The young woman spat repeatedly in disgust, thoroughly guilt-ridden and terrified that the bronze bell would lay bare her inner state.
The bronze bell exposed her without mercy, saying, "Young lady, look up at your Golden Core. See what it has turned into? Do you still have the gall to claim those weren't your own thoughts?"
Hua Xianchen hurriedly looked up. Sure enough, she saw that her Golden Core had become foul and sullied. Originally, the Golden Core had shone with a brilliant golden luster and radiated countless divine rays, capable of illuminating a speck of dust in the air or the darkest depths of the void!
Yet now, this tainted Golden Core emitted not a shred of light!
The bronze bell said earnestly, "Your Golden Core was polluted by your own thoughts. Grow a bit of a Dao heart, why don't you, instead of constantly dwelling on such indecent notions? Ah Ying, even if this girl receives your authentic teachings, she still won't become an immortal. Her innate disposition is lacking."
Xu Ying gripped the stone axe and rested its blade against the Golden Core. Instantly, the corrupted core began to regain its clarity. Xu Ying smiled and said, "Lord Bell, what even is innate disposition? Humans are inherently a tangled mix of all kinds of thoughts. If one could become an immortal simply by being pure of mind and having a good disposition, what would be the point of cultivating?"
Hearing this, Hua Xianchen was touched. *Brother Ying really knows how to speak kindly. Not at all like this bell—one glance and you can tell it came from a Buddhist temple, thoroughly warped by those monks long ago.*
With a sweet smile, she asked, "Brother Ying, why haven't you been tainted by the demonic nature in the stone axe?"
Not without pride, Xu Ying chuckled. "My innate disposition is good."
Hua Xianchen's face darkened. *Jackals from the same lair—they're both basically monks!* she thought.
Xu Ying said, "Miss Hua, you should go cultivate first. With your poor disposition, you'll likely need to spend some time contemplating before you can comprehend and cultivate the Samadhi true fire. As for this Golden Core, I'm afraid you will also need to cultivate Samadhi divine water. By combining the powers of water and fire, you can grind away with patient, painstaking effort, thoroughly refining out all the baleful auras within your Golden Core. If you cannot refine them away completely, it will be very difficult to cultivate a Primordial Spirit."
Hua Xianchen frowned upon hearing this. "Must I cultivate Samadhi divine water as well? Water and fire cannot tolerate each other—how can they coexist?"
She felt vexed. Cultivating the Samadhi true fire was already hard enough; adding the diametrically opposed Samadhi divine water on top of it, who knew how long it would take before she could master it!
Xu Ying looked puzzled. "How did you refine your Golden Core in the first place? In the Cross-Refinement stage, the cross-refinement of water and fire uses Samadhi divine water and Samadhi true fire to forge the cauldron, thereby forging the Golden Core."
Hua Xianchen said in a low voice, "But during the Cross-Refinement stage, water and fire already exist naturally. A sea of fire is born there, along with the water of the Heavenly River, which is just right for cross-refining water and fire. That's how everyone refines their Golden Core..."
Xu Ying was speechless for a good while before finally saying, "You all refine it like that?"
Hua Xianchen nodded.
"Then it's no wonder Qi Refiners were replaced by Nuo masters. You can even practice your own cultivation methods wrong and understand your own realms with glaring errors! It's already a miracle that you haven't killed yourselves in the process!" Xu Ying laughed out of sheer exasperation.
Hua Xianchen opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it and held her tongue. *Every year, plenty of Qi Refiners end up dead from cultivation, many dying of qi deviation. Could it be that we really have been doing it wrong?*
Mustering her courage, she asked, "Why could we still form a Golden Core even without Samadhi divine water and Samadhi true fire?"
"How would I know?" Xu Ying snapped irritably. "I'm only at the fourth heaven of the Pass-Breaching stage; I haven't even reached the Cross-Refinement stage yet. I don't possess the cultivation method for Samadhi divine water, so I have no way of explaining the trick behind it to you."
