Chapter 10

After dismembering the Black Water Mystic Snake into eight pieces, Gu Fei dug out a black pearl the size of an egg from the snake’s belly. This pearl was the demon core of the Black Water Mystic Snake.

This demon core was pitch-black and glossy, with a massive surge of demonic energy flowing within it. This demonic energy made Gu Fei’s heart race in fear, as if he were holding a divine thunder pearl that could explode at any moment.

This was because Gu Fei could sense the aura of the terrifying black gas that the Black Water Mystic Snake had spewed, capable of corroding everything.

If this demon core were to explode, its power would not be any weaker than that of a divine thunder pearl, and it might even be more powerful.

"This thing is a treasure!" Gu Fei smiled, holding the demon core that emitted a faint dark light. With this demon core, he would have a chance to save his life.

If someone were to anger him, he could unleash the demonic energy within the demon core and throw it, and heh, that person would likely be reduced to ashes.

The Black Water Mystic Snake, still in its juvenile stage, seemed to have died unjustly, but this was also Gu Fei’s luck.

He had encountered an Immortal Body in this cave, and the Immortal Body just happened to have a Yin-Yang Fish Jade Pendant, which had the ability to gather the essence of heaven and earth.

Thus, Gu Fei broke through at this critical moment, with the help of the Yin-Yang Fish Jade Pendant.

With all his meridians unblocked and the five qi energies derived, Gu Fei could now perform some simple ancient combat techniques. However, even the simplest ancient combat techniques were only performed superficially by him.

"If I could truly unleash the power of the ancient combat techniques, I could crush the head of an adult Black Water Mystic Snake in one step, rather than just increasing my speed as it does now."

The combat technique of stepping across the eight desolates contained profound martial principles. If Gu Fei had sufficient strength, he might truly be able to unleash the terrifying power of shattering the primordial earth with one step.

Standing beside the corpse of the Black Water Mystic Snake, Gu Fei held a broken sword in his right hand, which had not been stained with any blood, and the demon core of the Black Water Mystic Snake in his left hand, muttering to himself.

The ancient combat technique only increased his speed, and he could not unleash any of the true martial principles. However, with the half-broken ancient sword in his hand, he managed to kill this fierce Black Water Mystic Snake.

To truly unleash the terrifying power of the ancient combat techniques, he needed to break through to the Transcendent Realm, allowing his body to undergo a transformation and unleash even greater potential.

However, since the ancestor of Gu Fei’s lineage obtained this ancient body cultivation secret scroll, no one in the Tai Xuan Sect had been able to truly break through their limitations with body cultivation techniques and reach the Transcendent Realm.

Gu Fei’s great-grandfathers, at the end of their lives, had only managed to cultivate the ancient body cultivation technique to the Ninth Heaven of Awakening, unable to advance further.

There were numerous cultivation systems in the world, and the entry-level cultivation techniques of the Awakening Realm were as numerous as cattle in the major sects. In a major sect like the Tai Xuan Sect, the cultivation techniques of the Awakening Realm were basic skills that everyone could practice.

Even the cultivation classics of the Transcendent Realm were not few. It was said that the mountain-stabilizing secret classic of the Tai Xuan Sect, the "Tai Xuan True Interpretation," was a supreme classic that could cultivate one to the semi-divine realm.

Thus, the ancient body cultivation technique of Gu Fei’s lineage became a chicken rib technique—unwilling to discard but tasteless. Over time, it was referred to as a garbage technique by the sect members.

Was this ancient body cultivation technique really a garbage technique? No one knew.

After killing the Black Water Mystic Snake, Gu Fei did not rush to leave. He needed to recover his strength and explore the way out at his peak state.

Gu Fei drank a few mouthfuls of snake blood, which was a great tonic, and ate a piece of raw snake meat. Then, he sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes to practice.

To be honest, the meat of the Black Water Mystic Snake was not easy to eat, like chewing on wood, and it had a strong fishy smell. If he hadn’t gone without food for a few hours, Gu Fei would not have wanted to eat such a difficult thing.

However, after meditating for less than half an hour, the essence of heaven and earth in the cave began to gather around Gu Fei like a tide, with a faint glow swirling around him.

The Yin-Yang Fish Jade Pendant on his chest transformed into a Taiji Yin-Yang diagram, slowly lighting up, and streams of Yin-Yang energy began to emanate from it.

The Taiji Yin-Yang diagram on Gu Fei’s chest seemed to come to life, with Yin and Yang energies surging out and forming a millstone-sized Taiji Yin-Yang diagram above his head.

As soon as the Taiji diagram appeared, the spiritual energy from all directions rapidly gathered towards it, then flowed into Gu Fei’s body through the Taiji diagram.

"Hmm?" Soon, Gu Fei noticed the unusual changes inside and outside his body. He realized that the essence of heaven and earth, which usually took five hours of sitting meditation to gather, had already reached that level in less than half an hour.

In other words, with the assistance of the Taiji diagram, Gu Fei’s cultivation speed was more than ten times faster than usual. The thought of ten times the speed made Gu Fei’s heart tremble.

Gu Fei circulated his qi cultivation technique, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, and a hazy glow enveloped him. Gradually, the small stream of Five Elements Essence in his dantian began to form a funnel-like small vortex.

The essence of heaven and earth gathered into the vortex, being refined and integrated into his body’s original Five Elements Essence, which grew slowly and irreversibly.

The process of refining the essence of heaven and earth into the body’s original Five Elements Essence was very slow. Out of ten thousand units of the essence of heaven and earth, only one unit of Five Elements Essence could be refined. The slow growth of the Five Elements Essence in Gu Fei’s body was evident.

However, with ten times the cultivation speed, the growth of the Five Elements Essence also increased tenfold. The Five Elements Essence generated in the dantian spread through the meridians into the flesh and bones, slowly transforming his body.

The ancient body cultivation technique used a thread of Five Elements Essence naturally generated in the body as a guide to form a vortex in the dantian to absorb the essence of heaven and earth, refining it into the body’s original power to strengthen oneself.

The Taiji diagram slowly rotated above Gu Fei’s head, and there was no sound in the cave. As time passed, the spiritual energy around Gu Fei became increasingly dense, and visible streams of spiritual light entered his body.

A subtle power fluctuation emanated from Gu Fei’s body, and the Sixth Heaven of Awakening was firmly established. The Five Elements Essence began to refine the tendons and bones.

Gu Fei’s body was enveloped in a faint five-colored glow, and he was forging a body of steel and iron.

It was like a cultivator refining a magical treasure, but the difference was that the cultivator refined external objects into powerful magical treasures.

However, Gu Fei was refining his own body into a treasure-like body.

The human body is a treasure trove. The deeper one cultivates in body cultivation techniques, the greater the physical strength that can be unleashed, and even challenging a cultivator’s magical treasure is not impossible.