My bathroom leads to the celestial realm.

As the sun rises, white clouds drift in the sky, and mist rises from the bottom of the gorge.

Xu Yan lay listlessly on the octagonal table, fiddling with a round spirit pearl with his fingertips, while his eyes kept looking up at the sky.

The one on the left looks like a chicken leg; the one on the right looks like a hamburger; and the one on top looks just like a fine steak!

The more he looked, the hungrier he became. Finally, in despair, he slammed his head on the table, his frustration overflowing and with nowhere to vent: "Why am I so unlucky?!"

Seven days! A full seven days!

On the first day, he searched the entire stone platform and almost tore down the thatched hut, but he couldn't find any food, only a few bottles of pills without even a name.

Curious, I opened it and found it full of bitter pills the size of egg yolks.

Even if he knew what it was, he wouldn't dare touch it.

The pills used for Golden Core cultivation—if this little bastard eats them, he might just explode and die!

He immediately remembered the big black guy's Qiankun bag. He took it in his hand and, without thinking too much, directly used the more popular method to mobilize his true essence to refine it.

As a result, a series of crackling electrical discharges almost burned the Qiankun Bag.

After finally making up my mind, I pricked my fingertip and dripped blood to pledge allegiance, but there was still no response.

Xu Yan scratched his head anxiously, only to realize that he had been overthinking it. This thing wasn't that mysterious at all; it was just a bag tied shut.

This greatly upset Master Xu.

Untying the ropes, the space inside the Qiankun bag wasn't very large, just over one cubic meter. Inside, besides several hundred spirit beads, there were also several jade plaques about the size of mahjong tiles and half a finger thick, made of a similar material to the spirit beads and also containing rich spiritual energy.

Then there was a short knife, a few pieces of clothing, and an old book.

There's no food.

The old book is a good thing. It's called "The Mighty Ox Strength," a very simple body-refining exercise that can increase muscle mass, strengthen bones, and help you grow taller.

One side effect is that the skin will darken.

Xu Yan did not hesitate to discard it like a worn-out shoe.

He coughed. He was a grown man and didn't care about his skin color, but the book said he had to eat meat, eat meat like crazy.

There's already no food, and then to practice this kind of energy-consuming technique, is your stomach not upset enough?

Garlic bird! Garlic bird!

Unable to fill his stomach, Xu Yan inevitably considered leaving.

However, this place has no top, no bottom, and no edges. The rock walls are as if they were cleaved by a knife and axe. Even if a world champion in rock climbing came here, he would not be able to find a place to put his feet.

Having come to terms with reality, Xu Yan looked up to the sky and sighed, "This is just an open cage!"

They still don't give us any food.

Before long, it got dark. Xu Yan, clutching his rumbling stomach, climbed into bed, thinking about how cultivators in novels could easily go into seclusion for decades without eating or drinking.

He wouldn't dare to think about it for decades, but surely ten days or half a month shouldn't be a problem?

Thinking of this, he decided to try anything, and sat cross-legged as if he had no other choice, but immediately felt that the blood circulation in his legs was poor.

Moreover, his physique was already set, and no matter how he tried to bend it, he couldn't get into the five-heart-facing-the-sky posture.

Forget it, don't be too hard on yourself, just make do!

Xu Yan immediately reconciled with himself and began to guide his true energy, practicing the guiding technique of Zhuiyunzi.

The true essence circulates orderly along the meridians, and a little spiritual energy slowly flows in, gradually merging into it, and finally being incorporated into the dantian for one's own use.

The effect was not much different from that at the Immortal Workshop, and Xu Yan couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Strange, in his... well, in Lei Diao's memory, that crude instinctive cultivation method wasn't this bad!

Xu Yan shifted to a more comfortable position, and the image of the Thunder Eagle appeared in his mind. But before he could even begin, the surrounding spiritual energy suddenly seemed to have taken the wrong medicine, rushing wildly towards his dantian like a flood, even forming a small vortex of spiritual energy in front of his lower abdomen!

Caught off guard, Master Xu felt himself instantly filled with spiritual energy, like a balloon that could be blown up at any moment!

Startled, he quickly stopped, but the restless spiritual energy lingered and lingered around him.

Xu Yan's mind was full of questions.

What's going on?

A careful search of Lei Diao's memories revealed that this situation had never occurred in its hundreds of years of demonic life. Otherwise, it would have become a demon king long ago, so how could it have been cleaved in two by Zhuiyunzi's sword?

A rational analysis suggests that if the problem isn't with the cultivation technique, then it must be due to the environment. In other words, this place is likely a geomantically auspicious location where spiritual energy gathers.

But how do you explain that Zhuiyunzi's technique has remained unchanged?

Moreover, upon careful sensing, although the concentration of spiritual energy was much better than that of the Immortal Workshop, it was not as concentrated as I had imagined.

No, something's not right!

He carefully used his technique again, and the already restless spiritual energy surged into his dantian once more... no, not his dantian, but his demon core!

Xu Yan suddenly realized and, drawing on his years of writing experience, immediately put together a logically closed-loop framework.

First of all, his innate talent was indeed not very good, even lower than the average level of ordinary people.

That's not hard to say. The world is full of pollution and additives, and he's been staying at home all year round, so it's quite normal.

Logically speaking, he could never embark on the path to immortality unless he spared no expense and amassed a massive amount of cultivation resources.

Xu Yan transmigrated alone, without any background or support, and should have never seen any hope of cultivating immortality in his entire life.

What HR department of any sect would hire a useless person?

Even guarding the gate is considered too much of a burden.

Unfortunately, he ran into Zhuiyunzi and even planted a demon core in his dantian.

It was originally just a casual thing to do, but unexpectedly, it turned out to save the great writer Xu's cultivation career.

Analyzing it with modern thinking, the high failure rate of elixir cultivation is most directly related to the crudeness of Zhuiyunzi's techniques.

If even basic disinfection and sterilization cannot be achieved, infection and complications are almost inevitable.

The inner core of the Thunder Carving carries its own electric current, which not only continuously disinfects the wound before transplantation but also has a certain sterilization effect on the wound after transplantation.

That's why Xu Yan was able to escape unscathed and became one of the very lucky few.

Furthermore, disciples from each sect possess cultivation levels, and their original cultivation levels may have clashed with the external demonic power. The two completely different true energies turned their bodies into battlefields, or their cultivated bodies rejected the demonic power.

It's even possible that the demon core triggered a rejection reaction.

Where is Xu Yan?

However, being a blank slate, it was powerless against the demon core and could only let the demonic power run rampant, which ironically saved its life.

Humans are like blank slates, yet they possess a hundred-year-old demon core, making their speed of absorbing spiritual energy extraordinary.

It's like putting a super-powerful gas turbine engine, the kind used in heavy tanks, into a small car; the power output is off the charts!

Ultimately, it's because Xu Yan's physical body is too weak; the demon core can only output a little bit, which is already his limit.

As for why the demon core was always so cautious, it was probably because the part of the primordial spirit belonging to the Thunder Eagle was at work, so as not to damage this weak body!

In short, it was through a series of coincidences that Xu Yan unexpectedly became who she is today.

Saying it's impossible to replicate is too absolute, but unless you point out the key to it, replicating it becomes extremely difficult!