Hua Xianchen's eyes lit up. Hurrying outward, she smiled and said, "I know someone who has been painstakingly cultivating Samadhi divine water. He's sure to have the true method!"
Noticing the little phoenix, Xiao Fengxian, standing nearby, she hesitated for a moment. Her eyes flickered with thought as she inquired, "Should I wait a while before visiting again? About how long will Old Ancestor Xu need?"
Xu Ying waved his hand. "The sooner, the better."
Hua Xianchen looked at him in surprise, thinking to herself, *No wonder. After all, he's a figure from the same era as Old Ancestor Xu Fu; it's only natural that his physical functions have declined.*
She departed in haste. Before long, she returned, accompanied by another person—a Qi Refiner from the era of Emperor Wu of the Eastern Han named Dong Meiqing, a man of burly and imposing stature.
Aside from Xu Fu, he was the eldest among them, and his cultivation was the most profound and vigorous. He had formed his Primordial Spirit, elevating his realm all the way to the Ascension stage!
Dong Meiqing possessed unfathomable strength and was also well-versed in Samadhi divine water. He immediately brought out his ancestral manual, the *Five Lamps Divine Water Guide*, holding it respectfully with both hands as he presented it to Xu Ying. "Old Ancestor Xu, the *Five Lamps Divine Water Guide* was passed down from my ancestors; my late father bestowed it upon me. Though my talent is shallow and my learning meager, I relied on this supreme skill to cleanse my physical body, Golden Core, and Primordial Spirit, granting me an exceptionally long lifespan. To this day, my mortal body remains unaged. Yet in recent years, I have felt my lifespan drawing to its close."
Xu Ying opened the *Five Lamps Divine Water Guide*. Beside the scripture were dense annotations, evidently the insights of Dong Meiqing's ancestors over generations of cultivating this art.
Reading it from beginning to end, Xu Ying found that while there were indeed a few flaws in the annotations, remarkably few existed—it could even rival Granny Tuo's Immortal Scripture!
Granny Tuo's Immortal Scripture was an annotation of the *Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing* by the ancient Qi Refiner Granny Tuo, an exceedingly rare work that pointed straight toward ascension.
The *Five Lamps Divine Water Guide* also pointed straight toward ascension, though it was slightly inferior.
Xu Ying closed the *Five Lamps Divine Water Guide* and asked, "You only cultivated divine water, not true fire?"
Dong Meiqing shook his head. "I have never cultivated it."
Xu Ying paced around him in circles, then abruptly stopped. "Do you live inside a volcano?"
Dong Meiqing asked in astonishment, "How did the Old Ancestor know?"
"If you hadn't lived in a volcano, you would have died long ago," Xu Ying said. "While Samadhi divine water can wash away the impurities in your body, Primordial Spirit, and Golden Core, it also hollows you out. Since you have no Samadhi true fire within you to elevate your fiery nature, you had no choice but to dwell inside a volcano. Even that wouldn't have been enough—you must have taken some miracle elixir or miraculous medicine, something worthy of an immortal, to withstand the hollowed-out drain of the Samadhi divine water! What did you consume?"
Dong Meiqing shook his head. "I have never consumed any miraculous elixir of the immortals."
Xu Ying was surprised. After pondering for a moment, his eyes suddenly brightened, and he laughed. "You are a Nuo master!"
Dong Meiqing's expression shifted dramatically. He quickly glanced left and right, and seeing no one around, he finally confessed, "The Old Ancestor has peerless insight. During the reign of Emperor Wu, Heaven-Human Induction was all the rage. Though I was a Qi Refiner, I was unable to stay above the trend and cultivated a kind of Nuo art. Qi Refiners generally look down on Nuo masters. Although some among us opened secret depositories and cultivated Nuo arts, we all kept it discreet."
Xu Ying thought nothing of it and said, "I've opened secret depositories as well. Was it the Mud Pill secret depository you opened?"
Dong Meiqing confirmed that it was.
"Then it's no wonder. The Mud Pill secret depository can pilfer immortal medicine. The Samadhi divine water hollowed out your body, so a massive amount of longevity immortal medicine accumulated inside you, enabling you to live until now."
