Xuanjian: I am the Sun Sword Immortal

Lou Linxian has been a disciple for three months.

He was assigned to a small courtyard at the foot of Xia Yuanming Peak, a secluded house, small but quiet. In the corner of the courtyard stood a short pine tree with gnarled branches, quite similar to the one in his own yard. Every day at dawn, he would rise, sit facing east, and wait for the sunrise to absorb the sun's spiritual energy into his body—this was his unwavering practice for the past three months.

Xia Yuanming has not yet formally accepted him as a disciple, but only comes to teach him once every few days.

Not long after he entered the sect that day, Xia Yuanming personally delivered two cultivation techniques to him, letting him choose whichever he preferred.

The first book, "Li Ming Jing," is a fifth-grade Li Fire cultivation method. "Li" is one of the proper positions of the fire element, and its path is characterized by its intensity and brilliance. The two characters "Li Ming" not only indicate the path it belongs to, but also use the word "Ming" to suggest the luminous aura that the Li Fire cultivation method can achieve at its deepest level. Most of the true disciples in the sect practice this method, and Xia Yuanming himself practices this one.

The second part, "The Sun Palace Reflecting Body Technique," is a fifth-grade solar cultivation method. When Xia Yuanming placed this jade slip on the table, his tone became noticeably more solemn. He said this technique was the only solar cultivation method in the sect, extremely precious, obtained by the sect's founding patriarch from the Dongtai Zhenren of the solar lineage. "Reflecting Body" highlights the core of this technique's practice—observing the sun's reflection on the body, refining oneself with the sun. By illuminating oneself with sunlight, one borrows the sun's power to temper the meridians and nourish the dantian. This technique ultimately leads to the divine power "Radiant True Court," transforming sunlight into a court that illuminates all directions, serving as a substitute for the ancient divine power of celestial observation.

Lou Linxian chose the "Sun Palace Reflection Technique" almost without hesitation.

The reason is simple. He is naturally drawn to the sun, as evidenced by the pale gold mark between his brows. Practicing sun-related techniques would yield twice the results with half the effort. What he truly needs to cultivate is the "Mysterious and Comprehensive Meaning of Observing the Sun's Manifestation and Esoteric Teachings" left behind by Wu Che, and this "Sun Palace Reflection Body Technique" is a perfect reference.

The jade slip begins with a line of ancient seal script: "The sun palace reflects on the body, using the sun to refine oneself. Heavenly light enters the orifices, illuminating the profound realm."

He read on. The Six Wheels of Embryonic Breathing—Mysterious View, Bright Light, Circulating Movement, Azure Origin, Jade Capital, and Spiritual Beginning. Only after cultivating all six wheels can one enter the Qi Refining stage.

The Mysterious View Wheel is located in the lower dantian, specifically the Qi Sea acupoint. It draws in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, condensing it into eighty-one strands, which then coalesce into a wheel. Once the Mysterious View Wheel is formed, one enters the gate of embryonic breathing, achieving a lifespan of one hundred and twenty years, becoming light-footed, strong, with keen hearing and sharp eyesight. The *Sun Palace Reflecting Body Technique* requires drawing in the spiritual energy of the sun; however, the sun's spiritual energy is intense and fierce, making its absorption far more difficult than ordinary spiritual energy.

The Chengming Wheel is still located in the Qihai acupoint. Based on the Xuanjing acupoint, it is naturally generated through breathing exercises. There is no need for special techniques; it only requires the polishing of time. This process is like grinding water; it cannot be rushed or taken by shortcuts.

The Zhouxing Wheel resides in the Juque Court, the abode of vital energy. Once the wheel is complete, magical power flows ceaselessly, circulating throughout the entire body. When attached to the eyes, one can see a thousand miles; when attached to the feet, one can travel with divine speed.

The Azure Yuan Wheel, located between the Qi Sea and the Giant Que Gate, solidifies magical power, transforming Qi into Yuan. This is the most time-consuming of the six wheels; there are no shortcuts, only the accumulation of effort over time.

The Jade Capital Wheel resides in Shengyang Prefecture, the abode of the spirit. Once the wheel is completed, spiritual consciousness arises, allowing one to introspect and perceive even the smallest details. Alchemy, weapon crafting, array formation, and the use of storage bags all originate from this.

