Chapter 5: All Buddhas Are Equal, The One True Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie

As soon as the pill elixir entered his stomach, a surge of refined energy erupted upward from his abdomen; a gentle warmth spread through his entire body, steam rising from his skin as if water were boiling.

Every acupoint in Chen Heng's body seemed to come alive and open up.

Had he been able to look inward at this moment, he would have seen countless red and white pill threads weaving ceaselessly through his blood and bones, like a spreading net binding the rampaging Cold Dipper True Qi, which raged like a wild dragon.

Yet that True Qi seemed to have gained a spirit of its own.

With a sudden surge, it broke free from its bonds and fled to another location.

The pill threads, however, refused to give up, continuing to entangle it densely and tightly.

Amid this struggle, Chen Heng's face shifted between red and white; his chest heaved, and he suddenly opened his mouth, spitting out several mouthfuls of black blood.

"No wonder it is a great yang-type medicinal pill... it truly works."

Seeing this, Chen Heng felt not fear but joy.

He took another small White Yang Pill from the porcelain bottle, dissolved it in water, swallowed it, and continued sitting cross-legged on his cushion to regulate his breath.

Thus three days passed.

Inside the grotto, Chen Heng, who had been sitting in meditation, suddenly opened his eyes.

He moved his limbs slightly, feeling as though a long-standing illness had vanished entirely; his qi and blood, once stagnant like dead water, now felt remarkably lively, and with each breath, he felt Fu Fu Shenan and his nature tranquil.

At this moment, the Cold Dipper True Qi within his body was finally bound fast by the pill threads, resembling a silkworm cocoon, temporarily subdued and motionless.

"With these two bottles of small White Yang Pills, suppressing the Cold Dipper True Qi for half a year should not be difficult; after half a year, it will be time to enter the Earth Abyss. If I die, then all is ended; if I am fortunate enough to survive, by then I should have found a Hun Qi Fa method and entered the Qi Cultivation realm."

In this world of Xu Dutian, the nine ranks and Thirty-Six Grades of True Qi are clearly distinguished.

Only True Qi of the seventh rank or above can lay a solid Dao foundation, paving a smooth path for future Jin Dan and even Primordial Spirit cultivation.

However.

Methods for cultivating high-grade True Qi are exceedingly rare to find.

Not only does the Xuanzhen Sect lack such secret treasures, but even across the vast Southern Region of Eastern Mi Province, they are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

Such exceedingly precious methods are recorded only within great Immortal and Demon sects or profound Daoist clans, and even then, they are not openly transmitted.

As for someone of ordinary, or perhaps even poor, aptitude like Chen Heng, it is difficult for him to catch the eye of those aloof and arrogant immortal gates.

Although he wished to cultivate upper-third-rank True Qi, if in the end he truly could not obtain it, then to save his life, Chen Heng would have no choice but to find some Qi cultivation technique to enter the Qi Cultivation stage.

Even if it meant settling for lower-third-rank True Qi, he could not afford to be too particular.

"However, while high-grade True Qi is important, lacking it does not mean one cannot achieve success on the path of cultivation.

The Daoist scriptures record that True Person Yan Xi possessed low-grade True Qi, an inferior Dao foundation, a lower-grade Purple Palace phenomenon, and the lowest grade of innate golden mercury, yet he still achieved Jin Dan and Primordial Spirit, eventually advancing to the Return to Void realm, establishing the 'Shun Lie Bi Yun Yuan Gu' Fan Fan Dongtian in the Eastern Sea, so much so that even elders from the eight great sects of the Daoist Gate sought his friendship."

Chen Heng swallowed another small White Yang Pill and reflected to himself:

"Pondering those stories further is of no benefit; what matters now is to first achieve fetal breathing and qi sensation, enter the threshold of the immortal path as soon as possible, and thereby secure some means of self-preservation for myself."

Achieving fetal breathing means departing from the mortal body forever.

A single arm's swing can wield divine strength equivalent to that of three horses.

Bones are cleansed and marrow transformed; the body becomes like metal and iron, and lifespan more than doubles that of a mortal, reaching the Ultimate Limit of one hundred and fifty years before qi and blood finally decline.

