A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 426 Penance
Duan Rong looked at the data panel that appeared in front of him, shook his head, and threw the old whisk in his hand back to its original place.

It was just a spirit weapon that had not yet reached the highest level. He was too lazy to devour it.

Duan Rong did the same thing, reading the old items in the training chamber one by one, and the result was all the same. He placed the paperweight in his hand on the stone table, his eyes flickering slightly. There were seven training chambers here, and the number of direct disciples on Yunfu Peak might not have reached seven.

Perhaps no one had entered his current secret room for cultivation since it was built. Although it was covered in dust and the objects were old, no one had entered it, so there was no soul imprint eroding and engraving it in the weapon spirit, so the weapon spirit could not grow.

Duan Rong thought so, but his brows suddenly frowned.

He immediately stood up from the waist-drum-like stone seat in front of the table and slowly walked out of the secret room. He stood silently at the stone door and looked at the statue of Acala not far away.

Duan Rong's eyes were actually somewhat solemn at this moment. He fixed his gaze on the two-person-tall statue of Acalanatha and walked up to the statue.

Duan Rong gently placed his palm on it and thought to himself, "Read the spirit of the instrument."

Then, in this somewhat dim stone chamber, a data panel flashing with a faint light suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.

Duan Rong's breathing slowed down slightly as he looked at the data in front of him. He was right.

This statue of Acalanatha actually contains the skills of the Garbha-zang-sūtra.

Object: Stone statue of Acala

Spirit Level: Level 10

Devouring requirements: Host's mental strength level 10 (satisfied)

Devouring effect: Garbha Sutra 13th level (incomplete), Garbha Sutra 14th level (incomplete), Garbha Sutra 15th level (incomplete)

Duan Rong's brows knitted together as he looked at the last two incomplete words on the data panel. He carefully looked at the statue of Acalanatha in front of him and made sure that the statue was intact, without any missing parts, not even a crack.

Duan Rong thought about it for a moment and figured out the reason.

Since the spirit of this statue of Acala contains the Garbha-zang Sutra, it means that someone has used this statue of Acala to practice the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth levels of the Garbha-zang Sutra.

However, when practicing the Garbha-zang Sutra, there are four statues that make up the mandala. In other words, this statue of Acalanatha is only one quarter of it.

Naturally, the skills are only one-fourth.

"Swallow!" Duan Rong said secretly in his heart, and the data panel in front of him shook and disintegrated, then disappeared into thin air.

However, to find the complete exercises of the thirteenth to fifteenth levels of the Taizang Sutra, we have to find the other three matching statues. It seems that I have to find a chance to ask Fan Hongjiao, Wu Shidao and others why this statue is here and where the other three statues were taken.

There was no rush for this matter, after all, he had not yet completed the twelve levels of the Taizang Sutra. Now, for him, the fastest way to improve his strength was to first build up the realm of Yuanqi.

After Duan Rong devoured the spirit of the statue of Acala, he returned to his own secret room for practice.

Wu Shidao said that the claw and the tail were enough for him to practice for half a year. Duan Rong decided to practice hard in this secret room and become the direct disciple of the sect elder. The resources and treatment were really good. Everything was ready, and there were people waiting outside. All he had to do was concentrate on practicing.

Duan Rong walked to the corner of the secret room and gently turned the beast head there.

A narrow stone door on the stone wall in front of me suddenly opened.

A chilly and gloomy air spread out, and the small door in front of him was like the entrance to a ghost town, cold and creepy.

Duan Rong walked in slowly and looked into the black jade pool in the center of the ground. He saw that a claw and a tail inside had been frozen into hard ice sculptures.

With a flash of knife light, Duan Rong was already holding the Frost Patterned Phosphorus Crystal Knife. He cut off a piece of flesh and blood from the Yuan Beast, then reached out and opened a long black jade box.

In mid-air, the knife light flashed like a ghost, and seven or eight thumb-sized pieces of meat fell into the black jade box, arranged in order without any disorder.

Duan Rong closed the lid of the black jade box and turned to leave.

The black jade box in his hand was indeed chilling. Duan Rong had already summoned a thin layer of heaven and earth energy from his dantian and wrapped it around his palm, but he had only walked from the narrow stone room to the position of the futon. In such a short distance, the cold air had already permeated his energy, and his palm felt icy.

Duan Rong sat down cross-legged and immediately put down the black jade box. At this time, he looked intently at the palm of his right hand and saw that a thin layer of cold frost had formed in his palm.