The Spiritual Initial Wheel is still in Shengyang Prefecture, above Yujing, in its final stage. Once the wheel is completed, the embryonic breathing will be perfected, and only a breath of spiritual energy from heaven and earth is needed to enter the Qi Refining stage.

He finished reading the entire manual and gained a complete understanding of the six cycles of embryonic breathing. Then he put the jade slip away.

What he needed to do next was not to cultivate the *Sun Palace Reflection Technique*, but to cross-reference this technique with the *Sun Observation and Esoteric Transmission of the Mysterious Meaning* left by Wu Che. The *Transmission* recorded the methods for nurturing the six chakras of embryonic breathing in great detail, even designing specific nurturing mantras for each chakra that aligned with the way of the sun. Both techniques originated from the sun and shared a common foundation, but their emphasis differed in the details. The *Sun Palace Reflection Technique* emphasized "reflection"—using sunlight to illuminate oneself, borrowing external force for tempering; the *Transmission* emphasized "receiving"—receiving the sun's radiance, receiving the life force of yang, with internal nurturing as the foundation. Comparing the two, many previously obscure points suddenly became clear.

In the extended interpretation, Wu Che left a passage at the beginning of the chapter on fetal breathing, which he gained new insights from each rereading:

"My master's true secret lies in the method of breath cultivation. However, the way of breath cultivation declined at the end of the Wei Dynasty, making it difficult for later generations to practice. Therefore, I have reiterated its principles using the Purple Gold Method: the six chakras of embryonic breathing, the foundation of Qi cultivation, the foundation of immortality building, and the supernatural powers of the Purple Palace—all are framed within the Purple Gold framework, carrying the true meaning of the sun. Later learners who cultivate this derivative meaning, although it is the Purple Gold Method, are rooted in the way of the sun. The nurturing of the six chakras should be based on the spiritual energy of the sun, without mixing in other energies. When the energy is pure, the chakras are solid; when the chakras are solid, the foundation of the Dao is profound."

So for the past three months, he has risen at dawn every day, sat facing east, and waited for the sunrise. When the first ray of morning light shines on the pale golden mark between his eyebrows, he follows the incantation in the text to guide that warm energy down from between his eyebrows, through his meridians, and into his dantian.

The first successful Qi gathering occurred on the seventh day after I began my training.

That morning, he sat quietly in the courtyard as usual. The morning light fell on his brow, making the mark slightly warm. He guided the warmth downwards according to the incantation—initially, as usual, most of the warmth dissipated by the time it reached his chest, with only about one or two tenths reaching his dantian. But that day, for some reason, the mark on his brow was brighter than usual, and the warmth flowing in was more abundant. He was delighted, steadied his mind, and guided the warmth slowly and steadily. The warmth, like an extremely fine and warm thread, extended from his brow all the way to his lower abdomen, slowly stopping at his dantian, where it no longer dissipated.

The first wisp of solar energy entered my body.

Upon introspection, he saw that the wisp of spiritual energy was pale gold, thinner than a strand of hair, yet it possessed a warm power, quietly suspended in his dantian. At that moment, he almost burst out laughing—after seven days of trying to gather qi without success, he had finally grasped the basics.

After that, it was a process of gradual accumulation.

Gathering the sun's spiritual energy is exceptionally difficult. Its intense heat and fierce power can only be achieved within a short one or two hours before and after sunrise—too early and the energy is too weak, too late and it's too violent for the physical body to withstand. The window of opportunity each day is only a little over an hour. In the first few days, he could only gather one or two strands per hour, often losing them midway. Later, as he became more skilled and his mind became more focused, he could reliably gather three or four strands each day.

The pale golden spiritual energy in his Qi Sea acupoint gradually increased from nothing to something, from little to much. At first, it was just a solitary wisp, then it multiplied into three or five wisps, then a dozen, then dozens. They floated in his Qi Sea like stars scattered across the night sky, separated by a tiny distance, never touching each other, yet subtly echoing each other with a rhythmic resonance. After gathering Qi each day, he followed the nurturing method from the original text, allowing this spiritual energy to slowly rotate within his Qi Sea. The rotation was extremely slow, so slow that it was imperceptible without focused introspection, yet it was undeniably rotating—like a giant star wheel, with the Qi Sea as its celestial dome and the spiritual energy as its stars, revolving day after day.

