Chapter 455

【In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed!】

【The true essence in your body is full and abundant, and you have reached the opportunity to break through to the Observing the Sea realm.】

【It must be known that in the cultivation of the Upper Three Realms, the first priority is the condensation of true essence, and reaching the seventh realm, the Snow Mountain realm, requires the alienation of true essence. Due to differences in cultivation methods, one may condense cold ice true essence or gather scorching flame true essence; there are all kinds of changes, too many to list.】

【The secret to cultivation lies in: first transforming innate true Qi into true essence, and then replacing the true Qi of the whole body with exotic true essence.】

【When all 365 acupoints contain nine strands of true essence, it is the time of perfection for the Snow Mountain realm.】

【The barrier here lies entirely in the work of grinding.】

【Those with exceptional talent may succeed in one or two years; those with average talent need four or five years; if their foundation is slightly inferior, they may find it difficult to complete the work even in ten or twenty years. Martial Path cultivation is like rowing a boat against the current; the most taboo thing is a scattered heart and spirit.】

【Once the sharp spirit is worn away, it is difficult to make progress.】

【People like Xie Xie Renfeng, who rely on elixirs for supplementation since childhood, seem to advance rapidly, but in reality, they are draining the pond to catch the fish.】

【When it comes to the critical point, let alone the Snow Mountain realm, even the threshold of the Upper Three Realms is difficult to reach; their cultivation is like paper, unable to withstand a heavy rain before falling apart.】

【There are no shortcuts on the path of climbing the Martial Path!】

【At this moment, all the acupoints in your body have been injected with nine strands of true essence.】

【If it weren't for concurrently cultivating the precious arts of both Buddha and Demon—the 'Jin Gang Undying Art' taught by Master Master Lianchi and the 'Zixiao Cave Demon True Scripture' of the Demon Master's lineage—it could have been completed in one month.】

【Now your internal true essence is alienated, with Buddha and Demon coexisting; one is rigid and solemn, the other is treacherous and overbearing. Although there is no lack of people in the world's Martial Path who cultivate exotic true essence, in terms of depth and mystery, the four families of Confucianism, Buddhism, Demon, and Dao remain the most respected.】

【Buddhist true essence covers the body with golden light, is indestructible like a Jin Gang, and is more compatible, merging into all methods.】

【Confucian true essence is upright and peaceful, capable of eliminating conflicts between exotic true essences.】

【Daoist true essence has infinite changes, capable of deriving the characteristics of all kinds of true essence.】

【Therefore, the inheritance of these four families is the prominent study of the contemporary Martial Path, with all streams returning to the origin.】

【At this moment, the true essence in your body surges like a tide, and the eight extraordinary meridians seem to be churning like a river, surging endlessly.】

【The key to breaking through the Snow Mountain realm lies in leading the perfected true essence of the whole body back to the dantian, causing it to undergo qualitative change and sublimation.】

【In the small courtyard, a nameless wind suddenly rises, and the fallen leaves and floating dust are all suspended in the air, all following the traction of your dantian Qi mechanism, like stars surrounding the moon.】

【You silently circulate the 'Jin Gang Undying Art', and the Buddhist true essence climbs step by step from the dragon-tail acupoint of your spine, like carving a path through a mountain, finally returning to the sea like a hundred rivers, merging into the lower dantian Purple Mansion.】

【This circulation of Qi lasts for a full hour.】

【Behind the water vat in the corner of the courtyard, Lady Ruan pokes out the upper half of her face, her eyes filled with astonishment—the scene of breaking through to the eighth realm of the Martial Path, 'Observing the Sea', is something she is seeing for the first time.】

【Breaking through cultivation is a critical matter that allows for no carelessness; ordinary sects or the Nine Great Clans all have people to protect the law.】

【Letting her watch like this means that for someone he considers quite important, he would reveal himself like this; at least she wouldn't dare to do so.】

【Lady Ruan blinks her eyes, and for no reason, different thoughts arise in her heart; she quietly disperses her primordial spirit, watching outside the small courtyard to protect him.】

【At the threshold, Sister Wu Tong wrings her fingers tightly, her expression nervous.】

