Starting from the Tiger Demon Yaksha, the demon immortality

Chapter 245 Breaking Through the Heavenly Ladder, Li Siqi Challenges Him (5,000 words, 10,000 words updated today)

The Azure Dragon in the Azure Dragon True Scripture has many meanings.

The seven constellations of the Azure Dragon correspond to the celestial phenomena above;

The corresponding element in the human body is wood (甲乙).
When applied to major medicines, it is called mercury.

In Taoist cultivation, talismans and elixirs are paramount, used externally for internal transformation. They are often used as metaphors to suggest key aspects of cultivation.

The essence of the "Azure Dragon True Scripture" lies in refining true qi into true mercury, which is further divided into three realms and three refinements.

The True Form Realm transforms from Azure Dragon True Qi into Azure Dragon Mercury Beads;
In the Heavenly Ladder Realm, True Essence differentiates, with Yang becoming the Crimson Emperor's Flowing Mercury and Yin becoming the Great Yin Flowing Pearl;
The Mysterious Pass realm is refined with the Samadhi True Fire to obtain the Azure Dragon True Mercury.

Although Li Cunxiao's cultivation level improved extremely quickly, it was not superficial. In the True Form realm, his true energy transformed into mercury beads, which gathered in his sea of ​​qi. Their power and vastness were several times that of ordinary True Form martial artists.

Therefore, it takes even longer to transform this body's true energy into true essence and to differentiate the Azure Dragon Mercury Bead into Yin and Yang.

"After two months, we've finally reached this point."

In the Dragon Boat Spirit Pool, Li Cunxiao sat cross-legged. Even though he was covered by a Taoist robe, one could still see the faint glow emanating from the center of his spine.

The sixth realm, the Heavenly Ladder, focuses on tempering the twenty-four vertebrae of the spine. It may seem like just bone forging, and not much different from the muscle and tendon realm, but that is not the case.

The human spine is in a neutral position, connecting the hands and feet, and linking the brain and spirit, with a complex network of meridians running through it. For ordinary people, even a slight mishap can lead to hemiplegia.

Although a True Form Warrior's physique is already superhuman, the spine remains a vital point and must be treated with utmost care.

The cultivation of the Heavenly Ladder, from bottom to top, corresponds to the twenty-four solar terms. There are five vertebrae from the coccyx to the lumbar vertebrae, corresponding to the Winter Solstice, Minor Cold, Major Cold, Beginning of Spring, and Rain Water.

As we transitioned from deep winter to early spring, the first hurdle was the hardest to overcome. At least half a month of the two-month period was spent on this.

However, once the first coccyx is opened, subsequent procedures become much easier.

In particular, as more of his spine was opened up, Li Cunxiao's connection with heaven and earth became clearer, and he gradually began to be able to absorb spiritual energy from the outside world.

When spiritual energy combines with true energy, it forms true essence, making the tempering process more efficient.

Of course, such efficiency is also thanks to the help of the Four Divine Elixir.

With each breath, the corresponding four gods within the Four Divine Pills release pure medicinal power.

At the beginning of the three periods of winter solstice, minor cold, and major cold, the Black Tortoise God is in charge; when spring begins, the Azure Dragon God reveals its vitality.

The targeted approach greatly improved Li Cunxiao's cultivation efficiency.

In addition, thanks to the pure spiritual liquid provided by the Dragon Boat Spirit Pool, the most time-consuming part of the Heavenly Ladder cultivation—sensing and absorbing spiritual energy—is omitted.

Otherwise, Li Cunxiao would not have been able to cultivate the Heavenly Ladder to a minor level within two months.

If it were an ordinary martial artist without a sect background, it would take more than two months, let alone two months.

Even without using the evil energy to break through the barrier, Li Cunxiao's current cultivation speed has already far surpassed that of the other true disciples in the sect.

"As expected of the Spirit Treasure Dragon Boat, not to mention its power, it has already helped me a lot in terms of cultivation."

