Chapter 35

(With the monthly votes finally reaching five hundred, here’s a chapter of over four thousand four hundred words; let’s see if my brothers can make it for another update tonight—click on the “lottery” below the book page, and you might draw a monthly vote!)

Seeing Su Tang’s face full of disdain, Chen Xun chuckled and said, "Barbaric cultivation is just like this."

"Clearly, it’s because your cultivation method is crude, and you’re still making excuses?"

Su Tang pouted and asked Chen Xun, "Since you haven’t practiced any specific techniques, how can you control the mystic cold energy to enter your body without harming your internal organs?"

Over these few days, Chen Xun had saved the Essence-Gathering Ointment for Su Tang, and at night, he hid in the snow cave, not daring to consume the ointment for cultivation. This was the first time Su Tang had seen Chen Xun visualize the barbaric soul to temper his muscles and bones up close.

Chen Xun didn’t think there was anything particularly strange about using the mystic cold energy and the barbaric soul’s divine radiance to double-temper his muscles and bones. He explained to Su Tang how he used the mystic cold energy to temper his body.

"I didn’t expect your cultivation of the barbaric soul to have reached this level. Although it’s crude, the principle of using the barbaric soul’s divine radiance to protect your internal organs is correct. No wonder Uncle Thirteen thinks you have good potential," Su Tang said. "However, the barbaric soul’s divine radiance is extremely fierce. If you only use the barbaric soul’s divine radiance to temper your muscles and bones, you will gradually become a brute. As long as you practice the Essence-Subduing Technique, blending the barbaric soul’s divine radiance with other mystic energies, and cultivate to the point of harmonious fusion, you won’t have this problem..."

"How can I cultivate to the point of harmonious fusion?" Chen Xun asked in confusion.

The nine-abyss war spear of the black python was extremely powerful, but its relentless pursuit of extremes was also a significant drawback.

Chen Xun thought the problem must lie in the "harmonious fusion" of the barbaric soul’s divine radiance. The black python’s difficulty in advancing to the Celestial Barbarian stage might also be due to a lack of understanding and cultivation of the barbaric soul’s divine radiance.

"You really learned crudely before," Su Tang scratched her head in frustration and said, "If I just teach you the Essence-Subduing Technique, I’ll be scolded by the old ancestor again..."

But she secretly felt smug. If she taught him so much now, he would surely bow to her as a master once he entered the Canglan Academy.

"Then forget it."

Chen Xun knew that people as kind as Su Tang in the Su family were rare. Most were not easy to deal with. If he privately learned the Su family’s mystic techniques and it leaked out, it would be a serious matter. He immediately gave up the idea of learning the Essence-Subduing Technique.

Seeing Chen Xun backing down, Su Tang became anxious and said, "You look so ugly now, I’ll have nightmares just looking at you. How can you not learn the Essence-Subduing Technique? Don’t worry, it will only make you less ugly. As long as you don’t tell others, no one will notice."

Hearing Su Tang say this, Chen Xun felt like rolling his eyes. He had a rugged face, not a bit effeminate, where was he ugly?

"The barbaric soul’s divine radiance is extremely fierce. Without cultivating other mystic energies to subdue and harmonize it, it will be extremely difficult to break through to the Rebirth stage," Su Tang continued to persuade Chen Xun. "You cultivate two barbaric souls and can draw in the mystic cold energy to temper your body without harming your internal organs. The Essence-Subduing Technique will be easy for you to learn..."

Listening to Su Tang’s detailed explanation, Chen Xun realized that his previous cultivation methods were fraught with danger.

Apart from the few spiritual heavens and caves occupied by major sects, the mystic energies and spiritual auras in the world all have extreme properties, just like the mystic cold energy.

Whether it’s martial cultivation or Daoist cultivation, before reaching the stage of blood and bone transformation, the physical body is hard to withstand the erosion of various extreme spiritual auras. However, in human habitable areas, the mystic energies and spiritual auras in the world are extremely faint, and their erosion on the human body is not obvious.

The more concentrated the spiritual auras, the faster the cultivation progresses, but if one cannot overcome the erosion of the extreme spiritual auras on the physical body, the harm is even greater.

