Chapter 37 Dharma
Chapter 37 Dharma
"The Art of Red Flame" is obscure and difficult, and every word is precious. Fortunately, Chen Yuan has studied hundreds of Taoist scriptures with an old Confucian scholar, and his thoughts are much clearer than those of ordinary people. After careful study, he slowly understood the mysteries contained in it.
According to the "Red Flame Art", the realm of cultivators is divided into Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Dan Formation, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation from low to high.
There should be a higher realm above that, but "The Art of Red Flame" is vague about it.
When a cultivator practices, he needs to refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, store it in his Dantian, transform it into magic power, and continuously purify and condense it. This state is called the Qi Refining Stage.
The Qi Refining Stage is divided into ten levels, divided into the early, middle and late stages. Every three levels, you will encounter a small bottleneck. After breaking through, your strength will be qualitatively improved.
When you cultivate to the tenth level, you will encounter a big bottleneck. Only after breaking through it can you enter the foundation-building stage.
What disappointed Chen Yuan was that the cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage could only use their magic power in a superficial way. They could control objects through the air, but they could not fly or hide underground.
The young man in black shirt used a leaf-shaped magic weapon to carry him into the clouds. He must have at least reached the seventh level of Qi Refining, but it was still very difficult, so his face looked so ugly after he landed.
Only after breaking through to the foundation-building stage, the cultivator's magic power will be liquefied, allowing him to fly into the air without the help of magic tools, and his strength will far surpass that of a Qi-refining cultivator.
The "Red Flame Art" also records the method of breaking through the foundation-building period, but it is extremely obscure. Chen Yuan has read it more than ten times, but still can't understand it.
There are ten spells recorded in "The Art of Red Flame", but Chen Yuan has no magic power in his body and cannot learn them for the time being, so he can only put them aside.
For him, the most important thing now is to practice martial arts diligently, until he reaches the peak of Hua Jin, then transform the true Qi in his body into magic power, and take this opportunity to break through the bottleneck in the early stage of Qi Refining.
According to the "Red Flame Art", martial arts was a method created by ancient immortal cultivators out of pity for mortals, who imitated the immortal cultivation techniques and created it casually. It changed the method of refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into magic power to refining the blood in the body into true energy.
From then on, mortals without spiritual roots were able to practice martial arts, strengthen their bodies, hunt wild beasts, guard villages and towns, and gradually multiply and grow stronger.
But martial arts is only a minor path, and the blood and energy of the human body is far inferior to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
The pinnacle of martial arts is only the innate level, which is barely comparable to the cultivators at the fourth level of Qi Refining.
However, warriors with spiritual roots can use the commonalities between martial arts and immortality to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and transform the true energy in their bodies into magic power, thus saving the hard work of practicing from scratch.
However, this method has a very low success rate and requires great risks. If you are not careful, you may die on the spot.
But no matter how big the risk is, this is still great news for Chen Yuan.
According to the "Red Flame Art", the qualifications of immortal cultivators are divided into heavenly spiritual roots, earthly spiritual roots, true spiritual roots, and false spiritual roots, and the speed of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is different.
The Heavenly Spiritual Root is a single-attribute spiritual root with the best aptitude. The speed of cultivation is incredibly fast, and there will be no bottleneck until the Nascent Soul stage. It is a rare genius in cultivation that is rare in a century.
Earth spiritual roots are dual-attribute spiritual roots, and three mutated spiritual roots of thunder, ice and wind are also included in this category. Their qualifications are slightly inferior to those of heavenly spiritual roots. Before the Dan stage, they will not encounter any bottlenecks, and are relatively rare in the world of immortal cultivation.
True spiritual roots are three-attribute spiritual roots, which are inferior to earth spiritual roots. Before the foundation-building period, they will not encounter any bottlenecks and are more common in the world of immortal cultivation.
Pseudo spiritual roots are four-attribute and five-attribute spiritual roots. They are the most common type of cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation and have the worst aptitude. Without opportunity, it is almost impossible for them to cultivate to the foundation-building stage.
