Chapter 169: The Fastest Shortcut

Although Xu Chen felt very depressed at this moment, he still did not have the slightest thought of giving up.

In order to break through the formidable physical apertures, Xu Chen decided to stake everything on a single throw this time, refining all the remaining half of the Foundation Establishment Pill and sending it into his dantian; stimulated by the massive amount of blood-colored aura, the Yuan Qi in his dantian was like a bucket of cold water poured into a scalding hot wok, suddenly exploding, and the violent Yuan Qi was poured into his Eight Extraordinary Meridians like a tidal wave, then charged straight toward the intertwined apertures.

"Boom, boom, boom~"

The tidal wave of Yuan Qi, like a bursting river, struck over a hundred apertures with an unstoppable force.

Xu Chen's entire body shook violently, and streams of Yuan Qi mixed with blood mist sprayed out from every pore of his body; his Daoist robe was riddled with holes by the surging Yuan Qi and completely shattered.

At this moment, Xu Chen's Divine Sense was completely immersed in the impact of the Yuan Qi tide, carefully sensing the changes in every single aperture.

But under the successive impacts, he still did not feel even the slightest loosening of any aperture.

However, just as the Yuan Qi tide began to recede and Xu Chen was planning to give up on this Foundation Establishment, he suddenly thought of something.

His body had become so sturdy after being strengthened several times by the white Qi from the Blue Light Treasure Bottle.

And the process of the white Qi's transformation was to stimulate the flesh to constantly regenerate, which was why it became tougher each time.

If he were to condense the white Qi at a specific aperture location and let the white Qi strengthen it to the point where the rate of flesh collapse was greater than the rate of regeneration, would the aperture not become extremely weak in a short period of time?

Suddenly, Xu Chen felt that he seemed to have found a way to succeed in Foundation Establishment.

It was just that whether it would actually work still needed to be verified.

Therefore, after a brief hesitation, Xu Chen raised his hand and took out another Jade Bottle, swallowing the enhanced Guiyuan Pill that Lan You had given him.

"Junior Brother, do not do this!" Seeing Xu Chen take another scarlet Spirit Pill, Qu Mei jumped down from the stone with a cry of alarm.

But it was too late; Xu Chen had already closed his eyes again, and a violent aura unique to refining a Foundation Establishment Pill was once again radiating from his body.

"This... this is simply nonsense!" Qu Mei stood there, stunned, not knowing what to say.

Xu Chen was also gambling at this moment, without any certain assurance.

But for him, it was something he had to try.

Because the white Qi released by the Blue Light Treasure Bottle was constantly transforming his body and was completely beyond his own control; the longer he dragged it out, the tougher his body would become, and the lower the possibility of a breakthrough would be.

Therefore, the Foundation Establishment absolutely could not be delayed any further.

The enhanced Guiyuan Pill indeed had a stronger medicinal effect than the first Foundation Establishment Pill; wisps of blood-colored aura like spirit mist quickly converged into his dantian, and the Yuan Qi in his entire dantian instantly surged violently as if a shark had smelled blood, using these red spirit mists as a core to condense into giant dragons of rolling Yuan Qi, which roared and charged into his Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

These blood-colored spirit auras were the essence of the Seven-Star Golden Toad's toxin, stimulating the Yuan Qi to boil, and their effect was more than twice as strong as the previous Foundation Establishment Pill.

Xu Chen focused his mind to feel the restlessness and impact of the Yuan Qi, and after sensing that the Yuan Qi tide had fully formed, he suddenly shifted his cultivation technique to run the Demon Refining Art, and immediately a blue starlight sprayed out from every pore of his body, turning into a pale blue illusory mist flowing around him.

The Yuan Qi tide was also operating violently at the same time, and a large amount of Yuan Qi continuously sprayed out from his pores, carrying wisps of blood aura to condense into a pale red blood mist surrounding his body.

