— In the house, the eastern bedroom.
After Chen Yun told everyone to not disturb him, he began to concentrate on refining essence and condensing qi.
With the exercise of his martial arts, the condensation bead continuously transformed the vital essence within his body into true qi.
A small circle of heaven quickly came to an end.
Chen Yun refined nine true qi.
"No, the condensation bead's speed of assimilating qi and vital essence is a bit slow. If I don't finish refining all nine true qi during the time when the vital essence is exploding in large quantities, I might waste a lot."
Thoughtful of this, Chen Yun made a bold decision.
While practicing the refining essence to qi method from "Master Chen's Internal Elixir Formula," he simultaneously practiced the "Accumulate Essence and Refine the Body" technique taught to him by Zhao Gongming.
It's somewhat difficult for the heart to be divided and used in two.
However, Chen Yun had tried it before, and he was already adept at it.
Subsequently, the essence that the condensation bead couldn't assimilate was all utilized by him to temper his physical body through the practice of accumulating essence and refining the body.
Time was passing one second at a time.
Gradually, the sun began to set in the west.
Day was waning.
Finally, Chen Yun also refined all the qi generated by the birth of Zhu Yu grass into true qi and used it to temper his physical body.
After slowly opening his eyes, he appeared somewhat incredulous.
At this moment, Chen Yun felt an overwhelming surge of true qi within his body, and his physical strength had also increased significantly.
"One stem of Zhu Yu grass has saved me twenty days in refining essence to qi and is equivalent to ten days in accumulating and refining the body!"
Chen Yun was very excited in his heart. If it were not for the wolf stomach with super digestive function, he couldn't have refined so much qi generated by Zhu Yu grass all at once, and therefore couldn't rapidly increase his strength.
"This time the harvest was abundant."
He couldn't help but secretly reflect on how he had killed the wolf demon and gained a powerful artifact like the wolf tooth, as well as the Zhu Yu grass, and that with the help of the wolf stomach's effects, his strength had been significantly improved.
Chen Yun carefully judged that, excluding the enhancement of his physical body, he had grown his true qi by approximately three-quarters by refining one stem of Zhu Yu grass.
To put it into perspective, before this, he had consumed the skin of the Zhu fruit and worked hard at cultivation to accumulate a considerable amount of true qi.
While before, it required the consumption of Zhu fruit skin and hard cultivation to accumulate a considerable amount.
It's not difficult to imagine how amazing the wolf stomach of the wolf demon paired with Zhu Yu grass is!
The most important thing is that Chen Yun only consumed a twentieth part of the wolf stomach, which can still be used for another nineteen days.
With Zhu Yu grass, he would be equivalent to reducing one and a half years of cultivation time in twenty days!
That's just from the perspective of true qi.
The practice of accumulating essence and refining the body can also reduce half a year's worth of effort.
"I should become very strong after eating all of the wolf stomach!"
Chen Yun was filled with anticipation.
Subsequently, he secretly reflected, "Alas, even with a greatly increased amount of true qi and a strengthened physical body, the number of techniques I possess is still too few. My boxing techniques are nonexistent, my magic is limited to illusory arts and dream control. There is still so much I need to learn."
No matter whether it's magic or boxing techniques, as long as he can unleash his strength, Chen Yun is not at all reluctant.
Because refining the Zhu Yu grass had taken up most of the afternoon.
Chen Yun and Zhang Qian had no choice but to stay another night at Gao Liang's home.
In the evening, the villagers held a grand feast, offering the highest honor to Chen Yun and Zhang Qian by treating them as guests of honor at Gao's ancestral hall.
...
The next day, as they were bid farewell by hundreds of villagers at Gao Jia's ancestral hall with reluctance, Chen Yun and Zhang Qian set off once again on their journey to Luoyang.
The following three days, the journey was smooth and uneventful.
Chen Yun and Zhang Qian traveled a thousand miles each day.
As they passed through cities and towns, Chen Yun would actively look for people in need and give them the silver in his baggage.
Slowly, Chen Yun had dispensed with over forty taels of silver.
He wasn't sure if it was because the silver was getting less.
Alternatively, during these two or three days, Chen Yun used the wolf stomach and Zhu Yu grass to refine his qi and strengthen his body every night, making his strength almost double compared to before.
Regardless, Chen Yun didn't feel the weight of the remaining copper and silver in his bag.
These days, he hadn't neglected his practice of the illusory arts and dream induction.
With more practice, Chen Yun's mastery of these two magic arts became increasingly proficient.
To ensure his safety, Chen Yun imagined the most scenes in his illusory arts using the imagination of illusion rather than various terrifying scenes.
On the contrary, he imagined himself.
