yready Chapter 928 - 556: Passing the Seven-Day Trial
Chapter 928 - 556: Passing the Seven-Day Trial
Faced with Mrs. Zhang’s probing, Zhang Chen hesitated briefly before shaking his head in denial: "No good! If we actively try to butter up, it has a feel of desperation. We are going to Jiangnan to meet our relatives. If it’s successful, great; if not, we can part ways without making others feel we’re taking advantage."
Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that it involves messages from his mother and father and his mother has left something for him, he wouldn’t think this kinship recognition was imperative. He merely wants to find a quiet place to grow discreetly. Given time, he can easily reach the Twelfth Tier. Before that, he doesn’t want trouble or attention. He has enough ability to ensure his mother and little sister live well without relying on anyone.
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Zhang didn’t persuade further. All family matters are now decided by Zhang Chen, and since he’s made a decision, she naturally complies.
But what Zhang Chen didn’t expect was that, despite his desire to avoid entanglement with Jiang Nan, the situation’s development was beyond his control.
Two months later, Zhang Chen was sitting at the mast, holding a fishing rod. Beside him, Zhang Fei and Zhang Tuowei, faces full of excitement, each wielding a fishing rod, were constantly scooping the water.
Zhang Chen, wearing a straw hat, dodged the scorching sun in the sky. As Jiangnan drew closer, the sun became more intense, and Zhang Chen only felt the air to be indescribably hot, making him a bit irritable.
Over there, Zhang Tuowei and Zhang Fei sat next to Zhang Chen. Zhang Chen glanced at Zhang Fei, feeling that the Little Fatty had grown rounder, so he asked: "How is your Martial Dao cultivation progressing?"
Zhang Fei’s expression changed slightly upon hearing this. He briefly glanced at Zhang Chen and then whispered: "Big brother, there’s a question I don’t understand."
"What question do you have?" Zhang Chen asked.
"No matter how diligently we practice Martial Dao, even at the deepest level, it’s just like that. To see God unbreakable and ignite Qi blood, without three to fifty years of hard polishing, there might be no hope. Our bloodline power can easily gain strength, and with age, it will grow stronger. Especially now that we have Visualization Technique, which is the great path, with infinite potential. Why bother cultivating Martial Dao? With the time spent honing the body, in thirty to fifty years, I could prove the Yang God, at worst I wouldn’t die as a Yin Spirit. Why suffer the hardships of Martial Dao?" Zhang Fei seemed unable to endure the hardships of Martial Dao, drawing out five to six hours daily for cultivation, which isn’t easy.
Normal people find daily training already incredibly tough, let alone spending five to six hours on martial arts each day?
Moreover, upon boarding the ship, everyone’s food was poor, and the Little Fatty’s heart grew lazy.
Zhang Chen heard this and raised an eyebrow at the slightly sagging fat on the Little Fatty’s body: Goodness! No wonder the other still grows fat eating cornbread every day; it’s because of laziness.
Zhang Chen looked at the Little Fatty without speaking, but turned his gaze towards Zhang Tuowei. Her fair baby-fat face also revealed a little laziness, so Zhang Chen asked with no emotion: "Do you think along similar lines?"
Zhang Tuowei scratched her head: "Big brother, body cultivation takes too long to show results, it’s simply not worth wasting time. With the time spent on Martial Dao cultivation, we’d better invest in Yin Spirit Technique, that’s more cost-effective. Practicing martial arts for ten years can’t rival one or two years in Divine Soul Dao, what’s the point of Martial Dao? Moreover, we have bloodline power. Cultivating Yin Spirit Technique promotes the development of bloodline power. Specializing in Yin Spirit is the smartest. Once we reach the possession realm, we can swap bodies for a powerful vessel. Wouldn’t that save countless efforts? Let others practice martial arts. This is truly cost-effective. While they practice, we refine Yin Spirit, wait until the Yin Spirit is strong and seize their bodies, this is the real path."
Listening to the two little ones, Zhang Chen’s brows furrowed, and his tone turned serious: "Nonsense! You are just beginning your cultivation, what do you know? Yin Spirit Technique may allow possession and body exchange, but how could someone else’s body compare to yours? It involves Qi blood harmony and body imprints, with numerous drawbacks, incredibly troublesome. Such thoughts must be abandoned!"
Now, Zhang Chen’s voice carried traces of anger: "You’ve just started cultivating, and you’re preparing to take shortcuts, it’s outrageous. Martial Dao cultivation is crucial and has many important aspects. No matter how powerful your bloodline divine skills are, or how formidable your techniques, you’ll always encounter evenly matched opponents. When forces are balanced, neither side prevails, your body becomes a vulnerability. Others practice martial arts, you don’t, then what will you do when they challenge you to compare the power of the flesh?"
"Big brother, our Zhang Family naturally controls the power of the soul, what you mentioned won’t happen. I’ve thought it through, as Divine Soul upgrades, bloodline power increases. Combining bloodline power and Yin Spirit Technique, we’re unmatched in the same level, who could compete with our physical might?" Zhang Fei retorted against Zhang Chen’s words.
