Xu Ying's divine sense floated above the Heavenly River. He had no idea how immense a shock his planting the Dao in the light field had delivered to the bronze bell. He had simply acted on impulse, cultivating naturally without any deliberate intention to produce such a result.
Planting the Dao in the light field and taking the Dao seeds into his body caused his cultivation to climb by leaps and bounds.
He looked up to see the Heavenly River surging mightily as it wound between mountain ranges. The peaks loomed in shadowy silhouettes, impossibly tall, like immortal mountains and blessed lands!
The peaks in front were quite distinct, but those behind gradually blurred into the distance, lost to sight.
Having stepped into the Pass-Breaching stage, this was his first time entering beyond the Weilu mystic pass to examine the Realm of Xiyi behind it.
These tiered heavenly mountains resembled the human spine. Gazing upward from below, range upon range stacked atop one another. Each heavenly mountain was a heaven unto itself, shaped like half a lotus flower. These heavenly mountain lotuses were layer upon layer of heavens, corresponding to his spine.
The Heavenly River flowed straight through the center of heaven after heaven. As his divine sense was scoured and washed within the river's waters, it too grew stronger at a pace far outstripping before.
In the unseen depths, he comprehended many truths. In the past, he had cultivated in a muddle, but now he felt as though he understood the shifts of yin and yang and could harmonize his internal organs!
Now he could distinctly sense his own soul, feeling how, just like a physical body, it possessed all manner of marvelous structures—surely what was known as mastering life and death.
A realization dawned in his heart: *Only by ascending to heaven step by step can one enter the next realm. The road of ascending to heaven depends primarily on one's own accumulation; one cannot advance rashly.*
The time available for cultivation in the morning was limited. By the time the sun hung high in the sky, Xu Ying, Yuan Qi, the bronze bell, and the bull demons stopped harvesting qi in unspoken accord.
The bull demons transformed into old black oxen and headed into the meadow to graze, lazily swishing their tails to shoo away horseflies.
They had originally been ox demons—pure ox demon kings—who had been conferred titles as ghosts and gods of the Netherworld. Upon returning to the mortal realm of the living, however, they reverted to ox demons, naturally retaining their habit of eating grass.
At the foot of the mountain, demons paid respects by offering food and drink to the Great Demon King Xu and the Great Demon King Niu. After Xu Ying and Yuan Qi ate their breakfast and were full and warm, they pondered life.
Xu Ying felt his primordial qi brimming, fuller than ever before, yet he still lacked a martial arts technique that felt truly right in his hands.
Both *True Cultivation of the Ba Snake* and the *Dragon Snake Awakening Technique* contained martial arts methods, with instructions for cultivating the Dao images of the Ba Snake and dragon-snake, but these were clearly better suited to demon cultivators like Yuan Qi.
Furthermore, the images of the Great Dao for the Ba Snake and dragon-snake illustrated in the scriptures merely reflected the insights of the authors who had penned them, inherently bound by limitations. No matter how extraordinary one's comprehension was, it was impossible to surpass the person who had written the texts.
Having nothing better to do, Xu Ying practiced the martial arts methods from both manuals, drilling the Eight Forms of the Ba Snake and the Six Forms of Dragon Snake Awakening until they were second nature, before shaking his head. "The accomplishments to be had here are limited."
Seeing this, Yuan Qi was secretly delighted. *Ah Ying can be thwarted too! Once I, the Great Demon King Niu, master these two arts, my cultivation and strength will leave him in the dust!*
With his back to him, Xu Ying unleashed his vitality outward. Behind him, clouds and mist curled and billowed, spreading out over several mu. From within the mist, a colossal white serpent head slowly poked forth.
Yuan Qi's eyes went wide. The great serpent had towering, jagged horns, nothing like an ordinary snake. It was unmistakably a Ba Snake, its physique so enormous it could likely swallow an elephant god whole in a single gulp!
The body slithering out of the clouds grew longer and longer, unhurriedly coiling and soaring around Xu Ying, winding loop after loop. The Ba Snake was lifelike and vivid, as though it had slithered right out of the pages of the scripture!
Suddenly, Xu Ying spread his five fingers, the crook between thumb and forefinger gaping like a Ba Snake's jaws. He struck out with a palm, and instantly the Ba Snake behind him opened its blood-pool maw and surged forward with a roaring howl, its ferocious might making the demons below the mountain tremble in terror.
With a sweep of his long arm, the ten-foot-thick serpent body rolled through the air, whipping up gusts of howling gale throughout the mountain valley.
Such power far exceeded the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist!
The Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist lacked an image of the Great Dao; the Elephant King divine body was merely an anomaly devoid of underlying support. But *True Cultivation of the Ba Snake* contained a Ba Snake Dao image chart that could be studied and contemplated.
