Under the setting sun, watching the graceful figure with swaying hips walk away, Huchen Wuding rubbed the space between his eyebrows. He remembered how Huchen Huiqing had unconsciously come forward to rub his head when they met just now, and a dark line appeared on his face. 'Why does Second Sister still like to rub people's heads like before?'
But immediately, a long-lost smile appeared on his face. He naturally remembered who in the family was good to him. Although the Second Aunt had also been indifferent to him and his mother in the past, especially when he and his mother had fled the family, in his young heart, he had even hated everyone in the family. But as he slowly grew up, and with the inquiries about the family's news in recent years, he had understood many things.
'Second Aunt had to face the suppression of the two branches alone back then. To be able to occasionally help me and my mother at that time was already her best effort. If she had shown too much support for our side, it would have inevitably made the First Branch and Fourth Branch stick together even more, and even the suppression of the Second Aunt would have intensified.'
Huchen Wuding shook his head helplessly. When he thought of how Huchen Huiqing had looked him up and down as soon as she arrived, and then unceremoniously asked about his cultivation, and then eagerly asked about his situation over the years, that little pepper-like appearance brought a long-lost warmth to Huchen Wuding's heart. Second Sister was still the same Second Sister, the figure who had protected him from the bullying of the other two since he was a child. Every time afterwards, she would always rub his head hard, and only after messing up his hair would she seriously say, "Wuding, you have to cultivate well, and in the future, beat Wanli and Jianghai, those two brats, until they can't recognize their own father." At that time, Huchen Wuding would always nod seriously, but in his heart, he was constantly saying, 'How can you not recognize your own father?'
Huchen Huiqing's arrival, she only chatted with Huchen Wuding in the courtyard and did not ask about the other two people in the room at all. And when it came to some questions about cultivation, Huchen Wuding just answered vaguely. This made Huchen Huiqing think that Huchen Wuding had not had an easy time cultivating outside all these years, and his progress had been difficult. She could only comfort him by saying, "It's good that you're back. The old ancestor is out of seclusion. You just do your best. The First Aunt and the others won't dare to act recklessly."
When Huchen Huiqing asked about the Third Aunt, Huchen Wuding's silence made her understand something. In the end, with a sigh, she stood up and rubbed Huchen Wuding's head. This time, Huchen Wuding's eyes were red, and he lowered his head and did not dodge.
"Wuding, work hard. Don't let the Third Aunt's suffering be repeated on you. Tomorrow, you have to give it your all, and Second Sister will also give it her all. I don't want the inheritance position to fall into the hands of the First Branch and Fourth Branch, nor will I marry out of the Huchen family. If someone wants to marry me, then they can marry into the Huchen family. At that time, Second Sister will support you in everything. But still, the same old saying, you have to work hard yourself!" After speaking, with a sway of her figure, she walked out of the courtyard.
Looking at Huchen Huiqing's domineering back, a strong fighting spirit was ignited in Huchen Wuding's heart.
Li Yan only swept his Divine Sense over everything in the courtyard and then didn't pay any more attention to it, cultivating peacefully in his room. As he began to travel and gain experience alone, cultivation was his greatest guarantee. As long as Li Yan had free time, he would constantly cultivate hard.
This short period of peace was not suitable for refining the few magical treasures in his hand. He circulated the heavenly cycle. After the True Scripture of Gui Water reached the Foundation Establishment stage, the conversion between the five elements of spiritual energy in his body became more and more smooth. In the past, during the Qi Condensation stage, if he wanted to change the spiritual energy from one attribute to another, he had to convert them in the order of water, wood, fire, earth, and metal. There was a process in between. Although this process was only a moment under the control of his will, if he was fighting against an enemy, this shortcoming might be exposed, and he might lose the fleeting opportunity to defeat the enemy, and even bring about a life-and-death crisis for himself.
Inside his body, streams of liquid flowed out alternately from the five black cauldrons of spiritual energy that were glowing with a faint light. And at this moment, suddenly, the five streams of liquid in the cauldrons—black, green, red, yellow, and white—all turned red in the next moment. And at this time, Li Yan's originally calm and waveless face showed a look of pain. At this time, he was forming a hand seal with one hand, while his other hand was surprisingly holding a folding fan.
