Chapter 164: Spleen Palace Lord God, Bao Yuanquan

"You've over-supplemented; you didn't have to pluck all its feathers off!"

Xu Mu felt pity for the creature's life.

Xu Jia pointed to the down visibly regrowing on the war eagle's body and said, "It has just started growing new feathers."

He immediately placed these pills into a Gourd and sealed it with a Talisman to prevent the medicinal properties from dissipating.

"Wait another two hours to see if they are dead. If they haven't died after two hours, it is highly likely they are not poisoned," Xu Jia deliberated.

He was not certain how these pills would turn out. In fact, these pills were meant to nourish the Spleen Palace in addition to strengthening his heart and kidney Body Gods; the spleen is Earth, which harmonizes water and fire, and is also the root of the Acquired Essence.

Now, all necessary preparations had been made.

After two hours had passed, the war eagle's down had already wrapped her into a fluffy ball of fur.

As for Gui Linggao, no further changes were visible for the time being.

Seeing that they were both fine, Xu Jia then entered his own room.

This room was in the Qian Position, receiving the Vitality of the house; it was the master position of the residence.

Now that Xu Jia had added a few more arrangements, the Vitality was even stronger; if an old person lived here with their grandchild, they could at least live to be a hundred years old.

The table and chairs on the bed platform had been moved away. Against the northern wall, separated by a screen, stood a small altar. The one enshrined on the altar was none other than Xu Jia's own Inner Landscape god.

The names were written out one by one, totaling three hundred and sixty-five, with Xu Jia's own name at the very top.

Among the three hundred and sixty, twenty-five corresponded to the main gods of the Three Primes, Eight Vistas, and twenty-four Yellow Courts (two for the kidney gods), while the remaining three hundred and forty were the gods of the hundred joints (including the toe gods, finger gods, throat god, tooth god, acupoint gods)...

These deities corresponded to the inner cultivation secret method Xu Jia had obtained at Qingcheng Mountain in his previous life.

In his previous life, Xu Jia's practice was unsystematic, and he only cultivated the main gods, not the gods of the hundred joints—that is to say, what was mentioned before: visualizing the Savior Heavenly Venerable on the liver, and visualizing the Lushan Dharma Master Xu Xun and Linshui Lady on the kidneys...

This was a chaotic, ruleless Lineage. If one wanted to achieve success, one had to be like Tao Hongjing's "Chart of the Ranks of the True Spirits," ranking them one by one and placing them in their corresponding positions.

And that topsy-turvy scripture, the "Supreme Lingbao Pure Brightness Dao Origin Verification Chapter," discussed the relationships between Essence, blood, Qi, body, intent, emotion, spirit, wisdom, and Dao—who is master, who is subordinate, who is assistant, and who is envoy.

This could be used as a reference to arrange the order of the gods of the hundred joints.

This was also the supporting evidence for Xu Jia's altar and verification.

At the top is "Spirit," which, aided by "Dao," establishes rules and guides the operation of the whole body.

Below the spirit is intent, also called consciousness; consciousness is responsible for management and regulation, naturally giving rise to "emotion," and actively learning to give birth to "wisdom."

Emotion and wisdom are the managers of the "body's" operation, making various decisions based on emotions and wisdom, and may even unite to disobey the "spirit's" commands.

The body then governs Essence, Qi, blood, marrow...

Xu Jia hid wisdom in the heart and emotion in the kidneys, but consciousness could not be hidden.

The human body operates on its own, and the hundred gods coordinate automatically, but Xu Jia had enlightened the heart god and kidney god; these two organs changed from automatic to both automatic and manual.

Every time an additional organ or node that one could control oneself was added, it became easier for errors to occur; if cultivation went wrong, paralysis was a common occurrence.

Therefore, the ancients imagined that every part had a deity presiding over its operation, just like writing a program—yes, or, no...

This is the essence of the inner cultivation of this method.

Xu Jia swallowed a pill and immediately began to mobilize the heart and kidney gods to start refining it.

But it did not produce significant changes like those of the demon immortals, so Xu Jia ate two more pills. With a total of three pills in his stomach, some changes finally began to occur. Xu Jia's belly became warm, and a stream of hot Qi began to rise and descend; the rising Qi went toward the Chest Center acupoint, while the descending Qi went toward the Perineum.

This gave Xu Jia the embarrassment of an "erection like a pillar" and an inexplicable pleasure of the Essence Gate being on the verge of losing its defense.

But Xu Jia guarded the Essence Gate tightly, not allowing the Innate Essence to transform into Acquired Essence; if the Small Medicine was not leaked, it would nourish into the Great Medicine.

Once harvested and refined, the Qi would be like rolling pearls, moving along the meridians, circulating according to the Zi-Wu flow; if one wanted to speed it up or slow it down, one needed "spirit-leading and intent-holding"—this is the method of "transportation."

