Bathing in fragrant water and clad in fresh garments, a revitalized Gu Caiyi sat quietly across from Luo Chen.
Her large eyes fluttered, filled with an intense blend of hope and apprehension.
"Can I truly rebuild my dantian?"
Luo Chen gave a gentle nod.
"This pill possesses the miraculous efficacy to bring the dead back to life; rebuilding a dantian is mere child's play for it."
"I originally intended to wait until your body refinement reached great attainment before having you take it."
"However, these are turbulent times. If sudden upheaval strikes, I may be hard-pressed to look after even myself, much less protect you. Therefore, the sooner you recover your cultivation and establish your foundation, the sooner you will possess the strength to protect yourself."
Gu Caiyi's expression turned solemn.
She was no ignorant child. Once her body began to recover, Luo Chen had ceased keeping certain matters from her.
Thus, she already knew that the Luotian Association was currently weathering a difficult period.
If she could achieve Foundation Establishment, she could share some of the burden on Luo Chen's shoulders.
Yuan Xiaoyue was still a bit too inexperienced, after all.
And besides, if Sima Huiniang could do it, why couldn't she, Gu Caiyi, do the same!
"Rest assured. Even though your body refinement has not reached great attainment, I have grown intimately familiar with your physical condition over the past six months. Once you swallow the medicine, I will protect and guide you through the entire process," Luo Chen said.
Gu Caiyi nodded firmly.
"I trust you!"
Luo Chen smiled faintly, then tapped her shoulder with one hand.
Gu Caiyi turned around, facing away from him.
He did not have her take the Rebirth Pill immediately.
His smile fading, Luo Chen wove his fingers like butterflies darting through blossoms, unleashing stream after stream of incantation seals.
The circulation pattern of the spiritual power was utterly unfamiliar, completely unlike any spell he had previously mastered.
In truth, this was a Tier 2 spell he had meticulously selected over the past half-year from the numerous spell tomes collected by the Luotian Association.
Or rather, it could be termed a medical art.
The Spring Wind Transforming Rain Art!
A water-attribute healing technique, it was not difficult to cultivate, though it placed relatively high demands on a cultivator's soul.
Yet this prerequisite was virtually nonexistent for Luo Chen.
With a soul foundation comparable to an eighth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator, mastering this art had been as natural as water flowing into a ditch.
At this moment, under his continuous casting,
streams of pure spiritual power rained into Gu Caiyi's body like gentle spring drizzle.
The spiritual rain rustled down.
Just as its healing effects were about to take hold, Luo Chen forcibly suppressed them with his spiritual sense, holding them in reserve for later use.
Only after casting eighteen consecutive Spring Wind Transforming Rain Arts did Luo Chen cease his movements.
"Phew..."
Exhaling a long breath, Luo Chen tapped Gu Caiyi's shoulder once more.
She turned back to face him, her eyes glistening as she looked into his.
"Take it! Rest assured, I will be here through it all."
"Mm!"
Without the slightest hesitation, bearing absolute trust in Luo Chen, Gu Caiyi tilted her head back and swallowed the Rebirth Pill.
In the next instant,
her face changed drastically!
An excruciating pain stemming from the depths of her soul erupted instantly.
Not only that, but her body began to twitch uncontrollably, blue veins bulging beneath her fair, supple skin like writhing green serpents.
Pain!
Agonizing pain!
"Focus your mind, hold your breath, and do not resist!"
"Do not attempt to mobilize the spiritual power accumulated within your body."
"Stay conscious! Under no circumstances must you black out!"
Luo Chen's words echoed word by word in the depths of her mind like the resonant tolls of a great bell.
Biting her lip, the woman slowly raised her head.
In mere moments, her eyes had become bloodshot.
Yet she actually forced a smile.
She parted her lips with great difficulty, wanting to say something, but beneath the agonizing torment, she could only produce an unearthly grating sound.
*Creeeak... creeeak...*
Luo Chen's face was solemn to the extreme. His powerful soul surged entirely into her body at this moment.
Passing through the eight extraordinary meridians, apertures, and spiritual acupoints, it traveled directly to her dantian.
