Chapter 12

The number of official deacons in the Dao Academy is less than twenty, making it impossible for them to provide meticulous guidance to so many disciples.

Typically, only the disciples in black robes have the qualifications to enter the Transmission Hall; the training of the初级道兵 disciples is more like free-range, with about every ten to dozens of them being assigned a black-robed disciple as a liaison to guide their daily life and cultivation in the Dao Academy. They are also assigned to various affairs offices to undertake trivial miscellaneous tasks.

Chen Hai’s situation was extremely special. Zhou Jun directly became his liaison in the Dao Academy, and he did not have to live in the row houses where the初级道兵 disciples were concentrated, nor did he have to do any miscellaneous tasks. One could say his conditions were extremely favorable.

Chen Hai vaguely sensed something was amiss, but he did not want to give up such good conditions. In the yard where the weeds were taller than a person, he listened to Zhou Jun explain some of the Dao Academy’s rules and then respectfully saw him off.

The weeds in the yard grew wildly, and snakes and rats had made their nests. After seeing Zhou Jun off, Chen Hai pushed open the rickety, broken wooden door. Inside, the room was fully furnished, but everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. The beams and corners of the room were filled with spider webs, and a garter snake hurriedly darted out through a crack in the window.

Seeing this scene, Chen Hai did not feel any disappointment.

Yao Xing was a person with many mysteries. His memories before being exiled to the Taiwei Sect were fragmented, and it was impossible to piece together a complete picture.

Chen Hai could not even find out from Yao Xing’s fragmented memories what major crime he had committed that made him unacceptable to the Yao clan. In such a situation, if he continued to stay at Jianyun Cliff, every move he made would be under the watchful eyes of Chen Qing and others, and he might inadvertently reveal his true identity.

Once Chen Lie, Chen Qing, or others discovered that he had taken over Yao Xing’s body, would they let him live?

Moreover, whether there were hidden circumstances behind Yao Xing’s fall from the cliff and his death was something Chen Hai had to figure out. Living as Yao Xing now, if he did not clarify this point, Su Ziling, who seemed clear and charming, would always be a thorn in his heart.

In this state of mind, how could he talk about cultivation?

What could he rely on to eliminate the hidden ailments of his divine soul and fully adapt to his new physical body?

Now that he had arrived at Tieliu Ridge, his situation seemed even worse, but in reality, he had temporarily put aside the greatest unease and threat. After tidying up the yard, it became a good place for cultivation.

*************************

Wiping the tables and repairing the doors and windows, Chen Hai then removed the weeds that were half a person tall in the yard. He then saw that the two-acre yard was surrounded by stone walls, with a small pond in the corner.

After clearing the mud and weeds, the pond revealed a white stone bottom with some honeycomb-like crevices, from which several streams of clear spring water slowly flowed out.

The flow of the spring water was not large, more like seeping out from the crevices in the mountain’s rock layers. After a whole day, the water that overflowed had not even covered the stone bottom of the pond, but it emitted a faint spiritual aura.

It turned out to be a rare spiritual spring.

The land of Yanzhou was no longer the primitive era when gods and demons roamed freely. Over the past thousand years, the spiritual energy in the world had become increasingly sparse, greatly limiting the cultivation of the disciples of the mystic arts.

The limited mountains and blessed lands that could nurture spiritual springs had become the core targets of bloody contention among various sects and countries.

The reason the Taiwei Sect established the outer gate Dao Academy at the eastern foot of Tieliu Ridge was not only to provide a large number of reserve military officers to the Tieliu Camp but also because the eastern foot of Tieliu Ridge was one of the few places within a thousand miles that could nurture a spiritual spring.

Chen Hai did not expect that this dilapidated courtyard would have a small amount of spiritual spring water seeping out!

Zhou Jun’s arrangement for him here seemed to be a great favor. Chen Hai suddenly felt as if a pie had fallen on his head, and he was overjoyed. However, he also felt that things were not that simple, but at this moment, he could not worry too much.

Even if Zhou Jun had intentionally set a trap for him, did he have the qualifications to refuse to jump in at this time?

*********************************

After removing the weeds, the empty ground by the pond still had over a hundred plants of various sizes, including Poria and Lingzhi, indicating that the previous owner, Chen Qiang, had already turned the two-acre yard into a medicinal field.

