Chapter 287: Chapter 287: The First Wisp of True Qi

With a single step, the roiling mist in his Sea of Consciousness scattered like waves crashing against a reef. With another, it was seated serenely upon the Nine-petaled Golden Lotus at the center of his Sea of Consciousness.

His chaotic thoughts, once tangled like venomous snakes, disintegrated under the Self God’s gaze, turning into specks of stardust that sank into the abyss of his Sea of Consciousness.

Xu Yunfan’s breathing gradually synchronized with his Self God.

By the time the eastern sky showed the first light of dawn, the Self God’s illusory figure had solidified like a glazed statue. A faint golden Linn Character Secret Pattern appeared between Xu Yunfan’s brows before instantly vanishing back beneath his skin.

After more than twenty days of this repeating cycle, Xu Yunfan’s skin began to take on a jade-like luster, and the Sword Force within his Triple Jiao Meridians had grown so dense it nearly filled them to bursting.

Then one night, he was suddenly struck by an insight. The Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace flew into his hand of its own accord as he began practicing the Eight Desolates Dragon Fall Mace Technique. Amidst the lonely silence of his unceasing cultivation, it was this technique that was the first to reach the Minor Achievement stage.

In these past twenty days, his progress in the Yijing Marrow Cleansing Skill could only be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.

With the Taoist Sect sparing no expense to pile resources on him, Xu Yunfan’s daily Skill Level gains stabilized at twenty-eight or twenty-nine points. During exhilarating moments when his Blood Qi surged and his bones and sinews resonated, he could even break the thirty-point mark in one go.

As of now, on his Attribute Panel, the Skill Level for his Yijing Marrow Cleansing Skill had already broken the five-hundred-point barrier, reaching 597. He was rapidly approaching the one thousand points required for Great Success.

Unfortunately, while Great Success was easy, reaching Perfection required several times more arduous effort, and even then, it was only a chance.

This was also why the further a Martial Artist progressed, the more difficult breakthroughs became. If one wasn’t a true Martial Dao genius, it was impossible to touch the pinnacle of each Realm and build the foundation needed to break through.

Most importantly, at this very moment, Xu Yunfan’s Pure Yang Qi Skill had finally reached the Realm of Perfection!

The Pure Yang Inner Breath, which had once roiled like molten gold, now collapsed and condensed in a peculiar nexus deep within his flesh and blood, transforming into a wisp of True Qi as fine as a floating thread, yet as dazzling as the rising sun.

True Qi!

No wonder the Taoist Sect placed such importance on this Cultivation Technique. Although it was a Martial Art meant for the Outer Three Harmonies Realm, it formed the very foundation of the entire Sect’s Martial Arts.

This wisp of True Qi was fine, yet it felt as heavy as a mountain!

As the True Qi traveled through his flesh and blood, the acupoints along its path resonated spontaneously, emitting clear, melodious chimes like a Jade Chime.

Compared to the Pure Yang Inner Breath of the past, which had been as vast as a sea, this wisp of True Qi was like a dormant crimson dragon—seemingly slender but concealing the power to shatter mountains and sunder peaks.

However, although the True Qi in Xu Yunfan’s body had condensed into a fine thread, it was still bound by his physical form.

Whenever he tried to guide the True Qi into his meridians, its violent power would rampage through them like a sea-burning conflagration. The meridian walls would instantly crack with spiderweb-like fissures, and an excruciating pain, as if ten thousand ants were gnawing on his marrow, would assail him.

He was forced to immediately withdraw the True Qi, a trickle of crimson already seeping from the corner of his mouth.

Even his Triple Jiao Sword Nurturing Technique, which had already reached Minor Achievement, could only use his internal organs as a base to cautiously circulate Sword Force through the Triple Jiao Meridians.

If this Sword Qi tried to invade major meridians like the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian or the Stomach Meridian of Foot Yangming, it would immediately trigger a chain reaction, like striking a Glazed Cup with a Heavy Mace—any more force and his meridians would shatter completely.

His flesh, blood, and sinews were the main pathways for the True Qi’s circulation, which was ultimately different from the image Xu Yunfan had of True Qi flowing through one’s meridians.

This was also an indirect reason why the physiques of this world’s Martial Artists were so astonishing. The Martial Dao cultivation of this land had long since pushed the potential of the human body to an inconceivable level.

Take Bi Sheng’s body, for example, which appeared as withered and thin as bamboo. Once he activated the Golden Locking Jade Twelve Formulas, the Blood Qi in his body would erupt like a volcano, and in the blink of an eye, he would transform into a giant of knotted muscle.

The Taoist Sect called them Giant Spirits; Maitreya called them Arhats.

In the end, it meant the same thing.

