This cave abode could probably be considered a safehouse.
In *Cangyuan*’s classic hot-blooded storyline, the protagonist had faced an identical predicament, pursued relentlessly by enemies. Furthermore, because that was already midway through the plot, those pursuers had been capable of hounding the mid-game protagonist across the entire world, meaning they were naturally far from weak.
Though they might not have been able to tread upon empty air like Ran Qingmo, scaling cliffs and bounding across walls to search for someone would pose no difficulty for them.
Yet even so, those pursuers had never once found the protagonist while he took refuge inside this cave abode.
Presumably, there was something outside the cave or a formation that shielded it from detection.
With that in mind, Xu Yuan glanced around the cave abode once more.
He had not paid attention when he first woke up, but now he realized that the cave abode had neither entrance nor exit.
It was like a hollow cavity embedded deep inside the mountain.
The way he and Ran Qingmo had been drawn inside must have been by triggering some pre-set teleportation array.
Only after deducing from past memories and current details that the cave was generally safe did he finally relax completely.
In all the days since transmigrating, this was the first time he was truly, temporarily safe.
Thinking of this, Xu Yuan let out a soft sigh.
If his transmigration hadn't been handled in such an amateurish way, he might have already been escorted back by his predecessor's father's subordinates to live as an ultra-wealthy second-generation scion.
Why would he have ended up like this?
Xu Yuan shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.
He had never been one to fear problems.
When a problem arose, complaining was useless; one simply had to find a way to solve it. It was a very simple principle.
Sitting at the head of the ice jade bed, Xu Yuan used the faint glow of the night-luminescent pearl embedded in the stone wall to flip through the cultivation manual in his hands, titled the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art.
This was currently the only viable way to resolve the rejection between his body and his intent-soul.
Although he had already obtained a Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill, he could not take it directly.
All medicine carried some toxicity; a pill immensely beneficial to a cultivator could very well be lethal poison to an ordinary mortal.
As an elixir concocted from various top-grade natural treasures, the immense Source Qi contained within the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill was not something an ordinary person like Xu Yuan could digest.
Swallowing it directly would most likely end with his body exploding, killing him on the spot.
Fortunately, he had the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art in his hands.
This was the key to stabilizing the harmony between his physical body and his intent-soul.
*Born toward death, tempering body and soul*—or so the databook described it.
However, now that the manual was reality, mastering it naturally wouldn't be as simple as clicking a mouse to "learn with one click" as in the game.
For a time, the only sound remaining in the cramped cave abode was the occasional rustle of paper pages turning.
Amidst the silence, Ran Qingmo quietly regulated her breathing to heal her injuries, while Xu Yuan silently read through the cultivation method.
Time slipped by, bit by bit, for who knew how long.
At the head of the bed, Xu Yuan suddenly snapped the book shut, exhaled a long breath, and leaned back against the headboard, closing his eyes in contemplation.
This was his first true encounter with a cultivation technique of this world.
There was novelty, there was excitement, but mostly, sheer bewilderment.
They were all clearly Chinese characters, and he could understand every word individually, so why did putting them together completely break his brain?
What Qi Source Acupoint, what White Sea Meridian, what drawing qi into the body, what heart source and intent-soul...
Who am I?
Where am I?
What in the world is all of this?
Why could other transmigrators pick up a cultivation manual and practice it right away, while he couldn't even make sense of the words?
"..."
Silence.
Raising a hand, he rubbed the space between his brows firmly, his thoughts a tangled mess.
Evidently, the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art—one of only three blood-red grade cultivation methods in *Cangyuan*—was far from an elementary beginner's primer.
To put it into perspective, it was something like:
*You've learned Chinese characters; now go try building a nuclear bomb by hand.*
After reading through it completely, Xu Yuan's only takeaway was a general grasp of the process required to achieve initial mastery of the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art.
Take the Doomfall Pill and the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill together.
The first phase of the Doomfall Pill's effects would directly batter the meridians concealed throughout the limbs and bones of the human body.
Unlike cultivators, ordinary people had blocked, unopened meridians.
Just as Ran Qingmo had been unable to use qi to heal a mortal like Xu Yuan before, the impact of the Doomfall Pill's medicinal power would literally tear open the impacted meridians.
Once the meridians ruptured completely, the body would enter a near-death state.
And at the brink of death, the intent-soul would begin to disperse.
At that point, the second-phase effects of the Doomfall Pill would spread out, accelerating the dispersion of the intent-soul countless times over.
If left unchecked, death was inevitable.
However, the effect of the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill was to temper and condense the intent-soul, reconstituting the dispersing soul.
The two diametrically opposed medicinal effects would merge, assisted by the circulation of the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art.
The intent-soul within the body would be repeatedly shattered and reconsolidated, over and over, until the physical body and the intent-soul finally achieved a perfect resonance.
Throughout these repeated brushes with death, the immense medicinal potency of the Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill would also serve to repair the damage to both body and intent-soul.
Practicing this "born toward death" Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art was practically a matter of a nine in ten chance of death. If one suffered even a momentary lapse of focus during any of those near-death states and failed to circulate the technique in time, they would die in the truest sense.
Yet in contrast to the peril, the rewards were exceptionally lavish.
Once initial mastery was achieved, not only would the body and soul become extraordinarily solidified, but all one hundred and twenty-seven meridians within the body would also be completely unblocked!
Chapter 18