Chapter 242

The 454th year of the Ming era, the fourth day of the third month.

The morning sun was rising; it was a beautiful day.

Cheng Xinzhan glanced at the east and pinched his fingers in his sleeves. It was the fifth quarter of the Mao hour; the time was just right.

This was the perfect time to ingest purple energy.

There was only a quarter of an hour each day to ingest purple energy, and the specific start time would change with the change of seasons and geographical location.

Sometimes, if it rained, the opportunity was missed. The purple energy generated by clouds, rain, thunder, and lightning above the first to third heavens would not be blocked by rain, but the sunlight there was too scorching, and one would be injured by the solar fire while ingesting the purple energy, so it was not advisable.

In addition, there were situations such as closed-door meditation, refining Dharma, refining pills, refining treasures, entering meditation, introspection, and even fighting with others, so this quarter of an hour each day could be missed just like that.

And Cheng Xinzhan believed that a good habit he had maintained since embarking on the path of cultivation was that no matter where he was, what he was doing, or what plans he had, he would try his best to clear this time at sunrise to ingest purple energy.

Cheng Xinzhan had set off early today to reach the Mount Mo'ya wall specifically to avoid delaying this matter.

He sat down on a mountain stone protrusion no more than five feet in diameter and began to breathe and ingest.

The Purple Energy of the Beginning was the innate true Qi of the sun, which could wash away acquired turbid substances. Regardless of the realm, one could never have too much of this.

When Cheng Xinzhan was in the First Realm, he used purple energy to wash his marrow and cut his hair; in the Second Realm, he used it to nourish his life-embedded treasures and apertures; now that he had reached the Third Realm, he used it to wash and refine his Primordial Spirit.

The cultivation of the Primordial Spirit was divided into three realms: Human, Yin, and Yang.

When in the "Human Spirit" realm, the Primordial Spirit had to reside in the physical body or an avatar and could not exist between heaven and earth after leaving the shell. If it stayed away from the shell for a long time, it would be lightly injured or the body would rot, and in serious cases, both the spirit and form would be destroyed.

When in the "Yin Spirit" realm, the Primordial Spirit could leave the physical body for night travel, unrestricted by the body, traveling to the heavens and the underworld in a single thought, and could even reside in the underground netherworld for a long time, but it could not manifest in the daylight for long.

Upon reaching the "Yang Spirit" realm, the physical body could be regarded as a skin bag, and the Primordial Spirit could go anywhere in the world. Traveling to the ends of the earth was just a common occurrence, and it could even perform various supernatural powers and spells solely with the Primordial Spirit. Cultivating to the extreme was "Yang Spirit Ascension," which was the path of the Heavenly Immortal.

Cheng Xinzhan believed that he had now passed the "Human Spirit" realm and had already touched the threshold of the "Yin Spirit."

Judging from the years he had been practicing the Dao, this was undoubtedly a very shocking realm. The vast majority of cultivators of the same age had not even formed a Primordial Spirit, let alone a "Yin Spirit."

The reason his Primordial Spirit could reach such a realm was due to many factors.

First, he was born with a tough soul, which was innate, so he could stand out in the entrance examination of Mount Meizhi.

Second, since he started eating Qi, he had been visualizing the Mao constellation, which could solidify the soul.

Third, the land and Feng Shui of Mount Meizhi nourished the soul.

Fourth, the "Secret Decree of Nourishing the Spirit of the Long-Life Fetal Origin" and the "Principles of the Taiyi Golden Flower" that he practiced successively were rare soul-nourishing secret arts in the world.

Fifth, he had long ago passed the first washing of the Golden Core, and his Primordial Spirit had experienced the Yellow Heaven Three-Nine Tribulation Lightning of extremely high quality.

It was precisely because of all the accumulation of the past that he had such a high Primordial Spirit realm today.

And speaking of cultivating the Primordial Spirit, the miraculous nature of the Purple Energy of the Beginning was reflected again. The Purple Energy of the Beginning was the innate true Qi of the sun. Logically speaking, with Cheng Xinzhan's realm of just entering the Yin Spirit, it was not suitable to be contaminated with Yang energy.

It was just that the Purple Energy of the Beginning was different. Unlike pure solar essence sunlight, purple energy was the first ray of sunlight when the sun rose and the moon fell. The solar Dharma intent was neutralized by the moon, which was the so-called: "True Yang contains true Yin, purple brilliance generates mist."

Therefore, this purple energy was both the light of creation of the vigorous morning sun and the innate true Qi of Yang containing Yin, so it was praised by practitioners of the Dao in the world as the most suitable spiritual energy of heaven and earth for washing and refining the Primordial Spirit.

