novelapdf Chapter 58 Gathering Qi Spirit Array, Liu Changle
Chapter 58 Gathering Qi Spirit Array, Liu Changle
Chen Lingxi held the jade pendant up to his eyes and examined it closely with the light streaming in through the window, while continuing to sense it with his spiritual energy.
"There is actually a tiny array hidden inside this jade pendant."
Chen Lingxi had witnessed the many hand seals Lin Suri placed in the incense burner and already knew of the existence of the formation.
The array was no bigger than a grain of rice, yet its patterns were intricate and exquisite, layer upon layer, all interconnected.
The spiritual energy flows slowly along a specific trajectory, like a very thin stream meandering through a small riverbed.
Chen Lingxi focused intently on the details, his spiritual energy advancing inch by inch, passing through every pass and every pattern of the formation.
He then wore the jade pendant close to his body and observed its changes with his eyes closed.
After fiddling around with it for two or three days, I finally got some results.
"This formation has two functions."
Still in the room, Chen Lingxi stared at the jade pendant: "Firstly, it gathers spiritual energy; secondly, it uses spiritual energy to transform the wearer's body."
He opened his eyes, held the jade pendant in his palm, and activated the green qi in his dantian to start the formation.
Sure enough, the thin spiritual energy in the surrounding air began to flow slowly, drawn together by the array, gathering in wisps.
The spiritual energy was extremely thin and gathered very slowly; it was almost imperceptible without careful observation.
He did not absorb this spiritual energy directly, but rather it adhered to his body through the array of the jade pendant.
Like an extremely fine and dense net, the spiritual energy followed the trajectory of the array patterns, engraving itself bit by bit into his flesh, meridians, and bones.
"The spiritual energy in this jade pendant is transforming me, as if it wants to turn me into an array."
Chen Lingxi frowned.
He thought of Princess Yunhe, Yang Zhuri, and Chu Linzi.
"Yang Zhuri gave me this jade pendant so that he could plant this formation on me and slowly transform me into a more useful medicinal herb."
"When the time is right, Yang Zhuri will use some method to extract a certain kind of energy from me."
Just like how Princess Yunhe absorbed Qi from Lin Longyue.
Chen Lingxi muttered to himself, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
He placed the jade pendant on the table and closed his eyes in deep thought.
Yang Zhuri, Princess Yunhe, and Chu Linzi are all members of the Crown Prince's inner circle.
They practiced a method of inhaling air, using people as medicine.
Such methods are undeniably insidious and cunning.
However, their cultivation level was not high.
"Was it concealed using some kind of secret method?"
"Or perhaps Ying Chi doesn't need their strength to be too high?"
Chen Lingxi suppressed these thoughts for the time being and turned her gaze back to the jade pendant.
He reached out and grasped the jade pendant in his palm once more.
This time, he did not activate the formation, but instead used his spiritual energy to probe into the jade and carefully observe the patterns.
The patterns were extremely intricate, each one perfectly placed, echoing the others to form a complete array.
His spiritual energy flowed slowly along the patterns, firmly memorizing every pattern and every obstacle in his mind.
Then, he noticed something.
The reason this formation can gather spiritual energy is not because of its inherent power, but because the arrangement of the patterns and the setting of the barriers are just right to induce the flow of spiritual energy between heaven and earth.
It is like a riverbed to the flow of water.
The riverbed itself has no power, but it can guide the direction of water flow, allowing scattered water to converge into a river.
This formation is the river channel.
The sparse spiritual energy between heaven and earth is that flowing water.
A thought suddenly flashed through Chen Lingxi's mind.
"The jade pendant is too small, and its spiritual energy is too weak."
If the nodes are enlarged and the spiritual energy is strengthened, will it be possible to gather even more spiritual energy?
Once the thought popped into my head, I couldn't suppress it any longer.
Chen Lingxi is a man of action; she does what she thinks of.
He stood up, pushed open the door, went to a jade shop in the city, and bought forty-six jade pendants.
These jade pendants are all ordinary items, with common jade quality and rough workmanship, each costing only a few coins.
He took the jade pendant back to the servants' quarters and waited quietly.
Finally, on the evening of the third day, Chen Ling saw You Lin Su Ri, but could not sense Lin Su Ri's location.
"Finally, I'm going out."
Once Lin Su Ri goes out, he can try things with peace of mind, without worrying about being discovered by others.
