Volume 1 Chapter 15: The Azure Dragon's Seven Mansions

  People with ulterior motives look down on others. This sentence is used to satirize people who are selfish and have ulterior motives.

  Gao Huan, however, felt that most people would instinctively measure others and their worth. Whether in the modern society of past lives or in this world where the strong reign supreme, although the standards for measuring a person's worth were different, the principle was the same.

  In modern society, if you have money and power, you will naturally gain respect from the majority of people. Of course, there are many standards for measuring a person's value in modern society. In contrast, this world measures a person's standard is simpler, where great strength earns respect.

  Gao Huan's low-key and weak behavior, if he can still get a lot of respect, that would be a strange thing. Zhang Yuan treats him like a dead man, which is a normal state. Zhang Yuan is a petty person, and is an undisguised petty person who doesn't use any disguise, although his face is detestable, he's not worth paying attention to, and even more so, not worth getting angry about his ignorance and vulgarity.

  The physical appearance of people varies greatly, but it all falls within a certain range. However, the thoughts and ideas between people have even more differences. Some people's foolishness can exceed your imagination. With this kind of person, you will never be able to communicate normally with them, nor is there any value in communicating with them.

  Gao Huan didn't have time to attend to Zhang Yuan, after finishing the cycle of inhaling and exhaling yuanqi, Gao Huan returned to his room to pack some simple personal items and went to Xuanwu Hall.

  The Xuanwu Hall is located in the northern part of the core area, with its large gate wide open. At the entrance stands a giant black jade carving of a turtle and snake entwined together, symbolizing Xuanwu.

  The lecture time of Xuanwu Hall is fixed, and lectures are given on the 1st, 15th and 30th of each month. For other times, you need to pay for listening to the lecture.

  Gao Huan didn't come here to attend classes. His Golden Five-Phase Wheel, the Azure Dragon Wheel, has already been formed, and what Gao Huan needs next is not just purification and refinement to reach a higher level. The Golden Five-Phase Wheel that Gao Huan learned was only an incomplete version, and to learn the next layer of techniques, only true disciples have the qualifications.

  Gao Huan was going to rent a secret room in the Xuanwu Hall for seclusion. Seclusion not only avoided many unnecessary troubles, but also allowed Gao Huan to focus on his practice and make final preparations for the Grand Competition.

  In the side hall of the Xuanwu Hall, there are special disciples handling the procedures. The procedure for renting a secret room is very simple: register your name, pay the money, and you're done. The disciples of the Xuanwu Hall are very efficient, and everything was settled in just a few minutes.

  There is only one problem, the rent is very expensive. The secret room costs one or two taels of gold per day. In the past year, Gao Huan has used no more than three taels of yellow gold. If it weren't for the huge income from the fire crystal stone, Gao Huan would not be able to afford this kind of secret room at all.

  There were miscellaneous attendants leading the way, bypassing the main hall of the Xuanwu Hall, passing through several courtyards, and arriving at the closed Guixin Pavilion. The Guixin Pavilion was over 20 feet high, with flying eaves, copper beasts, and red tiles, while the pavilion itself was built with pure black Xuanwu stone, majestic and thick.

  Entering the Wu Xin Pavilion, they were met with several disciples of the executive. After checking their waist cards, they made another registration before a disciple led Gao Huan to the second floor.

  "Junior brother, which one would you choose?" The leading attendant disciple asked, pointing at a row of secret rooms.

  The disciples of the steward had also been inner disciples, but they could not become true transmission disciples, so they were assigned to the Xuanwu Hall as stewards' disciples to serve the sect. In terms of status, the stewards' disciples and the inner disciples were similar, except that they had duties, lived a relatively easier life, without such fierce competition, and made money more easily.

  Seeing the ambiguous expression of the junior brother, Gao Huan immediately understood and smiled as he put a silver coin into the junior brother's hand: "Junior Brother is foolish, please ask Senior Brother for more guidance."