It was just that this purple energy existed when the sky was clear and the sun rose; it was inexhaustible and inexhaustible, and there was no fixed amount that needed to be fought for. Ingesting purple energy sounded like a mere effort, and it seemed to be unworthy of the extremely loud name "Purple Energy of the Beginning."

And there was only a little bit of time each day to ingest purple energy. If one wanted to see results, one had to use the long-term effort of water grinding.

Thus, everyone knew the preciousness of purple energy, but there were very few people who insisted on ingesting it every day. And most of them were beginners who had just started eating Qi, who would persist for two or three years, and when their realm was higher and their cultivation affairs were busier, they would gradually forget about this matter.

Often, on a clear morning years later, they would suddenly have a whim to ingest this purple energy, feel a sense of comfort throughout their bodies, and resolve to ingest it every day in the future, but the next day they would be delayed by other things and throw it behind their minds.

After a few more years, they would suddenly remember, make a resolution again, and then forget again, repeating this over and over.

There were even higher cultivators who believed that the purple energy that even low-level cultivators could ingest was useless to them, and it was not as effective as a few high-grade pills.

Luo Jishi people said that Cheng Xinzhan had high talent and did everything with ease, but they often subconsciously ignored his strong will and self-discipline.

Reading ten thousand volumes of books was just a common thing for him, and ingesting purple energy every day was definitely not an empty word or slogan for him.

As he closed his eyes to breathe and operated his Primordial Spirit, three misty spiritual whirlpools formed by purple energy took shape above his head, and the tails of the whirlpools went straight into the Purple Palace, falling on the three Primordial Spirits.

Perhaps because this was a place for low-level disciples in the sect to be punished, and these disciples who were still in the stage of eating Qi and opening the mansion had not slacked off in ingesting purple energy because of the repeated instructions of their masters and elders.

So at this moment, looking at the entire stone wall, there were no less than thousands of people ingesting purple energy, as if one purple flower after another had bloomed on the golden cliff.

And the time for ingesting purple energy always passed so quickly. In the blink of an eye, the sun was scorching. At this time, there was only light and heat, and the purple energy was no longer visible.

Cheng Xinzhan stood up again and drew his sword.

"Autumn Water" shone brightly in the sunlight. Although the appearance of this sword, which had followed him for the longest time, had not changed, its interior was already very different.

The changes in this sword mainly lay in his continuous feeding of gold essence minerals and heavenly gang and earthly evil, especially in the last five years.

In the last five years, he had used the Refreshing Spirit Primordial Spirit to drive the Dustless Lotus avatar to kill demons in Yu Yang. Because all his magic treasures were digesting tribulation lightning in these five years and could not be spared, he could only use this sword.

In these five years in Yu Yang, from beginning to end, he had only used the Jingming Water Method, the Zhenwu Sword Method, and the Body Sword Technique. "Autumn Water" could be said to have drunk its fill of dragon and snake blood.

In addition, in these five years, he had captured many dragon pills and snake beads, including the one from Xue Linglong of Mount Tianqiao. After these pills and beads were refined into gang and evil by his "Returning Wind and Returning Fire" technique, those containing gold nature were refined into this sword, which also made this precious sword undergo a rebirth.

Cheng Xinzhan walked out of the stone platform, stood in the air, and began to write with his sword,

"Laojun says: The Great Dao is formless, giving birth to heaven and earth; the Great Dao is emotionless, operating the sun and moon; the Great Dao is nameless, nourishing all things; I do not know its name, so I forcibly call it the Dao......."

The sage's classics, the subtle words and great meanings, as Cheng Xinzhan wrote, his heart indeed gradually calmed down.

At such times, it was a good time to examine the past and plan for the future.

He often did this, from small matters in the next few days to plans for the recent year or two, and to the direction of cultivation for the next few decades.

What he had to do now was a major plan for the next few decades. The last time he made such a plan was after returning from the sea, when he set the cultivation keynote of "slow in the first, fast in the second, strive for the third" for himself, and he had indeed done so.

From the current point of view, the previous arrangement was not wrong.

His First Realm could be said to be complete, taking seven years, traveling through the Southern Wilderness and Northern Border, opening five mansions, rotating the five elements to open the Crimson Palace, and additionally opening three thunder mansions, one cloud mansion, and visualizing nine inner landscape gods.

He spent sixteen years in the Second Realm. During these sixteen years, most of his time was spent on the mountain.

After entering the Second Realm, he participated in the Longhu Dharma Assembly. After returning to the mountain, he stayed on the mountain for seven years, cultivating his character, tempering pills and casting swords, opening twelve new apertures, and refining many life-embedded supernatural powers such as "Jade Liquid Refining Form," "Heart-Kidney Refining Body," "Water-Fire Refining Soul," and "Heart-Intent Clear Flame."

