Chapter 43: Tai Chong's Liver Fire Meridian

  Just as Ming Fan and Gan Ping were whispering to each other, a stern voice came from the side, "Ming Fan, quickly hand over the token, don't delay, Gan Ping, come forward." Ming Fan heard the voice and hastily withdrew his head, quickening his pace, and disappeared into the crowd without looking back. Gan Ping was somewhat stunned, turned around to see that his senior brother Gu Senran, who had been standing on the grand hall looking down, was staring at him with piercing eyes, apparently it was he who had shouted just now.

  Gan Ping hastily walked forward, bowed and said: "Greetings, Master. I don't know what instructions you have for me?" Gu Senran's face was slightly stern, "Gan Ping, shouldn't you be on the seventh floor accompanying Wuyunzi Elder in managing the furnace? Why did you sneak here? Are you slacking off?" Gan Ping saw that his master's face was not pleased and knew that this master liked diligent people. If someone was lazy, they would definitely not have a good expression to look at. He hastily replied: "Reporting to Master, it's not that I'm slacking off. Wuyunzi Elder said that these past few days have been too laborious, the balance of literary and martial arts is too strenuous, and excessive hardship is actually detrimental to cultivation. That's why he let me come out to help."

  Gan Ping's face slightly softened when he heard Gu Senran say this, and he slowly said: "This cultivation path is like sailing against the current, I'm also worried that you're too young to persist, if you wait until you're older it will be too late to regret." Gan Ping's heart skipped a beat when he heard this, what Gu Senran said was true. Upon careful consideration, although he had been diligent in his cultivation recently, his original drive and ambition had indeed slackened somewhat. This must have been why Gu Senran spoke up like this.

  At this point, Gan Ping thought he stood in the great hall above and made a deep bow to Gu Senran: "Thank you, brother, for your teachings. Gan Ping will definitely remember them in his heart and not dare to slack off, advancing day by day to achieve enlightenment." Every word was firm and sincere, coming from the bottom of his heart. Seeing that he had truly taken his words to heart, Gu Senran couldn't help but nod secretly and waved his hand, letting him retreat.

  "This Gan Ping, although he is a servant disciple, is valued by the elder Wuyan. He can be considered to have a deep fortune, and I hope he won't slack off in his cultivation like other fire temple disciples. However, it seems that Gan Ping's heart is firm and resolute, and his future achievements will not be bad."

  Gan Ping walked out of the noisy great hall, took a deep breath, and felt a slight pain in his eyes, which had not seen daylight for many days, from the bright sky. In the distance, the mountains rose and fell, and the sound of thunder could be heard faintly from the main peak. Although the Miao Cheng Sect was considered a sword sect by outsiders, there were also many disciples within the sect who studied the art of thunder and talismans. It seemed that this sound was the inner sect disciples practicing the Three Nights Mountain God Thunder.

  "It seems that I have indeed become somewhat lax. As expected, this path of cultivation is extremely difficult, and unknowingly, my state of mind has also undergone changes. Although I've been studying the art of alchemy with Master Wuyan, ultimately, it's my own cultivation that needs to be improved. I recall that when I first entered the sect, it was in July, and now more than a month has passed, with only three months left until the annual Sect Examination. I must not fall behind those fellow disciples who entered the sect at the same time as me." Gan Ping gazed out at the distant mountains shrouded in mist, his brow furrowed with determination, before turning around and walking past the noisy great hall, heading towards his own quarters.

  Let the rain hit and the wind blow, I will remain unmoved. Although the old man's words were well-intentioned, I couldn't relax just because of that. Others may have only one cultivation method to cultivate, but I have several top-notch methods, including the Kontrol Fire Ignition Seven Methods, which is considered a high-quality method even among the introductory heart methods. With such an advantage, it's unreasonable for me not to be better than others.

  He came to the back hall, and since all the servant disciples were busy in the front hall, he didn't see anyone along the way. Gan Ping casually closed the door behind him and locked it, then walked over to the bed.

  "It seems that we need to find some shortcuts to speed up." As soon as he thought of this, Gan Ping reached into the black lacquer ring and took out a mid-grade fire-attribute spirit stone. He hesitated for a moment, then grasped the fist-sized spirit stone in his palm and applied a bit of force. A cracking sound echoed out, and when he opened his hand, the mid-grade spirit stone had shattered into several pieces. Threads of fire-attribute spiritual energy drifted out from the broken areas. The little flame on his shoulder stared at the fragments with wide eyes, its mouth watering in anticipation, making Gan Ping chuckle. He picked up a piece of the fragment and handed it to the eager little flame, which began to crunch away happily.

  Gan Ping slightly shook his head, he still didn't have enough fire attribute spirit stones. This kid was going to need a few more as snacks. Since opening the storage ring, his daily cultivation had already consumed two mid-grade fire attribute spirit stones. Currently, he only had three high-grade fire attribute spirit stones left, and a dozen or so mid-grade ones scattered around. As for low-grade spirit stones, there wasn't a single one in Xuan Mingzi's ring. However, it was precisely these low-grade spirit stones that his current cultivation needed the most. He still had quite a few other attribute spirit stones, but crushing this one made Gan Ping feel a pang of heartache.

  On the mountain, Gān Píng also learned about the prices of Ling Stones. The middle-grade Ling Stone he had just crushed could be exchanged for nearly a hundred low-grade Ling Stones. Crushing it like this was heartbreaking. However, he currently had no way to exchange the Ling Stones. As a humble disciple, he feared that as soon as he took out the middle-grade Ling Stone, someone would snatch it away on the spot. Gān Píng understood the principle of "carrying jade and being guilty".

