Borrowing a sword

Chapter 72 The Secret of the Dao Ancestor

"Body cultivation? Even dogs don't cultivate that!" — Chu Huaixu.
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Inside the bamboo house, the young man in black robes sat on a futon. His face was slightly flushed, and he was sweating profusely. His lips trembled slightly.

"It hurts, it hurts!"

Chu Huaixu clenched his teeth, feeling like he was about to go crazy.

The pain he is experiencing now is vastly different from when he was practicing the "Sword Refining Technique".

The Sword Refining Technique relies on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to temper oneself, using one's own physical body as a sword embryo, and subjecting it to the hammering of spiritual energy.

This is a pain that comes from the outside in.

The experience the Daoist canon is giving him now is that a portion of his spiritual energy has entered the [Spiritual Embryo Secret Treasury], where it is warm and comfortable.

Another portion of the spiritual energy surged into the physical body, bringing a pain that came from the inside out!
—Tsk! It's a completely new kind of pain!

As the spiritual energy within the body continues to increase, the burden on the physical body also begins to grow heavier.

Chu Huaixu gritted his teeth in hatred, and suddenly remembered the words written on the booklet introducing the Daoist Canon: "moderation, righteousness, and peace."

You call this balanced and harmonious?

The pain continued to intensify, reaching its peak at the moment of breaking through the barrier.

Just as Han Shuangjiang next door was about to close her eyes to cultivate, she heard a familiar scream.

She was already used to it and found it unsurprising.

A playful smile appeared on the girl's face as she closed her eyes on the futon.

But soon, she opened her beautiful eyes, immediately stood up, and ran out anxiously.

"Hasn't he already opened all nine orifices? Didn't he get the Daoist Canon?"

Why does this phenomenon still occur?

"No, I have to go check on him. What if he's gone mad from his cultivation and something bad has happened?"

A deep concern appeared on Big Ice's face. She immediately knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside.

Han Shuangjiang disregarded the distinction between men and women and directly pushed open the bamboo door of Chu Huaixu's bedroom.

He was lying on the prayer mat, his black robe and inner shirt completely soaked.

There was sweat, and there was blood.

For some reason, he developed a large number of lumps on his body, and his skin cracked in many places, leaving his entire body with some cuts and lacerations.

It felt like there was a force surging out from inside the body.

It stretched my body so much it was swollen, almost bursting!
Han Shuangjiang's eyelashes trembled slightly, and out of concern for him, she began to panic briefly.

But she quickly calmed down, and the first person she thought of to ask for help was Steward Niu.

She could tell that Steward Niu was a very, very good person.

Just as the large ice block was about to rush over, she suddenly noticed something.

"Is it my imagination?"

"Why does the wound feel less deep, and the swelling seems to have gone down a bit?"

Upon closer inspection, she discovered that they were healing rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Just like"

"It was just like being soaked in the body-tempering liquid back then!" Han Shuangjiang recalled the pool from that day.

Han Shuangjiang felt slightly relieved, wondering to herself, "What kind of elixir did he take?"

Because such a recovery speed could never be something the human body possesses on its own.

But the cold-faced girl was still not completely at ease.

"I have to stay here and keep watch," she thought.

"If anything goes wrong again, go find Steward Niu immediately," Big Ice Block decided.

Han Shuangjiang slowly squatted down beside Chu Huaixu.

Before squatting down, she would habitually pull up the hem of her clothes; otherwise, her full buttocks would become too tight and constricted by the robe as she squatted down.

She placed her arms on her knees, then rested her face against them, squatting down to examine him.

"The wounds on the dead fox should heal in a little while."

After thinking for a moment, the big ice block stretched out its slightly cold little hand and placed it on his forehead to feel his body temperature.

"My body isn't as hot anymore."

After she placed her palm on him, Han Shuangjiang noticed that Chu Huaixu's tightly furrowed brows seemed to relax slightly.

