Staggering Might

"Just consider it a spell I created myself." Lu Yang offered no further explanation, mainly because it was impossible to explain anyway. The Seventh Elder did not dwell on the matter. Having watched Lu Yang perform the technique once, calculating the proper proportions for Lu Yang's pills was effortless for him. Pinching his fingers in calculation, he nodded. "Wait a moment. The pills will be ready shortly." Holding a bamboo tray, the Seventh Elder casually took various herbs from the medicine cabinet without a second thought, not even needing to weigh them. He merely made a single loop around the cabinet, and the tray was heaped with medicinal ingredients, divided into five portions according to the refining sequence. Then he stamped his foot, and wisps of flame shot up, linking together into a sheet of fire that resembled a lotus in full bloom! "Are those all True Fires?" Lu Yang was astounded, reminded of the wall covered in True Fires collected by the Fifth Elder. Lu Yang thought to himself, *The Fifth Elder said he collected all those True Fires by traveling far and wide and exhausting every effort. The Seventh Elder must have done the same. Could wandering the world be a tradition among disciples of our Dao Seeking Sect?* Seeing Lu Yang staring blankly, the Seventh Elder casually explained, "I snatched all these True Fires from Old Five." Lu Yang: "..." The Seventh Elder stoked the fire to heat the cauldron. Three wisps of flame drifted out and settled beneath the three-legged cauldron, bursting into a roaring blaze. The bottom of the cauldron grew red-hot; even from a distance, Lu Yang could feel the waves of heat radiating from the three True Fires. The five portions of herbs were tossed into the cauldron in order of their medicinal properties. In the blink of an eye, they dissolved into thick liquid, releasing waves of pill fragrance. Taking a single breath felt like ascending to immortality. Apart from the medicinal liquid, a small clump of black fluid floated inside. As more herbs were poured in, the black fluid gradually expanded, shifting from black to cyan while giving off its own pill fragrance. The Seventh Elder brought his hands together, and the cauldron door slammed shut with a clang. Lu Yang could no longer see the changes in the medicinal liquid, able only to smell the increasingly rich pill fragrance. "What exquisite pill refinement techniques. He can even refine the surplus dregs of the herbs into separate pills, and of no low quality at that." The Immortal Fairy was slightly surprised. Among the Body Integration stage cultivators she had met, none had reached the Seventh Elder's level. "Open!" With a loud shout from the Seventh Elder, the cauldron burst open. Pills shrouded in pill clouds flew out one by one, landing on a prearranged golden platter with crisp clattering sounds. "This is a pill formula I cobbled together on the spot based on your physical traits and the way you cast your spell. I've named it the Spring-Returning Yang-Restoring Pill. I'm not sure how well it works, so give it a taste." The Seventh Elder flicked a pill toward Lu Yang. Lu Yang walked outside, held the Spring-Returning Yang-Restoring Pill in his mouth, circulated his spiritual energy, and cast Village in the Palm. The sky above suddenly went dark as a hand as vast as a village plummeted from above. His spiritual energy drained away completely. In the past, he had always failed at this step, but this time was different: the Spring-Returning Yang-Restoring Pill dissolved into a warm current, replenishing the depleted spiritual energy in the nick of time and allowing the giant hand to keep descending. *Rumble—* The colossal hand crashed down, kicking up an air blast and sending dust swirling. Lu Yang was nearly knocked off his feet by the shockwave alone! And this was merely the residual force! Lu Yang could hardly fathom the impact someone would suffer standing directly beneath the palm! The ground caved in as the giant hand gradually dissipated, leaving behind a massive hand-shaped crater. The soil of Pill Cauldron Peak possessed innate spiritual nature, and the sunken earth slowly rebounded, restoring itself to how it was before. Lu Yang was parched and exhausted, yet a wide smile stretched across his face. He had finally executed it in full, and the might of this move was even greater than he had imagined. Standing to the side and observing, the Seventh Elder was extremely satisfied with the pill he had refined. "Just as I