Chapter One Hundred: Darkness Without End

  This time practicing qigong looks like you're going to crash into a wall.

  Liang Xin's bitter practice has only two directions: one is to hit the star position accurately, and the other is coordination and sequence. These things are simple to say, but actually operating them is very difficult. The knees are still okay, but the range of motion of the head and shoulders is limited, far less flexible than the fists.

  But the skull is a vulnerable spot, whether it's human instinct or Liang Xin's previous training, he had long developed a subconscious habit of avoiding danger. Now, he could only force himself to keep his eyes wide open and watch as he crashed into the insect's body again and again, the hardship of which only Liang Xin could understand.

  The earth is dark and has no daylight, and it's hard to know the time outside. Liang is struggling to make a living, but he was born with a strong physique. He practices frantically, just hoping to coordinate his body well, hit a series of star arrays, break through the "tumor", attack the earth, and then rush to Zhen Mountain to rescue his brother!

  Liáng Xīn's foundation was equivalent to that of a third-step cultivator. For a short period, he wouldn't starve to death even if he didn't eat, and could rely on consuming his true yuan to sustain his body. However, this could only last for three to five months at most; once his true yuan was depleted, he would still die.

  Day and night, he practiced tirelessly, and after an unknown amount of time had passed, Liang Xin finally succeeded in forming the Big Dipper Array. With a loud whoosh, his body shot up into the air, and his head, shoulders, hands, and knees all shone with a brilliant light as they took their positions among the stars. The seven ripples connected together in a string, and the Big Dipper Array was complete!

  Liáng Xīn reached his true nature, and with a joyful shout, the tumor-like creature on the shore also changed its usual demeanor, full of unexpected surprise, saying: "It's done? So quickly?"

  Liáng Xīn fundamentally didn't have a concept of time, and with a chuckle asked the teacher: "A speed like mine... is it fast?"

  The shore didn't rush to answer, but instead ordered: "Go and hit a few more times!"

  Liang Xin nodded, cleared his mind and calmed down, then continued to cast the One-Month Grand Array six more times, succeeding three times. This time, without needing Teacher's instructions again, Liang Xin started casting the array with his head down, only hoping to be able to solidify it firmly. The more he cast, the higher the success rate became, until later it almost reached a hundred percent success rate. Only then did he stop and turn his head towards Tumor Fa Bao: "Master, no problem!"

  "From the start of your bitter practice, I've been counting. Now, I've counted almost 500,000. My speed... about 5,000 counts in an hour, and with seven or eight days' work, I can form a star array. Not bad." The old demon head had been trapped here for thousands of years and was already accustomed to silently counting to pass the time.

  Liang Xin spent almost seven days, and at this speed, it was indeed a bit too fast. He was able to do so mainly because of the five years he spent in the Monkey Valley, where he fought with the Heavenly Ape every day, and his body had long been tempered to be extremely agile.

  Kishimoto was originally in praise, but Liang Xin was shocked and jumped up again to pounce on the "wall", starting to fight the February star array. On the 23rd of December, during the trial, he fell into the earth prison body on November 10th, Liang Xin feared that it would not be in time!

  The positions of the Big Dipper stars relative to each other are fixed and unchanging, so compared to the first month's big array and the second month's big array, it is only a holistic positional shift. Liang Xin was able to successfully crack the first month's array, and soon grasped the second month's array as well.

  The most difficult thing is actually the continuous hitting of two arrays, and the key to success lies in only two words: coordination!

  Liang Xin was about to go crazy, but the more anxious he became, the less his body listened to him. In the end, he was still awakened by Jiang An's angry voice and tried to calm down, putting all things behind him...

  It can be said that the first month of practice is laying the foundation for one's own joint coordination. Liang Xin had experience in Houzi Valley, starting from not being able to grasp the key points and ending up becoming more proficient with each passing day, once he got a feel for it, he quickly broke through. This 'foundation' on the surface seems like just these 7-8 days of bitter practice, but in reality, he had already practiced for five years at Sulei Mountain before this.