Nearly an hour passed before Chu Huaixu finally woke up.

He curled up on the ground, opened his eyes, and saw Han Shuangjiang sitting in a chair, pretending to pour herself tea.

"Awake?" Her tone was calm, as always, and there was not a trace of concern in it.

"Hmm." Chu Huaixu shook his head vigorously, trying to clear his mind.

He got up from the ground and looked at his robes.

"Why is there bleeding?!" He was truly speechless.

"I don't know. When I came, you had a lot of lumps on your body, and your skin was cracked in many places. Now it has all healed and there are no scars left." Han Shuangjiang told her everything she knew.

This made Chu Huaixu frown even more deeply.

For a moment, he didn't know whether to call the Taoist Canon miraculous or evil!
The big ice block's tone remained icy as he asked, "Didn't you go back to your room to cultivate the Daoist Canon? How did you end up like this again?"

"Because I seem to have discovered a secret of the Dao Ancestor," Chu Huaixu said.

"What?" Han Shuangjiang's curiosity was immediately piqued by this man.

"I suspect that the Dao Ancestor himself was a crude body cultivator!"

The big ice block immediately narrowed her eyes and said in an unhappy tone, "Don't make jokes like that!" After saying that, she looked around, implying that he should be mindful of the occasion when he spoke carelessly.

This is a Taoist sect! How dare you, within a Taoist sect, claim that the founder of Taoism is a body cultivator?

It’s simply the most ridiculous thing in the world!
Chu Huaixu composed himself and said seriously, "Alright, then I'll be more serious. In fact, I suspect that the Dao Ancestor truly cultivated both internal and external aspects!"

"Hmm?" Han Shuangjiang was getting more and more confused as she listened.

At this very moment, there was still a hint of confusion in Chu Huaixu's eyes.

During the breakthrough stage, he said he was cultivating both internally and externally, which was just self-aggrandizement.

The Sword Refining Technique is a completely evil body-refining technique that relies entirely on external beating to stimulate the digestion of the Qi-opening pill.

When others hear him say that he cultivates both his inner and outer self, they will only assume that Chu Huaixu is training his physical body in his spare time while practicing his martial arts.

She has great perseverance, but that's about it.

In fact, many cultivators who practice body refinement use the phrase "cultivating both internal and external aspects" to elevate their own status.

However, most people scoffed at it.

This involves the cultivation style of body refinement.

Most people who practice body refinement fail because their spiritual embryo is of too low a grade, preventing the miraculous properties of the [Spiritual Embryo Treasure] from manifesting, as it cannot store much spiritual power.

With scarce spiritual energy, one's cultivation level is naturally low, and it is extremely difficult to continue breaking through to higher realms.

Perhaps, in ancient times, some great genius had a sudden inspiration—why not just put the spiritual power in the secret treasure of the spiritual embryo?
Try placing it on other parts of the body!
His fate was undoubtedly to explode and die.

Perhaps, later on, some brilliant minds emerged, or perhaps a group of madmen.

Since we are prone to exploding and dying, it must be because our bodies are too fragile!

Thus, the body-refining school was born.

These fanatics constantly develop and strengthen their physical bodies, discovering that spiritual energy can indeed be contained in various parts of the body, but the body must be made very strong, otherwise it cannot be locked in!
The entire process of entering the country will be extremely difficult and arduous.

The reason why most body cultivators claim to cultivate both internal and external strength is that their spiritual embryo can indeed store spiritual energy, but the amount is very thin, and most of it is contained in their physical body!

It's usually a 20/80 split, or a 30/70 split, and in the worst case, it can even be a 10/90 split.

But when he was upgrading just now, Chu Huaixu had a very strange feeling.

He could clearly feel the spiritual energy flowing through his body, and it was distributed very evenly.
This is a true 50/50 match, a true combination of inner and outer strength!
At this moment, Han Shuangjiang looked at him and asked, "Was your unusual physical condition just now not because you took the pill, which is why you recovered so quickly?"

