Chapter 9: Qi Condensation, Breaking Through Obstacles
The qingmu spirit pearl hovered three inches above Lu Qingyang’s palm, and seventy percent of the impurities had been removed from the Marrow Cleansing Grass in the pearl’s medicinal field. The cold mist seeping from the rock wall of the cave condensed into frost, dyeing his eyebrows snow-white. The “Nine Revolutions Qi Condensation Art” he had exchanged at the black market last night was spread across his lap, with diagrams of Meridians flowing in reverse drawn on the yellowed pages.
“Qi Condensation fifth layer requires penetrating the Yinwei Meridian…” Lu Qingyang crushed three Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and the dust sprinkled onto the Spirit Gathering Formation patterns arranged at his feet. The moment the Formation lit up, the old injury on his ribs, inflicted by the black-robed Cultivator, suddenly stung—that Meridian had been blocked for over three months.
The hourglass phantom within the spirit pearl space silently reversed, turning three hours in the outside world into thirty days within the pearl. Lu Qingyang’s consciousness sank into his Dantian, seeing a misty gray Qi flowing along his extraordinary Meridians, but it hit a wall when it reached the Yinwei Meridian. He bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed his essence blood onto the surface of the spirit pearl. The Marrow Cleansing Grass inside the pearl instantly matured, and amber-colored sap seeped from its leaves.
Outside the cave, the sound of a Flying Sword breaking through the air suddenly came. Five Taiyi Pavilion Outer Sect Disciples landed, stepping on green jade plates. The purple-clothed young woman leading them held a compass and sneered, “The traitor’s aura ends here, he must be hiding…” Before she finished speaking, the paralyzing vine seeds Lu Qingyang had placed at the cave entrance suddenly burst open, and light purple pollen mixed with the morning mist permeated the air.
“It’s the Thousand Machine Valley’s poisonous miasma!” Everyone hastily activated their protective spiritual light, only to see the rock cave collapse with a rumble. When Lu Qingyang crawled out of a geode crack, he still clutched half of an unused Marrow Cleansing Grass in his arms. He rolled three times in the mud, covering his aura with decaying leaves, and heard the furious curses of the Taiyi Pavilion Disciples in his ears.
Three days later, at “Ghost Face Alley,” the largest Loose Cultivator market in the Eastern Wilderness.
Lu Qingyang squatted on the bluestone slab at the end of the alley, with seven withered Dragon Beard Grasses laid out before him. No passing Cultivator knew that each grass root had been soaked in the spring water from the spirit pearl space—this was a secret he had discovered after half a month of experimentation: Spirit Medicine mixed with spring water, though poor in appearance, increased its medicinal effect by thirty percent.
“Fellow Daoist, this grass is so withered it could feed a donkey.” A young man in brocade robes stopped and mocked, his waist jade pendant engraved with the “Medicine King Valley” emblem.
Lu Qingyang raised his sleeve to wipe his face, conveniently smearing bone-eroding powder onto his cuff: “It was collected from the Nether Abyss; a heavier Yin Qi is just right for your esteemed sect’s Nine Nether Pills.”
The young man’s pupils constricted slightly, and he tossed over five Spirit Stones: “Wrap them up.”
The moment the transaction was completed, the Exploding Flame Talisman hidden in Lu Qingyang’s sleeve quietly extinguished. He counted the Spirit Stones and turned into a dark alley, only to see the purple-clothed young woman from yesterday leaning against the wall, playing with a compass: “Daoist Lu, you certainly know how to do business.”
The qingmu spirit pearl in his embrace grew hot. Lu Qingyang feigned panic and retreated: “Fairy, you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”
“When the Yinwei Meridian is blocked, there will be a stinging pain when Qi flows through the Tanzhong.” The young woman flicked a Jade Slip from her fingertip, “This is the ‘Tai Su Meridian Rushing Art,’ in exchange for that half-stalk of Marrow Cleansing Grass in your arms.”
Lu Qingyang narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the token at her waist, then suddenly chuckled: “Ye Wuchen sent you to your death?” Before he finished speaking, the Gale Formation patterns hidden in his boot soles suddenly lit up, and he shot out like an arrow from a bowstring towards the market barrier. The Immortal Binding Rope the young woman swung wrapped around an afterimage, only rolling up half a corner of a robe stained with medicinal residue.
Seven days later, on the outskirts of Burial Dragon Abyss.
Lu Qingyang lay prone in a pile of rotten wood, watching an Iron-Scaled Crocodile three feet away tear at a Cultivator’s corpse. The Storage Pouch at the corpse’s waist was bulging, vaguely revealing half of a Formation Flag. He took out the Yao Beast Luring Grass, matured in the spirit pearl space, and threw it into the deep pool, stained with his own essence blood.