【One hour later!】

【The water flows and the channel is formed, the work is perfected!】

【As the sun shadows slant to the west, the Qi mechanism around your body suddenly changes; you have already stepped through the mysterious barrier and officially entered the eighth realm of the Martial Path—Observing the Sea!】

【The mystery of this realm lies in the fact that what is generated in the dantian is no longer innate true Qi, but more pure innate true essence. From now on, there is no need to work hard to transform it like in the Snow Mountain realm; true essence is self-generated, surging endlessly.】

【Looking inward, one can see a clear spring gushing from the dantian, with true essence flowing endlessly like nectar.】

【When this clear spring gradually becomes a vast trend, it is the time of perfection for Observing the Sea.】

【The benefits brought by breaking through are immediate: the meridians of the whole body are widened again, and the physique is better than in the past. The true essence circulation that used to take a whole day to complete now takes only two hours to perfect.】

【You slowly open your eyes, a sharp glint flowing in them, as if there is a scene of the vast sea flowing across.】

【This rapid progress is the result of multiple opportunities cast together: the medicinal power of the Profound Heaven Snow Dew, the stimulation of the skin by the Second Gentleman's 'Nine Swords', and the addition of the two miraculous arts of Buddha and Demon, the 'Jin Gang Undying Art' and the 'Zixiao Cave Demon True Scripture', which, under the reconciliation of the 'Yin Talisman Scripture', produced the wonder of Yin and Yang complementing each other; the resonance effect of the three far exceeded expectations.】

【Apart from your own talent, it is thanks to this that Martial Path cultivation can have such progress.】

【But even so—it is still not enough!】

【With the improvement of cultivation, your sensitivity to the Qi of heaven and earth becomes increasingly acute.】

【Under the firmament, the two Qi of clear and turbid are entangled endlessly: if the righteous Qi is strong, the four seas are peaceful; if the evil Qi is strong, the nine provinces are in turmoil.】

【In recent years, these two auras have gradually merged, turning into a heart-palpitating robbery Qi circulating between heaven and earth.】

【You slowly exhale the turbid air accumulated in your chest, gathering all the lingering charm after breaking through into your dantian. As you turn around, you meet Lady Ruan's prying gaze and cannot help but smile.】

【Lady Ruan hides back behind the water vat with a 'thump'.】

【Cultivation is like rowing a boat against the current; even if you break through today, you do not stop for a moment, still focusing on your cultivation.】

【The nine swords in the sea of your heart emit brilliance; you have fully comprehended the first seven sword intents, and you can already do it by heart and use it as you wish.】

【It is just that the eighth sword intent is stubbornly impossible to crack; it is truly too difficult to defeat this sword intent left by the Second Gentleman.】

【Although you believe your talent is excellent, both your Martial Path progress and primordial spirit cultivation are enough to prove it.】

【Only in the path of the sword do you feel uncharacteristically tricky—the Second Gentleman's sword path attainment has reached the realm of 'no move is better than a move', where every move is a wonderful trick, and the sword momentum changes endlessly.】

【Every sword is like an antelope hanging its horns, leaving no trace to be found.】

【However, after eighty moves, even with your current cultivation, your heart and spirit can no longer keep up with the endless evolution of the sword momentum—every sword is like a galaxy, and the complexity of the changes is no longer something human power can fully calculate.】

【The sword-intent confrontation of these seven months makes you increasingly shocked.】

【The realm of the Second Gentleman has probably long since transcended the secular title of 'Grandmaster of the World'. And the Master who is even above him, the height of his realm, is beyond common sense.】

【The Third Gentleman, Minister Su, and the grandmasters of the world stand like towering peaks of the Martial Path, making people feel awe-struck.】

【Time—】

【The deepest realization you have at this moment is the weight of these two words.】

【Suddenly, another half month passes, and it is the beginning of the month of Osmanthus.】

【You are still cultivating in the small courtyard, never having stepped outside.】

【In this half month, the Xie family has become increasingly oppressed; the Old Matriarch is bedridden, and Xie Hong, who is at the Academy, has returned once.】

