Journey to the West: Starting with becoming an apprentice of the Nine Heavens Demon-Subduing Patriar

The small, green book felt slightly cool to the touch.

Lu Shanjun brushed away the dust from the cover and, using the light filtering in from the opening, read through the six ancient characters again.

The Lesser True Martial Qi-Inducing Technique.

The annotation in his mind still shone with a clear light, and the phrase "can cultivate the superior path" stirred his mind.

Then, with a "thud," he stared at the system panel, frozen in place.

Is this his cheat code?

Lu Shanjun had been a mortal for over thirty years, and then inexplicably became a tiger demon for a few days. He had no other skills, but he had read so many idle books and miscellaneous tales that they must have piled up in several cabinets.

Time travel, rebirth, possession—which of these doesn't require an item to protect it?

He had previously muttered to himself that he was having terrible luck, that his soul had fallen into the body of a demon destined to be cannon fodder, and that he had nothing to protect himself from.

But now it seems, it has arrived.

The function of the cheat is very simple: as long as you are willing to work hard, you can gain proficiency and there will be no bottlenecks in your skills and techniques.

After learning all this, he lowered his head again and stared at the book title.

"Zhenwu... what a boastful tone."

In this world, how many people would dare to use the name "Zhenwu" in their names?

That was the Demon-Subduing Heavenly Venerable who guarded the North Heavenly Gate. With disheveled hair and bare feet, he wielded a sword and trod on a tortoise and a snake. Within the Three Realms, all evil spirits and heretics would retreat in fear upon hearing his name.

Lu Shanjun has read "Journey to the West" countless times, and naturally he remembers the ordeal at Little Thunder Temple, where Sun Wukong was captured by the Yellow-Eyebrowed Old Man with a single bag. He called upon all the heavenly soldiers and generals, but none of them could do anything about it.

In the end, it was this True Martial Ancestor who sent down the Turtle and Snake Generals from Wudang Mountain, along with the five divine dragons, who managed to break the golden cymbal and relieve the siege.

Lu Shanjun's mind went blank.

The Taoist priest left in such a hurry that he only left this book behind.

Did it fall?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the old Taoist's half-open, half-closed eyes had clearly seen right through him.

Hearing him ramble on about "karmic obstacles" without batting an eye, the old Taoist priest not only didn't get angry, but instead cupped his hands in greeting, turned around and left, "unintentionally" leaving behind this scroll of "Minor True Martial Qi-Inducing Technique".

What a coincidence!

"Could it be...?"

His eyelids twitched, and a thought shot straight up from the bottom of his mind, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up again.

That old Taoist priest is probably inextricably linked to that True Martial Demon-Subduing Ancestor!

Lu Shanjun felt a surge of heat rush to his head.

The two generals under the command of the True Martial Ancestor, the Tortoise and the Snake, are the essence of the Xuanwu and the Ren-Gui Water of the North.

The four celestial symbols are: Black Tortoise in the north, White Tiger in the west, Azure Dragon on the left, and White Tiger on the right.

If the patriarch were to add another White Tiger general to his ranks, completing the Western and Northern constellations, that would be... perfect!

Isn't Lu Shanjun currently a tiger demon?

If one could truly find a way to become a disciple of Zhenwu, even if it was just a lowly position, who would dare to easily fawn over this tiger on the journey to the West?

When the golden light comes down, the first thing to ask is whether it's one of our own people that gets hit.

Lu Shanjun stood in the cave with his hands behind his back, and for a moment, his silly grin almost reached his ears.

Ultimately, the most dangerous part of this journey to the West was never the few battles and killings.

What's truly deadly is the background, the origin, and the unseen and intangible social dynamics.

Look at those monsters with powerful backers. Even though they ate people and broke the heavenly rules, in the end, all they get is a call from their master, "Go back and receive your punishment for five hundred years."

It is precisely because they have no one to rely on that these lonely and helpless people are beaten to death one after another, without even anyone to collect their bodies.

In his previous life, Lu Shanjun worked overtime his whole life. He didn't learn anything else, but the principle that "it's easier to get things done when you have a leader" was deeply ingrained in his bones.

"No matter how small the chance, we can't give up."

He weighed the thought in his mind again and again, and finally gritted his teeth...

Switch to this method!

……

Having made up his mind, Lu Shanjun sat cross-legged and tried to circulate his qi according to the incantation that appeared in his mind.

He calmed his mind and channeled his rampaging demonic power into his dantian.