Through more than half a year of meticulous, hands-on care,
he had become as familiar with this body as anyone could possibly be.
Now, under his watchful gaze, the battered dantian shattered completely under the sweep of a surging medicinal force!
Destruction precedes creation; from ruin comes rebirth!
Such was the true essence of bringing the dead back to life!
Yet destruction was easy, while rebuilding was arduous beyond measure.
The instant the dantian shattered, a thunderous roar echoed from within Gu Caiyi's body, and she began to fall backward.
Before she could collapse, however, a solid, broad hand caught and supported her.
"Endure this step, and everything will get better!"
With those words spoken by her ear, Gu Caiyi, who was on the verge of fainting from the pain, seemed to regain a spark of vitality.
*Indeed!*
*I've endured all those years.*
*How could I fail at this final step?*
*Gu Caiyi, if you fall asleep now, you will never see him again.*
*Are you truly willing to let go?*
...
Rebuilding a dantian was no fleeting matter.
Ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators could never endure such excruciating pain.
It was only because Gu Caiyi had regularly taken Nether-Passage Pills, elevating her soul foundation to a level comparable to the early Foundation Establishment stage, that she could even hold on.
Even so, under such agony, her physical constitution alone would never have weathered the storm.
In the end, her body refinement was still insufficient.
But Luo Chen had anticipated this.
Confronting the situation, he took a deep breath, and his finger struck out like lightning.
In a flash, it tapped across eighteen acupoints on Gu Caiyi's body.
The next moment, Gu Caiyi writhed violently in his arms like a wounded white serpent.
Pain—it was still painful.
However, instead of remaining concentrated in a single spot, the agony was evenly distributed across the eighteen acupoints.
In this way, though the pain lingered, it was no longer utterly unbearable.
This was precisely Luo Chen using the method of the Spirit Clarifying Evil Dispelling art to stimulate the key acupoints on her body.
To prevent her from being overwhelmed, Luo Chen had deliberately stimulated only eighteen points.
A complete application of the Spirit Clarifying Evil Dispelling art required stimulating thirty-six major acupoints in a single breath.
Furthermore, he had another contingency prepared!
"Activate!"
With a low shout from Luo Chen,
the spiritual energy of the eighteen Spring Wind Transforming Rain Arts he had previously suppressed and concealed diffused in an instant.
Like a spring breeze bringing rain, it soaked into the eighteen acupoints.
Numb and tingling, aching yet soothing.
The thrashing of the beauty in his embrace gradually subsided.
Throughout this process, the remodeling of her dantian was steadily reaching completion.
Before long,
this step was finished.
Yet what followed would be no easier.
Luo Chen straightened her body, looked into her eyes, and transmitted his voice via spiritual sense:
"Circulate your natal cultivation method!"
"Disregard whether your meridians can bear it; channel as much of the spiritual energy accumulated within your body as possible into your dantian."
"Hurry!"
As he spoke, he boldly initiated the Spirit-Captivation Technique.
His eyes grew deep and mysterious, his soul heavy and commanding.
Like a marionette under his overwhelming presence, Gu Caiyi subconsciously circulated her natal cultivation method.
Under this guidance,
the massive store of spiritual energy previously accumulated throughout her body surged into the reconstructed dantian all at once, like swallows returning to their nest or ten thousand rivers converging into the sea.
This process appeared smooth,
yet the agony it inflicted on the cultivator was second only to the earlier reconstruction of the dantian.
It was akin to an iron fragment blasting into a human body.
It hurt fiercely at the moment of impact, but if left unextracted, one would grow accustomed to it over the years,
as if it had become one with the flesh.
If someone attempted to pry that iron piece out years later, however,
it would be no different from tearing out living flesh!
Now, this spiritual energy accumulated over many years was precisely that piece of iron!
With Gu Caiyi's own abilities, she would never have been able to accomplish this.
Thus, Luo Chen had to act as a "surgeon" performing an operation.
The Spirit-Captivation Technique was the scalpel in his hand.
At this moment, Gu Caiyi's circulation of her natal method was virtually under his semi-control.
Over the past six months, he had studied her Qi Refinement cultivation method countless times.
Fortunately,
everything proceeded relatively smoothly!
