Chapter Ten: Outer Gate Mission

  Wang Qiang had just returned to his residence and hadn't even started trying to cultivate the new technique he had obtained when Zhou Qing came looking for him.

  As soon as he heard that he had chosen the Nine Turns Body Refining Technique, his face changed color and he was shocked beyond measure. He immediately wanted to advise him to choose another technique to cultivate, but Wang Gan was now a stubborn mule who had made up his mind, and whoever tried to persuade him would be met with the same response.

  "Alas, Wang Qian brothers, you've made your choice, I won't persuade you anymore. When the time comes and you can't cultivate it, you'll have to take responsibility yourself. Remember, every outer sect disciple has three years' time. Once the time is up, you'll have to take the outer sect disciple test. If by then you still haven't reached the Xiantian realm and become a true cultivator, even if I and Shifu's sister plead for you, it won't be of much use. You're on your own now. This time I came to ask after you on behalf of Shifu's sister. This time Shifu has made up his mind to let Shifu's sister go into closed-door cultivation, probably for a very long time!"

  "Hmm, Brother Zhou, rest assured, I will definitely cultivate to the Xiantian realm and become a true disciple of Qingyun Gate!"

  Wang Gan's words were firm and decisive, without a hint of hesitation.

  Zhou Qing didn't say much more, chatted for a bit and then left. He is now the chief inner disciple and also needs to prepare for foundation building. According to Wang Qian's observation, Zhou Qing's cultivation is deep and his foundation is solid, probably won't take two years to successfully build his foundation.

  "Ah, sitting alone on a mountain peak watching the sun and moon, I suddenly realize that I am a cultivator of the Tao!"

  Gazing afar at the distant mountains, with azure clouds entwined, the spiritual energy is dense and heavy, the bright light is dazzling. Wang Qian sighed in his heart, in this vast Azure Cloud Mountain, how many cultivators of the truth are there, every day absorbing and expelling spiritual energy, tempering their bodies, cultivating divine powers, and polishing their nature.

  Sitting cross-legged, Wang Qian found himself beside a thatched hut, with only one person left, standing alone, yet having a sense of elegance. All the past experiences, whether it was life or death, or illusion, ultimately had to start from today.

  He let out a deep breath, as if he wanted to expel all the stagnant air in his heart, along with all the troubles of this life and the past, leaving only a clean and pure crystal-like heart that sought the truth.

  He took out the tortoiseshell again, his eyes fixed intently on it as if he wanted to deeply engrave every word of the Nine Turns Cultivation Technique in his mind. Wang Qian had now adjusted his mood, and his spirit seemed to have merged with the continuous Qingyun Mountains, empty and transparent, vast and boundless.

  "Let's get started!"

  After careful consideration of the first turn's content, it was almost word-for-word and sentence-by-sentence, with all my heart and soul, I pushed this passage to an extreme.

  At one moment, a flash of lightning suddenly flashed through Wang Gan's mind, giving him an epiphany.

  "Alright, this Nine Turns Body Refining Technique is most crucial in the word 'body', which refers to a person's physical body. It's mysterious and endless, with meridians, blood apertures, skin, bones, and everywhere containing wonders. It has great similarities with my Undying Secret Manual's body refining part, but the Undying Secret Manual only forges a perfect body in the realm of corpses, then begins to cultivate the primordial spirit and refine the true yuan. This Nine Turns Body Refining Technique, however, takes heaven and earth as one's own body, using all the primordial energy to temper the flesh. So, I should be able to easily achieve the first turn."

  There is a saying that goes, "A hundred years of bitter practice are not as good as one morning's enlightenment." Wang Qian combined his family's secret to immortality and the Nine Revolutions Body Refining Technique, finally allowing him to gain a deeper understanding of physical cultivation.

  Breathe...

  With a calm and peaceful mind, between one breath and another, Wang Qian's nostrils seemed to erupt with a fierce suction force, as the vast heavenly spiritual energy from outside surged in.

  A vast amount of spiritual energy entered his body, like a divine snake or a mad dragon, whizzing through his meridians.

  In a short while, the thatched cottage where Wang Qian was located completely changed its appearance. The dense spiritual energy formed a spiritual vortex, pouring down from his heavenly spirit. The originally formless and colorless spiritual energy presented a pale blue color under extreme condensation.

  As soon as he began to cultivate, Wang Qian discovered that his luck was incredibly good. His body could be described as having all the meridians unblocked, and the surging spiritual energy entering his body without any hindrance, allowing it to flow freely throughout his entire body. All of his meridians and blood apertures had a kind of unobstructed feeling.

  In his heart, he silently recited the nine-turn body-refining mantra's essence, using another's foundational period divine consciousness. With just a casual thought, countless spiritual energies entered his body, threads of spiritual energy flowing and circulating within his physique, seeping into his flesh and blood.

  "If it were an ordinary person cultivating this technique, just opening up one meridian would require who-knows-how-much effort, but I've directly skipped over this step, and with a single drink and a single peck, it can be said that my prior causes are predetermined by heaven."

  Wang Gan carefully sensed his own body and found no signs of overexertion, so he knew that his potential was not small, enough for him to formally start cultivating the divine power.

  The Nine Turns Body Refining Technique is an ancient cultivation method. Apart from some pre-heavenly spirits present at the dawn of heaven and earth, it's extremely difficult for post-heavenly beings to cultivate. However, Wang Qian coincidentally matched with this technique in many ways, which can be considered a great stroke of luck.

  This kung fu, the first turn is mainly used to lay the foundation, cultivate skin and flesh, meridians, skeleton, and finally refine the marrow and change the blood to achieve the prenatal state.

