Chapter 6 Cultivation is Timeless

  Originally, Ding Yan thought that cultivating gongfa was nothing more than gathering yuanqi and cultivating oneself. So when he was in Lianhuagu, the books he looked at were basically all about difficult ancient classics related to crossing tribulations, as for cultivation methods, he didn't even look at one book.

  "No wonder there are no cultivators of the Yuan Infant in this world, it seems that gathering yuan energy also has completely different methods. But if so, I'm afraid I'll have to go find other cultivation techniques...". Coming back to his senses, Ding Yan withdrew his fist and began to ponder."

  "Never mind, let's not think about it for now. The most urgent thing is to cultivate the Five Layers of Dao first, and then refine the Foundation Establishment Pill."

  Thinking of this, Ding Yan gave up thinking about other things and focused on practicing that set of unnamed boxing techniques.

  As soon as the fist method was applied, Ding Yan clearly felt the heavenly and earthly yuanqi around him flowing through his acupoints, passing through the seven meridians and eight veins, and finally settling in the dantian.

  Martial artists gather energy in the dantian, which is internal power. Similarly, cultivators store the primordial energy of heaven and earth in the dantian. When this primordial energy condenses to a certain degree, what is known as yuanli appears. Yuanli can be said to be the foundation of cultivators.

  In the realm of Scattered Immortals, after the yuan energy accumulates to a certain extent, it will attract heavenly tribulations. The stronger the yuan energy, the more severe the heavenly tribulation will be. However, relatively speaking, the more severe the heavenly tribulation that is crossed, the more the cultivator himself will gain.

  However, heavenly power is unpredictable and heart demons are invisible!

  Heavenly Tribulation, since ancient times, has been the nightmare of all cultivators. Even in his past life, when Ding Yan's cultivation reached the stage of crossing the tribulation, he was still suppressing it with all his might, not daring to use his full strength even during the mid-term of the tribulation, and rarely using his full force when fighting others.

  Xī xī's yuan force wandered in Dīng Yán's meridians, and the hidden injuries that his physical body had originally suffered began to slowly recover at this moment. The cultivation that had just broken through not long ago stabilized, and once again advanced towards the realm of gathering energy five layers...

  Time just passed by day after day...

  In his mundane days, Ding Yan spent every day, apart from brewing wine, by the sea, practicing that nameless fist technique.

  A small village outside of a thatched cottage.

  Ding Yan was like an old man in his twilight years, practicing that nameless fist technique in the courtyard.

  "Master Ding, you're practicing that rotten fist method again?" A boy of about eight or nine years old quietly slipped in from outside the courtyard.

  The child looked sturdy, with a pair of big, shiny eyes that kept turning. The boy's name was Dog Er, the son of Old Xu from the east end of the village. When he was young, his body was weak and he often got sick, so his family gave him a humble name. Because they heard the old people in the village say that humble names are easier to raise.

  After Ding Yan arrived in this small village, the first person he met was a child named Gou Er, so relatively speaking, Gou Er is also one of the people closest to Ding Yan in this village.

  He stopped his fist technique and walked over to pat the dog's head, asking "How did you run over here? Didn't your father tell you to go herd cattle?"

  The village is isolated from the world, like a paradise on earth.

  Children start herding cattle from a young age, as they grow older, they learn to plow the land, and then get married and have children, repeating their parents' way of life.

  "My dad said that the wine craving has arrived, and he doesn't have any strength at all. He can't even move the plow, so he asked me to come over and borrow a jar of wine from Uncle Ding. Later, my dad will send over some grain." Dog Er replied.

  Ding Yan smiled and turned back into the house.

  Not long after, he came out of the house again, with a jar of wine in his hand.

  "Be careful." Ding Yan handed the wine to Gou Er.

  Because of Gou Er's age, Ding Yan specially chose the smallest jar of wine.

  However, although the dog's age is young, his strength is not inferior to that of an adult. After all, he was not born in the mortal world, and after birth, his body contained a small amount of yuan energy. To be precise, the current dog is also a cultivator, but his cultivation is only at the most basic level of cultivating qi.

  "Hey, Uncle Ting, did you learn this boxing technique from Village Chief Grandpa?" After taking the wine jar, Dogzi didn't hurry to leave, instead he curiously inquired.

  "What? You want to learn?" Ding Yan smiled and said.

  As for the puppy, he still likes it very much.