  The attendant disciple received the money, and his smile suddenly became a few degrees warmer. He pointed to the first room on the left, "This is Room A3, it's spacious inside, with an ice jade bed, bathroom, and the food served is also top-notch. The arrangement of the Spirit Gathering Array inside can gather and purify the heaven and earth's original energy, making it a top-grade place for cultivation. The second floor's rooms are divided into three grades: A, B, and C. Originally, only protector disciples or true transmission disciples could use the A-grade rooms. Now, Master will use it first."

  Gao Huan hastily expressed his gratitude, and the attending disciple pointed out some common sense about closed cultivation before leaving with a smile on his face.

  First-class three-numbered secret room, there are two rooms in total, one is a bathroom and the other is a martial arts practice room. The martial arts practice room is only a few square meters in size, with only an ice jade bed placed inside. Ice jade is a kind of unusual jade stone that can calm the mind, make it easier to sense and communicate with the heaven and earth's primal energy when sitting on it. Gao Huan has already opened up his apertures, sensed the primal energy, and his willpower is extremely strong. The ice jade bed is barely sufficient for him.

  The entire room was windowless, and after the iron door was locked, it became a separate space. The sunstones on the four walls illuminated the room as if it were daytime.

  Gao Huan sat on the ice jade bed, and the only sound he could hear was his own breathing. The extremely quiet space made people feel as if they had left the normal world behind.

  Sitting there, she fell into a daze. The Ice Jade Bed could calm her mind and steady her breathing, but it couldn't stop Gao Huan's restless thoughts. Gao Huan really wanted to take out the pearls in her body again for further study, but she was afraid that the sect would use some means to monitor the situation inside the secret room, which would be bad.

  Finally, he controlled himself with absolute willpower and did not fiddle with the bead. Gao Huan also knew that with his current ability, it was unlikely to unlock the secret of the bead. It's better to put it aside for now.

  Since he came to the secret room, he might as well focus on his cultivation. Although he had advanced to the third stage of martial arts, sensing the heaven and earth's primal energy and forming a green dragon wheel, he didn't dare say that he would definitely become a true disciple.

  Hundreds of indoor disciples, each with a very high talent, otherwise, they would not become indoor disciples. To survive in the cruel competition, no one can be underestimated. Among them, the most famous are the three English and four elegant.

  Fei Xue, Peng Xiu are both from the Four Show. Qin Heng, who came to trouble Gao Huan today, is one of the Three Heroes. The other two heroes are Bai Shan and Yue Zhen. Bai Shan is known as the Horizontal Sea and Broken Mountain, with a powerful and fierce Great Demon Body. Yue Zhen's Nine You Phantom Magic Sword is mysterious and unpredictable. They are all opponents who must be taken seriously.

  Among them, there may be masters like Gao Huan who are hiding their light under a bushel.

  Gao Huan never thought of himself as a genius, nor did he dare to underestimate others. He had participated in two major competitions and was considered experienced. He knew the special circumstances of the Wan Jie Cave and that having high cultivation didn't necessarily mean winning.

  This time, he came to retreat and also because the formation of Qinglong Wheel was too short and hasty, and was interrupted by flying snow. His foundation was solid, but his use of heaven and earth's primordial energy was rough.

  Gao Huan was firm and steady, putting down the distractions in his mind, quickly entering a state of cultivation. Apart from eating and resting on time, he could cultivate for up to ten hours every day.

  Normally, cultivation can't be as desperate as Gao Huan's. However, with the abundant spiritual energy in his body, such desperate consumption would instead allow him to quickly absorb the spiritual energy and merge it into his blood, flesh, tendons, and internal organs.

  Bears are originally the most powerful living creatures. The fourth-order fire bear, although not of a high rank, is not inferior to the fifth-order demon beast in terms of the thick and pure yuan energy stored within its body.

  Gao Huan ate so much Huo Xiong meat essence, using the strongest digestive ability of a martial artist to temporarily absorb all the yuanqi essence into his body. The Qinglong wheel was formed, but less than 30% of the yuanqi essence was digested. The remaining yuanqi essence was all stored in the body. As time passed, these yuanqi essences could not be absorbed by the body and would slowly dissipate away.