The noble clans and sects all have unique Essence-Subduing Techniques to help their disciples in the foundation-building stage use concentrated extreme spiritual auras for cultivation before advancing to the Rebirth stage.

Chen Xun’s cultivation of the nine-abyss barbaric soul, the barbaric soul’s divine radiance is also a kind of extreme mystic energy. The stronger the barbaric soul, the more fierce its extreme properties. Without the Essence-Subduing Technique to subdue and harmonize it, only an extremely strong physical body can withstand it.

"For a thousand years, none of the barbaric tribes around Mount Tu have had a Celestial Barbarian advance to the Celestial Yuan stage. You can imagine how important the Essence-Subduing Technique is, right?" Su Tang said smugly.

"If for a thousand years, no Celestial Barbarian from Mount Tu has advanced to the Celestial Yuan stage, why did the Su family, which has Celestial Yuan stage strongmen, fight a nearly hundred-year war with the black python and other barbaric tribes for the Canglan wilderness over the past eight hundred years?" Chen Xun asked curiously.

The detailed records of the hundred-year standoff between the black python and the Su family are documented in the "Canglan Miscellany."

Seeing Chen Xun actually doubt her words, Su Tang glared at him and said, "The nine-abyss barbaric soul cultivated by the black python is extremely fierce, hence its power is extraordinary. When cultivated to the extreme, it can indeed contend with Celestial Yuan stage strongmen, but how many of the black python’s Celestial Barbarians over a thousand years have had long lives?"

Chen Xun thought about it. His grandfather Zongtu had reached the peak of the witch barbarian, but at the age of fifty, he looked extremely old, making people doubt how many more years his flesh and blood would last. He nodded and said, "In the silk book 'The Dao Essence Residual Interpretation,' it is indeed said that the cultivation of the barbaric soul has the physical tribulation to overcome."

"Exactly. The barbaric soul is strong, but as the cultivation progresses, its extreme properties become even more fierce. Once it exceeds the physical body’s capacity, if you don’t disperse your cultivation, the physical body will collapse. Eight hundred years ago, the black python had a Celestial Barbarian with a physical body strong enough to resist magical weapons, but in the end, he didn’t die in battle but because his physical body couldn’t withstand the even more fierce barbaric soul, leading to its collapse. The physical tribulation is an inevitable outcome for Celestial Barbarians. Even the barbaric gods of ancient times, with physical bodies as strong as celestial beings, couldn’t escape the five decays of celestial beings. Are you not worried about it now?"

"If even celestial beings can’t escape the physical tribulation, I doubt the Su family’s Essence-Subduing Technique can harmonize it."

Chen Xun thought it through and laughed, "Although the 'Canglan Miscellany' says that Rebirth stage strongmen can live for 150 years, even if you live to 150 years old, you still can’t escape death. The survival in the wilderness is so brutal, fighting against the sky, the earth, people, and the vast wilderness of barbaric beasts. Who knows if you’ll still be alive tomorrow? Why worry about the distant future?"

Su Tang stared at Chen Xun, thinking that this kid’s tone was too old and mature, actually "lecturing" her?

But thinking about what he said, it made sense. She didn’t know if they could safely return to Canglan, so why worry about too many things in the future?

Su Tang felt a bit dejected but still taught Chen Xun the incantation and cultivation method of the Essence-Subduing Technique: "At the peak of the Qingyang stage, you have a lifespan of 100 years, but ordinary barbaric warriors, if they don’t disperse their cultivation, find it hard to live to 60 or 70. Even if your blood and qi are pure enough, the visualization of the barbaric soul is limited by the strength of your physical body. In Canglan, martial cultivation is strong in the early stages but weak in the later stages. The benefits of practicing the Essence-Subduing Technique are more than you can imagine..."

Hearing Su Tang say this, Chen Xun’s long-standing cultivation doubts suddenly became clear:

Logically, when he took the spirit medicine, he should have been able to continuously draw in blood and qi, and the barbaric soul’s image in his soul sea should have continuously broken through. But when he visualized the five postures of the great roc, the most complete barbaric soul’s image could only be condensed to about five inches tall. Any higher, and the barbaric soul’s image would become vague...