Li Cunxiao opened his eyes and got up, looking at the clear, water-like spirit pool with some regret, which meant that the spiritual energy he had accumulated over the past two months had been used up again.

Inside his body, the four divine light orbs, originally the size of a fist, had visibly shrunk, likely to be used up before reaching perfection.

"The current realm has been reached, but the true essence differentiation is still missing to make it complete."

Within his body, a blue-green ocean rose and fell with his breath. Upon closer inspection, each mercury bead faintly contained both crimson and jet-black hues.

The Azure Dragon Mercury Bead possesses both Yin and Yang properties, making it a versatile weapon for both offense and defense when one reaches the True Form realm.

However, upon reaching the Heavenly Ladder realm, after differentiation, Yang becomes the Crimson Emperor's Flowing Mercury, and Yin becomes the Taiyin Flowing Pearl, with a greater emphasis on each aspect, making them more efficient in combat, cultivation, healing, and alchemy.

However, Yin and Yang are originally intertwined, and it is not easy to separate them—this is naturally the case for others, but not for Li Cunxiao.

"Vajra, break!"

Golden light emanated, and a cool sensation entered the mind, but what surfaced in the mind was not how to differentiate the mercury beads, but a golden elixir that had been burned and forged nine times, perfectly round and flawless.

Li Cunxiao chose the "Nine-Turn Flowing Pearl Nine Elixir Scripture".

This martial art, at the level of a divine skill, integrates alchemy and weapon forging. It is an extremely difficult and truly extraordinary technique.

Just to understand the introductory part of this manual, he spent a month reading the book, solidifying his foundation, and figuring out terms like "dragon, tiger, and yellow sprout."

After another month, I carefully studied its inner meaning before I could truly begin practicing it.

Its core essence undoubtedly lies in the methods of refining spirit beads and gathering demon pills. In fact, this martial arts and alchemy can be divided into two parts based on this:
The method of refining spirit pearls focuses on "elixir";
The method of Gathering Demon Pills emphasizes "martial arts".

However, the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb complement each other, so when they are upgraded, they are naturally upgraded together.

The power of the vajra remained as strong as ever. In an instant, countless profound insights into alchemy flooded his mind, colliding and resonating with the knowledge he had read over the past two months, resulting in a torrent of profound understanding.

During this process, a seemingly transparent crimson color gradually appeared on the azure ocean within the body, and then spread out all at once, like a drop of thick ink falling into water.

"Hmm~"

A strong sense of yang and vitality filled his body, and Li Cunxiao even cried out in comfort.

The Crimson Emperor's Flowing Mercury is the embodiment of "the ultimate in life," and it is remarkably effective in alchemy and meditation for recovery.

Correspondingly, its destructive power is not as great as the Azure Dragon Mercury Bead in its normal state, and it is far inferior to the Taiyin Flowing Bead, which represents the "ultimate death".

"Has it already reached the minor completion stage? Might as well push it to perfection in one go? Hmm? Why did you use so much baleful energy!"

Li Cunxiao was just about to make the most of his hard-earned savings when he examined the vajra and was surprised to find that half of the eight bright makara claws had gone out.

"The required malevolent energy for this divine skill has doubled?"

Li Cunxiao frowned.

"No, it's not necessarily because the evil energy required for the divine skill has doubled; it could also be due to the 'Nine Revolutions Flowing Pearl Nine Elixir Scripture'."

In his view, even if the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb were separated, each could be considered a divine-level martial art. It would be reasonable if the cost of upgrading both was even higher.

"If that's not the case, then I'll still need to upgrade the divine power of my Buddhist master, and there's no way to fill the gap caused by the doubled amount of malevolent energy."

After arriving at Louguandao, his source of evil energy became limited, relying almost entirely on the demons and humans in the Dragon Boat Secret Realm.

The reason is simple: with war raging outside, the sect disciples' activities are basically limited to the capital region.

In Gyeonggi Province, as a disciple of the Taiyi Zhenren, one can basically do whatever one wants.