Especially for cultivators with pseudo-five elements spiritual roots, their spiritual roots are mixed and the speed of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is extremely slow. If they continue to practice step by step, they will never be able to break through to the late stage of Qi Refining.
And Chen Yuan is a cultivator with pseudo-spiritual roots of the five elements. If nothing unexpected happens, he will waste his whole life in the Qi Refining Stage. After a hundred years, he will turn into a pile of bones and die.
He took risks and risked his life, but all he got in return was such a cruel result.
If it were someone else, they would have probably collapsed and never recovered.
But Chen Yuan did not become depressed because of this. He just smiled and ignored it, focusing all his attention on practicing martial arts.
Chen Yuan had died once in his previous life, and the fear of death was deeply engraved in his heart.
When the opportunity of immortality is before him, he will not give up no matter how many difficulties and obstacles there are.
Even if I die, I would rather die on the path of cultivating immortality.
The method of converting true Qi into magic power can save a lot of practice time, and his possibility of breaking through the bottleneck of the late stage of Qi refining is much greater.
No matter how risky this path is, he will go on it.
……
Chen Yuan carefully read "The Art of Red Flame" twice and gained a deeper understanding of the method of transforming true energy into magic power. He returned to the courtyard, took a stance, and continued to practice the Six Yang Palm to accumulate true energy.
He never slacked off when he was trekking in the mountains, and now that he has settled down, he will not waste a single minute.
Ordinary warriors need to consume blood and qi in their bodies to accumulate true qi. They can practice martial arts for a maximum of two hours a day. Even if they take elixirs, they can only practice for one more hour.
If it lasts longer, your Qi and blood will be depleted, your body will be damaged, and the gain will not outweigh the loss.
But after Chen Yuan's body was infused with starlight, his body became strong and his blood energy was far more active than that of other warriors. He could practice martial arts for six hours every day.
If you take the Essence Pill, the blood and qi in your body will be more active, and you can practice for eight hours a day!
Chen Yuan is now like a poor man with a mountain of gold in front of him but unable to get in. He is anxious and restless, and wishes he could spend all his time practicing martial arts except for eating and sleeping.
He practiced until late at night at 1:00 p.m., and relying on his strong energy, he only slept for two hours. He got up at 1:00 a.m., had breakfast, and continued practicing martial arts.
But he had only practiced for half an hour when Luo Zhenwu came to his house in person and invited him to a three-story house. The gate of the house was painted with a new red paint, and above it was a newly made plaque with two large gilded characters "Chen Mansion".
When Chen Yuan asked, he found out that after he returned to the courtyard yesterday, Luo Zhenwu invited craftsmen overnight to renovate the house and gave it to Chen Yuan.
When we entered the mansion, we saw more than a dozen people waiting respectfully outside the main hall, including the housekeeper, doorman, servants, maids, cooks, etc., everything we needed.
Chen Yuan did not refuse and accepted all of them with a smile, but he gave orders that no one was allowed to enter the backyard.
Naturally, these servants did not dare to disobey Chen Yuan's orders and obeyed his orders one after another.
That night, Luo Zhenwu invited several chefs from Huixianlou to prepare a banquet to welcome Chen Yuan and to congratulate him on his promotion to deputy hall master. The three hall masters and deputy hall masters all attended.
During the banquet, Hou Yan proposed to follow the custom and invite all the gangs and factions in Yuzhou to celebrate Chen Yuan's breakthrough of Gang Jin and show the growing momentum of Fuhu Gang. However, Chen Yuan refused on the grounds that he was concentrating on practicing martial arts and had no time to care about other things.
In order to practice martial arts peacefully, he even took out first-rate secret manuals like Liuyang Gong to exchange for elixirs, and he did not care about the empty reputation at all.
After this incident, Luo Zhenwu and a group of hall masters and deputy hall masters became really close to Chen Yuan.