  A strand of spiritual energy was refined through the practice of Gong Fa and transformed into Nine Turns True Yuan, and Wang Qian truly began his first cultivation on Qingyun Mountain.

  First and foremost, it was his skin. The concentrated Nine Turns True Essence continuously tempered his entire body's skin, with every cell undergoing a transformation at an incredible speed that left even Wang Qian, who had been prepared for this, extremely astonished. However, he was now in a state of mental clarity, with all his thoughts immersed in cultivation, having forgotten time and the passage of days and months, truly reaching a state of selflessness.

  From that day on, Wang Qian became a cultivation madman. Every day, he spent ten out of the twelve hours practicing his skills. If others were to find out about this kind of training schedule, it would be enough to shock them senseless.

  One day, two days, ten days.

  On the tenth day of practicing the Nine Turns Body Tempering Technique, at dawn, Wang Qian stood facing the wind and gazed out at the distant green mountains and clouds, slowly calming his mind.

  "It's been ten days, today my kung fu should be able to complete the tempering of skin and flesh, reaching the realm of the post-heavenly early stage."

  In his heart, Wang Gan was secretly thinking about his own cultivation situation. He was crystal clear about it. He wasn't an ordinary postnatal cultivator. His divine sense had reached the foundation building level, and he was extremely clear about his own body.

  Inhaling the spiritual energy, circulating the kung fu techniques, the nine cycles of true yuan continuously flowed between his skin and flesh, making his skin and flesh like a piece of stubborn iron, gradually being condensed into fine steel.

  Gradually, Wang Qian felt that his flesh and skin were becoming extremely hot, as if countless flames were burning on his body, constantly refining the impurities inside.

  Time flies, in the howling mountain wind, the golden crow sets in the west, slowly quieting down, night falls, and the thatched cottage where Wang Qian lives becomes a peaceful scene.

  At that moment, Wang Qian's body trembled with a loud hum, and a series of cyan-colored auras flowed around his body. With a ripping sound, his clothes were instantly torn to shreds, revealing his robust physique, ancient bronze skin, and faintly visible talismanic inscriptions. The mysterious and extraordinary aura was like an ancient, powerful breath emanating from him, making him seem like a god in the darkness, with a halo of cyan light swirling around him.

  He stood up and swung his fists casually, and a fierce gust of wind whizzed by, as if the air was about to be torn apart.

  "Hah, I've finally tempered my flesh and blood to perfection. In just ten days, I've reached the peak of the post-heavenly early stage. This speed is rare even in Qingyun Mountain."

  He secretly sighed in relief, Wang Qian was still very satisfied with his cultivation speed.

  "Uh, I've cultivated the Reincarnation of Life and Death to the point where I can reverse life and death, but the Secret Book of Immortality has only reached the realm of Corpse Soldiers. However, death still outweighs life, making it impossible for me to continue cultivating. The only way is to cultivate the Nine-Turn Body Refining Technique to the third turn, which will balance life and death. Fortunately, I have plenty of time now, so there's no need to rush."

  That night, Wang Qian did not continue to cultivate, but instead relaxed and rested well. The way of cultivation is also a matter of relaxation and tension, and the combination of literary and martial arts is the right path, which he understood very clearly.

  The next morning, Wang Qian left his own practice yard and headed for the Baishi Hall in the outer gate area.

  As an outer door disciple, it's not enough to just cultivate, there are many trivial matters to attend to, this is also the task of every outer door disciple, no one can be exempt.

  Every month, a task must be completed, otherwise the disciples of the Enforcement Hall will come to punish him. At present, Wang Qian's cultivation is not enough to receive special treatment, unless he is favored by those elders with high and unfathomable cultivation and directly accepted as a disciple, then there are various benefits, but that is also after becoming an inner door disciple. Among the outer door disciples, everyone starts from the same starting point, and there is no too much special treatment.

  Pepsi is still very famous in the outer gate area. Every outer gate disciple has the most contact with this place and comes once a month.

  Carrying his own identity jade card, Wang Gan entered the PepsiCo building and soon arrived at a side hall. Behind a large table, a middle-aged executive was meditating with his eyes closed. Seeing him enter, his eyes suddenly opened wide, a beam of sharp light scanned over him, then returned to normal.

  "This is this month's Pepsi task, you choose yourself." He casually threw a book to Wang Qian, and the matter was no longer taken care of.

  For the first time, Wang Qian received a Pepsi task and was very curious. He took over the book, flipped through it, and one by one, the tasks appeared before his eyes.

  The miscellaneous tasks of the outer disciples are numerous and varied, with many names.

  Collecting spiritual medicine, hunting fierce beasts, killing some notorious figures in the jianghu world, sending messages, managing medicinal fields, and so on.

  "As expected, there are countless tasks. For the first time, I'll take a relatively simple one that consumes less time, can't delay my cultivation for these things."

  Wang Qian's goal was very clear, after flipping through task by task, he finally found a very suitable one.

  "Hunt down and kill Blood Tiger!"

  Blood Tiger King Qian knew that the library of Qingyun Gate had many strange and unusual records, including spiritual medicines and exotic beasts. He had read some of them before, among which the Blood Tiger was a relatively ordinary ferocious beast, although it was fierce, but absolutely did not have the strength of the Innate Realm. For outer sect disciples, it was a relatively simple task.

  Wang Qian took on this task because hunting the Blood Tiger was not too difficult for him, and it wouldn't take up much of his time. It would be done in about two or three days.

  "I choose this task."

  PepsiCo executive saw Wang Qian's choice, directly picked up the pen to record, then recorded Wang Qian's identity information, this task is considered as received successfully, before the end of the month, hand over a blood tiger, it is considered completed.