"When you become strong, you will be surrounded by good people."

But for Li Cunxiao, being surrounded by good people actually meant losing the potential for gaining power through his malevolent aura.

For safety reasons, Taiyi Zhenren has always opposed Li Cunxiao going out on missions.

According to the old Taoist priest, the merit points earned from missions were less than what he earned from serving him tea and water.

Perhaps only after becoming the master of the Azure Dragon Pavilion and taking control of the entire Louguan Sect's pill production line will Li Cunxiao's situation of relying solely on evil energy for income be alleviated.

Currently, the easily dealt with humans and demons in the secret realm have been mostly eliminated, and what remains are the tough nuts to crack, and their numbers are also decreasing rapidly.

In other words, before taking over the Azure Dragon Pavilion, Li Cunxiao had to be meticulous in his planning to ensure that the evil energy was used effectively every time.

"Never mind, it took two months to break through the Heavenly Ladder. Let's go out and see what's going on inside the gate."

"As for how to use the remaining evil energy, we can decide later."

With a single thought, when he opened his eyes again, he was already back in the cultivation chamber.

"Sure enough, compared to the secret realm, the spiritual energy outside is incredibly lazy. It's much more difficult to sense or absorb it than it is inside the dragon boat."

After practicing the technique for a short while, Li Cunxiao immediately felt the difference.

As Taiyi Zhenren once taught him, all things have spirits, but their spirits are not manifest; all things have demons, but their demonic nature is rampant.

In the universe, spiritual energy and demonic energy coexist, but the former is like a stubborn rock, hard and heavy, difficult to move; while the latter is like sand, which can easily gather into a force when blown by the wind and flowed by the water.

It is precisely because of these characteristics of heaven and earth that martial artists first enter the demonic path to gain power, and then borrow that power to control the spirit.

From turbidity to clarity, from clarity to control turbidity, and finally from spirit to control demons, a perfect balance is achieved.

"If it were an ordinary Heavenly Ladder martial artist, he would probably only be able to faintly sense spiritual energy after refining the first section of 'Winter Solstice'."

"To truly absorb and refine it to form true essence, one must wait until the transition from winter to spring, specifically after refining the fourth stage, 'Beginning of Spring'."

"But I don't need to go through all that trouble."

Li Cunxiao stepped out of the secret chamber. With each step, the five lumbar vertebrae in his body lit up with a crimson light from bottom to top.

Each time a section of his lumbar spine lit up, his overall aura diminished slightly, while his sense of harmony with his surroundings increased.

As he stepped into the open space of the courtyard, the warm spring sunshine seemed to materialize, like a touch of paint from a celestial brush, illuminating Li Cunxiao and the entire Azure Dragon Peak—

Roar! ! ! !

The dragon's roar gradually grew from faint to mighty, spreading from the small courtyard to an area of ​​ten miles in radius.

A deep blue dragon flew out from its dantian, its back spines adorned with the red of the Crimson Emperor's flowing mercury, and its majestic eyes were bathed in the golden light of the sun.

The ten-zhang-long azure dragon encircling Li Cunxiao was far more than just a pretty sight.

The latter clearly perceived that, through the Azure Dragon's true form, he seemed to see a completely different world, a world composed of spirits and demons, and of countless "qi". Compared to the purity of the Dragon Boat Secret Realm, the real world was far more vast and complex, giving his mind an unprecedented sense of freedom.

Unbeknownst to him, he had become one with the Azure Dragon, gliding and soaring in the low sky without the aid of any magical artifacts or divine weapons!

"What astonishing comprehension! To be able to merge with the world around Azure Dragon Peak so easily?"

Yan Daotong stared at everything before him, utterly amazed.

Even though both possess true essence, the Xuan Guan martial artist is stronger than the Tian Ti martial artist, and the reason lies here.

By breaking through the barrier and opening the ancestral aperture, martial artists can engage with heaven and earth anytime, anywhere, and mobilize the power of heaven and earth.

