Sitting cross-legged on the cattail hassock, Li Yan placed the jade slip in his hand back into the "Earth Mark." He quietly recalled the three incantations and the diagram in his mind. But whenever he thought of the diagram, a wave of agitation and oppression would rise in his heart, and both the incantation and the diagram seemed to want to break free from his Divine Sense, to strip away and escape, causing his Divine Sense immense discomfort. Li Yan endured the unease and began to slowly recall the qi circulation route from the incantation. As he repeatedly reviewed and understood the incantation, Li Yan found that his discomfort with the diagram was gradually diminishing.
"Qiongqi, the northern path of the winding gorge, feet riding twin dragons, the shuttle in the chaotic flow of the spring stream, a turn of the wings breaks the wind and waves..."
Slowly, Li Yan stood up. His legs were bent in a half-squat, half-standing position. One hand was in front of him, supporting him on the ground, while the other was hooked back, curved inward, passing down through his crotch and then rising up behind his ankle. His body and head were twisted into the posture of a rhinoceros looking back. Even so, Li Yan was still struggling to constantly adjust the angle of his body. It was a far cry from the first diagram recorded in the jade slip.
The moment he assumed this posture, Li Yan felt an uncomfortable sensation both inside and outside his body. Some of the angles were simply not achievable by a human. Furthermore, the spirit power in his body was running rampant. He took a deep breath, mobilized the spirit power in his body, and began to circulate it according to the route of the opening incantation of the Qiongqi Purgatory. It would have been better if he hadn't circulated his spirit power; he had only felt physical discomfort and a slight stuffiness. But as he circulated it according to the incantation, Li Yan immediately let out a muffled groan. He felt that the spirit qi, which had been somewhat light and comfortable, was now like a blunt stick ramming directly into his heart. A powerful force instantly assailed his abdomen. Li Yan felt as if his heart had been violently ripped out. The pain almost made him faint on the spot.
In an instant, Li Yan's back was soaked with sweat. He forcefully stabilized his mind and paused for a long while before he managed to recover. Then, he once again carefully began to circulate it according to the incantation.
This time, although Li Yan was mentally prepared, in an instant, the veins on his head and all over his body bulged high, like winding earthworms covering his entire body and face. Beads of sweat the size of beans dripped down rapidly, "pitter-patter." As the spirit power circulated bit by bit, large patches of faint red spots slowly appeared under his skin, as if he had lupus. Each of these blood-like patches was irregularly separated. Under the impetus of the spirit power, they actually began to squirm slowly under his skin. With each squirm, Li Yan's body would tremble violently. Then, his body began to shake continuously. After a few trembles, that strange posture instantly collapsed. Li Yan let out a blood-curdling scream, and then, like a dead dog, he collapsed limply to the ground, curled up in a ball, his limbs still twitching constantly. A long time later, Li Yan, his face ashen, managed to crawl up from a puddle of water.
After crawling up, Li Yan, his hands trembling, took out a small porcelain bottle that he had prepared beforehand. After several fumbling attempts, he managed to put a few "Returning Qi Pills" into his mouth. Then he sat down on the ground and began to barely regulate his breathing and circulate his power.
In this way, after recovering for a small half-incense stick's time, his face turned from ashen to pale, and his physical strength gradually recovered.
'This art is truly domineering. This is just the beginning, yet it's already so difficult, it almost took half my life. But the more it is like this, the more it shows the astonishing, heaven-defying degree to which it tempers the body. From the attempt just now, it should be that when the posture can match the one drawn in the jade slip, it might be a success,' Li Yan thought to himself. His posture just now was at most twenty percent similar, a far cry from the real thing. And just that twenty percent similarity had almost made him pass out.
But just as he fell to the ground, his mind had suddenly, without any warning, been pierced by what felt like a silver needle, causing him to let out a miserable howl without any preparation. If not for the existence of the small courtyard's restriction, the entire back mountain would probably have heard it.