Logically speaking, his tiger body had been cultivated for over a hundred years, and he had already mastered the art of refining essence into qi. Guiding a stream of qi should have been a very easy thing for him.

But once anger got the better of him, things went wrong.

The "Qi-Inducing Technique" requires a breath of "clear" air.

Pure, clear, and cool, like snowmelt from the north, crystal clear.

However, his demonic power was the result of over a hundred years of eating raw meat and drinking blood.

Fishy, ​​hot, and turbid.

The two energies met face to face, and with a "sizzle," they stirred up a turbulent atmosphere, making it impossible for them to harmonize.

Lu Shanjun suddenly opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

I tried it three times, and it was the same every time.

He calmed down and went through the incantation word by word again, gradually savoring its meaning.

This technique cannot be activated using old demonic power.

What it wants is a clean and simple "empty shell," starting from scratch and cultivating true energy.

Lu Shanjun looked down at the demonic light surging in his palm.

Nearly a century of cultivation, can it just be scattered like that?

Lu Shanjun remained silent for a long time.

"That's enough."

If we're going to rebuild from scratch, there's no such thing as something that's neither new nor old.

With a thought, he abruptly severed the demonic power technique that had been operating for over a hundred years.

The demonic energy in his dantian flowed out like water from a burst dam, gushing out through his limbs and bones.

In the short time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Lu Shanjun felt completely drained and didn't even have the strength to stand up.

"Big brother..."

Just then, Tiger Two saw his elder brother lying on the ground, his face pale and his demonic aura almost gone. He was so frightened that he lost his mind.

"Brother, what happened to you? Who, who hit you? I'll go get revenge for you right now!"

"Nobody hit me."

Lu Shanjun shook his paw. "It was I who scattered my cultivation."

Tiger Two's mind went blank, and it took him a long time to come to his senses.

"……what?"

"Scattered? Brother, are you crazy?!"

"Of the three peaks of Huangfeng Ridge, the group of spiky wild boars to the south and the old black snake to the east, which one is easy to deal with?"

"When they see us brothers on ordinary days, they'll tuck their tails between their legs and go out of their way. What's the reason for that? It's because of your skills, brother, that intimidate them."

"Now you've completely dissipated your cultivation..."

"If they follow the scent up the mountain tomorrow, what will we use to keep them in check?"

Lu Shanjun leaned against the stone wall, closed his eyes, took a couple of breaths, and then laughed.

"rest assured."

"What you can give up, you can recover. This time, I'm giving up my skills to find a wider path."

"Once you've raised your new spirit, let alone a few wild boars, even an old snake..."

"In the future, Huangfeng Ridge may not be under the control of others."

Tiger Two was completely confused, but it trusted its eldest brother the most in its life, so it swallowed its words and stood guard at the cave entrance, not allowing a single flying insect to approach.

……

Tiger Two guarded the cave, and Lu Shanjun began to cultivate his inner energy again.

As far as he knows.

Before the tiger pounces, it takes a deep breath through its nostrils, which then descends to its lower abdomen, causing the entire belly to swell and then deflate. It takes a while before it takes another breath.

This was originally a killing intent bestowed upon ferocious beasts by heaven and earth. Lu Shanjun combined it with the breathing technique of "inhaling the pure and exhaling the turbid, returning to the root and restoring life" in the "Qi-inducing Technique"... and they were surprisingly similar.

He cleared his mind of all distractions and gradually slowed his breathing.

The wisp of fresh air that enters through the nose sinks down inch by inch along the throat and the Chonglou point.

It passes through the Tanzhong point, then the Zhongwan point, and finally lands at the Qihai point, three inches below the navel.

At first, the sea of ​​qi was empty; whatever it took in, it would dissipate as well.

By the evening of the second day...

The spiritual fruit he ate in the cave had cleansed his bone marrow, and the remaining traces of pure energy lingered within it, having nowhere else to go.

At this moment, drawn by the long, continuous flow of energy, it stirred with a "hum," gushing out from the Mingmen point and slowly gathering in the Dantian along the meridian in the spine.

With this wisp of spiritual fruit's pure energy as a guide, the absorbed energy of heaven and earth finally stopped dissipating.

Strands of energy, guided by that pure energy, swirled endlessly within the dantian, their numbers increasing and their density becoming ever denser.

At dawn on the third day, the first light of day began to appear in the east.

Deep within Lu Shanjun's sea of ​​consciousness, the cyan phantom suddenly trembled violently.

With a "thump," a wisp of true energy emerged from the dantian!