The dead fox winked at her and said, "Hey! This is my big secret. I'm only telling you, so don't tell anyone else."

"it is good."

He shook his head at the large ice block: "I only took the Enhancement Pill I bought from the Treasure Pavilion, and I didn't take any healing pills."

"This situation was not expected, and I am still figuring out why it happened," he said honestly.

Upon hearing this, Han Shuangjiang was extremely surprised and wondered, "But the rumors about the Dao Canon are known throughout the world. Even in the mortal world, it is said that no one has mastered the divine skill to this day."

“But I’ve never heard of someone like you practicing the Daoist Canon,” she said.

"Tsk, that means they're not practicing correctly!" Chu Huaixu started grinning again.

But in reality, his mind was filled with doubts.

Because the big ice block was right. In the past thousand years, so many people have practiced the Daoist Canon, and there has never been a situation where both internal and external effects worked together.

"Not even among the players!" This was what surprised Chu Huaixu the most.

Many expert players like to follow the "review-style" route. With such good review material as "Dao Dian", how could they not post some review posts on the forum?
He was certain that no other player was in the same situation as him.

"Is it because our physical qualities are different in the early stages of cultivation?" He pondered. "Have I already been tempered by the 'Sword Refining Technique' and meet the true requirements of the 'Daoist Canon'?"

He wasn't sure about this.

He only knew that the "Sword Refining Technique" was also very strange, and that other body-refining techniques for the Qi Refining stage could hardly reach this level of intensity.

Especially after he advanced from the eighth to the ninth aperture, his physical strength improved dramatically. Chu Huaixu suspected that even body-refining cultivators who had just entered the first realm were not as physically strong as him!
"It is said that the Dao Ancestor obtained an unnamed cultivation technique by chance and then began his cultivation journey."

"So, could it be that when he was still a novice Taoist priest, he also honed his physical body every day, indulging in 'self-torture,' and reached a level comparable to mastering the 'Sword Refining Technique'?"

"What did he practice before he practiced the Daoist Canon?"

Chu Huaixu was becoming increasingly confused.

From a timeline perspective, the formula for the Qi Refining Pill was created by the Dao Ancestor when he was in the ninth realm. Only after that did matching Qi Refining cultivation methods gradually appear.

A thousand years ago, even the "preschool" stage of the Qi Refining stage didn't exist. Everyone started practicing from the first stage, and there were very few cultivators in the world.

Therefore, the cultivation methods of that period all started from the first realm, and there were no methods to lay the foundation before the first realm.

He felt that this person, who had dominated the world for a thousand years, was shrouded in far too many mysteries.

Chu Huaixu opened his character panel and took a closer look.

The character panel displays the [Spiritual Power Value] in the Spirit Embryo Treasure Trove as 86.

He wasn't surprised by this number, because he remembered very clearly that the data posted in those "Taoist Canon" review posts seemed to be in the eighties, but he couldn't remember the exact number.

"No wonder many people say that the Dao Canon is actually only equivalent to a low-level cultivation method. It is placed in the high-level category purely out of respect for the Dao Ancestor."

"Because when a first-stage Earth-level cultivation technique is first mastered, the spiritual energy value ranges from 80 to 100. This is the standard for Earth-level cultivation techniques after being digitized," Chu Huaixu thought to himself.

"As for the Heavenly level, it is between 100 and 120."

On the path of cultivation, the differences between people only become greater as they progress.

In this light, the Daoist Canon can only be considered passable at the lower level.

"But the problem is..." Chu Huaixu's eyelids drooped slightly.

"The spiritual power contained within my physical body is also 86!"

(P.S.: Second update, please vote with monthly tickets! Let's hold onto sixth place on the monthly ticket ranking! We're only a few hundred points away from the top five!)

There will be another update today.
(End of this chapter)