Chapter 292

A Leaving Wind Guide, inside which is hidden a Leaving Wind seed, also called the Essence of Leaving Wind.

Wind has a thousand changes, fire has ten thousand varieties.

Common winds include fierce wind, baleful wind, scorching wind, and yin wind; uncommon ones include the Buzhou Wind, the Separation-Union Wind, and the Samadhi Divine Wind.

Common fires include wood-fire, stone-fire, water-fire, and heaven-earth fire; uncommon ones include the Six Ding Divine Fire, the Samadhi True Fire, the Solar True Fire, and the Lunar True Fire.

And what is contained within the 'Leaving Wind Guide' in Xu Qing's hand is the 'Separation-Union Wind'.

The Separation-Union Wind is not an ordinary south wind or gale, but a strange wind similar to the Samadhi Divine Wind.

It is rumored that Liezi rode the wind, often returning to the Eight Wilds at the start of spring and wandering to the Wind Cave at the start of autumn. When this wind arrives, plants sprout; when it leaves, they wither and fall; this is called the Separation-Union Wind.

If a person can control this wind, they will fear no ghosts or demons, and fear neither cold nor heat.

If refined to the extreme, a single breath of Leaving Wind can strip away the soul of a living person, causing their flesh and bones to wither, and can also blow away the true spirit of a ghost, causing it to dissipate in an instant.

Xu Qing recalls the rumor of the Yellow Wind King's yellow wind; that wind is the Samadhi Divine Wind, and when cultivating it, one must hold a wind guide in the mouth, face the Xun direction and take three breaths to catalyze the wind energy.

For the Separation-Union Wind, one must face the Li direction and take three breaths to catalyze the wind energy.

However, not everyone can refine or control wind.

The saying goes that wind follows the tiger and clouds follow the dragon; if it is a monster like a tiger demon, it is adept at the art of controlling wind.

Xu Qing once saw Guan Dazhuang change the wind direction by relying on a tiger's roar; clearly, he was already close to touching upon the 'wind-calling' ability to summon wind and rain.

"The tiger is the king of the mountains and forests; only the mountain-forest attribute is suitable for controlling wind."

Xu Qing switches to his Furry Corpse state, and many green corpse hairs immediately grow on his body.

The Furry Corpse belongs to the mountain-forest category; when Xu Qing cultivated the Furry Corpse transformation, the first mountain-forest life-pattern he refined was 'Tiger Master'.

At that time, he borrowed the tiger skin of Guan Dazhuang's younger brother, Guan Xiaohu, to trigger the mountain-forest Tiger Master life-pattern, which allowed him to step into the Furry Corpse branch.

The Furry Corpse belongs to the mountain-forest category; by cultivating it, one can become a Furry Hou; when a Furry Hou is born, the mountains and forests submit.

At this moment, Xu Qing mobilizes his Furry Corpse magic power; the cross-breeze in the incense hall, the mountain wind outside the incense hall, and the early winter north wind are all clearly distinguishable.

Opening his mouth to swallow the Leaving Wind Guide, the first thing Xu Qing feels is countless sharp objects falling down his throat, as if he had forcibly swallowed several bone-scraping steel knives.

Fortunately, he is a zombie and his perception of pain is not that keen; if it were an ordinary cultivator, they would likely be rolling on the ground in pain by now.

The bone-piercing and bone-scraping sensation does not last long; when the wind guide is swallowed into his abdomen, the Leaving Wind seed instantly transforms into countless sharp air currents, darting into his limbs and bones like needle pricks.

Xu Qing can feel thousands of invisible wind blades raging and cutting through his body, but these wind blades cannot break through his Prostrate Corpse body in the short term.

After about half a cup of tea's time, Xu Qing discovers that there are sugar-coating-like talisman lights flickering on the pill-shaped Leaving Wind Guide, and he suddenly comes to his senses.

It turns out it is not that his Prostrate Corpse body can easily withstand the erosion of the Leaving Wind essence, but that this Leaving Wind has been sealed by a secret technique and cannot unleash its full power.

Xu Qing introspects and contemplates the talisman on the wind guide, suddenly having an epiphany in his heart.

"Wind has no constant trend; only the rider is constant."

Xu Qing no longer resists hard; instead, he uses his Furry Corpse magic power as a guide, borrowing the momentum of the mountains and forests to channel the ferocity of the Leaving Wind.

The restless wind guide gradually calms down, and then, like a wild cat accepting petting, it emits a tiny vibration similar to purring.

