The Five-Colored Spirit Lizard crawled past his fingertips, wagging its long tail as if to please him, and swallowed a Jade Pearl. Zhang Yan’s gaze followed it all the way into the cracks in the cave walls, and he smiled slightly. With these spirit beasts kept in his Cave Mansion, they could catch flies and eat insects, sweep away dust and grime, and keep venomous snakes and fierce beasts from approaching. They only needed one Shell Pearl for nourishment each year, making it quite cost-effective. However, what left him feeling regretful was that any living creatures of this kind could not be reflected in the Broken Jade.
Compared with these spirit beasts, Tang Yan and her group on the Northern Island, to him, were utterly useless, not even worth the bones of a fish.
He had once voluntarily mentioned to Ning Chongxuan about returning the woman, but the other party avoided discussing it, apparently having deeper intentions. After carefully considering it, he decided it was best to leave these people hanging there for a while. Without the offerings from the Golden Pearl Jade Pool, he’d see how long they could sustain themselves. If they left on their own, it would be no fault of his.
Zhang Yan mused to himself, "Brother Ning said that in three years, there would be a major competition within the sect, where the Nine Peaks would all participate, and all disciples from various courts would gather. Among them are outstanding young talents, and the rewards are said to be quite generous. I must diligently cultivate, in the hope of achieving something in the big competition!"
True Disciples may not need to go out and engage in battles, but the competition among them is fierce. Furthermore, other sect disciples view the True Disciples with hostility, constantly provoking them. The Upper Court not only turns a blind eye but even sets up rewards to encourage such conflicts, and every three years holds a big competition to prevent disciples’ cultivation from stagnating.
As for the rewards within the sect, they vary according to the disciples’ cultivation realm. True Disciples in the Xuan Guang Realm receive several dozen times more than Ming Qi Stage Disciples, and they also receive Dharma Treasure Flying Swords as rewards, incomparable to each other. Therefore, no matter which aspect is considered, nothing is as crucial as improving one’s own cultivation.
If he were a cultivator with profound abilities, would he bother with trivial matters like Tang Yan?
As dusk descended, Zhang Yan stepped out of the Cave Mansion and made his way to the Earth Fire Mouth at the Spiritual Paper Island’s Earth Cave. At every Shen hour, the earth fire surged for the third time of the day, with Evil Qi pervading the mountaintop, mist steaming, and the spiritual mechanism intense. This was the perfect time for him to hone his True Essence.
For the past two months, for over twenty days he had been repeatedly trialing the Taiyin Golden Book within the Broken Jade, with the time spent equivalent to a year outside. Not only had he mastered this book’s spell thoroughly, but he had also tested his body’s maximum endurance at each stage.
For instance, at his current stage, he could inhale three and a half breaths of Evil Qi in one breath to refine his True Essence; any more would cause harm, while any less would be insufficient. Initially, when he began his cultivation, he could only inhale half a breath at most. Now, as his cultivation and adaptation deepened, the amount he could absorb increased more and more.
As a result, he could maximize his cultivation efficiency, keeping his cultivation progression always at a steady pace. Presumably, even those cultivators who previously trained in the Taiyin Golden Book, even with elders by their side for protection, wouldn’t dare to be as bold as he was.
However, every step he took was rehearsed repeatedly in the Broken Jade until he was certain of its infallibility before daring to cultivate on his True Body. And thanks to the ’Xuan Yuan Inner Secrets,’ his control over the Qi Mechanism was now extremely adept. Handling the Taiyin Golden Book felt completely smooth to him.
Zhang Yan sat beside the Earth Fire Acupoint, after a month of honing, today he was about to refine his first breath of Qianling True Qi. With a ’boom’ ringing in his ears, smoke and dust surged around him, and the Evil Qi abruptly erupted. His mind immediately became incredibly focused, inhaling the wisps of Golden Fire Poisonous Qi through his mouth and nose. He swallowed them down, washing them back and forth in his meridians. Threads of True Essence were continuously forced out from his inner acupoints and slowly dissolved under the erosion of the Evil Qi, ultimately transforming into Spiritual Energy.
Repeating this process, Spiritual Energy accumulated more and more. After who knows how long, he only felt a churning in his internal organs and opened his mouth, exhaling a puff of turbid Qi with a ’ha.’ Upon closer inspection, it seemed to faintly contain black and red colors, which were the impurities of True Essence dissolved within his body.
Watching internally, Zhang Yan saw a mouthful of crystal-clear Spiritual Energy was swimming back and forth in the Dan Acupoint continuously. Overjoyed, he exclaimed, "I’ve succeeded!"
The first breath of Qianling Qi was the most difficult, but once released, he could then use Qi to guide Qi, no longer having to endure the painful grind as before.
His eyes flickered. Now that he had refined a breath of Qianling Qi, he could use it to cultivate the first Dharma technique recorded in the Lan Yun Secret Volume.