Duan Rong mobilized the remaining vital energy of heaven and earth in his dantian, and circulated it back and forth in the meridians in the palm of his hand. After a few breaths, the thin layer of frost slowly melted away.

This cold and gloomy energy is indeed powerful. No wonder it can imprison the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth contained in the flesh and blood of the Yuan Beast.

Duan Rong opened the black jade box in front of him. The moment the box was opened, a trace of chilly air visible to the naked eye rose up and then dissipated.

Inside the box, the fruits had actually frozen into candied haws.

Duan Rong looked at the "candied haws" in front of him with flickering eyes.

He originally thought that by the time he reached the Yuan Qi realm, there should be more complicated ways of refining medicine.

Unexpectedly, there was no need to practice at all, and he directly returned to the most primitive mode of "eating raw meat and drinking blood".

It's really a bit magical!?
Duan Rong thought so and picked up a piece of "candied haws" and put it into his mouth.

As soon as it entered his mouth, Duan Rong immediately used the vital energy of heaven and earth to wrap the "candied haws" to prevent the cold air contained in it from freezing his internal organs.

The "candied haws" was swallowed into the stomach and was wrapped by the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth in the Dantian. The ice on the surface gradually melted, revealing the flesh and blood of the Yuan Beast inside.

At this moment, Duan Rong activated his skills and began to refine the mass of flesh and blood.

As it was refined, the extremely pure Yuan Qi of heaven and earth contained in the flesh and blood of the Yuan Beast gradually dissipated.

The purity of the vital energy of heaven and earth and its affinity with the body frightened Duan Rong a little.

After Duan Rong advanced to the Yuan Qi realm, he had practiced several times. Although the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth was rich in Changliu Mountain, richness and purity were two different concepts.

Richness refers to the quantity, but purity refers to the quality.

At this time, in his dantian, extremely pure vital energy of heaven and earth gushed out like a spring. Duan Rong immediately circulated his breathing exercises and began to absorb this vital energy of heaven and earth.

Duan Rong has directly attained a certain realm by devouring the spirit of the weapon. His operation, breathing, absorption, and refining have become extremely proficient. Even for a talented practitioner, it would take at least half a year to reach such a proficient level.

Even so, with Duan Rong's skilled efficiency, about 10% of the heaven and earth energy gushing out of his dantian still failed to be absorbed and dissipated.

Duan Rong was sitting cross-legged on the cushion when he suddenly felt a pain in his flesh.

If other practitioners knew Duan Rong's idea, they would be greatly surprised. In the process of absorption and refining, some dissipation is inevitable. Even if there is only 10% dissipation like Duan Rong, it is only possible if one is extremely familiar with the technique.

But Duan Rong was not willing to give up. He suddenly flipped his hand and placed two porcelain bottles in front of him. They were the bone marrow ash of the high-level Yuan beast that Zhu He gave him when he first entered Yunfu Peak a few days ago. Duan Rong opened the stopper of one of the bottles and sniffed it gently. It had no smell.

Then he shook the bottle gently and could feel some kind of sticky liquid inside.

Duan Rong then raised his head and poured out a drop of thick gray liquid from the bottle.

Duan Rong swallowed the drop of thick grey liquid into his throat, and immediately his whole body began to tremble like a sieve.

A burning pain surged through his internal organs, dantian, and meridians. In just a moment, Duan Rong's face turned pale and his eyes were filled with fear.

He urged his mind and used his spiritual consciousness to look inside his body.

After investigating with his spiritual sense, he found out everything clearly and soon discovered that it was not poisoning.

Duan Rong felt a little relieved and continued to practice his skills and breathe in and out. Now the difference was apparent. The extremely pure energy of heaven and earth that surged out of his dantian did not dissipate in the slightest and was completely absorbed and refined by him.

If anyone knew what happened to Duan Rong in this secret training room, they would definitely think it was a miracle.

A cultivator who had just advanced to the Yuan Qi realm only a few days ago could actually achieve no dissipation at all.

Of course, this is with the bonus of the bone marrow gray matter of high-level Yuan beasts.

The bone marrow gray matter of this high-level Yuan Beast can actually permanently improve the affinity between the practitioner and the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth, but the effect of this permanent improvement is very small, like peeling silk from a cocoon.

However, after swallowing a drop of bone marrow ash, the affinity will increase significantly within a few hours, and will slowly decline after a few more hours.

Duan Rong practiced his skills madly, and swallowed another candied haws every hour or so.

You must know that this is not a temporary breathing and refining, this is the circulation, absorption, and refining of cultivation. Every bit of refining will eventually become the source of vitality in the Dantian. This is the real realm of cultivation. It is a trickle of hard work!