The illusory blue light and the blood mist mixed together, actually weaving into a hazy five-colored radiance, looking like a layer of ethereal, thin, cloud-like gauze wrapping Xu Chen's entire person within it.

Qu Mei was so shocked by the obscure aura and bizarre phenomenon suddenly radiating from Xu Chen that she could not close her mouth.

And at this moment, there had been two faint traces of Divine Sense watching in front of the small hut.

One was the True Monarch Xuanchen, and the other was Xu Chen's Master, the True Person Xuanhe.

Although Xu Chen was only the youngest Disciple of the Taiyuan Sect, because he possessed miraculous encounters and his strength was also very strange, he made both of them pay close attention.

Especially True Monarch Xuanchen, who was even more filled with surprise and curiosity regarding the changes in Xu Chen over the past year.

He would not deliberately pay attention to how Xu Chen lived and cultivated on a daily basis, but for such a major event as Foundation Establishment, he naturally still had to keep an eye on it.

But he did not expect that he would actually see this bizarre scene.

"This seems to be an aura released by some kind of technique, but this old man's Divine Sense is actually unable to penetrate it..." In the quiet room at the back of Zhaoyang Peak, Xuanchen muttered with a serious expression.

"Senior Brother, what is this aura on Chen'er? I feel like I cannot see through it." By his ear came the Divine Sense Transmission of True Person Xuanhe.

"Junior Brother cannot see through it, and neither can I. This aura is extremely strange; it is not a technique of our Taiyuan Sect, and it should not be a technique of the Yuqing Hall either?" Xuanchen replied.

After a moment of silence, True Person Xuanhe said: "Senior Brother, do you think it might have something to do with Senior Wuyazi?"

Xuanchen said: "Hard to say, but the possibility is very high!"

True Person Xuanhe's tone immediately carried a trace of joy: "Wuyazi is a senior of the Taiyuan Sect. Chen'er having such an opportunity is truly great fortune, and it has also brought our three old fellows and the entire Taiyuan Sect a great improvement in cultivation; he is truly the lucky star of our Taiyuan Sect."

"Indeed, if it were not for Chen'er, how would this old man have obtained the Blood God Grass and successfully reached Spirit Transformation? Junior Brother also had the chance to repair his Soul and quickly reach Golden Core only because of the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill he refined. Now, Junior Brother Xuanfeng has also received the help of his Seven Spirit Pill; I imagine he will also reach Golden Core within a month or so. Such kindness makes this old man feel a bit at a loss, but as the saying goes, fortune and misfortune are interdependent; I am also afraid that someone might wish him harm!" Danchenzi sighed deeply.

True Person Xuanhe was silent for a long time this time before saying: "With the reputation of Senior Wuyazi, I imagine no one will be so blind as to touch him. Besides, we old fellows are not clay statues. Enough, let us not talk about this for now; Chen'er's Foundation Establishment today seems different, which makes this Daoist a bit worried."

"Let nature take its course. If it does not succeed once, there is always next time. With his current aptitude, there should be no problem, it is just that this aura makes this old man feel a bit terrified!"

"Am I not the same? I cannot even find peace while meditating. If it truly is a technique of a True Immortal, Chen'er's future path will be limitless. Perhaps in a thousand years, the Great Song Immortal World will produce another Void Breaking True Immortal!"

"Hmm, I hope so!"

While the two old Daoists of the Taiyuan Sect were observing with their Divine Sense, they were still communicating in secret.

Xu Chen had also already begun an unprecedented experiment according to his own ideas.

With the operation of the Demon Refining Art, a large amount of white Qi sprayed out from the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, and Xu Chen used his Divine Sense to guide the white Qi to appear directly at the Shan Zhong Xue position in his chest, then poured it in with all his might.

The Shan Zhong Xue, also known as the middle dantian, is one of the three most important life apertures of the human body.

The lower dantian stores essence, the middle dantian stores Qi, and the upper dantian stores the Soul.

