Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 74: Group Visit (Today is my grandfather’s birthday, please bless me, dear readers!)
The five elements refer to gold, wood, water, fire and earth, and the five qi refer to the qi of the five internal organs in the body, namely the heart, liver, kidney, lung and spleen.

Taoist practice emphasizes the five qi converging to the origin. The origin is the "Baihui Point" on the top of the head, which is the Niwan Palace in Taoist books, and the location of the Heavenly Gate.

The Five Qis Returning to the Origin means that the Qi of the internal organs of the human body return to their original positions, and are full of harmony and balance without any obstruction.

The Five Palaces Forging Yuan Jue is the result of the hard work of countless Qigong practitioners and alchemists. It was created to accommodate the operation of the five elements, so it is called: "The five qi are like a wheel, which can create and destroy all laws in the world."

When the five elements of qi in the body of the Taoist priest reach a perfect balance, his own magic power will be perfectly integrated with the power of the Red Lord in the outside world, and the immortal and the god will become one, and the god and I will become one.

Suddenly, the huge image of the god standing in the Chixin Temple shone brightly, raised the magic mace, and let out a silent roar.

Inside the Chixin Temple and in Ishihara County, the people living in thousands of households could not hear this sound. The sound was so loud that it was barely audible, but it was accompanied by the spread of red light, and the evil spirits, negative energy, foul air, etc. were cleansed and expelled.

They just feel that they sleep more peacefully and feel more energetic when they wake up the next day.

But in the Tongxuan realm, it’s different.

Countless poisonous insects and evil spirits that were active and entrenched in this area began to move away instinctively.

There were also many cultivators who had gathered nearby due to the recent outbreak of the beast tide. The cultivators who had not yet gathered their spiritual consciousness or who had not yet practiced the five senses techniques in the Qi training stage were completely unaware.

However, cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Stage, and even some cultivators who practiced sensing techniques, all felt something at this moment and stared in that direction in horror.

That mighty and powerful pressure came from a distance and oppressed his soul. The divine power shone everywhere, making all evil spirits scare away.

"I never thought that there would be such a temple and such practitioners in this border area of ​​the Tang Dynasty! It seems that I have to go and visit them in the future."

On the hillside, a tall and thin Taoist priest with a goatee beard was originally practicing with his eyes closed facing the moon. At this moment, he sensed the powerful magic power circulating and changing in the Chixin Temple. He could not help but concentrate and watch. After a while, he sighed softly.

Within a radius of a thousand miles, there is a cave where pure spiritual energy is flowing.

The red magic wave spread and swept over, attracting a woman wearing a white fox fur gauze to fly out of the cave. She was wearing very little, and her snow-white skin was faintly visible.

Her peach blossom-like eyes seemed to be filled with silent affection when she looked at everyone, but at this moment, as she looked towards the Chixin Temple in the distance, her face showed a solemn expression.

"Mother, what's wrong?"

At this time, a girl in a green skirt ran out from behind and asked in confusion.

"It seems that there is a true cultivator emerging in that direction."

The beast tide broke out in the south, and many scattered cultivators who originally lived in the mountains near the Never-Sleeping City had to retreat to the border of the Tang Dynasty to avoid being involved and ending up with no remains.

Among them there are even many immortal cultivation families and foundation-building cultivators.

However, after losing their original land and property and leaving the vicinity of the City That Never Sleeps, they had no way to make a living if they wanted to earn resources for cultivation, so naturally many conflicts arose.

Even though the beast tide in the south seems to have ended, there are still many monsters roaming in the wild. These monsters are more dangerous to weaker families and individual cultivators.

Therefore, seeing that the originally impoverished Ishihara County was becoming increasingly prosperous, many cultivators naturally wanted to settle down nearby and no longer suffer from the beast tide.

There are even evil ghost cultivators wandering around, looking for opportunities.

