After speaking with He the Venerable, Jiang Yi returned to his room, his eyes shining with a brilliant golden light.
[Divination Result: Consume Bait Medicine to compensate for physical deficits and Primordial Qi depletion. The prescription is as follows: fifty-year-old Cyan Ganoderma as the main ingredient, one measure of Purple Cloud Stone Milk, Polygonum multiflorum...]
'The Tiger and Wolf Medicine stimulates qi and blood, while the Bait Medicine consolidates my foundation and nourishes my essence. They complement each other perfectly.'
Jiang Yi rubbed his hands together. With these two prescriptions, he could significantly shorten the time needed to break through to the Qi Cultivation Third Layer.
He committed them to memory, planning to purchase the ingredients tomorrow.
Pushing aside his stray thoughts, Jiang Yi's mind turned back to what He the Venerable had said about "splitting the money."
'It's not that I'm antisocial, or that I insist on being a lone saint in a world of sinners.'
'But getting mixed up with two jackals who prey on the lowest class—how could I possibly cultivate the Demon Dao properly that way!'
He couldn't help but shake his head, not giving Zhang San and Dong Si a second thought.
To be blunt, how much tally money could one really make each month by bleeding the Mortal Servants dry?
'And for such a paltry profit, I'd have to risk my own reputation.'
'If word got back to Yang Xun, it would make me look shortsighted and could easily cost me points in his book.'
Besides, Jiang Yi understood one thing very well.
It feels great to put money in your own pocket, but taking it from someone else's makes you hated.
Originally, Zhang San and Dong Si were happily feasting on the "tributes" from the Mortal Servants of three workshops.
Would the two of them really be happy to just hand over a share to Jiang Yi for nothing?
'You test me, I plot against you, and then we have a battle of wits... The Outer Peak isn't some paradise anyway. Instead of wasting my energy on this, I'd rather focus on my cultivation.'
Jiang Yi saw things clearly. Once he stepped into the Qi Cultivation Third Layer, his cultivation would be on another level.
'What Zhang San? What Dong Si? I'll be able to slap them both aside with a single blow.'
Why bother feigning compliance and putting on a fake smile for them?
White frost condensed into ice, coating the treetops.
「Two days passed in a flash.」
While everyone in the Big Mixed Courtyard was out working, Jiang Yi retrieved the clay pot of Tiger and Wolf Ointment and the Jade Bottle containing the Cyan Ganoderma Dew.
The former was black and glossy like lacquer, with a fine texture and excellent quality.
As for the latter, it was emerald green, thick as honey, and emitted a crisp, cool aura.
These two items had cost him every last bit of his tally money.
'All the preparations are complete, now for the final step.'
Jiang Yi summoned the Celestial Book and posed a question.
[I beg the Celestial Book, show me the progress of my current cultivation.]
[Divination Time: Ten breaths]
[Divination Result as follows]
[Celestial Book's Master: Jiang Yi]
[Realm: Qi Cultivation Second Layer (Seventy-nine percent)]
[Cultivation Technique: "True Meridian Qi Flowing Technique" (Ungraded), "Little Refining Yuan Fire Control Technique" (Ninth Grade)]
'Just as I thought! Even while eating Spirit Rice for every meal to nourish my body, my cultivation progress is still slow!'
Jiang Yi glanced at the "Seventy-nine percent" and couldn't help but shake his head.
'If I don't use the Tiger and Wolf Medicine to stimulate a breakthrough, I'm afraid I'd have to wait until winter next month just to barely scrape together eighty or ninety percent and touch the edge of the Qi Cultivation Third Layer.'
He was never the hesitant type to look before and after. His gaze sharpened, and he immediately reached for the clay pot.
But before consuming it, he still had to go through the proper procedure.
[I beg the Celestial Book, show me if it is appropriate for me to consume the Tiger and Wolf Medicine at this time today. Will there be any mishaps?]
The golden paper rippled like a stone dropped into a calm lake.
[Subject of Inquiry: Taking Medicine]
[Divination Time: Five breaths]
[Divination Result: Conditions are optimal. There are no obstructions.]
'Now we're set.'
Receiving an affirmative answer, Jiang Yi could finally relax.
He took out two poultices from the clay pot and applied one to his chest, over his heart, and the other to his lower abdomen.
Then, he gently rubbed them with his palms, using the heat of his True Qi to dissolve them, allowing the fierce medicinal properties to gradually seep through his skin and flesh, boring into his muscles and bones.
'Truly worthy of the name Tiger and Wolf Medicine!'
Jiang Yi's brows knitted tightly. In less than the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, his whole body was flushed red and burning hot, like a cooked shrimp.
The dissolved ointment was like scalding oil pouring over his entire body!
In an instant, every inch of his skin erupted in fiery pain.
This was especially true for his chest and lower abdomen. The former was THUMP-THUMP-THUMPING like a war drum, while the latter felt as if it were being branded with a hot iron.
'This is good! It means it's working!'
