Chapter 43: Fortune and Misfortune

  These solar flares are like a gift from heaven for Kong Zhuo, without any cost.

  Such a pure and fiery sun, endless and continuous, Kong Zhuo didn't need to consider his own physical endurance at all, nor did he think of it.

  It was as if the endless and inexhaustible true fire of the sun had burst into his body like a super sale.

  Body, strengthen and strengthen again.

  At the moment of intense pleasure, he suddenly felt his body stiffen, a chill ran through his brain, and his originally slightly closed eyes suddenly opened wide.

  Just now, when the sun was absorbing the most refreshing fire, his muscles all over his body began to stiffen, completely stiffening, not only his muscles but also his meridians, all of which were stiffened. The most troublesome thing is that at this time he couldn't move even a little bit, his muscles didn't even have the strength to twitch.

  "Damn it, things have gone big!" He lamented in his heart, this situation had happened before, several times when he was absorbing the golden fire of the sun, trying to hold on for a while, such a stiff phenomenon had occurred, but due to timely reaction, this stiffness only appeared in local parts of the body, and after a short while, it would be fine. But now, his whole body was stiff, and he suddenly came back to himself, earlier, he had been too proud and lost his shape.

  Yes, I was too proud and forgot myself, which led to the extremely troublesome consequences now.

  Cultivation is a gradual process, especially when refining the breath. Whether you are drawing in the air, refining the breath to transform the spirit, or even transforming the spirit to emptiness, and then unifying with the Tao, it's all the same - four words: gradual progression.

  This is the first lesson given to all practitioners, or at least most of them when they start their practice, and it's a phrase that their masters constantly emphasize in their ears.

  From being an ordinary person to becoming a sword immortal and finally achieving the way of heaven, it is a hard and long process. Many people who want to skip this process and swallow a fat man in one bite have died.

  The reason is very simple.

  The strength and endurance of the body and meridians

  No matter how powerful a practitioner is, whether he has achieved the way of heavenly gods or not, at the beginning, he was an ordinary person, and started from being an ordinary person.

  At that time, your body and meridians can only withstand extremely weak true yuan, regardless of the quality, the difference is not much.

  As your cultivation deepens, the true yuan circulating in your meridians increases, and at the same time, it naturally warms and nourishes your body and meridians, strengthening your body and stabilizing your meridians.

  The true yuan and the body's endurance are complementary to each other in a certain sense, forming a benign cycle, which is orthodox and the least risky way of cultivation.

  The Demon Sect's unconventional cultivation methods attempted to circumvent this principle, devising many ingenious and subtle techniques, some of which succeeded while others failed. However, overall, they greatly accelerated the speed of cultivation, which is also why the Demon Sect was called the Demon Sect.

  The grudges between the Devil's Cult and the Orthodox Sect are complex and difficult to resolve. Kong Zhan doesn't know much about it either, but he once heard Mo Xiuyu mention that one of the reasons was due to conflicts in their cultivation methods and ideologies.

  Think about it, if someone cultivates for a hundred years and still can't achieve the same effect as others who have cultivated for ten or even just one year, what would they think?

  If this person who cultivates quickly is just one or two, then that's fine. They're a genius, they're lucky, and we can't compare to them. But if this person who cultivates quickly promotes their own quick cultivation method, letting a large number of people taste the sweetness, and letting a large number of people's cultivation speed increase, then those people who originally cultivated in a regular way will naturally start to feel unbalanced in their hearts.

  Jealousy is one of the most fundamental and most dangerous human natures. As for what happened later, there was no need for Mo Xiu to tell him, Kong Zhuo could think of several steps that led to the emergence of the Demon Sect.

  "There are no saints in this world, only interests. The difference lies in the size and quantity of these interests." The old man's teachings echoed in his ears once again.

  The interests of ordinary people are money, beauty, and power; what about cultivators?

  Their interests lie in cultivation.

  Just like ordinary people, if someone lived half their life and only earned a hundred taels of gold, while another person earned the same amount in just one year, what would happen to him?

  He must be jealous, and if the person who made one hundred taels of gold in a year also teaches others how to make money, so that they can make as much money in such a short time, while the person who spent half his life making one hundred taels of gold finds out that he cannot use this quick way of making money, or it's too late for him, what will be the result?