Inside the Chixin Temple, the five-colored light of blue, red, white, yellow, and black on the five rows of flags surrounding the Taoist priests flowed and changed, gradually turning into a ball of light and converging in the center.

As the magic power circulation in his body gradually stabilized, Lu Cheng, covered in blood and sweat, lightly snapped his fingers, and magic fire surged out of his body, burning away all the filth.

Whirring whirring.

As the Taoist hand gestures changed with his hands, he then pressed down slightly to return the magic power to the qi sea, and Lu Cheng exhaled gently.

Because of the perfect combination of the innate magical power "Qi Hai" of the Qi training stage and the five elements magic power foundation, Lu Cheng's magic power is now unparalleled, slightly surpassing the Heavenly Dao foundation cultivators.

In addition, the magical power of the five internal organs circulates in the body, cleansing the meridians, strengthening the bone marrow, and changing the tendons and bones. This is also something that the Five Elements Divine Sword Heavenly Dao Foundation Building cannot do.

The Five Elements sword energy is extremely sharp and changeable, but in terms of accumulating strength and continuously tempering the body, it is not as good as the Five Elements Earthly True Fire foundation.

For the vast majority of cultivators, the Yi Jin Xi Sui that comes with the Heavenly Dao Foundation Building is enough. The power of the Five Elements Sword Qi far outweighs the slight advantages of accumulating strength and tempering the body.

But for me, that’s not the case.

Lu Cheng silently recited the mantra in his mind several times, but he did not expect it to be unexpectedly easy. The five elements of magic power in his body naturally surged up and broke through the barriers, carrying his own consciousness and spreading between heaven and earth.

Lu Cheng only felt that he had a vague connection with everything within a radius of dozens of miles around him. This was the spiritual consciousness of a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm, which far exceeded the Dharma consciousness he had previously condensed.

All of a sudden, the whole world became clear in the Taoist's mind. Even if he closed his eyes and stopped looking, he could still use his own spiritual sense to spread and feel the Chixin Temple, the mountains and forests, the towering ancient trees, the flourishing of all things, and feel the vitality of the whole world.

"Exit!"

Following Lu Cheng's light shout, the five elements of magic power in his body quickly flowed through his body like the Yangtze River. His spiritual consciousness and magic power merged and then poured into the Chunjun Flying Sword.

The pure sword light leaped out with a clang, and the sword light was straight and steady as a rock.

As his mind moved, the sword light suddenly underwent infinite changes. It was obviously just a change in the sword light, but the artistic conception it brought to people was like the earth cracking, volcanoes erupting, red rocks emptying, and destroying all things.

Immediately after the sword intent changed, the red rocks were emptied and fell, suddenly turning into a gentle breeze and drizzle, soft and continuous, but the drizzle was poisonous. After hitting the ground, it poisoned the earth, cultivated highly poisonous plants, and destroyed all things.

The sword light swirled and stabbed, combining hardness and softness, using the five elements magic power to stimulate nature to practice various rare five elements exquisite sword techniques. The magic power attached to the sword light also changed into five colors of blue, red, white, yellow and black, and was extremely sharp.

"It is clear that the Five Elements Sword Qi can be evolved with the Five Elements Mana. Why is it recorded in the Dao Chapter Classics that the Five Elements Divine Sword is the Heavenly Dao Foundation, and the Great Five Elements Earthly Extreme True Fire Foundation is the Earthly Dao Foundation? The Five Viscera True Qi can change the physical constitution of the cultivator. In the long run, the benefits of the two should be similar."

Lu Cheng respected the Taoist predecessors in this world very much. When he read the Taoist book collections, even if he had doubts in his heart, he would secretly take note of them. He would never think that he was superior to these predecessors who had accumulated hundreds or thousands of years of knowledge just because he was a reincarnated person.

This habit did help him avoid many hidden dangers in his practice. From this perspective, Taoism practice:
Among the four methods of morality, theory, precepts, and realization, Lu Cheng should belong to the precepts school. No matter whether you understand the rules set by the predecessors or not, you should often follow them first, and then slowly understand them later.

