Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 78 Four Years, Second Level of Foundation Building

The five senses refer to sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

The six consciousnesses refer to eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness.

“The cultivators in the world, whether they are cultivating the Dharma, practicing the art, or cultivating the supernatural powers, all of them are unable to achieve the great path, all because they do not understand the wonderful purpose of the five senses and six consciousnesses.”

"There is a big world outside the body, and a small world inside the body. Immortal practitioners eat air to achieve immortality, swallowing the heavens and eating the earth. However, if the big world does not open its nine orifices, then chaos will not die. If the heavens and the earth are not opened, and the small world does not cultivate its five senses and six consciousnesses, then it will be like wading through water with a blind eye, and the danger is beyond words..."

"Take the nose consciousness as an example: when ordinary people breathe in and out, they take in all the air around them, and then use the power of the chest and lungs to circulate the useful fresh air throughout the body and expel the turbid air. In this process, they do not distinguish between the clear and turbid, so there is always a lot of useless loss."

"If you have cultivated your nose consciousness successfully, you can distinguish the clear and turbid air in one breath. You can identify and inhale the pure and spiritual air into your stomach, and block out the rest of the impure and turbid air. In this way, you can inhale and exhale the primordial breath of heaven and earth, absorb the spiritual energy of the world, and remove the impurities and retain the essence with each breath. Your efficiency in cultivation will be several times or even dozens of times faster than that of other people. If you have this skill, why worry about not achieving the great way and longevity?"

Late at night, Lu Cheng was fascinated by "Nine Questions on the Foundations of Taoism" written by Yueshan Sanren, but when he saw the obscure parts that were inconsistent with his own practice, he couldn't figure it out for a while, so he put "Nine Questions" aside and picked up "General Theory of Five Senses and Six Consciousnesses" to study.

Change your thinking and don't let your thoughts be stuck in one direction.

The book in Lu Cheng's hand now is the Taoist manual of Ranmu Mountain stolen by Lin Tianshu. It does not involve the practice of any skills or spells. It only talks about the role of the five senses and six consciousnesses in the practice of cultivators, and also contains some basic maintenance methods and a catalog of related spiritual medicines.

Lu Cheng has now begun to adhere to the maintenance methods in it to enhance his sensitivity and agility in related aspects.

He has cultivated to the realm of clear sword heart. With every improvement of his five senses and six consciousnesses, his sword heart becomes clearer and clearer, and the scope it covers becomes larger.

Although it does not involve any skills or spells, it can effectively enhance one's swordsmanship ability.

The night was as cool as water. Just as Lu Cheng was walking around, reading from time to time and putting down the book to think and comprehend, a voice calling came:

"help me!"

"Come here and help me!"

Hearing this, Lu Cheng put down the book in his hand and smiled slightly. This was not the first time he had encountered such a thing.

Ever since he helped the Golden Silkworm Gu of Hundred Poisons once and used rotten spiritual fruits to improve the relationship between the two parties, the Golden Silkworm Gu would call for him whenever it encountered difficulties that it could not solve in the Jiuli world.

"What has this little bug done to it?"

Lu Cheng shook his head, put the books away, then walked to a rocking chair and lay down, closing his eyes and concentrating his mind.

As he was swaying under me, a beam of red light suddenly burst out from between the Taoist's eyebrows on the bed. After turning a circle in the air, the red light returned to the Taoist's arms.
Entering the Jiuli world again, the weather is bad tonight, with dark clouds covering the sky. Two of the four suns in the sky are covered by thick dark clouds.

The red light appeared out of nowhere and fell on the body of the golden silkworm Gu.

Once again entering the insect's perspective and receiving its memories, Lu Cheng no longer felt the discomfort he felt last time.

This time it was not a yellow sand hill, but a dense forest and a pool of water.

The earth-burrowing silver scorpion and the hidden-winged centipede are no longer around. It is unknown whether they died in the battle or were released by the golden silkworm Gu. The two insects controlled by it now are an iron-backed mantis and a ghost-faced moth.

"I want that fruit, that fruit!"

"Got it, stop thinking." The Golden Silkworm Gu was not very intelligent, so its desires were simple and strong. As soon as Lu Cheng landed on it, he knew why it called him here:
There is a cold pond in the dense forest, and a fruit grows in the pond. This exotic fruit is very important to him, but there are two powerful poisonous pythons guarding there.

During this trip to the Jiuli world, Lu Cheng failed to help the Hundred Poisons Golden Silkworm Gu get the exotic fruit.

In fact, he controlled the golden silkworm Gu to come near the cold pond, took a look and turned away, suppressing the golden silkworm Gu's strong desire and trying to stay away from it:
There were two third-order poisonous pythons, and they were very cautious, guarding the exotic fruit in the center of the cold pond. At most, only one of them was a little far away, and the other did not move at all.