  "I'd never learn such a lousy fist method, it's so slow, and before you even hit the person, you'll get beaten to death." Dogzi hastily shook his head and then mysteriously said "Uncle Ding, when I grow up, I must learn my dad's fist method. The other day, I saw with my own eyes that he killed a tiger with one punch. That aura......"

  As they spoke, the puppy's eyes twinkled like stars.

  Ding Yan shook his head and smiled bitterly.

  What he is practicing now can be said to be not used to harm his enemies. At most, it's just a means for him to absorb the heaven and earth's original energy and temper his mind.

  "Uncle Ding, tell me again about the stories of the outside world... Dogzi said with a tone full of longing: "In the future when I grow up, I must leave this broken island and go experience the outside world..."

  "The outside world... " Ding Yan raised his head and gazed into the distant sky, muttering to himself.

  。。。。。。

  Autumn goes and winter comes.

  This winter was particularly cold. From the day of the Winter Solstice onwards, it snowed continuously without stopping.

  Goose feather-like snowflakes fell from the sky, covering the entire courtyard in a thick layer of white. Ding Yan stood in the middle of the courtyard, slowly practicing his old man fist technique. His body was covered in a thick layer of snow, and from afar, he looked like a moving snowman.

  Stillness is in the world of cultivation.

  A month ago, Ding Yan's cultivation broke through again and finally reached the fifth layer of Lianqi, meeting the minimum standard for refining the Foundation Establishment Pill.

  The Refining Qi Realm has twelve levels. Generally speaking, the further back you cultivate, the more difficult it becomes. Wanting to stir up the mortal tribulation is even more difficult than that. Dīng Yuē's body was only around 17 or 18 years old, and he was able to cultivate to the ninth level of Refining Qi, which can be considered a rare talent.

  As for Zhu Ji Dan, Ding Yan Fan Dao was put aside and not refined.

  Building the foundation, as the name suggests, is a fundamental problem for cultivating the Tao. The more solid the foundation, the higher the future achievements will be. Originally, Ding Yan thought that the methods of cultivation in the two worlds were the same, so he was eager to refine the foundation-building pill. However, as his understanding of this unnamed boxing technique deepened, Ding Yan became less anxious to refine the pill and only occasionally practiced some elixirs like the Hunger- Suppressing Pill at night, even familiarizing himself with the techniques of refining pills.

  It's precisely because he realized this that Ding Yan hasn't frantically increased his cultivation over the past half year, but instead has been experiencing the world's cultivation realm step by step.

  No hurry, no flurry, only in this way, will there be opportunities to ask for a higher realm in the future!

  Taking a deep breath, Ding Yan suddenly opened his eyes, clenched his right fist and struck out at the air.

  Ah!!!

  A loud crack, in front of Ding Yan, a round log was split into two halves, and the wooden chips flew all over the ground. The snow under his feet was blown away by this punch, revealing the bluestone slab underneath.

  "A casual punch, its power has already surpassed the full force of those martial arts masters in the mortal world. In its current state, if it were to take the Foundation Establishment Pill, it could at least increase its cultivation by three to four realms. However, this body is really too weak, and recklessly increasing its cultivation would risk triggering the Tribulation of the Mortal Realm, with a high possibility of failure..." Ding Yan sank into deep thought.

  Transcending the mortal tribulation, although it means shedding the physical body, one will attain a scattered immortal form.

  However, for the flesh body, it is not without requirements. The main point of Xian cultivation is to absorb the life force of the flesh during the tribulation of heaven and earth to achieve the Xian body. If the flesh collapses, then there will be no support from the life force. In this way, even if the cultivator has passed the thunder tribulation, they cannot be considered a Xian, at most they can only be considered a ghost Xian.

  What's more important is that the ghost immortal cannot stay in this realm, if one becomes a ghost immortal, the law of heaven and earth will guide it to the underworld.

  Just as Ding Yan was deep in thought, a sudden knock at the door interrupted his train of thought.

  "Uncle Ting, Uncle Ting, are you there......?"

  The sound of the dog came from outside the courtyard gate.

  In three years, the dog is already twelve years old. The children of a farming family mature early. Now the dog looks like a fifteen or sixteen year old boy, strong and robust.

  "What's wrong?" Ding Yan walked over and opened the door.