He felt that if one day he encountered a large number of enemies encircling him, he could use the illusion to remain in place and take advantage of the opportunity to escape.
Hmm, Chen Yun didn't have much killing intent.
He only wanted to live a good life and seek immortality, so naturally, he thought only about self-protection.
This evening.
Zhang Qian pointed ahead and said, "After we cross the Nian Nian Mountain, we will enter the territory of Tang Dynasty. It is said that Tang Dynasty is at war. We should be as careful as possible."
Chen Yun looked at the Nian Nian Mountain, which was less than a mile away, and nodded, "Let's try to avoid cities and towns."
"Okay."
Zhang Qian replied with a nod.
The two of them walked forward again.
Because the territory of Tang Dynasty was at war, the two of them decided to find a safer place to spend the night for tonight.
After all, cities and towns could be attacked by Huang Niao's army or Tang army. Who knew what would happen if they were captured?
As they discussed, the two of them headed towards the Nian Nian Mountain, looking for a cave or something to make do with for the night.
Unexpectedly, just as they turned a corner.
Suddenly, there was a thunderous boom.
It shook the ground, making it jump.
It seemed like a meteorite had crashed to the ground from the sky.
"What's going on?" Zhang Qian's face turned pale.
Chen Yun didn't say anything, but the sudden scare startled him so much that his heart jumped fiercely.
With a move of his hand, a fierce fire formation and a wolf tooth dagger were already in his hands.
He felt that there might be some danger.
Just as he had grabbed the fierce fire formation and the wolf tooth dagger.
Bang!
A large tree, as if it were a leaf, was blown away by the huge force and crashed down heavily towards them!
Chen Yun and Zhang Qian hurriedly jumped aside, barely avoiding the fast-moving tree that was heading towards them.
They had no time to look back, as the gold-colored light in front of them flashed again.
Chen Yun's eyes widened as he saw a giant hand, about the size of a grinding stone and made of gold, reaching out to grasp him!
Before the golden hand reached him, he could already smell a strong scent of "golden sandalwood" burning.
Meanwhile, Chen Yun glanced at a distance and saw a golden-armored god standing there, who was more than four or five cun tall and entirely made of gold.
The fierce grasp of this golden-armored god seemed incomparable.
The air seemed to be shaken and rippled by the gold-colored hand.
"It's an illusion, don't be afraid!"
Chen Yun shouted loudly to alert Zhang Qian.
If ordinary people encountered such a situation, they would probably be terrified to the point of liver and gall being shattered, and wouldn't be able to differentiate between reality and illusion.
But Chen Yun had just seen the tree coming towards them, and he and Zhang Qian had dodged it; there was no sound of impact from behind. Additionally, with the scent of burning golden sandalwood, he immediately judged that this was someone creating an illusion.
With that said, he moved qi in his body wildly until he arrived at the mud pinnacle palace location.
As expected, when the true qi dispersed the spiritual awareness that had invaded the mud pinnacle palace, he suddenly regained clarity.
Chen Yun saw a youthful man in white standing in front of him.
Beside the young man in white robes, there were also about a dozen burly men with the build of tigers and apes, their heads wrapped in yellow bandanas.
These sturdy men each held sharp weapons, either brandishing swords or aiming bows and arrows. Some were holding their weapons ready, while others were raising their swords to strike.
It was clear they were coming after him!
Chen Yun was alert, but Zhang Qian was still acting like a madman, jumping around and making strange noises.
He could indeed input true qi to Zhang Qian's mud pinnacle palace to break the illusion, but he couldn't move now.
With arrows aimed at him, how could he move?
Chen Yun stared at the white-clad youth, "What do you want?"
Of course, he knew that this young man in white robes was from the Taiping Dao.
As expected, they had come looking for something related to Lin Feiyun.
He asked like this to buy time, to try and figure out a solution.
A fierce fire formation can only eliminate one person.
The wolf tooth dart could be thrown, but it was uncertain whether it could hit someone. Even if it did hit, it could only kill one person as well.
There were over a dozen people in front of him, and all of them looked like they had some martial arts skills. Chen Yun didn't think that resisting them would have any good results.
"Indeed, you have some skills." The white-clad man said with a somewhat effeminate tone of admiration: "It doesn't seem like what Lin younger brother described as merely using some underhanded tactics."
Chen Yun narrowed his eyes, "Are you Lin Feiyun's senior brother?"
"Yes, my name is Liu Guibai. If you ask me to fight, or if you surrender willingly, I won't kill you for the time being. I advise you not to resist uselessly."
Chen Yun still gripped the wolf tooth dagger and the fierce fire formation tightly, sneered, "What will you do with me after capturing me? Let me live in torment or die in misery?"
