Devouring Evil Martial Arts, Eliminating Demons from All Heavens

Chapter 439 The Divine Effects of the Grotto Heaven

"Is this the cave heaven? Why is it so dark?"

Looking at the scene around her, Chen Taozhi sighed with genuine emotion.

With the situation in the Golden Triangle largely settled, Chu Tianshu prepared to visit the cave.

He noticed that Chen Taozhi was also very curious, so he simply brought her along.

"This cave is really dark!"

This was also Chu Tianshu's first time entering. Looking around, he felt only emptiness and desolation, with no mountains, no water, no land, only a quiet darkness.

It felt as if one's feet were treading on soft, fluffy clouds.

With a little effort, you can sink a short distance, but then slowly float back up. If you jump, you can only jump a little height before slowly falling.

What's amazing is that although it's dark here, there's no feeling of stuffiness at all. The air is exceptionally fresh, and there's no strange smell at all, which makes people feel relaxed and happy.

"Actually, you don't even need to move your feet when you move here. Just think about finding someone and you will slowly drift toward that person's location."

Yun Gu introduced the two to each other with practiced ease, while simultaneously closing his eyes, pointing casually into the air, and muttering, "Chen Ying, Chen Ying, Chen Ying..."

As expected, Chu Tianshu saw his entire body begin to drift in a certain direction.

The three of them met Chen Ying not long after.

She was still dressed in the same Taoist robe, holding a whisk in her hand, carrying a long sword on her back, and sitting calmly cross-legged.

However, compared to when they parted ways in Busan, Chu Tianshu found that he could no longer discern Chen Ying's true character.

Perhaps because he was inside the cave, Chen Ying, the master of the cave, had an aura that seemed to blend completely with the darkness, as if he could drift away at any moment and reappear at any moment.

However, the moment she opened her eyes, they were filled with the smile of reuniting with a friend, and her ethereal demeanor was imbued with a distinct sense of life.

“Mr. Chu, after several months apart, it’s truly embarrassing that we need your help as soon as you return.”

Chen Ying stood up, bowed, and said, "Thank you!"

Chu Tianshu smiled and said, "Helping your comrades is helping yourself. Come, let me introduce you to a new comrade."

"Haha, you two both have the surname Chen, maybe five hundred years ago... uh."

At this point, Chu Tianshu paused for a moment.

The proverb "We were one family five hundred years ago" doesn't seem to apply to Chen Ying.

Five hundred years ago, she was still sleeping in the cave. Even if we consider the above eight hundred years, Chen Taozhi was definitely not among her family members.

Chen Ying looked at Chen Taozhi: "When I brought you in just now, I sensed that this person is also a member of the Taoist sect?"

Chen Taozhi nodded: "I cultivate the Jade Pivot Thunder Internal Skill of the Qingwei lineage of Taoism, and I also cultivate a set of skills called 'Toad Skill Palm Thunder,' which, according to the secret manual, was also created by Taoists of the Wudang Golden Toad Sect."

Although one of my colleagues in the team happened to be from the Golden Toad faction, he found the manual unfamiliar to him.

However, there are quite a few lost secret manuals from various schools of Wudang, and besides, the "Toad Skill Palm Thunder" manual also includes an electrotherapy training method.

This was clearly added by Chu Tianshu himself; no one knows exactly how much he modified it.

That colleague didn't hesitate; after a short trial, he exclaimed how great it was.

He Lai's decision to have them practice this skill was based on profound considerations, and was not simply because the military had a large number of electrotherapy devices that could be used.

It should be noted that Taoist practices are often attributed to the teachings of Huang-Lao, and the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic especially emphasizes harmonizing the Qi of the five internal organs and six bowels, guiding the limbs and bones, and purifying the quality of internal energy.

These soldiers who practice Taoist internal skills, after diligently practicing "Toad Skill Palm Thunder," undergo electrotherapy to cleanse their five internal organs, and their original internal strength will reach a higher level.

"I can see that the flow of qi in your body has reached a critical juncture."

Chen Ying said, "Should we select dozens of acupoints from the existing twelve regular meridians and eight extraordinary meridians, and use internal energy to connect them to open up a new energy circulation?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Taozhi was astonished and said, "That's right. The original energy channels in the human body contain weak lightning attributes. If the lightning attribute power accumulates too much, it can easily damage the nerve reaction ability."

"Although the newly opened meridian uses the body's original acupoints, the selected acupoints are all of unorthodox nature. Once connected into one meridian, the circulation principle is quite different from other meridians, and practicing it is beneficial and harmless."

