Chapter 41: Chivalry in the Present

Great mountains, dark night.

Cheng Yunqi was galloping in the forest, with a sturdy Bai Long'er leading the way in front. It was the father of the Ding Huo family's little dog, borrowed by Cheng Yunqi for use.

One dog and one person moved forward, one after the other, at an extremely fast speed, but without making a single sound.

Suddenly, Bai Long'er stopped and looked ahead.

Cheng Yunqi looked in the direction of Bai Long'er's gaze.

It was a huge, strange tree, at least twenty or thirty zhang tall. The large, dark green leaves were shaped like human palms. Under the night wind, the leaves rustled, the sound so loud it was as if many people were squatting on the tree clapping their hands.

Looking closer, it seemed there really were people on the tree!

They were corpses hanging on it!

Seeing this, Cheng Yunqi remained expressionless, his eyes filled with malevolence. Half a mile away, he pointed his left hand directly at the demon tree, and a spell burst from his mouth:

"Burn and Destroy!"

"Boom—"

The demon tree suddenly caught fire.

"Awoo—"

Following the fire from the sky, the demon tree actually let out a miserable wail.

The giant tree emitted black smoke one moment and green rain the next, but it could not extinguish the magic fire that carried a heavy implication of destruction.

The burning flames shone for several miles. After burning for about half an hour, the giant tree turned into ashes, and those corpses were finally liberated.

【Burn and Destroy】 was a magic spell he had newly comprehended.

During these days in the Miao village, he had gained a deeper and more complex understanding of the intent of fire.

In the past, using the 【Burn】 character spell, it mostly displayed implications such as 【Burning】, 【Scorching】, 【Extreme Heat】, and 【Brightness】.

But these past few days in the Miao village, watching the Miao people use fire, besides using it to drive away evil spirits and Yin objects, fire also dispelled the cold on people's bodies, as well as the fear and loneliness in their hearts. Fire could also burn intangible things.

He thought for many days and believed that the 【Burn】 character spell could be divided into the 【Burn and Destroy】 spell and the 【Burn and Purify】 spell.

【Burn and Destroy】 is a spell of killing and destruction, using flames to destroy all Yin evil objects, with the intent on the 【Destroy】 character, focusing on death; 【Burn and Purify】 is a spell of protection and blessing, using flames to dispel illnesses, stubborn diseases, fear, darkness, distracting thoughts, etc., with the intent on the 【Purify】 character, focusing on life.

【Destroy】 and 【Purify】 are the goals, and 【Burn】 is the means.

Only with 【Destroy】 and 【Purify】 in the future could this magic spell be considered complete.

The 【Burn and Destroy】 spell he was now casting, although derived from the 【Burn】 character spell, had a much stronger implication of burning and annihilation, already exceeding the scope of ordinary fire, and could be called magic fire.

And the reason he was here now was to use the 【Burn and Destroy】 magic spell to sweep away the demons and monsters around the Hong River Eighteen Villages.

He knew that there might be great demons and fierce ghosts around these Hong River Eighteen Villages that he could not afford to provoke. He also knew that perhaps some of the small demons he burned away would be reborn under the gestation of the great mountains in three to five years.

Even though only Bai Long'er, who was leading the way, knew about everything he was doing now.

But he didn't care. Since he had seen it, and since he had the ability, he only sought one thing: Chivalry in the present, with a clear conscience.

The evil objects were destroyed, and the flames slowly disappeared. After waiting patiently for a while and seeing no other evil objects coming, Cheng Yunqi gave a signal, and Bai Long'er instantly darted out, digging for something in the pile of ashes.

Cheng Yunqi pinched a seal, holding it without releasing it, vigilant against anything that might come.

However, nothing happened. Soon, Bai Long'er came back with something in its mouth.

Cheng Yunqi reached out and took it; it was something like a seed. He put it into his cave stone and let Bai Long'er lead him to find the next evil place. ————

Another few days, September 17th, Li Creek Village, in front of his own house.

Cheng Yunqi sat in meditation.

The *Zhou Tian Hundred Apertures Inner Landscape Scripture* says: The Twelve-Story Pagoda is the gateway between heaven and man, the pivot of Qi circulation, and can serve as a palace for various deities.

