Chapter 53

Anuo fainted.

Actually, the Flame Demon was also about to faint. To put it bluntly, it was just a newborn demon; it probably hadn't even had consciousness for a year, and its strength was just so-so. Encountering Anuo’s completely unreasonable "mutual destruction" style of fighting, it had been tortured until it only had one breath left.

Lu Xingzhou angrily took a pile of talismans and slapped them on in a flurry. A scream came from inside the crystal: "You humans are the real demons! You’re all fucking sick!"

Demonic energy drifted about, and a black shadow struggled desperately to drill out.

Lu Xingzhou took out the half-destroyed Ten Thousand Soul Banner and slid the Flame Demon’s soul into it: "I’ll slowly process you later!"

The air quieted down, leaving only a fiery red crystal in Anuo’s hand, which she was gripping tightly.

"Essence of Flame Fire." Dugu Qingli’s eyes were strange: "An innate fire crystal of the same grade as the spirit water crystal."

Lu Xingzhou knew why Anuo had fought so hard. Anuo’s medical knowledge was equally rich; she must have felt at a glance that this thing had a high probability of being able to refine bones, and it was especially suited to Lu Xingzhou’s fire-attribute cultivation.

This child was clearly so afraid of fire... clearly so afraid of fire.

Lu Xingzhou silently checked Anuo’s pulse and condition. His expression became a bit strange, and he quickly took out an elixir and fed it to Anuo.

Anuo’s little Daoist robe was burned to tatters, but the skin revealed was still as crystal-clear as snow, without a single burn. Her current fainting was merely due to exhaustion and overexertion, and being scared out of her wits by the fear of fire and death while in that state...

She probably even saw her life flash before her eyes...

"This little thing..." Lu Xingzhou was both moved and amused. He held Anuo in his arms and whispered: "Let’s go back."

All three looked up. Although they had fallen from here, they couldn't see how to get out from here. At this moment, they had no heart to investigate carefully; they would just take the pool water. Lu Xingzhou’s wheelchair even had a water-avoidance shield...

…………

The first snow finally began to drift down.

Lu Xingzhou sat by the pool behind the house, quietly watching the snowflakes drift down, falling into the pool and melting away.

It was the second day since they returned. Lu Xingzhou’s own soul injury had healed after a sleep, but Anuo was still sleeping from her overexertion.

After Shen Tang crawled out from there, she found a new wheelchair and returned to the Danxia Mountain side in a broken state.

Jin Mingxiu had followed them on the expedition and "unfortunately sacrificed himself." She still had to give a suitable explanation to her sect; after all, Jin Mingxiu had no obvious problems on the surface and held a certain prestige in the hearts of the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples.

However, both Shen Tang and Dugu Qingli had suffered non-trivial injuries, which showed the intensity of the battle and made it easier to explain.

Dugu Qingli naturally went to protect the injured Shen Tang; that was the AI little Bai Mao’s first directive, so the lively expedition team was left with only Lu Xingzhou alone again.

He had no heart to care about those things and was pondering this harvest.

The harvest was too great.

These two water and fire crystals could indeed both be used to refine bones. The spirit water crystal was even quite close in shape and size, needing only a little refining and carving; the Essence of Flame Fire was a prismatic crystal and would need to be refined to change its shape.

The two treasures were of equal grade. It seemed like he had solved the problem of both legs in one go, but "water and fire are incompatible."

Theoretically, it was very difficult to combine such attributes in one person; there would be a great conflict, and to be cautious, one could only choose one.

But Lu Xingzhou felt there was still a chance.

Because this secret realm was fundamentally an imagery of water and fire combined—the terrain was like this, the secret realm was like this, the alchemy layout was like this... then what about the essence obtained from within? Could it be that they conflicted?

Could it be that they couldn't be refined together to achieve a balance of water and fire?

Under normal circumstances, it couldn't be done, but since the original owner of this cave dwelling could refine pills with this, he could likely gain something by referring to his things.

Lu Xingzhou pulled out a jade slip.

The vast majority of the jade slips on that shelf were alchemy records and insights, as well as many high-grade prescriptions, which would need to be slowly digested in the future. There was only one cultivation technique, named "Yin-Yang Ultimate Intent Technique."

The original owner’s dragon-tiger embrace, yin-yang harmony, and water-fire balance could all be referenced from this technique; this was the core philosophy of this technique.

But this technique was incomplete; it only had the general outline and the Martial Sutra.

Yes, the original owner, such a typical Daoist cultivator and typical alchemist, used a Martial Sutra as his reference material.

This certainly wasn't the original owner’s legacy. He hadn't planned for his afterlife in his own cave dwelling, and there was no reason for him to leave a legacy intact. It could only have been obtained from elsewhere, and he must have studied it day and night, which was why it was placed on the shelf, together with the alchemy notes he frequently recorded, belonging to the kind he constantly reviewed and pondered.

And it was highly probable that he only began the subsequent series of operations after obtaining this technique for reference.

Theoretically, a technique that emphasized yin and yang so much should be a Daoist treasure, or rather, Dao-Martial dual cultivation itself was a manifestation of yin and yang, but here there was only the Martial Sutra part, which was clearly missing.

Even with most of the essentials missing, it was still a solid super-grade technique, not inferior to the Imperial Supreme World-Shocking Sutra.

Therefore, the prerequisite for wanting to use both water and fire treasures to refine bones at the same time was to first practice this "Yin-Yang Ultimate Intent Technique," so that one could balance both water and fire without conflict; conversely, once the two treasures successfully refined the bones, it would further promote the practice of the "Yin-Yang Ultimate Intent Technique," complementing each other.

