Chapter 3: Cultivation Method Breakthrough

Under the veil of night, Nanmo City was like a vast, primeval beast, crouching in the even more expansive and primitive mountain forests of the Southern Border.

This was the southernmost tip of the territory of the Falling Feather Immortal Gate, a frontier city in the truest sense.

As the sun set, the people who had been working in the various forest farms, breeding grounds, fish farms, spiritual fields, and plantations outside the city began to have a moment of respite, and some were already returning.

Yet at such times, the corpse-buriers always seemed special.

People avoided them as much as they could, fearing to get even a fraction closer!

Because they were pickled in the stench, soaked through with all manner of corpse odors, they were essentially walking corpses, causing even the carrion-loving strange owls to always be unable to resist throwing themselves at them.

Du En was already accustomed to these strange gazes, walking with a steady, calm, and composed gait.

Looking up and into the distance, a city wall stood in the north, blocking the view.

Although there was resentment in his eyes, he seemed to feel that this situation was actually acceptable?

And so he closed his eyes again, pressing on with renewed efforts.

What a luxurious feeling that was.

"Thanks, goodnight, farewell!"

Thinking this, he sat cross-legged and practiced his cultivation.

I don't want this kind of thing!

Once he began to circulate his cultivation, the changes were immediately and remarkably obvious!

The corpse-buriers lived in a certain area on the outskirts of this shanty town, in a small courtyard at the end of the road; it seemed rather peculiar, and Du En always felt something was wrong, but he hadn't asked about it.

When the pale yellow gaseous mana returned to the lower dantian's sea of Qi, everything fell into place; many insights burst forth in his mind, as if a door had opened and he could see the path.

Only Du En brought out a stove and began to boil a corpse—ah, no, to boil an owl.

It consumed a great deal of mental energy.

After washing up and looking over at Du En, he saw him skillfully boiling the owl, using hands that no longer feared boiling water after cultivating immortality to pluck the feathers and gut the bird directly, pulling out clumps of viscera and feathers that were even smellier from the heat.

As he practiced his cultivation, he gained a deeper understanding of the Yellow Earth Art, a low-grade cultivation method; invisibly and in the dark, it was like sand falling from the sky, piling up on the ground, slowly accumulating.

It was towering and majestic, standing dozens of zhang high, stretching on endlessly like a sigh-inducing cliff, firmly blocking the low-level cultivators who had moved here from the peace and stability beyond.

The shanty town outside the city.

Just like boiling a rotten corpse!

Du En ate more than half of it without changing his expression, four or five catties of meat and fat, digesting as he ate; only then was his stomach filled. Looking at the others in the courtyard who had just finished cooking their brown rice, he asked, "Do you really not want any? It's a waste to throw it away."

One cycle completed, then the next.

Noticing Wei Ming's gaze, he turned his head and asked, "What? Have you changed your m—"

That was the south city wall of the Nanmo frontier city.

He felt that this cultivation method was not quite right; normally, at the early stage of Qi Refining, and with a low-grade cultivation method, one shouldn't need to circulate through the entire Great Heavenly Cycle.

Therefore, they all wanted to hurry up and wash and change their clothes.

Based on this compromise-seeking mindset, it was contrary to Wei Ming's expectations that none of the other seniors said anything.

Among them, Wei Ming was the most impatient, though the others couldn't stand the strange looks from others either; furthermore, after a day of labor, they were already drenched in sweat, and the clothes sticking to their skin were very uncomfortable.

Everyone reacted the same way.

Then, the cultivation completed and retracted.

It was mainly during the initial learning stage that one had to invest high-intensity, wholehearted focus, constantly pulling, leading, and dragging it along to prevent the circulation from stopping, eventually completing the entire body's meridians to form one Great Heavenly Cycle.

Sensing spiritual Qi, mixing it with mana, moving from the dantian, traveling through the body's meridians, completing a Heavenly Cycle, and refining spiritual Qi into mana.

The fatigue was basically relieved, his energy returned, and he could support wholehearted cultivation.

"Let's begin."

Wholehearted focus, exhausting all mental effort.

So, does burying corpses for too long make people start to become perverted?

Looking down, on both sides of the wide, hard main road that led directly to the city gate and served as a transport hub, were large areas of crowded shanties, which was also where Du En and his people lived.

First the main meridians, then the secondary meridians, and finally the entire body's meridians, from the Small Heavenly Cycle to the Great Heavenly Cycle, progressing step by step, one footprint at a time.

The first thing to do upon returning was to bathe.

I can still continue to cultivate.

No, no, no!

The efficiency of sensing spiritual Qi increased by ten percent.

After digesting his food and taking a short nap, by the time he woke up, it was already the middle of the night when everyone else was fast asleep.

Du En opened his eyes, a flash of earthy yellow brilliance passing through them.

The more Wei Ming thought about it, the more terrified he became.

【Yellow Earth Art (First Glimpse 0/20)】

Yellow earth is simple, accumulating without ostentation, tough and strong, steady and composed.

His slight distraction only reached this point.

In this way, he could retain the oil and fat to the greatest extent; although the taste was poor, it didn't matter, he didn't care.

He really couldn't understand the thoughts of the Falling Feather Immortal Gate; since they treated them as leeks and expendable materials, why bother with all this?

Du En shook his head, stopped thinking about it, and continued his cultivation again.

His originally haggard and exhausted spirit also rose with the tide, leaving him without a trace of decadence at this moment, his eyes shining brightly.

Du En finished his cultivation, stopped, and eased his mental fatigue.

The taste was truly terrible!

Du En's mind was no longer entirely focused on pulling and dragging, but now acted as a brake and shock absorber; he was now even worried that it might run too fast and go down the wrong path.

Taking advantage of the mental uplift brought by the breakthrough, plus the obvious physical strengthening, and in this state of both body and mind being benefited, he whipped his horse to go faster and practiced three more times, taking an hour and a half.

With renewed total concentration, his magic power became purer as it accumulated bit by bit, and his body, nourished by the diffusion of circulating magic power, visibly became stronger and tougher.

Boss Du, could you take it easy, please? At the very least, move outside the courtyard to cook!

At the same time, his meridians seemed to have turned into a road; the magic power mixed with spiritual Qi easily pushed open the door to his dantian, and then, as if stepping onto a small skateboard, it moved rapidly along this small path, which, although still bumpy, appeared generally straight.

Breakthrough!

The others were very concerned.

Du En thought about it for a moment and knew roughly what he was thinking, but he didn't care; he changed to a pot of clean water, threw the cleaned strange owl back in, and waited in line to bathe while it stewed.

While speaking, he turned his head and ran, closing the door directly.

"Of course, the way things are now might not necessarily be bad. By directly clearing all the meridians in the body and starting with a Great Heavenly Cycle circulation from the beginning, if one can manage to train it, the foundation will be extremely deep, and it can invisibly offset the influence brought about by forcing growth."

This wholehearted cultivation is by no means an easy process.

Du En didn't say anything, just threw the rest to one side in front of the courtyard gate, along with that pile of feathers and offal, waiting to clean it all up in a few days.

By the time he finished bathing and washing his clothes and hung them under the eaves, the stew here was also about done; after sprinkling some salt for simple seasoning, it was ready to eat.

Although he was physically and mentally exhausted at this moment, the cluster of pale yellow gaseous magic power inside his dantian sea, which was originally only the size of a pigeon egg and loose and thin, had widened by one part, become three parts more solid, and the yellow color had deepened, moving up a shade.

The moment of breakthrough is when the effects are most significant!

(End of this chapter)