However, the Heavenly Ladder warriors rely on the great dragon of their spine to meticulously adjust the four seasons within their bodies in order to achieve resonance with the external world and absorb spiritual energy into their bodies.

However, once you enter an unfamiliar environment or are in the midst of a battle, it becomes almost impossible to convert your true essence anytime, anywhere.

Therefore, for Heavenly Ladder warriors, True Essence is undoubtedly a rare commodity that is used up as little as possible. After each all-out battle, it takes several days of meditation just to replenish True Essence to its full potential.

In this respect, the Four Gods Great Elixir is like a portable power bank, providing unparalleled convenience anytime, anywhere.

"It must be because of the Four Divine Pills that Cunxiao was able to break through so quickly. I have to thank my senior brother."

Taiyi Zhenren stroked his beard, in a very good mood. Yan Daotong, upon hearing this, simply laughed and cursed, "Old fox."

Both of them knew perfectly well that if the Four Divine Pills were so effective, then ten years ago, all the true disciples in the sect would have broken through the Xuan Gate. How come Xue Tianyun is still the only one who stands out?

Even if it can't compare to the Three Realms Ultimate True Cave Heaven, a secret realm is still a secret realm.

'Lingbao is indeed born of nature and is in harmony with the Great Dao. With this item in my possession, Cunxiao's future will surely surpass mine.'

The two had different thoughts, but they tacitly did not interrupt Li Cunxiao's first communion with heaven and earth.

For martial artists with the Heavenly Ladder, this may be the only chance to approach "unity of heaven and man" before breaking through the barrier.

Although due to insufficient cultivation, it is impossible to reach the level of "enlightenment and creation of laws" or "ascension to immortality," it will still leave a deep impression on one's mind and will have hidden benefits for future cultivation.

Li Cunxiao's breakthrough caused quite a stir, and soon, the inner disciples of Qinglong Peak were the first to gather around.

"The true form roams freely between heaven and earth. This, this, this, how long has it been since the true form was perfected, and it has already broken through the Heavenly Ladder?"

"Senior Brother Li is truly a genius. When he first arrived, some people even said that the sect leader was biased. What is the truth now?"

"Look, the azure light is blazing brightly. This is the spiritual energy on Azure Dragon Peak being drawn by the true form. To achieve this level, it's impossible that he has only refined a single lumbar vertebra; he might even be close to minor completion!"

"That's an exaggeration? Cough, I told you, even compared to Senior Brother Li Siqi, Senior Brother Li Cunxiao is in no way inferior. Now that the gap in cultivation has been closed, I'm afraid there will be a fierce battle ahead."

"Senior Brother Siqi!"

"what?"

The disciples, who had been talking loudly, were startled. When they turned around, they saw that Li Siqi had somehow appeared at the front of the crowd.

Ignoring the noisy disciples, Li Siqi silently gazed at the Azure Dragon circling low in the sky, unable to help but recall the scene of his breakthrough years ago.

But soon, he sighed with a wry smile, quickly stepped forward and bowed to Yan Daotong and Taiyi, and even remembered to greet Li Mucha who was standing to the side.

“Master has a discerning eye; he can even find a Qilin in the fields. In terms of talent, Junior Brother Li far surpasses me.”

"Oh?"

"However, this disciple does not intend to admit defeat so easily."

Upon hearing this, Taiyi Zhenren remained calm.

He did not scold him for being ungrateful and failing to yield to a more capable person; nor did he try to reason with him or persuade him not to lose face.

Daotong Zhenren seemed to have guessed something, but he didn't say much. Instead, he waited with great interest for Li Siqi to speak.

"I have been a true disciple of Azure Dragon Peak for fifteen years. Master, what mistakes have I made in my position as a true disciple?"

"should not."

"What have I ever coveted in the position of true successor?"

"Aside from the position of Pavilion Master, there shouldn't be one."