Then he went to sea for a year, deeply feeling the rampant demonic path, set the ambition of Jingwei, and decided to use the newly acquired "Yellow Extreme Zhengwu Evil" to plow the court and form the core as soon as possible.

After returning to the mountain, he practiced quietly on the mountain for five years, opened twenty-one new apertures on the "Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian," obtained two supernatural powers of "Whale Suction" and "Dragon Chant," and successfully plowed the court.

After plowing the court, he went to Mount Juqu, studied Dharma and lectured on scriptures for four years, and at the same time opened sixteen new apertures on the "Ren Meridian," "Yin Qiao Meridian," and "Foot Shaoyin Kidney Meridian."

Subsequently, he combined the Yellow Dragon and Green Tiger to form the core.

His cultivation in the First and Second Realms was two completely different states of mind.

The cultivation of the First Realm made him realize the difference between immortals and mortals, so he had a sense of awe for cultivation, and he was very cautious in opening apertures and storing spirits. The order of opening the five mansions was something he had thought about carefully, fearing mistakes and worrying about falling into mediocrity.

For the cultivation of the Second Realm, he completely regarded it as a springboard for the Third Realm.

His purpose in opening the life-embedded apertures was very strong. After clarifying the core-forming gang and evil, he determined the minimum number of apertures he needed to form the core through his understanding of the three paths of inner alchemy, Qihuang, and spirit storage, and opened them as quickly as possible.

But even so, it took him a full sixteen years.

There were as many life-embedded apertures as the number of Zhou Tian, meaning that Second Realm cultivation was a matter of water grinding, moving like a snail, and those who could reach perfection were very few, not to be obtained by those whose hearts were not like rocks, and even Cheng Xinzhan could not be an exception.

And since forming the core, seven years had passed.

The confidence he had to make the move of "fast in the second, strive for the third" lay in his cultivation of the soul and spirit-storing methods.

In these seven years of the Third Realm, he used his avatar to walk outside, always separating a Primordial Spirit to mobilize the seven souls and all the inner landscape gods to continue what was unfinished in the Second Realm, which was essentially practicing the Second and Third Realms together.

And in fact, this situation would likely continue for a long time.

And what he had done after coming to the Third Realm also made him relatively satisfied.

Killing Yang Xuanla, driving away Yao Kaijiang, saving Hong Changbao, sweeping Shizhou, defeating Bai Wuchang, destroying the Soul-Lost Stream, killing the demons of the three temples, overturning Mount Tianqiao, and transforming a million-strong corpse army.

Any of these things could never have been accomplished in the Second Realm.

And this series of actions also slightly soothed the demon-slaying heart that was surging in his heart.

And most importantly, this cleared the demonic disaster in the Wuling area, making the loss of souls and corpses no longer a norm, and at the same time, completely cut off the intention of the Southern Demonic Sect to annex Wuling.

This was his influence on this world.

It was the root of his ambition to slay demons.

Walking to this point, this year happened to be the thirtieth year of his cultivation, and Cheng Xinzhan was forty-five years old.

It was time to plan the path for the future.

First of all, it was the cultivation of his own realm, which was the foundation of longevity. The next major event was naturally to cross the second pill-washing tribulation. This time, he must not deal with it as hastily as the first time, so that he would be like a useless person after crossing the tribulation.

After the first pill tribulation, he had also been refining treasures to block the tribulation, such as the gourd, and the Dharma umbrella he had newly refined specifically to block the tribulation. Last time, most of the attack swords were used to block the tribulation; this behavior was not allowed, otherwise, there would be nothing available to deal with the enemy after crossing the tribulation.

At the same time, he also had to find other ways to make the pill-washing tribulation come sooner—of course, it could not be fifty years earlier like Cao Jin's spell.

Secondly, every pill-washing tribulation contained the laws of heaven and earth and the vitality of creation, which must not be wasted. In the first pill-washing tribulation, he could say that he had utilized the tribulation lightning to the extreme, not only tempering the Golden Core, physical body, and magic treasures, but also using the tribulation lightning to open the Purple Palace and refine the Primordial Spirit.

What should he do in the second tribulation lightning?

Besides washing and refining the Golden Core, Primordial Spirit, physical body, and magic treasures, what else could he do?

Yes, he should transform the Golden Core from a round pill shape into a Great Dao divine shape and form the Golden Core Dharma Image!

The Golden Core Dharma Image was very different from the unique inner landscape god Dharma image of the Shangqing Sect.

The inner landscape god Dharma image needed the Shangqing Register as a basis, using the inner landscape god visualized by oneself as the divine shape, and only those who possessed both the Shangqing Register and practiced the spirit-storing method could perform it.