"This step is also the key to us cultivating our invisible internal energy into thunderous qi."

In the darkness, Chen Ying swept his whisk.

Not far to her right front, a dark cloud seemed to have become exceptionally solid and flat.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, go there, sit down, and focus your energy to break through the barrier."

Chen Taozhi seemed to be deep in thought, but without saying much, she walked over there, sat down cross-legged, and began to attempt to break through this barrier.

Chu Tianshu and Yun Gu both guessed what was going on and watched quietly from the side.

As Chen Taozhi intensified her internal energy cultivation, her already short hair stood up like steel needles.

An invisible internal force surged around him, flowing into his palms with a low shout.

The originally colorless cloud of energy grew brighter and brighter as he rubbed his hands together, with faint signs of flashing electricity.

After a good ten seconds, Chen Taozhi pressed this ball of internal energy onto her chest, her whole body trembled, and she suddenly opened her eyes.

"cough!"

He held it in for a moment, then finally coughed up a puff of black smoke and clutched his chest.

"I failed... I failed?!"

Although he was saying that they had failed, his tone rose sharply, full of surprise.

"I failed just now, how come I'm not injured at all?!"

Chen Taozhi had tried to take this step many times before.

Even with his current resources, if he fails to break through, he will need to recover for several days before he can try again.

But now, apart from exhaling a puff of black smoke, he felt no harm whatsoever to himself.

Moreover, failing to pass the test often leads to disordered breathing and a feeling of confusion and discomfort in the mind for a while.

Just now, Chen Taozhi experienced the whole process with perfect clarity. Now, after a moment's recollection, she immediately realized exactly where she had gone wrong.

"Yes, yes, yes, when my power flowed horizontally through the Lingtai acupoint, I was a fraction too fast, that's the mistake!"

He couldn't wait to talk to anyone, so he tried to use his internal energy again.

Chu Tianshu then confirmed his suspicions and whispered to Chen Ying, "You helped him resolve the backlash from his failed attempt to break through the barrier?"

"I didn't help him resolve it."

Chen Ying shook her head, her eyes filled with joy, "It is this grotto-heaven."

"Perhaps because I was under too much pressure recently, I became more familiar with the cave heaven. Once the pressure disappeared, I suddenly realized the most important use of the cave heaven."

Yun Gu said from the side, "You only recently mastered it? No wonder I've never heard you mention it before."

Chu Tianshu then asked, "What is the upper limit to helping people resolve backlashes?"

"If it were just a situation like the one that Fellow Daoist Chen is at, and a hundred or so people came at once, the cave heaven could easily help him resolve the backlash and even help the cave heaven's own energy to become more active."

Chen Ying had already considered this question, and answered without hesitation.

"If it's someone who already has a 10% or 20% chance of breaking through to the forbidden realm, then at most, the cave can help ten people resolve the backlash at the same time." Upon hearing this answer...

Chu Tianshu and Yun Gu both felt their mouths go dry.

What does it mean to have a 10% or 20% chance of success?
To put it simply, when Lin Chucheng first attempted to break through to the forbidden zone in the overflow area, he already possessed all the signs recorded in the ancient secret manual.

At that time, he should have been at least 90% confident.

Thus, after his failure, he was deeply traumatized and had to take many medications to recover.

When Lin Chucheng attempted to break through the taboo for the second time, it was in a real-world environment, and he easily crossed that threshold.

This was certainly because he possessed extraordinary talent and had absorbed the special vital energy of the stone tablet from the Kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West, but the experience of his previous failure was also crucial.

However, if there is even a 10% or 20% chance of success, one can break through the taboo without dying or being seriously injured.

Accumulating experience in this way is practically equivalent to gaining many more lives.

"If that's the case, once you return to China from this grotto, the country will probably be able to immediately gather ten people like this for you."

Chu Tianshu exhaled slowly, his mind still churning.

Principal Feng has already broken the taboo.

In China, there are also martial artists and sorcerers who are a generation above Principal Feng.

He Lai had previously consulted Chu Tianshu about whether he could pass on the Refining Spirit and Transforming Qi Method and Chu Tianshu's annotated version of the Chasing the Sun True Skill.

That time, Chu Tianshu had a large sum of money in his account, and the pharmacy also gained several new supply channels for special medicinal materials.

After examining those medicinal herbs, Chu Tianshu knew that these precious herbs were not something that ordinary researchers could cultivate, nor were they grown in a spiritual realm plantation.

That's probably just some old folks who are too old to do anything else, and they're so bored that they're using their mental power to cultivate medicinal herbs.