expected. The spiritual energy in a single pill is just enough for you to strike with one palm. If there were any more energy, your body wouldn't be able to bear it instead." "I'm afraid even I couldn't have blocked a strike of this power back when I was in the Golden Core stage." The Seventh Elder packed the remaining Spring-Returning Yang-Restoring Pills into a medicine gourd. Fearing it might get mixed up with his other gourds, he labeled it before tossing it to Lu Yang. Picking up the two cyan pills left on the golden platter, the Seventh Elder said, "There were certain components in the herbs that weren't needed, so I refined them into these two pills. Ingesting one will rot your intestines and dissolve your soul within seven days. Do you want them?" Lu Yang shook his head vigorously, terrified he might refuse too late. Returning to Tianmen Peak, he counted the Spring-Returning Yang-Restoring Pills. "Seven pills. Adding the one I took earlier, that makes eight in total. Wonderful stuff—I'll be relying on them to cast Village in the Palm!" "Actually, Village in the Palm isn't just an offensive technique," the Immortal Fairy popped up to remind him. "What do you mean?" "Village in the Palm is a spatial spell. It contains a village within it, so it can be used for storage and holding living beings." Universe in the Palm didn't simply mean the palm could become as vast as heaven and earth; it truly contained a universe within, possessing infinite space. "There's that to it as well?" Lu Yang was surprised. Storage was simple enough—any storage ring could manage that. Holding living beings was difficult, requiring specially made storage rings that were generally only used by cultivators who raised demon beasts. "Let's test the storage function first." Lu Yang retrieved the Green Blade Sword and the Dark Moon Sword from his identity jade pendant. With a suction from his palm, the two peerless swords vanished. Lu Yang opened his hand. His palm formed its own space, and the two prized swords shrank until they were virtually invisible, stored inside his hand. "To store objects, I have to keep Village in the Palm active continuously, but this method of casting consumes very little. Even without taking Great Restoration Pills, I could keep it up for a quarter of an hour straight!" Lu Yang gauged the rate at which his spiritual energy was depleted; it was slower than he had expected. Lu Yang strolled around Tianmen Peak. When he saw a large boulder, he sucked it in; when he saw a branch, he sucked it in; when he saw a fruit, he sucked it in. Every object he touched was drawn into his palm. He was having a grand time. "How should I test holding living people?" Lu Yang looked around. Tianmen Peak had everything except people. He couldn't very well head down the mountain, grab a random senior brother or senior sister, and suck them in. "I've got it!" Lu Yang headed down the mountain to Baixiang Restaurant and bought a duck from the kitchen. "Let's try holding a duck." Lu Yang directed a pull toward the duck. The duck pecked at his finger once before disappearing into the palm space. Watching the duck waddling lively inside the space, Lu Yang pondered, *Since it can hold a duck, that means it can hold humans too... Wait, can it hold me?* Lu Yang looked at his palm, feeling an itch to try it out, unable to suppress his curiosity. "The path to immortality is fraught with hardship. We cultivators must be bold in our attempts—how can we shrink back in fear!" Just as the Immortal Fairy was about to voice her objection, she saw Lu Yang slap himself square on the forehead. ... Having finished listening to the life story of Venerable Calamity, Yun Zhi departed from Prison Peak. She had been away for over half a month and wondered whether her junior brother had been cultivating diligently. The Golden Age was fast approaching, and factions everywhere were stirring restlessly. Elevating one's cultivation as quickly as possible was the top priority. Her junior brother was obedient and sensible, and understood what was important and urgent; he was surely cultivating with diligence. Returning to Tianmen Peak, she found Lu Yang completely gone, leaving behind only half an arm. The severed cross-section of the arm was engulfed by the hand, which kept trying to devour the arm itself, but due to human anatomy, it was perpetually unable to succeed. The hand and arm formed a closed loop, spinning at high speed in midair. Yun Zhi: "?" What kind of cultivation method was this?