  This retreat also gave Gao Huan the opportunity to thoroughly absorb these yuanqi essences. The Golden Five-Phase Wheel that Gao Huan cultivated was most focused on physical cultivation. To transform his blood, flesh, tendons, bones, skin, and internal organs, he needed a long period of cultivation. But with these accumulated yuanqi, Gao Huan could go all out. The more he consumed, the faster he absorbed the yuanqi essences.

  After several days, Gao Huan could clearly feel that his body was more robust and powerful inside and out, with a thicker inner force. The circulation of the heavenly and earthly primal energy also became more agile and effortless.

  Gao Huan still had fifteen top-grade Yuan Condensation Pills in his hand. Top-grade Yuan Condensation Pills were usually only qualified for use by fourth-stage cultivators and above. One pill could cleanse the blood vessels and yuanqi of impurities, greatly increasing Gao Huan's cultivation speed.

  With eyes closed and standing still, Gao Huan's hands naturally hang down, forming the Acala mudra from the Vajra Five Wheel. This stance can stabilize the body, mind, and spirit. The whole person is simply standing there, yet like a majestic mountain reaching for the sky, solid and imposing, regardless of the sun and moon revolving, or the winds and clouds changing, I remain unshakeable.

  The primordial energy from the Heavenly Spirit Hole gushes in like a spring, unceasing and continuous. The Green Dragon Wheel at the center of Gao Huan's eyebrows slightly rises and falls, absorbing and transforming the primordial energy of heaven and earth, making it even more refined and pure. The transformed primordial energy is then circulated again through the meridians in the body according to the secret method of the Green Dragon Wheel.

  The highly concentrated and refined internal energy that had been cultivated through years of bitter practice also circulated along with it. In this process, the internal energy and yuanqi continuously merged. When the internal energy and yuanqi were completely merged and indistinguishable from each other, it was the fifth level of martial arts, the Unity stage.

  Of course, it would be difficult for Gao Huan to reach the level of He Li in just a few years. To know that every time he advances one rank, the difficulty increases exponentially. If Gao Huan can break through to the fourth rank of Tongli within a year, it would already be an astonishing progress.

  Gao Huan's mind was clear and bright like a mirror, reflecting the celestial dragon star outside the sky in the sea of consciousness. Through the mysterious changes of the primordial energy, at this moment Gao Huan seemed to be connected with the celestial dragon star outside the nine heavens.

  The starlight of the Azure Dragon's Seven Stars shone brightly, and Gao Huan felt that the other six acupoints in his body were vibrating and jumping. Gao Huan's heart moved, and he suddenly became enlightened: the Azure Dragon's Seven Stars referred to the seven acupoints that formed the Azure Dragon Wheel. Only by opening these seven acupoints could the body truly form an Azure Dragon, and the Azure Dragon Wheel would be considered complete.

  Gao Huan's foundation was extremely solid, and although it took ten years to open one aperture, the seven stars of Qinglong were connected in a single lineage. After Gao Huan opened the Tianling aperture on his head, the other six apertures were no longer difficult to access.

  Jiǎo, kàng, zǐ, fáng, xīn, wěi, jī. Gāo huān dà kāi de tiān líng xué qiào shì jiǎo, kàng shì méi xīn de cáng shén qiào, qí tā wǔ chù xué qiào yī cì xiàng xià, fēn bié zài yàn hóu, xīn kǒu, wěi zhuī, shuāng jiǎo, zài shēn tǐ nèi chuàn lián rú lóng.

  With the Qinglong Wheel as its foundation, absorbing the original energy, Gao Huan's body was refined and tempered, with a dense concentration of vital energy. Opening up the other six acupoints was like water flowing into a canal.

  On the twenty-eighth day, Gao Huan stood on the ice jade bed and let out a low whistle. The surface of his body floated with visible emerald green light. The light curled up and flew high, giving off a feeling as if a dragon was flying.