The divine shape of the inner landscape god Dharma image was a god that already existed in heaven and earth, borrowing its divine shape.

While the Golden Core Dharma Image used the Golden Core as a basis, using one's own Great Dao as the divine shape. This kind of divine shape could be a divine shape that already existed in heaven and earth, or it could be a divine shape created from nothing according to one's own Great Dao.

However, wanting to form a Golden Core Dharma Image also required meeting two conditions.

One was that the Golden Core could transform from a round pill shape into a formless shape. However, this formless did not mean void, but that it was not limited to the solid shape of the pill and could change as one wished.

This required the Golden Core to reach an extremely high quality. Luo Jishi people could not reach the realm of transforming the formed into the formless even after three or four washings of the Golden Core.

The other condition was that the cultivator himself had to be able to realize his own Great Dao true shape and manifest it.

This was a very high test for the cultivator's Dharma lineage and Dao heart.

Some people, even if they had high cultivation talent and excellent Golden Core quality, only practiced by rote, and when asked about their Dao heart, they only followed others, talking about freedom and longevity.

Such people could not see the path under their feet, could not realize their own Great Dao true shape, and naturally could not form a Golden Core Dharma Image, nor could they reach the realm of the Nascent Soul.

In other words, if someone formed a Golden Core Dharma Image early, then this person was someone who possessed both extraordinary talent and a clear Dao heart, and was also someone who had hope for the Nascent Soul.

Some people practiced the path of pure Yang, with their hearts in the light, so their Golden Core Dharma Image might be a great sun of golden Yang, or a brilliant morning glow. Some people practiced heart fasting and sitting in oblivion, and liked stillness and the Dao, so their Golden Core Dharma Image might be a mysterious turtle, or a stubborn stone.

The Golden Core Dharma Image varied from person to person, and was not uniform, and a single thought could make a world of difference. After many people's Golden Core Dharma Image appeared in the world, it might be very different from what they had thought a moment before.

Cheng Xinzhan believed that his Great Dao ambition had long been clear. Now he had to determine its divine shape and polish the Golden Core well in the next few decades, taking advantage of the next pill-washing tribulation to transform the Golden Core from formed to formless.

And besides his own cultivation, there was one thing he had to plan—that was naturally eliminating demons and defending the Dao.

Eliminate demons, eliminate whose demons? Defend the Dao, how to defend the Dao?

After successively destroying the Soul-Lost Stream and Mount Tianqiao, Cheng Xinzhan sent two avatars to the north and south. In these few years, he had understood a truth.

The Northern and Southern Demonic Sects had existed for millions of years, and the struggle between them and the righteous path was either the east wind overwhelming the west wind or the west wind overwhelming the east wind, and they had never been completely exterminated.

Now, with the rise of the Blood God Child, the Green-Robed Ancestor, Gu Chen, and others, it was just another storm rising, and this storm was still brewing.

This was not comparable to the demonic sect in the Wuling mountain area. With his current cultivation realm, not to mention destroying the storm, he could not even slow down the formation of the storm.

Blocking the Southern Demonic Sect from moving east in Yu Yang was the concerted effort of the entire Haoran Alliance. To be honest, the Yu Yang defense line was really not much with him, and not much without him.

And before he went to Yu Yang, he even specifically went to Wanshou Palace to seek water methods and practice the technique of beheading dragons and destroying monsters. Even so, he supported Yu Yang with an avatar, or could exert the strength of an ordinary second or even third washing, which was enough to make many people look sideways and be amazed. But this was not what he wanted, because such strength could not play a decisive role for the entire Yu Yang defense line, let alone counterattack into the Southern Wilderness.

This naturally could not be said that the Jingming Water Method was not easy to use, it was just that his cultivation realm was not there yet.

Therefore, he felt that his five years in Yu Yang were not as significant as the year he spent destroying Mount Tianqiao.

So the next step, what demons to eliminate, was a question that should be carefully thought about, how to maximize his value.

As for defending the Dao, what he defended was naturally the Three Pure Mountains, the Wanfa Sect, and the inextinguishable inheritance of the Eastern Daoist Sect.

And what he had to do to defend the Dao was not just eliminating demons, but also guarding against the whale-swallowing and silkworm-eating of the Eastern Daoist Sect by other sects. For example, Mount Longhu wanted to turn the Eastern Daoist Sect into its own, and for example, the Western Shu Xuanmen wanted to replace the Dao with Xuan.

These two families would have to have a fight sooner or later. Now it was just that the demonic disaster was in front, and they were each enduring it.

Eh!

A thought suddenly flashed through Cheng Xinzhan's mind. Perhaps, in one place, eliminating demons and defending the Dao could be done together.

Xikang!

(End of chapter)