Chapter 10: The Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture

"What? Alchemist Su?"

"What did he come to your spirit field for?" Cai Laojiu asked, puzzled.

Qin Ming had no choice but to patiently explain the whole matter of Alchemist Su coming to ask for Scarlet Spirit Dew.

"You actually grew Beast Fang Rice?!"

Cai Laojiu's eyes went wide, his worldview once again shattered and rebuilt.

He had already been here for over a dozen years, and had once tried to cultivate and plant Beast Fang Rice himself.

But without exception, every attempt had failed.

Cai Laojiu had even suspected for a time that the spirit vein here simply wasn't suited to growing Beast Fang Rice.

He tried hard to convince himself that it had to be that brat Qin Ming pulling one over on him.

But that was until he came around to the back of the mountain and saw the Beast Fang Rice spirit paddy in Qin Ming's spirit field, already grown to half a person's height.

For a long moment, he was utterly speechless.

That's right.

He was sour about it.

This time he was truly envious of Qin Ming! "Qin Ming, you brat, you're not being righteous here! All that wine I gave you, wasted!"

"You grew Beast Fang Rice and didn't even tell me?"

Having said that, he didn't forget to go over and give Alchemist Su an enthusiastic greeting.

Then he sidled right up to Qin Ming's ear and asked in a low voice, "Where did you get the Beast Fang Rice spirit seeds?"

Qin Ming looked at him, slightly dazed: "Bought them from Shopkeeper Liao."

"Went all in, staking my entire fortune on it."

"You brat really do have the luck of the devil — you actually managed to grow it."

"Honestly don't know what to say to you."

Qin Ming gave an awkward smile: "Fine, once the Beast Fang Rice is ripe, I'll treat you to a meal at Juxuan Pavilion."

"You said it, mind you!" Only then did Cai Laojiu let it drop.

……

Two days later.

The storm of the demonic beast attack had passed, and the Lingyu Sect had added some protective measures around the outer perimeter of the spirit fields.

But limited by the sheer size of the area, all they could do was set up some simple alert-triggering formations.

After this incident, the desire to grow stronger burned ever more fiercely in Qin Ming's heart.

Without a trump card, there is no sense of security.

At any moment, one faces the peril of body perishing and Dao vanishing.

Qingyang Market.

Qin Ming once again arrived at the Ruan family compound.

"Knock knock knock!"

He rapped on the big vermilion-lacquered door.

Not long after.

A middle-aged cultivator opened the door — Qi Refining stage, fifth layer. His face looked somewhat haggard, his hair bound up with a wooden hairpin, already half gone to grey.

"Fellow Daoist, you are… looking for someone? What business brings you here?"

Qin Ming cupped his hands in a salute and got straight to the point: "You must be Fellow Daoist Ruan, I take it? My surname is Qin. I was referred by Shopkeeper Liao. I heard you have a body-tempering art you wish to sell, so I've come specially to pay a visit."

Fellow Daoist Ruan paused for a beat, then welcomed Qin Ming into the Ruan family compound.

The moment he stepped into the courtyard.

It was a scene of utter desolation — apart from Fellow Daoist Ruan right before him, not a soul in sight.

"Since Shopkeeper Liao sent you, I suppose he told you as well?"

"Unless you have pills or spirit materials that boost qi and blood, I'm afraid I can only disappoint you, Fellow Daoist." Fellow Daoist Ruan sized up the young cultivator before him — utterly unremarkable, nothing to see.

"Naturally."

"Might Fellow Daoist Ruan introduce this art to me? So I can give it some consideration." Qin Ming asked.

"Sigh, to speak of it only invites Fellow Daoist's ridicule." Fellow Daoist Ruan let out a long sigh. He gestured at the courtyard, his voice heavy with the weariness of years.

Then he spoke frankly: "This great family estate of mine, reduced to what it is today — that too is a gift bestowed by this very art."

He then took out a page of beast-hide parchment from his storage bag and showed it to Qin Ming, before continuing: "This art is called the 'Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture.' It has been passed down in my family from my ancestors all the way to my generation."

