Put away your magical powers now!.

Chapter 302 [A Demonic Aura]

Chapter 296 [A Demonic Aura]

Old Liang said Chen Yan was a rough man, and in terms of cultivation, he wasn't wrong.

Chen Yan ultimately suffered from the disadvantage of having too little time to cultivate.

In less than a year, he grew from an ordinary person into a cultivator of the third realm. Even in the realm, not to mention the ordinary people among the masses, the majority of cultivators in the realm are below the Heavenly Human Realm, at the first, second, or third realm. Many have cultivated for a lifetime but have only achieved so much.

In just one year, Chen Yan accomplished what others take a lifetime or even most of a lifetime to achieve.

Cultivation skills are acceptable, techniques are acceptable, and spiritual attainment is acceptable.

But... there are still shortcomings that cannot be made up for!

Skill!
When it comes to skills, talent only accounts for a small part.

More importantly, it all comes down to four words: practice makes perfect.

The difference between a spell you practice for a year and someone else practicing for fifty years often lies in the skill.

When inputting vital energy, is it possible to slightly control the rhythm in certain areas?
When using vital energy, is it necessary to take a slight detour in certain areas?
Slightly reduce the area in one spot, and slightly increase the area in another.

Where can we actually save a little energy...?

Etc., etc……

These are all details that can only be mastered and understood through practice.

These things take time to achieve.

In terms of scale, cultivators of the same level have the same level of Yuan Qi cultivation and are at the same realm.

One has practiced for three years, and the other for thirty years. Therefore, their application of vital energy must differ in many small techniques.

Lao Liang said that Chen Yan was a rough man, and from the perspective of the use of vital energy, this statement is absolutely correct.

"Your current use of Yuan Qi..." Old Liang said, shaking his head with a hint of disdain, "is practically like using Yuan Qi to smash people. It's just bullying people by relying on your cultivation level."

If you encounter an older cultivator of similar strength, they could beat you to a pulp.

Chen Yan could not refute this.

He actually agreed with Lao Liang's assessment of him.

Since my debut, I have experienced various battles and faced several strong opponents in one-on-one duels. In fact, I have used some opportunistic tactics.

When I was still in the Returning Origin Realm, I fought a great battle against that evil old ghost in Hong Kong. That guy claimed to be in the third realm, but in reality, he was a weak cultivator who had been severely injured and was now collapsing into the sky. Moreover, he was a cultivator from the real world, a so-called weak cultivator with incomplete cultivation techniques.

In all his subsequent battles, he never encountered a true cultivator from another realm, let alone one of equal cultivation level.

"Your cultivation level is not bad, but your use of vital energy is as crude as that of a novice who has just started learning."

As Old Liang spoke, he shook his head: "I don't know how your Hehuan Sect trains its disciples. Perhaps you were only encouraged to be brave and diligent and break through your cultivation level, but you haven't had time to properly hone your skills in controlling your Yuan Qi."

Chen Yan didn't know how to answer Lao Liang's question—since he started his cultivation, he had relied entirely on self-study and exploration; no one had ever taught him these things.
Although Lao Liang's words were blunt, they were invaluable. Chen Yan knew what was good and bad, so he immediately bowed to Lao Liang respectfully and said, "Thank you for your guidance, senior!"

After giving the jade slip, Lao Liang snorted, leaned against the tree trunk, turned over, stopped looking at Chen Yan, and continued to sleep with his arms crossed.

Chen Yan, however, gently walked away with the jade slip in his hand, deliberately going a little further away. In the woods, he casually took out a kerosene lamp, lit it, and sat down on the ground to study the sword control technique in the jade slip.

Old Liang's knife control technique is called "Eight Blades of the Sea Abyss," which consists of only eight moves. It looks simple and sharp, but it has been refined through countless trials and tribulations, taking a path of returning to simplicity.

Using vital energy to wield the sword, and with the cultivator's divine sense as an auxiliary guide, the first five moves are combat techniques for close-quarters melee combat with the sword.

In the final three moves, he could release the knife from his hand, locate his opponent with his divine sense, and control it with his vital energy—this fighting style was somewhat similar to controlling a flying sword.