  Just change the overall direction of Beidou's monthly array to other months' star charts, and you'll be able to get it done quickly.

  And the two arrays of punches, is a genuine and valuable improvement, there is no secret to this, only bitter practice, practicing until the body's combos become second nature! Fortunately, Liang Xin's foundation was solid, and his progress was relatively smooth.

  After Liang Xin had finished his first month's array, Jiang Zhe began to recount. When he counted up to 12 million, Liang Xin finally came before Rou Yuan Fa Bao again and said respectfully: "Master, please step back, I can now cast two arrays!"

  Jiang didn't eat surprised, hit a wave with seven days, and practiced the coordination foundation, hit two waves with twenty days, although also considered fast, but not to the point of shocking the world.

  All I could hear was a rustling sound from within the tumor, and I guessed that he had shrunk himself into a corner. Only then did I hear him say, "Alright!"

  As soon as the voice fell, Liang Xin suddenly let out a loud shout and flew up, pouncing on the tumor's treasure. In an instant, his body began to shake violently, looking strange and ugly, but incredibly swift.

  Boom, boom, boom, a series of muffled sounds, ripples quietly spreading out, intersecting with each other. January and February, two sets of the Big Dipper Array, fourteen star positions, under the connection of the ripples, outline two small-angle overlapping ladle shapes. Suddenly, as if the air itself was trembling, a massive force erupts!

  Liáng Xīn actually managed to execute two sets of Stellar Arrays!

  Two arrays converged, the power stirred up was more than five times stronger than a single array! The meat tumor emitted a dull rumbling sound and began to shake violently. Liang Xin gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, his heart racing up to his throat...

  Finally, with a loud crash, a foul odor burst into the sky. The tumor was unable to withstand the combined force of the two star arrays and completely shattered, splattering disgusting brown-red flesh everywhere in the muddy swamp!

  This treasure has been suppressing and protecting the shore for thousands of years, constantly fighting against the terrifying mud in the earth's body. It is now almost unable to hold on, and if it weren't for Liang Xin and Lang Ya arriving just in time to let the strange insect lose its power and fall asleep, the flesh tumor would have been breached by the mud in a few more days.

  Even so, Liang Xin wanted to break it, and he was exhausted.

  All that was visible was a mass of hair, with a beard and head-hair all tangled together in one great mat; a lean, bony old man, crouched up into a heap, with his eyes closed, laboriously lifted his head to look outwards. Who was it on the shore?

  But Liang Xinkē didn't expect that the once renowned old strategist, the mentor of the Demon King, would be so wretched. His clothes had long since rotted away, leaving him stark naked, his skin deathly pale, with a dense network of blood vessels visible beneath.

  In the silence of the earth, the master and apprentice looked at each other, for a moment neither of them could say a word.

  Liáng Xīn got to know his new master, in less than a month's time, of course, they couldn't talk about deep feelings, but since they had the name of master and apprentice, there would be some closeness, especially for the two of them, one teaching, one learning; one constantly pointing out, one practicing day and night, under their concerted efforts, they actually broke through the shackles to meet each other, this kind of relationship, compared to sharing life and death, was weaker in what way?

  It wasn't until one of them let out a loud sigh that the old man and young boy simultaneously burst into tears, laughter, and madness, embracing each other in a chaotic mess. The old man swung his thin fists, pounding on Liang Xin's back as he wailed with laughter: "Grinder, my apprentice! Grinder, my son!"

  As he spoke, he jumped down from Liang Xin's body again, grasping his disheveled and unmanageable beard, and shouted: "Mò Dāo Er, now I will expel you from the school, from today on, you are no longer my apprentice!" Following that, the old man didn't wait for Liang Xin to be shocked, but continued laughing and said: "From today on, you will be my adopted son, kneel down, kowtow, to hell with your original master, I don't need his permission to take in a son!"