Xu Ying found it odd and asked, "Then why haven't you been eaten?"
Dong Meiqing was thoroughly bewildered. Realizing his slip, Xu Ying hurriedly shifted the topic. "Who passed you the Mud Pill Palace Nuo art you cultivate?"
Dong Meiqing said, "When they dismissed all other schools and gave sole reverence to the Nuo arts, there were numerous techniques concerning the Six Secrets circulating freely; anyone could learn them. Later, an abnormality arose with Heaven-Human Induction, and only then did people gradually stop passing down the Six Secrets techniques on their own initiative."
Xu Ying asked, puzzled, "An abnormality arose with Heaven-Human Induction? What kind of abnormality?"
Dong Meiqing recalled his childhood and said, "Back then, I was still young. Blessed with an ancestral skill, I had cultivated a body of yuan qi, so I studied the Nuo arts and opened a secret depository. In those days, everyone opened their depositories by themselves, and Heaven-Human Induction was extremely popular. Later, as more and more people communed with heaven, the sky began to twist, and the earth floated in the sky."
Not only did the earth float in the sky, but vast rivers spanning tens of thousands of li drifted through the heavens as well!
Standing upon high ground, one could reach out and touch the peaks floating above! A Qi Refiner could leap straight up and dive into an ocean suspended in the sky!
Heaven-Human Induction warped the entire world. In Dong Meiqing's childhood memories, an enormous abyss began devouring heaven, earth, and all living beings. He had spent his early years fleeing, hiding from east to west, living in constant, agonizing dread.
By the time heaven and earth quieted down, the world had assumed its later form.
Shenzhou had shrunk on a massive scale, and the Yuanshou Continent had become incomparably smaller than before. Meanwhile, the other Qi Refiners had vanished without a trace at some unknown point.
Those mighty beings simply evaporated from the mortal realm. The world had altered its face, turning into something wholly alien.
Gradually, Qi Refiners died out, and the Nuo arts rose to prominence.
Listening to his account, Xu Ying fell into deep thought. Judging by Dong Meiqing's experiences, the Nuo arts circulating during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty were the authentic Nuo arts, capable of stealing immortal medicine!
Just as stated in the opening lines of the *Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Longevity Art* obtained by Zhou Qiyun: *Gather qi in the Mud Pill Palace, and reel in the divine medicine of the immortals!*
Back then, the Nuo arts could both steal immortal medicine and refine it. It was thanks to this authentic Nuo art that Dong Meiqing had survived to this day without being scoured to death by the Samadhi divine water.
Yet why had the genuine Nuo arts of that era vanished along with those lost Qi Refiners?
Why had the Nuo arts handed down to the present day devolved into a man-eating trap?
*What exactly went wrong with Heaven-Human Induction?* Xu Ying looked up at the sky, profoundly perplexed.
Near the end of antiquity, the craze for Heaven-Human Induction must have been intensely fervent. Yet records of that era were exceedingly scarce, as though history had been deliberately wiped clean, hidden from posterity.
Xu Ying extracted the method for cultivating Samadhi divine water from the *Five Lamps Divine Water Guide*, corrected several errors in the text, and learned the art of Samadhi divine water in passing.
Returning the *Five Lamps Divine Water Guide* to Dong Meiqing, he said, "Disseminate the deciphered and corrected methods of Samadhi divine water and Samadhi true fire. Have the Qi Refiners cultivate them diligently. Those who have already formed their Golden Cores or Primordial Spirits must also use the water-fire cross-refinement method to re-refine and purge the impurities from their cores and spirits before they can advance any further! Also, transcribe a copy of your Nuo art and bring it for me to see."
Overjoyed, Dong Meiqing hurried off.
Yuan Qi watched him leave and couldn't help sighing with emotion. "Ah Ying, this man must be a prodigy blessed by heaven, mustn't he? Relying merely on a flawed cultivation manual and a single Nuo art, he actually cultivated his way to the Ascension stage. In the ancient era of Qi Refiners, a figure like this would surely have been destined to ascend!"