Chen Lingxi closed the door, spread a sheet of straw paper on the floor of the room, and used a charcoal pencil to draw the patterns of the array on it.
Following the formation in the jade pendant from his memory, he enlarged the patterns, increased the number of nodes, and rearranged the passes.
This is not simply a magnification.
The array in that jade pendant was only the size of a grain of rice, with just a few lines. But the array he was going to set up would cover the entire room, with hundreds of lines and as many as forty-six nodes.
The location, direction, and setup of each node require precise calculations.
Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged in front of the paper, her fingers slowly moving across the paper, outlining the enlarged array stroke by stroke.
This one stroke took two hours.
As the last stroke was completed, the sun outside the window had already begun to set in the west.
As dusk crept in from the horizon, it cast a long shadow of the old locust tree in the courtyard.
Chen Lingxi placed the forty-six jade pendants on the floor of the room according to the positions of the array nodes.
Then, he sat cross-legged in the center of the formation and activated the azure energy in his dantian.
Spiritual energy emanated from his palm and flowed into the first jade pendant.
The jade pendant trembled slightly and emitted a very faint blue light.
The spiritual energy flowed along the patterns to the second jade pendant, which lit up, and then flowed to the third, fourth, and fifth pendants...
He was like a weaver, using spiritual energy as a shuttle to string together the forty-six jade pendants.
The spiritual energy flowed between the jade pendants, surged within the patterns of the array, and gradually wove into a complete net.
The moment the spiritual energy completed the last line of the pattern and was injected into the last jade pendant.
The entire formation suddenly lit up.
The forty-six jade pendants simultaneously emitted a bluish-green light, which was not dazzling but rather extremely gentle.
Guided by the array patterns, they echoed and connected with each other, together forming an array that covered the entire room.
Then--
A spiritual energy has arrived.
Strands of spiritual energy gathered from all directions, drawn by the formation, and fell into it.
Although the spiritual energy was still thin, it was far more than what a single jade pendant could gather.
Chen Ling sat cross-legged in the center of the formation, feeling the spiritual energy brushing over her body like a spring breeze, and a look of surprise lit up in her eyes.
"It's a success."
He muttered to himself, a slight smile involuntarily creeping onto his lips.
But this surprise didn't last long.
Chen Ling closed his eyes and sensed for a moment, then his brows furrowed again.
The incoming spiritual energy was indeed slightly more than the spiritual energy he had poured into the jade pendant, but only by a little bit.
The spiritual energy flowed into the formation, swirling and circulating around him, but it was not heavy or dense.
He roughly estimated that if he used this formation to assist his cultivation, the amount of spiritual energy he could absorb each day would only be 20-30% more than if he absorbed it on his own.
This slight increase is nothing compared to his current cultivation level of the third stage of Qi Circulation; he might as well take a few more pills.
"It's not a great deal."
Chen Lingxi shook her head, her brows furrowing even deeper.
He sat in the formation for a while, and suddenly it dawned on him.
"This formation must have some very crucial formation incantations; it's not as simple as just arranging them in the right order and injecting spiritual energy."
He recalled that Lin Suri used incense burners to set up arrays, and those incense burners not only had spiritual energy circulating in them, but also talismans held together within them.
This formation must be the same.
The array within that jade pendant not only consisted of the arrangement of patterns and nodes, but also a complete set of array seals.
Those hand seals are the core of the formation, capable of increasing the efficiency of gathering spiritual energy several times, or even dozens of times.
"The formation I have set up now only has the form, but not the spirit; it has the appearance but cannot unleash its true power."
Chen Ling squinted her eyes.
"Ying Chi".
"If we can find a way to obtain this array seal from Ying Chi, we won't have to painstakingly search for spiritual energy pills anymore."
"However, we must proceed with caution in this matter."
Ying Chi is too strong.
His cultivation of Qi has probably reached the fifth or even sixth level.
Moreover, in some ways, he is stronger than Lin Suri.
Because he also possessed an extremely powerful Purple True Treasure Bottle.
Chen Lingxi suppressed these thoughts for the time being, took out all forty-six jade pendants one by one, and put them back into his Qiankun bag.
Then, he sat down cross-legged and began to practice breathing exercises.
There is still a long road ahead, and we must proceed cautiously step by step.
……
More than ten days have passed quietly.
