Chapter 170: Chapter 169 Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment (First Release, Please Subscribe)
On Changyuan Mountain, the cave mansion was empty, leaving only Lu Xuanji.
A momentary feeling of faint disappointment lingered in his heart.
After the disappointment, a trace of determination flashed in his eyes.
He took out the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron, extracted the Spiritual Liquid from it, and consumed it. Then he operated the Cyan Lotus Creation Technique, refining the Spiritual Liquid, as traces of True Essence entered his body.
Through the refinement of the Heaven Mending Cauldron, the True Essence became even purer.
Time passed, and twelve years later, his cultivation advanced to the Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment.
Upon reaching the Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment, he sensed a faint barrier; his cultivation could no longer make quantitative accumulations and could only undergo qualitative transformation.
Breaking through to the Purple Mansion is the only way out.
"Breaking through in twelve years, my aptitude has improved!"
Lu Xuanji sensed his own condition and felt a slight joy.
His aptitude had improved once again.
This improvement was achieved through dual cultivation with Ye Wanyi.
The Immortal Dao has methods to enhance aptitude, but those are invariably precious Spirit Medicines and Spirit Pills; the Demon Dao also has methods to enhance aptitude, but they are bloody and cruel, entangling one with karmic force, and ferocious celestial tribulations.
Yin Yang Transformation is divided into three layers.
The first layer enhances True Essence Magical Power;
The second layer enhances the Divine Soul.
The third layer enhances aptitude.
The Yin Yang Dragon and Phoenix Technique can also enhance aptitude, but it is quite cruel, entangling one with karmic force. When advancing to the Golden Core, the celestial tribulations are far more ferocious than for ordinary cultivators.
Most perish in tribulation.
Only a few demon cultivators of the combined path can luckily survive the tribulations.
This is the price of taking shortcuts.
The Yin Yang Transformation, however, does not focus on aptitude comprehension, only requiring mutual affinity and emotional threads intertwining, transforming into mandarin ducks and butterflies.
This dual cultivation, in essence, is about complementing each other’s strengths.
During dual cultivation, one compensates for their own physical deficiencies, enhances aptitude, and elevates the essence.
The Pure Yang Dao Body is originally a top-tier Dao Body with abundant essence; enhancing it is extremely difficult. Yet under the effect of the Yin Yang Transformation, the essence forcibly rose a level, and the talent advanced significantly.
Recalling the profoundness of the Yin Yang Transformation, Lu Xuanji was immensely impressed by this lecherous old demon.
Becoming an immortal in the Demon Dao is even more challenging than in the righteous path; the difficulty is greater, and the tribulations more ferocious, yet their understanding of the Great Dao and the myriad laws of heaven and earth is extremely terrifying.
The path of the Demon Dao has a very high upper limit, but also a very low lower limit.
"Next, I must strive for the Purple Mansion!"
Lu Xuanji resolved firmly.
The Purple Mansion has twelve difficulties.
The first difficulty is the difficulty of lifespan.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator’s lifespan is two hundred and forty years, but two hundred years is a hurdle.
After surpassing two hundred years, the Foundation Establishment cultivator’s body will decline, Qi and Blood will deplete, and the probability of impacting the Purple Mansion will continuously decrease.
To strive for the Purple Mansion, doing so before two hundred years of age is best.
At this moment, he was one hundred and fifty years old, fifty years from two hundred.
Time was still fairly lengthy.
That was his fortune.
The second difficulty is the difficulty of True Essence.
It requires continuous refining and purification of True Essence, a laborious, gradual process.
Without using the Pure Yang Pill, purifying to the Ninth Layer takes ten years, to the Eighth Layer twenty years, and to the Seventh Layer fifty years.
The minimum standard for striving for the Purple Mansion is purifying True Essence to the Eighth Layer.
If the True Essence is not pure enough, it is insufficient to break through.
Lu Xuanji felt the purity of the True Essence within him, already at the Seventh Layer.
"Not enough; if I adhere to the minimum standard, I will surely be among the weakest. Aim high to attain the middle, aim in the middle to attain below!" Lu Xuanji took a deep breath, still needing to continue refining True Essence.
He turned the pages of the Little Snow Notes.
Little Snow had refined True Essence to the Fourth Layer; he wouldn’t allow himself to fall short of her.
Activating magical power, the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron was enlarging, then it rested on the Earth Fire; the Earth Fire was burning, and the Spiritual Liquid inside the cauldron was churning, about to evaporate, but was confined by the Great Cauldron, unable to escape.