The Eight Forms of the Ba Snake Xu Ying currently wielded carried such immense power precisely because he had comprehended the image of the Great Dao after studying that chart.
Yet to Xu Ying, this level of power was still far from enough.
The Eight Forms of the Ba Snake brought no qualitative leap over the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist, and it could not hold a candle to the Zhou clan's Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits Hidden Scenery Technique.
Deeply envious, Yuan Qi frantically flipped through the scripture to see which layer Xu Ying had cultivated *True Cultivation of the Ba Snake* to.
Basking lazily in the sun, the bronze bell said, "Stop flipping. He's already reached the ninth layer. To take it any further, he can only boost its power by contemplating a real Ba Snake."
Yuan Qi was appalled. The bell meant that Xu Ying had already forged the Ba Snake's image of the Great Dao; whatever could be cultivated from *True Cultivation of the Ba Snake*, he had already taken to the peak.
To take another step forward, one had to observe a real Ba Snake and grasp the true essence of its Dao image!
*But Ah Ying didn't even practice it many times. How did he push this martial art to the utmost limit?* Yuan Qi wondered in bafflement.
The bronze bell said, "No need to be discouraged. Where you fall short of him is that he has a brain. But where you outdo him is pretty remarkable too: you're a real snake, and he isn't. As long as you cultivate *True Cultivation of the Ba Snake* to the ninth layer, its power will definitely surpass his!"
Vastly encouraged, Yuan Qi immediately doubled down on his cultivation.
The bronze bell looked at his massive body, well over a hundred feet long, thinking, *Stealing only Ah Ying's vitality is ultimately a bit slow. Siphoning from that stinky snake at the same time should speed things up considerably. This snake is getting bigger and bigger; his vitality must be astonishingly abundant!*
Meanwhile, Xu Ying began practicing the martial arts methods from the *Dragon Snake Awakening Technique*. His body rose and dipped as dragon and snake danced in flight with astounding momentum, darting and weaving with every strike and posture, kicking up sand and stones.
As he executed the Six Forms of Dragon Snake Awakening, he substituted the snake within the technique with the Ba Snake, melding the two martial arts into one for even greater power!
Yet when Xu Ying recalled Zhou Zheng's transformation techniques, he couldn't help frowning. His modified Six Forms of Dragon Snake were still vastly inferior to the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits Hidden Scenery Technique.
"The white-robed Nuo immortal, Chen Mianzhu, was clearly a Nuo master, so why did he possess Qi Refiner techniques?"
Xu Ying felt puzzled. The Five Viscera Immortal Mountain of the ruined temple realm had clearly drawn inspiration from a Qi Refiner's Realm of Xiyi, showing that Chen Mianzhu had dabbled in Qi Refiner arts as well.
"And why are the Zhou clan and the Nether Court so obsessed with me?"
Xu Ying grew even more baffled. To hunt him down, the Zhou clan and the Nether Court had spared no expense. From the moment he slew the Jiang clan deity until now, the Zhou clan experts and Nether Court deities who had died or been wounded over this matter probably numbered six or seven hundred!
"I'm just an ordinary person, as ordinary as they come. For the sake of catching me, they've suffered so many casualties among their top experts—is it really worth it to the Zhou clan and the Nether Court?"
Xu Ying paused at that thought, then gave a definitive answer: "Yes, it is!"
"If it weren't, they wouldn't keep dispatching forces. This time they even went so far as to mobilize a regional inspector and a vice prefect to take me at all costs, which proves I possess a value that tempts them! So where does my value lie?"
The youth gave it some thought. The only thing he could truly present was probably this "sorcery" of his.
"In other words, it is the Qi Refiner methods in my possession that tempted them."
Xu Ying's eyes flickered, and he murmured, "The Nether Court and the Zhou clan want me because they value my comprehension of Qi Refiner techniques. But why would they be so covetous of a cultivation system that was discarded long ago? Could it be..."
His eyes flashed, and he suddenly called out, "Lord Bell! Lord Bell!"
The bronze bell hurriedly flew over. Xu Ying said, "Lord Bell, I want to see your aim. Can you smash this rock to pieces?"
He picked up a rock from the ground and threw it with all his might.
The bronze bell took flight, and with a reverberating chime, the rock remained completely unharmed, while Yuan Qi, who was not far off, tumbled head over tail down the mountain. The great serpent cried out in fury, "You broken bell, you ambushed me again!"
The bronze bell said sheepishly, "Ever since I got injured, my aim hasn't been great. Ah Ying, did you call me over just to hit a rock? Is there anything else?"
"Nothing," Xu Ying replied, hurriedly shaking his head.
The bronze bell flew off.
Xu Ying thought, *Lord Bell is unreliable. If I asked it to open my Mud Pill secret depository and it missed its mark, shooting wide...*
He couldn't help shuddering.