Lu Xingzhou’s own martial arts cultivation was no longer his family’s technique; it was also obtained from the Yama Hall, very biased toward assassination and sneak attacks, like the Bone-Piercing Nail... He didn't hesitate now and directly dispersed his cultivation, without any regret.

Dispersing cultivation had a certain amount of damage to the meridians and dantian. If one’s cultivation was high, dispersing it might lead to being crippled. But Lu Xingzhou’s mere Seventh Rank cultivation hadn't reached that point. Feeling slight damage to his meridians and dantian, he quickly swallowed an elixir and recuperated fully.

Then, without stopping, he followed the instructions of the technique, drawing in the yin and yang qi of heaven and earth to form the ultimate of his own universe.

In this mountain of dragon and tiger, with yin and yang embracing, the advantage was unique.

Before long, he felt yin and yang qi born from his dantian, rapidly growing and strengthening. Following the technique’s pathways, he circulated it through several major cycles, and the true qi surged, reaching the edge of the Ninth Rank.

Although dispersing cultivation had drawbacks, the benefits were equally obvious: he had very sufficient experience for cultivation and breakthroughs.

Lu Xingzhou didn't even think about it. With his hands held in a void, circling the Taiji, the two qi in his dantian began to spin violently, gradually changing from invisible void qi to observable thin mist.

Void qi becoming visible was the sign of entering the Martial Cultivator’s Qi Refining stage, which was the Ninth Rank.

Lu Xingzhou opened his eyes. The quality of this mere Ninth Rank true qi already felt no worse than his previous Seventh Rank true qi...

He tried to throw a punch at a rock by the pool. Where the fist wind passed, the rock was agitated, and a shallow pit was punched out.

And this was just entering the Ninth Rank... just the fist wind could reach this level! Before this, he wouldn't have dared to imagine it. A super-grade technique is indeed a super-grade technique; no wonder Shen Tang treats those of the same level like children, playing with them.

Introspecting the yin and yang qi inside his body, the qi that was previously mixed and difficult to distinguish could now be very clearly separated into yin and yang, but the two crossed and spiraled, a bit like a DNA chain, spreading throughout his body.

If the water and fire crystals were refined into legs and the energy corresponded, it should also be possible to distinguish and unify them in this way.

"Master." Anuo’s voice came from behind.

Lu Xingzhou turned his head and saw Anuo rubbing her sleepy eyes, walking to the door with a thumping sound: "Master, why do I feel like your aura has changed..."

"Tsk, sensitive little brat." Lu Xingzhou turned his wheelchair and opened his arms with a smile: "Come give Master a hug."

Anuo ran over with a smile and jumped directly into Lu Xingzhou’s arms with a "thud."

"Hey, take it easy, if you crash into me with that much weight, the wheelchair will slide into the pool..."

"Master, did you feed me immortal medicine again... I clearly felt like I was about to die, how come I’m fine after waking up? Shouldn't I be a charred lump like a roasted sweet potato..."

"..." Lu Xingzhou kept a straight face: "You were a roasted sweet potato, but Master took a brush and brushed you white again."

Anuo scratched her head.

"Don't do that again in the future." Lu Xingzhou pinched her cheeks seriously: "Master doesn't need you to be powerful or helpful; I just hope you are safe and sound."

"I’m not afraid!" Anuo squeezed her small fists: "If it weren't for the fact that I’m afraid of fire, if I had a different attribute, I would have beaten it to death. Just a little demon..."

Lu Xingzhou said: "Have you ever thought that you aren't actually afraid of fire at all? Although you are wood-attributed and indeed overcome by fire, none of the wood-attributed cultivators we’ve seen are afraid of fire to this extent."

"Ah?"

"The facts prove that this Flame Demon couldn't burn you at all; not even a patch of skin was scorched."

Anuo’s eyes went cross-eyed; she couldn't understand it herself.

Since she was born with fear, how could she not be burned?

If she couldn't understand it, she wouldn't think about it. Anuo’s eyes were bright: "Is that piece of Essence of Flame Fire useful?"

"Yes." Lu Xingzhou rubbed her cheeks: "Refining bones is somewhat similar to refining pills... these two crystals are the main materials, and I still need to add some other auxiliary materials. It’s relatively simple; I’ve already asked Shen Tang to find them. Once the materials are ready, we will start refining."

Anuo hesitated: "Is your Seventh Rank fire enough?"

"It’s not enough, but the place where you jumped down to be burned is enough. That place could even refine Dragon-Tiger Immortal Pills, let alone these few things."

Anuo muttered: "That fire couldn't burn me to death, is it really useful?"

Lu Xingzhou looked at her again, his eyes filled with contemplation.

Although there was the factor of the Fire-Avoidance Talismans, those talismans weren't made by him; they were things Anuo had swiped from the Yama Hall before, and they were of a very high grade. After the Fire-Avoidance Talismans were destroyed, Anuo jumped out, and what she faced was only the fire of a small Flame Demon, which was not in the same league.

But even so, being able to stay down there for so long was still outrageous. That heat wave wasn't something a normal cultivator could endure; if it were him, Lu Xingzhou, he probably wouldn't have been able to stay for even a second.

Anuo added: "Also, that Essence of Flame Fire was in there for a long time and didn't melt. If you take it to burn now, can you change its shape?"

Lu Xingzhou gave her a flick on the forehead: "What do you think the auxiliary materials I asked Shen Tang to collect are? They are things they use to help melt various high-grade minerals when refining flying swords! This is the Sword Sect!"

Anuo held her head, her eyes still bright and full of joy.

It wasn't that she really couldn't think of these things; it was just because Master’s lifelong wish was about to be fulfilled, and she felt it deeply, worrying about gains and losses.

After all, the ten years Master spent searching were also Anuo’s ten years.

————

ps: The wheelchair man is preparing to take off, please vote~