Chapter 67: Deducing the Wind Thunder Sun-Melting Tome

Li Mujin walked ahead, her thoughts drifting.

Her own younger brother was rash by nature, but his eye for people was genuinely sharp.

She had originally felt Li Xinhan placed too much weight on Shen Yi's attitude, but after this trip to Water Cloud Hamlet, she had truly confirmed Shen Yi's caliber.

Compared with her brother's blunt methods — crudely promising the other party "status" and "women."

Li Mujin was more accustomed to first drawing close, using a free and easy manner to dispel the wariness such a poor but gifted youth felt toward noble houses.

Making the other party feel there was no difference between them — fellow martial men equally full of high spirits, comrades who knew each other inside out, even objects of intimacy.

Then, through gradual influence, letting him experience the preferential treatment given to "sons of noble houses." Once he grew accustomed to it, no matter what he thought, at least in the eyes of others, Shen Yi would already bear the Li family's label.

The scions of Outside Qingzhou had always repaid kindness with kindness.

The gratitude in her bow was sincere.

Her willingness to share the Li family's resources and connections with a talent like Shen Yi was also real — she could even give more than to others. Not to mention anything else, at least before Shen Yi broke through to the perfection of the Jade Liquid Realm, the countless precious medicines he would need, the Li family could cover entirely.

Of course, the idea of taking him under her wing to be dispatched at her command was just as real as could be.

This was the instinct branded into their bones from growing up in noble houses, influenced by what they saw and heard from childhood.

But what Li Mujin had not expected was that, just as things had barely begun, Shen Yi had already caught on, and politely refused her.

Coupled with how he had repeatedly slapped her hand away earlier.

This lad from Cypress Cloud County had never, from the very start, believed the two of them were cut from the same cloth.

Truly... impervious to coaxing or threats.

Li Mujin felt a slight headache coming on.

There seemed to be a strange, quiet confidence about Shen Yi — even arriving in Outside Qingzhou alone, relying on no one, he could still hold his ground.

She did feel a measure of admiration in her heart, but she could not help wondering.

Where did that confidence come from?

Fang Heng, who shared a similarly poor background and was about the same age as Shen Yi, had only broken through the initial realm after soaking in medicinal baths for several years, and was now at the mid-stage of Jade Liquid Realm.

Such talent was shocking, enough to make even her father drool.

But what was the result? Don't be fooled by him being taken as a disciple by the Regional Commander after returning from slaying the demon — that all came later.

Before that, he had truly come within a hair's breadth of dying at the hands of that late-stage Jade Liquid Realm demon.

Had there been the slightest mishap, he would simply have died, leaving no trace behind.

To replicate his path, even he himself might not manage it, let alone Shen Yi, who was still a touch inferior.

"..."

Li Mujin stopped before a row of side courtyards and turned to look at Shen Yi.

The other party would soon find out.

How cold the true face of Zhen Mo Si really was — it truly treated people as expendable.

Countless treasures here, and beneath them, corpses piled into mountains.

Even with the family's help, the two siblings had nearly died in Water Cloud Hamlet. As for those without any backing, over all these years, the number who managed to make a name for themselves... could be counted on one hand.

"Make do with the lodging. Tell me if you need anything."

The other party was unwilling, and Li Mujin could not press the matter. She stretched lazily and waved her hand: "Going to catch up on sleep."

Once she had walked far away.

Shen Yi turned and walked into the side courtyard. There were eight rooms in total, and an arched wall on the right led to the next courtyard.

This was the kind of place a Zhen Mo Si Captain should live in.

He picked an empty room.

Shen Yi drew water from the old well in the courtyard, filled a wooden bucket, and returned to his room to wipe his body clean from head to toe.

He changed into a clean uniform, studied the two cloud patterns on the cuff for a moment. From what Liu Xiujie had said earlier, the number of cloud patterns determined the monthly salary in hundreds of taels of silver.

This salary was still less than what Skinny Monk had earned back then, but every month came with a supply of cultivation resources — that was where the real money went.