Cultivating the mystic arts and refining qi requires consuming a large amount of elixirs, but this does not mean that martial cultivation consumes less.

Martial cultivation not only requires refining essence and qi and strengthening the meridians but also consumes essence and qi to temper the muscles, bones, and flesh, making the dependence on and consumption of cultivation resources much greater than that of ordinary mystic cultivation.

For disciples to cultivate and survive in Tieliu Ridge, to obtain spiritual herbs, medicinal dishes, and more advanced mystic techniques, or even to obtain mystic weapons, armor, or higher-level talismans and magical treasures that can instantly enhance their strength, they need to exchange with the sect’s merit points or the martial achievements of the Wuwei Army.

Sect merit points, Wuwei Army martial achievements!

Thinking about these, Chen Hai could not help but sigh. Although Zhou Jun had arbitrarily exempted him from miscellaneous tasks, there was no such thing as a free lunch in the world. Even if disciples could privately exchange cultivation resources, they still needed something to exchange.

Although Chen Hai did not need to do those miscellaneous tasks and did not yet have the qualifications to go to the Wuwei Army to accumulate military achievements, he did not want to waste the precious time for cultivation. However, not doing miscellaneous tasks also meant that he had no direct source of income in Tieliu Ridge.

Now, the small private medicinal field in the courtyard where he lived could support part of his future cultivation expenses...

Not long after Zhou Jun left, he instructed two low-level dao soldiers to bring the necessary rice, flour, bedding, and other items. Chen Hai then officially moved into the new courtyard and eagerly entered seclusion to cultivate.

The methods recorded in the "Initial Explanation of the Alchemical Cauldron Technique" focus on absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. In the early stages, it can nourish the internal organs and warm the soul, and when the foundation is completed, it can guide the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the space between the two kidneys, where it merges with the essence and qi that breaks through the meridian blockages, forming true essence. At the same time, the meridians that exist between the real and the illusory, after being refined by the true essence, truly manifest, becoming spiritual meridians.

This is an indispensable foundation for Taiwei Sect disciples to enter the Mystic Realm.

Chen Hai found it difficult to truly enter the state of complete forgetfulness, making it hard for him to cultivate the Alchemical Cauldron Technique. However, there were several Elders of the Enlightenment Realm in the Dao Academy who might pass by the courtyard and detect his cultivation state. Even to conceal himself, Chen Hai would sit on a large rock by the pond every morning at dawn and practice the breathing and regulation techniques described in the "Initial Explanation of the Alchemical Cauldron Technique."

At this time, Chen Hai’s divine soul and consciousness mostly entered the Blood Cloud Wasteland through the snake bracelet.

There was a mysterious space between the two kidneys of the puppet body, similar to the spiritual sea that mystic cultivation disciples hope to open after forming three spiritual meridians. It also had a true essence similar to essence and qi, which continuously spread to the puppet body’s limbs and bones, making the puppet body seem like a real living being, easily driven by Chen Hai’s consciousness.

Chen Hai did not know how to further strengthen the puppet body, but when he had nothing to do, he also controlled the puppet body to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the Blood Cloud Wasteland according to the methods described in the "Initial Explanation of the Alchemical Cauldron Technique."

Although this seemed to have no practical use, Chen Hai could feel his divine soul and consciousness extending more deeply into the puppet body, giving him a greater sense of integration...

With the soul of Cang Yu returning to the nine heavens and the left ear sinking into the ground along with the temple, there was no longer any response. Chen Hai could only explore the secrets of the martial puppet and the Blood Cloud Wasteland on his own.

Through the snake bracelet, the puppet body could synchronize its movements with the true body, but Chen Hai could also control the puppet body to move around near the temple using his divine soul and consciousness.

Previously, Chen Hai’s divine soul and consciousness could exist independently, and with a thought, he could see the entire Blood Cloud Wasteland. However, now that his divine soul and consciousness were closely linked to the puppet body, he realized that the Blood Cloud Wasteland was much larger than he had imagined.

In over ten days, he could only wander around the area near where the temple had sunk into the ground, and within a hundred miles, there were terrifying skeletons and corpses.

After immersing his divine soul and consciousness in the Blood Cloud Wasteland for too long, a sense of sadness and oppression inevitably arose in his heart, but Chen Hai did not dare to cut off the connection with the puppet body for too long, fearing that a Rakshasa ghost might intrude and he would not notice in time.