The cultivation Dao song says: Heaven has three treasures: sun, moon, and stars; man has three treasures: essence, Qi, and the Soul.

The Kaiyuan Realm focuses on cultivating the lower dantian, refining essence to break open the dantian aperture and store Yuan Qi.

If one breaks through the Chest Acupoint first during Foundation Establishment, it is the most critical step for opening the remaining apertures, because the Chest Acupoint connects upward to the Purple Mansion and downward to the Spirit Gate, serving as the channel that runs through the Conception and Governor meridians and connects essence, Qi, and the Soul.

Xu Chen decided that he would either not do it at all, or he would make the most direct and fastest breakthrough.

Since it was an experiment anyway, why not take the fastest shortcut?

Sure enough, the white Qi refined by the Demon Refining Art did not disappoint him. The moment a large amount of white Qi surged into the Shan Zhong Xue, Xu Chen felt as if a sharp blade had pierced into his chest cavity. Under the impact of the violent white Qi, the flesh on his chest quickly began to collapse, and his already riddled Daoist robe directly exploded into a bowl-sized hole.

And at the very moment the flesh of the Shan Zhong Xue exploded, Xu Chen suddenly stopped the Demon Refining Art and returned to his daily cultivation technique.

At this time, the violent Yuan Qi surging in the Eight Extraordinary Meridians was like a giant dragon, roaring and crashing against the one hundred and eight major apertures of his entire body.

The Shan Zhong Xue bore the brunt of it.

"Boom~"

Under the impact of the violent Yuan Qi, the Shan Zhong Xue, which had already been shattered and was rapidly repairing itself, sprayed out a stream of blood mixed with blood-colored Yuan Qi and white light to a distance of several feet. The Shan Zhong Xue, which had been as steady as a rock through five consecutive rounds of impact, was this time actually as fragile as a sheet of paper, pierced through at the first touch.

Once the Shan Zhong Xue aperture opened, Xu Chen felt an unprecedented freshness permeate his entire body, as if the circulation of Qi had suddenly become much smoother, devoid of the stiffness from before that required him to exert his full strength to complete a small circulation just to push Qi through the palaces and into the meridians.

At this moment, the Qi tide had just begun, and the Qi within his meridians surged like rolling dragons and snakes; having found a simpler Foundation Establishment method during the process of breaking open the aperture just now, Xu Chen instantly switched back to the state of the Demon Refining Art, guiding several streams of white light to strike multiple Major Apertures simultaneously.

"Puff, puff, puff, puff~~"

Accompanied by the spraying of Qi-infused blood and white light, several Major Apertures on Xu Chen's body collapsed one after another while simultaneously being forced open by the Qi.

"I searched high and low for it, only to find it without any effort; I never expected the white Qi to have such a miraculous effect. If I had known, I wouldn't have needed to waste a Foundation Establishment Pill."

Xu Chen felt extremely delighted at this moment; as this batch of important apertures was forced open, several key nodes of the Ren and Du meridians were all cleared, and the Qi rolled like a flood through the usually narrow and blocked apertures, moving along without obstruction and, with the momentum of sweeping away everything in its path, instantly broke through more than ten other large and small acupoints.

Next, Xu Chen repeatedly switched between his Qi refining technique and the Demon Refining Art, and while refining the Guiyuan Pill to continuously stimulate the formation of the Qi tide, he also guided the white Qi to constantly break through the flesh of the apertures, thereby reducing the resistance of the Qi impact and continuously forcing open the main apertures on the Twelve Main Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

As more and more apertures were opened, the flow of Qi within his body became increasingly smooth; in the end, Xu Chen did not even need to switch between the two different techniques, only needing to specifically guide the white Qi to break through the flesh of the apertures, and the increasingly powerful Qi tide gathering within the meridians would actively force the apertures open, and thus, in less than two incense sticks of time, all one hundred and eight acupoints were completely opened.

(End of this chapter)