"Each generation of forebears treasured it like a jewel; as for its exact origins, they are already lost to us."

"However, cultivating this art has one rather demanding prerequisite — one must supplement it with heaven-and-earth treasures that boost qi and blood, and only then can cultivation proceed."

As Fellow Daoist Ruan's explanation deepened, Qin Ming gradually formed his own judgment of the art.

This Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture was entirely unlike any body-tempering art Qin Ming had seen before.

The body-tempering path it took was neither tempering the flesh, nor blasting open acupoints, nor the usual grind of toughening sinew and bone.

Instead ——

Blood Exchange!

"Hundred Treasures," as the name implies, refers specifically to those heaven-and-earth spirit materials imbued with qi-and-blood-boosting power, and they must be of graded quality.

The higher the grade, the better.

And the so-called blood exchange is this: through circulating qi and blood, once they are strengthened to a certain degree, one enters the marrow-tempering stage, exchanging one's old blood for new.

By continuously boosting qi and blood, when compressed to the absolute limit, one can even reach a state where qi and blood flow like quicksilver.

Transcending the limits of the human body, breaking through to an entirely different tier.

"Glazed" means that after one's own blood exchange, one's qi and blood complete their metamorphosis, and the physical body becomes crystalline like glazed glass.

After the *Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture* is cultivated to the fifth layer, with multiple metamorphoses of qi and blood, one can condense a "Glazed Treasure Garment" outside the body using one's own powerful qi and blood.

All evils are repelled, a hundred poisons cannot invade, it is indestructible, and it even possesses a certain law-repelling effect against spells.

"Law-repelling effect?" Qin Ming was secretly shocked.

When this cultivation method is cultivated to an advanced realm, one can reach a state where the entire body is without flaw, filled with treasure light throughout, and the strength of the physical body can reach the extreme.

The ultimately achieved "Immaculate Glazed Body"! However, that is only recorded in the cultivation method, and no one has ever reached this realm.

"Precisely because of this, the spiritual materials required to cultivate this method is absolutely a terrifying number," Fellow Daoist Ruan said unhurriedly.

"It would not be an exaggeration to call it a bottomless pit."

"If there is no sufficient long-term supply of spiritual materials for cultivation, then I still advise Fellow Daoist to give up."

"The financial and material resources spent would be enough to purchase more than one top-tier cultivation method."

"And paying such a price doesn't necessarily mean one can succeed in cultivating it, so it seems somewhat of a white elephant."

"Moreover, this cultivation method is only a remnant scroll. The *Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture* has a total of twelve layers. Currently, on this beast hide in my hands, there are only the first nine layers corresponding to the body cultivation of the Qi Refining stage."

Qin Ming fell into deep thought after hearing the other's words.

Spiritual materials he was not lacking — just ripen them and be done with it.

The spiritual materials that others seemed to have to spend a great price to obtain had instead become his advantage.

In short, one sentence.

As long as there are enough spiritual materials to increase qi and blood, the body-refining speed of this *Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture* should not be slow.

"Forgive my boldness in asking, Fellow Daoist Ruan, how many layers have you cultivated to now?"

Fellow Daoist Ruan, upon being asked like this, replied with some emotion: "Sigh, over these years I have exhausted my family fortune, spent thousands of spirit stones in total, traveling far and wide to gather spiritual materials that increase qi and blood, and now I have only cultivated to the third layer."

"Then does anyone in your family cultivate this art to the fifth layer?"

"No, currently the one who has cultivated the highest is myself."

"."

Qin Ming immediately understood why he had sold it so cheaply.

After much deliberation.

Qin Ming said decisively: "One hundred spirit stones, plus ten catties of Beast Fang Rice — how about I take this cultivation method from you?"

"What? You actually have Beast Fang Rice?"

Upon hearing this, the somewhat dispirited look that had been on Fellow Daoist Ruan's face vanished.

He immediately perked up, and a sudden light flashed in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)