Listening to Zhang Fei, who was already agitated due to the weather’s heat, Zhang Chen’s irritation grew further: "Ridiculous! In this world, there are endless methods, even I don’t dare claim invincibility at the same level now, how can you declare yourself unbeatable?"
"You’re referring only to rare circumstances. How many challenging, invincible figures are there in the world?" Zhang Fei muttered, her face showing disdain: "Moreover, I can plunder others’ souls as a guardian, how could things turn that bad?"
"How many days have you been cultivating, how many powerful figures have you encountered, and what insight do you claim to have to dare say you are invincible at the same level?"
As he spoke, Zhang Chen’s fishing rod suddenly smashed onto the deck: "Could it be that your wings have grown strong, and you don’t even listen to me anymore? Now you have your own ideas, and I can’t control you?"
It was noon, the sun at its zenith. With a spark of anger in his heart, it seemed to stir some strange qi mechanism in the outside world. Zhang Chen suddenly shuddered as his three souls and seven spirits underwent some unknown changes, and an indescribable qi mechanism rose within his body.
The third realm of the Qi Cultivation Technique has three checkpoints: Advancing and Retreating Yin Rune, Civil and Martial Fire, and Gathering Primordial Spirit.
However, Gathering Primordial Spirit has two critical nodes. These nodes are not cultivation realms but points that require attention.
The first node is Returning Pill Enlightenment.
After the Qi Cultivator refines Jade Liquid and Golden Core, they begin to temper and nurture the three souls and seven spirits, causing them to gather and transform, nurturing according to certain rules. The process is like embryonic development, with the Jade Liquid as nourishment, the body as the placenta, and the three souls and seven spirits as the embryo within the placenta. During this process, the Advancing and Retreating Yin Rune and Civil and Martial Fire temper the three souls and seven spirits into profound changes.
Once the internal ’placenta’ is nurtured, it also requires Returning Pill Enlightenment. Otherwise, the ’placenta’ will be a stillbirth, a mass of dead flesh with no use whatsoever. Only through the critical enlightenment can the ’dead flesh’ come alive, causing the Primordial Spirit to undergo a qualitative change.
This is the first crucial point in Gathering Primordial Spirit.
The second crucial point is the Seven-Day Passage.
What is the Seven-Day Passage?
Although the Primordial Spirit, once ignited, ’comes alive’ and undergoes qualitative changes, its consciousness is blank, a clean slate. What Zhang Chen needs to do is infuse his original thinking and consciousness into the Primordial Spirit, integrating consciousness with the Primordial Spirit. This process requires seven days, during which the body’s consciousness and the Primordial Spirit unite, and the entire physical body loses all perception of the outside world, akin to death.
The body dies, the Primordial Spirit lives, transforming into a state of living death—thoughts extinguished, thinking of nothing. Only then can one truly integrate with the Dao, completing the integration of consciousness and Primordial Spirit.
In the past, Li Xuan, among the Eight Immortals of the Upper Cave, turned into a living dead during the Seven-Day Passage and his disciple burned his body, ultimately becoming Iron Crutch Li.
The third realm, though having the three checkpoints of Advancing and Retreating Yin Rune, Civil and Martial Fire, and Gathering Primordial Spirit, allows for simultaneous cultivation of all three checkpoints.
Since the advent of the Blood Sea Dao, Zhang Chen seems to have been endowed with some enigmatic support, making rapid progress in his cultivation. In just two short months from the onset of the Blood Sea phenomenon till now, Zhang Chen’s Primordial Spirit had completed its nurturing. Today, the embryo of his Primordial Spirit was complete, naturally attracting a trace of True Yang from the consciousness of the unknown, like two magnets—Zhang Chen’s Primordial Spirit as the Yin magnet and his trace of True Yang as the Yang magnet. Then the Yin and Yang released a tremendous attraction. Before Zhang Chen could react, that trace of True Yang had already automatically descended from his consciousness into the Primordial Spirit, then his Primordial Spirit absorbed that True Yang, akin to a finishing touch, completely revitalizing his Yang God.
Previously mentioned, Zhang Chen was cultivating the third realm’s Advancing and Retreating Yin Rune, Civil and Martial Fire, and Gathering Primordial Spirit concurrently, and both the Returning Pill Enlightenment and Seven-Day Passage were happening simultaneously. Since the Returning Pill Enlightenment had already begun, the Seven-Day Passage naturally needed to start as well, otherwise, if the timing was missed, the Primordial Spirit would not receive the infusion of consciousness and would become void.
Leaving Zhang Chen no room to react, all he felt was a buzzing sound in his head, and before he could realize it, his vision blackened. His eyes turned to Zhang Tuowei, trying hard to utter something, but nothing came out. The next moment, he directly collapsed to the ground; his body rapidly turned cold, the breath ceased, and the heartbeat stopped, turning completely into a state of living death, indistinguishable from a corpse.
Zhang Chen cultivated immortality in a rogue way, without any teacher’s guidance, how could he have known everything would happen so suddenly? He wanted to give some last-minute instructions to them, but it was too late. Before losing consciousness, Zhang Chen had only one thought in his heart: "Will my physical body be refined away like Li Xuan’s?"