The realm of fetal breathing is revered in the mortal martial world as the Innate stage of martial arts, representing the Ultimate Limit and final destination of secular martial arts.

Martial artists who achieve the Innate stage are hailed as Grandmasters.

If such figures don heavy armor, wield sharp blades, and are supported by several fierce warhorses and a squad of elite troops.

With their terrifying strength, let alone defeating a thousand enemies, they could likely charge back and forth through ten thousand soldiers, sufficient to sway the outcome of an entire battle.

Therefore, if a Grandmaster who has achieved the martial Innate stage is willing to enter government service, the imperial court will not hesitate to reward them with fiefs and marquis titles; wealth and high rank in crimson and purple robes would be within easy reach.

Yet this Ultimate Limit and final destination of secular martial arts is merely the first gateway of the immortal path; those martial artists spend decades tempering their muscles and bones and boiling their organs, with only one in ten thousand achieving the Innate stage, only to end their old age riddled with injuries and ailments.

How can such a struggle compare to the immortal path, where a single moment of enlightenment brings success as naturally as water flowing into a channel?

"Secular martial arts? I wonder if there are other forms of martial arts?"

Chen Heng stopped overthinking, took a long sword he had recently purchased from the cave wall, and gripped the Golden Cicada firmly in his hand.

The cicada-shaped jade carving emitted a faint glow.

This object was crafted with extreme ingenuity; its face, antennae, back plate, legs, and claws were all depicted in minute detail, lifelike and vivid, while its pair of wings shone with a golden luster, bright and brilliantly radiant.

On the abdomen of the cicada, four tiny characters as small as flies were inscribed: "True Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie," nearly imperceptible to the eye.

As Chen Heng's mind moved, his vital essence flowed away; his face turned pale, and in an instant, he was pulled by the Golden Cicada into a mysterious space.

Murky and indistinct.

Here, there was no sky, sun, moon, or stars above, no vegetation or floating earth below; east, west, south, and north were indistinguishable, and no one knew its extent or where its boundaries lay.

It seemed that even if one spent countless lifetimes, one could never touch its edge.

"Although I already understood all its functions the moment I grasped the Golden Cicada in this world, seeing it with my own eyes still leaves me utterly astonished."

This place was empty and vast, a boundless wilderness that made one feel as if lost in clouds and mist.

Chen Heng casually found a spot to sit cross-legged, placed the long sword he had been holding across his knees, and praised aloud.

This universe is named the True Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie and possesses two functions.

First, upon entering this Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie, it simulates a mental image identical in every detail to oneself; regardless of cultivation realm or items currently carried, everything is perfectly replicated.

Any cultivation insights or realizations gained by the mental image within the Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie are fully transmitted to the true body outside upon exiting.

Even more remarkably, the death of the mental image within the Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie causes not the slightest harm to the true body outside, injuring neither vital essence nor depleting qi and blood.

Under the rule of "one day in the present world equals ten days in the Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie," this means Chen Heng has gained ten times the cultivation time of an ordinary person, no different from the great Fan Fan Dongtian inhabited by those Daoist immortals and true persons.

"If entering the True Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie did not require the Golden Cicada to extract my vital essence, a loss my body could not endure, why would I have needed to wait until now?"

Chen Heng looked around with great interest.

Had he not obtained the small White Yang Pills to nourish his body and bind the Cold Dipper True Qi, he would never have dared to activate the True Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie.

In the days before taking the pill, whenever he grasped the Golden Cicada to Enter the Yizhen Yizhen Fa Jie, a great sense of terror would repeatedly arise, sounding a warning in his heart.

It was only after taking the pill today that this terrifying sensation finally began to fade, though a feeling of exhaustion and weakness remained.

"And there are also the mind-aspects of others..."

Chen Heng slightly extended a finger, and three zhang before him, a Daoist with striking features and a sword strapped to his back spontaneously manifested.

A page of golden scripture hung suspended in midair above the Daoist's head; Chen Heng reached out, summoned it, and drew it into his embrace.