Two hundred taels of silver, spent purely on wine, meat, buying land, and taking a wife, was already a great deal.

Shen Yi gathered his thoughts and fixed his gaze on the so-called top-three Jade Liquid Realm internal art of Outside Qingzhou, his eyes gradually growing fervent.

He opened it and saw that beneath nearly every passage, there were annotations left by predecessors, and the easily misunderstood points had all been circled.

This was probably the first martial text Shen Yi could understand, and he did not grow impatient, reading through it carefully.

Getting a head start would save him much lifespan when he deduced later.

"Using the power of qi and blood to connect the orifices within the body, transforming them into a furnace of flesh and blood, burning and refining the breath of heaven and earth..."

Shen Yi suddenly recalled something from before.

With a massive expenditure of lifespan, he had once condensed the breath within his body into golden jade liquid, though only a few drops.

The Wind Thunder Sun-Melting Tome was precisely the method to accelerate this process.

Numerous orifices were connected by qi and blood, forming a Sun-Melting Furnace, trapping the twelve great orifices within.

With the body as the furnace, qi and blood as the fire.

Like refining pills, constantly tempering the breath within.

The human body had three hundred and sixty-two orifices. Excluding the twelve great orifices, three hundred and fifty remained.

According to the annotations in the book, a low-grade furnace used seventy orifices, a mid-grade one hundred and fifty, and the Sun-Melting Furnace formed by gathering two hundred and seventy orifices was the finest among the upper grade.

The differences between them were vast — the fiercer the fire, the faster the tempering, and the cultivation efficiency differed as heaven and earth.

Placed in the jianghu, it would be a treasure worth staking an entire family's life to seize. Within a sect, unless one was a personal disciple, one would not even get a glimpse of the cover.

"..."

Turning to the last page, the few large characters copied there still faintly revealed the killing intent of the original brushstrokes.

Those who pass this on in private shall be placed on the Demon-Slaying Board and beheaded!

Shen Yi closed the book and summoned the panel before his eyes.

【Jade Liquid · Wind-Thunder Sun-Melting Canon (Uninitiated)】

【Remaining Demon-Subject Lifespan: 1,500 years. Can be refined】

Vast demon-subject lifespan poured into the Wind-Thunder Sun-Melting Canon like flowing water.

……

【First year, you mobilized your qi and blood, attempting to connect the orifices within your body】

【Second year, your qi and blood ran dry. You picked up the upper volume of the Wind-Thunder Tome from years past — you once used it to complete your mortal body, and now you must rely on it again to make up the deficit】

【Seventh year, you have grown quite familiar with the method of the precious furnace, though your practice remains somewhat clumsy. To date you have successfully connected seventy-six orifices】

【Thirteenth year, you grow ever more adept, and having avoided every wrong path, combined with years of steady temperament, you have made not a single misstep. A hundred and ninety orifices have faintly taken on the embryonic form of a precious furnace within your body】

【Seventeenth year, surging qi and blood begin to boil. The Sun-Melting Precious Furnace roars, and the heaven-and-earth qi within your body tries to flee your flesh, only to be trapped by the near-perfect furnace body】

【Twentieth year, you breathe in and temper simultaneously; two great orifices have already been filled entirely with jade dew】

"……"

Shen Yi stopped the infusion of lifespan.

He still recalled how, back when he was ignorant and clueless, it had taken him a full hundred and thirty-five years to convert jade dew for half a great orifice.

Now, in just three years, he has filled two of them.

The efficiency has improved nearly two hundredfold — the marvels of the Wind-Thunder Sun-Melting Furnace need no further elaboration.

But it still wasn't quite enough.

Logically speaking, since he cultivates the same internal art, talent should at most affect the time needed to connect the furnace; the speed of tempering qi should be roughly the same.

Even conservatively, it would take eighteen years to reach the early stage of Jade Liquid Realm — the situation is far too different from those people.

Shen Yi slowly took out one beast essence and two demon cores.

As demon-subject lifespan poured in once more, he placed them into his mouth one by one.

(End of chapter)