From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

It was at this moment that Jiang Liu noticed a subtle discord between the golden branch that had transformed into silk threads and his own body!

Ultimately, it was an external thing, not truly integrated into his body.

After finding the discordant point, Jiang Liu circulated his profound power, reversed the ninefold rebirth, and cultivated the innate eight trigrams of the human body, taking the Niwan acupoint among the nine orifices as the central palace acupoint, and cultivated the word "nature"; he reversed the eight directions and cultivated the acquired eight trigrams of the human body, using the five internal organs and the five elements to combine yin and yang, and fixed the central palace, and cultivated the word "fate".

In the cultivation of extraordinary individuals, the essence and energy of cultivation are likened to lead and mercury. However, at this moment, Jiang Liu uses the innate Bagua and the acquired Bagua within his body to internally refine "nature" and "life" as lead and mercury.

With the help of the Golden Duke, Granny Huang tamped the sand into soil; the Wood Mother planted her roots in the soil to cultivate the medicinal herbs; the Golden Duke breathed and gathered the medicinal leaves, sending them into the alchemical furnace.

What is a cinnabar furnace?

The six internal organs are a furnace for elixirs!

The gallbladder stores the essence of the five internal organs!

The body's medicine circulates throughout the body with the flow of Qi, the mind's restlessness burns like fire, and the will's movement is like a horse's movement, gradually stabilizing the human body's connection to the universe!

During this internal refining process, the silk threads transformed from the golden branch trembled, no longer merely trying to attach themselves and pierce the flesh they were attached to. However, with the five gods protecting Jiang Liu's primordial spirit, their Qi covered his entire body's flesh and tissues. The Qi of water and fire intertwined, and the alternation of hot and cold made it difficult for the silk threads to cause any damage to his flesh and tissues. They were even forced to continuously contract and condense, gathering into a sphere the size of a fingernail composed of countless silk threads.

After being tempered by water and fire, the sphere also underwent some kind of change—

Pfft!

The sphere shot out from Jiang Liu's chest and landed on the ground not far away.

Jiang Liu suddenly opened his eyes, knowing that this thing was extremely sensitive to Qi. Without using his hands, he pulled out the iron rod he always carried and smashed it down on the golden ball.

boom!

In an instant, the earth shook, and the spot where the stick fell was smashed into a crater about five meters deep. From there, spiderweb-like patterns spread outwards to an area within a radius of thirty meters.

The commotion startled Lin Jiu, who quickly jumped aside, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.

However, his eyesight was also sharp. He spotted the golden sphere that Jiang Liu had forced out of his body, jumped back, and immediately stepped forward. Looking at the wound on Jiang Liu's chest that was healing at a visible speed, he asked, "Is the problem solved?"

"It's solved."

Jiang Liu exhaled a breath of stale air, raised the iron rod, and saw that the silk thread formed from the golden branch had not been smashed to pieces, but had climbed to one end of the iron rod and was still climbing up the iron rod.

"Ok?"

Upon seeing this, Jiang Liu immediately threw away the iron rod, but the golden threads continued to wriggle on it until they wrapped around the entire rod. Then, they suddenly broke in the middle and contracted towards both ends, as if they had wrapped the two ends of the iron rod with an irregular layer of gold.

"This thing?"

Lin Jiu looked at the staff, which was made of black iron in the middle and had two "golden hoops" at both ends, and his unibrows twitched involuntarily.

The Ruyi Jingu Bang (a magical staff)?

Jiang Liu pondered for a moment, then extended his inverted force field, took it in his hand, and found that the weight hadn't increased at all, still thirteen and a half pounds. Moreover, the flow of Qi was smoother, as if this thing was an extension of his body, no longer an inanimate object...

# Chapter 187 The First Step in Cultivation: Refining Oneself and Maintaining Sincerity!

[Is it because during my previous internal cultivation, I also refined the silk threads that the golden branch had transformed into, making them controllable by my Qi?]