"Zetsu," Liu Guibai walked forward slowly, "You're quite clever to know the consequences of being captured by me. To be honest with you, if you were captured by me, Lin younger brother would use a secret method to extract your soul from your body and then use spiritual fire to burn it day after day. But if you refuse to surrender... well, there's not much use for that. I might just have to waste a bit more effort and use the soul-capturing technique to capture you."
"As he spoke, Liu Guibai had already come to a distance of one zhang from Chen Yun."
At this moment, his two eyes turned into one black and one white.
It was evident that he was preparing to use the soul-capturing technique!
"Wait a minute!" Chen Yun shouted loudly. "I can surrender, please let me release my junior brother Zhang."
Liu Guibai was taken aback, the black and white colors in his eyes faded away, and he smiled slightly, "I didn't expect you to be so loyal."
With those words, Zhang Qian ended his frenzy on the side.
Seeing this, Zhang Qian's face changed greatly, "Brother Chen..."
"Please go first." Chen Yun interrupted Zhang Qian's words, "I have something to deal with this Liu sir, and I'll go back to find you once I'm done."
Zhang Qian was about to say something more, but then he saw Chen Yun's eyes flicker.
He probably understood something, "Alright."
After saying that, Zhang Qian turned around and walked away without looking back.
The burly men in front didn't hassle him, they all stepped aside, allowing Zhang Qian to leave quickly.
Liu Guibai remained calm, "Now that your brother is gone, you should just quietly follow me."
Chen Yun proactively put the wolf tooth dagger and the fierce fire formation back into his storage ring, acting as if he were harmless, and extended his hands, saying, "You can tie me up; otherwise, you won't feel at ease."
Liu Guibai saw that he was so cooperative, so he didn't raise any doubts at all, but he didn't look back and waved his hand at the back, "Bring me some rope."
Chen Yun was surprised to see that Liu Guibai was so alert, never turning his head around.
In this way, he couldn't sneak attack either.
A group of sturdy men all came up.
Liu Guibai pointed at Chen Yun and said to the burly man who had a mole on his face, "Tie his hands, but not his feet. Let him walk himself."
"Okay," the burly man was about to approach.
Chen Yun said, "Mr. Liu, he smells. I can't stand the smell, so could you personally help me tie him up?"
"You have quite a few demands, is it you who are captured or me?" Liu Guibai chuckled, but he didn't refuse the request, casually taking the rope from the burly man's hand. "Alright, considering your cooperation, I'll grant this request of yours."
As he spoke, he came forward to bind Chen Yun.
Chen Yun stood quietly, with neither moving nor resisting.
As Liu Guibai watched, he saw that Chen Yun had put away his weapons and formations, and even extended his hands voluntarily, not suspecting anything. He directly grabbed Chen Yun's hand, prepared to tie it with the rope, and said while acting: "I originally thought you would..."
"Resist" was on the tip of his tongue before he could speak.
Liu Guibai suddenly felt a surge of "qi" entering.
Then, a terrifying and ferocious ghost face appeared instantly in front of him.
The sudden and terrifying ghost face scared Liu Guibai without warning, causing him to let out a yell of "Ah!"
"Little boy!"
"Seeking death!"
The burly men next to him were shocked by this and quickly raised their weapons, aiming them at Chen Yun.
Who knew that Chen Yun was just standing in place, but their weapons struck him and passed right through him as if he were not there.
It seemed as if the Chen Yun who had been standing there earlier was just a wisp of shadow.
Thanks to Liu Guibai's profound cultivation, after he realized he had been caught by Chen Yun's technique, he immediately activated the power of his spiritual consciousness to break through the illusion at once.
Then, he suddenly turned his head to look.
He saw Chen Yun had already fled tens of meters away, aided by the Jiamamufu.
At the same time, the shadow-like "Chen Yun" in front of him also disappeared.
At the same time, Liu Guibai was immediately enraged, and with a movement of his hand, he shot out a streak of cold light towards Chen Yun.
But unfortunately, Chen Yun was running too fast. After flying hundreds of meters in the air, the cold light seemed to have run out of energy, and it only trembled slightly in the middle of the air.
If someone had been watching carefully at this moment, they would have noticed that the cold light was actually a flying needle as long as a finger, emitting dazzling brilliance.
Seeing his opportunity slip away, Liu Guibai was so angry that he was trembling.
"Scumbag!"
"You all are useless!"
"Over a dozen of you watching as that kid slipped away right under your noses, you useless bunch!"
Liu Guibai was so angry that he began to swear, completely losing the graceful demeanor of the gentleman he had been earlier.
The burly men were scolded in silence, each thinking to himself that if it hadn't been for Liu Guibai being tricked first, the little guy wouldn't have been able to escape.
(Chapter complete)