The meaning of this sentence is that the Twelve-Story Pagoda is the gateway connecting the small heaven and earth of the human body with the great heaven and earth of nature, the hub of spiritual energy circulation, and can serve as a temporary residence for other Inner Landscape Deities.

And another point where the Twelve-Story Pagoda differs from other apertures is that it can be opened layer by layer. In this way, the difficulty of opening one layer of the Twelve-Story Pagoda and other great apertures is vastly different.

In other words, Cheng Yunqi's Heart Mansion was not yet open, but he could first open one layer of the Twelve-Story Pagoda and contemplate the Heart Mansion's Inner Landscape Deity in the Twelve-Story Pagoda. In this way, he could not only contemplate and eat Qi but also nurture the Inner Landscape Deity in advance. When the accumulated magic power was sufficient, the Inner Landscape Deity temporarily residing in the Twelve-Story Pagoda would drive the magic power to push open the gate of the Heart Mansion, sit in the Heart Mansion, and govern the circulation of essence and blood.

Cheng Yunqi had been eating Qi for over a year, and the first layer of the Twelve-Story Pagoda had long since loosened; opening it was not difficult.

He had originally planned to put off opening the Twelve-Story Pagoda.

He had originally thought that he would only have the opportunity to comprehend the Mao Ri Rooster divine intent and establish the core of the Inner Landscape Deity when visiting the Golden Chicken clan at Tianming Mountain in the Southern Wilderness, but he didn't expect to have such great progress in this small Miao village. Still the same saying:

Things have no constant trend, and water has no constant shape.

=9+Book_Bar

He planned to open the first layer of the Twelve-Story Pagoda today, right here in the Miao village.

And the method to open it was the simplest and fastest: the eating method. Using external force, he would directly rush open the aperture with majestic spiritual power.

However, this method was fine for opening the first layer of the Twelve-Story Pagoda, but if he wanted to rush open the Heart Mansion, he didn't know what kind of family fortune would be needed to afford it.

Of course, this method of seeking speed also had its drawbacks, as it skipped the process of comprehending the legal intent and polishing the magic power. This was also the reason why some cultivators who rushed to high positions by eating elixirs were prone to encountering bottlenecks.

This problem did not exist for Cheng Yunqi; it was just a matter of distinguishing between light and heavy, urgent and slow, and being flexible.

He waved his sleeve, and a few points of light flashed on the cave stone in his hand, and a few scattered things appeared in front of him.

There were seeds, jade marrow, grass fruit, gold essence, and some unknown things.

These were all obtained from his sweeping away of Yin evil.

Although the grade of these things was not very high, adding them up scattered, it should be enough to rush open one layer of the pagoda.

The cloud aperture was biased towards Yin, with the Five Elements belonging to Water. For the sake of caution, he still chose some spiritual materials belonging to Water, and then used magic fire to remove the dross and keep the essence, refining them into essence spiritual liquid.

Cheng Yunqi used his mind for two purposes, simultaneously manipulating his body to swallow the spiritual liquid while looking after the Inner Landscape small heaven and earth, looking at the Twelve-Story Pagoda.

The thick, fragrant spiritual liquid was swallowed into his mouth. Cheng Yunqi tilted his head slightly, and the spiritual liquid slowly flowed into his throat, but he simultaneously closed his throat tightly, so the spiritual liquid could not enter the esophagus.

Enduring the cough, Cheng Yunqi used his mental power to dissolve the spiritual liquid, turning it into a majestic mass of spiritual energy, and then guided the spiritual energy to irrigate the Twelve-Story Pagoda.

In the perspective of the Inner Landscape small heaven and earth, the Twelve-Story Pagoda was like a mountain-shaped yellow fog. What was inside the yellow fog? It was not clear.

At this moment, a surging wind suddenly came into the Inner Landscape heaven and earth, rushing straight towards the top of the mountain-shaped yellow fog. The fog at the top swayed in the wind, gradually becoming difficult to gather into shape, and was slowly lifted by the wind, about to reveal the true appearance inside.

Cheng Yunqi looked at the revealed corner and thought to himself that it was no wonder it was called the Twelve-Story Pagoda. That section, like hollow yellow jade, didn't it just look like a layer of a pagoda?

The Twelve-Story Pagoda was like a magnificent pavilion hidden in the mountain fog, with only the top of the pagoda fully revealed at this moment, emitting a hazy light. ===== CHAPTER 42 =====