Chapter Five: Methods and Techniques

  Time flies like an arrow.

  Time flies, another year has passed.

  This year, Ding Yan's soul began to slowly recover, and his own cultivation also grew unknowingly. Some hidden injuries in his physical body were also recovering slowly during the nursing process. The third layer of Lianqi had reached a perfect state more than a month ago, which was still under the circumstance that Ding Yan put most of his energy into nourishing his soul.

  Early morning, the sun just rises.

  A faint white mist rose at the horizon, Ding Yan sat alone outside his house, holding a jar of wine, drinking silently to himself. His expression held an unspeakable loneliness.

  Wine is bitter.

  In the small village, Ding Yan was a brewer. During the day, Ding Yan was indeed a brewer. Since moving into the small village, those who loved good wine would come to him to exchange wine. The reason for using "exchange" was that there was no currency in this small village.

  The villagers came to Dingyan's place to exchange wine, and what they gave were mostly grains and animal hides.

  These things were naturally useless to Ding Yan, but he still accepted them and sent the wine to the other party.

  Life is like this, things given by others may not be useful, but you still have to accept them.

  "Little brother, drinking again?"

  Ding Yan nodded slightly.

  Without turning his head, he could guess that the speaker was the village chief of this small village and also the person with the highest cultivation in the village, with a cultivation of refining Qi at the fifth level.

  The village chief was an old man with a white beard, wearing a gray linen shirt that had turned somewhat white, and on his withered face, there were a pair of eyes that seemed to see through the vicissitudes of life. Giving people a sense of vicissitude.

  The village head sat on a stone beside Ding Yan, also holding a jug of wine.

  "This wine is indeed flavorful." The village chief took a sip of the wine and let out a long sigh of satisfaction, praising it.

  Ding Yan shook his head and smiled bitterly.

  In the village, Ding Yan brewed over a dozen kinds of wine. There were fine wines that could only be found once in a hundred years, and rare jades that were hardly seen in the world. Only the last kind of unnamed wine was bitter. It was also the wine that Ding Yan was drinking now.

  Originally, Ding Yan thought that this wine, apart from himself, would not be liked by anyone else. Who knew that the old village chief also liked to drink this wine and was disdainful of other fine wines? Moreover, he even gave it a special name, "Bitter Memories".

  "How can you come out so early, sir?" Ding Yan put down the wine jar in his hand and asked.

  For the village chief, Ding Yan always had an inexplicable feeling, as if he saw his master in a past life, with an indescribable sense of closeness. So usually, Ding Yan would address him as "Mr." rather than "Village Chief".

  "The old man is excited and wants to come out and see the sunrise like you young people." The old village chief chuckled.

  Ding Yan shook his head, ignoring the village chief, picked up the wine jug, and took a big gulp. The bitter feeling went down his throat, all the way to his heart...

  Cultivation is not just about secluding oneself.

  Every monk basically has something he likes, and for Ding Yan, what he loves is this wine!

  The long and arduous path of cultivation is dry and tasteless. Sometimes for these cultivators, these hobbies are not necessarily a spiritual sustenance.

  An old man and a young boy, silent and speechless, with only the sound of drinking left.

  A faint bitter taste fills my mind...

  Time passed minute by minute until the sun rose, and a red sun appeared on the eastern horizon. After that, the old village chief finally finished the last mouthful of wine in his wine gourd. Standing up, the old village chief let out a long sigh towards the sky, then hung the wine gourd at his waist.

  "After drinking so much of your wine, I have to pay the bill. I'm a person who... doesn't like owing others. Yeah, don't like the feeling of owing others, so today, I'll just pay you for the wine." The old village chief said to Ding Yan, with his back turned.

  Every time Ding Yan brews wine, the village chief will directly take away the wine he wants to drink and never leave anything behind.

  "Old man, I don't have any money from the outside world here, nor do I have animal hides or food. My own cultivation is not high either. The only thing I can bring out is this set of fist techniques. You take a good look and learn as much as you can."

  Ding Yan heard this and was shocked, immediately shaking his head.

  The old village chief, but with a cultivation base of only five layers of refining Qi, what good fist techniques can he have?

  The old village chief seemed to have not noticed Ding Yan's expression, slowly closing his eyes, his expression gradually becoming serious, and for a moment the aura around him also became somewhat solidified.

  Start.

  Draw a circle.

  The old village chief's movements were extremely slow, without any of the fierce and powerful aura of boxing, but rather somewhat like the gentle exercises used by ordinary people to keep fit.

  "Huh?..." Ding Yan put down the wine jug in his hand.

  Furrowed brow, deep in thought.

  The old village chief's fists were extremely slow, one move at a time, crystal clear.

  It was strange that such a simple fist technique gave Ding Yan an inexplicable feeling, as if he was looking at flowers in the fog, hazy and unclear. No matter how hard Ding Yan tried, he couldn't see the trajectory of this fist technique clearly.

  Time is passing minute by minute and second by second.

  Gradually, Ding Yan only felt the old village chief's figure gradually disappearing, and everything around him also gradually disappeared. Even the sound of the sea water hitting the rocks in the distance also gradually faded away. At this moment, it seemed as if there was nothing left in the world except for the fist in the village chief's hand.

  。。。。。。

  When Ding Yan came back to his senses, the old village chief had already left. He looked up at the sky and found that it was already noon. The distant breeze brought a hint of the salty taste unique to seawater.