Two months after he began his training, one morning, the eighty-first wisp of solar energy entered his body.

At that moment, a very faint hum suddenly emanated from the Qihai acupoint. It wasn't a hum heard by the ears, but a tremor that traveled directly from the depths of the Qihai to the soul. The eighty-one strands of spiritual energy seemed to be suddenly drawn by some invisible force, and simultaneously began to rotate—not the slow, almost imperceptible rotation before, but a real, unstoppable rotation. The rotation accelerated, and the eighty-one strands of spiritual energy gradually converged, intertwined, and merged. Each strand found its own place, and each strand formed a mysterious connection with the adjacent strands of spiritual energy.

Finally, they condensed into a small, pale golden halo in the center of the Qihai acupoint.

The mystical scene is complete.

At that moment, he felt a warm force surge from his Xuanjing Wheel, spreading along his meridians to his limbs and bones. His muscles, bones, and fascia felt as if they were being gently massaged from the inside by a warm hand. His eyesight suddenly sharpened—the pine needles of the short pine tree in the corner of the courtyard were clearly visible, and the dew on the tips of the needles was clearly visible; he could even see the tiny reflections on the surface of the dew. His hearing also improved significantly—the footsteps of disciples walking on the mountain path in the distance, the rustling of their clothes, and even the crisp sound of the jade pendant at one of their waists hitting his belt, all entered his ears clearly.

He stood up and walked to the stone bench in the corner of the courtyard. The stone bench weighed at least forty or fifty pounds. He hugged it with both hands and lifted it up—and it did. Although his arms trembled slightly, he did manage to lift it. A six-year-old child, who had only been practicing for two months, could lift a stone bench weighing forty or fifty pounds. This was a manifestation of the "lightness of body, great strength, sharp hearing, and sharp eyesight" that came with the completion of the Xuanjing Wheel.

The formation of the Xuanjing Wheel is just the beginning.

For the next month, he continued to gather spiritual energy daily. This wasn't to increase the quantity of spiritual energy, but to further stabilize the Xuanjing Wheel. The newly formed Xuanjing Wheel was like a freshly fired porcelain piece; although it had taken shape, its texture wasn't yet dense enough. It needed daily nurturing to allow the eighty-one strands of spiritual energy to truly merge into one, transforming the wheel from a "nascent form" into a "complete whole." This was an extremely slow process; each day, only very subtle changes could be felt—it was a little more solid today than yesterday, and a little more stable this week than last week. After a month, the Xuanjing Wheel gradually became more solid and dense, its pale golden light much more stable than when it was first formed.

At the same time, he could feel the nascent form of the Chengming Wheel slowly developing on the Xuanjing Wheel. The Chengming Wheel didn't require deliberate cultivation—it was based on the Xuanjing Wheel, and it would naturally sprout simply by breathing in and nourishing it. Just like a seed that, once planted, would germinate on its own as long as the soil and water were suitable. All he needed to do was continue to absorb Qi and nourish it daily, waiting for it to take shape naturally.

After finishing his cultivation for the day, Lou Linxian stopped and got up.

Pushing open the courtyard gate, one finds a stone path built along the mountainside. On either side, fiery embers rise from the rock crevices, contained by an array and burning eternally day and night. As dusk falls, the firelight reflects on the stone path, turning the bluish-gray flagstones a warm red. In the distance, the crimson sunset from the direction of Jieyu Land fades from the horizon, replaced by the deep blue night sky surging in from the direction of the North Sea. The convergence of these two contrasting colors overhead creates a unique twilight scene in the Qiyan City area.

He walked down the stone path, and around a rocky corner, he saw several senior brothers and sisters, a few years older than him, chatting in a stone pavilion. They were all around ten years old, and their cultivation levels were all at the Nascent Soul stage. Some of them had shallow spiritual energy fluctuations, clearly still in the Qi Gathering stage; others had steady auras, indicating they had already condensed their Profound Realm Wheels.