The main reason he had called the bronze bell over was that he wanted to open his Mud Pill secret depository to test whether Qi Refiner techniques and Nuo master techniques complemented each other.
Though the bronze bell was unreliable, Xu Ying did not abandon the idea; instead, it grew stronger and stronger.
"Better to rely on oneself than on heaven and earth. Since Lord Bell is unreliable, I'll open the Mud Pill secret depository myself!"
Xu Ying's eyes gleamed as he entered the Realm of Xiyi. His divine sense rose upward, all the way to that sword qi suspended within the realm. From afar, it looked like merely a strand of sword qi drifting in the sky, but up close, one could see it was like a brilliant rainbow of staggering length.
This was none other than the sword art's image of the Great Dao that Xu Ying had comprehended!
Carrying this sword qi, Xu Ying soared upward, passing through the five viscera, flying past the Twelve-Storied Tower, crossing the Jade Pool, traversing the Divine Bridge, traveling past the sun and moon, until he finally arrived before that ocean composed of chaotic qi in his mind.
Floating before that chaotic primordial egg—the chaotic Mud Pill—he slowly gathered his qi and focused his spirit.
Right then, he hesitated: *Once the Mud Pill is opened, this secret depository cannot be closed again. If the two cultivation systems are incompatible, it could severely obstruct my future cultivation progress!*
Once this step was taken, there would be no turning back!
Xu Ying hesitated, but then thought of how he was nothing more than a snake catcher who never knew where his next meal would come from, hunted by both the living realm and the Netherworld, with not even a place for him in the Heavenly Dao world, liable to lose his life at any moment—did he really need to harbor so many misgivings?
He burst into hearty laughter, heroic spirit surging in his chest as he mobilized his sword art's Dao image with all his might and thrust it toward the chaotic Mud Pill!
The strike struck dead center on the chaotic Mud Pill. As the sword sank into the sphere, resistance met the blow; yet the sword qi surged fiercely—growing stronger against strength, cleaving through hindrance. A rainbow of sword qi pierced clean through the chaotic Mud Pill!
Instantly, changes roiled the sea of chaos. Accompanied by a cave-heaven, the sword qi poured into the sea, churning the chaotic qi as boundless vitality surged from the cave-heaven, coursing into Xu Ying's limbs and bones.
Xu Ying immediately felt cool streams of air flowing within his body—it was physical vitality, awakened by his strike!
The Mud Pill secret depository had been opened by him!
Xu Ying laughed aloud, his heart broad and spirits high.
In the distance, several old black oxen were grazing in the field. When tired of chewing, they leaned over and lay down, swishing their tails and chewing the cud, leisurely watching Yuan Qi and the bronze bell brawling together.
"You broken bell, sneaking an attack on me—is that something a decent bell does?"
"I told you it was an accident!"
"You're even stealing my vitality! Don't think I haven't noticed!"
"I haven't even stolen your vitality yet and you're already slandering me! I'll beat you to death, you stinky snake!"
"Mercy!"
...
Strangely enough, once the cave-heaven was opened, Xu Ying felt as though it were an extension of his own body, alive with sensation. He could even direct it at will, as easily as moving an arm, shifting the cave-heaven's position.
"If I had let someone else help me open the Mud Pill secret depository, I probably wouldn't be able to control the cave-heaven with such nimble dexterity!"
Xu Ying felt rather fortunate. If he had let the bronze bell help, his cave-heaven might well have slipped out of his own control.
Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he thought, *The ancient text in the stone chamber of the Mud Pill Palace said that one must have someone else help open the secret depository. If another person helps, wouldn't that mean one's Mud Pill cave-heaven falls under that person's control?*
He turned it over and over in his mind, feeling that something was amiss.
*Still, it makes sense for Nuo masters to have someone else help open the secret depository. Before opening their secret depository, Nuo masters are ordinary mortals, so naturally they cannot open it independently like I did; they have to rely on an expert's assistance.*
Xu Ying saw Yuan Qi, covered in lumps from the bronze bell's strikes, slithering toward Qinyan Cave to heal his injuries with the mysterious energy inside. Suddenly, a thought flashed across Xu Ying's mind. He stood dumbstruck, motionless for a long time.
"That's it, that's it!"
He suddenly blurted out, "I followed the energy of Qinyan Cave, tracing the dragon vein to locate my Mud Pill secret depository, which proves the cave's mysterious energy merely awakened the vitality of my Mud Pill secret depository. But why can Qinyan Cave's mysterious energy heal Yuan Qi as well? Could it be..."
His heart pounded wildly. *Could it be that the Six Secret Depositories of the Human Body are not unique to humans, and that demonkind also possesses the six great secret depositories within them?*
Chapter 42