For someone like Duan Rong who has just entered the Yuanqi realm, he can actually finish a candied haws in one hour. This speed of cultivation is almost the limit and cannot be surpassed.

Although it is said that mental power has a great influence on cultivation, on the one hand, it is from the perspective of delicate control. On the other hand, the stronger the mental power, the faster one can master the complex process of absorption, breathing, and refining, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of cultivation.

But Duan Rong was already familiar with it as soon as he got started!

From that day on, Duan Rong practiced hard every day, as if he was addicted to cultivation.

The first few days were fine, but after half a month, Lu Geng and Wang Yue began to grumble. After a month, even Fan Hongjiao and Wu Shidao became a little worried and came to see Duan Rong several times.

Fan Hongjiao reminded him to combine work and rest. Although hard work is a good thing, practicing too much can easily lead to counterproductive behavior.

Although Duan Rong agreed repeatedly, he still practiced hard every day.

In fact, they were completely unable to understand, and that was right, because cultivation was a very mentally exhausting thing for them.

When it comes to the cultivation of the Qi realm, the process of absorption, breathing, and refining is so complicated! Moreover, many things are mixed together. After an hour of cultivation, the soul is already exhausted.

Only when they have practiced for many years and finally become proficient, they basically no longer need to digest the soul, and can operate naturally. But at this time, they have basically advanced to the next stage of practice, so the difficult road begins again.

But Duan Rong was familiar with it right from the start, and it hardly consumed his soul, it was just a purely physical job.

Because of this, he could practice day and night without rest. Seeing this kind of practice, Fan Hongjiao and Wu Shidao were terrified, fearing that something might happen to this kid and Zhu He would come back to trouble them.

On this day, Duan Rong looked at the empty Black Jade Pool and felt depressed. He was about to achieve the first level of Qi Realm, but the Qi and blood in the Black Jade Pool had been used up.

Didn't Wu Shidao tell him that it would be enough for him for half a year? It was only a month, and it was gone.

Wu Shidao was talking about normal people. At least he had only advanced to the Yuan Qi realm for a few days back then. The flesh and blood of those Yuan beasts were enough for him to use for more than half a year. Taking into account that Duan Rong had an extraordinary talent, he said less, only half a year.

But Duan Rong, a guy who couldn't even keep dry food in his doghouse, had it all gone in just one month.

Since it is gone, we have to find a way. It is the same as the problem we encountered in cultivation before.

Previously it was a question of medicine and pills, now it is a question of the blood and flesh of the Yuan beast. The essence is still the same.

However, there is only one source of the flesh and blood of the Yuan Beast, and that is the Dark Forest.

No, just go down once?
Duan Rong had already thought about this matter, and he might not be unable to go down into the Dark Forest.

If my energy consumption during cultivation is too fast, it would be unrealistic to ask Fan Hongjiao, Wu Shidao and others to take me into the Dark Forest once a month.

You have to solve this problem yourself.

We have to go to this dark forest.

But before going there, he had to get Wu Shidao's feng shui map to study it, and then do his homework carefully.

That day, Duan Rong came to the top floor of the pavilion, outside Wu Shidao's room. He had asked Wang Yue before coming and knew that Wu Shidao was in the room.

Duan Rong knocked on the door gently and called out, "Senior Brother Wu!"

After a while, the door opened.

Wu Shidao looked at Duan Rong with profound eyes.

Duan Rong had been practicing hard in the secret room for the past month, never washing or combing his hair. His hair was now tangled and he looked dry and withered.

"Junior brother, I admire your hard work, but everything is better in moderation..."

Duan Rong said, "Brother, I know. I came here to borrow your geomancy map of the Dark Forest."

"What are you going to do?" Wu Shidao looked at Duan Rong nervously, fearing that he was going to do something weird again.

Duan Rong said, "Nothing! I'm just tired of practicing recently, and I want to study the Dark Forest to change my mind. I just happened to remember that you have a geomancy map, so I want to borrow it to take a look. If it's not convenient, forget it."

"Convenient! How can it be inconvenient?" Wu Shidao said with a smile.

Fan Hongjiao had come to discuss Duan Rong's matter with him several times. Fan Hongjiao meant that he should at least take a few days off every month and not stay in the practice chamber all the time. If he didn't listen to their advice, they would take coercive measures.

Now, it was heard that Duan Rong was going to stop practicing and change his mind. This would solve a big problem for Fan Hongjiao and him, not to mention this feng shui map. Who among these direct disciples had not seen it?

(End of this chapter)