The moment the water surface exploded, the Iron-Scaled Crocodile abandoned the corpse and lunged at the Yao Beast Luring Grass. Lu Qingyang glided swiftly along the ground. Just as his fingertips touched the Storage Pouch, bloody tentacles suddenly shot out from the bottom of the pool—it was actually a second-order Yao Beast, the Bloodthirsty Vine! In the nick of time, he crushed all the Spirit Stones in his embrace, pouring spiritual power into the secret art recorded in the “Tai Su Meridian Rushing Art.”
The Yinwei Meridian was instantly unblocked!
The pressure of the Qi Condensation fifth layer shook off the vines, and the blood mist Lu Qingyang spat out condensed into runes in the air. The moment the Bloodthirsty Vine touched the runes, a pale white cold flame ignited on its body. He seized the opportunity to grab the Storage Pouch and fled into the dense forest, the dying roars of the Yao Beast echoing behind him.
As night fell, Lu Qingyang tallied his spoils in a tree hollow. Twenty-three Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, five incomplete Formation diagrams, and a bronze plate engraved with “Burial Dragon Token.” When he used the spirit pearl to examine the token, a blood-colored map suddenly appeared in the pearl’s medicinal field, marking a place at the bottom of the abyss where Dragon blood was boiling.
“So, I need Dragon blood for Body Tempering…” Lu Qingyang caressed the gradually healing scar on his ribs, recalling the Old Drunkard’s words, coughed out with blood, before his death: “Qi Condensation is easy, Foundation Establishment is difficult; the difficulty lies in cleansing the marrow and changing the blood…”
The sound of something breaking through the air came from outside the tree hollow. He quickly erased all traces of his aura. Under the moonlight, Ye Wuchen swept past the treetops on a Flying Sword, followed by more than ten Taiyi Pavilion law enforcement Disciples. The seven-petal lotus patterns on their Daoist robes glowed coldly in the night, like ghostly reapers.
Lu Qingyang popped a Breath Concealing Pill into his mouth and submerged his Divine Sense into the spirit pearl space. As the hourglass reversed, the newly cultivated dragon blood grass was frantically absorbing Spiritual Qi. Seven days in the outside world, seventy days within the pearl, enough for him to Breakthrough to the Qi Condensation sixth layer. However, cracks began to appear at the edge of the spiritual field—the incompleteness of the qingmu spirit pearl ultimately limited his cultivation speed.
At Chen Shi the next day, a blood-colored dense fog rose from Burial Dragon Abyss. Lu Qingyang mingled with a group of Loose Cultivators, listening to an old Cultivator in front tremble as he recounted: “Every sixty years, the fog dissipates for three days; only those below Foundation Establishment can enter the abyss…” He clutched the Burial Dragon Token in his embrace, then suddenly glimpsed the figure of the purple-clothed young woman flashing through the crowd.
The moment the mist swallowed everyone, Lu Qingyang felt the Formation diagram in his Storage Pouch grow hot. When he unfolded the Formation diagram to verify the directions, he found that the marked 'Gate of Life' on the diagram perfectly coincided with the blood-colored map displayed by the spirit pearl. A faint Dragon roar came from the bottom of the abyss, shaking his Dantian and Qi Sea uncontrollably.
“Daoist Lu, what a clever trick.” The purple-clothed young woman appeared beside him like a ghost, her compass needle pointing directly at his heart, “You used the dragon blood grass’s aura to lure me into your trap, intending to use the Bloodthirsty Vine to eliminate your enemy?”
Lu Qingyang grinned, then suddenly scattered the entire bag of Yao Beast Luring Grass powder into the air: “Fairy, why don’t you guess what rank of Yao Beast this will attract?” Immediately, roars echoed one after another in the dense fog, and the young woman’s gasp was drowned out by the chaotic footsteps.
As the blood-colored moonlight pierced through the mist, Lu Qingyang finally reached the edge of the Dragon Blood Pool. The Dragon blood, boiling like magma in the pool, resonated with the Burial Dragon Token in his embrace. The moment he immersed the token in the blood pool, large patches of rust on the surface of the qingmu spirit pearl peeled off, revealing its inner jade-like, lustrous texture.
Six pairs of golden vertical pupils suddenly opened at the bottom of the pool, and the skeleton of the sleeping Flood Dragon slowly raised its head. Lu Qingyang swallowed the Marrow Cleansing Grass he had held under his tongue in advance and leaped into the Dragon Blood Pool. Amidst the bone-eroding, heart-burning pain, he heard an ancient sigh from deep within the spirit pearl: “Thirty thousand years… finally, the successor of Jianmu has arrived…”