Vast plains extend as far as the eye can see, with barely any vegetation visible.
The bleak gusts of wind here are different from the scorching heat in other parts of the Fire Pit, making the temperature somewhat chilly.
Wu Kejiu, Qin Ming, and Zhang Ling, along with more than twenty disciples, guard the collapsed small hill outside and take turns dispatching people to release magic to probe the situation. They check whether the toxins released from the centipede have corroded the buried Gao Chen, Ding Xu, and others.
Not far from them, Chen Yun was boiling the wolf stomach soup while recalling the "Nine-Eight Yin and Yang Marrow-nourishing Skill."
"The Eight and Nine Yin and Yang Cultivation" is a core cultivation method centered around training the spiritual consciousness.
This cultivation method is mainly divided into two parts.
Firstly, cultivating the spiritual soul.
Secondly, refining the body with the power of the spiritual soul.
Cultivating the spiritual consciousness involves strengthening the spiritual consciousness, transcending it from the physical body, and other aspects.
Chen Yun only wanted to learn the art of transformation, which didn't help him much, so he didn't delve into it too deeply.
His attention was mainly focused on the second part, refining the body with the power of the spiritual soul.
Although this part is about refining the body, it actually encompasses a wide range of topics.
For example, it includes training a body that is indestructible like diamond, regeneration of severed limbs, reconstruction of the physical body, and other forms of transformation.
What Chen Yun intends to learn is the art of transformation.
He carefully recollected and found that the art of transformation is divided into two types.
The first type is somewhat similar to using illusory skills by the Yin God, but it only allows oneself to change into things that are merely appearance without substance.
For instance, when he transforms into a chicken, while the appearance indeed becomes that of a chicken, the core remains the same, and there is no "all abilities" of a chicken after transformation.
The second type of art of transformation is quite remarkable, as it can truly change one's own form.
At that time, not only will he possess his own powerful force, but he will also possess all the abilities of the transformed object.
This type of art of transformation is incredibly powerful, and even using the "Law of Heaven and Earth" transformation from "Journey to the West" would be easy.
While it is indeed powerful, this art of transformation has very strict requirements. The basic requirement is to first master the skill of physical body reconstruction, and then understand the structure of all things.
Why do you need to first learn physical body reconstruction?
Because you need to truly transform into another material, which definitely requires changing the body structure. Then, using the power of the spiritual soul to simulate the exact same structure, thus being able to be the same as a true one.
Or, in a sense, you would truly become that entity.
The understanding of the structure of all things is also quite simple.
Assuming you want to transform into a tree, if you do not know the composition structure of a tree, how can you truly become a tree?
Chen Yun remembers that the Deity Erlang once said that when the "Eight and Nine Yin and Yang Marrow-nourishing Skill" is cultivated to the Mahayana realm, one can truly achieve the law of heaven and earth.
After watching the art of transformation, Chen Yun roughly understood what was going on.
You have already understood the structure of all things in the universe. By simulating them with the power of the spiritual soul, isn't that law of heaven and earth?
"This profound skill is truly profound and complex, Brother Zhao's talent is great indeed!"
Chen Yun couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
Meanwhile, he began to try and cultivate the skill of physical body reconstruction within it.
To achieve the skill of physical body reconstruction, one must first understand one's own body structure and record all the constructions in the memory library of the spiritual soul.
As of now, Chen Yun has not cultivated a Yang soul, so he cannot record it in the memory library of the spiritual soul.
However, this doesn't daunt him.
Chen Yun has already cultivated a Yin spirit, which can, to some extent, substitute for the spiritual soul.
"My Yin soul is too weak, unable to truly substitute for the spiritual soul. It can only be used as a memory library."
He pondered deeply, "To truly recombine the physical body, it would require the expenditure of true qi. Therefore, at this stage, I cannot truly have my physical body destroyed and then reshaped. I must ensure that my physical body still exists in order to perform the physical body recombination. If I can cultivate a spiritual soul, I should be able to reshape my physical body."
