Chapter 43 Immortal Road
Chapter 43 Immortal Road
The next morning, when Chen Yuan went downstairs to eat, the lobby of the inn was bustling with people, and more than 20 tables were full.
These people were all coachmen and guards of the caravans. They got up early to eat, gathered together, told obscene jokes, and laughed from time to time, making it quite lively.
Chen Yuan looked around and randomly found a table with an empty seat and sat down.
There were two big men sitting at this table, each holding a bowl of mutton soup. They were breaking open the white flour cakes in their hands and dipping them into the mutton soup.
When they saw Chen Yuan sitting down, they took the initiative to move their bowls to make room for him.
Chen Yuan smiled and thanked him. After waiting for a while, the waiter brought a bowl of mutton soup and some white flour cakes and placed them in front of him.
The inn is not a restaurant, and its business is for traveling caravans. There are no exquisite foods, only mutton soup and white flour cakes.
Chen Yuan picked up the pancake and, imitating the two big men, broke it into pieces and put it into the soup bowl. He scooped a spoonful of mutton soup mixed with mutton, mutton offal and pancake. It tasted surprisingly good.
He had a big appetite and gobbled it all up in no time. He finished a bowl of mutton soup in a few gulps, then waved to the waiter and asked for another bowl of mutton soup and some cakes. He also asked the waiter to put more mutton meat and offal.
While Chen Yuan was enjoying his meal, the two big men were chatting among themselves, talking about what they had seen and heard during their business trip.
"Have you heard? The Liu family fleet sailing on the Yongping River had an accident a while ago. All the people were gone, but the boat and the cargo were still there. They said they were eaten by a water monster. It's really scary..."
"Just listen to their nonsense. There are no monsters in the world. They must have been kidnapped by pirates."
"The pirates only kill people and don't rob goods?"
"I'm not a pirate, how would I know?"
"That means they were eaten by a water monster. I heard that when the Liu family's fleet was discovered, there was still rice cooking in the pot, and the people on the boat seemed to have evaporated..."
"How can it be so weird? Old Li, you are so big and strong, and every day you are either a demon or a ghost. You scare yourself. Is that fun?"
"I don't like what you said. We are businessmen, and we have to live on the edge of a knife. If we don't respect ghosts and gods, we will be eaten by monsters one day and we won't be able to reincarnate!"
"Tsk! I've been traveling all over the country for so many years, and I've encountered mountain bandits, water bandits, and rebel soldiers, but I've never encountered a monster. Those are just things to scare people, and you actually believed them. How can you be like a woman!"
"You are the woman..."
The two started arguing. Chen Yuan finished his breakfast, smiled, shook his head, and got up to leave.
There are countless strange stories circulating in the world, but it is hard to tell how many are true and how many are false.
……
Chen Yuan settled his bill, left the inn, rode into Yuanpingxing on horseback, traveled in the morning and slept at night, and never stopped on his journey.
Two days later, he came to a valley covered with weeds and thorns and finally stopped.
This is the site of Heifengzhai. Under the weeds are collapsed stone walls and burnt houses.
Chen Yuan carefully patrolled the surroundings and found no traces of human beings, only footprints and feces of wild animals, which made him feel relieved.
The place he chose was the cave where Xie Quan hid his treasure.
Apart from Chen Yuan, no one else in the world knows about this place. It is perfect for converting the internal energy into magic power.
Chen Yuan led the horse to the cliff where the bodies of the Black Wind Village had been thrown before. He killed the horse and threw it off the cliff.
He had no time to take care of other things during the process of converting his magic power. Leaving the horse behind would only attract ferocious beasts.
Afterwards, he took his luggage and returned along the same route. According to his memory, he made many detours and walked into a dense forest until he came to the cave where Xie Quan had hidden his treasure.
Just as when he left, the cave was covered by vines, and the branches and leaves were even denser than before.
But Chen Yuan did not take it lightly. He still carefully patrolled the area and made sure that no one had been there before he was completely relieved.
He pushed aside the vines, entered the cave, came to the deepest part, untied the bag in his hand, took out two night-shining pearls, enough dry food for a month, and some daily necessities, and put them aside.
Afterwards, Chen Yuan left the cave and searched around. It took him half an hour to find a huge rock weighing thousands of pounds and he moved it back.
This journey took another half hour. Even though Chen Yuan had amazing supernatural powers, he still pales in comparison to the huge rocks.
He struggled to move the rocks into position to block the entrance of the cave, so that no matter how ferocious the beast was, it would not be able to rush in.
After making preparations, Chen Yuan filled his stomach and regulated his breathing for several hours before he spread out the blanket he brought, closed his eyes and meditated with a solemn expression.
He recalled the methods recorded in the "Red Flame Sutra", concentrated his mind and calmed his breath, sensing the spiritual energy floating between heaven and earth.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Chen Yuan "saw" colorful spots of light around him, floating in the air like fireflies.
If a cultivator with pseudo spiritual roots is practicing for the first time, it may take three days at the shortest and ten days at the longest to sense the spiritual energy.
But there is true energy in his body, which is similar to magic power, so he can sense spiritual energy in such a short time.
