Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 30 External Refinement of the Heavenly King Armor, Internal Condensation of the Vajra Furnace

Those who cultivate their bodies condense their qi and blood in a furnace, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for their own use. The strongest among them possess unparalleled combat skills, and opening the heavens with a single punch is commonplace for them.

Those who cultivate the Dharma nurture their primordial spirit and forge their divine consciousness, harnessing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for their own use. The powerful possess boundless Daoist arts, capable of moving mountains and seizing the moon.

This is Su Qing's understanding of the difference between physical cultivation and Dharma cultivation.

According to his understanding, body cultivators and magic cultivators of the same level each have their strengths and weaknesses, and there is no distinction between superior and inferior.

For example, compared to a first-tier body cultivator, a Qi Refining cultivator can equip magical artifacts and use Taoist techniques, while a first-tier body cultivator can wear battle armor and use combat skills. The outcome of a fight between the two depends on the initial distance between them and their respective mastery of Taoist techniques and combat skills.

In the Western Sea cultivation world, magic cultivation is at its zenith, and most of the major immortal kingdoms are dominated by magic cultivation sects. Body cultivation is gradually declining, and only some body cultivation families that rely on bloodlines to maintain their lineage are still persisting on this path.

In fact, although physical cultivation and Dharma cultivation are two systems, they are not clearly distinct from one another.

For a magic cultivator like Tang Wanqing, who excels in combat, it's not impossible to strengthen one's physique while cultivating magic. If one progresses more smoothly in physical cultivation than in magic cultivation, it's not impossible for one to switch to physical cultivation.

For a family like Gao Erqiang's, whose physical cultivation is passed down through generations, if any of their descendants have exceptionally strong spiritual roots, there's no reason for them to cling to their family's combat techniques and let them gain a little but lose a lot.

Ultimately, for most lower-level cultivators, whether to refine the body or the qi, to nourish the physical body or to forge the primordial spirit, depends on what suits them best. Only by flexibly adapting to their own conditions can they live a less difficult life.

Su Qing himself, when he discovered that his spiritual root aptitude was truly appalling, also considered taking the path of physical cultivation. Unfortunately, he was a failure in both physical and magical cultivation. Others could choose the best among the best, but he had to choose the less failure among the failures.

I don't know if they know I can't practice the Heavenly King Skill, since I can't even master the basic Five Animal Frolics yet. But look, there's nothing wrong with it, right?

Having never seen what a Xuan-level combat skill looked like before, he didn't mind spending a few hundred spirit crystals to see something new.

[The Immovable Heavenly King, through external refinement of muscles, bones, and skin, supplemented with medicinal baths containing over twenty kinds of spiritual materials such as demon beast blood, blood spirit mushrooms, and purple poria, condenses the Heavenly King Armor, nourishing an invincible body.]

[Internally ingest Vajra Qi, swallow the bones and blood of demonic beasts, consume Mystic Crystal Iron, condense the Vajra Furnace, and cultivate boundless Qi.]

[With the outer armor of a Heavenly King and the inner furnace of a Vajra furnace, one becomes the Immovable Heavenly King, as immovable as a mountain, unparalleled among Heavenly Kings!]

[Heavenly King External Cultivation Method: ......

[Vajra Internal Cultivation Method: ······]

"Putting aside the useless introductions that boast and exaggerate their value, this combat skill is indeed a rare Xuan-level combat skill."

After spending more than half an hour, Su Qing rubbed her slightly sore eyes and muttered to herself.

He only had a superficial understanding of how to cultivate the body.

But I still know the basic common sense.

Just as the key to cultivation is to open up the sea of ​​consciousness within the body, thereby being able to sense the divine consciousness, unite with heaven and earth, obtain spiritual energy from heaven and earth, refine the energy into essence, and nurture the primordial spirit in the sea of ​​consciousness.

The key to physical cultivation is to open up a furnace of qi and blood in the dantian of the body, and use this furnace to refine all things and transform them into qi and blood energy to supply one's cultivation and consumption.

External cultivation methods are easy to obtain, but internal cultivation methods are hard to find.

At least within Baiyunfang City, none of the Yellow-level combat techniques have internal cultivation methods. This Immovable King Technique, however, has both internal and external cultivation methods, making it worthy of the Profound-level.

"It's just too expensive!"

Su Qing shook his head. The saying "the poor study literature, the rich study martial arts" applies to the cultivation world as well.

Cultivators can cultivate by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Regardless of the efficiency of their cultivation, they get the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for free.