These days, Chen Ling stays indoors all day, practicing boxing during the day, taking pills at night, and practicing breathing exercises every day without fail.
At dusk that day, Chen Lingxi was practicing boxing in the courtyard.
It can pull back the mountain's momentum, flow into the river, and cause the city to collapse.
He had already mastered the first three moves, and now he used them smoothly and effortlessly.
His blood and qi surged like a tide in his meridians, and his silver marrow flowed slowly deep within his bones, turning his entire body into a silvery white.
Then—the fourth move, the Sea-Stabilizing Stance.
"With the Silver Bone technique at its initial stage, it is already able to stabilize the sea's power."
The essence of this formula lies in "fixation".
Just as the ocean roars and the waves surge, those who cultivate themselves are like reefs in the sea, remaining steadfast amidst the raging storms.
His breathing became extremely long, and with each breath, his blood and energy sank into his muscles and bones, no longer bursting outwards, but rather gathering and settling inwards.
Deep within the bones, the silver marrow surges, like a beach after the tide has receded; the surface appears calm, but beneath lies immense power quietly accumulating.
Chen Lingxi practiced the Dinghai stance again and again until the moon was high in the sky, then slowly stopped.
He stood in the center of the training ground, looking down at his hands.
The silver light at the fingertips had spread from the finger bones to the metacarpal bones.
The silvery-white light deep within the bones was even thicker than before, and it showed faint signs of spreading towards the arm.
"We're just a few steps away from achieving great success."
"Moreover... these Seven Forms of Ceasefire are truly extraordinary."
Chen Lingxi activated the qi and blood in his body, causing it to surge through his meridians.
The qi and blood were extremely thick, like mercury flowing in the blood vessels, each drop containing an overwhelming power.
"This kind of qi and blood is even more powerful than the penetrating bone strength of a typical master of the Silver Bone Realm."
Chen Lingxi looked down at her hands, a thoughtful look flashing in her eyes.
"I have only just begun practicing the Sea-Stabilizing Stance and have not yet fully grasped the method of circulating qi and blood in this style, yet the qi and blood I have cultivated have already surpassed those who have achieved the Great Perfection of Silver Bones... The Qi and Blood Cultivation Technique of the Seven Styles of Ceasefire is by no means ordinary."
He recalled that back in the West Courtyard Martial Arts Hall, He Duan had asked him to choose one of three martial arts techniques.
He chose the incomplete scroll of the Seven Styles of Ceasefire simply because it was the most suitable one, not because he thought it was particularly profound.
But now that he has cultivated to the Silver Bone Realm, he has finally realized the true extraordinary nature of this technique.
"Even Qiu Chihu's silver marrow and blood are not as abundant as mine now."
Qiu Chihu possesses the cultivation level of the Silver Bone Realm, indicating an extraordinary background; therefore, the cultivation technique he practices must also be extremely precious.
The more Chen Ling thought about it, the more he realized that the Seven Forms of Ceasefire were not simple.
"The reason why the Seven Forms of Ceasefire are overlooked is because they are too complicated and too difficult to practice. However, once mastered, the resulting Qi and blood are far more robust and powerful than those of ordinary techniques."
He took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.
The fragmentary scroll of the Seven Styles of Ceasefire only records the first four styles.
Pulling the mountain, entering the river, collapsing the city, stabilizing the sea.
"These four techniques can help me cultivate to the point of perfect Silver Bone, but the last three techniques no longer exist."
"I'll sneak into the Martial Arts Academy another day to see if there are any follow-up techniques to the Seven Forms of Ceasefire."
As night deepened, only the sound of the wind remained in the courtyard.
a long time.
After finishing his cultivation, he was about to wash up and rest before retiring from his travels in the forest.
Suddenly, a soft footstep sound came from outside the courtyard.
The footsteps were extremely light; if he hadn't been greatly enhanced by circulating his Qi on the third floor, he would have hardly noticed them.
Chen Lingxi frowned slightly, channeling the Hidden Edge Technique within her body to envelop her aura. She silently walked to the window and peered out through the crack in the windowpane.
Under the moonlight, a person climbed over the courtyard wall and landed lightly in the courtyard.
The man was wearing a Taoist robe made of very ordinary, dusty gray material.
His landing was extremely light, like a leaf floating on the water, making almost no sound.
Chen Lingxi's gaze fell on the man's face, and her pupils suddenly contracted.
"Liu Changle?"