The bronze bell also sighed wistfully. "It's a pity Dong Meiqing was born into the Dharma-ending age of the Qi Refiners, letting his immense talent go to waste. Moreover, he took the wrong path, opening only the Mud Pill secret depository while leaving the rest of the Six Secrets untouched. In this life, he is destined never to reach the pinnacle!"
A few days later, Dong Meiqing delivered his transcription of the Mud Pill Palace Nuo art. Xu Ying perused it carefully. Sure enough, this manual contained the method to refine the longevity immortal medicine, allowing it to fully convert into one's own vitality and prolong lifespan!
In contrast, the *Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Longevity Art* only taught how to reel in the divine medicine, containing no instruction on how to refine it.
*Zhou Qiyun died an injustice. Had he refined the longevity immortal medicine to prolong his life, he wouldn't have been so desperate to ascend. If only he could have lived a few more years, he could have made his preparations with ease—and who would have emerged victorious between him and the master of the Mud Pill Palace would still have been anyone's guess,* Xu Ying reflected silently.
Over the past few days, Qi Refiners had continually called upon him, presenting their treasured manuals and secret records for Xu Ying to decipher and explain. Some were ancient, fragmented scrolls preserving merely a few lines of text; repairing such secret manuals was a demanding task even for Xu Ying.
It took him several hours just to mend a single fragmented scripture.
Though it was arduous work, Xu Ying gained an immense harvest, mastering a myriad of Qi Refiner divine abilities and arts. Where he had once known only a few Nuo arts, casting various divine abilities and magical arts was now second nature to him!
Even more crucially, he had now patched the missing method from the *Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Longevity Art*. Capable of refining the longevity immortal medicine, his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. As the surging vitality was refined into his body, both his physical form and soul grew steadily stronger!
"Lord Xu, our preparations are complete. It is time to set out to resurrect the First Emperor," Xu Fu said, coming to find him.
Xu Ying asked, "Where is the First Emperor?"
Xu Fu said, "Sealed within Mount Li. I have already leaked word that a supreme treasure has surfaced at Mount Li, allowing those Nuo master clans to scout the way first. Once they have offered their own blood as sacrifice, we will enter, sparing ourselves a great deal of peril. Furthermore..."
Pausing briefly, he invited Xu Ying onto Mount Fangzhang and smiled faintly. "Resurrecting the First Emperor requires many human lives. I need only spread the rumor, and those lives will deliver themselves there willingly, without any need for me to dirty my own hands."
As Mount Fangzhang sailed northwest, Xu Ying thought, *Has Chanchan found her artifact yet? If she doesn't show up soon, it will be too late!*
At the Haojing ruins.
Zhu Chanchan threaded through the mountains beyond Haojing when she suddenly spotted a peak. Overjoyed, she rushed toward it at once.
Before she could reach the peak, she saw hundreds of Nuo masters slaughtering one another at the base of the mountain, fighting over treasures. That mountain was a peak that had newly emerged with the land. When it first appeared, it looked utterly ordinary, but after a recent thunderstorm, several artifacts had washed down from the slopes, mostly forged from bronze.
There were bronze cauldrons, bronze trees, bronze swords, and other treasures, each extraordinarily powerful. The commotion had alerted the neighboring clans, drawing them here to vie for the spoils.
Seeing Zhu Chanchan fly over, the crowd grew wary. Yet when they saw that she had not come to seize the treasures and was flying toward the mountain peak instead, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhu Chanchan arrived before the cliff at the foot of the mountain, gazing up at the peak with visible excitement.
She reached out to gently caress the cliff face, murmuring softly, "I'm back... After six thousand years, I've returned. Do you still remember me? Do you remember every single imprint I carved into you? Come out—today, I will undo your seal!"
Suddenly, the entire mountain shook violently. Huge slabs of rock broke away from the mountain's surface, gradually revealing the bronze patterns hidden within the mountain's core!
The entire mountain was a colossal artifact!
This was none other than the Feilai Peak that Zhu Chanchan had forged using her "scrap materials"!
Chapter 121