For those who cultivate their bodies, nourishing their qi and blood to strengthen their flesh, both internal and external training cost money.

This Immovable King Technique is especially so. Just in the external medicinal bath alone, the materials that Su Qing recognized were all first-grade spiritual materials. Each medicinal bath required at least several dozen spirit crystals.

As for internal cultivation, that's even more outrageous. The so-called Vajra Qi is actually just the Qi of Xuan Tie Jin Jing (a type of metal essence).

It is necessary to ingest spiritual materials of the metal element, such as Xuan Tie Jing (玄铁精) and Shi Jing Jin (石晶金), to extract their essence. Only when a hundred strands of golden essence are gathered can the Vajra Furnace be initially forged.
This is just the beginning. Once the Vajra Furnace is completed, the demand for gold essence will be even greater, and ordinary independent cultivators simply cannot afford to cultivate it.

"No wonder Tu Da used to make a lot of money, but after losing his ability to earn money, he fell into such a state. It seems that he spent all the spirit crystals he earned on this cultivation technique."

Su Qing complained that the cultivation technique was too expensive, but her eyes gleamed red as she stared intently at it, much like a starving gourmand seeing his favorite food.

For him, the beauty of this technique lies in the fact that it can be built up with resources!

The only requirement for practicing this skill is having enough spirit crystals!
While there are requirements for one's innate talent, this only affects the efficiency of absorbing resources. As long as there are enough resources, what others can accomplish with one unit of resources, you can accomplish with ten or even a hundred units!
"A medicinal bath costs several dozen spirit crystals. Why don't I try it first? Even if it doesn't work, at least it won't harm my body."

A few dozen spirit crystals are nothing to Su Qing now. He dares not try the internal cultivation method. With his current physical condition, swallowing gold essence raw would not only fail to melt it, but would also tear his stomach apart. However, he can try the external cultivation method.

Just then, as he put away his cultivation technique, the people from Baibaoge delivered the goods. He asked the deliveryman to make another trip for him, spending over three hundred spirit crystals to buy the materials needed for ten medicinal baths.

I didn't dare buy too much; I'll just get a ten-day supply to try it out first.

Seeing that another expense had been incurred, Su Qing worked extra hard on puppet refining in the afternoon.

They didn't stop until the dead of night, after forging three lizard warriors.

By this time, the Wood Spirit servants had prepared the medicinal soup according to the prescribed ratio. The large medicine barrel, which occupied half of the room, emitted a strange smell that made people cover their noses.

Looking into the medicine bucket, red, green, purple, and blue were all mixed together, like a pot of boiled dye, which was nauseating.

But even if it's disgusting, it's still something I paid for. Su Qing covered her nose and slowly submerged herself in the water.

Burning, numb, itchy!
It felt as if ten thousand fireflies were burrowing into every crevice of my body.

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"

"It itches, it itches, it itches!"

"Hey, I have to say, it's actually quite comfortable right now!"

The initial pain makes you want to give up, but the subsequent exhilarating experience makes you unable to stop.

The backaches and pains accumulated during puppet making were relieved at this moment, and there was even a feeling that the body had become stronger and full of strength.

About half an hour later, when most of the medicinal power remained in the soup, Su Qing's body began to give out.

He knew that this was because his body could only absorb this much of the medicinal power for the time being, and he could only watch helplessly as the rest of the medicinal power was wasted.

"Compared to the beginning of a normal person's cultivation, my cultivation efficiency is about one-eighth of theirs? Does that mean I have to expend more than eight times the resources throughout my cultivation process?"

Su Qing clicked her tongue in amazement. In the past, she only knew that her physical constitution might not be very good, but she didn't have a direct comparison. She couldn't clearly know the extent to which her physical constitution was rotten like she did now.

"With such poor physical constitution, even if he hasn't lost his vital energy, he probably doesn't have much of a future in the path of body cultivation!"

He sighed deeply and resignedly followed the routine recorded in the Fudo Myo-o Kung Fu, beginning to raise his legs, swing his arms, twist his waist, and sway his hips to digest the medicinal effects.

After all that, he didn't really feel how much his strength had increased, but he was sweating profusely and his body was sticky. When he rubbed it, streaks of black sludge made him want to vomit.

"Okay, I need to take another shower."

Fortunately, the Wood Spirit servants worked day and night to serve him two baths without complaint.

Of course, it may also be because they are not very intelligent and do not have voice runes inscribed on them.

(End of this chapter)