  "Uncle Ting, my dad was dragged away by a tiger demon! Please hurry and save him!" Dogzi's face was anxious, and upon seeing Ding Yan, he quickly pulled him towards the direction of the village entrance.

  Having heard that it was a rescue, Ding Yan didn't dare delay and followed Dogzi, asking at the same time.

  "Where is the village head?"

  "The village headmaster has gone out to sea. My father said that now the whole village can only save him, and that's Uncle Ding." As he spoke, Dogzi was about to cry.

  Ding Yan nodded slightly and didn't ask again.

  In this village, except for the village chief who has a cultivation of refining Qi at the fifth level, the others are basically at the first or second level. Although his own cultivation was not explicitly stated to the villagers, everyone is not stupid and can naturally feel the fluctuations of yuan force on Ding Yan's body, just like the village chief.

  Two people ran quickly to the entrance of the village.

  But the dog's father was gone, and at the scene, some traces that had not been completely covered by snow could still be seen.

  Ding Yan crouched down, stretched out his index finger, and touched the ground, closing his eyes and expanding his spiritual awareness. After a while, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked towards a stone mountain outside the village.

  "You go back first, I'll go save them."

  Before Dogzi could respond, Dingyan sprang into action and headed towards the stone mountain.

  Ding Yan, who had already reached the 9th layer of refining equipment, moved with a ghostly gait, his feet treading on the accumulated snow on the ground without leaving any footprints. This skill was similar to flying through the air. Of course, Ding Yan still couldn't fly through the air at this time. Because flying through the air was something that could only be achieved after reaching the Scattered Immortal realm.

  After about an incense stick of time, Ding Yan arrived at the foot of Shishan.

  Due to the snowfall, the mountain was covered in a vast expanse of white, and with the continuous snowfall, the previous footprints had been completely buried.

  Roar!!

  A loud tiger's roar suddenly rang out.

  In this cold season, ordinary animals have long been hibernating, and only those who cultivate the demonic way are still there. It was that roar just now, very obviously intentionally luring Ding Yan over.

  "This tiger demon has opened its spiritual wisdom?" Ding Yan furrowed his brow, but still followed the sound and walked over.

  In Ding Yan's memory, the demonic cultivators were divided into ten major realms. The strongest tenth-stage demonic beasts could be compared to human Mahayana cultivators. However, the path of demonic cultivation was extremely difficult. Not to mention the tenth-stage demonic beasts, even the seventh or eighth-stage demonic beasts had almost become extinct.

  Generally speaking, the demon beasts that open up spiritual intelligence are at least in their transformed state, which is equivalent to a three-stage demon beast of the Yuan Ying period.

  However, in Ding Yan's senses, this tiger demon was obviously not that powerful. That aura was only slightly stronger than his own.

  Treading on thick snow, Ding Yan carefully climbed to the top of the mountain.

  "Ding Yan looked at the scene in front of him, slightly stunned."

  The mountain top is not like the way, everywhere is snowy. On the contrary, the mountain top is not cold at all, birds are singing and flowers are fragrant, colorful butterflies are flying, as if it's a paradise on earth. In the middle, there is a hot spring, with steaming water vapor constantly rising up.

  Originally, in Ding Yan's understanding, this place was not suitable for forming hot springs. Generally speaking, the formation of hot springs can be divided into three categories: first, there must be hot water underground; second, there must be a static pressure difference that causes the hot water to gush up; third, there must be deep and long fissures in the rocks for the hot water to reach the surface.

  This stone mountain in front of us obviously doesn't meet any of the conditions, but that's not strange either. Since even a demon cultivator has appeared in the mountains, it's no surprise if a hot spring appears too.

  At a glance, Ding Yan found Xu Zhengyang, also known as Dog's father, lying in the hot spring with his eyes closed, enjoying himself, without any injuries on his body. Not far from him, a white-striped tiger demon was crouching, and after Ding Yan arrived, the tiger demon's eyes, like bronze bells, fell on his body.

  "Huh? Brother Ding, how did you get here?" Feeling the commotion, Xu Zhengyang opened his eyes to see Ding Yan and quickly got up.

  Ding Yan smiled wryly, it seemed that things were not as bad as he had imagined. Now it seemed that Hu Yao and Xu Zhengyang were almost like friends.

  "The dog said you were kidnapped by a tiger demon, so I came over." Ding Yan finally spoke up after Xu Zhengyang finished putting on his clothes.

