Chapter 69: Congxiao
This evil energy was extremely pure and transformed into droplets of water, Mu Yuan stretched out his hand and scooped up a few drops of the essence of the evil energy. It seeped directly into his skin through his pores, causing his entire body to shudder. He felt an icy cold aura that was even more difficult to resist than the Ice Jade Divine Light. Mu Yuan ran the Tide Flowing Technique several times, relying on his vast true energy to overwhelm and dilute it before absorbing and dissolving it. Suddenly, he felt a surge of cold air rush up into his Mud Pellet, affecting his three souls and seven spirits, causing them to condense and solidify slightly!
"It's indeed the ultimate wonderful method, the way of condensing and sublimating!" Mu Yuan muttered to himself. This aura was essentially tailored for the Dragon Clan, leaning towards the path of Aquarius, with a hint of wind and thunder properties, but it was extremely weak. For Mu Yuan, however, it was the ultimate refined essence of the tidal true energy!
"How about this, is it suitable for both of you?" Ao Lie asked with a smile, seeing Mu Yuan's reaction.
Mu Yuan nodded, and indeed it was a pure and refined aura of Jing Qi. He clasped his fists together in gratitude, saying "Thank you, Ao brother!"
"Since that's the case, you two might as well stay here for a few more days. The art of condensing frost is like gentle flowing water, it can't be rushed."
Mu Yuan nodded, Ao Lie said, "Then I won't disturb you two anymore. I'll leave first. There are two rooms nearby, and I usually rest there. I will ask the maids to send over your daily necessities. Let's meet again when the two of you have completed your cultivation!"
He said with a loud laugh and left, Qi Wei frowned and said, "This is yin coldness and icy killing intent, the most suitable for our sect is still the Jing Sha's aura on Yuan Hu Mountain, why waste time here, besides this person seems to be generous, but who knows what he is planning in his heart, aren't you afraid of being plotted against by him in secret?"
"Never mind, Yuan Hu Shan is the place where our sect's disciples have been practicing their skills for generations. Although it's suitable for our sect's heart method and Long Life True Qi, we've also practiced Chao Xu Liu. It's a good thing to practice Chao Xu True Qi here as well. After all, water can nourish wood, and in the future, it will be beneficial for practicing the Long Life Secret. As for Ao Lie, I can guess what he's thinking - he wants to help us because our skills are not bad. If it's not a difficult task, we can lend him a hand. After all, this is overseas, not our permanent residence, so we don't have to worry about offending anyone. But having a place to settle down is always a good thing!"
Qī Wei nodded slightly, "It's best if you have a plan in mind. Master told me to listen more to your opinions before he left, so there must be some reason to it!"
Mu Yuan smiled slightly, "No more talk, since we have this chance, of course, we won't let it slip away. Eldest sister, you first."
Her eyes sparkled with a hint of profundity as she gazed at Mu Yuan, her direct stare making him feel somewhat unnatural. Suddenly, she spoke up, "You go first, after all, there's still plenty of time, no need to rush. Besides, although both of us have reached the third layer of Qi Refining, your current thickness is several times mine, I wonder how you cultivated it!"
Mu Yuan sighed inwardly, thinking that after all, they were siblings in the same school of thought. He couldn't just keep the benefits to himself, especially since his senior sister, although seemingly cold and distant towards him, was still a fellow disciple under the same master. The two schools of thought were like one family. Mu Yuan had grown up in the Longevity Palace with his fellow disciples, living harmoniously like one big family, so he wouldn't have any hidden thoughts or motives. Moreover, cultivation depended on individual opportunities, but having an open mind was also a kind of training for one's moral character. After some thought, he said, "I won't hide it from my senior sister either. Some time ago, I met a disciple from Guang Yuan Zhen Ren's school and exchanged a set of talismans with him for the heart method of the Furnace Technique. Although it only reached the level of Dan Cheng, it can still accommodate the Longevity Technique and the Tidal Flow, making the three techniques complement each other. It can also continue to absorb true energy. Now that my dantian's true energy has all been transformed, this is also related!"
As he spoke, the secrets of the furnace were revealed with true energy, countless symbols floating and dragging in mid-air, rising and falling, and with a subtle gaze, he memorized all these intricate incantations, only then did the secrets in mid-air slowly disperse.
He closed his eyes and recalled, but felt that it was only a matter of words. He came back to himself and looked at Mu Yuan's gaze, which seemed to have turned even colder. "Such an important mental method is just your opportunity, why tell me?"
Mu Yuan could naturally see the chill in her eyes, and he couldn't help but feel a bitter smile in his heart. He thought to himself, "Why didn't you say this earlier? You only mention it now after I've already memorized everything." He also thought, "I'm not taking advantage of you or stealing your treasure, what did I do to offend you?" But on the surface, he said, "We're fellow disciples, I wouldn't dare hide anything from you!"
Qī Wēi gazed at him again, making Mù Yuán's heart feel hairy, but he couldn't get angry. He slightly lowered his head and said, "That Shī Jiě, you go practice your Qi first, I'll go meditate on my evil thoughts!"
He jumped into the deep well without looking back, and in an instant, the vital energy was stirred up by Mu Yuan, churning and rolling incessantly. The water vapor spread out, forming a thick fog that seemed to be impossible to disperse, and nothing could be seen anymore. Only the glow of the spell array flowed and shot out in all directions, shining brightly in the dense fog, like a guiding lantern.