  The person who has experienced the hardships of life, usually speaks and chats politely and honestly, but deep down has long become a sentimental and emotional person. At this moment, having escaped great danger, what is revealed is their true nature.

  Liang Xin had a glimmer of hope to survive, all thanks to Jiang's mercy. He didn't care about right or wrong, good or evil, as long as he could live. The true man from Nanyang wasn't a good person either. At the moment, he hastily agreed and kowtowed, but when it came time to call him father, he couldn't bring himself to do so.

  "It doesn't matter, take your time!"

  This bittersweet laughter didn't last long, as Liang Xin thought of going to hit the insect. However, the old man shook his head: "The power of two star arrays is not bad, but it's definitely not enough to penetrate the insect." He laughed and said: "Even if a master who has reached the peak of the Carefree Realm were to use their full strength in one blow, they probably wouldn't be able to hurt even a single hair on the insect. Your two linked arrays, how much power do you think they have? It's far from enough, far from enough!"

  Liang Xin was stunned, all these days in his mind, he had always thought that Rou Tuan and the worm were monsters of the same intensity, thinking that as long as he could 'beat out' the old man, he could defeat the worm. Only now did he react, realizing that his 'North Dipper Double Array', at most, was only a five-step level attack, how could it possibly have any effect on this worm?

  Let the shore yield to Liang Xin, then he climbed onto his back with great difficulty. He pointed forward and said, "First take me to find the mouth of the insect. If you can now cast two star arrays, I will have a way to take you out!"

  Liang Xin was overjoyed and responded with a "yes", then ran in the direction of Chong Wei's voice.

  When Jiang An was at the end of his tether, he was still just a child. At that time, relying on his previous memories, he already had the cultivation of the Sea and Sky Realm. However, after that, his true yuan didn't make much progress. He was able to survive until now solely because of the spiritual medicine and elixirs he had obtained earlier. Even so, after a thousand years of consumption, he no longer had any energy left, and for a time, it was difficult for him to recover. The current Jiang An was no different from an old man on his deathbed, and could only rely on Liang Xin's "substitution" to move around.

  All along the way, stumbling and staggering, Liang Xin ran to the last section of the 'rosary', vaguely seeing the ferocious and terrifying fangs.

  "Alright, it's around here. Look for a spot that's roughly... about the size of an ass. Compared to other places, it'll be slightly coarser. If you can find this spot carefully, whether we can get out or not will depend on it!"

  Liang Xin responded and immediately lay down on the ground to feel around. Jiang also 'got down' to help search together.

  As he spoke, he gazed at the shore and said: "I once saw a record in an ancient book that on the mouth of the earth, there was originally a thick skin born from heaven, which was where it guided the earthly energy before it took shape."

  Liang Xin hummed and replied: "That's the monster's weak point, hitting it will surely kill it?"

  An Xi shook his head and laughed, "Of course not. In terms of sturdiness, the coarse skin is no different from other parts of his body, it's just a bit more sensitive. Now that you have the 'Big Dipper Double Array', you should be able to hurt him."

  As he spoke, the shore paused for a moment, and his voice also became serious: "If you want to escape, there is only one way. Find the rough skin, hit it hard, the monster will wake up in pain, its instincts will open its mouth, and we'll take advantage of this opportunity to run away. However, it has been asleep for almost a month, although those mud pits have not yet recovered their function, but the monster must have recovered some strength, whether we can successfully escape or not is still an unknown number..."

  Just then, Liang Xin suddenly exclaimed with joy: "Found it! It's right here!"

  Jiang smiled and said: "Don't act yet, wait for me to recover a bit of strength, at that time I can still lend you a helping hand!"

  Liáng Xīn was overjoyed and nodded vigorously!

  After a while, about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Shan Chang let out a sigh and said to Liang Xin: "It's done. If we can escape, from now on you and I will roam freely in the world. If we can't escape, then the two of us will die together!"