Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 397: Chapter 397: True Qi to True Essence, the First Step to Longevity

Under the Introspection of his Martial Arts Celestial Eye, he could see the purplish-black medicinal potency writhing like a living creature within his spinal canal. With every inch it advanced, the beginnings of new meridians coiled around the surface of his bones.

The most intense agony came from his seventh thoracic vertebra, the spot recorded in the Hundred Bone Profundity Technique as the "Spiritual Core Node."

There, the potency of the Meridian Opening Pill abruptly exploded, transforming into thousands of purple threads as fine as hairs, which radiated outward like a spiderweb.

Xu Yunfan let out a muffled grunt, his back arching like a shrimp. His spine groaned, unable to bear the strain.

Those purple threads brutally pierced through the periosteum, building phantom bridges within his flesh and forcibly creating a top-to-bottom connection—a network for energies like True Qi and True Essence to circulate.

"ARGH!!"

Bloody foam spilled from between his clenched teeth and dripped onto his knees. Xu Yunfan suddenly found his vision starting to distort.

In the illusions brought on by the encroaching medicinal potency, he saw his own spine twisting and growing, transforming into a dark purple, demonic tree.

Its roots dug into his pelvis while its branches pierced his shoulder blades. At the tip of every twig blossomed a flower bud made of blood vessels.

"Lin!"

The moment he entered the Linn Character State, Xu Yunfan’s nearly vacant gaze instantly calmed. The recent illusion vanished without a trace, and he silently felt the meridians in his body sprouting and taking root, their tendrils winding throughout his entire system.

His hands quickly formed the Tongyou Seal from the Hundred Bone Profundity Technique. The newly formed Spirit Seed below his navel trembled and spewed out pale gold Ten Extremes True Qi.

This True Qi acted like a Beast Tamer’s whip, lashing at the rampaging medicinal potency and forcing it back into the main meridian channels.

Under Introspection, as the Hundred Bone Profundity Technique operated, three main meridians took shape, winding through his body like Flood Dragons.

The Ren Meridian arose from the base of his torso, running straight up the center of his chest and abdomen to his throat.

The Du Meridian surged up his spine. Each vertebra was stained dark gold by the medicinal potency, and the newly formed meridian network wrapped around the bones like vines, forcibly breaking through the previously blocked Jade Pillow Pass.

The Chong Meridian coiled around his internal organs like a giant python. Every throb caused the Twelve Main Meridians to tremble slightly, and at the location of his Pericardium, a lump the size of a pigeon’s egg bulged out.

This was precisely the nascent form of the Spirit Platform described in the Hundred Bone Profundity Technique.

"Success!"

Xu Yunfan’s eyes snapped open, and dark gold patterns flashed in their depths.

At this moment, at the Guan Yuan Acupoint three inches below Xu Yunfan’s navel, the original flesh-and-blood meridians had been completely reshaped by the roots of the Spirit Seed.

A mysterious purple energy vortex slowly spun, as profound and esoteric as a nebula. A Crystal Core the size of a grain of rice was suspended in its center, pulsing faintly in time with his breathing, drawing in and expelling the Ten Extremes True Qi in a Celestial Cycle.

This was, astonishingly, the legendary Dantian Qi Sea!

Although the newborn Qi Sea was still weak and the vortex’s rotation was clumsy and halting, every pulse of the Crystal Core was like the first heartbeat at the dawn of creation.

The foundation for the towering edifice of Immortal Cultivation was quietly forged in this very moment.

Finally...

Exiting the Linn Character State, the corners of Xu Yunfan’s mouth turned up slightly, and a faint smile appeared on his face. After enduring a thousand trials, even with his now-composed temperament, he was still filled with joy.

The True Qi in his flesh and blood was like a Hundred Rivers Returning to the Sea, forming a mighty torrent under the pull of his Dantian Qi Sea.

With every rotation of the mysterious purple vortex, wisps of dark gold patterns spread along the new meridian network, gathering all the stray True Qi from his limbs and bones.

Xu Yunfan could clearly feel that the True Qi, which had been as diffuse as mist, was now transforming into a liquid mercury-like substance, roaring like a rushing river within the main channel of his Chong Meridian.

The lingering purple glow from the Meridian Opening Pill’s potency still roamed between his bones, and the three main meridians now displayed distinctly different Anomalies.