  He picked up the dozen or so fragments of palm heart and set up a small three-cai return to yuan gathering spirit array in his own room. This array method is one of the commonly used gathering spirit arrays in the cultivation world, which can gather the surrounding spiritual energy. In this Earth Fire Temple, due to the earth fire, the fire attribute spiritual energy was originally extremely dense. As soon as the array was set up, Gan Ping felt that the fire attribute spiritual energy in the room had increased a lot, and he was secretly surprised and delighted in his heart. The method recorded in Xuan Mingzi's primordial spirit was indeed effective, but unfortunately, he could only set up a simplified version of the gathering spirit array. If the range of the gathered spiritual power was too large, it would definitely alarm the elders in the temple. Gan Ping didn't know how to reduce the power of this array method, so he had to use the clumsy and wasteful method of pinching the spiritual stones into fragments. If he had a dozen or so low-grade spiritual stones in his hand now, the array method set up could only affect a few tens of square meters, which was the most suitable array method for Gan Ping at present.

  He sat cross-legged, his hands clasped together in a seal, with a piece of medium-grade spiritual stone held in the center of his palms. Gān Píng began to cultivate the Kontrol Fire and Pulse Seven Methods passed down by the venerable elder Wú Yún. The Tai Yi Pure Yang True Classic was truly boundless and endless, containing countless secrets and mysteries, including records of talismans and symbols. Unfortunately, these were all things that he could not currently cultivate, so Gān Píng had only just begun to scratch the surface. The Bing Huo Róng Yuán Què, or the Mysterious Method of Fusing Fire with the Origin, was a powerful and unparalleled technique for tempering the body, having an extraordinary effect on strengthening one's physique. Unfortunately, Gān Píng had been stuck at the Xīn Jīn, or Golden Foundation, level for quite some time. Perhaps for the dragon tribe, who lived for almost endless ages, they could slowly wait until the right moment to break through the bottleneck naturally. But for Gān Píng, he had already been stuck at this level for nearly two years without making progress. This was only the second layer of the Bing Huo Róng Yuán Què, and he couldn't help but wonder how difficult it would be to reach the later layers.

  But the benefits of this dragon clan's body strengthening secret method are obvious, and Gan Ping doesn't want to give up on this technique either. So he has decided to change his strategy a bit. This Tri-Fire Fusion Technique is a collection of the world's most extraordinary fires, and by practicing it, one can cultivate a dragon-patterned Tri-Fire that burns and refines the body every day, resulting in such effects. Gan Ping has already decided that if he gets the chance, he will definitely try to absorb some of the Earth Fire from the Earth Fire Temple to see if he can merge it with his own dragon-patterned Tri-Fire. He still vividly remembers the power of this dragon-patterned Tri-Fire from back in Xiao Yue City.

  These two laws are not effective at the same time, but with the end of the year approaching, he must strive to become a formal disciple, so that he can study the art of alchemy with Wuyunzi's elder in a legitimate and upright manner, and openly take out some spiritual stones to exchange for things he needs now. All this requires a damn title, a title as a true disciple. Although he doesn't say it out loud, how can Geping, who is proud and arrogant at heart, tolerate wearing black servant clothes all his life and being looked down upon wherever he goes? He won't allow it.

  So the bright and upright Seven Methods of Controlling Fire and Qi are now the only shortcut in front of him. Others are worried because their skills are not enough, but Gan Ping is troubled because he knows too much. All along, he has been exploring alone, afraid that others will know his secrets, and finally arrived at the Miao Cheng Sect. Of course, he wants to learn from this famous sect's cultivation methods, so he can't help but be distracted by the Seven Methods of Controlling Fire and Qi.

  This three-talent gathering spirit array is indeed extraordinary, and Gan Ping has never relied on any external spiritual arrays to accelerate his cultivation speed. Of course, in those areas with scarce spiritual energy at the foot of the mountain, even with the help of this array, it would only be slightly helpful. However, within the Miaocheng Sect's Yu Long Mountain, the spiritual energy is already abundant, and the founding master of the sect, Miaocheng Zhenren, chose to establish the sect here precisely because of the excellent spiritual vein beneath Yu Long Mountain. There are countless small and large sects within the Purple Flower Immortal Mansion, but only a few major sects can possess this spiritual vein, which shows just how rare it is.

  Now, Gān Píng is using the simple Three Talents Returning to the Origin Gathering Spirit Array to gather spiritual energy. With the help of this array, the spiritual energy in his body is rapidly circulating, and his mind is focused inwardly, observing the state of his true yuan's operation. The heavens and earth are divided into five elements, and humans are the most spiritual of all things, so they also follow the heavenly way. Therefore, within the body, there are also divisions of the five elements. This "Controlling Fire and Guiding Pulses" seven-step method is precisely a way to unblock the fire-attributed meridians within the practitioner's body. Because Gān Píng had cultivated the Dragon Clan's Body Tempering Secret Method, his body's meridians were wide and sturdy, so when he first practiced this technique, he immediately opened up the first fire-attributed spiritual meridian - the Triple Heater Heart Fire Meridian. The spirit is attributed to the heart, and once this Triple Heater Heart Fire Meridian was opened, one could use their divine soul to control flame powers.

  At this moment, Gan Ping Zheng is diligently absorbing the abundant spiritual energy outside his body, constantly transforming it into his own true yuan. This is to impact the Taichong Meridian of the Liver Fire Channel, one of the seven methods of controlling fire. Once the liver fire is activated, it will be as swift as lightning. If this meridian is opened up, the power to control and manipulate flames will immediately increase exponentially. This is the ultimate method for controlling the transformation of fire during the refinement of elixirs.