Suppressing the thoughts in his mind, he gazed at the Red Essence Blood Activating Pills floating in the Cyan Jade Medicine Barrel and felt a wave of emotion.

’The resources of a top-tier Sect truly are on another level compared to the Celestial Craft Cave...’

Out in the world, any single one of these Treasure Medicines would be enough to cause smaller Sects to fight over it.

The Nine-Turn Jade Liquid Soup could cleanse impurities from his marrow; the Thunder Tribulation Bone Forging Pill could draw upon the lingering resonance of heavenly Circulation to refine his Jade Bones. Not to mention, when the two women, Cyan Simurgh and Chi Shao, used the Nine Revolutions Palace-Advancing Hand to guide the medicinal power for him, even the blockages at the very ends of his flesh and meridian pathways were cleared.

In contrast, back then, even with the help of a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Object like the Ginseng Child, a full day of arduous cultivation would at most yield seven or eight Skill Level points for a single Martial Art.

Although the Qi of Ginseng could supplement his Primordial Qi, it was ultimately geared toward gentle nurturing. For the domineering cultivation of the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm, which required destruction before reconstruction, it was like trying to put out a forest fire with a cup of water.

Even a legendary Ten Thousand Year Ginseng King, if consumed recklessly without regard for the balance of Yin and Yang, would instead cause one’s qi and blood to flow in reverse. It was nothing like his current situation, where various Treasure Medicines were balanced like a perfect prescription, with their properties controlled like a precision machine, ensuring every ounce of medicinal power struck his cultivation bottlenecks with pinpoint accuracy.

Xu Yunfan’s name swept through the Thirty-Six Peaks of the Taoist Sect like a wildfire.

The news that Sect Leader Bi Yuan had made an exception and accepted him as the second-ranked True Inheritor of the Profound Celestial Pavilion’s lineage was shocking enough. What shook the various peaks even more was that this Newly Ascended True Inheritor had retained his tutelage from the Celestial Craft Cave and was consuming a daily amount of Treasure Medicine comparable to the entire daily budget of a single peak.

When the powers of the various peaks investigated in secret, all they found was a courtyard shrouded in the roars of a dragon and the whistling of a mace. The air-splitting sounds from his practice of the Eight Desolates Dragon Fall Mace Technique at 3:00 AM were unending, and at Midnight, one could again hear the muffled rumbles of Strength flowing like a great river.

Moreover, a purple vapor from the steaming Nine-Turn Jade Liquid Soup constantly lingered above the courtyard walls, so potent that even the passing Spiritual Cranes they were raising had their feathers stand on end from the fumes.

"That Mad Martial Artist’s Martial Arts seem to have improved again!"

Outside the courtyard, on a Sword Peak three hundred zhang from Qingwei Mountain, a Daoist Child in a purple robe flicked his sleeves. Listening to the dragon-like roars coming from the courtyard, his hand couldn’t help but tremble slightly, spilling the Spirit Tea in his cup three feet. His expression was incredibly complicated.

"The hundred-forged steel steles sent over by Rocksteel Peak are as brittle as frozen tofu in his courtyard!"

A female cultivator from Cyan Simurgh Peak, her expression tinged with shock, tapped her fingers lightly on the stone table beside him.

"Yesterday when I delivered his medicine, I saw him chewing on Red Fire Blood Essence Pills like they were candy... That’s my entire supply for three whole months!"

Before she had even finished speaking, a disciple in profound-colored robes burst in, silencing the entire group.

"Twenty entire days and nights!"

He gestured emphatically, his Adam’s apple bobbing. "The Daoist Children on night patrol can testify! The commotion from his courtyard never stops! The ground has been plowed over several times!"

A dead silence suddenly fell over the pavilion.

One had to understand that even Martial Artists who specialized in physical Horizontal Training would be mentally and physically exhausted after ten days without sleep. Yet this Xu Yunfan seemed completely unaffected, his training only growing more ferocious.

"No wonder the Sect Leader took him in... He’s a complete monster!"

In the corner, Chu Cangming, who had been silent all this time, suddenly focused his gaze.

The light tapping of his knuckles against his teacup came to an abrupt halt. The reflection of the Qingwei Mountain courtyard in his cup shattered into ripples. That courtyard, shrouded in the roars of a dragon and the whistling of a mace, was now emanating an oppressive pressure he found familiar.

BOOM!

A muffled boom caused by the Ninth Form, "Dragon Fall," echoed from the distant mountain, and Chu Cangming’s Profound Daoist Robe stirred despite the lack of wind.

His body, which had reached the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm at the level of "Seven Formulas Opening the Celestial Gate," automatically tensed its muscles at that moment, his spine straightening vertebra by vertebra as if being prodded by a Sword Pointing.