But Xu Jia did not need to transport it for now. He let it circulate on its own.

From the outside, Xu Jia's complexion turned blue and then red, but in the Dharma Realm, Xu Jia's body was multicolored, with the energies of water and fire stimulating each other; the heart and kidney boys took turns harvesting medicine, with water refining and fire refining.

Wisps of medicinal fragrance and Dao Incense permeated the room, clearly entangling in the room; this medicinal fragrance transformed into the ginseng boy and the lingzhi boy, chasing and playing, and finally bumped into Xu Jia, turning into a ball of Qi that was inhaled through his mouth and nose.

One could see the appearance of the heart and kidney boys changing from young children to teenagers during such labor, and their clothes changed from bellybands to Daoist robes.

Both Small Medicine and Great Medicine transformed into Innate Essence and Innate Qi, nourishing the whole body.

But it was finally transported to the spleen. On the spleen earth, a palace had long been built. In his previous life, Xu Jia visualized the Huanglian Niangniang for inner cultivation, which was to capture the meaning of the Earth Mother.

At this moment, it was the same; he wanted to condense the Qi of Wu Earth.

But after a moment, the spleen earth, catalyzed by water and fire, did not turn into vibrant Wu Earth, but transformed into "quicksand." The sand grains had both the soft flow of Wu Earth—a state of flow close to "water"—and the hardness close to metal and stone, which was proof of earth being refined by fire into a metallic nature.

Within the quicksand, in the Spleen Palace, a Body God was conceived. This Body God was yellow and draped in a Talisman chart. As soon as he opened his eyes, he said, "I am the Lord of the Spleen Palace, Bao Yuanquan!"

Immediately, a large amount of excess Acquired Essence Qi was transported by him, passing through the Spleen Palace to be transformed into Innate Essence Qi.

That is to say, from now on, Xu Jia could transform Innate Essence through "ingestion," reversing the root of the Acquired to become Innate, as long as he strengthened the Spleen God "Bao Yuanquan."

But at the same time, Xu Jia's flesh and blood were rapidly refined; except for the internal organs, bones, and blood vessels, his whole body became so thin that only a layer of skin remained.

When Xu Jia opened his eyes, he was also startled by his own appearance—his face was gaunt and his body thin, like a bamboo pole supporting clothes. If not for the fact that he still had some color, one would have thought he had contracted a "wasting disease."

He pried open the Gourd and poured the remaining few pills into his mouth, only then did his vital energy gradually become full, and his flesh and skin became slightly plump.

But when Xu Jia came out of seclusion, he still gave Xiao Hong a fright: "Young Master! How did you become like this! You locked yourself in the room for a day and a night; if it weren't for your previous instructions, we would have forced our way in!"

Xu Jia was indeed feeling a bit hungry: "It's fine. Now I have refined a superior spleen and stomach; I'm afraid I could eat a whole cow. Sigh, from this moment on, the money-burning begins. Ordinary food can provide very little Essence Qi to me. I have to start Bigu and abstain from grain; I can only eat some fresh dates, fresh pears, or some water caltrops every day, supplemented by the Small Five Elements Pill."

"No wonder when I didn't eat as a child, I was scolded for wanting to become an Immortal! So becoming an Immortal really means not eating!"

Xu Jia sighed: "If you want to be immortal, there should be no feces in your belly. I have to gradually move toward this path. Once I refine the liver god, I will be able to neutralize all poisons and start refining various medicinal baits; even sulfur and cinnabar, as long as they are supplemented with corresponding herbs, can be refined."

"After refining the lung god, I can eat the wind and drink the dew, stealing the Qi of all things between heaven and earth. Reaching this step is probably reaching the Qi Refining stage; one can be called a Qi Refiner."

Xiao Hong asked: "Then what can a Qi Refiner do?"

"Still a Human Immortal, not yet an Earth Immortal. It is just the Five Elements generating each other, casting a superior foundation; it is the basis of inner cultivation. But at this time, I already have my own Dharma Power, and am no longer of the sorcerer type who can only borrow methods to perform. Things like some Thunder Law, Fire Method, and Water Method, I can perform them myself. How should I put this? Simply put, even if I don't actively cultivate anymore, just relying on the transportation of the five internal organs, I can increase my Dharma Power over time. If I don't mess around, I can live to the human limit of one hundred and twenty years."

Xiao Hong was extremely shocked: "Is it that amazing? One hundred and twenty years? The oldest person I know is only over ninety."

Xu Jia shook his head: "You can't live that long. After eighty, if there is any slight mishap, it will shorten your lifespan."

In his previous life, Xu Jia only lived to be one hundred and ten.

However, Xu Jia was younger and more experienced than in his previous life.

In my past life, Foundation Establishment took five or six years, but now I have completed Foundation Establishment easily through washing the body with spirit.