A round-faced boy complained with a worried look on his face: "I've been collecting spiritual energy for more than four months and I've only accumulated fifty-odd strands. At this rate, when will I be able to gather eighty-one strands?"

A tall, thin boy next to him scoffed, "You're in a hurry for just over fifty strands? It took me almost half a year to gather enough. The Six Wheels of Fetal Breathing is a slow and steady process; what's the use of rushing?"

"You're just mediocre," the round-faced boy retorted. "Senior Sister Yu reached the Qi Refining stage in just three months. Can you compare?"

The girl, addressed as Senior Sister Yu, was about eleven or twelve years old. She had delicate features and a neat ponytail. She was leaning against a stone pavilion pillar, peeling a green fruit she had picked from somewhere. Without even looking up, she slowly said, "Don't bring that up. You only pick for an hour a day, and you're always slacking off and running down the mountain to browse the market. It's already a blessing from heaven that you can collect fifty-odd strands in four months."

The round-faced boy was speechless, while the tall, thin boy laughed gleefully.

Lou Linxian intended to walk over quietly. He had been a disciple for three months, always keeping to himself, and was only vaguely familiar with these senior brothers and sisters, without any deep connection. But before he could even turn his feet, Senior Sister Yu had already looked up and seen him.

"Hey—" She waved the green fruit pit in her hand, "You're the new junior brother, right? Your name is Ji Fu, isn't it? Come here, come here, what are you doing all alone?"

Lou Linxian paused, then walked over.

"Greetings, Senior Sister Yu. Greetings, fellow senior brothers and sisters." He bowed respectfully.

Senior Sister Yu pointed to the round-faced boy and introduced him, "My name is Yu Jiuyuan, and this is Zhao Xingjia. You can call him Senior Brother Zhao." She then pointed to the tall and thin boy, "This is Xie Zhanfang."

Lou Linxian's heart skipped a beat. The surname was Xie. Could it be from the Xie clan of Beihai? He was probably a member of a collateral branch.

Yu Jiuyuan patted the stone bench next to her again: "Sit down. How long have you been a disciple?"

"Three months." Lou Linxian sat down next to her.

"Three months?" Zhao Xingjia interjected. "Isn't that about the same time as me? Junior Brother, how much Qi have you absorbed?"

Lou Linxian thought about it and felt there was nothing to hide.

He is naturally close to the sun, and his brow and heart have loosened prematurely. He is highly talented, so there seems to be no need to hide it. It's better to tell the truth.

"Eighty-one strands," he said. "The Mysterious Realm Wheel has already solidified."

The stone pavilion fell silent for a moment.

Zhao Xingjia's mouth was agape, his eyes wide, as if he had heard something unbelievable. Xie Huaiwen, who was about to put tea in his mouth, froze in mid-air, not even noticing that two drops of tea had spilled onto his clothes.

Senior Sister Yu tossed the green fruit pit in her hand onto the stone table, making a crisp, light sound.

She looked at Lou Linxian, her gaze lingering for a moment on the pale gold mark between his brows, and then suddenly smiled. That smile held undisguised admiration.

"Born to be close to the sun, with the mark of your brow and heart manifesting." She reached out and lightly touched her brow. "In my five years of study, I've seen no more than three disciples practicing the Sun Technique. Absorbing the sun's spiritual energy is far more difficult than absorbing ordinary spiritual energy. Yet you've mastered the Sun Technique faster than I did back then."

She paused, then her tone became serious: "I initially practiced the Yinghuo Technique, which focuses on nurturing the body with Yinghuo, so the initial learning wasn't particularly slow. You practiced the Taiyang Technique, and you condensed your inner energy in three months—not to mention within the sect, even in the grotto-heavens, that would be considered exceptional talent."

Xie Zhanfang silently put down his teacup and wiped the water stains from his clothes. He glanced at Lou Linxian, his lips twitched, and finally spoke: "It took me four months to condense my cultivation wheel, and I'm still cultivating the Li Fire." There was no sourness in his tone; he was simply stating a fact. He then nodded, "In cultivation, I am inferior to you."