But at this moment Lu Cheng was stuck in a dead end. He knew that he was an excellent killer and swordsman, but he thought that since he had cultivated the five elements magic power, he could easily develop the five elements sword energy. Even if other people had less talent, they should be able to develop it in a hundred years - but he did not think about it at this moment. Not to mention whether other people could develop the five elements sword energy in a hundred years, even if they did, their path to swordsmanship would be ruined if they were so immersed in it.

For those who pursue immortality, swordsmanship is only a way to protect the way. It can achieve the goal in one step without having to practice for a hundred years, so it is of course the foundation of the way of heaven.

"The family tradition of the Ranmu Shanlin family has been completely misguided by them. They have been practicing the orthodox Taoist and Buddhist techniques since they were young, and also practicing the Great Method of Taking Over the Heavenly Soul. Then, they cultivated the Five Qi Foundation when they were building their foundation. Only in this way can they hope to cultivate the Heavenly Foundation. If they continue to cultivate according to their current system, they will at most be able to cultivate the Earthly Foundation after ten thousand years."

The earthly foundation building can also achieve top-grade golden elixir, but it is much more difficult than the heavenly foundation building. It is not easy for a cultivator to build the heavenly foundation, condense the most powerful earthly evil and heavenly power, and finally cultivate a top-grade golden elixir, let alone surpass it later.

After reading many Taoist books and thinking carefully, Lu Cheng came to the conclusion that the Qigong practitioners of the previous dynasty were not wrong in pursuing the way of "Five Qis Returning to the Origin".

In addition, he felt that he could unleash the Five Elements Sword Qi through swordsmanship, so he chose the Five Elements Earthly True Fire to build his foundation.

Under normal circumstances, a cultivator with a solid foundation can condense one innate magical power in each major realm. Lu Cheng chose the Great Five Elements Earthly True Fire magical power and gave up the Five Elements Sword Qi magical power that could be condensed with his own swordsmanship.

In this way, he obtained both the Great Five Elements Earth Extreme True Fire and the Five Elements Sword Qi.

That night, after the five energies converged and the red light shot up into the sky, it was exactly as Lu Cheng had said before. For several months, no one came to bother the surrounding cultivators anymore.

The news that the master of Chixin Temple had returned spread naturally among the wandering cultivators.

This also includes his past achievements:
At Shilipo, he single-handedly killed dozens of monks with his sword and returned victorious. Such skills were enough to shock many lower-level monks.

Therefore, many monks were waiting for the local abbot to come out and set up a set of rules for everyone. However, this did not happen. The abbot of Chixin Temple stayed at home and practiced Qi and sword skills in seclusion.

Lu Cheng had accumulated a lot of experience. After breaking through the bottleneck of his cultivation, his magic power and swordsmanship increased day by day. Coupled with the remaining influence of his previous ascetic enlightenment, Lu Cheng simply chose to practice in the temple. Others didn't bother him, and he didn't care about other people's fights.

After half a year, even with the great concentration of immortal cultivators, some people gradually became restless and came to the door with complete courtesy to seek a visit.

"I am Jiu Ning Dong Xuan Yin, and I have brought a few bottles of wine and a few spirit fish to visit the Master of Chi Xin Monastery."

An old Taoist wearing blue clothes and with a goatee came to visit with three of his fellow Taoist friends and said this to the two Taoist boys guarding the gate.

After Lu Cheng returned, he ignored the outside affairs, but he still took care of the things inside the Taoist temple. Since he came back, the militiamen basically went back to their own homes.

The Taoist temple school was reopened, but it still did not charge tuition. It hired teachers and nuns to teach talented children how to read and write and recite Taoist scriptures for free.

Even the gatekeepers were older Taoist boys who were out guarding the gate. However, it was this kind of confidence that frightened many people who wanted to observe the Chixin Temple.