After resting for a long time, Li Yan stood up shakily, preparing to cultivate again, but... he suddenly found that the Qiongqi Purgatory Art incantation from just now was gone from his memory...
...
Double images appeared before Li Yan's eyes, and his consciousness began to blur. Everything in the cultivation room in his eyes was constantly twisting and shaking. Then, with a loud bang, he fell heavily to the ground, followed by a low growl suppressed in his throat.
All the furnishings in the cultivation room were as they had always been, not twisting or shaking. What was twisting were Li Yan's features; what was shaking was his mind. But at this moment, there was no dry spot on the bluestone floor of the cultivation room. There were puddles of water everywhere. Near the wall, a lot of water was slowly seeping into the bottom of some simple furniture.
This was all Li Yan's sweat. This was the fifth day of his cultivation. At this moment, he no longer had the slightest otherworldly appearance of a cultivator. His long robe had long been taken off, leaving only his close-fitting shorts. His exposed skin was covered in sweat, and streaks of gray mud hung on his clothes and skin.
After a long while, Li Yan slowly raised his head, but his forehead was still soaked with a large patch of dirt. His face was ferocious, and he was constantly panting, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins. His trembling hand once again reached for the celadon bottle beside him. There were already more than a dozen small celadon bottles lying there haphazardly. They were all stamina-recovering medicines like "Returning Qi Pills" that Li Yan had bought from the pill hall of Lord Lao Peak for more than three hundred spirit stones before he started cultivating.
The porcelain bottle trembled in his hand as he tipped it toward his mouth. But this time, it was empty. Li Yan was stunned. He then threw the small bottle aside and reached for the other small bottles beside him again. But to his disappointment, one after another, several of the small bottles were already empty.
Seeing this, Li Yan helplessly tossed the porcelain bottle in his hand aside. Disregarding the puddles of sweat on the ground, he sat down. Gritting his teeth, after several efforts, he managed to get himself into a cross-legged position. Then, after letting out a few heavy breaths, he slowly closed his eyes again.
At this moment, the spirit power in his body had been almost completely drained by the days of cultivation. Although he had the assistance of medicines like "Returning Qi Pills," it was still not enough. The bones, meridians, and muscles in his body were sore and painful to the extreme. Every time he moved, a wave of pain that made Li Yan wish for death would wash over him.
Without the assistance of medicinal pills, Li Yan slowly circulated his spirit power. But it was much more difficult to recover in a short period of time. An hour later, Li Yan opened his eyes and felt his physical and spiritual power. With his current cultivation of the tenth layer of Qi Condensation, without medicinal pills, he had only recovered about forty percent in an hour. He couldn't help but be a bit disappointed.
"At this rate, it will be very difficult to master this art in the remaining two days. I never thought the introductory chapter of this art would be so difficult to cultivate. No wonder only three people in Zhao Min's family have successfully cultivated it in hundreds of thousands of years. It really is impossible for anyone without great perseverance and high aptitude to succeed," Li Yan couldn't help but envy Zhao Min and Gong Chenying's aptitude. As for perseverance, he didn't think he was lacking in it.
But these were not the only things that tormented Li Yan. The most painful thing was that over these five days, every time he failed, a sudden, excruciating pain like his brain was being stirred would come, and the Qiongqi Purgatory Art incantation and that strange posture cultivation diagram that he had memorized before would be completely forgotten after the intense pain. He would have to endure the dizziness and nausea again and again, to re-read the incantation and cultivation diagram. This kind of torture made Li Yan want to go crazy.
"Sigh, it seems I still have to make a trip to Lord Lao Peak. I must succeed in the remaining two days!" Li Yan thought of the soul-deep pain after each failure and couldn't help but sigh. He then thought for a moment, calculated the time, and was about to stand up. But just as he was about to get up, something flashed in his mind, and he couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh no! What a damned fool I am! How could I have forgotten about him?"