There's no need to rush on this aspect for the time being.
Chen Yun only wants to learn the art of transformation, not to reshape the physical body.
He attempted to follow the method of the "Eight and Nine Yin and Yang Marrow-nourishing Skill" to run it.
The power of the Yin spirit began to spread throughout the limbs and joints, recording every structure and every cell.
The process takes a lot of time.
After all, the structure of the physical body is too complex.
The total number of cells alone can reach up to forty to sixty trillion.
This is still the most basic.
He also needs to record which cells form which organs and structures, etc.
These organs and structures are how they compose the other structural materials of the human body.
For example, the composition of bones is composed of osseous tissue, periosteum, marrow, blood vessels, lymphatic ducts, and nerves and other structures.
If Chen Yun omits any of the components during the recording, then when he recombines his physical body later, his bones will have issues, becoming incomplete and thus losing some functions.
Therefore, he must be very meticulous in his recording.
He must record everything to the finest details, even the slightest thing, without making any mistakes.
This applies to every part of the body, not just the bones.
Chen Yun took an entire hour to complete the full recording.
At the same time, the wolf stomach soup was ready.
He first drank the wolf stomach soup in one go and then began to boil it again. Meanwhile, he divided his attention between two things: one was to sense the birth and refinement of true qi within his body, and the other was to ponder the "Eight and Nine Yin and Yang Marrow-nourishing Skill."
The true qi within his body is slowly being generated.
The generated true qi is also continuously refining his physical body.
He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but Chen Yun felt that his Feilingu Yu symbol seemed to be running automatically.
It was strange because he hadn't actively practiced anything.
This had never happened before.
But along with the true qi refining his physical body, the Feilingu Yu symbol was also running, continuously absorbing the qi of heaven and earth from outside, and refining his physical body together with the true qi.
"Hmm?"
Chen Yun was startled, "How can the Feilingu Yu symbol operate naturally?" as he was pondering the art of transformation.
He felt a bit mysterious. He hadn't actively cultivated qi, but why was the qi cultivation technique able to run automatically?
Chen Yun stopped contemplating the "Eight and Nine Yin and Yang Marrow-nourishing Skill" and carefully sensed the situation within his body, wanting to see what had happened.
During the first and second small revolutions of the meridians, he hadn't noticed anything yet.
However, when the medicinal power reached the third small revolution of the meridians, Chen Yun suddenly sensed something.
He found that when the true qi refining the body reached a certain degree, a part of it began to connect with the refining process.
Moreover, he himself had already cultivated the method of refining the body, that is, the Feilingu Yu symbol.
Therefore, during the refining process, the "habit" of the physical body was stimulated, so he unconsciously started to refine his body.
It is particularly important to clarify that there is a distinction between refining the form and refining the body.
If one must describe it in more detail, refining the form includes refining the body, but refining the body does not necessarily mean refining the form.
The Laozi once said, "The strong are destined to die, while the weak are destined to live. When things are in their prime, they begin to age. The strong and powerful cannot find their way to death."
So the aforementioned fictional exercises, as well as intense physical exercise, gym workouts to build muscle, and even some martial arts, all of these are exercises of the flesh and bone, of later heaven floating qi. All of this is called dead chu.
Refining the form changes the quality of a person's physical body. It involves using qi to transform the entire body.
This kind of improvement is subtle, gradually making the constitution of a person better. It can even return to the physical state of a young person, an infant, or even an innate being, a celestial being. All of this is called the "living person."
If exercising the body is considered refining the form, then it can be said to be only refining the form of the later heaven.
The true refining of the form belongs to "pre-natal refining."
Lateran refining can be considered a broad term, but it does not mean the refining of the form in the sense of cultivation.
We have qi refining, qi guiding exercises, body refining, all of which are for strengthening the inner qi.
This post-natal qi will also adjust the body to some extent, attack the disease points, reverse the illness, strengthen the body and improve health. In general terms, this might have quite good effects.