Before discovering the usefulness of the puppet body, Chen Hai did not care if a Rakshasa ghost intruded, but now he was afraid of losing the puppet body and not knowing how to cultivate in the sect afterward.

*****************************

With the experience of comprehending the bow stance martial secret form on the mountain path, Chen Hai found it less difficult to break down other martial secret forms from the "Fengyun Leg" scroll.

In less than a month, Chen Hai had managed to break down the eleven martial secret forms contained in the "Fengyun Leg": horse, servant, void, rest, kick, sweep, intercept, spin, whip, and drill. He successfully transplanted these forms into the puppet body’s ancestral aperture consciousness sea.

Chen Hai referred to the bow, horse, servant, void, and rest forms as basic stances, and the kick, sweep, intercept, spin, whip, and drill forms as basic leg techniques...

The first move of the "Fengyun Leg," the Ten Thousand Jun Hammer Kick, is a highly complex combination of these eleven martial secret forms. It channels the body’s essence and qi or true essence into the legs, allowing one to kick with the might of ten thousand jun.

With these martial secret form diagrams in the puppet body’s consciousness sea as a reference, Chen Hai found it much easier to practice the "Fengyun Leg" according to the diagrams.

Although all martial secret forms can channel the body’s essence and qi, it is not as simple as pure mental control. A slight deviation in the body’s posture can prevent the essence and qi from moving.

At the beginning, Chen Hai usually had to practice the basic stances and leg techniques five to six thousand times before he could occasionally channel the essence and qi throughout his body like a boiling spring.

However, once the essence and qi started to flow, it would penetrate every detail of the legs and feet through the dense network of meridians connected to the main leg meridians, thoroughly tempering the muscles, bones, and flesh.

When Chen Hai arrived at Tieliu Ridge, his legs were covered in wounds, and his flesh was torn. Two months later, the new flesh that grew was as tough as old cowhide, and his leg bones were as hard as wood and stone.

Chen Hai could kick through a tree as thick as a bowl without injuring himself.

After three months of hard cultivation, Chen Hai could see through the puppet body that the essence and qi in his body had become more abundant and refined. More intuitively, his physical strength had increased two to three times compared to three months ago, and he could easily lift a stone lock weighing three to four hundred pounds. He no longer looked sickly as he did after his cultivation was ruined.

This showed that martial cultivation was not just talk.

Chen Hai did not know the cultivation progress of other dao soldiers, but from the memories of Yao Xing, he knew that the cultivation speed of the most talented inner disciples of the seven peaks might not match his.

This was just the cultivation progress of his true body. In the Blood Cloud Wasteland, when Chen Hai’s divine soul and consciousness were immersed in the puppet body, he could quickly retrieve the basic stances, leg techniques, and martial secret forms involving the leg meridians from the deep ancestral aperture consciousness sea, channel the true essence into his legs, and practice the first move of the "Fengyun Leg," the Ten Thousand Jun Hammer Kick, which could sweep like a ten-thousand-jun hammer.

The small Rakshasa ghosts, as small as dogs or horses, could be shattered by a single kick from the puppet body.

This was the power of the first move of the "Fengyun Leg," the Ten Thousand Jun Hammer Kick.

Chen Hai’s true body, after all, did not have the innate ability of the puppet body’s ancestral aperture consciousness sea. After three months of hard cultivation, although his basic stances and leg techniques had reached a high level of proficiency, he still needed to kick fifty to sixty times to successfully channel the essence and qi in his body and perform the first move of the "Fengyun Leg," the Ten Thousand Jun Hammer Kick.

Additionally, the puppet body’s secret sea of essence seemed to have an endless supply of true essence. Each time Chen Hai’s true body performed the Ten Thousand Jun Hammer Kick, he felt as if all his strength had been drained.

Without timely replenishment of essence and qi from spiritual herbs, Chen Hai could perform the Ten Thousand Jun Hammer Kick only two to three times in a row before his essence and qi were completely depleted, and he would collapse like a dead dog, unable to get up.

This showed the strength of the puppet body, but unfortunately, Chen Hai could not bring the puppet body out of the Blood Cloud Wasteland and into the Taiwei Sect.

Otherwise, not to mention low-level dao soldiers, even the purple-robed dao soldiers who had cultivated to the later stages of the Mystic Realm would not be his match.