Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 229 Cultivation in the Mortal Realm: A Summoning from the Mountain Gate
The nameless courtyard was deserted.

But suddenly, the Gu worms in the courtyard flew up and hovered, landing on a grave mound in the very center of the courtyard.

The worms used their limbs to dig open the mound of earth, revealing a large vat buried deep underground.

There was a person in the jar, his body was deathly still, his hair was quite long and twisted like roots, his hands were like chicken claws, and his fingernails were wrapped around his body three times. He looked like an old zombie.

But when he suddenly opened his eyes, they were clear and bright, clearly those of a young man, white with a hint of blue, full of vitality.

A series of heartbeats suddenly rang out from the chest of the person in the vat, and the sound was extremely loud, like the beating of a drum, causing the entire vat to tremble.

With a crack, the vat, unable to withstand the heartbeat of the person inside, suddenly cracked, and the person abruptly stood up, leaping to the ground in the courtyard.

With his bull-like breathing, his skin and muscles bulged visibly, his figure became slender, and his face became fuller. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a complete teenager, only seventeen or eighteen years old.

This person was Fang Shu.

His eyes lit up with satisfaction, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
"March has passed, and my arduous practice has not been in vain!"

As his thoughts shifted, the true energy emanating from his body instantly transformed into waves of death energy, making his face withered and eerie, resembling a corpse demon.

In this situation, Fang Shu successfully cultivated the fifth flavor of evil energy into his body, thus obtaining the "Deathly Evil Energy".

This "deathly aura" was a medium-quality malevolent energy that he had cultivated by handing over Dai Kuan's corpse to a corpse-raising shop in Fudang Mountain Market, where they worked overtime to nurture it.

Logically speaking, after nurturing the evil energy, Dai Kuan's corpse would not only not be damaged, but would instead evolve into a zombie with copper muscles and iron bones, which would be quite useful.

However, Fang Shu, in order to obtain the evil energy as soon as possible, had the shopkeeper add a lot of strong medicine, which damaged Dai Kuan's corpse, making it useless and like it was being eaten by insects and rats. So he simply gave it to the shopkeeper, leaving only this bit of deadly evil energy in his hands.

After examining the newly refined Qi on his body, Fang Shu immediately felt that his true Qi had become much thicker.

Moreover, compared to three months ago, the amount of true energy in his body has increased by the power of five toads.

In other words, Fang Shu is now only five toads away from accumulating enough true energy to reach the level of sixty toads.

He has already condensed five kinds of evil energy in his body. He only needs the last one to complete the six evil energies and perfect the six internal organs. He can then prepare to refine his internal energy!
As he combed his hair, the joy on Fang Shu's face remained.

Furthermore, his gaze shifted, and he suddenly jerked his blood and qi.

A powerful aura surged from his body, startling the Gu worms that had dug him out. They all flew up and scattered more than ten feet away.

The blood and qi on its head surged and suddenly formed a crimson whale shape.

The whale was covered in scales and had a single horn on its head, just like the dragon whale depicted in the "Dragon Whale Health Preservation Method" that he had obtained.

"Moo!"

Crack! Fang Shu shouted suddenly, his voice like an elephant and a bell, causing the already cracked vat in the pit to shatter completely, scattering into fragments that collapsed to the bottom of the pit.

Such a commotion proves that he has successfully mastered this technique for tempering the body, and in just three months, he has already perfected the Qi and blood of the Refining Essence realm. His current physical strength is comparable to that of a whale in the sea and a giant elephant on the shore.

With a slight stirring in his heart, Fang Shu looked up at the dragon whale shape formed by the blood and qi, then opened his mouth and inhaled, swallowing the young dragon whale whole.

He is now a Qi Refining cultivator, and his cultivation of the first level of the Dragon Whale Body Nourishing Technique is merely to identify and address any shortcomings in his physical body in order to facilitate the cultivation of the second level.

He possesses his own true qi, and the quality of his true qi is not bad. With just a thought, he can advance his technique to the second level and begin to cultivate and refine his true qi.

As expected, Fang Shu circulated his internal energy, and the surging blood and qi in his body quickly began to transform into true qi.

This scene surprised and delighted him: "Can practicing this technique further increase my true energy?"

After the newly cultivated Qi and blood were fully transformed over three months, the total amount of true Qi in his body had increased by one toad, reaching fifty-six toads.

Moreover, the transformed Qi and blood do not disappear. As long as he consumes true Qi, he can transform true Qi back into the Qi and blood of his physical body.