Jiang Liu seemed to be deep in thought, but he couldn't understand why the silk threads that Jin Zhi had transformed into would merge with the iron rod.

A unity of temperament and the combination of metal and wood?

The "metal and wood" in this context refer to the male metal and the female wood, as well as nature and emotion, and are not the metal, iron, grass, and trees of the world.

Although plants in the world absorb some metal elements as they grow, Jiang Liu had never heard of any plant that could grow directly on metal.

Parasitic plants won't work either!

But can the sacred tree be considered a normal plant?

The crystallization of ancient Western witchcraft is related to alchemy. The iron rod is said to be the handle of the nine-ringed tin staff forged by Master Xuanzang. It was made by combining the cultivation principles of Buddhism and Taoism and can naturally circulate qi. Therefore, this is a natural combination of Eastern and Western weapon-making and alchemy techniques.

In terms of cultivation, Jiang Liu had already grasped the general differences between East and West—

Qi Refining:

Cultivation is based on the three gates and nine orifices, and the eight extraordinary meridians that naturally exist in the human body.

Alchemy:

The latter can be used to construct magical circuits and alchemical arrays within the human body.

Therefore, refining Qi and alchemy are not in conflict!

Just like Sister Hua.

Using the method of refining Qi to cultivate the art of metal was not because she was exceptionally talented, but because the relationship between the two was like a broken piece of a puzzle.

This is also reflected in the cultures of both sides.

Whether it's the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains or Jingwei Filling the Sea, what the Chinese people seek is long-term sustainability.

in contrast.

The West, on the other hand, places more emphasis on immediate benefits, which is reflected in its spiritual practices, including alchemy and magic. Even when it comes to cultivation involving the brain and internal organs, the focus is on the practical results that can be achieved in the short term.

During the short period when he was "parasitized" by the Golden Branch, Jiang Liu suspected that the dense threads covering his entire body were similar to the magic circuits and alchemical patterns used by Western supernatural beings to circulate their Qi. Moreover, since it was a crystallization of the highest level of ancient Western witchcraft, the magic circuits and alchemical patterns carried by the Golden Branch, or rather, the Divine Tree, were probably an extremely powerful alchemical technique! And it even involved human transmutation!

"Is this a combination of Western alchemical artifacts and our traditional crafting techniques?"

Lin Jiu examined the "Ruyi Jingu Bang" in Jiang Liu's hand and guessed some of the details, but he was still puzzled. "How can you use this thing?"

Western alchemy—

Lin Jiu didn't understand, but he was very clear about his family's weapon-refining methods. If someone other than the original owner wanted to use it, they would have to wait until the original owner died, and they would also have to understand the original owner's way of circulating Qi and reconnect with the weapon using Qi.

Could it be that Jiang Liu and the original owner of this iron rod were very compatible?

"Perhaps it's because of my innate special ability."

Jiang Liu recounted in detail how the five internal organ deities—the Monkey King, the Horse of the Mind, the Golden Lord, the Wooden Mother, and the Yellow Woman—had helped him in his cultivation.

This made Lin Jiu's eyelids twitch: "We cultivators have to circulate our Qi through the eight meridians and actively harmonize the dragon and tiger, which takes a lot of effort. But you, as long as you harmonize the relationship between the spirits of the five internal organs, they can help you circulate your Qi throughout the body?"

In fact, it's not just about circulating Qi throughout the body; it also includes building the foundation and cultivating the medicine, capturing Kan and filling Li, and gathering the medicine and returning it to the cauldron.

After all the deities of the five internal organs within him were sealed, Jiang Liu also noticed that his primordial spirit had become much clearer, as if most of his personality flaws had been attributed to those five internal organ deities.

The five internal organs govern the five emotions: the liver is associated with anger, the heart with joy, the spleen with pensiveness, the lungs with grief, and the kidneys with fear.

It's not that Jiang Liu himself no longer has these five emotions. The five gods are in a special state of being both independent and overlapping with Jiang Liu's soul and spirit. They have joy, thought, anger, sorrow, and fear, and Jiang Liu naturally has them too. It's just that his mind is much clearer, and even his eyes seem to have gained a gentle sincerity.