At this time, the old Taoist Xuanyin in blue clothes was speaking while releasing some of his spiritual consciousness to oppress and cover him. If he were an ordinary Taoist child, he would definitely be frightened.

However, the two Taoist boys who were guarding the door with sincere hearts took the gifts calmly, and then invited the Taoists to sit in the front hall for a while, while another person went to deliver the visiting card.

Neither of the two Taoist boys showed any signs of discomfort or fear.

Upon seeing this, Xuanyin exchanged glances with the three fellow Taoists beside him, knowing clearly that this must be because there were cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage living in the Taoist temple for a long time, which had influenced these Taoist children and made them not afraid of pressure.

"Please come in, the four Taoist priests. My temple abbot invites you." After a while, the Taoist boy who delivered the visiting card walked out, with a calm demeanor and his back straight.

"Haha, thank you for your help, my friend."

Led by a Taoist boy, four Taoists went deeper into the temple.

The more they walked, the more the expressions of Xuanyin, Chiming, Qingyang and Bishui changed, because the more they walked, the more they felt the rich and abundant spiritual energy of the world in the temple. What's more amazing is that it was completely concentrated inside the temple and could not be felt at all from the outside.

"There should be a powerful forbidden formation, but to reach this level of spiritual energy, I'm afraid it would require many spiritual objects to be pressed into the centers of the formation to seal it off!"

“Yeah, I don’t know what the spiritual objects that sealed the town are. If they are magic weapons, they will cost a lot of money!”

The four Taoists communicated with each other through spiritual consciousness, so they were not worried about being overheard by others.

When walking through a courtyard, Taoist Chi Ming noticed a Taoist scroll enshrined in a room in the middle of the courtyard.

The Taoist in the scroll is short in stature, with white hair and eyebrows, sitting high on a rock. Even in his Taoist robe he does not look majestic, but rather looks ridiculous, like a monkey in human form.

But at this time he was enshrined in the solemn Taoist rituals and incense, and there were also some rules of his own.

"He should be the mentor of the Red Heart Abbey Master."

Taoist Chi Ming did not know who this person was, so he asked the Taoist boy:
"As a cultivator from Southern Border, it's fine if you worship local gods in the front hall, but why don't you worship the Yinshan Patriarch in the middle hall?"

In the Tongxuan world of southern Xinjiang, the Yinshan Patriarch holds a high status.

"The disciple of Yinshan Patriarch is a good friend of my temple master. Even Yinshan Patriarch is a junior of my ancestor, so I cannot offer him sacrifices."

The Taoist boy responded calmly, but the four foundation-building cultivators were so shocked that their faces changed slightly after hearing his words. They looked at each other:
Who is this Chixin Temple master and why is he so arrogant?

Not long after, the Taoist boy led the four Taoists to the place, bowed and said:
"Four Taoist priests, my master is giving a lecture today, which is about to end. It is fine for you to sit in. I have to guard the gate, so I am sorry that I cannot stay with you for long."

After the Taoist boy left, the four Taoists looked at each other. They also wanted to know what profound Taoism the mysterious Chixin Temple master was talking about, so they naturally listened attentively.

"...Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the war between my Chiyang Realm and Qingming Realm caused the extinction of almost all the creatures in these two worlds, and they fell into destruction. However, the powerful force also broke the boundary between the two worlds, causing the heaven and earth to return to a state of chaos. When the chaos was opened again tens of thousands of years later, the clear air between heaven and earth rose and the turbid air fell, and the innate qi resided in it, allowing all living things to practice Taoism."

"You little devils, you have caught up with this rare opportunity that comes only once in a thousand years. Almost everyone can practice Taoism and embark on the path of immortality. If the heaven and earth are becoming more and more perfect or even exhausted, then if you want to practice Taoism at that time, it will depend on the so-called spiritual root aptitude. Without the favor of heaven, even if you want to have a physique like you have now, it will be extremely difficult. So you must cherish it, you must cherish this fate."