Chen Yuan practiced the technique carefully, and the colorful spots of light slowly approached him and sank into his body.
A faint feeling of coolness emerged, which was surprisingly similar to the feeling of starlight infusing the body, but it was much weaker and far less comfortable than when the starlight was infusing the body.
He carefully controlled the spiritual energy he absorbed into his body, and it slowly entered his Dantian along a specific meridian. After the spiritual energy entered his Dantian, it was like there was no room for two tigers in one mountain. The true energy immediately began to riot and ran around everywhere, and it was about to rush out of his Dantian and wreak havoc on his meridians.
Fortunately, Chen Yuan was well prepared. He changed his method, restrained his true energy, and forced it to merge with the spiritual energy light spot.
According to the "Red Flame Art", this step is the most critical and must be taken with extreme caution.
If he fails, the true Qi and spiritual Qi will conflict with each other and impact the Dantian meridians. He will go crazy and may even explode and die.
But Chen Yuan did not take the warning of "Red Flame Art" to heart, and still chose forced fusion with a very high failure rate.
"Ugh—cough cough!"
Chen Yuan suddenly opened his eyes and spat out a mouthful of blood.
The first fusion failed as expected.
But he did not go crazy, and he did not even suffer any serious internal injuries. It was just that his meridians were slightly impacted. He only needed to regulate his breathing for a while and he would be able to recover as before.
This is the reason why Chen Yuan dares to forcibly merge his true energy and spiritual energy. His strong body allows him to ignore the consequences of failed fusion.
According to "Red Flame Art", only warriors with extremely strong physical bodies can ignore the impact of true qi and spiritual energy on the Dantian meridians after the fusion fails.
However, Chen Yuan's physical strength was far beyond that of ordinary warriors. When he was studying "The Art of Red Flame", he guessed that he should be able to ignore this kind of impact, so he took the risk.
His aptitude was too poor. If he practiced "The Art of Red Flame" from the beginning, even if he worked diligently and never slacked off, it would take him at least seven or eight years to reach the third level of Qi Refining.
In order to save time and increase the possibility of breaking through to the late stage of Qi Refining, he could only take the risk.
He made the right bet. Although the impact of the true Qi and spiritual energy on his Dantian meridians was extremely strong, his Dantian was solid and his meridians were tough, so he only suffered minor injuries from the impact and it was no big deal.
Chen Yuan adjusted his breathing for a moment and continued to forcefully merge his spiritual energy and true energy.
"Cough cough!"
The second time failed again.
"Cough cough!"
The third attempt was still unsuccessful.
The fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time, the seventh time...
It was not until the thirteenth time that Chen Yuan finally merged a spot of spiritual light into a strand of true energy.
After taking the first step, the rest becomes a slow process.
Chen Yuan followed the cultivation method in "Red Flame Art" and circulated the strand of true qi mixed with spiritual light spots along the meridians for a cycle.
When it returned to the Dantian, the extremely yang and strong Six Yang True Qi had been transformed into light red fire magic power.
"call……"
Chen Yuan opened his eyes and let out a long breath. A feeling of ecstasy surged into his heart, followed by deep fatigue and hunger.
He picked up some dry food and quickly filled his stomach. He rested for a while and continued to meditate with his eyes closed to transform the internal energy.
The second strand, the third strand, the fourth strand...
Chen Yuan sat in the deepest part of the cave, unaware of the passage of time. He was immersed in cultivation, transforming strands of true energy into magic power.
Finally, after eating most of the dry food he brought with him, he transformed all ninety-nine strands of true energy in his body into the fire magic power of "Red Flame Art".
The current Chen Yuan has transformed from a martial artist at the peak of Hua Jin to a cultivator at the peak of the third level of Qi Refining, and has reached the bottleneck of the fourth level of Qi Refining.
Feeling this shaky obstacle, Chen Yuan did not stop his practice and continued to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, intending to break through this bottleneck in one go!
This is the only favor from God to the pseudo-spiritual root cultivators. After crossing this threshold, what will block Chen Yuan's way will be a series of insurmountable mountains.
……
In the dark cave, Chen Yuan sat motionless. Only two night pearls emitted a dim light, which was reflected on Chen Yuan's face. The light and shadow intertwined, like an evil spirit.
Suddenly, Chen Yuan opened his eyes, a gleam of light flashed, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth:
"It's done!"
He finally broke through the bottleneck of the fourth level of Qi Refining and became a cultivator in the middle stage of Qi Refining!
But the joyful feeling only lasted for a moment. Chen Yuan closed his eyes again, looked inward, and looked at his dantian which had become empty again, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.
After the breakthrough, the magic power in his body became more condensed, but his dantian also became empty, and he needed to fill it up again before he could break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining.
For cultivators with extraordinary talents of heavenly spiritual roots and earthly spiritual roots, this is just a natural process and only takes five or six months.
A cultivator with true spiritual roots would only need a little over a year to cultivate to the fifth level of Qi Refining.
But for a pseudo-spiritual root cultivator like Chen Yuan, it would take four or five years before he could reach the fifth level of Qi Refining.
Thanks to S Frostmourne S for the reward!
(End of this chapter)