Ultimately, true qi is extracted from the blood and qi of the physical body, and the two are essentially the same thing.

Taking advantage of this joy, Fang Shu immediately began practicing again in the courtyard.

And this exercise lasted for three whole days.

On the third day, when he came to his senses from the Dragon Whale Health Cultivation Method, the once tidy courtyard was now covered with broken bricks and scattered dirt, as if it had been ravaged and crushed by a giant.

But this was merely Fang Shu's subconscious reaction over the past three days. He was simply training his physique and had not intentionally used the courtyard to test his magic.

Otherwise, this place wouldn't be like this; instead, the huts, walls, and everything else would have been reduced to dust.

Slowly withdrawing his cultivation technique, Fang Shu exhaled again.

Its aura was long and deep, forming a dragon whale in mid-air before slowly dissipating.

At this moment, Fang Shu had successfully entered the second level of the Dragon Whale Nourishing Technique. He also discovered that if he practiced the second level carefully, it should be able to give him an additional boost of magical power, just like the first level.

Moreover, the power of these toads is different from the Five Organs Temple Technique he cultivates. Not only can it increase the amount of his true energy, but it also has a certain influence on its nature.

This is a good thing, just as he cultivated both insect and lead techniques simultaneously during the refinement stage, one being the primary method and the other the secondary, complementing each other perfectly.

For a moment, he even considered whether he should try to cultivate a few more Qi-refining techniques to make his true Qi more profound and numerous.

According to Taoist texts, although a person with sixty toads' worth of magical power can break through to the Refinement Realm and a person with ninety toads' worth of magical power can break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, the total magical power that a human body can hold is within one hundred.

Those with over ninety levels of true qi will undoubtedly have a greater advantage when breaking through. However, the further one cultivates, the more one gains, the less one loses, and the slower one's progress becomes.

Fang Shu pondered to himself, "Now that I have the Dragon Whale Nourishing Technique, I should be considered exceptionally gifted. Perhaps I can accumulate more mana to increase my success rate when breaking through?"

Upon careful consideration, he found the plan to be quite feasible.

However, after careful consideration, he ultimately gave up the idea of ​​practicing another Qi cultivation method.

Although he possesses the Daoist talisman and has no problem comprehending the cultivation methods, his simultaneous cultivation of two cultivation methods is already rare and commendable.

Furthermore, if it is the third cultivation method, unlike the gentle and profound Dragon Whale Nourishing Method, there will be conflicts between the various cultivation methods, and some unexpected problems may occur, which would be a loss.

The courtyard was quiet. Fang Shu raised his eyes and looked around, noticing the piles of fallen leaves along the edge of the courtyard, which felt rather desolate.

With a wave of his hand, he dismantled the Gu worm array set up outside the courtyard, and a series of lively sounds immediately came from outside the courtyard.

"The weather is getting colder and colder. I'm afraid a cold wave is not far away."

"It's time to stock up on firewood."

After listening carefully for a while, he realized that the small town he was in was clearly in late autumn, and looking around, the tops of the distant mountains were indeed turning yellow.

Although it was late autumn, the town was extremely lively, and you could even hear people outside talking about the owner of the courtyard.

"It seems like a widower lives here. He hasn't opened the door for months. Could he have died inside?"

Shh! Keep your voice down, I heard it's haunted inside, and there's a ghost wall.

Fang Shu couldn't help but smile as he listened to the lively sounds of the marketplace.

Compared to the outside, his little courtyard was quite deserted.

So he immediately walked into the courtyard, took out a broom from his storage bag, and began to sweep away the dead branches and broken leaves, and sort out the broken bricks and stones one by one.

Before long, he tidied up the courtyard, then suddenly opened the gate and appeared in the eyes of passersby on the street.

In order to blend in better with the crowd, Fang Shu bought a small courtyard in a location near the market. Although it was on the edge, the price was not low, and there were quite a few neighbors.

When Fang Shu came out, the people outside all showed surprised expressions. Some of them were curious and wanted to go up and ask him questions, but because they were not familiar with each other, they all hesitated to speak.

To their surprise, Fang Shu took the initiative to come out, pulled out a handful of pine nuts from his sleeve, and started chatting with them.

Soon, the group learned that the middle-aged widower in front of them was a businessman who traveled to other places for business. He had bought a house some time ago but had not lived in it until he had finished packing his belongings and moved in.

