The Flower of Essence

Hu Mang stopped cultivating the "Profound Yin True Scripture" after reaching the third level of Great Perfection.

There was no other reason; he simply didn't have enough Profound Yin Qi left in his body.

Although it is said that after cultivating the "Profound Yin Body Refining Technique", the Demonic Qi in the body can be continuously transformed into Profound Yin True Qi.

However, this efficiency is very low, after all, it is only an introductory Cultivation Method, and it is still a body-refining exercise.

Expecting it to help the Hu Mang reach the fourth level in a short time is hopeless.

As for drawing upon the Yin energy of the Earth Star for his own use, Hu Mang himself had tried it, and the difficulty was extraordinary.

Therefore, Hu Mang's purpose in this journey was not primarily to collect treasures, but to obtain this natural Supreme Yin Treasure Pool.

Fortunately, this thing wasn't damaged by those "fishing bastards" from the Azure Mysterious Realm.

This time, the Hu Mang did not jump into the pool with its physical body. With a thought, the "Hu Mang" transformed from the Profound Yin Form Manifestation appeared. Apart from its slightly ashen face and heavier corpse aura, it was almost indistinguishable from its original form.

"Go down as deep as you can this time. This Demon-Subduing Well is used to suppress demons. I suspect that there is actually a Yin Spirit Vein beneath this Supreme Yin Treasure Pool."

The Hu Mang's own body burrowed into the bottom, but it probably couldn't withstand it, though the Xuan Yin incarnation was fine.

"Hu Mang" nodded expressionlessly and jumped in.

Meanwhile, Hu Mang sat cross-legged on the edge of the cave entrance, mobilizing the vast essence within his body in preparation for breaking through to the fourth level and condensing the Flower of Essence.

In his perception, the Xuan Yin Avatar had already reached the depths of the Supreme Yin Treasure Pool and was mobilizing the Taiyin Qi that had accumulated over a thousand years in the Taiyin Spirit Vein at the bottom of the pool.

In just a few breaths, a cool and pure Taiyin energy transformed into an ice thread, passed through the cave entrance, and pierced the Hu Mang's body.

The next moment, a continuous stream of Yin energy flowed into the Hu Mang's body along the line, merging with its own essence, and then together they surged into its Lower Dantian.

Hu Mang's body trembled slightly.

It felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head in the middle of summer, and wisps of cold air were visibly rising from my body.

Hu Mang steadied his mind and, following the mental techniques of the fourth level of the "Profound Yin True Scripture," guided the torrent of energy, a mixture of Yin energy and physical essence, to begin circulating rhythmically in his Lower Dantian.

Because all obstacles to spiritual practice have been overcome, the entire process is almost entirely free of resistance.

The more than three hundred acupoints in the Lower Dantian lit up almost simultaneously, some of which were not even acupoints through which the Profound Yin True Qi circulated.

"The Unity of Heaven and Man? But it seems to be the Unity of Heaven and Man and Unity of Heaven and Man within the body, not the external world?" A sudden realization flashed through Hu Mang's mind.

Starting from the essence and energy of the physical body, it seems that the parts of the body to which the essence and energy spread—the internal organs, skin, hair, and blood vessels—all merge into one at once.

The feeling was wonderful, like becoming a newborn, unborn fetus, curled up in the amniotic fluid of the mother's body, isolated from the noise of the outside world, with only a pure, unadorned life force flowing slowly within the body.

What a wonderful feeling!

In this process, "acquired essence" is continuously transformed into "innate essence".

The original essence is formless; when it is stirred by stimuli, it becomes acquired impure essence. When it is in stillness, it is generated naturally; this is the true innate medicine.

Hu Mang suddenly understood this sentence.

The next moment, a tiny, rice-grain-sized point of light began to emerge in the center of the Dantian vortex. The point of light was extremely small, yet extremely bright, colorless and formless. It was the seed of the Flower of Essence — the Seed of Essence.

Hu Mang dared not relax, and continued to guide the Yin Qi and essence into the seed, transforming it from innate to acquired. During this process, the feeling of being a "prenatal fetus" became increasingly intense.

When the last trace of acquired essence was completely transformed, the seed of Seed of Essence suddenly trembled, and an invisible wave spread outward from the center of the seed, sweeping across the entire body of the Hu Mang.

Wherever that wave passed, every cell, every meridian, and every bone in his body seemed to be coated with a faint luster, a sense of completeness emanating from within, as if it were innate; that feeling was hard to describe in words, as if the body had finally found its rightful state, and all flaws, all deficiencies, and all inadequacies were made up for in that moment.

The Golden Nature is first perfect, then pure and flawless.

Hu Mang was taken aback. He had never expected that condensing the "Flower of Essence" would actually come with the effect of "Immaculate Golden Nature".

You should know that Gu Yunshu refined her Golden Nature to this level only after three attempts at Core Formation, and then she got stuck here.

What's going on with him?

According to what he knew, if the Golden Nature was flawless, the final golden core would at least be a "high-quality Golden Core".

In other words, as long as Hu Mang doesn't pursue the "National Standard Golden Core," he could become a figure in the Golden Core world in the next moment.

Because the effects were so extraordinary, Hu Mang almost forgot that his goal this time was to break through to the fourth level of the Profound Yin True Scripture and condense the "Flower of Essence".

It was an extremely exquisite flower, no more than an inch in size, with nine petals, each petal edged with a layer of Daoist charm; the petals were slightly closed inward, like a half-open lotus bud, neither fully blooming nor fully closed.

At the stamen of the flower was a brighter golden spot, like a small lamp lit deep within the flower's heart, flickering slightly with the Hu Mang's breath, keeping the same rhythm as his heartbeat.