When the Leaving Wind seed is refined, the wind guide talisman that sealed the Leaving Wind also dissipates; Xu Qing feels the blue-gray air vortex swimming around in his body as if it were familiarizing itself with a new home, and he immediately reveals a joyful expression.

When he cultivated the Black Corpse transformation, he had refined a mass of Indeterminate Black Water; when he cultivated the Fire Corpse transformation, he had refined a seed of smoldering fire.

And now, his Furry Corpse transformation also has the Leaving Wind as a foundation for transformation.

Xu Qing raises a finger and twists it lightly; a wisp of wind snake carrying death energy coils around his fingertip; wherever the wind snake passes, flowers and plants wither, and heat waves suddenly turn cold.

He has initially mastered the authority of the Leaving Wind!

"Hmm?"

Just as Xu Qing intends to retract the little Leaving Wind snake, he suddenly feels a familiar fluctuation of magic power.

That fluctuation is extremely similar to the incense of the Baosheng Temple, both containing a strong vitality.

It is just that the fluctuation flashes and disappears; when Xu Qing tries to capture it again, apart from the death energy that erodes the soul, he can perceive nothing else.

Looking at the withered flowers and plants in front of the incense hall, Xu Qing's heart stirs.

"The Separation-Union Wind: at the start of spring, it makes plants sprout; at the start of autumn, it shakes and drops all things. One union and one separation, one life and one death."

Xu Qing looks again at the flowers and plants in front of the incense hall that were scraped by the Leaving Wind; this time, what he sees is not the vitality being scraped away, but the vitality being extracted by the Leaving Wind.

"The wind scrapes plants and souls, which can strengthen the Leaving Wind; then, wouldn't catalyzing plants and stabilizing souls consume the Leaving Wind?"

Xu Qing ponders the laws of the Separation-Union Wind, only feeling that he is still far from reaching the point of mastering the Leaving Wind authority, and that his previous feeling was just an illusion.

Or rather, he has only obtained the method to manipulate the Leaving Wind, but whether he can master the true Separation-Union Wind remains to be seen.

"The Scripture of Saving People gives pure Leaving Wind because it does not contain vitality; now that the Leaving Wind has extracted the vitality of the flowers and plants outside the hall, it has faintly gained the ability of 'union'."

Xu Qing's eyes become increasingly bright; if he is not mistaken, as long as the Leaving Wind absorbs enough vitality to nourish it in return, he will be able to obtain the Separation-Union Wind that Liezi once cultivated.

That is to say, the current Leaving Wind cannot yet be fully called the Separation-Union Wind.

Xu Qing ponders the method of strengthening and nourishing the wind seed, and then he attempts to draw a drop of dew from the Mother Qi Bottle and merge it into the wind seed.

The dew in the Mother Qi Bottle is the incense condensate from the Blood Lake Dharma Realm of the Baosheng Temple, and it is also the most vitality-rich incense essence that Xu Qing can currently produce.

The rich vitality merges into the Leaving Wind; Xu Qing raises his palm and sees that the little Leaving Wind snake, which was previously only the thickness of a fingertip, has clearly grown a circle thicker!

"No wonder the old woman was so concerned about 'vitality' when choosing disciples; if an ordinary person were to cultivate her method, I fear they would wither and die within a few years."

Recalling the past when the old woman had to take a sip of Weak Water to borrow power every time she performed a divine ability, Xu Qing suddenly realizes.

So the power this old woman borrowed was not ordinary magic power or cultivation, but vitality!

"Borrowing power with Weak Water eventually requires repayment; I have noted this debt!" The words the old woman said when she escaped from the hands of the Ghost Law are still in his ears.

"If there is borrowing, there must be returning; if what the old woman borrowed was vitality, then what she needs to repay can only be vitality."

The old woman never told anyone about her own cultivation, but Xu Qing sees the big picture from small clues, and by using the revolving lantern, he connects all the clues and manages to uncover a corner of the other party's secrets.

No wonder the old woman was so excited when she saw him, and no wonder the other party so easily agreed to pay with her life.

A person who does not have much lifespan or vitality left, and even owes a lot, is just like a rogue who fears nothing!

Xu Qing also remembers the incident where the old woman, before dying, used up a ladle of Weak Water to loan her final magic power and set off a dud in the Jinmen area.

He always feels that this dud by the old woman was not without purpose, but he cannot find clues from the traces in the revolving lantern.

That small half-ladle of Weak Water was used up in one go; if the dud hadn't failed to go off, Xu Qing wouldn't even know how serious the consequences would have been!