【In the Xie mansion, minor mistakes that used to be scolded are now punished with caning, and the atmosphere is increasingly tense.】

【Especially in the second courtyard, dozens of servants have recently died from punishment.】

【The sky of the Xie mansion seems to be shrouded in a layer of gray fog; even when the sun is high, the light seems unable to pierce through.】

【You also instruct Sister Wu Tong not to go out recently.】

【Because Above Bianjing has also begun to be chaotic; the prosperous Above Bianjing has the Academy, the Suspended Mirror Division, the Demon-Slaying Division, and the Divine Hidden, so many departments.】

【There are even residences of the Nine Great Clans in every street, as well as the God-Startling Array laid out by the Master; not to mention petty thieves, even ordinary evil spirits dare not be presumptuous, but...】

【In the past half month, the news brought by Sister Wu Tong is shocking.】

【In Above Bianjing, murder cases occur frequently, not just one, but continuously.】

【Such things have not appeared for hundreds of years; Above Bianjing is turbulent and uneasy for a time, and cases have been happening, with hundreds occurring by now.】

【Above Bianjing already has a sense of everyone being in danger!】

【The court of the Great Qi, however, has its eyes fixed on the Shannan Circuit outside Above Bianjing.】

【A great battle also affects the hearts of the people of Above Bianjing.】

【There, the Red-Eyed Army and the Great Qi Royal Army are engaged in a decisive battle. At the beginning of the war, the Royal Army was unstoppable and headed straight for the Jiangnan Circuit; who would have expected the situation to change suddenly, and now they are being pushed back by the Red-Eyed Army to the Shannan Circuit. This great battle concerning the fate of the country affects every uneasy heart in the capital.】

【The Great Qi mobilized such a large army without the crushing victory expected; instead, in the past half month, the two have been contending with each other.】

【Recently, a nursery rhyme suddenly arose in Above Bianjing, a nursery rhyme sung by children in the streets: "Red-Eyed Star, rolls up wind and sand. Nine-curved Yellow River crawls backward, nine-headed broken-winged bird falls into the dung pit, blood soaks the feathers and turns into peach blossoms. Nine-clan high buildings collapse into soil, gold bricks and jade tiles shatter like sand."】

【Such rebellious prophecies, if it were in the past, the bronze mirrors of the Suspended Mirror Division would have long since shattered thousands of homes, and the iron cavalry of the Demon-Slaying Division would have long since trampled through the nine wards.】

【But the strange thing is, now this nursery rhyme has spread throughout the city, yet the two divisions are strangely silent—this silence is more heart-palpitating than thunder.】

【Today, the small courtyard is rarely lively, with Hu Hu Yunniang visiting with a group of courtesans.】

【These beauties, who used to smile and laugh, now have clouds of worry gathered between their brows. The Moon Flower Pavilion closed its doors for no reason, and then three other courtesan houses announced they were stopping business and closing to guests.】

【Notices are posted all over the city, "Citywide Curfew"; this kind of battle array is truly rare.】

【Counting the past, only when the Master went to sea to find immortals two hundred years ago did the Third Gentleman impose a curfew for one night in the name of the Academy.】

【Going further back, one has to trace it to the time when the Master established the world, when grandmasters from various countries gathered in Above Bianjing, only to be suppressed by the Master alone in a heaven-shaking past event.】

【Although the people of Above Bianjing live in the marketplace, they have also smelled the undercurrents surging beneath this calm appearance.】

【Hu Hu Yunniang and the group of courtesans made a decisive decision, resolutely abandoning the wine house business that made money every day, and closed their doors.】

【These women, who had long since redeemed themselves, had already set up a residence next to the Academy, hiring reliable experts from the Jianghu to serve as courtyard guards with heavy money.】

【In this past month, they have secretly hoarded enough grain and rice to last for two years.】

【During the meal, Hu Hu Yunniang told several shocking pieces of news:】

【"The Xue family among the Nine Great Clans has kept its doors tightly closed since the beginning of the month, refusing all visitors."】

【"What is even stranger is the Empress Zhuge family—this prominent family that has produced three empresses added another strange case yesterday. That General Sima General Sima Chunfeng, famous for his male-female appearance and known as noble beyond words, suddenly died violently!"】