The Flower of Essence floated in the Lower Dantian, slowly rotating. With each rotation, a wisp of golden light drifted out from the petals and merged into the surrounding meridians.

Wherever the mist reaches, the elasticity of the meridians increases, bone density increases, and muscle resilience grows—fundamentally improving the quality of the physical body, making it more suitable to bear greater strength and greater vital energy.

The pivot of Qi circulation!

Hu Mang immediately understood the purpose of this object!

If the human body is a microcosm, then this is the core of that microcosm.

As for the fourth level of the Profound Yin True Scripture, it automatically reached perfection after this Flower of Essence condensed.

Hu Mang spent six days cultivating the "Flower of Essence".

Then he spent a day practicing and mastered the "Profound Yin One Qi Great Capture".

It took two days to master the "Black Sha Asura Cultivation Method," consuming a large amount of demonic blood from his heart.

Now, even if Hu Mang wanted to continue cultivating, he couldn't.

Because as soon as I start practicing, I feel a strong sense of "kidney deficiency".

"Alright, get ready, let's go back."

The Hu Mang accepted the black Spirit Stone, or rather, the Yin Spirit Stone, that the Hu Mang had thrown to it.

This kind of Yin-attribute Spirit Stone was something Hu Mang had never seen before in Heavenly Gate, or rather, it didn't exist at all.

It was dug out from the bottom of the Taiyin Spirit Vein by the "Hu Mang".

Its Spiritual Qi concentration is roughly the same as that of Lightning Crystal, which is at the level of high-grade Spirit Stone.

Beside him stood a mountain of Yin Spirit Stone.

With a sweep of Hu Mang hand, the mountain of Spirit Stone vanished, followed by a flash of lightning, and his figure disappeared from this realm once more.

Public restrooms on the ocean-going cargo ship Seagull.

When Hu Mang walked out of the laundry room shirtless with a towel draped over his shoulder, he was spotted by a young crew member who paused for a moment before realizing what was happening.

"You're the one from the water brigade, right? We ate together before."

Hu Mang glanced at the other man, smiled, and greeted him, "Xiao Yu, right? You also just joined the ship this year. We've had drinks together."

"Yeah, Shui Tou asked me to knock on your door and call you for dinner a few days ago, but you didn't respond."

"Uh, sorry, I was in seclusion at the time, and it's not good for someone like me with connections to keep showing up, for fear of causing trouble for Old Zhu, so I've been quietly cultivating in my room these past few days."

"Hey, it's no big deal. It's not like I brought a woman on board. What impact could it have?" Xiao Yu, who seemed to be on good terms with Old Zhu, didn't take it seriously and even said excitedly:

"We've reached the Thirty-Six Islands of the Eastern Sea. Shall we go out and take a look? The water management office has given us a day off."

Hu Mang was taken aback and said:

"So fast? Oh, it's already been ten days. Is it convenient for me to go?"

"It's convenient, what's inconvenient about it? The captain and the boatman have both gone out to buy cargo and probably won't be back today. The chief engineer is inspecting the ship today and won't be going ashore. Staying on the ship isn't so convenient for you. Why don't you go down and have some fun?"

Hu Mang agreed, thinking that it would be problematic if they checked the cabins and found out he was "missing," so he nodded in agreement.

"Okay, wait for me a moment, I'll be right back after I change my clothes."

"No problem."

After Hu Mang changed his clothes, he sent a message to Old Zhu boatman, to confirm that everything was alright. There were already four or five young men waiting at the disembarkation point.

These crew members were all in their early twenties, and they didn't even look as big as the Hu Mang. When you got close, you could sense the water vapor on their bodies, which meant they were practicing water-based Cultivation Method. The highest cultivation level among them was in the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, and the lowest was in the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage. This was the standard for seafaring cultivators; anything lower wouldn't be enough, as they wouldn't be able to suppress some low-level sea monsters.

And now, they're going to go to sea.

The island they landed on was called Vast Sea Island, one of the southernmost of the Thirty-Six Immortal Islands of the Eastern Sea. As soon as Hu Mang's feet touched the ground, his eyebrows rose.

Intermediate Spiritual Qi zone, a completely natural intermediate Spiritual Qi zone!

Meanwhile, a group of young people around them started chattering.

"Holy crap, look over there, a Jiaoren! The one with horns on its head!"

"Wow, I think I saw a mermaid! Is it a mermaid?"

"First of all, that thing is called a mermaid, and also, it's a male, so don't go into heat as soon as you get off the ship."

How do you know he's male?

"Look at the fins on its tail; the big, bright ones are male."

"She looks like a beauty, even a guy could be like her!"

"You've been holding it in for too long, stay away from me."

On the left side of the street, at a medicine shop, a boy with coral horns on his head was standing on tiptoe in front of the medicine cabinet to buy medicine. Behind him stood an old turtle-man, hunched over, with a smiling expression.

A merman wearing a gray trench coat brushed past the Hu Mang. His long hair was wet and clung to his shoulders. With each step he took, a small, shallow puddle of water was left on the stone slabs beneath his feet.

A few steps further, there was a food stall with three or four people in line. The stall owner was a woman with the upper body of a human and the lower body of an octopus. Her six tentacles were busy at the same time: two were kneading dough, two were flipping the spirit beast meat skewers on the grill, and two were taking payments. It was unclear what kind of meat it was, but it was definitely not octopus meat.

At the street corner, a girl carrying a clam shell leaned against a lamppost, playing with the newly released Spirit Pivot No. 1 from Heavenly Gate.

Well, the art style is quite wonderful.