Jiang Yi reassured himself, trying his best to forget the torment his body was enduring.
The first layer of Qi Cultivation is Muscle Transformation, the second is Bone Transformation,
and this Third Layer, then, is Blood Transformation.
As the saying goes, muscles are the clothing of bones, and bones are the root of blood.
Only when the muscles, tendons, and skin are strong and tough can they wrap around the bones like a well-fitted robe, protecting them from the shock of great force.
Likewise, only with hard bones and a sturdy frame can the body continuously produce new blood, allowing the mortal physique to thrive with vitality.
In the Qi Cultivation First Realm, the changes in each layer are all interconnected.
'At the Qi Cultivation Third Layer, qi boils like fire, scouring the entire body, the marrow produces new blood, and all illnesses are kept at bay... Once I reach the Fourth Layer, it will be time for Refining the Internal Organs.'
'At the Fourth Layer Perfection, I can open the Primordial Inner Mansion and begin to gather and refine the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism.'
Jiang Yi sat in meditation, circulating his power through a full Circulation to absorb and digest the Tiger and Wolf Ointment.
As the medicinal power spread, it became more and more apparent. He gradually felt his True Qi, thick as a hemp rope, become scorching hot, like a red-hot steel needle.
Every time he pushed it, every time he moved it an inch, he was met with a piercing sting!
Circulating it through his entire body, completing a full Circulation, had become a torture akin to a cruel punishment!
"HUUFF!"
Jiang Yi gritted his teeth against the peculiar pleasure-pain of being pierced by steel needles, his breathing ragged.
Two streams of white vapor shot violently from his mouth and nose, writhing like long snakes.
On the surface of his skin, all one hundred and eight thousand pores opened, releasing clouds of hot steam.
With every Great Circulation Jiang Yi completed, his True Qi grew by ten percent.
By the end of the thirtieth Great Circulation, his body felt as if a stone roller was moving within it, RUMBLING with extraordinary momentum.
'It's definitely improving!'
The light in Jiang Yi's eyes grew stronger, almost like a blazing flame, and his youthful face flushed crimson with excitement.
It was clear the properties of the Tiger and Wolf Medicine had been pushed to their limit, stimulating his entire being into a peak state.
When his physique could expand no further, as if filled to the absolute brim, he took a sudden, sharp breath. A gale erupted in the cramped room, causing the door panel to rattle and shake.
'My Power has greatly advanced! The Tiger and Wolf Ointment's effects are extraordinary!'
Another quarter of an hour later, Jiang Yi slowly withdrew his power.
The qi and blood released from his body roared like a dragon and a tiger, sending out ripple after ripple of atmospheric waves that nearly shook the shack he'd rented for five hundred tally coins to pieces!
KACHA, KACHA.
The two poultices on his skin had been baked hard and dry.
Caught in the aftershocks, they CRACKLED and turned to dust, falling away on their own.
CLANG!
The rickety door panel crashed to the ground. Howling wind and snow poured in, only to be instantly dissipated by the surge of his scorching, virile qi and blood.
Jiang Yi carefully experienced his mortal body after the Blood Transformation. He faintly felt a sense of renewal, like a young sprout breaking through the soil.
Moved by a sudden feeling, he softly recited:
"Shedding the mortal form to see the truth, a free body forged in the crucible's heat;"
"A thousand hardships become stepping stones, a single inch of Spiritual Light breaks through the deluding dust... I guess I can finally understand why the old boss liked to act all cultured and refined."
Jiang Yi gave a self-deprecating laugh and stepped outside. The cotton-like snowflakes drifted down, only to be completely melted away by his vigorous qi and blood, which radiated heat like a furnace.
He held the Jade Bottle in his right hand, tilted his head back, and drank the prepared Cyan Ganoderma Dew.
It was cool as it went down his throat, with a taste rather like herbal jelly—slightly bitter with a sweet aftertaste.
Once the viscous, slurry-like Essence Nourishing Elixir had entered his stomach, the vexing, fiery sensation that had filled his body was instantly swept away.
Jiang Yi suddenly grew calm.
The virile, scorching qi and blood was like a furnace with its lid closed; the boiling hot sensation was gradually drawn back in.
The True Qi, which had been strengthened by forcibly squeezing his muscles, bones, blood, and marrow with the Tiger and Wolf Ointment, was like a red-hot knife plunged into water. With a SZZZZ, it was tempered.
From its previous state of being bloated and unstable, it gradually became solid and well-rounded, and was in fact even more stable than before.
To think that such a tyrannical medicine, one that ravaged the body, had not damaged his foundation or harmed his path in the slightest.
'Another step taken on the long road to becoming a person of talent.'
Jiang Yi cleared the karmic debt, wiping away the tadpole-like characters, and immediately asked a new question.
[I beg the Celestial Book, show me the progress of my cultivation in the Qi Cultivation First Realm.]
[Divination Result: Qi Cultivation Third Layer (Eleven percent)]