  The seventh aperture was opened, and Gao Huan's Qinglong Wheel was fully refined. The seven apertures were simultaneously activated to mobilize the primordial energy, which would present such a strange phenomenon. However, Gao Huan's cultivation was too shallow, and he couldn't maintain the true form of Feilong at all.

  The current state is just the manifestation of breaking through the seven apertures for the first time.

  Opening up the seven acupoints is also a sign of entering the middle rank of the third stage. The seven acupoints that Gao Huan opened up are connected from top to bottom, like a dragon. Not only did it greatly enhance Gao Huan's cultivation, but also brought the Qinglong Wheel to perfection.

  When he first formed the Qinglong Wheel, Gao Huan understood the true meaning of the Qinglong Wheel's martial arts. But that only made the Qing Dragon in his body come alive. Opening up the seven acupoints allowed Gao Huan's Qing Dragon to have a momentum that soared into the nine heavens.

  Gao Huan tightly closed his mouth and nose, as well as all the pores on his body, yet he could absorb the primordial energy of heaven and earth from seven apertures. The seven apertures responded to each other, cleverly linked together under the command of the Qinglong Wheel.

  The Qinglong Fanhai Leg has a total of five moves: Feilong in the Sky, Long Cang Jiuyuan, Long You Bafang, Shenlong Fanhai, and Qinglong Baiwei. All along, Gao Huan had only barely managed to master one move, Qinglong Shuaiwei. As for the other moves of the Qinglong Fanhai Leg, Gao Huan could barely manage to practice the form, but no matter what he couldn't grasp the divine intent within.

  Now Gao Huan finally understands that Qinglong Fan Hai Tui must be coordinated with the seven acupoints of Qinglong Lun to fully exert its power.

  Unfortunately, the breakthrough came a bit too late. Each move of Qinglong Fanhai Tui has many variations, and each move contains the true meaning of the dragon's martial arts. It takes time to appreciate and understand. In a hurry, Gaohuan only managed to master Longyou Bafang and Feilong Zaitian.

  The dragon travels in all directions, the most important thing is the word "travel" among them. The dragon travels in all directions, unimpeded and unrestrained. When practiced to the extreme, it can instantly travel in all directions. The dragon's travel in all directions is a move similar to lightness skill, the most important thing is that the Yongquan point on both feet is opened, which can absorb yuanqi, follow the heart to operate, and suddenly increase the speed of high happiness.

  Flying dragon in the sky, meaning taking the dragon flying nine heavens, soaring and jumping out of legs, is also the most overbearing move in the green dragon flipping sea leg.

  Gao Huan practiced the Vajra Five Elements Wheel, also because there was no other choice. He could only follow this path forward. Originally, he thought that the Vajra Five Elements Wheel was just a low-level martial art for building foundations.

  After truly mastering the Qinglong Wheel, Gao Huan discovered that the Vajra Five Phases Wheel was even more profound and mysterious than he had imagined. Just the Qinglong Flip Sea Legs alone were at least fourth-grade or even fifth-grade level. If he could master the remaining Xuanwu, Zhuque, and Qilin three wheels, it would be unimaginable. Gao Huan thought about this and couldn't help but feel a few pangs of longing for the future of the Vajra Five Phases Wheel.

  Refined into the Azure Dragon Wheel, Gao Huan's blood dripped and condensed into a round, lustrous shape, only then did it have a few hints of a silver-mercury-like flavor. Copper skin, steel tendons, iron bones - this level is merely the initial stage of refining one's body. It is the ultimate in external-to-internal body refinement.

  The true Diamond Body is to be formed from the inside out, becoming Silver Blood, Jade Bones, Golden Marrow, and a Crystal Body. The Silver Blood makes the blood congeal like mercury, clear and bright like silver, with the whole body's vital energy being extremely strong, capable of regrowing severed limbs.

  Gao Huan has now refined the Qinglong Wheel, and his primordial energy is nourishing his body from the inside out, transforming his blood and rebirthing him. He has already touched the threshold of silver blood. However, it's still a long way off to have his entire body filled with silver mercury containing divine intent.

  For those who concentrate on their practice, time always flies by quickly.