Chapter 224: Refining the Flying Sword

"The Great Ning Dynasty's Dao Record Bureau has sent someone here to investigate the affairs of the Salt and Iron Bureau," Hu Jinhua said to Xu Jia. "However, he has already been bewitched by Huang Pipo; he has only amateurish skills."

Xu Jia held the Heavenly Emperor Relic Jade in his hand; this item was a Kunlun Treasure.

After the Deqing Feng Shui Array was established and gained momentum, Xu Jia had let Chang Yu bring it out from underground.

He was currently carefully sensing the Qi, using this Kunlun Treasure to gently nourish his Spirit Embryo.

"Only coming now?" Xu Jia was somewhat speechless. "How long has it been?"

However, he still said, "No need to bewitch him anymore; just tell him the truth of the matter."

Xu Jia said softly, "We should retreat when we ought to; what we were meant to gain, we have already gained."

The Golden Toad is better suited for managing these worldly affairs; besides, Xu Jia had already won the hearts of the local people, and once the imperial court arrived, he had already deployed many disciples of the shamans and sorcerers.

Primarily, having obtained this Earth Treasure, plus the gold and silver left behind by the three-headed Flood Dragon that constantly emitted radiation, Xu Jia had already discovered one was "Mother Gold" and the other was "Silver Essence," which were also the "cores" of those gold and silver flood dragons. There was no need to laboriously refine the Five Metal Essence or collect ten thousand blades; he could use these two treasures to forge two flying swords.

Forging a sword, aside from the raw materials, is not done by direct casting, but by drawing the metal Qi into the body and into the furnace, to be forged by the Body Gods, adding fire, quenching, and then scrubbing the sword body with the Essence Qi and Samadhi Precious Medicine to prevent oneself from being harmed by the sharp Qi of the sword. Thus, from tangible metal, it transforms into intangible Sword Qi, and then from intangible Sword Qi, it condenses into a tangible blade. Like refining an Inner Elixir, by putting it through the furnace nine times and returning it to the fire seven times, one can cultivate a "Sword Pill."

Practicing flying swords is of no benefit to Longevity; on the contrary, it is easy for the sharp Geng Metal Qi to disrupt the balance of the five internal organs, and the intent of sharpness can harm the spirit and damage the physical form.

As the saying goes, a sword has two edges; it can harm others and can also harm oneself. If one can condense it into a Sword Pill, it becomes a pill when stored and a sword when drawn, harming only others and not oneself.

Xu Jia planned to return to Sanqing Mountain first, to perform the initial condensation and refining, to forge the once-turned and once-returned Sword Pill, using the pure and wondrous intent of the mountains and rivers to nourish his spirit, borrowing the purple Qi from the east at the mountain peak to nourish his Qi, and washing and refining it with dew, herbs, lingzhi, and yellow essence.

"During this period, I will be in seclusion for a while. You must grasp the measure yourselves; do not act recklessly. If you have deep thoughts or worries, or if there is something you do not understand, you can ask my mother; she also possesses great wisdom."

Hu Jinhua immediately said, "Does Master Xu require a Protector? I am willing to stand guard by Master Xu's side."

"No need, a simple thatched hut is enough for my cultivation. If the imperial court sends an official to take over, do not resist. The hearts of the people here are already entirely with us; you only need to develop those shamans and sorcerers well and be responsible for the faith of the common people."

Having said this, Xu Jia stepped on Chang Yu's head and went into Sanqing Mountain.

As Chang Yu moved and glided with the wind, he said, "True Person, I feel that my Five Hundred Year Great Tribulation is approaching."

"You are already considered a True God now, so there is no need to worry too much about the Five Hundred Year Great Tribulation," Xu Jia comforted him. "Calamities originate more from within than from without."

Chang Yu was still somewhat uneasy: "This time it is different; I always feel it is different."

Hearing this, Xu Jia helped him calculate with his fingers and realized it was indeed somewhat different. Chang Yu had traces of "petrification," just like how Cai Yu turned into a jade figurine, attempting Corpse Severance... He was originally of the Geng Earth sign, and now that Xu Jia had sealed him as Gouchen, and Gouchen is the axis of the earth, he was destined to have a "petrification" calamity.

"When I was guarding this dragon jade underground in Deqing, I also used the treasure to breathe, but my body became increasingly itchy, as if something was about to emerge from between my head and tail."