【"And two important officials of the Zhao family in the court also died mysteriously in their offices on the same day."】

【Yun Wan also quietly came to the courtyard today. Several courtesans covered their faces with light gauze, dressed in simple plain clothes, and were extra cautious when walking through the streets.】

【At this moment in Above Bianjing, shops are tightly closed, and the marketplace is desolate. The continuous murder cases have not been solved to this day, and new blood cases are still being reported to the government office every day.】

【The people are like frightened birds, with every household's doors tightly locked, and the streets are empty.】

【Even these courtesans, who are usually calm, now dare not easily show their faces.】

【They walk through the silent streets and alleys, each step taken with caution, as if danger could pounce from the shadows at any time.】

【Li Li Xiangjun sighs gloomily: "Who would have thought that in just one month, Above Bianjing would fall to this point."】

【"The scene of brilliance at the Banquet of Flowers eight months ago now feels like a lifetime ago."】

【Zhou Zhou Yuner asks timidly: "Young Master Guan, do you think the Red-Eyed Army will really breach Above Bianjing? Recently, those guests in the wine house have been spreading rumors that the Red-Eyed leader Ban Sheng is the Great Emperor Zhenwu descending to the world—"】

【She stands up and gestures, "His left hand can summon thunder, and his right hand can scatter beans to make soldiers!"】

【You see her appearance, which is quite cute and naive.】

【Li Li Xiangjun interrupts helplessly: "Zhou Yuner, don't easily believe these drunken words. Those are just wanderers from other places in the Jianghu, full of nonsense after three cups of yellow soup."】

【"But the strange thing is..." Hu Hu Yunniang frowns and ponders, "Rumors about the Red-Eyed Army are mixed. Some say the Red-Eyed Heavenly King is the God of Thunder, some say Deng Chao, the leader of the eighteen generals, can spit out floods, and others say the strategist Wu Wan is secretly manipulating the wind and rain... but one point is certain..."】

【"Since the Great Qi Royal Army fought the Red-Eyed Army, the celestial phenomena have been strangely abnormal; it's either sudden heavy rain, raging winds, or even flash floods."】

【Yun Wan cannot hold back and interjects: "What is even more bizarre is that people in the Jianghu say that on the night of the eighth month in the Shannan Circuit, goose-feather snow actually fell! Crossing the river is even more full of strange scenes—when the Red-Eyed Army crosses the river, it freezes for a thousand miles; when the Royal Army crosses the river, the waves are raging, as if heaven's will is hard to fathom."】

【Hearing this news, your eyes sink slightly, and you cannot help but recall that when Xie Ling was in the Battle of Yunyueze in the Jiangnan Circuit, he also encountered sudden heavy rain, and the water level rose sharply, becoming one of the key turning points for winning with fewer troops.】

【The group chatted, initially thinking that what you said earlier about the Red-Eyed Army breaching Above Bianjing was just a joke.】

【However, to this day, the women in their hearts have secretly developed unease; if this statement comes true... how should they respond?】

【Seeing the atmosphere is solemn, Hu Hu Yunniang smiles and says: "Speaking of which, the eighth month is the great day of your coming-of-age, Young Master."】

【Her words wake everyone up, and Zhou Zhou Yuner quickly takes out a brocade box with lotus patterns from her sleeve and hands it forward: "We sisters have prepared some small tokens of our hearts, hoping Young Master will not discard them..."】

【The other courtesans also take out carefully prepared gifts.】

【When the sun shadows slant to the west, the women say goodbye and leave, leaving only a few gifts on the stone table.】

【You walk back to the courtyard, only to see Sister Wu Tong and Lady Ruan bringing out two more packages from the corridor—it turns out they had also prepared gifts.】

【Sister Wu Tong's brows and eyes are curved, "Young Master, after this month, you will be a grown man who stands tall."】

【"A grown man?" You are stunned for a moment, suddenly feeling enlightened.】

【Looking up at the sky, the twilight clouds are like dye.】

【"Yes... it has already been fourteen years."】

(End of chapter)