Lu Cheng's physical body cannot descend to the Jiuli world. He may be able to kill a third-order poisonous python by controlling the golden silkworm Gu, but if he has to deal with two at the same time, the probability of dying in battle is more than 90%.

Moreover, with the degree of care that the two poisonous pythons took for the exotic fruit, even if one used a trick to move away and finally steal the exotic fruit, one would still have to face their relentless pursuit and would not have time to devour and refine the exotic fruit.

The commissioned mission failed, and the favorability of the Hundred Poisons Golden Silkworm Gu dropped significantly.

But Lu Cheng had no choice. He had too few cards in his hand. Even if he was a good card player, what could he do when he only had the smallest two left in his hand?
The next day.

Lu Cheng got up early and practiced and honed his swordsmanship.

Red Flame Sword, Pure Jun Sword, Fiery Golden Light Sword, Lu Cheng practiced each flying sword with the Five Elements Sword Technique, the sword energy rose and was nourished in his chest.

After killing Xuanyin, Chiming, Qingyang and Bishui, it's not that he didn't get any third-level flying swords. It's just that none of the flying swords they used were top-quality third-level ones. In this case, Lu Cheng would rather continue to use his second-level flying sword.

The five colors of sword light, blue, red, white, yellow and black, wander and change. The sword intent and sword moves are either powerful, sharp, light, tough, or violent.

The five elements of earth, metal, water, wood and fire change, and the sword is used to draw the qi. After practicing flying sword every time, Lu Cheng can even feel the magic power in his body increase, and the sword and qi are combined from the outside to the inside.

"Pap-pap-pap-pap."

At this moment, the sound of gentle clapping of hands was heard in the courtyard.

"It is said that Master Lu's swordsmanship is extremely exquisite. Today I see that he is even better than the rumors."

As the words were spoken, an extremely beautiful female Taoist priest walked out, dressed in a snow-white Taoist robe and with her long black hair held up only by a thorny hairpin.

Madam Yuzhen was tall and slender, and the Taoist robe she wore was as white as snow. It fitted her body perfectly, highlighting the Taoist's firm breasts, round buttocks and curvaceous curves.

Lu Cheng had known of her arrival and was watching from the side.

But Lu Cheng has never been afraid of people watching his swordsmanship. If anyone wants to see it, Lu Cheng can display all kinds of different swordsmanship for three days and three nights for her to see enough.

Madam Yuzhen did not hide it either. After Lu Cheng had used up all the Five Elements Sword Techniques, she clapped her hands lightly and walked out, looking radiant.

"Did Madam Yuzhen have a good rest last night?"

In the blink of an eye, Lu Cheng's flaming golden sword turned into a red streak and returned to the scabbard. He looked at the Taoist priestess and asked with a smile.

"Madam, you are here to ask for the Nine Questions on the Foundations of Taoism. I will give it to you right away."

"Oh, Master, you misunderstood. Master, didn't you want to read the book about the golden silkworm Gu yesterday? Although I really can't remember where I lost the original book, I wrote some of it down today. I don't know if it will be of any use to Master."

As she spoke, the female Taoist priest handed out a dozen pieces of paper.

Such a beautiful lady was also so knowledgeable and interesting. Lu Cheng was very happy when he heard it. He took the paper with both hands and lowered his head to read it.

These pages record the habits of the poisonous golden silkworm Gu, its food preferences, its cultivation methods, and some of the author's speculations.

However, such spiritual insect rules and regulations obviously could not be written in a dozen pages. Lu Cheng finished reading it quickly. Although he gained something, he could obviously get more.

After reading the pages, Lu Cheng raised his head and looked at Madam Yuzhen. Such a vivid and jade-like beauty made people happy just by looking at her.

"Madam, if you have nothing urgent to do, would you like to accompany me to stroll around this Red Heart Temple for a while?"

"Thank you for leading the way, Master."

Next, Lu Cheng took Madam Yuzhen to visit the garden and watch the fish, talking as they walked.

"Where are you from, Madam? You are very knowledgeable and well-spoken. I know some of you, but rarely see cultivators as talented as you and Miss Ling'er."

"Master, you are too kind. Ling'er has been raised in the boudoir since she was a child. I used to be a woman who never left the house. I followed my husband to practice Taoism in the mountains and enjoyed a carefree life. Who knew that disaster would strike and my husband would die. I could only wander around here with my little girl. How could I deserve such praise from you, Master?"

Madam Yuzhen and her daughter wanted to stay in Chixin Temple to practice, and Lu Cheng also wanted the classics she had read.

But it is always necessary to find out the details beforehand. Although the foundation-building cultivators can live in peace in a corner and enjoy a hundred years of freedom, they cannot withstand disasters and calamities.