Xu Jia thought for a moment and said, "Then don't cultivate for this period. Every day, just go to the mountain peak to bask in the sun, breathe in the moonlight, and strengthen your spirit. When I come out of seclusion, I will personally protect you through the calamity."

Chang Yu said, "That is not necessary. Calamities must be overcome by oneself; how could a Protector help one pass a calamity?"

Xu Jia thought that was also true; calamities arise from the heart, summoning external demons, and the combination of internal and external factors constitutes the Calamity.

So he said, "Then you may quietly recite the Yellow Court Scripture; perhaps it can clear your heart and help you overcome it."

Chang Yu noted this down. After sending Xu Jia to Yuhua Peak, Xu Jia found a place between rocks for shelter. This place was only a square inch, wedged between two stones, with a sliver of sky visible, enough to avoid wind and rain.

He then inscribed the words "Myriad Wonders" and "Void Emptiness" on the side.

For a moment, the Dharma Realm emitted a clear, spiritual light, illuminating the Pure Land, giving this place the feeling of a "Blessed Land" Cave Heaven.

Xu Jia sat cross-legged on it and took out a lead box the size of a human head. He opened the box, which was partitioned; on one side was the Mother Gold, and on the other was the Silver Essence, both glowing.

Viewed through the Dharma Realm, they emitted infinite light and flames, having the peculiar effect of changing earth and stone into gold and silver.

This was undoubtedly "nuclear material."

Xu Jia wanted to use this to cultivate the Lung God, then with the Heart, Lung, Spleen, and Kidney gods all present, cultivate the Liver God, balance the gods of the five internal organs, and harmonize the Five Qi to reach the minor success of "Five Qi Toward Origin."

Xu Jia placed these materials before him, then closed his eyes and began to visualize a palace within his lungs. The palace emitted a shimmering light, and with each breath, it was continuous and unending. This time, it was not a deliberate pursuit of Fetal Breath or internal respiration.

The Metal Qi made Xu Jia's lungs itch, and a stream of mucus surged up, as if there was always phlegm under his throat that he wanted to cough out.

This was very normal and required restraint, because coughing is the "intent of metal and stone." If one coughs for too long, it will internally injure the lungs and viscera; the more one coughs, the more uncomfortable it becomes, and not coughing is even more uncomfortable.

Moreover, now that he was cultivating Metal Qi and condensing the Body Gods, he needed to be even more cautious.

Fortunately, Xu Jia had a solid foundation. Soon, the heart fire paired with the spleen earth to smelt a seed of lung metal. It traveled upward to the Chest Center Palace and reached the lung pivot. A flash of spiritual light appeared, and a young boy was revealed, about seven or eight inches tall, wearing a white bellyband with two golden sprouts painted on it, his face white and without eyebrows.

This god was named "Su Ling Sheng." The lungs are the official in charge of respiration, and the Daoist art of breathing and exhaling, of refining the Qi body, takes this official as the key.

It is also said: "Those who eat Qi are spiritually bright and long-lived." The cultivation of a Qi refiner is closely related to this official.

Once Xu Jia's Lung God was born, the other Body Gods celebrated, especially the Jiujiang Shuidi who had previously cultivated the water spring acupoints, as well as the Kidney God.

The combination of metal and water is called "Heaven One." Heaven One gives birth to all things and is the most superior form of "nourishment."

What Daoists call "Nectar" corresponds to "Yellow Sprout Herb Gathering," combined and refined into an elixir.

This is the Heaven One saliva; the saliva produced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth and clicking the teeth, compared to the saliva produced by the combination of lung metal and kidney water, has a distinction between "internal and external," and there is a "gap between the pre-heaven and post-heaven."

Xu Jia's body emitted light. The Heaven One water, like the amniotic fluid of a fetus, began to slowly nourish him, and the Spirit Embryo in the Zi Fu loved this environment very much.

But this was still not enough; there was still the final Liver Wood. Although the liver is wood, it is more like "silt" or "wind." Silt is turbid and heavy, liking to block, while wind is clear and spiritual, yet formless and unfixed.

Therefore, if liver wind rises to the brain, it causes paralysis; if liver stasis moves downward, it causes stiffness.