Strictly speaking, now is the time to enter the Small Heavenly Circuit Circulation; the five viscera correspond to the Twelve Main Meridians.

And this is a threshold I only reached at thirty-five, having started cultivation at twenty-five, after more than ten years of practice in my past life.

Xu Jia stepped out of the door and saw the sparrow War Hawk, who had grown a circle fatter; now he looked like a ball of yarn and no longer flew, just sitting there as a lump, covered in soft downy feathers, like some prototype from Angry Birds.

Gui Linggao did not look much different at a glance, but looking closely, one could see his back shell was rounder and the patterns more complex.

"Great Immortal, Great Immortal! A monster has hatched from the Reverse-Feather Chicken's egg!"

Xu Jia asked curiously: "Why is it a monster?"

He saw a small feathered snake with a pair of wings dart out from somewhere and affectionately press against Xu Jia's trouser leg.

Such a change scared War Hawk into jumping on his feet: "It's neither a bird nor a snake, isn't that a monster!"

Xu Jia picked the little thing up from his leg; previously, Xu Jia had used blood to sacrifice and refine this egg, and had washed and refined it with his thoughts and spirit, so it was intimate with him even in the womb.

"What about that Wind Pill?"

"It was eaten by it too!" War Hawk said: "I wanted to eat it! I can't even fly now; is a sparrow that can't fly still a sparrow?"

Xu Jia calculated for a moment; at the time, he had calculated that this egg corresponded to the lewd Qi of heaven, combined with the Four Wood Avian Stars, and was a strange beast.

The Four Wood Avian Stars are Jing Mu Han, Dou Mu Xie, Kui Mu Lang, and Jing Mu Han.

From what is seen now, it should correspond to the lewd essence of the Eastern Azure Dragon.

Perhaps some wood-attribute Flood Dragon passed by and had its way with the Reverse-Feather Chicken, or perhaps it was a "void-cast seed," also known as the legendary "conception by induction."

This is not a feathered snake, but a "chicken-flood dragon" or "wild chicken snake" born from a wild chicken and a Flood Dragon.

Xu Jia looked carefully; this little fellow had a snake mouth, but a chicken comb, no dragon horns, chicken feathers on its body, chicken wings, but only two chicken feet, not four.

"What species is this?" Xu Jia felt that this world might be like Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, where there is no such thing as "genetic locks," and any species could likely crossbreed.

"Has this little fellow eaten anything?" Xu Jia asked War Hawk.

"It has, but it only eats things with wings that can fly. These days it has already eaten flies, dragonflies, cicadas, as well as moths, butterflies... and even a sparrow! That is my little brother! It actually ate him!" War Hawk accused: "Great Immortal must hold it accountable! Stew it and eat it!"

Xu Jia laughed and said: "I would stew you before I would ever stew him!"

Even a large python like Chang Yu, who practices mountain arts, can ride the wind, and if this little thing is raised, I fear it will be able to fly beyond the nine heavens.

There are no airplanes here, and Xu Jia does not yet know the method of flying swords; if this little thing is raised, it might be the only hope to fly with a physical body, otherwise one must wait until the Yang Spirit to move the physical body with the Yang Spirit, but that is not free enough.

"Calling it a feathered snake or Yinglong would be disrespectful to the seniors, and besides, a feathered snake has no claws, and Yinglong's wings are fleshy wings rather than feathered wings. Since you have obtained the image of the Wood Avian Heavenly Stars, barely speaking, a Flood Dragon is a dragon species, a wild chicken is a phoenix species, you are a cross between a dragon and a phoenix..."

"The Emperor is a dragon, and the Empress is a phoenix; you can count as a prince, and since you were born carrying the wind, from now on you shall be called Xun Taizi!"

After Xu Jia finished speaking, this little thing gained a strand of "King's Qi," its snake mouth became a python mouth, wider, flatter, and more possessing of a "Dragon Phase," its pair of wings spread out more, and its feathers seemed more brilliant.

At the same time, a gust of wind rose from the ground, lifting Xun Taizi up; Xun Taizi spread its wings and let out a cry, though the cry was somewhat grounded, actually sounding like a big rooster.

With this big rooster's leading sound, the big roosters within thirty or forty miles all sang along.

It was quite majestic.

Xun Taizi circled in the wind, and finally, the wind stopped, and it landed on Xu Jia's shoulder, head held high and chest out, as if saying: "I am the prince personally conferred by Master Xu, I am just nobler than you all!"

Xu Jia felt it land, but it had no weight at all, and there was only a faint sound of wind in his ears; he couldn't help but sigh: "It seems that with your help, I will soon be able to practice the Five Thunders Orthodox Method. Wind rises, clouds gather, thunder strikes, lightning flashes, rain falls, rain stops, clouds disperse, the sun appears... Among all the commands, the Wind and Thunder commands are especially important. Since you have innate wind, you should supplement it with acquired thunder to be my aid!"

(End of chapter)