Lu Cheng had just preached once a month to adjust his mood. Today, he told the stories he knew from the Heavenly Book Notes.

But looking at the little ghosts below, they were already feeling sleepy after listening to his storytelling. They couldn't help but shake their heads and chuckle. Then they reached out and lightly struck the bronze bell beside them, making a clear sound.

"Forget it, forget it. It's hard to persuade a damned ghost with good words. You little ghosts, go eat."

"Let's go eat!"

"Ahh, eat, eat!"

The food at Chixin Temple is rich. When they heard that it was time to eat, the little ghosts around laughed and ran away, their eyes bright and each one happier than the other.

Then, Lu Cheng greeted the four Taoists who came to visit him.

"I, Jiu Ning Dong Xuan Yin, have come with a few good friends to pay my respects to the abbot."

When Xuanyin, Chiming, Qingyang and Bishui saw Lu Cheng, although they did not dare to investigate with their own spiritual sense, they still felt vaguely that the young Taoist in front of them had powerful and unfathomable magical powers.

The four of them naturally became more solemn and polite, but they were still within the opponent's formation.

"Master, would you like to invite the four Taoist priests to join us for a feast?"

He Lan came in a cloth robe, bowed and asked questions. She was afraid that others would be careless and fail to take good care of the master of the temple, so she resigned from the position of chief priest and served more as Lu Cheng's housekeeper.

However, there were no other outstanding people in the Chixin Temple at the moment, so He Lan was actually the main priest. She worked very hard to do well on both sides. Even if Lu Cheng tried to persuade her, it was useless.

"Then please invite the four Taoist friends to have a feast together."

"Being respectful is worse than obeying orders."

Soon, servants from the Taoist temple came over, set up tables and chairs in the courtyard, and the five people sat down.

Although it was called a banquet, the food was very simple: each person had two bowls of rice, two lake fish, and pre-cut fruits and vegetables.

The children were also eating at this time. Even if they were sitting here, Xuanyin and others could smell the rich aroma of meat. They never expected that these would be the things in front of them.

Seeing the simple food, the Red Heart Monastery Master seemed a little embarrassed:
"It seems a little bland. Manager He, go and get the wine that the four Taoist priests sent over earlier for the banquet."

Xuanyin, Chiming, Qingyang and Bishui didn't expect that they would come to visit Chixin Temple and drink the drinks they brought with them. They couldn't help but smile at each other.

The Taoist Xuanyin was a bit cunning and secretly signaled people to be patient.

So after the host Lu Cheng started eating, the four of them also started to taste the food.

However, as soon as he took a bite of the rice, a strong sweetness spread from his mouth, accompanied by a stream of spiritual energy entering his body - spiritual rice! ?

Xuanyin's expression changed, and he turned his head suddenly, and found that his three fellow Taoists had the same expression as him. Then they each went to take other food: spiritual rice, spiritual fish, spiritual fruit, and even the cabbage was a spiritual energy-rich ingredient grown in the spiritual fields.

Eating it for a long time can nourish the blood and replenish qi, and benefit spiritual practice.

"But why was there no fragrance at all when it was served just now?" Xuanyin thought to himself, feeling that the performance of the four of them just now was really embarrassing.

"Manager He, your cooking skills are becoming more and more sophisticated. You can seal the aroma of the food inside, making it taste more abundant."

Lu Cheng exclaimed in admiration while eating these spiritual foods.

"It's all the spiritual food books that the temple master brought back that are useful. I have only learned one-tenth or one-twelfth of them." He Lan bowed.

"This is the magical art of spiritual food among the hundred arts of cultivating immortals! I only tasted it once in the city that never sleeps, and it was not as sweet as it is today."

Bishui seemed to want to save some face, but his look of lingering aftertaste at this moment made the other three feel that there was nothing to save.