However, Xu Jia was usually happy, letting go of everything, seeing through things, and not staying up late, so he naturally did not fear facial paralysis, sudden death, or sudden strokes.

With the four organs already complete, the Liver God was summoned and finally gave birth to spiritual light from the palace. A young boy in a green bellyband appeared, full of upright energy, just like the kind of child from someone else's family who gets excellent grades and has many talents. This boy was named "Kai Jun."

Liver wood harmonized with spleen earth and kidney water, giving birth to a kind of "jade stone."

Jade stone, Yellow Sprout, and Heaven One saliva—these three combined and put into the furnace became "Precious Medicine." However, this Precious Medicine is different from the cultivation of the Inner Elixir path; it is the food for the "Spirit Embryo" and the "Elixir Essence" for the Body Gods of the entire cycle, just like the Flat Peaches and Ginseng Fruit of the Heavenly Court; these are the keys to the immortality of the gods.

It is also a "tribute."

Xu Jia did not refine an Inner Elixir, only cultivating the Body Gods, so he naturally distributed it to the Body Gods, and the Body Gods in turn nourished the physical body and the Primordial Spirit, strengthening his Dharma Power.

With the Body Gods of the five organs complete, the Five Elements were harmonized, making Xu Jia's complexion even more ruddy; some ailments caused by the imbalance of the Five Elements would not appear on Xu Jia.

At the same time, he felt his body was light, as if he were floating and becoming an Immortal, completely carefree and detached.

Even the Five Elements Demon Gods, as the protective spiritual light of the Body Gods of the five organs, were nourished and transformed into "Five Emperors Great Demons."

More importantly, his wisdom and spiritual light also increased at this time. It turned out that the five organs were also the palaces of the Three Souls and Seven Souls, and the Three Souls and Seven Souls were integrated into the "Spirit Embryo." Nourishing the five organs naturally nourished the Primordial Spirit, and the Primordial Spirit is the chief official of wisdom and spiritual clarity, the commander of all gods.

Xu Jia's wisdom flashed, and for a moment he recalled many Daoist arts from his previous life, minor techniques organized in the underworld, and scriptures that spoke only of the Dao and not of techniques. For a moment, the collision of wisdom caused Xu Jia to produce all kinds of thoughts, so he settled down. These thoughts seemed to be mostly wisdom, but they were also divided into useful and useless ones. For example, some people dream, suddenly dream of the truth, and wake up happily, wanting to write it down with a pen, only to find it is "bananas should be hung on the wall" or "number nine gasoline should be mixed with number three concrete and steamed into white rice"...

After settling for a while, the not-so-useful wisdom precipitated, and Xu Jia's Daoist Practice improved slightly.

Suddenly, a new Register technique emerged.

"Supreme Dragon Tiger Golden Register."

The seventh-tier Dao Register, which is the first register of the Earth Immortal stage.

This does not involve any "rebirth" transformation; this Dao Register is used to harmonize the dragon and tiger. The dragon is Qian, the tiger is Kun; the dragon is cloud, the tiger is wind; the dragon is Kan, the tiger is Li. In essence, it is simply "harmonizing yin and yang."

Beside Xu Jia's Spirit Embryo, a dragon and a tiger suddenly appeared to protect it; this is Xu Jia's yin-yang self-nature, with the dragon being yang and the tiger being yin.

Just like that, he opened his eyes, looked at his hands and feet, touched his head, and secretly said, "So this is the Achievement of an Earth Immortal?"

An Earth Immortal is merely a small achievement. If a cultivator obtains the correct method and has some talent, they can reach this small achievement in as little as twenty or thirty years, or as long as forty or fifty years.

It is just that most people do not obtain the correct method, their talent is ordinary, and they lack the twenty or thirty years of consistent, daily hard work.

"An Earth Immortal can dwell in the world, can create a Blessed Land, and even if the body withers, the Primordial Spirit does not die, remaining in the Dharma Realm for eight hundred years."

It turned out that the Primordial Spirit had already been nurtured and grown, changing from the state of an infant to that of a three or four-year-old child.

It was no longer ignorant, having already developed a preliminary consciousness and will. It was curiously exploring and perceiving the Inner Heaven and Earth within the body.

The so-called "Blessed Land" is, in fact, also an "Inner Heaven and Earth."