He had always guessed that this might be limited by the strength of his physical body, but he never understood the reason. He didn’t expect it to be due to the fierce extreme properties of the barbaric soul’s divine radiance?

In addition to continuously breaking through the limits of physical body tempering, if he could practice the Essence-Subduing Technique to improve the extreme properties of the barbaric soul’s divine radiance, could he visualize a more powerful and pure barbaric soul at the same cultivation level?

It seems the Essence-Subduing Technique is quite remarkable!

Chen Xun asked Su Tang, "I fought with the barbaric warriors of the Black Mountain tribe. The barbaric aura they released is very different from that of the black python’s barbaric warriors. If the barbaric soul’s divine radiance is all derived from blood and qi, why are there two different extreme properties?"

Seeing Chen Xun’s cultivation was indeed crude, Su Tang could only patiently teach him: "The true yang hidden in blood and qi is inherently harmonious, but when cultivating the barbaric soul, the barbaric soul’s divine radiance tempers the muscles, skin, and flesh, changing the blood and qi. The purer the blood and qi, the stronger the extreme properties, and by the seventh layer of blood transformation, the properties of the blood and qi will completely change..."

"Can cultivating two barbaric souls achieve balance?" Chen Xun asked.

"In theory, it’s possible. The legendary Bright Heaven Map allows cultivators to simultaneously manifest the Yin and Yang in their soul sea, achieving a harmonious balance of yin and yang and the fusion of extreme properties. If you can learn this legendary martial cultivation technique, you won’t fear the physical tribulation," Su Tang said.

Chen Xun smacked his lips, knowing Su Tang was deliberately teasing him:

The Bright Heaven Map is a legendary technique for the Su family, where could he learn it from?

Su Tang, with a teasing "malice," continued, "Of course, if you keep practicing the Great Roc Secret Fist, the drawbacks will be much smaller than cultivating the black python’s nine-abyss barbaric soul..."

Chen Xun mainly visualized the Great Roc Fist in his soul sea for cultivation before. But this time, when he delved deep into the lake and wilderness, especially in this extremely cold place, he had to visualize the nine-abyss barbaric soul to resist the mystic cold energy’s erosion of his internal organs, so he mainly cultivated the nine-abyss barbaric soul.

Cultivating the nine-abyss barbaric soul, the more refined the barbaric soul’s divine radiance, not only resists the mystic cold energy’s erosion of the internal organs but also breaks through the limits of physical body tempering. At the same time, the speed of visualizing the nine-abyss barbaric soul to refine the medicine’s power is also greatly increased.

Chen Xun originally thought the nine-abyss barbaric soul’s cultivation was powerful, but he didn’t expect it to bring such significant drawbacks and side effects.

It seems he has to learn the Essence-Subduing Technique.

******

The fundamental of the Essence-Subduing Technique is to use two different extreme properties of mystic energies to subdue and harmonize each other, achieving a pure and harmonious state.

Chen Xun was already capable of withstanding the mystic cold energy’s infiltration, so he had a foundation for cultivation. He just couldn’t control and cultivate it more finely.

Chen Xun had an excellent memory and quickly memorized the incantation and cultivation method, but he didn’t have the time to practice it. The Essence-Subduing Technique is a gradual mystic technique, and it can’t be mastered in a short time. Seeing the blue veins on his arms like coiled dragons, he said, "Let him be ugly. Men don’t rely on their faces to make a living."

Su Tang glared at him, speechless, and could only focus on adjusting the true yang in her soul sea.

After taking the black jade orchid, the dormant mystic acupoint in her body showed a glimmer of vitality.

Although it was extremely weak, the emergence of a bit of true yang in the mystic acupoint gave Su Tang hope for recovery.

She had to admit that Chen Xun, who looked only thirteen or fourteen, had more experience in surviving in the wilderness than she did. She didn’t expect that following Chen Xun’s method to enter the mountains, they could coexist peacefully with the barbaric beasts on the Great Solitary Peak for several days.

Of course, the prerequisite was that she had already mapped out the nests of most of the fierce birds and beasts in the mountains.

When Su Tang finished her cultivation, Chen Xun stood up, put on the medicine basket, and the two headed