As Li Yan was thinking about whether he should buy better medicinal pills to speed up his recovery, two words suddenly came to his mind: "recovery." In an instant, he thought of the rich spirit qi in the secret realm, and a place where the spirit qi was so rich it was almost substantial—the secret room.
Ever since he came out of the secret realm, a series of events, especially emotional ones, had made his mental state a bit chaotic. In addition, just after returning to Little Bamboo Peak, this feeling of home had made him subconsciously block out the idea of places outside the warmth of home. He hadn't thought of going out anytime soon. What's more, he had been used to staying in the sect for the past few years, and subconsciously, he would not go out until he reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
Just now, when he thought of the word "recovery," he couldn't help but think that he needed a better cultivation environment. As for a better cultivation environment, for now, what place could be better than Pingtu's secret room? At this thought, Li Yan quickly wiped his left wrist with his right hand. A round, rhomboid crystal exuding an ancient and mysterious aura appeared in his hand. His heart was filled with expectation, so much so that in his subconscious action just now, he had actually ignored the heart-piercing pain from his physical body.
But next, Li Yan paused slightly. He first put away the round rhomboid crystal. Enduring the nausea again, he took out that pale yellow jade slip, and then quickly took out another blank jade slip. Enduring the extreme pain, he barely managed to make a copy.
In the secret realm, a barely perceptible fluctuation flashed and disappeared. This fluctuation was not even noticed by the few old monsters in the secret realm. The direction of that fluctuation was the spherical mountain of the Wheel of Life and Death.
In the secret room, Li Yan shook his slightly dizzy head. Enduring the various discomforts brought on by his cultivation, a long-lost, extremely rich spirit qi had already entered his nose. This made Li Yan involuntarily take a few deep breaths. He immediately felt a sense of comfort all over his body. The pain brought on by many days of cultivation seemed to have been eliminated a lot in this instant. He couldn't help but greedily take a few more deep breaths before opening his eyes.
The moment he opened his eyes, he was startled. In the rich yellow spirit power, a huge middle-aged man's face was looking at him with a ghost of a smile. Those huge eyes, which were almost as tall as Li Yan himself, were staring at Li Yan, only a few inches away from him. This gave Li Yan a shock. But then, after seeing clearly, he finally relaxed.
"Boy, you came to my place just in your shorts. What do you want? Do you think this old master is some little girl?" Seeing Li Yan look over, the huge face let out a rumbling sound that made the entire secret room buzz.
Hearing this, Li Yan was first stunned, then he remembered. He looked down at himself, and his dark face turned crimson. He chuckled a few times. "Senior Pingtu, I've made a fool of myself. I was just cultivating a body refining art. After cultivating for several days, I still couldn't succeed. Seeing that the recovery outside was too slow, I came here in a hurry. I was rude for a moment," Li Yan said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
This huge face in the secret room was an illusion created by Pingtu. Hearing this, he looked at Li Yan with interest.
"Oh? Looking at you like this, it seems you've suffered a lot, but haven't made any progress."
Li Yan was even more embarrassed. He had been cultivating for nearly five days, yet Pingtu had seen through it with a single sentence. Li Yan certainly knew how Pingtu had figured it out. It had only been three months since he had left this place. Pingtu could see his physical strength and defense level as if they were transparent. Since he had said he was cultivating a body refining art, he could see at a glance that there had been no significant growth. If there was any growth, it was that his physical body had naturally grown a little bit along with the growth of his realm. But this could not deceive Pingtu's discerning eye. He could naturally distinguish between enhancement from cultivating a body refining art and natural enhancement.
"Oh, then you can cultivate here. I'm just a wisp of Divine Sense here. The main body has already fallen asleep. You can do as you please," after speaking, the huge face that Pingtu had conjured up had already begun to slowly dissipate. Just as it was about to dissipate, Li Yan hurriedly stopped him.
"Senior, wait a moment. May I have a word?"
Hearing Li Yan's call, the slowly dissipating huge face paused and stopped disintegrating. A pair of giant eyes looked over.