  "This wine money......" After a long time, Ding Yan let out a long sigh and bowed in the direction of the old village chief's house.

  As for why the old village chief would know this set of fist techniques, Ding Yan didn't ask and didn't think to ask. In Ding Yan's view, everyone has their own secrets. The old village chief, perhaps in the past, had an extraordinary experience, but all that was already over. Nowadays, he is just the village chief of this small village, a cultivator at the fifth layer of Qi Refining.

  Ding Yan picked up the wine jug in his hand and turned around, walking towards the outside of the village.

  The moment he stood up, a mysterious trajectory also appeared beside Ding Yan. This trajectory was much more subtle than the momentum brought by the old village chief's fist method, but the essence of it was exactly the same.

  Just by taking a glance, he grasped the essence of the fist method, without taking any detours. This kind of progress mainly depends on Ding Yan's own vision.

  Step by step, the momentum became more and more solidified. The surrounding heavenly and earthly primordial energy began to silently condense. His cultivation, which had not broken through in a year, suddenly broke through the barrier at this moment, and he stepped into the strength of the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

  Leaving the small village, Ding Yan walked all the way to the seaside.

  The village is not far from the sea, and after knowing the path, it only takes a short while to walk from the village to the seaside.

  Through the villagers, Ding Yan learned that this island was a floating sea island, surrounded by the entire Dao Fan array, constantly changing its position. Generally speaking, it is very difficult for people who leave this island to find their way back, just like the legendary Peach Blossom Spring, mysterious and unpredictable.

  Ding Yan stood on the reef, gazing out at the endless sea, taking a deep breath.

  He casually threw the wine jar in his hand into the sea.

  A year of spiritual nourishment finally healed Ding Yan's soul trauma, and what he needed to prepare for next was to restore his cultivation to the fifth layer of Qi Refining, then open the furnace to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill.

  He sat down with his legs crossed, and Ding Yan casually took out three ordinary jade stones from his sleeve and placed them beside him. These jade stones were things he had collected when he was one of the top ten disciples, and they couldn't be considered spiritual stones, but they did contain a small amount of yuan energy.

  After arranging a simple spirit gathering array with these pieces of jade, Ding Yan closed his eyes and began to sense the wandering yuanqi between heaven and earth.

  Sense the primordial energy, and absorb it into one's own body, refining and unifying it, expelling impurities from within. This process is called refining energy. Generally speaking, only foundation-building cultivators can achieve this point, that is to say, in this world, only those who have already undergone the mortal tribulation can accomplish it.

  However, Ding Yan had an unparalleled advantage because in his past life he was a Tribulation Cultivator.

  Now reborn, although no longer possessing the terrifying powers of his past life, he has an unparalleled advantage in terms of mental state and experience.

  After closing his eyes, Ding Yan sank into a state of tranquility in the world of senses.

  The surroundings were pitch black, and for a moment, Ding Yan only felt his spirit infinitely expanding, as if he was a divine being wandering through the entire sky and earth.

  "Essence, why can't I sense the essence? Even if it's rebirth, it shouldn't be that I've lost all sense of heaven and earth's essence... " Ding Yan furrowed his brow.

  By his side, the small Spirit Gathering Array had already begun to revolve, and from a distance, Ding Yan's entire person seemed as if he was shrouded in a layer of fog, indistinct and blurry.

  In the world of martial artists, it is called "martial sense", while in the mouths of cultivators, it is also known as "spiritual awareness" or "spiritual consciousness".

  At this moment, Ding Yan's consciousness was still lingering in the spiritual world, constantly expanding. However, what made Ding Yan feel strange was that the entire spiritual world was still pitch black, without any presence of yuanqi. Nevertheless, having cultivated for thousands of years in his past life, Ding Yan's Dao heart was unwavering and unshakeable. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes again, and began to sense with his heart once more.

  Time is passing by minute and second...

  Night falls, the temperature at the seaside gradually drops, and the reefs below occasionally splash up layers of waves, crystal clear and extremely beautiful.

  Ding Yan, who was in the spiritual awareness world, couldn't feel the passage of time at all. In order to perceive the existence of yuanqi, Ding Yan practiced again and again, but failed again and again. He didn't know how many times he had tried, when suddenly a strange thought flashed through his mind.

  "Could it be that this world doesn't have Yuan Qi?"

  Opening his eyes, Ding Yan was perplexed.

  Just as he was about to give up, for some reason, he suddenly remembered the set of fist techniques that the old village chief had demonstrated.

  Anyway, he couldn't feel the aura, so Ding Yan simply stood up, picked up the three jade stones beside him, and stood on the rocky reef by the sea, demonstrating that set of fist techniques one move at a time.

  Underfoot, the sea water churns and foams, with waves splashing everywhere.

  Against the suit boxing method, at first, Ding Yan was a bit awkward, but as time went on, he became more and more proficient.

  Gradually, a green whirlwind rose around Ding Yan's body.

  Suddenly, Ding Yan's eyes snapped open, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes. Just now, he had sensed a hint of yuanqi within this green whirlwind!

  "This is not a martial art for physical training, but the ultimate technique for cultivating the world's primordial energy! Just like the secret scrolls of the mundane world..." Ding Yan turned his head and looked towards the direction of the village.