Ascension Day

Xu Ying returned to Wuyang Mountain with the "Mud Ball Hidden Scenery Longevity Technique." He entered the Ascension Land and, while cultivating, quietly studied this technique that had led Zhou Qiyun to both glory and death.

When cultivated, this technique drew upon the power of the Mud Ball Secret Treasury, collecting Qi from the Sea of Chaos. It could be considered an unconventional Qi Refining Technique.

However, refining the Mud Ball Activity into one's Flesh Body and soul, allowing the Flesh Body to achieve the state of an Immortal Body and the soul to become an Immortal Soul, was truly eye-opening.

The most obvious flaw left in the Cultivation Technique by the Master of the Mud Mound Palace lay within the Immortal Soul.

When the soul was refined with Mud Ball Activity, it became incomparably powerful, but it was all style and no substance.

And with the soul so saturated with this Activity, it was like fattening oneself up into a plump piglet. Once it was that fat, wasn't it just waiting for someone else to devour it?

'Almost all Nuo Masters have rather weak souls.'

Xu Ying mused, 'They fare well enough against other Nuo Masters, but when facing the Ghost Gods of the Underworld, they are often restrained and ineffective. Many powerful Grand Nuo can't even withstand a single strike from the Niu Brothers' Bone Soul-Beating Whip. After Zhou Qiyun discovered this trap, he immediately turned his focus elsewhere, attempting to refine his own soul to be incomparably strong.'

Xu Ying leafed through Zhou Qiyun's notes, which were filled with insights from his Cultivation.

Some of them detailed his realizations about Soul Refining.

He had only succeeded in refining a Primordial Spirit after Xu Ying passed him the Tuo Yu Immortal Book and the Nine Heavens Yang God Mysterious Altar Skill. Before that, he had found some fragmented Qi Refining Techniques, and by relying on his understanding of these fragments, he had managed to refine his soul to a level comparable to a Primordial Spirit!

'To be able to cultivate to such a level using half-true, half-false fragments… he was truly a prodigy.' Xu Ying couldn't help but shake his head.

In his insights, Zhou Qiyun recorded the fragmented text he had obtained. It only contained a few tricks for Primordial Spirit Cultivation, with many parts left unclear. It even gave a specious and ambiguous explanation of what a Primordial Spirit was!

Clearly, this was the speculation of a Qi Refiner who had never successfully refined a Primordial Spirit, not a proper method for Primordial Spirit Cultivation.

To achieve so much by relying on such an improper fragmented text, Zhou Qiyun's accomplishment was truly worthy of admiration.

Among Zhou Qiyun's insights, the most outstanding was his fusion of the Mud Ball Cave Heaven and the Qi Refining System.

Both the Tuo Yu Immortal Book and the Nine Heavens Yang God technique represented the highest understanding of Qi Refining from ancient Qi Refiners. These two Cultivation Techniques were incredibly difficult to merge, let alone adding a technique from another Cultivation System on top of them.

Zhou Qiyun's method was not, as Xu Ying had guessed, to use the Nuo Technique as the foundation and the Qi Refining Technique as a supplement. He did the opposite, using the Qi Refining Technique as the foundation and the Nuo Technique as a supplement.

For a Nuo Immortal, to do so was to subvert and negate the achievements of the first half of his life. This was exceptionally rare and required immense wisdom and courage.

"His Majesty the Saintly God opened the Jiang Palace and Jade Capital Secret Treasury, and the powers of the two Secret Treasuries clashed. The Holy God Emperor was at his wit's end, and I too mocked him for taking the wrong path. But was that path truly wrong?"

Zhou Qiyun wrote in his insights, "Not so. The world believes that the Six Secrets of the Human Body conflict with each other, and that cultivating them together is a death sentence. That is only because their Cultivation Techniques lack a main trunk to unify the Six Secrets, which is why they clash. If one could use the Mysterious Domain as the main trunk to unify all the different Realms, then the Six Secrets would be like flowers and fruits on that trunk, free from any further troublesome interference."

After finishing Zhou Qiyun's insights, Xu Ying closed the book with a thud. He pondered for a long time, then suddenly shouted, "Lord Qi, Lord Qi!"

Yuan Qi was in the Ascension Land, breathing and practicing his Cultivation of the Dragon and Snake Awakening. Hearing the call, he quickly slithered over and said, "Ying, what is it?"

Xu Ying said, "Take these scrolls and put them away. They are a treasure and must not be lost."

Yuan Qi opened his mouth and swallowed the scrolls.

Everything below his neck was stomach. His stomach was as long as his body, and could even stretch longer. Because of this, Xu Ying often had him store things that were inconvenient to carry.

Yuan Qi had long since refined his stomach and intestines into a Magical Treasure for storing precious items. Back then, he had even hidden his ancestral Great Sun Guiding Skill in his stomach.

Xu Ying said to Yuan Qi, "Lord Qi, Zhou Qiyun said that Qi Refining is like a tree, and the Six Secrets of the Human Body are the six flowers and fruits on it. Only this way can the Six Secrets avoid conflicting with one another. This analogy is wrong. The Six Secrets of the Human Body are equivalent to six sources of power for a Qi Refiner, which nourish the Qi Refining Tree. That is the correct way to see it!"

Yuan Qi didn't understand. He stared blankly for a moment, then asked guiltily, "So, what's the difference?"

Xu Ying looked him in the eye, his expression very serious, and said, "The difference is that Zhou Qiyun used Qi Refining as nourishment for the Six Secrets of the Human Body, strengthening the Secret Power. But my method uses the Six Secrets of the Human Body as nourishment to strengthen Qi Refining."

Yuan Qi understood, but not completely. He went along with Xu Ying's line of thought and asked, "So, how do you achieve that?"

"Brilliant, Lord Qi!"

Xu Ying clapped his hands and exclaimed in praise, pacing back and forth in excitement. "Zhou Qiyun solved the problem of connecting his Cultivation Technique with Qi Refining, but because he was a Nuo Immortal, his judgment was still affected, despite having broken free from the limits of his own perspective! I will take the first half of the Mud Ball Hidden Scenery Longevity Technique and connect it with my Taiyi Guiding Skill!"

Hearing Xu Ying praise his intelligence, Yuan Qi felt even more sheepish and asked timidly, "Ying, how will you connect them?"

"Connecting two different Cultivation Systems must sound incredibly complicated, right?"

Xu Ying laughed heartily. "But, if we just treat the Activity fished from the Sea of Chaos in the Mud Ball Cave Heaven as the Sun Essence Qi we guide during our Cultivation, or as the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, then we don't need to worry about how to connect them, do we? Lord Qi, don't you think that makes sense?"

Yuan Qi could only stare, his eyes wide and round, his mind completely blank.