The appearance of the five streams of red liquid made a thick and pure fire-element spiritual energy rise from Li Yan's body. The moment the fire-element spiritual energy rose from his body, the half-open folding fan in his hand, with a "boom," a dazzling blood-red light illuminated the entire room, and a pungent, bloody smell filled this small space. But this pure fire spiritual energy only lasted for less than two breaths. His aura became chaotic, and a trace of blood oozed from the corner of Li Yan's mouth. Then the pure fire spiritual energy on his body dissipated.
Li Yan slowly opened his eyes, a look of fatigue in them. He gently wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and muttered to himself, "I lasted for two breaths, which is one breath longer than before. Although this kind of control is very easy to suffer a backlash from, the benefits it brings are many."
Just a moment ago, Li Yan had suddenly changed the five spiritual energy attributes in his body into the single attribute of fire spiritual energy. If he were in the Qi Condensation stage, he could only convert the wood spiritual energy in the wood spiritual energy cauldron into fire spiritual energy. The spiritual energy attributes in the other three spiritual energy cauldrons had to be converted in order: earth to metal, metal to water, water to wood, and finally all to fire spiritual energy. This process was extremely cumbersome.
He had a so-called miscellaneous spirit root. He couldn't control most magical treasures as he wished. Even for simply controlling Bloodhand Flying Sickle's folding fan, this magical treasure was a fire-attribute magical treasure. Although Li Yan had not refined it, he could still simply control it to fight against enemies. But his spiritual energy was mixed. When he outputted it, only twenty percent of his ten-tenths of magical power could be used. Although he could only output fire spiritual energy, at the same time, the total amount of fire spiritual energy in his fire spiritual energy cauldron was also twenty percent of his entire body's magical power. This kind of output could only increase his endurance, but it was not enough for a single, instantaneous burst of spiritual energy.
In the final analysis, it was that Li Yan did not have his own suitable magical treasure and could not fully exert his full strength. Therefore, Li Yan was willing to take a great risk to find the materials to refine the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike. At that time, the true power of the True Scripture of Gui Water would be revealed. The Five Immortal Sects had a long inheritance and had long since considered the problems encountered in the cultivation of the five elements spirit roots. Therefore, there were corresponding solutions.
Li Yan had always been cultivating a secret art of the True Scripture of Gui Water, called "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis." This secret art could allow a cultivator of the Five Elements Sect to instantly unify the five elements of spiritual energy in their body at any time and under any conditions, as if returning to the beginning of the primordial chaos, when heaven and earth were first created. The five elements became one, and one divided into five elements. Sometimes open, sometimes scattered, the gathering and scattering secretly coincided with the way of heaven.
When the five elements became one, the constitution of the Five Elements Sect cultivator was the legendary Saint Spirit Root, which might only appear once in tens of thousands of years, or even hundreds of thousands of years, and was incomparably pure.
During the Qi Condensation stage, "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis" only had a basic chapter. It was only through simple imitation that the body's meridians slowly adapted. Even if one cultivated to the deepest level, it was impossible to achieve true unity of the five elements. The five spiritual energy cauldrons had to be converted in order. Given the endless cycle of the five elements, when the spiritual energy in one cauldron was derived into the next attribute, once the spiritual energy in the cauldron was converted and flowed out, the bottom of the spiritual energy cauldron would still produce new spiritual energy of the original attribute, but the amount was very small.
After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, the subsequent techniques of "The Five Elements Return to Prim-ordial Genesis" came out. But this technique stated that one needed to reach the Golden Core to truly get started, and a Foundation Establishment cultivator could barely achieve the instantaneous unity of the five elements.
However, after several months of cultivation, Li Yan could already unify the five cauldrons in an instant, turning them into a single attribute of spiritual energy. But he could only maintain it for a short two breaths. Even for these two breaths, both his physical body and his internal organs had to withstand five times the pressure of normal spiritual energy output in that instant.