  If it were just one person who spent half his life earning only a hundred taels of gold, that would be understandable. But there are many such people. They used to be a group of wealthy and proud individuals, but now they have become ordinary. What will happen then?

  Human nature is ugly, jealousy is eternal!

  Conflict is inevitable.

  This is one of the roots of the origin of the Demon Sect.

  Of course, these are all digressions, and Kong Zhuang's thoughts at this time were a bit far-fetched.

  Now his state is what a righteous person would call "descending into madness".

  The true yuan in his body far exceeded the maximum capacity that his meridians and flesh could bear, exceeding the limit, just one step away from bursting.

  But now he is powerless.

  In an instant, he felt a sense of despair, but before this feeling had time to spread, intense pain struck him from all over his body.

  Every inch of muscle seemed to be torn apart, every nerve was shattered.

  The body cannot move, but the Mahavairocana's Adamantine Body Mantra is still circulating normally.

  A massive amount of true solar fire entered his body, impacting his already overloaded physique and meridians.

  On his skin, slow-appearing blood-colored cracks emerged, on his face, blue veins bulged out, and the golden red glow that faintly seeped through the blue veins made his round and fat face look even more ferocious.

  Under the red glow of the surrounding molten lava, Kong Zhong's body was as if coated with a layer of gold paint, just like those golden Buddha statues in temples. Only now, this Buddha had reached the brink of collapse.

  "Oh, heavens! You wouldn't want me to die here, would you? I haven't offended you, have I?" Kong Zuo lamented in his heart. At this moment, he was already powerless against his own body and could only resign himself to fate or enjoy the last moments of his life.

  But in fact, it told him that now was still a bit too early for despair.

  The cracks on the surface of his body grew larger and larger, the blue veins on his head were about to burst, finally, Kong Zhuo endured the intense pain from within his body, and reflexively opened his mouth wide, letting out a loud roar.

  "Aaaaoooouuuu......!!"

  The sound was like a desperate wolf howling in the distance, but if someone saw it at this time, they would think it was a wild boar calling.

  A heart-wrenching feeling swept through his entire body, and Kong Zhuo's eyes had also become dazed. At this moment, he didn't even have the chance to let out another roar, his entire obese body arched up like a tightly strung bow, then suddenly snapped open.

  With a twisted mouth, Kong Zhuo's face became extremely distorted, wanting to roar but unable to make a sound. At this moment, his voice seemed to have been severed as well.

  Excruciating pain, he could feel a meridian in his body bursting at the same time, his skeleton was also crushed into powder, and his muscles were torn apart from the inside.

  Oddly enough, he is still alive.

  Something very strange happened, which made Kong Zhuang himself feel unexpected.

  However, he soon began to regret that he had not died.

  The meridians burst open, and the energy of the true fire of Taiyang that was originally flowing in the meridians also flowed out, merging with the energy of the true fire of Taiyang absorbed from outside. Without the meridians, it still ran along the route of the Great Sun Crystal Golden Body Technique, and at the same time, it quickly began to repair Kong Zhao's body, meridians, bones, and skeleton. In an extremely short period of time, Kong Zhao's body, which had almost been blown into a bloody pulp and a pile of rotten flesh, was restored.

  That's okay, it seemed like an unexpected surprise, but that's not all, before his body could even react, the second collapse began, this time more intense and painful than the first.

  Then reorganize, collapse, and reorganize again, as if in a cycle.

  The Mahavairocana's body was as if being manipulated by an invisible hand, shattering and reassembling his body repeatedly.

  Nine times in a row.

  When the ninth reorganization ended, the true fire of the sun from the molten magma had been exhausted, and an hour had also arrived.

  The invisible aura around Kong Zhao began to dissipate, and although the true fire of the sun was lost, the temperature of these molten rocks was still extremely high. At this time, Kong Zhao, who had experienced ninefold torture, only possessed a faint consciousness and was completely unable to react.

  Just as the lava was about to engulf him completely, a hand suddenly reached out and pulled Kong Zhong's body out of the molten rock.

  "Good luck, kid!"

  This was the last thing Kong Zhan heard before he completely lost consciousness.