  "That little guy." Xu Zhengyang was slightly stunned, and then a faint smile appeared on his face.

  "Can you tell me what's going on?" Ding Yan asked.

  Judging from the dog's expression, it shouldn't be deceiving him, but the scene in front of him is indeed too bizarre.

  "This tiger demon swallowed a ginseng king and needs to borrow human energy to digest, thereby accelerating its transformation." Xǔ Zhènyáng's explanation was simple.

  Ding nodded. In his cognition, the cultivation of demon beasts was extremely difficult. If he relied on human energy, it might be faster to cultivate, which is also why there are so many snake demons and fox demons in the world.

  The path of the demon's cultivation has two major tribulations before ascending to the heavens, namely the Tribulation of Transformation and the Tribulation of Ascension. Generally speaking, before transformation, demons only possess the instincts of their original form, and only some ancient and unusual species will have complete spiritual intelligence. Of course, this is just Ding Yan's understanding from his past life, but it seems that in this world, things are not so simple. The tiger demon in front of him has a cultivation level of only six layers of refining energy, yet he has also opened up his spiritual intelligence.

  "Today, I happened to be practicing boxing at the village entrance. This tiger demon saw me and 'invited' me over." When mentioning this 'invite', Xu Zhengyang also showed a hint of bitter smile.

  "You can't view a demon beast with human perspective as long as it hasn't transformed, are you prepared to continue staying here?" Ding Yan looked at the tiger demon and asked through voice transmission.

  Xu Zhengyang didn't have as deep a yuan force as Ding Yan, and couldn't transmit sound into the tiger demon's ear without being detected, so he simply shrugged his shoulders in a helpless gesture.

  Ding Yan frowned.

  The strength of the tiger demon is stronger than his by a notch, and if he takes action, he doesn't have full confidence in winning.

  "In that case, since the environment is elegant here, I might as well cultivate here too." After saying this, Ding Yan's gaze swept towards the tiger demon beside him.

  The tiger demon was straightforward, except for a glance at Ding Yan at the beginning, and then it actually fell asleep on one side. For it, having more people is naturally better, after all, there are only humans in that small village on this island, and usually, demons dare not approach the village. Only during this time, when the blizzard isolates the aura that makes demons fearful, does the tiger demon dare to get close. Even so, the tiger demon didn't dare enter the village, but instead snatched Xu Zhengyang at the village entrance.

  The tiger demon didn't react, so Ding Yan also stopped paying attention to it.

  Ding Yan took a glance around and found that the environment here was much better than in the village. The air was filled with a hint of spirituality, making it easier to sense the aura.

  "Who would have thought there was such a place in this island!" Ding Yan's eyes sparkled.

  Only Carefree Immortals are considered true cultivators!

  Those who have not crossed the ordinary tribulations can only be considered as Qi Refiners.

  After telling the dog about the message, Ding Yan returned to the mountain top and casually found a secluded location to open up a cave. He walked in, sat down cross-legged, and arranged a modified version of the Soul Gathering Array beside him.

  Sigh...

  Unlike other places on the island, as soon as the Spirit Gathering Formation was formed, Ding Yan felt a frantic surge of energy rushing towards his body.

  "What a perfect environment, it's actually a great place for seclusion!" Ding Yan closed his eyes, shut off his senses, and began the first deep-level seclusion since he arrived in this world.

  In such an environment, Ding Yan dared to confirm that the next time he left the customs, it was when he took the foundation-building pill and impacted the scattered immortal boundary!

  Time is passing day by day.

  。。。。。。

  At the same time as Ding Yan was in seclusion and bitter cultivation, inside Lotus Valley.

  The sky gradually darkened.

  In the clouds, a thread of jumping electric snakes began to appear, and a chilling breath pressed down from the sky.

  Heavenly calamity!

  In Lianhuagu, someone actually broke through the 12th layer of Lianqi and successfully triggered the transformation of the mortal calamity, taking the first step towards becoming a scattered immortal.

  At this time, in Lotus Valley, on the top of the first peak of the Ten Great Disciples.

  A young man in white robes stood with his hands behind his back, his white robe rustling in the wind and thunderstorm, his black hair flying in the air, a pair of black eyes gazing straight at the sky, revealing an unyielding and determined spirit.

  He, the first of the ten great disciples of Lotus Valley, Mo Fei Fan!

  "Come on, let me see this legendary heavenly tribulation..."