Qī Wēi let out a soft sigh, turned around and went back to her room to secretly cultivate the Furnace Technique. The process of condensing was not short, but Qī Wēi thought that since she had already mastered the three layers of the Tides and Longevity Techniques, the Furnace Technique wouldn't require much time either. After all, the first three layers were just about unblocking the meridians and tempering the acupoints, the difference lay in the true energy in between, the types of spiritual energy absorbed, and the subtleties of the technique itself!
He said that Mu Yuan plunged into the deep well, and first withdrew the Long Life True Qi and the Furnace True Qi back to the Dan Tian. The True Qi has extremely high requirements for the essence of the breath. If it is not a compatible breath, it will only pollute the True Qi, making it impure. The cold and icy breath in this place is most suitable for cultivating with the Tide Qi. The Long Life True Qi and the Furnace True Qi are somewhat conflicting, even the Dragon King's Dynamic Divine Skill of the dragon tribe can't be considered a top-notch essence of the breath. On the contrary, it's not as good as the Tide Flow! It can be said that this place was specially tailored for the Tide Flow water-based skill.
Mù Yuán releases the true energy of the tides outside his body, forming ring after ring of light. He then manipulates the swirling vortex of energy, with countless whirlpools of true energy colliding and rubbing against each other densely around Mù Yuán's body, as he silently ponders the path of condensation within the tidal flow!
Actually, no matter what kind of gongfa it is, the process of condensing and refining the breath, there isn't much difference in between. It's just a matter of using the essence of the earth to mix with one's own true qi, condense and refine it, increasing its power. When the true qi has refined the evil qi, it rises up to the Mud Pill Palace, where the yin qi of heaven and earth is used to condense and refine the soul, transforming it into a divine spirit, expanding one's spiritual awareness!
It can be said that after condensing the essence and refining the soul, one has truly entered the threshold of cultivation. The divine consciousness splits into countless parts, the true energy contains the ultimate way of heaven and earth, and when striking out to defeat the enemy, it is even more powerful. Not everyone can have true energy as strong as Mu Yuan's, which can be abnormal and kill cultivators who have condensed their essence and refined their soul!
The surrounding rolling and surging cold ice evil, thick to almost substantial, at the top, Mu Yuan just casually took a few drops of condensed ice evil water droplets, and let his whole body freeze in discomfort. At this moment, he was even more trembling with fear, if not for the protection of the tide's true energy on his body, he would have been frozen into ice slag long ago!
In the depths of the well, it was unknown where it led to. There were bursts of fierce winds blowing up from the bottom of the earth, stirring up the cold and icy air even more violently, just like a turbulent ocean current. Fortunately, Mu Yuan's true energy was stable, otherwise it would be difficult to stand firm in it, let alone condense the frost!
Seated cross-legged in the void, six sword orbs floated beneath him, emitting a faint and flickering light, like an invisible cushion, supporting Mu Yuan's body. The surrounding violent coldness and icy aura, originally diffused everywhere, were even more intense with Mu Yuan's deployment of the Air Slash, which emitted a fierce suction force, all surging over like a boundless ocean current!
Mù Yuán tightly guarded the Tongming Dao Xin, and these yīn xì were one by one transformed, only the condensation of xì was a long process, the refinement of xì qì was slow and dull. The strong xì qì surged over, those that couldn't be absorbed in time, all dispersed in the Cháotāi Zhēnqì outside Mù Yuán's body, dyeing his originally purple-black true energy into a pitch black light circle, looking like a giant cocoon, still constantly expanding and growing!
The icy evil energy was dissolved by the wood element's fusion with the tide of true energy, circulating around the sky and repeating endlessly. The cold power in the tide of true energy slowly penetrated these evil energies, causing them to burst like small firecrackers, shattering into pieces. Those dense, dark, icy evil energies all melted away, leaving only a few extremely refined evil essence light points that rose up into the mud ball, floating and drifting, wandering freely!
Time slowly passed, and the number of evil spirits in the Muddy Palace increased. The dense light spots connected into a series of radiant long lines, like a silkworm's silk, linking up Mu Yuan's hazy and obscure souls, which were then refined by Mu Yuan using his divine sense to dissolve the evil spirits, bit by bit transforming them into specks of divine sense that completely merged into his soul.
In the dantian, the tide of flowing water droplets has also undergone a strange transformation. Originally, it was just floating droplets of water, but with the influx, refinement and fusion of countless evil energies, they eventually merged into a majestic river. The waves of this great river danced lightly, no longer the illusory image that appeared when Mu Yuan's three true energies coexisted, but a truly existing entity that externalized infinite true energy and internalized it.
Divine consciousness expands, true energy transforms, and the tidal true energy outside the wooden element also changes. Originally just a few layers of light circles, now it's gradually flowing with one breath, interpenetrating each other, like flowing river water, while the dantian of the wooden element is like the great sea where all rivers converge!
The Qi of the Dan Tian surges into the meridians, disperses through the pores, and then rushes back to the Dan Tian from the periphery. Between the inside and outside, a kind of invisible connection seems to be established! It's as if the water of the great sea evaporates, rises to the sky, forms clouds and rain, falls into rivers and lakes, and finally flows back to the great sea again, a boundless and endless transformation emerges quietly, mysterious and unparalleled. In the clear and bright Dao Xin of Mu Yuan, in a daze, it seems that he has merged with the heaven and earth outside his body, and the changes of the true Qi inside his body are also like the changes of the heavenly water in the clouds, rain, fog, snow, ice, frost, and dew, transforming between these several forms. However, no matter how it transforms, it is still only a derivative form of water; essentially, it is still the essence of the heavenly water condensed from the tidal true Qi inside Mu Yuan's body.