Lu Cheng listened to Madam Yu Zhen's response and pondered in his heart:

"This Madam Yuzhen seems to be from an extraordinary family, but her husband is dead. The fact that she and her daughter, who are both at such a high level of cultivation, were able to escape to Southern Xinjiang safely shows that their enemies either have low cultivation or simply look down on them, the cultivators who are the best at doting on their concubines." "But the Taoist books she read are real, so this deal is done."

"If you don't mind the poverty of our temple, could you please be the chief priest of Shintoism? There are not many things to do. Our temple is willing to give you 600 spiritual stones every year to support your cultivation."

After much deliberation, Lu Cheng made this invitation.

"Thank you for taking me in."

Upon hearing this, the nun fell to her knees as if she was about to cry.

Seeing this, Lu Cheng of course went to help her. Their bodies touched. Madam Yuzhen first bowed down, then jumped up as if she had been electrocuted, and a bright red color spread up from her neck.

"Master, I, I'll go down first."

After Yun Yuzhen left, Lu Cheng also let out a breath, feeling a little aroused by the teasing of this nun.

"It should be that her husband was killed by her enemies, and she was eager to find someone to rely on, so she flirted a little. But we can't think that she has a low character just because of this."

There is great terror between life and death. In order to survive, men and women and countries in this world have done many things that lose their dignity. Orphans and widows have it especially hard.

The days passed like this, day after day.

Yun Yuzhen said that she was the chief priest of Chixin Temple, but in fact He Lan did most of the things. There were very few things she was required to do, and occasionally she would ask He Lan for some work, just for fun.

The real job of this nun was to copy Taoist books for Lu Cheng. Although she was a favorite concubine, she seemed to be of considerable background. Many of the Taoist books she had read were not even collected by the Ranmu Shanlin family. These books greatly increased the knowledge and foundation of the Taoist priest Lu Cheng.

Four years passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the Chixinguan Five Elements Formation Diagram.

The seemingly young Taoist priest sat cross-legged at the core of the formation diagram, with beads of sweat streaming down his face. As he waved his hands, the five elements formation flags erected in all directions began to flash with five-colored electric lights, connecting with the Taoist priest.

As the technique was running, Lu Cheng's body slowly floated up. In his perception, the world was slowly spinning, and it seemed upside down. His magic power was surging and he couldn't help but express it.

However, this degree of perceptual confusion would not cause him much interference.

Lu Cheng calmed his mind and circulated the five elements of magic power. According to the skills of the Five Palaces Strengthening Yuan Jue, he practiced the Qi regulation method step by step to summarize the sudden surge of the five elements in his body.

After a moment, the feeling of confusion and disorientation slowly faded away, and Lu Cheng's figure slowly descended from the air above the platform, landing safely.

Then use your own spiritual consciousness to look inside your body.

"I was just practicing normally, but I suddenly broke through to the second level of foundation building. I originally wanted to strengthen my foundation, but isn't this progress too fast?"

The vast majority of cultivators in the world advance to the foundation-building stage before the age of sixty, because after the age of sixty, the cultivator's blood and vitality will be depleted, and the possibility of successfully building the foundation will be greatly reduced.

The same is true for foundation-building cultivators who want to achieve great success in their profound arts. They must complete their Taoist practice before the age of 200. Otherwise, the chances of success will be greatly reduced with every passing year.

Of course, there is a way to deal with this in this world: the Creation Pill.

"To seize the good fortune of heaven and earth is unacceptable to ghosts and gods."

This pill contains the essence of the source of life. After taking it, it can purify the blood, maintain youthfulness, and make the cultivator's blood and qi vigorous. Even if the lifespan is exhausted and the end is approaching, the body can be kept in peak condition.

After taking this pill, a Qi-cultivating cultivator at the age of 120 or a foundation-building cultivator at the age of 240 will not be negatively affected even if they break through the realm.

However, the Creation Pill is a fifth-level elixir that can only be refined by a true cultivator.

Over the past few hundred years, the last rumor about this elixir in the Tongxuan Realm was that someone sneaked into the Immortal's cave to steal the elixir, and was lucky enough to succeed. However, before he could take it, he was chased down by the Immortal's disciples and killed with a sword.

Even so, he was able to successfully steal the pill out of the Immortal's cave, which showed that he had quite a lot of skills.

For most cultivators in the world, it takes about fifteen or sixteen years to improve one level of magic power at the ninth level of foundation building. That's why low-level cultivators go around collecting herbs and refining pills, spending more than ten or twenty years to refine elixirs, and taking them can increase one or two levels of power, because it's worth it.

