The Eleventh Section: Cultivating and Creating Demons
At this time, Yu Xue had the help of Feng Bao's sealed beast bell, which greatly accelerated her cultivation. Every day in the morning, she taught children, and in the afternoon, she went to a deserted place alone to practice the true scripture of the middle chapter of the Taoist method. She practiced those sword-fighting techniques such as Yu Jian Jue and Lei Jue until they were extremely proficient. However, she didn't have a flying sword, so she could only use her bare hands to mimic the movements, which made Feng Jin laugh so hard that he fell over. Moreover, due to insufficient Taoist cultivation, the power of the thunder she summoned was too small, only enough to split a small crooked tree. Feng Jin said that it wasn't even enough to scratch an itch. Yu Xue was often embarrassed by Feng Jin's words and became more determined and diligent, which made Feng Jin admire her. He would often bring her some rare treasures from who-knows-where for her to consume. Once, he even brought a thousand-year-old Lingzhi mushroom, but they were chased by two crane spirits that had become immortals. The old man was so angry that he revealed his true form as a phoenix and was about to spit out the three-treasures fire to kill them. However, Yu Xue stopped him, and the cranes realized that it was the king of all birds and were scared away. Yu Xue saw that Feng Jin had gone to such great lengths for her own good and felt uneasy in her heart, so she vowed not to eat any more of the spiritual medicine he brought. Only then did Feng Jin stop. Yu Xue devoted herself wholeheartedly to cultivating Taoist methods and spent her free time collecting herbs on the eastern side of Mount Kunlun. With Feng Jin, a walking encyclopedia, by her side, she benefited greatly, learned about many rare flowers and strange grasses, broadened her horizons, and even learned some practical minor magic techniques.
After dinner, Yuxue taught Yu Yan a Hanwen for an hour and also practiced her small script. After she fell asleep, she studied the array method of the true scripture's second part. Unfortunately, it was too profound, so she had to invite out Huang Jin teacher again to ask for guidance from Shen Long. At this time, she already knew that Shen Long's name was Hei Ri, also known as a divine beast from ancient times with deep cultivation. Hei Ri initially didn't care about her, but later saw how respectful Yu Yan's older brother was towards him and never put on airs of being the master, often calling Huang Jin to bring some roasted beef and mutton, wild game, and horse milk wine. As he ate their food and took their gifts, he gradually became more familiar with Yuxue and answered her questions enthusiastically. One person, one phoenix, and one dragon, separated by the sealed beast bell, discussed the array method of the second part and all benefited greatly. Yuxue gained the most, and her array method had already shown some small success. The cultivation of dragons and phoenixes is measured in tens of thousands of years, so their knowledge was naturally extraordinary. They talked about array methods, discussed actual combat experience, debated pros and cons, and mentioned things to pay attention to, interspersed with ancient secrets and divine mysteries. Yuxue listened with great interest, her heart deepening day by day. Even the four small wolves beside them seemed to understand, their eyes wide open and ears perked up as they listened carefully. Huang Jin glanced at them once and said that these four wolves would definitely become enlightened in time.
It was late at night when the Golden Rooster returned to the sealed beast's lair. Jade Snow sat cross-legged on a lotus flower, her hands forming a seal as she began to cultivate her energy, drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from all directions. The four small wolves lay down beside her, their eyes seemingly closed but not quite, sensing the benefits they would receive. Jade Snow cultivated until dawn before stopping. Then, a new day began once more.
Winter has arrived. Jade Snow thought left and right, but could only think of a clumsy way to improve the children's martial arts skills. She thought that if she spent her spiritual energy to help some talented children open up their meridians and leave behind a thread of spiritual energy in their meridians, then no matter what they practiced, whether it was martial arts or Taoist magic, they would definitely achieve twice the result with half the effort.
She first experimented on the four little wolves. But to her surprise, after carefully checking with her spiritual power, she found that animals didn't have meridians! How could they cultivate into spirits then? She thought of the black pine spirit she had seen before and was about to create a straight meridian for them like the tree's nutrient transport system when Huang Jin's voice came from the bottom of her heart:
"The little girl is clever, but only clever. For beasts to cultivate, they must first form an internal elixir and then absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and moon, and only after a long time can they change their shape and achieve the Great Way. You, besides helping them transform their meridians, must also leave behind a foundation for the internal elixir, usually in the back of the brain. Hehe, this method is unheard of and unseen, I hope those four little guys are lucky."
Originally, the cultivation of heterodox practitioners relied on innate talents or being born with a special gift, such as the dragon and phoenix; or they were blessed with good fortune and received guidance from immortals, consuming heavenly materials and earthly treasures. Another type lived for too many years, passively absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, and one day, they suddenly gained enlightenment and attained the Tao, like Hei Songjing. However, there has never been a case where someone was forcibly transformed by altering their meridians or coerced into cultivating to become a spirit. Although the four young ones already possess spiritual nature, it is still unknown when they will become spirits. Yu Xue doesn't know about these so-called newborn calves not fearing tigers. After hearing Feng Jin say that it's feasible, she thought for a moment and began to take action.