The medicines that Chu Tianshu used to refine medicinal wine, neutralize radiation, and invigorate blood and qi came from those transactions.

“No wonder!”

Yun Gu also said with relief, "No wonder this cave heaven ruins could attract the true form of the ghost and god to exert their power directly in the spirit world and affect the trajectory of the cave heaven."

"If Brother Chu and I overdo our training here, or try out some dangerous self-created moves, can we also mitigate the backlash?"

Chen Ying glanced at Yun Gu for a few seconds, then stared at Chu Tianshu for a moment.

"Brother Yun, your backlash is more than enough to be resolved by the cave heaven. As for Mr. Chu..."

Chen Ying said, "My perception within the cave is extraordinary. I can see Mr. Chu's current cultivation level of essence, energy, and spirit. The intensity of the backlash caused by your cultivation will not exceed the limits of the cave."

"However, your backlash is taking effect so quickly that, given the current state of the cave, it may not be able to intercept it all."

Chu Tianshu nodded slightly, his expression calm, and he was not surprised at all.

Chen Ying felt a little ashamed and said, "I can only stop about 70% of them."

"Seventy percent?!"

Chu Tianshu asked with delight, "Can it really stop 70%?"

He flipped his hand and took out the Heavenly Eye of the Void. "This treasure has two modes: catalysis and attack."

"Do you think that if I turned its catalytic mode to the highest level and shone it on myself, I could withstand 70% of the backlash?"

Chen Ying pointed at the Taixu Heavenly Eye from a distance, closed his eyes, and revealed an expression as if he were traveling in the Taixu. After a moment, he came back to his senses and nodded, saying, "Okay."

Chu Tianshu was overjoyed.

Originally, the secret to transforming one's foundation in the True Explanation of Taixu Boiling the Sun was extremely complex.

Chu Tianshu was still thinking that he would have to break down the process into at least ten days to complete a single trial run.

We'll proceed step by step. It's estimated that it will take more than two months to fully transform the foundation.

However, if you are not afraid of backlash, when practicing these new techniques, you should also keep your Heavenly Eye open and shine it on yourself.

That might save 70% of the time.

He was extremely curious about what it would be like to complete the power conversion.

Yun Gu quickly said, "Even if you can stop 70%, it means you will still suffer 30% damage. Too much of a good thing is bad. It's best not to push yourself to the limit."

"By the way, didn't you come to see Xiao Yuan? You should tell her the good news that you can go back to China."

Right.

Actually, we can use the environment of the cave to let Sanqi get used to the Taixu Heavenly Eye first, and I can observe and ponder from the side.

Anyway, the life gauge is still a little short of full.

But it's estimated that once Dongtian returns to the country and learns of the news that he can "assist in breakthroughs," his fortunes will soon skyrocket.

After pondering for a moment, Chu Tianshu calmed down and asked with a smile, "Where is Teacher Yuan?"

"She is only safe in the cave, but if she eats or drinks, impurities will be generated."

Chen Ying waved his whisk, which rolled up something in the darkness, and pulled out a sleeping person.

"I made her practice the most advanced breathing technique among the living dead methods."

Chu Tianshu looked at Yuan Zhonglu, whose breathing was slow but deep, and a hint of reluctance appeared in his eyes.

When exactly did this turbid breathing begin?

She used to be a perfectly healthy person with an oval face, almond-shaped eyes, and peach-blossom cheeks, but now her cheeks are sunken and her demeanor has become cold and pale.

and many more.

Chu Tianshu suddenly thought of Chen Ying's temperament.

"Master Chen, you didn't used to practice the art of breathing exercises all the time, starving yourself into an icy aura, did you?"

Chen Ying was puzzled: "Turtle breathing calms the mind and body, making the body and breath light, which is very beneficial. The breath will only become more active, so where does the iceberg theory come from?"

Just then, Yuan Zhonglu slowly woke up. His eyes, still a little dazed, scanned the room and landed on Chu Tianshu. He was about to greet him when he heard his master's words.

A bleak smile immediately appeared on her face.

Chu Tianshu hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Forget it, you can't reason with you ancient Taoist nuns.

"Let me take Teacher Yuan out for some porridge first."

Chu Tianshu grabbed Yuan Zhonglu and pulled him up.

"Food is one of the greatest pleasures in life; how can we stop eating just because we don't need to?"

Upon hearing this, Yun Gu said repeatedly, "Speaking of food, I'm hungry too. The Tom Yum soup you recommended to me before was really delicious."

"Before I leave, I have to drink a few more bowls."

(End of this chapter)