On the contrary, Lu Cheng had no intention of improving his magic power. He felt that he had not established his foundation for long and was still thinking about consolidating his foundation and refining his roots. He did not expect that when he was practicing normally today, the five elements of magic power could not be suppressed at all and he naturally broke through to the second level of foundation building.

Today, it has only been four years since Lu Cheng completed his foundation building. During these four years, Lu Cheng did not take any elixirs to increase his mana, or practice any such spells.

"It's a natural breakthrough in mana. The foundation is very solid. There is nothing wrong with that. But why is my mana increasing so fast?"

Lu Cheng felt uneasy, and checked himself again, but still there was nothing wrong. He could only put this doubt aside for the time being.

What Lu Cheng didn't think of at this moment was that he had deeply studied the essence of the Five Elements Sword Technique. Unless he was practicing in seclusion, he would practice sword techniques every day.

The Five Elements Sword Technique uses the sword to guide the Qi, just like a silly boy in the secular world who practices an ordinary Xuanmen internal skill, which has no other benefits except being moderate and peaceful. By chance, he learns a set of fierce and domineering palm techniques.

His internal energy was still the same, nothing special about it, but as he delved deeper into the essence of the palm technique, his internal energy became extremely masculine and powerful, and extremely domineering.

Although Lu Cheng did not build the Heavenly Dao foundation with the Five Elements Divine Sword, his Five Elements sword skills and sword energy were in no way inferior to those that had been built. From the outside to the inside, it was as if heaven and earth were blended together. How could his magic power not grow rapidly? He did not break through until today, and it was the result of his willful suppression and continuous refinement of his foundation.

Leave the practice room.

Lu Cheng went to the courtyard to practice swordsmanship. This was his daily habit. He would never leave his sword unless he had something to do.

But today in the courtyard, there was a girl in white, combining her human body with her sword and controlling a flying sword.

There are not many monks in Chixin Temple, except Lu Cheng and Madam Yuzhen. The one who can be called a girl is of course Madam Yuzhen's daughter Yun Linger.

The sword light changed in a myriad of ways, but there were also traces of deliberate imitation. Sometimes it was defensive and dignified, and sometimes it was extremely sharp. However, there was too much fireworks in the changes of sword moves. It was okay to fight against ordinary monks of the same level. If she was not familiar with them, she might catch the opponent off guard. But if she fought against a master of swordsmanship, every change of her moves would have fatal flaws.

"Uncle Lu, take my sword!"

Lu Cheng did not hide deliberately, and Yun Ling'er had been keeping an eye on this direction. Seeing Lu Cheng coming at this moment, the little girl was delighted and drew her sword, and the bright sword light stabbed forward without holding back.

Seeing this, Lu Cheng smiled lightly, opened his mouth and spit out a stream of sword energy, which directly rushed back at Yun Ling'er's sword light, and the flying sword was forced back in front of the girl.

Seeing this, Yun Linger flew up anxiously, and combined with the sword, she once again controlled the sword light to stab forward. In the Qi training realm, the closer the person is to the flying sword, the stronger the magic power and the stronger the sword power.

This time, Lu Cheng didn't even blow any air. When he looked up and gazed, chaotic five-element sword energy appeared out of thin air and attacked Yun Ling'er, making her barely able to resist in mid-air, and the sword could not pierce through.

"Uncle Lu, you are bullying others by relying on your great magical power!"

After landing, Yun Linger took several steps back and raised the sword in her hand high with hatred, but when she saw Lu Cheng's expression in front of her, she angrily put the sword back into the sheath.

"Ling'er, you are slandering me. Uncle Lu, I only used the power of the Qi training stage, and I am even a little worse than you."

As he spoke, Lu Cheng walked forward and touched Yun Ling'er's head, ruffling the little girl's beautiful hair, and laughed.

During these four years, Lu Cheng had been instructing Yun Ling'er and Madam Yu Zhen in swordsmanship from time to time, and they had become familiar with each other and their relationship had grown.

"Your talent for swordsmanship is too poor. If you really can't do it, just forget it. All roads lead to the Great Luo. Sword cultivators in the Qi training stage are often unable to defeat weapon cultivators in the Qi training stage. Don't get stuck in a dead end."

A common saying in the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation:

Refining elixirs costs money, refining equipment is the strongest, making talismans is the most appropriate, and setting up formations is the least.

The reason why equipment refining is the strongest is that it is not as difficult to get started as refining pills. Although most cultivators find it difficult to become high-level equipment refiners, as long as they are willing to work hard and have a little talent, it is not difficult to become a first or second level equipment refiner.

Even if the magic weapons they refine cannot be sold, they can be used by themselves, and they know the characteristics of the magic weapons the best. A pure Qi training swordsman may not be able to defeat a Qi training weapon refiner because they may carry multiple magic weapons with them, and their attack and defense are determined and difficult to resist.

(End of this chapter)