Lu Xuanji leaped inside the Great Cauldron.
The Heaven Mending Cauldron entered the Dantian.
Snap!
The lid covered, Earth Fire burned.
Utilizing the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron, he began refining, using humans as medicine, starting alchemy.
"No madness, no life."
To succeed, one needed the element of madness; without it, there would be no success.
To succeed, cultivating in peace and stability, cowering at home, cowardly fearing death, was doomed to achieve nothing.
At this moment, he would use the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron to refine his own Array Essence, like alchemy, refine True Essence.
Earth Fire burned, Spiritual Liquid boiled, transformed into Spiritual Qi about to disperse, yet under the cauldron lid’s compression, unable to escape.
Instantly, the "spiritual pressure" inside the cauldron was rising.
Increasing Spiritual Qi concentration by artificial means.
Spiritual Qi concentration rose; if the outside world’s Spiritual Qi concentration was one, inside the cauldron it became ten, over tenfold that of the outside.
But it still wasn’t enough; at twenty times the spiritual pressure inside the cauldron.
That was the limit!
Continuing to increase, the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron would be blown apart by the spiritual pressure.
Lu Xuanji felt asphyxiation, breathlessness, his body extremely uncomfortable.
As the spiritual pressure increased, Lu Xuanji operated the cultivation technique, absorbing Spiritual Qi faster, and the True Essence refining speed also accelerated.
The speed of refining True Essence accelerated, increasing fivefold.
Three months later, refined to the Sixth Layer;
Six months later, refined to the Fifth Layer;
A year later, refined to the Fourth Layer.
Upon reaching the Fourth Layer, the True Essence emitted a faint silver color, like flowing mercury.
He continued refining, but the Fourth Layer seemed to be a threshold, with refining becoming extremely difficult thenceforth.
Three years later, refined to the Third Layer.
At this point, True Essence emitted a faint golden color, like flowing gold.
At this stage, Lu Xuanji felt he had reached the limit; he could no longer refine True Essence and could only stop here.
Then, he began unblocking many of the body’s meridians.
The human body has the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, Twelve Main Meridians, and One Hundred and Eight Acupoints. After awakening the Spirit Root, a teacher would instruct children for three years to recognize these meridians and acupoints.
When a child unblocks these twenty meridians, it is time to unblock the One Hundred and Eight Acupoints, introducing Spiritual Qi into the body, which is the first layer of Qi Cultivation.
In addition to these twenty main meridians, there are One Hundred and Eight minor meridians, a thousand tiny meridians, and a hundred thousand subtle meridians.
Apart from the One Hundred and Eight Acupoints, there are three hundred and sixty-five minor acupoints, a thousand tiny acupoints, and a hundred thousand dark acupoints.
To step into the Purple Mansion Realm, unblocking the body’s One Hundred and Eight minor meridians and three hundred and sixty-five minor acupoints suffices.
Yet, under such circumstances, the achieved Purple Mansion would only be the Lower Grade Purple Mansion.
Increasing unblocked meridians and acupoints enables one to step into the Middle Grade Purple Mansion.
To become an Upper Grade Purple Mansion, one must unblock all the meridians and acupoints.
Is unblocking acupoints and meridians difficult?
Not difficult?
Even seven- or eight-year-old children who have just embarked on the cultivation path can unblock acupoints and meridians, let alone a Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The difficulty is minimal, yet it’s quite cumbersome and time-consuming.
Some estimate that an ordinary cultivator, without relying on elixirs, requires at least a thousand years to unblock all acupoints and meridians.
But the issue is, can a Foundation Establishment cultivator live a thousand years?
Hence, two choices present themselves: either unblock only a portion of the acupoints and meridians, with fewer numbers taking less time and lowering difficulty; or consume Pure Yang Pills and Purple Mansion Pills as aids, utilizing elixirs to accelerate unblocking meridians and acupoints.
In this process, elixirs are crucial.
However, elixirs are not omnipotent.
Elixirs have elixir poison and resistance.
The first pill has the best effect, the second’s effect diminishes, and by the third, it diminishes again.
By the fourth, it is entirely ineffective.
When striving for the Purple Mansion, often alternating between Pure Yang Pills and Purple Mansion Pills is done to reduce resistance.
Even after consuming three Pure Yang Pills and three Purple Sun Pills, it only increases the speed, without guaranteeing the forging of an Upper Grade Purple Mansion.