This set of sword techniques clearly follows the combat method, that is, the path of physical cultivation, not using magic to fight the enemy, but fighting head-on.

Chen Yan was captivated by the sight and became engrossed in watching. After observing for a while, he memorized a few movements and jumped up from the ground. Since he didn't have any bladed weapons, he simply took out the flying sword from his storage jade pendant and began practicing in the forest, using it as a weapon.

He practiced for more than an hour. At first, his movements were still very clumsy, especially the last three moves, which required him to release the knife from his hand and to remotely control the blade with his vital energy and spiritual sense to fight the enemy.

As a beginner, he was naturally not skilled. At first, he struggled to control the knife, and it often slipped out of his grasp and fell or flew away.

Chen Yan was not annoyed at all, and picked up the pieces again and again to practice without caring.

They practiced until dawn.

He was already extremely strong physically, but even with the combined energy and spiritual power he cultivated, he was still drenched in sweat after a whole night of practice.

When he finally saw the first hint of dawn in the sky, Chen Yan sheathed his sword, took a few deep breaths, calmed himself down, and was still reflecting on the insights he had gained from practicing all night.

Sounds came from the edge of the woods behind them; it was Old Liang who had jumped down from the tree trunk and stood up.

Old Liang started a fire, boiled some water, and prepared some hot food.

Seeing Chen Yan return from the woods carrying his sword, Old Liang simply glanced at him quietly without saying a word. Instead, he waited until a pot of hot soup was ready before discreetly serving him a bowl.

"The mornings are damp in the mountains, so we drink a bowl of hot soup."

As he spoke, Lao Liang deliberately glanced at Chen Yan's sweaty forehead and shook his head, saying, "It's very humid in the mountains. You're covered in sweat, and the wind won't dry you properly. Change your clothes later, otherwise, the clothes will inevitably smell a bit sour when they dry in the shade."

Chen Yan laughed heartily: "Thank you for the reminder, senior."

He picked up the bowl and drank the hot soup in one gulp, then went to the back, cast a cleansing spell on himself, and changed into clean clothes.

For the next three days, every night when they camped out, Chen Yan would go into the woods and find a spot to practice his knife control techniques alone for two hours.

Yun Zhao was somewhat puzzled by Chen Yan's actions, but he didn't say much—it wasn't strange for a cultivator to practice diligently.

After practicing for three days, Chen Yan finally took the initiative to approach Lao Liang one morning. He first bowed politely, and seeing that Lao Liang did not seem impatient, he then honestly asked for advice, voicing his doubts about the exertion and retraction of force in some areas after practicing for three days.

As Lao Liang poured out the feed to Longma, he listened to Chen Yan's questions. After that, he clapped his hands and shook his head, saying, "The questions you asked are all very silly."

"How so?" Chen Yan wasn't angry; his attitude remained good, and he asked politely.

"All your problems boil down to one issue: your understanding of manipulating vital energy is too shallow, you lack experience, and you lack proficiency."

Therefore, as long as you can improve your understanding and control of vital energy, all the questions you just asked me can be easily answered.

Otherwise, even if I answer all the questions you just asked, you'll still encounter new problems as you practice.

What you lack is a complete understanding of tailoring clothes, not just patching up a hole when you see one.

Chen Yan nodded thoughtfully.

Suddenly, Lao Liang flicked his sleeve, threw something out, and gently tossed it to Chen Yan.

The result was a wooden box about half a meter long.

After opening the box, there was a groove inside, where a row of several items of different sizes were placed.

Some are round, some are full of angles, some are square, and some are triangular.

Chen Yan picked up one or two at random, only to find that these things were made of different materials and had different weights.

They are all about the size of a fist, but some are made of wood, some of dried clay, some of stone, and some of metal...

The weights, arranged from lightest to heaviest, ended with a round, fist-sized ball. I picked it up and weighed it; it probably weighed over a hundred pounds. It must be some kind of special metal.

"These are some little toys I used to practice controlling my inner self when I was young. I'll give them to you to play with." With that, Old Liang casually picked up one of the toys, which was full of sharp edges, tossed it gently in his hand, and then caught it steadily. He tossed it again and caught it again.

