Shen Lian suddenly understood a little about this senior brother, Chen Jianmei, who with his exceptional speed in cultivation and reaching heights where no ordinary cultivators could achieve probably in their entire lifetime, only to be stuck in the same state for forty years and not even budge an inch.
This difference brought him psychological pressure. It was hard for an outsider to imagine if one did not go through it personally.
Forty years was not a short time. It was enough for a person to go through the ways of the world. Sometimes when the lifespan of a dynasty was short, it did not even hold through forty years.
For almost forty years, to not be able to see the hope of improving and not knowing how to break through was pure torture. Cultivation was like the long night, not knowing when the dawn will come.
Just thinking about it was enough to make anyone’s skin crawl, what more about that fact that Chen Jianmei had been struggling for forty years.
It was enough to see his determination in his moral nature since he was still able to hold on to his temper and not immediately jump into an argument or kill anything he met on his way.
Shen Lian opened his mouth and asked, “As you’ve said before, to be able to reach the cultivation state of Huandan, is it extremely difficult?”
Qi Sanwen sighed softly, with his empty right sleeves, he seemed more in solitude as he stood with one arm and said, “Starting from Yangqi to Ruhua, sooner or later it is achievable with the talents for cultivation and a will.
“Huandan, however, is different from any previous states. It was known as ‘the struggles of learning Daoism’. The best of the best go through the nine transformations of Huandan, only those who have achieved the six transformations of Huandan have the hope of achieving longevity and becoming an immortal.
“On the path of Huandan, it was not enough to rely on one even though each has their own established practices. To sum it up, there were but three ways.
“The first path is to place one own’s Yin spirit into a shaped ‘external alchemy’, which allowed it to warm and nourish the body as it entered the body. This could extend the lifespan by three hundred years like how an alchemy cultivator would do. However, with this path, there was no more hope of progressing further after three turns. After three hundred years, one would still turn to ashes and the external alchemy that was left with the Yin spirit would eventually lose its divine aura because it was not of the same source. It would be difficult to have another chance to enter the way of Dao if there was an afterlife.
“The second path was to use ‘celestial core’ as a divine conductor. As for the number of transformations, it was determined by the quality of the celestial core. I’m afraid that it was rarer to find the celestial core that allows up to six transformations than immortals with longevity. It had never been heard of in legends for pills to even allow up to nine transformations.
“The third path was to hold the spirit and harmonize it with the soma to form the Golden Elixir. Once it was formed, one had the good luck to steal heaven and earth and the gifted spirit to invade the sun and moon during the seven transformations, even during the nine transformations of Huandan. Only through this path the Huandan cultivator claim to be a success as the ‘Golden Elixir’.
“While the two paths are trackable, the third path bore no traces at all. There are those who cultivated until the state of Ruhua within three years, five years, ten years, or even a hundred years, but not achieve Huandan after spending a day and night.
“Some people spent twenty, thirty years and cultivated until the state of Ruhua but when the time came, they could not achieve Huandan. Even though there were many theories came up by predecessors, they could not conclude exactly how to achieve Huandan.”
Lu asked curiously, “It is hard to measure the methods of the celestials. Are there really no immortals of longevity who can give pointers on how to Huandan?”
Daoist Sanwen thought to himself. ‘Even if there is, it would most probably be him.’
When he thought of that person, he did not know whether he feared him or respected him, maybe even both.
“Even the immortals can’t let you know how you should achieve Huandan. Even more, with your potential, it would be another three, five, or ten years before you reach Ruhua. It wouldn’t be too late to ask this question by then,” Daoist Sanwen answered plainly.
Afterward, his facial expressions shifted a little and he said, “Leave, the headmaster wants to meet you two.”
The trio left the bamboo residence. Outside, the flying serpent that Jingqing transformed into was already waiting.
After what had happened yesterday, Lu was used to it already.
However, Daoist Sanwen accompanied them as they went.
Amongst the sea of clouds, Jingqing lazily opened his mouth and said, “Xiao San-Er, I’m afraid this is your last time sitting on my back. Nonetheless, I have lifted your master and your master’s master and they all died, you wouldn’t make much of a difference.”
Lu almost laughed when he heard the way Jingqing addressed Daoist Sanwen and he remembered that Jingqing addressed them as senior brothers.
What he did not know was that there was not much seniority rule within the members of Qing Xuan. It was because that Jingqing was not a part of the sect and he was a demon beast that guarded the mountains, the grandmasters of Qing Xuan had him address anyone as a senior so that Jingqing would not flaunt his seniority, and that he would only obey the headmaster’s orders.
The nature of a snake was cold and sinister, and originally would be indifferent to matters like this. It was due to the fact that he mingled among people in Qing Xuan celestial school for so long that he acquired some humane qualities. Therefore, he said more than usual as he recollected the moments he had with Daoist Sanwen when Daoist Sanwen was approaching the end.
It was actually no difference for him to address someone as a senior as to addressing someone as an idiot.
However, Jingqing held Daoist Sanwen in a different light by addressing him as ‘Xiao San-Er’.
It was difficult for Shen Lian and Lu to understand the reason for it, only Daoist Sanwen knew that he had feelings for every plants, tree, and flowers of the Qing Xuan Mountain and he could not bear to part with this world. Jingqing, who was originally an unfeeling demon and yet still able to recollect some memories of him gave him a heavy heart.
The flying serpent soared through the sea of clouds and suddenly came to a halt. Jingqing whispered, “Xiao San-Er, the lady devil is coming, I’m going to run. You bring these two to meet the headmaster.”
Lu and Shen Lian had a scare of their lives because they got jolted off the back of the serpent when Jingqing shook. As for Jingqing, it disappeared without a trace through the endless sea of cloud like a rainbow.
Even if they were made from refined steel, they would still be shattered to a million pieces if they were to fall from this height in the middle of the sky.
Luckily, the empty right sleeves of Daoist Sanwen extended and wrapped around the both of them like a vine.
They landed on top of a boat cloud.
A clear voice came from the sky. “Damn snake, I only want to borrow your inner core, how can you be so stingy? Don’t let me catch you this time or else I’ll make you vomit the Zhuguo you stole from me.”
Shen Lian recognized the voice when he heard it. However, amongst this sea of clouds and the gentle breeze, how could he know what this person looked like?
As the voice got further and further away, Shen Lian thought, ‘Could it be the voice of that lady I met by the strange river that day?’
With Daoist Sanwen’s mana, the boat cloud was not that steady while it transported the three of them.
It shook from side to side then finally reached the main peak, Taiyi. Daoist Sanwen was familiar with the directions and they arrived at the main hall.
This time Jingqing was not there to open the door. Daoist Sanwen pushed the door by himself and entered.
As per the last time they met, the headmaster Daoist was sitting on the stone couch in a lotus position.
This time, the headmaster Daoist was way younger than yesterday when Shen Lian saw him.
Daoist Sanwen was surprised and he said, “I’m afraid that something had happened to the headmaster yesterday.” He could see that even though the headmaster Daoist had become younger but there were signs that his injuries were getting more serious.
The reason for this was because the headmaster Daoist had a serious injury from that incident a hundred years ago. He cultivated a secret technique to lock and trap vitality in his body and not have it divulge from the body, which caused his appearance to appear old and different from the other masters in the school.
His appearance being young again, was definitely not because of the injuries but as a result of the vitality that was supposed to be locked in, slowly slipping out from his body.