The circulation of the five viscera is already the "foundation of a Blessed Land." Furthermore, having cultivated the Jiujiang Shuidi, the mountains and waters are united; how could it not be considered an "Inner Landscape Blessed Land"?

This is the inner Blessed Land, while the outer Blessed Land is Sanqing Mountain and the Jade Mountain Administration.

It is just that having a Blessed Land without governing it well means the three-year-old image of the Primordial Spirit is insufficient to become an "Emperor."

When all is said and done, this path of the Earth Immortal still has a long way to go before entering the next stage of cultivation, which is the "God Immortal."

The Body Gods take their positions one after another, the Primordial Spirit achieves the size of a True Person, and the Inner Landscape Blessed Land is promoted to a Cave Heaven. Governing it is like governing a country; the hundred bodies are like the hundred officials, with the Yellow Court as the Heavenly Court and the Primordial Spirit as the Heavenly Emperor.

Xu Jia extinguished the thought of "soaring into the sky" and began to forge a "flying sword."

He saw himself holding the Kunlun Dragon Jade, his Dharma Power inhaling and exhaling; with each cycle, it became more refined.

At the same time, a strand of golden Qi was drawn into his body, entering the lung palace first. That gold Qi showed nothing on the outside, but once inside the body, it immediately transformed into an unruly golden Flood Dragon. This golden Flood Dragon seemed to have some intelligence, and with a roar, it began to charge about.

How could Xu Jia let it be so presumptuous? He immediately mobilized the Demon Gods. He saw the Nine-Child Mother Demon God emerge; the Demon Mother was surrounded by nine demon children. One demon child flew forward, pressed down its head, pulled its whiskers, and pinned its tail.

There was also a demon maiden absorbing the golden Flood Dragon's primordial Qi, transforming it into golden Flood Dragon Danyuan Qi.

The Five Elements Demon transformed into a great mountain, pressing down on each section.

Before long, this golden Flood Dragon died and dissipated. The golden Flood Dragon Danyuan Qi first entered the lung palace, where the inner and outer gold Qi combined—whether Geng or Xin—refining the rigid into the soft and twisting the blade into silk.

After the lung god of the gold palace processed it, it was personally escorted to the Spleen Palace. The Spleen Palace governs all Acquired Essence, so it cast an Acquired cinnabar cauldron; the liver god added firewood, the heart god burned the fire, the spleen god covered it with earth, and the kidney god quenched it with fire.

The Tiangang Great Sage came to fan the flames, and the Jiujiang Shuidi added creation.

Yellow Sprout, Heaven One, and cinnabar jade—these three treasures were added into the furnace together. Through such civil and martial fire refining, this strand of gold Qi finally transformed into the phantom of a golden pill and emerged from the furnace.

Thus, Xu Jia collected the second and third strands. After collecting and refining eighty-one strands of gold Qi, the golden mother suddenly lost its precious luster and color, cracked open, and the golden appearance vanished, looking like yellow copper.

The eighty-one furnace firings instantly combined with the "Dragon Register" within the "Supreme Dragon Tiger Golden Register," forming a golden dragon Sword Pill, completing one revolution, though it had not yet been returned to the fire for quenching.

Xu Jia then went to collect the Silver Essence Qi to forge the second Sword Pill; since there was a dragon, there must be a tiger.

The Silver Essence Qi entered the body and, although it transformed into a silver Flood Dragon, through forging, it was refined into the "form of a White Tiger."

After collecting thirty-six strands of silver mother Qi, it perfectly combined with the Tiger Register.

Once the dragon and tiger Sword Pills met, they did not harmonize but instead began to fight.

It turns out that nine is the number of the sun, and six is the number of the moon.

Nine-nine is the number of extreme yang, and six-six is the number of extreme yin.

In theory, extreme yang produces yin and extreme yin produces yang, but because they were refined in separate furnaces, they could not produce; they could only overcome.

For a time, within the Inner Landscape Blessed Land, there was the roaring of dragons and tigers. Your fiery sword Qi and his icy sword Qi—one cold, one hot, one yin, one yang—were in chaotic disorder, with wind and clouds converging.

Many Body Gods wanted to step in to subdue these two divine weapons but were injured by the sharp Qi.

It is necessary to harmonize the dragon and tiger, with one revolution and one return, to achieve initial completion and cultivate the dragon and tiger twin swords.

(End of chapter)