Indeed, although Fang Shu himself looks like a young man, and his appearance has hardly changed since he went to Mount Lu, the face he currently presents to outsiders is that of a thin middle-aged man.

During the conversation, Fang Shu felt quite uncomfortable listening to these ordinary people addressing him as "brother" and "old man," and even to passing children calling him "uncle" or "grandpa" when begging for food.

But then he suddenly realized that at his current age, he was indeed well past thirty and was now a middle-aged man.

And so, Fang Shu settled down in this ordinary little town, and even opened a small restaurant in the courtyard, where he would help people with feng shui and such.

At first, the townspeople didn't take it seriously, thinking he was just trying to fool them because he had traveled around and seen the world.

However, unexpectedly, some unclean things had fallen on someone's ancestral grave. After Fang Shu gave him a few pointers, the hidden dangers disappeared and the bad luck vanished. Only then did the people in the town realize that he had some real skills and should not be underestimated.

As a result, villages and towns within a ten-mile radius began to ask him for help with weddings and funerals, and he went from renting a place to settling down completely.

Only when he cultivates and raises Gu each night will Fang Shu regain his composure and revert to his appearance as a celestial being who is only temporarily staying in this place to avoid trouble.

But once day breaks, his energy dissipates, and he continues to be a feng shui master.

In the first three or four months, when his cultivation was slow to improve due to the depletion of the many rare spiritual materials he had prepared, he even considered whether to return to Fudang Mountain to purchase more spiritual materials.

But as time went by, the thoughts in his mind became increasingly indifferent.

The reason is nothing more than the years of ascetic practice in the mountains.

Fang Shu found that this kind of ordinary life seemed to be much richer.

Within a year, he could witness dozens of births, aging, illnesses, and deaths, and the faces of the people in the town came and went, changing year after year.

Some infants still in swaddling clothes will be able to walk and wobble in the new year. Some girls who were still chattering on the streets will change drastically after the new year, becoming reserved and polite. And many talkative old people in town will be lying in coffins after the new year, only able to listen to the cries of their filial sons and grandsons.

All of this captivated Fang Shu for a time.

Unbeknownst to him, his cultivation level had also improved considerably.

Even though he had lost the nourishment of top-grade spiritual materials, his cultivation was slow, and because he was far less diligent than when he was in seclusion on the mountain, his progress was even slower.

But he felt that his own true energy was becoming more and more profound. He didn't even need to refine it. Just through daily practice, his fiery energy had disappeared and his true energy was so pure.

In particular, the quality of the five evil energies within his body was subtly improved.

This discovery truly surprised Fang Shu.

He had always thought that the types of evil energy he needed to condense for the Six Desires Yin Sha Technique he cultivated were just empty names borrowed by the Dragon Maiden Immortal from birth, old age, sickness, and death. They sounded nice, but were actually meaningless and just for show.

After all, this method of condensing evil spirits is a modification of the method of nourishing evil spirits in the six internal organs. The latter does not care about the so-called category of evil spirits at all, but only seeks the number.

It now seems that this Six Desires Yin Sha Method is probably not just a name, but is related to the various sufferings in the world, or more accurately, to the state of mind of practitioners.
This discovery made Fang Shu even more reluctant to return to Fudang Mountain to buy spiritual materials. He didn't even bother to go to the small markets within Qiong Kingdom.

He became increasingly immersed in the bustling and complex urban life, and his spiritual practice was also a matter of letting things take their course, being natural and spontaneous, and treating it as a way to temper his temper.

The people in the town no longer treated him as an outsider. Some children, from as far back as they could remember, had Fang Shu's face in their minds and considered it their natural right.

This peaceful life lasted for five or six years.

Until one day, a burst of spiritual light emanated from his storage bag, which he could no longer contain, and thus completely shattered his life in the mortal realm.

Upon opening the bag, a multicolored tag flew out; it was the identity tag of an inner disciple of the Five Internal Organs Temple, with only one word appearing on it—Return.

The words flickered, revealing a chilling, bloody hue.

This is a summons from the Five Viscera Temple. All disciples currently outside the temple must immediately depart and return to the temple within three months. Any delay will be considered treason, resulting in expulsion from the sect and execution without exception.

Fang Shu clutched his identity token tightly, his tranquil state of mind shattered, his eyes flickering as his thoughts wandered.

"Is returning to the mountains now a good or bad thing?" He frowned slightly.

(End of this chapter)