Chen Yuan does not seek power, fame or fortune, and he even offered his magical skills on his own initiative. It seems that he is really just a martial arts fanatic and has no ulterior motives.
Luo Zhenwu gave Chen Yuan a thousand-refined long sword weighing a hundred pounds to use as a weapon on the spot.
This is already the limit of refining ordinary iron materials. No matter how good a weapon is, it is made of meteorite iron and strange black iron from outer space, and is priceless.
Chen Yuan immediately put on an expression of gratitude, Luo Zhenwu also encouraged him warmly, and everyone praised him. For a moment, the atmosphere was very harmonious.
After the banquet, Chen Yuan returned to his house. Two personal maids had been waiting for a long time and came up to serve him.
These two maids were good girls from good families carefully selected by Luo Zhenwu. They were slim, pretty, gentle and dexterous.
They signed a contract to sell themselves to the Fuhu Gang, entered the Chen Mansion, and became Chen Yuan's people.
Chen Yuan reeked of alcohol, but the two maids showed no disdain.
She changed clothes and took off her boots with gentle movements and a shy look on her face.
Her slender hands occasionally stroked Chen Yuan's chest and shoulders, feeling soft and smooth, which made people think of something else.
Chen Yuan took a deep breath and sat still.
After the maid changed into a breathable short coat, he waved her away, got up and went to the yard, bathed in the starlight, and practiced palm and martial arts.
The presence of the beauty by his side reminded him of the feasting and revelry of his previous life, and he inevitably felt a little dazed.
But as soon as the desire came, he forcefully suppressed it, without causing any ripples.
At this moment, Chen Yuan finally understood what the young man in black said.
The path to becoming an immortal is to go against the will of heaven and fight for one’s life. Fight against heaven, earth, people and oneself.
It is easy to compete with heaven and earth, but difficult to compete with others and yourself.
Cultivating immortality is a lonely thing. Only by having a firm mind and not being disturbed by worldly affairs can one gain a chance to take the lead.
……
In the next month, Chen Yuan stayed at home and practiced martial arts diligently. Only when the elixirs were exhausted, he found the head of Shennong Hall and asked for two bottles of Jingyuan Pills.
Since Luo Zhenwu said that the elixirs would be freely available, he naturally wouldn't be polite.
But the head of Shennong Hall could no longer sit still.
When Chen Yuan came to ask for the Essence Pill for the second time, he gave the pill away and turned around to Luo Zhenwu's mansion to complain.
"Boss, Hall Master Chen comes to ask for a bottle of Essence Pill every half a month. He has only been back for a month and he has already asked for three bottles! One pill can support a Gang Jin warrior for five days of training. A bottle of ten pills means fifty days. But in his hands, it can only support fifteen days!"
"The herbs used in Essence Pills are precious and difficult to collect. They are also extremely difficult to prepare and the success rate is very low. When we are lucky, we can only produce eight or nine bottles a month. When we are unlucky, we can only produce six or seven bottles a month. Hall Master Chen used two bottles by himself, and he also needs to supply several hall masters and deputy hall masters in the gang. How can we sell them to others?"
Luo Zhenwu smiled and said:
"Master Chen has divine power and a strong body, so it is reasonable that he consumes more energy."
The head of Shennong Hall shook his head repeatedly:
"Impossible! The power of the Essence Pill is amazing. An ordinary Gangjin warrior can only take one pill every five days, which is the limit. No matter how strong his body is, he can only take one pill every three or four days at most. He used up a bottle in fifteen days. He must have embezzled money!"
Luo Zhenwu frowned and said:
"Master Chen wants silver, and he also needs to steal elixirs? Don't worry about this matter. Continue to supply elixirs to Master Chen. It's not a big deal if he sells fewer Essence Pills."
"Well... well, he donated the first-class secret manual, and my Shennong Hall also benefited from it. I accept the loss!"
The head of Shennong Hall looked depressed and left in anger.
(End of this chapter)