The first time Li Yan had completely converted, he felt his entire heart expand several times in that instant, and then it squeezed violently once before stopping its beating. His entire body swelled up as if it had been inflated with air. A large amount of blood oozed from his pores in an instant. That was the result of many of his blood vessels being unable to withstand the huge pressure brought in an instant and directly bursting. He was like being struck by lightning at that time and directly fainted on the ground. It took him a long time to wake up. When he managed to lift his Divine Sense to check his body, the terrible situation inside made him break out in a cold sweat. There were faint cracks on his heart and other important organs, as if they were about to collapse.
He did not know that this was fated. After a cultivator of the Five Immortal Sects stepped into the Foundation Establishment, if they wanted to truly cultivate the "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis" art for the first time during the Foundation Establishment stage, they needed to have an elder by their side to protect and assist them. Therefore, it was usually the best time to cultivate after forming the Golden Core. At that time, the body had been tempered by the heavenly tribulation and was incomparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator. When Li Yan saw that there were subsequent techniques, he immediately carried out this extremely dangerous first cultivation by himself. Even Dong Fuyi had been aware of the possibility of this situation when he had transcribed the True Scripture of Gui Water.
It was thanks to Li Yan having already cultivated the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, and having reached the mid-stage of the first layer, that he had managed to barely protect his main internal organs. Otherwise, the result would have been truly unpredictable. Li Yan was still muddled and even thought that cultivating "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis" would always have such a result. Afterwards, his body was slowly nourished by the True Scripture of Gui Water, and it took a full three days to recover. So Li Yan did not take this matter to heart. If Dong Fuyi knew about this, he would probably have given Li Yan a good slap.
'When the five elements were unified into fire spiritual energy just now, without refining this folding fan, it seemed I could already exert sixty percent of the fan's power. After the five elements spiritual energy dispersed, it would be good if I could exert thirty percent. The Saint spiritual power is indeed the legendary top-grade spirit root.'
But when he thought of the inhuman pain of cultivating "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis," Li Yan's mouth couldn't help but twitch.
'However, it's good that now after each use, I don't need a long time to nourish and recover. I just need to meditate for a few hours. For now, using this art twice a day is the limit. Otherwise, my internal organs will definitely be shattered.'
Li Yan was very concerned about this technique. Besides its shocking bonus effect on operating a single-attribute magical treasure after the five elements were unified, it also had a significant effect on improving his spiritual energy.
Every time after this inhuman pain, when his spiritual energy recovered, it would become more condensed. To achieve such an effect in daily cultivation would require circulating several heavenly cycles. It was just that the pain made Li Yan's heart turn cold just thinking about it.
With a flash of red light in his hand, the folding fan had disappeared. Li Yan then continued to close his eyes and cultivate.
And just as Li Yan entered cultivation again, another uninvited guest came to the courtyard where they were staying.
Huchen Wuding looked at the visitor. He did not stand up from the stone stool in the courtyard. And he had been sitting here ever since Huchen Huiqing had left, as if he were waiting for someone to arrive.
The visitor was a man with a refined appearance, dressed in a yellow robe and wearing a purple-gold crown that held his hair in place. Three strands of a beard floated on his chest, making his face look even fairer. The cultivation fluctuation on this person was extremely weak. If one hadn't seen him appear silently in the courtyard, one might have thought that this person was not a cultivator. The visitor's appearance was somewhat similar to Huchen Wuding's.
And just as this person entered the courtyard, Zhuo Lingfeng, who had not shown himself all this time, also quietly came to the courtyard. Then he stood behind Huchen Wuding. His originally stoic eyes were now staring intently at the yellow-robed middle-aged man, and his aura fluctuated a few times.
"Uncle Sang, it's nothing! I thought you would come during the day. I didn't expect you to still only dare to come at night!" Huchen Wuding first said to Zhuo Lingfeng behind him, then turned his face to look at the visitor with a blank expression. The latter half of the sentence was meant for this person.
The yellow-robed middle-aged man, after entering the courtyard, stood at the courtyard gate, his eyes looking at Huchen Wuding with a complicated expression. He didn't even seem to be affected by Zhuo Lingfeng's appearance, as if he hadn't seen him at all. But the moment he heard Huchen Wuding's words, his figure trembled, and a look of pain appeared in his eyes.