Taiyi Zhenren's words were very direct, and he already understood.

"You want to have a match?"

"Yes," Li Siqi nodded emphatically and bowed deeply.

"Alchemy is Master's specialty. If my alchemy skills are insufficient, how can I inherit your mantle?"

Not easy to handle.

These three words flashed through the mind of Daotong Zhenren, who was standing to the side.

Li Cunxiao possessed astonishing talent. In just three months, he broke through the true form and ascended the Heavenly Ladder with unstoppable momentum, showing no signs of decline.

Such a performance can only be described as astonishing.

But time is fair to everyone; what you gain in one area, you will inevitably lose in another.

With such a terrifying speed of cultivation advancement, if one were to say that Li Cunxiao still had the capacity to delve into alchemy, then Yan Daotong would rather believe that Gao Pian usurped the throne and Huang Chao accepted the surrender.

"You have a sharp eye; you know how to spot weaknesses."

Taiyi Zhenren draped his whisk over his arm, his expression unreadable.

"Do you harbor resentment towards me?"

"Disciples don't dare."

“Then it exists,” the old Taoist priest said with a sudden smile.

"Of my two true disciples back then, you were the most diligent and hardworking. As for Qing Tong, he took advantage of my guilt and became arrogant and domineering. Although he was talented, he died young."

“After he left, I had no interest in worldly affairs. You took care of everything at the mountain gate. Over the years, you have managed the mountain in an orderly manner, and I have seen it all.”

"Siqi, you deserve credit."

"Master."

Li Siqi felt a lump in her throat and buried her head even lower, feeling even more incredulous.

Even when Taiyi Zhenren was still using the name Li Yaoshi, his arrogance and self-willedness were already well-known far and wide.

It's not easy to get even a simple "good" from him, let alone this "you've made a contribution," Li Siqi has been waiting for for so many years.

Could all these changes have been brought about by Li Cunxiao?

"You have made contributions, so you are naturally qualified to compete for the position of the Azure Dragon Pavilion Master. I agree to your competition, but such an unfavorable condition—Cunxiao, do you agree to it?"

"Why don't you dare!"

The answer was given without hesitation. Everyone turned their attention to Li Cunxiao, who strode forward with his head held high, the Azure Dragon hidden behind him, and arrived in front of him in an instant.

"But I will decide when the duel will take place."

Li Siqi suddenly looked up, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes:
"When?"

"After half a month."

"Junior brother, don't be arrogant. I can already refine the Twenty-Four Qi Pill."

Upon hearing Li Siqi's words, the expressions of the surrounding disciples immediately changed.

True Form Warriors and Heavenly Ladder Warriors are undoubtedly the backbone of the sect.

Correspondingly, the calming pill and the twenty-four qi pill have acquired a status akin to strategic resources.

Li Siqi had been quiet until now, but suddenly he dropped a bombshell, which immediately sparked a lot of discussion among the crowd.

"How about this? The competition will be held a month from now, and you can decide what kind of pill to refine, junior brother."

Li Siqi seized the moment when Li Cunxiao had just broken through and struck at his weak point. If the conditions had been more stringent, even if he had won, the people of Qinglong Peak would have only thought that he was bullying the weak.

On the contrary, if you take the initiative to make concessions, you can even gain a good reputation.

In any case, a month is nothing for an alchemist to accumulate experience, so what's wrong with giving in a little?

"A month? That's enough."

Li Cunxiao suddenly smiled, and now, everyone, including Taiyi, was a little confused about what he was thinking.

"A month should be more than enough time for me to replenish my malevolent energy five times, fulfilling the conditions for the calculation."

'Li Siqi, if it's just a matter of alchemy, I might not be able to beat you.'

'But if I were to refine and improve the formula for the Mind-Stabilizing Pill, making cultivation safer for disciples at the True Form Realm, and allowing the sect to produce more Heavenly Ladder martial artists.'

'With such an incredible achievement, how can you possibly surpass me?'

(End of this chapter)