Chen Yan noticed that Lao Liang was not touching the object with his palms or fingers, nor was he catching or throwing it with his hands. Instead, he was controlling it with his vital energy and divine sense.

This small object was tossed around by Lao Liang like a juggling act.

Finally, with a flick of his finger, Old Liang sent the thing flying into Chen Yan's arms.

"Start with the lightest one. Whenever you have nothing to do and your hands are free, take it out and play with it, using your vital energy and divine sense to control it."

Start with light objects, and once you're familiar with them, move on to something a little heavier. When you've mastered all of these things, start over from scratch, but in a way that teaches you to multitask.

While you're doing other things, you can also play with these toys. By mastering this kind of multitasking, from light to heavy, you'll have made some progress.

You need to make it a habitual, instinctive habit. If you practice like this, you'll become proficient in controlling and utilizing your vital energy and spiritual awareness.

Chen Yan's eyes lit up, and he was about to bow in thanks when Old Liang waved his sleeve and said indifferently, "No need to thank me. I'm not doing this for your sake, but for Young Master Yun Zhao's."

"Huh?" Chen Yan was taken aback.

Old Liang sighed: "The young master doesn't have many friends at home. The clan treats him with great respect, which makes it so that he doesn't actually have any close friends. His brothers and sisters at home are also not close to him."

It's rare that he gets along with you and becomes your friend.

I just hope that you... will be kinder to him.

Young Master Yun Zhao has actually had a very hard life. No one in the entire clan truly cares for him. Even his own parents don't really like him.

·
A few days later, in front of the Jade Hanging Waterfall in southern Xinjiang.

In the distance, a waterfall cascades down a cliff like a jade pendant!

This is a unique sight in southern Xinjiang. A river extends here, and suddenly a huge fault line appears in the landform, with a drop of hundreds of meters on both sides!
When the river reaches this drop, it forms a waterfall, cascading down hundreds of meters!

It is currently the dry season, and the Jade Hanging Waterfall is only a few dozen meters wide. I heard that during the annual flood season, at its peak, the waterfall can be two or three hundred meters wide!

At this moment, Chen Yan and the others were standing hundreds of meters away from the Jade Hanging Waterfall. Even so, they could feel the thick water vapor rushing towards them, and the fine water droplets fell on their heads and faces like a fine drizzle.

Beneath my feet flows the rushing river, and standing on the bank, I gaze into the distance. On the mountain peaks, bathed in sunlight, a rainbow arches across the sky.

The deafening roar of the water was deafening. Yun Zhao had already climbed to the top of the carriage. He was shouting and yelling at the Jade Hanging Waterfall, holding a wine pot in his hand. He sang loudly, then tilted his head back and drank, his posture very unrestrained.

Chen Yan stood behind Yun Zhao, but instead of climbing onto the roof of the car like him, he stood on the road.

However, while he was admiring the waterfall, his right hand kept rolling up and down at random. He saw a dark, oval-shaped object rolling around his hand, turning and moving around, flying everywhere, but it never escaped Chen Yan's control.

The three of them stayed in front of the Jade Hanging Waterfall for a day and a night.

The Jade Waterfall is even more beautiful at night!

The cliff face formed by the drop behind the riverbed turns into a large patch of jade-green at night, shimmering slightly in the moonlight.

From a distance, the Jade Hanging Waterfall truly resembles a piece of white jade hanging on a green jade screen.

This is because the mountain wall behind the Jade Waterfall contains a special jade vein that is not visible during the day, but only emits a precious light at night when it is illuminated by moonlight and absorbs the essence of the moon.

Such a scene can only be seen on a bright moonlit night.

The three of them were lucky; on their first night there, they encountered a cloudless night with a bright moon.

Yun Zhao was in high spirits and drank several more jugs of wine. He then lay down on the roof of the carriage, hugged a soft wooden pillow, and fell asleep drunk.

As he slept, he was still muttering drunken ramblings: "I don't want to go back..."

Old Liang was aloof, but when he looked at Yun Zhao, he sighed, walked over, and without touching him, took out a fiery red stone and gently placed it beside him. Instantly, a red arc of light emanated from it, blocking out the surrounding mist and drizzle.