However, that's where it stops. It is limited to strengthening the physical body.
If one practices well and exercises all aspects in balance, there might be some effects on longevity.
If practiced poorly, it can be a form of expenditure, even shortening one's lifespan.
The Feilingu Yu symbol belongs to the later heaven refining of the form.
Of course, the methods taught by Xie Zirán are not just the Feilingu Yu symbol. There are also methods that belong to pre-natal refining of the form.
What is pre-natal refining of the form?
Pre-natal refining of the form refers to relying on the pre-natal qi to refine the form.
The pre-natal qi is true qi.
The true qi transformed from the essence refining into qi is the return of post-natal qi to pre-natal, hence the name "true" qi.
The early and later stages of pre-natal refining of the form are similar, but also different from, later refining of the form.
The enhancement of pre-natal qi improves the quality of the physical body. The most basic enhancement is the improvement of physical body constitution. In addition to feeling better physically, an important standard for validation is recovery capacity, not being able to get sick or tired, but being able to recover quickly or more easily than before if one gets sick or tired.
The so-called "invulnerability to external evil" that relies on post-natal protective qi is still a post-natal mode, a rough, high-energy consumption mode.
The pre-natal refining is the transformation from a rough, post-natal health management mode to a pre-natal health management mode, and the transition from a rough, post-natal management mode to a concentrated, refined management mode.
The pre-natal qi refining will also experience a round after round of disease root flipping, but it will be deeper in the body than the post-natal qi.
For example, even though Chen Yun has cultivated to the level he is now, he still seeks out disease spots in his body every time true qi runs through him.
Therefore, he rarely gets sick.
This is the early stage of pre-natal refining.
In the middle stage of pre-natal refining, one can achieve golden sinews and jade bones, blood transforming into white ointment, and muscles as one.
The ultimate goal is to achieve the harmony of body and soul.
Only when both form refining and soul refining have reached certain levels, achieving harmony between form and soul, can one become a true man.
If it's only form refining or soul refining, that is not enough.
Refining the form may be able to extend longevity.
Refining the soul is claimed to lead to immortality, but it is only called immortality. In reality, it cannot achieve true immortality.
By the way, let me add an aside: meditation and form refining, sound incantation and form refining, and guiding and refining the form are generally also considered post-natal form refining, not pre-natal.
After careful observation, Chen Yun found that his form refining was returning from the later to the pre-natal.
"It turns out that my internal qi cultivation technique is so profound that it starts pre-natal form refining during the essence refining into qi stage."
He pondered as he inwardly observed, "If I can reach the stage of golden sinews and jade bones, blood transforming into white ointment, and muscles as one, I should be able to refine the golden elixir. As for why the Feilingu Yu symbol was activated during the return from post-natal to pre-natal form refining, it may be because after entering the Mahayana realm, the Feilingu Yu symbol has to move towards pre-natal form refining, so it was passively driven."
This discovery made him very delighted.
What does this represent?
This means that he will not need to actively cultivate the Feilingu Yu symbol to reach the Mahayana level, which can save a lot of time.
"This kind of discovery was something I never thought of before. I will record it later."
Chen Yun was secretly thinking.
Since he has figured out why the Feilingu Yu symbol is running automatically, there is no need to waste time pondering over it any longer.
He shifted his attention back to the "Eight and Nine Yin and Yang Transformation Art."
"As recorded in the "Eight and Nine Yin and Yang Marrow-nourishing Skill," the first process of reassembling one's body will be extremely painful, almost equivalent to being cut a thousand times and hacked a thousand times. If one's willpower is not exceptionally strong, it is best not to attempt it."
Chen Yun felt that his willpower was strong enough and was not afraid, "I have already experienced the pain of shattering my body with true qi. How can I be afraid of being cut a thousand times and hacked a thousand times?"
Thinking about it, he began to try it, wanting to see if he could succeed.
(Chapter ends)
