The Seventh Section: Guiding Qi and Seeing the Phoenix

  Amur and others used all their strength to pry open Yuxue's fingers and took out the broken sickle that had lost its shape. They didn't dare use too much force, fearing they would break her fingers. After a long time, Yuyan finally brought over a large bucket of warm water and soaked it for a while before prying open Yuxue's fingers one by one. She soaked her hands in the warm water for a while and mobilized her last bit of true energy, only then feeling that her hands were her own. She untied the leather bag she had been tightly holding behind her back and took out several stalks of fishy grass. She asked Ama to wash the leaves clean, mash them into juice, and give it to Amu to drink first. These fishy grasses grew by the spiritual vein hot spring and were much more effective than usual. After drinking, Amu was a bit more stable. However, after burning for so long, he still had symptoms of windstroke. Yuxue thought for a moment before asking Ama to take some fishy grass stems to decoct medicine, then asked Aba to go kill an old cow and take its gallbladder. Amur was puzzled but since his son's condition improved after taking the medicine, and Yuxue told him she had read Han people's medical books, he trusted her deeply and quickly led the way.

  He brought back the cow's gallbladder, still steaming hot and dripping with blood. Yuxue held back her disgust, took a knife and carefully cut it open to search inside. After searching for a while, she found nothing. She asked her father to go kill another cow and take out its gallbladder. It wasn't until they had killed seven cows that they finally found a small piece of dark yellow bezoar. They quickly washed it clean with water, finely ground a bit of powder from it, and sprinkled it into the medicinal broth that had been brewed for Amu to drink. Indeed, it was effective - after drinking one dose of the medicine, Amu's breathing began to stabilize and he no longer had seizures. Yuxue instructed her mother to give him a bowl of fishy-smelling grass soup every three hours, brewed strong but without bezoar, until his fever subsided. Only then did she return to her own small tent to rest.

  Although she was very hungry, when she saw the steaming mutton, she thought of today's bloody battle and couldn't bring herself to eat a single bite. She forced down a bowl of milk tea and returned to her own tent, closing her eyes and sitting cross-legged to meditate. Feeling that her meridians were empty and hollow, this was trouble! She had to go into seclusion for several days to recover.

  She thought for a moment and then walked out of the tent to tell her father that she was too tired and wanted to sleep for a few days. During this time, no one could enter the tent to disturb her, including them. Ah Mu'er was a bit strange. He had always known that his adopted daughter was mysterious and seemed to have some secrets. But he trusted her completely, knowing that she was kind and gentle. Not only did he promise, but he also assigned several tribesmen to take turns guarding the tent door.

  Jade Snow pulled the door curtain tight and came to the center of the tent, sat cross-legged to practice her skills.

  She slowly operated her mental method, gathering her true energy thread by thread. Her true energy gradually recovered and grew more abundant, circulating faster and faster until it was almost uncontrollable. She felt a surge of joy in her heart, knowing that she would soon break through. Indeed, after a while, her true energy compressed and then suddenly expanded. Yu Xue only felt an intense pain in her meridians, as if thousands of steel knives were cutting through her body, making her tremble violently. She gritted her teeth, guarding her mind with great willpower to restrain herself.

  The true energy expanded and impacted the meridians. The meridians began to widen and expand, with more true energy circulating inside, gradually becoming thicker and liquid-like, only to suddenly expand again. This repeated three times, causing her immense pain, making her feel like she was dying, with cold sweat dripping down her forehead. As the pain slowly passed, her entire body started to feel light and comfortable. She suddenly found that she could close her eyes and introspect. All she saw were wide and sturdy meridians throughout her body, with a silvery liquid circulating slowly. Upon closer inspection, she realized that this was different from true energy. As the liquid circulated along the meridians, it seemed like something was gathering around her. Yu Xue understood that she had entered the Qi induction phase and should immediately change her heart method to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into her body, washing her meridians and marrow again, transforming her body. However, this would certainly cause a strange phenomenon, alarming the people in the clan, which wouldn't be good.

  Yu Xue withdrew her sword and stood up, tilting her head to listen carefully to the sounds outside. It turned out that it was already deep in the night. A young sentry was dozing off, swaying from side to side. She cut open the back of the tent with a light hand and slipped out quietly. With a swift movement, she unfolded her Heart Mirror technique and flew towards the direction of Shen Mountain.

  She arrived at a mountain valley full of spiritual energy. She jumped onto a large tree and sat cross-legged on a wide, flat branch, closing her eyes to begin practicing the Qigong method of "Inviting Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy into the Body".

  It started with very little and very slow, gradually more and more, faster and faster. Her whole body was wrapped in a huge silver-white spiritual energy ball. The spiritual energy first entered the body, transforming every skin, muscle, internal organs, and blood vessels into an extremely solid state. Then it entered the meridians. In the meridians, the spiritual energy flowed, compressed, and circulated for one week, then converged at the lower dantian center, forming a small whirlpool. Controlling this whirlpool to rotate slowly, more spiritual energy was absorbed. Repeating this process continuously, drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the lower dantian would form the golden elixir, and Yu Xue's abilities would rise to another level.