Chen Yan took his sword and walked to a distance, where he practiced for two hours. When he returned, he saw Yun Zhao lying sprawled on the roof of the carriage, fast asleep, while Lao Liang simply sat to the side, resting with his eyes closed.

Over the next few days, the three of them wandered and played in the vast mountains and wilderness of southern Xinjiang.

When encountering steep roads that the carriage could not pass, they would simply put the carriage into their storage equipment and then ride the dragon horse.

The dragon horse was indeed magnificent, traversing the steep mountains to the south as if walking on flat ground.

Chen Yan was quite interested in horseback riding. He often rode alone, roaming around freely. After a few days, he became familiar with the dragon horse he always rode. The dragon horse also began to be close to him. Originally, it would only eat the feed that Lao Liang fed it by hand, but now it would eat whatever Chen Yan fed it without hesitation.

The group spent more than ten days wandering in the mountains and fields, seeing many of the wonders of southern Xinjiang.

Jade-hanging waterfall, mountains and waters in the river, a hundred-mile bamboo forest, a rugged sea of ​​rocks...

Southern Xinjiang is sparsely populated, and we didn't encounter many people along the way.

They only occasionally encountered people from the Ghost Clan, knowing that they had entered Ghost Clan territory and passed by some of Ghost Clan tribes.

However, when Lao Liang stepped forward and produced his identity token, explaining that he came from the Black Feather Skylark Tribe of the Northern Frontier, the Ghost Clan did not make things difficult for them. They only warned them not to go to certain restricted areas, and otherwise let them travel as they pleased.

On this day, the three of them emerged from a dense forest and returned to a mountain path.

Having just stopped to rest, Lao Liang tied up the dragon horse and took out a water bag and feed to feed it. Beside him, Yun Zhao chatted idly with Chen Yan, but seeing Chen Yan constantly toying with and fiddling with a small toy Lao Liang had given him, he couldn't help but sigh: "Brother Shanhe, you're practicing your control techniques with these things every day… are you perhaps planning to abandon your spiritual cultivation and go down the path of physical cultivation?"

Chen Yan just smiled and didn't say anything.

Just then, Lao Liang, who was bending over on the ground preparing to start a fire, suddenly stood up straight!

His previously indifferent face suddenly turned serious and gloomy, and a hint of vigilance flashed in his eyes! He swiftly moved to Yun Zhao's side.

"Don't speak!" Old Liang took a deep breath and placed a hand on Yun Zhao's shoulder.

Chen Yan was taken aback at first, but as Lao Liang's gaze turned to a certain direction in the distance, Chen Yan also squinted to look...

With the combination of the Qi Observation Technique and the Illusion-Breaking Divine Power, Chen Yan could see in the distance that a faint red blood aura was permeating the air!
Chen Yan's expression immediately turned serious. He looked at Lao Liang, who squinted and said in a deep voice, "There's a smell of blood."

Chen Yan pointed: "There!"

Yun Zhao's expression also turned serious. He sniffed and said, "Let's go take a look!"

Old Liang frowned: "When you're out and about, you shouldn't cause trouble. Let's take another route."

Yun Zhao thought for a moment, but Chen Yan reached out and pressed on Yun Zhao's shoulder: "Listen to Lao Liang."

Yun Zhao was actually eager to try, but since Chen Yan had said so, he could only sigh and nod, "Alright, I'll listen to you."

Old Liang finally breathed a sigh of relief and gave Chen Yan a grateful look.

The three then changed course and went in the opposite direction, but this time Lao Liang deliberately walked at the very back.

After the three of them had walked for about ten miles, Old Liang suddenly stopped.

"We can hear a sound coming from behind!"

As he spoke, his expression suddenly changed: "There are demons! I smell demonic energy! The demonic energy carries a fierce killing intent!"

Chen Yan's skill lies in his ability to observe qi and to see through illusions—to see through appearances and pretenses.

But demonic energy was something he didn't understand.

Upon hearing Lao Liang's words, Chen Yan's expression shifted.

This is deep within the territory of the Ghost Clan. What kind of demon clan would dare to commit such a killing here?
·
(End of this chapter)