Time slipped away unnoticed.
The sun rose and set, and when deep night descended,
the door of the cultivation chamber swung open.
In the living room, Bai Meiling instantly opened her eyes and saw Luo Chen emerge carrying an unconscious Gu Caiyi.
"Master, was it a success?"
Luo Chen nodded, looking weary.
He carried Gu Caiyi back to her bed, tucked the blanket around her, and then walked out.
"Over the next few days, she will likely remain asleep. Keep an eye on her for me."
Xiao Ling nodded hurriedly. "Mhm, I will, Master!"
Luo Chen smiled, patted her head, and turned to enter his own quarters to rest.
At this moment,
though fatigued, he did not immediately rest, instead taking out a bronze mirror.
Gazing at the bronze mirror, Luo Chen fell into deep contemplation.
Gu Caiyi's injury could be considered healed.
Her dantian had been reconstructed. Although her meridians had been battered into disarray by the backflowing spiritual energy, under the residual medicinal strength of the Rebirth Pill, they would naturally mend over time.
However!
There was an aftereffect.
The barrier of the reconstructed dantian was excessively thick.
When the time came to break through to Foundation Establishment, shattering it once more would not be easy.
It was similar to the pill poison barrier he had faced back then.
On that occasion, Luo Chen had relied on his formidable physique and unyielding willpower, forcing a breakthrough in one breath by taking five portions of Foundation Establishment spiritual medicine in succession to barely succeed.
Gu Caiyi, however, lacked such a foundation.
Therefore, once she recovered from her injuries, attempting another breakthrough to Foundation Establishment would still be fraught with immense difficulty.
Caressing the bronze mirror in his hands, an idea faintly surfaced in Luo Chen's mind.
*When this item was intact, it could assist cultivators at the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment in simulating the core formation process.*
*Though damaged now and incapable of reaching that level,*
*would it be feasible to use it to help cultivators at the Great Circle of Qi Refinement simulate the Foundation Establishment process?*
Back when he had saved Xing Zonghan,
the man had also gifted Luo Chen the records concerning the Ghost-God Heart-Questioning Mirror.
Only after that did Luo Chen learn the proper usage of the mirror.
Pairing it with the Lanke Black Chess Piece was central.
At the same time, it required a cultivator of higher cultivation to stand guard beside the user, interrupting the process at critical moments to prevent the simulation from going too deep.
The reason Luo Chen's great dream had lasted for over two hundred years back then was precisely because no elder had been there to protect him, causing him to become deeply ensnared.
"I have refined the magic treasure, the Lanke Black Chess Piece, for years. Even if I cannot unleash its full power, protecting a Qi Refinement cultivator is more than within my grasp."
"With my soul strength, forcibly interrupting a Qi Refinement cultivator's simulation will also be simple."
"If I can work out the optimal method, I will be able to help Caiyi smoothly establish her foundation."
"No!"
"I could even extend this method to other cultivators in the Luotian Association who need to achieve Foundation Establishment."
"When the time comes, by using Foundation Establishment Pills exchanged with battle merits from the Mount Thunder Accumulation battlefield, mixed with the Emperor's Flowing Syrup I concoct myself, and combining them with this method, I could completely manufacture a host of Foundation Establishment True Cultivators en masse under a veil of secrecy!"
Thinking up to this point, Luo Chen's breathing could not help but quicken.
Having witnessed how Azure Pill Valley possessed hundreds or even thousands of Foundation Establishment cultivators at any time, he had grown dissatisfied with the Luotian Association having only a handful.
If he had a large number of Foundation Establishment True Cultivators under his command,
he would possess far greater leeway no matter what he did.
Opening branch stores? Seizing territory? Participating in wars?
Or even establishing a sect in the future!
Caressing the Ghost-God Heart-Questioning Mirror in his hands, Luo Chen finally understood why this object, despite being merely a low-grade magic treasure, could stand alongside the high-grade Demon Locking Pagoda as one of Ghost Spirit Valley's two supreme treasures!
"Still, for now, I should get a good sleep first!"
Rubbing the space between his brows, Luo Chen suppressed the excitement in his chest and fell into a deep slumber.
Chapter 356