"The art of making spiritual food cannot be mastered in just a few times. Which Taoist temple are you from, Mr. He?" Taoist Qingyang asked, as if he also wanted to invite a spiritual food master to his cave.

"I actually wasted a lot of materials when practicing this technique, but there are 25 acres of spiritual fields, ponds, and fruit trees in the temple. In addition, if I make it wrong, I can feed it to the Taoist children. It is also spiritual food and nourishes the body. I will naturally master it if I do it more."

He Lan signaled with his eyes, and after getting Lu Cheng's consent, he told the truth, which made the four Taoists change color.

"Brother Xuanyin, this place is not a spiritual vein, right? Then how many spiritual stones does it cost every year to maintain these spiritual fields?"

"This Chixin Temple Master seems to be really wealthy and powerful. This Taoist temple is so rich in land and abundant in resources. I wonder if this master can keep it!"

“Qingyang, you need to control your temper. I don’t know why, but my Soul Seeker Mouse got so scared when it saw this Taoist priest that it shrank back into its sleeves. I haven’t been able to call it out yet. The last time it encountered that third-level green python, it wasn’t this scared.”

The four Taoists Xuanyin, Chiming, Qingyang and Bishui communicate with each other through their spiritual consciousness. Unless one's spiritual consciousness is far higher than theirs, even if one can hear their conversation, the other four will notice it.

What's more, at this moment, the abbot of Chixin Temple was chatting and laughing with Xuanyin Taoist, looking very calm, and he didn't look like he was concentrating.

In the afternoon, Lu Cheng took the four Taoist friends to visit the Taoist temple. In order to stimulate the economy of Ishihara County and provide work-for-relief, this Chixin Temple was really big. The four Taoist foundation-building masters watched the farmers fill the fields with spiritual stones to turn ordinary fertile fields into spiritual fields, and their faces twitched with pain.

But in fact, the consumption is not as great as they imagined. Although there is no spiritual vein in Chixin Temple, Lin Tianshu's collection includes the five elements formation flags he refined himself. This formation is set up to collect and sort out the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The income from these spiritual fields, ponds, and orchards is slightly higher than the expenditure. After all, labor does not cost spirit stones. In the future, if a formation master is found to establish a spiritual vein, the income will increase.

It seemed that both the host and the guests had a great time during the day.

After Xuanyin, Chiming, Qingyang and Bishui left, He Lan, the steward who had been trained over the years, came to Lu Cheng, poured him some tea, and said softly:

"Master, these four seem to have bad intentions."

However, upon hearing this, the young Taoist smiled slightly, drank his tea and replied in a gentle voice:
"That's a good thing. When friends come to visit, we have fine wine. When bad guests come, we have swords and guns. The spiritual trees in the orchard should have been fertilized long ago."

A few days ago, Lu Cheng couldn't resist the temptation after all and read a few articles of "Blood Nerve". As long as one is a seeker of truth or a cultivator, who can possess the supreme secrets but not read it?
However, the Blood Sutra was filled with rebellious and crazy words. Even though he was already on guard, after only reading two pages, Lu Cheng had to admit that he was influenced by it. During that time, his mind was filled with this peerless magic formula. Even in his dreams, he would recite the scriptures in it. He forgot everything else.

Fortunately, after all, it was just two pages of fragments. Although Lin Tianshu was bewitched by it back then, Lu Cheng had a solid foundation in Taoism and he was in the temple of the Red Heart God. After clearing his mind and cutting off his thoughts for a while, he finally suppressed all the desires in his heart temporarily and determined that he would never read other fragments of the Blood God before his own Taoism was improved.

"If I can use my own Taoist practice to suppress the various contents of the Blood God Fragments, then this can also be considered a method of improvement."

Lu Cheng also had to admit that although he could still suppress his own rationality, the various evil qualities in his body that were provoked by the blood nerve text were still rising and falling, just like the murderous intent at this moment.

(End of this chapter)