The Ren Meridian was like a gilded chain running through his torso. The Du Meridian resembled a Qiu Long coiling around a pillar, exuding a jade-like luster. And the most bizarre of all, the Chong Meridian, had condensed into a lump the size of a pigeon’s egg below his heart.

This was the core of the Spirit Seed from the Hundred Bone Profundity Technique, which served as the foundation for the continuous evolution of a meridian system for True Qi to circulate through.

Without delay, Xu Yunfan began to practice the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture he had obtained by performing a Soul Search on the Divine Martial Daoist Master.

He sat cross-legged, as still as a bell. Following the cultivation method of the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture, he interlaced his ten fingers to form the True Martial Seal.

Guided by the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture, the liquefied True Qi in his body began to surge and circulate along the newly formed meridian network.

With every Circulation of the Heavens, the True Qi grew a fraction more solid, gradually forming fine, dark gold crystals on the inner walls of his meridians.

’So that’s how it is...’

Clarity filled Xu Yunfan’s mind.

This Cultivation Technique actually used one’s Martial Dao Will as a hammer and the Blood Qi of the entire body as a furnace to temper the True Qi a thousand times over.

He visualized his Self God transforming into a heaven-melting cauldron. The Crystal Core below his navel trembled in response, spitting out a scorching True Flame.

Without practicing the Martial Dao and condensing True Qi, it would be impossible to cultivate this True Scripture.

From a certain perspective, this True Scripture was the next step on the path of the Martial Dao.

As time passed and he continued to practice the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture, the most drastic change began at his Danzhong Acupoint.

When the torrent of True Qi passed through this point, it was suddenly compressed into a mercury-like slurry.

A muffled, thunderous roar echoed from Xu Yunfan’s chest. Under extreme pressure, that mass of liquefied True Qi actually began to collapse and contract.

"Condense!"

As he activated the True Scripture Techniques, the collapsing core of True Qi suddenly burst with a blinding golden light.

The Twelve Main Meridians trembled in unison, pulling all the True Qi scattered throughout his limbs and bones, which then flowed toward his heart like a Hundred Rivers Returning to the Sea.

The lump at his Pericardium, his nascent Spirit Platform, now acted as a Forging Furnace, repeatedly refining the True Qi that surged into it.

When ordinary Cultivators practiced techniques like the Hundred Desires Devouring Essence Technique, they needed to use visualization to guide energy through their hundred meridians, gather True Essence within the body, and then have it flow into the Dantian Qi Sea like streams returning to the ocean.

However, Xu Yunfan’s current situation was vastly different.

The potency of the Meridian Opening Pill was in the process of reshaping his meridian system, and his newborn Dantian Qi Sea was still as fragile as an infant.

The pigeon-egg-sized lump at his Pericardium—his nascent Spirit Platform—had now evolved into a special, transitional Dantian-like organ.

It acted as a Melting Furnace to refine Blood Qi into True Essence, while also serving as a transfer hub to coordinate the transition between the old and new energy systems.

Once the Qi Sea Dantian was fully stabilized and the body’s meridian network completely formed, this temporary lump would naturally dissolve like a cicada’s shed skin.

「At 3:00 AM, three days later.」

Scarlet-gold flames suddenly erupted around Xu Yunfan.

His vertebrae cracked one by one. An eight-sided crystal formed at his Dazhui acupoint, and all the True Qi flowing through it was converted into True Essence as viscous as mercury.

The newborn True Essence had a heavy, mountain-like quality, and as it flowed through his meridians, it actually produced the sound of clashing metal.

If he were to unleash his full power now, his aura would be comparable to someone at Qi Cultivation Great Perfection.

But under Xu Yunfan’s deliberate suppression, using the True Martial Subduing Demon Technique from the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture, his aura was perfectly contained, appearing only at the level of someone who had just entered Qi Cultivation.

’This feeling... it’s incredible...’

Xu Yunfan used Introspection to observe the True Essence surging through his meridians. Refined by the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture, every wisp was as heavy and dense as molten Profound Iron.

The most profound part was the resonance between the Spirit Platform lump and the True Essence.

With every heartbeat, the pigeon-egg-sized lump would tremble like a war drum, sending out scarlet-gold ripples visible to the naked eye.