  After a long while, Yu Xue slowly stopped her cultivation. The spiritual energy here was abundant and she had made progress in her Qi Refining stage. She had originally wanted to continue cultivating the middle section of the Nine Heavens Profound Girl Scripture but it seemed like she had already cultivated for a very long time and was afraid that her family would worry, so she could only stop. It seemed that she could only find another opportunity to come here and cultivate in the future.

  She jumped down from the big tree and exercised her muscles, but now she was covered in filth. At that time, after returning to the tribe, she had hurriedly treated her brother's illness, only washing her hands and face, changing her clothes, and then rushing to practice her skills. Now her whole body was dirty. Especially her hair still smelled of wolf blood, which was really disgusting. She turned her eyes and saw a hot spring not far away. Although it was winter, the spring was bubbling continuously, emitting white mist and forming a small pool, which was indeed a great place to take a bath.

  Jade Snow took a step forward and suddenly felt the big tree behind her shaking, startling her. It was a three-person-hug-sized black pine tree with a straight and tall trunk, standing here for who knows how long. The black pine shook its trunk and shook off a lot of accumulated snow. Jade Snow understood that all living things have spirituality. This black pine happened to be chosen by herself to sit on it and practice her skills. When the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered, it was also in the center and had already begun to become a spirit. She returned to the side of the black pine, stroking its trunk, inputting a stream of spiritual energy, and at the same time transmitting her mind and heart into it with her divine sense. After a long while, a tender child's voice came from the bottom of her heart:

  "Thank you, sister. I will work hard and strive to repay you as soon as possible."

  "I don't want you to repay me. As long as you can understand the heavenly heart and not kill innocent people indiscriminately, that is the best repayment."

  "Sister's instructions I will definitely remember in my heart, please rest assured."

  She promised to come often to see it. The black pine stood still and quiet, concentrating on its cultivation.

  Jade Snow walked to the edge of the water pool, just about to take a bath, when something unexpected happened. Suddenly, a red light flashed on her right hand, where the beast bell was sealed, and a sour voice echoed in her heart:

  "You're so good to a little tree spirit, but you've forgotten about me, an old man who risked his life to save you!"

  Jade Snow's Mysterious Path

  "Who are you?"

  "You're with me every day and now you ask who I am!"

  Yu Xue thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out. The voice was clear and pleasant, obviously a woman's, yet she kept calling him "old man" which he really didn't understand! The voice sounded impatient:

  "Little girl, hurry up and cultivate the Sealing Beast Bell, then you'll know. Stop guessing and wasting time!"

  Jade snow suddenly enlightened. It must be the instrument spirit phoenix in the sealed beast bell! She hastily sat down on the spot, carefully thought through the heart method of the sealed beast bell, and started cultivating it.

  The beast-sealing bell floated in front of Yu Xue, slowly rotating. The nine seals of the beast, the six seals of the spirit, the attack seal, the collection seal, and the treasure seal all flowed through her mind. Her hands pinched the corresponding hand seals and heart methods, gradually becoming more proficient. However, with her current abilities, she could only use the Spirit Seal Six and summon one bell. The Spirit Seal Six was specifically used to deal with spirit tools and wasn't very useful. It was just a matter of using the release seal to release them, then using the collection seal to retrieve them. The other four seals were cruel punishments that made the spirit tools obey, but Yu Xue would never consider using them. Firstly, it was too brutal, and secondly, the dragon and phoenix had saved her before, so she couldn't bring herself to harm them. As their master, they wouldn't harm her either, and would instead help her. Moreover, releasing them required spiritual energy support, unless she reached the Golden Elixir stage later on. At that time, she could automatically absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and the beast-sealing bell would always be nurtured by spiritual energy. Even if she released the spirit tools, once her master's spiritual energy was depleted, they would be automatically recalled by the beast-sealing bell.

  Jade Snow thought that the Xuanhu Bell was now useless to her and she had to be careful not to be discovered by other cultivators. This ancient treasure turned out to be a trouble! She could only wait until her future cultivation reached a higher level.

  She pinched the Fa Jue to put the Feng Shou Ling into the lower Dantian. Only after receiving it did she feel its benefits. The Feng Shou Ling slowly rotated in the spiritual liquid vortex, and without using any urging techniques, it could lead the spiritual energy into her body. Thin strands of heavenly and earthly spiritual energy automatically entered her skin and converged into the lower Dantian. Although the amount was small, it was precious for its consistency. It seemed that she would soon be able to cultivate into the Golden Dan period. She was just feeling pleased with herself when the voice spoke again:

  "Little girl, don't be so happy yet, let me out first and then we'll talk."