so long without incident. This thing could not be too dangerous.
The pressure of the restrictions kept increasing, but the suppressed Stone Book still showed no reaction.
Jiang Yan stopped manipulating the Command Tally. Do I have to ask the clan for help? As soon as the thought arose, he shook his head. Better forget it.
This Stone Book was no ordinary object; it should be a treasure. Unless necessary, he was unwilling to use it to test human nature.
After some thought, Jiang Yan took out the old goat's sheet of hide recording the Livestock-Transformation Technique. Holding the Stone Book in one hand and the hide in the other, he began reading, trying to reproduce that monster's actions.
The instant his gaze fell on the hide, Jiang Yan felt a jolt in his mind. The Livestock-Transformation Technique recorded on it immediately became easy to understand.
Sentences that had been somewhat obscure became clear. A turn of his mind was enough to understand them, and he could even infer three things from one. This really worked!
Before long, Jiang Yan put down the hide. He had thoroughly mastered this Livestock-Transformation Technique.
But the Livestock-Transformation Technique was far too much of a chicken rib-of little use, yet a pity to discard. It was fine if cast with Law Power, but anyone who had yet to consume Qi and cultivate Law Power had to use Essence Blood instead. Over time, that depleted their essence and blood, naturally aging them prematurely.
No wonder that goat monster had looked so decrepit. He probably was not actually very old; he had simply used this method too many times and drained too much Essence Blood.
What a stupid monster. With an opportunity like the Stone Book, why had he not thought of cultivating, instead of throwing in his lot with some insignificant wolf monster?
Jiang Yan shook his head. Still, he had the goat's shortsightedness to thank. Otherwise, how could he have obtained this precious Stone Book?
Since this Stone Book could enhance intelligence, would his chances of mastering a cultivation method before the Prefecture Examination not increase greatly?
Even his future Dao Path might well depend on it.
After all, while the Jiang Household counted for something in this town, it amounted to little in the county.
Across the entire prefecture, it was even more obscure-a household no one had heard of. The help it could provide would be limited.
Excitement stirred in Jiang Yan's heart. He reached toward the nearby shelf, spent a moment choosing, and took out a volume of cultivation notes on tempering the body to read.
In the sky, the eight bright moons hung at the very center of the heavens.
Inside the stone chamber, Jiang Yan put down the cultivation notes and raised a hand to rub his forehead.
Though this stone book could awaken wisdom, using it was quite mentally taxing. In just this short while, his head had begun throbbing as though he had gone days without sleep.
It seemed this was not intelligence supplied from outside, but merely his future mental strength brought forward for use in advance. Still, there might be other mysterious changes involved in the process.
Ignoring the waves of pain in his head, Jiang Yan stared at the Stone Book with shining eyes.
It could multiply his mental strength, intelligence, and even comprehension severalfold for a short time, and the aftereffect only required a night's sleep. What a fine treasure!
The cultivation notes recorded a method for rapidly tempering the body, but it was somewhat dangerous, and Jiang Yan had not been confident of using it.
Now, with the Stone Book, Jiang Yan had understood the method completely and was confident he could carry it out.
He stood, stripped off all his clothing, and began moving through the stone chamber.
Kicks, punches!
Rushes of wind sounded as Jiang Yan's body constantly turned within the chamber, now standing straight as a pine, now crouching low like a beast.
This was the body-tempering fist art taught at the Dao academy. It could bring the Qi and Blood throughout the body to a boil in a short time.
After completing the set, Jiang Yan's breathing remained steady. He only felt swollen all over-a sign that his Qi and Blood had been roused.
Jiang Yan held the final posture, his limbs taut and his back and waist curved as he crouched on the ground like a wild beast.
As he continued holding the posture, not only did his body swell, but warmth also arose within his organs.
A little later, the warmth in his abdomen turned scorching. On all fours, Jiang Yan swung his head down into the pile of flesh-and-blood essences beside him, opened his mouth, and began tearing off great bites.
"Crunch~ crunch~"
The uncooked flesh was extremely tough, crunching constantly between his lips and teeth.
Red dripped continuously from the corners of Jiang Yan's mouth. As he ate, he changed his posture, assuming the forms of various beasts.
The pile of flesh soon vanished into his stomach, leaving only a wolf heart the size of a basin, which he held in both hands and gnawed.
With the last bite swallowed, Jiang Yan no longer looked like the savage beast he had just been.
His expression grew calm, and he sat cross-legged, as though he had turned from beast back into man in an instant.
Only his belly continued to churn, sometimes rumbling within, sometimes bulging outward, as though something were imprisoned inside.
He felt the flesh inside his stomach constantly being churned and digested, then transformed into streams of Qi and Blood that flowed throughout his body.
Jiang Yan could not help marveling inwardly. This Immortal-Eating Method truly was extraordinary.
It imitated the feeding of ferocious beasts. After flesh tumbled through the belly, only Qi and Blood remained within. No wonder the Immortal Dynasty had valued it so highly and spread its practice.
It was said that this method had first been created by a mighty cultivator of the immortal Dao.
Later, several mighty cultivators had jointly refined it into its current version. Now even mortals could practice it to strengthen their Qi and Blood.
Moreover, if cultivated to a profound level, it made one like a taotie: all things in the world would enter one's belly and become steps for ascending the immortal path.
As Jiang Yan employed the method, the Qi and Blood within his abdomen surged and roiled, constantly circulating throughout his body.
Steam rose from his head. The blood that had covered his body evaporated completely as well, leaving only a reddish-brown film clinging to his skin.
Jiang Yan felt the growing abundance of Qi and Blood within him. Once it reached a certain level, he abruptly opened his eyes.
Holding his fingers together like swords, he repeatedly jabbed his body with both hands. In the blink of an eye, he had punctured more than a dozen bloody holes in various places.
The dried blood film was immediately covered by his own fresh blood.
At that moment, his body was brimming with Qi and Blood. Once he pierced those holes, all the excess Qi and Blood rushed toward them like a river bursting its banks.
He felt an unbearable itching in the skin and flesh around the punctures.
Yet his body remained utterly still. He only closed his eyes and endured, even stirring his Qi and Blood to make it race faster.
Another two hours and more passed like this, and the eight bright moons in the sky reached the end of their course.
Inside the stone chamber, Jiang Yan was covered in red.
The thick reddish-brown layer could no longer be called a blood film, only a blood shell.
Crack~
Amid the silence, the blood shell trembled, then abruptly shattered into fragments that littered the floor.
Jiang Yan had risen to his feet. His eyes were bright and keen, and his whole body gave a sense of seamless unity.
He lowered his head and clenched his fists, feeling his considerably increased strength.
"This method really works. Tempering my body step by step would have taken more than half a month. This was a little harsh, but it let me finish in a single night."
Still, this method was not something just anyone could use. First, the body could not have too many flaws remaining, or the Qi and Blood would pour out everywhere and might instead tear the body apart.
One also had to understand this method thoroughly.
The timing of when to stir the Qi and Blood and when to restrain it had to be grasped precisely.
Without the Stone Book, he would never have used this method.
He also had to master the Immortal-Eating Method to provide an unending supply of Qi and Blood. Otherwise, he could only have used Qi and Blood pills. One probably would not have been enough; he would have needed eight or ten.
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