"First, I'll take the smallest flower-faced one. You three, don't move or be afraid, and don't shout either. Do you understand that I'll give you a great benefit?" The three little ones nodded dazedly.
She first sealed the blood vessels on Huadian's legs, preventing her from running. Then she placed her hand on her forehead and slowly input spiritual energy. This spiritual energy first circulated in the brain before slowly flowing down along the spine from the back of the head. She increased the intensity of the spiritual energy input, forcibly creating a wide meridian from head to toe on her back. Another five meridians branched out, each running along one limb to the soles of the feet; the last one circled around the internal organs before returning to the main meridian on her back.
Yu Xue continued to input spiritual energy, circulating it through the main meridians of her back and internal organs before returning it to her brain. She then expanded this energy, placing it here to form a slowly rotating small whirlpool. From now on, this would be the foundation of her inner elixir. With great success, she withdrew her hand. Hua Lian let out a loud "Ah" as he jumped up and rushed out of the tent without looking back. It turned out that he had been in so much pain that he was almost dead, but during the process of transforming his meridians, he couldn't speak or move, unable to express himself. Next, Yu Xue followed the same method to refine three small ones, who also rushed out of the tent one after another.
At this time, the dusk tribe people were returning to their village. They saw that the four little ones who were usually inseparable from Yuexue suddenly rushed out one after another, howling and shouting in confusion. Yuexue sat cross-legged to recover her spiritual energy. Just as she finished and walked out of the tent, the four little ones returned with their heads hung low, rubbing against each other. After they ran out, they suddenly felt that there was something extra in their bodies, and their hearts were filled with gratitude. From then on, Yuexue had four loyal wolf demons by her side.
After dinner, Yuxue took Yu Yan as a test subject again. However, being her sister made her even more nervous. She first pressed her sleep point and called out Huang Jin to carefully discuss it for a while. Only after letting her protect herself did she begin to act. Yu Yan had previously received the Xianling Qi from Huang Jin, although not much, but already had a thorough understanding of it. Yuxue simply solidified her meridians with spiritual energy and left behind a thread of flow before completing it. When Yu Yan woke up, she only felt that her whole body was light and full of energy, without suspecting anything unusual.
In the following days, Yu Xue was amazed by the talent of the children. During the morning training sessions, she carefully observed and found that about 100 out of nearly 400 children had excellent innate abilities and were well-suited for cultivation. Another 300 or so were average but still could cultivate. If any sect were to find out, they would probably fight over these disciples. What puzzled her even more was that the younger ones seemed to have better innate abilities. It wasn't until Huang Jin spoke up that she understood.
"What's wrong with that! They drank the jujube water and you absorb the spiritual energy from all directions every night, which is beneficial for transforming their bodies. Your clansmen are ordinary people, and this spiritual energy is very helpful in transforming their bodies. The smaller the body, the less impurities it contains, and the easier it is to transform, naturally, the root bone will be fine."
Yu Xue heard this and wanted to transmit the Taoist teachings to them, but it was not yet time. She called the hundred children into her tent one by one using various excuses, unblocking their meridians and leaving a thread of spiritual energy circulating within them.
Winter has gone and spring has come, another year has passed.
The tribespeople were all impressed by Yuexue's skills. After a year of training, the children had made tremendous progress and become skilled fighters. Even the smallest one, who was only seven years old, could easily defeat an adult warrior with a sickle. That adult had also learned the wolf-killing technique! It seemed that only Yuexue's personal instruction could bring out the essence of the skill. However, it was unknown to the tribespeople that the younger children had been transformed by her and had greater potential. The tribespeople didn't know this, so they sent their six-year-old children again, even some five-year-olds came along as if they had discussed it beforehand, adding over a hundred more people. Some children who were already fifteen years old and should have graduated didn't leave either. As a result, every day Yuexue led an army of 600 children in arduous training. Yuexue asked Huangjin to bring a Zhu fruit to awaken the new children's meridians. After another round of hard work, everything was settled. The new children were handed over to the older ones for initial training using the old methods. Only when they were ready would she teach them knife techniques. This time, because they had opened up their meridians first, the new children made faster progress and soon joined the older ones in practicing knife techniques.
Suddenly one afternoon, Yu Xue was distracted while instructing the children and thinking about a new knife technique. Several tribesmen rushed over and told her to hurry up. It turned out that Ah Mu Er had fallen off his horse and broken his leg, with very serious consequences. Yu Xue happened to have some free time and was arranging dried herbs for future use. On sunny days, she would often dry many of them on top of her tent. At first, the tribesmen only came to her when they had a headache or fever, but over time, they also brought their more complex illnesses to her, which were cured by her medicine. Sometimes, she would use strange techniques that were actually just common acupuncture and fire cupping from the Central Plains. As a result, she gradually became the tribe's doctor, and even the shaman wanted to learn from her. Fortunately, most of the tribesmen were physically strong, and since the children had started learning martial arts from her, they never got sick, so it wasn't too busy.
Yu Xue heard that her father was in trouble and she was also panicked, so she took Yu Yan and hurried over.