Is her spirit radiant and reserved?

Not yet.

However, considering his past life experiences, he is only a few years younger than the current Uncle Nine. With such rich life experience, how could he not have a "kind and benevolent face"?

Now that the five internal organs have been refined, although the primordial spirit still has many distracting thoughts, it has also cultivated a bit of spiritual light, which resides in the main aperture of the Niwan Palace.

Jiang Liu also understood how much convenience this innate ability brought to his cultivation.

This step is called:

Cultivate yourself and maintain sincerity!

Jiang Liu had never truly understood how the Quanzhen Inner Alchemy in the world of Under One Person was refined to obtain the Yang Spirit. However, in the theory of the Golden Elixir Dao he knew from his previous life, the first step in cultivation was to refine oneself and preserve sincerity. This required suppressing anger and desires, and maintaining emptiness and sincerity. In other words, suppressing desires and suppressing anger is the interaction of water and fire, and unifying temperament is the combination of metal and wood!

This is not the same as Zhang Zhiwei's innate fullness and unwavering mind, which is merely the abundance of innate Qi and a firm will.

This is also true of Jiang Liu, who has lived two lives.

This self-cultivation and sincerity is the true refinement of a mysterious spiritual light, in order to remain in the world forever!

What is “emptiness”?

The essence of the world is emptiness.

Buddhism has the concepts of "form" and "emptiness". Simply put, form is the external appearance of all things that are temporary and fixed and can be seen by the human eye; emptiness is the essence of the universe, which is fluid, continuous and eternal.

Wukong is someone who has grasped the essence of the world.

The so-called cultivation of a spark of spiritual light that dwells eternally in emptiness refers to the existence of life within the essence of the universe!

But this universe—

Does it refer to the real macrocosm or the microcosm of the human body?

If one wishes to attain sainthood, how can one rely on external things?

It should be a place to entrust one's inner world to!

However, Jiang Liu did not discuss these matters with Lin Jiu. After all, he was also cultivating. Even if his cultivation was profound, he was not a master. He would wait until he thoroughly practiced the principles of alchemy from his previous life and combined them with the cultivation of Qi in this world to forge a broad and wide path to heaven before discussing these matters.

"Uncle Jiu, I've only progressed faster in my cultivation, but I'm still far from perfecting it," Jiang Liu said modestly.

Perfecting one's spiritual practice?

Lin Jiu immediately realized that Jiang Liu meant "controlling the timing," which meant not only making the Qi correspond to the sunrise and sunset within a day, but also to the waxing and waning of the moon within a month, and even to the changing seasons and climate within a year, and even to the movement of the stars in the celestial sphere!

It is already extremely difficult to make the circulation of Qi correspond to the number of breaths in a day, let alone correspond to the waxing and waning of a month, the changing of the four seasons in a single thought, or even the shifting of stars in the sky.

In particular, regarding the correspondence with the stars in the celestial sphere, our ancestors observed, recorded, and summarized this thousands of years ago. However, if a cultivator wants to make their own Qi correspond to the movement of the stars, they must personally experience it. Without a lifespan of a thousand years or a destiny of ten thousand years, how can they verify it?

But since Jiang Liu is willing to try, Lin Jiu won't dissuade him; in fact, she'll encourage him.

What you learn from books is never enough; you must put it into practice to truly understand!

Perhaps Jiang Liu can truly forge his own unique path to success!

# Chapter 188 Alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone

thereafter.

Jiang Liu carefully examined the stick in his hand again, making sure that the golden silk hoops at both ends, which resembled plant roots and were intertwined and connected, would not pierce his body again, before he re-tied it behind his back.

Ultimately, it wasn't the real Ruyi Jingu Bang (the magic staff), so it couldn't change size at will and could only be carried around.

"Master, I'm back!"

Wencai ran up from the foot of the mountain carrying a large bundle of hay and firewood.

"Burn that vampire's corpse."