The next morning, the warm rays of dawn filtered through the window, spreading a thin line of white light across the room’s floor. The light slowly stretched and finally climbed onto the bed, illuminating the face of a young man sitting cross-legged. Feeling the warmth from the outside, his tranquil face stirred slightly, and after a moment, his closed eyelids gradually opened, revealing calm, dark eyes.
Shifting his body, Xiao Yan agilely leaped off the bed, opened the door, and looked at the empty hall. He was a bit surprised, assuming that Hai Bodong had gone out on some business. But this was for the best, as it meant no one would disturb him.
After a casual wash in the hall, Xiao Yan turned the green-and-red sign on the door, with the red side facing outwards, indicating “Do Not Disturb.” Having done this, Xiao Yan felt a bit more at ease as he returned to his room, opened the window, and let the warm morning sunlight pour over his body. The cozy sensation made him slightly lazy, but it also brought a sense of tranquility, making it hard for any disturbances to arise in his mind.
Standing quietly by the window for a while, Xiao Yan finally turned around. His face remained impassive, showing no signs of joy or anger. He slowly raised his hand, and a faint green light began to rise from within his ring. The green light grew as it met the air, transforming into a glowing green lotus seat, floating before Xiao Yan, gently swaying.
With a light tap on the ground, Xiao Yan leapt up, landing steadily on the green lotus and sitting cross-legged. As soon as he touched the green lotus, he could clearly feel that his sensitivity to the surrounding energy had increased significantly. It was indeed a product born from the same root as the Green Lotus Earthfire.
Xiao Yan waved his fingers, and a green pill surrounded by three medicinal patterns appeared between his fingers. Staring at the pill, which he had worked so hard to refine, he murmured, “This can’t fail, or else…”
Shaking his head, Xiao Yan exhaled a breath, closing his eyes, and formed a cultivation seal with his hands. His chest rose and fell, becoming increasingly steady.
Shortly after Xiao Yan closed his eyes, the calm space around him began to ripple, like a stone breaking the surface of a still lake. Visible streams of energy flowed out from the void, swirling around the green lotus before turning into countless strands of energy, rushing toward Xiao Yan. When they passed through the green light emitted by the lotus, they were quickly purified, carrying some of the lotus’s pure energy, and entered Xiao Yan’s body with his breath.
As the energy entered his body, it was easily controlled by Xiao Yan’s mental force, flowing along the meridians and being purified, leaving only a small amount of pure energy to be injected into his Qi nucleus.
Absorbing the external energy slowly, after a while, when everything seemed normal, Xiao Yan suddenly flicked his fingers, sending the Three-Striped Green Spirit Pill into his slightly open mouth. The pill melted instantly, transforming into three waves of pure energy, each stronger than the last, like surging rivers, rushing down his throat and roaring as they poured into his meridians.
At the moment the three energies entered the meridians, Xiao Yan’s hand, which had been forming the cultivation seal, trembled. He realized that two of the energies released a fiery heat, while the third, a white energy, became ice-cold, causing a thin layer of frost to form on the walls of his meridians. This sudden shift between hot and cold caught Xiao Yan off guard, nearly pushing him out of his cultivation state. Fortunately, he reacted quickly, steadying his mind and gritting his teeth against the strange pain. He vaguely understood that these three energies resembled the three flames he had used in alchemy.
“Could it be that the so-called Three-Striped Green Spirit Pill absorbs the power of flames and imitates them?” Realizing this, Xiao Yan swiftly focused his mind inward. With a thought, a surge of green Dou Qi rushed out from his Qi nucleus, colliding fiercely with the energy of the Three-Striped Green Spirit Pill in his meridians.
*Boom…*
Hearing the dull sound inside his body, Xiao Yan let out a low groan, his face flushing red. He changed the hand seal, guiding the three energies, which had lost some of their sharpness due to the Dou Qi, to circulate rapidly along the meridian paths.
As they circulated, the three energies—two hot and one cold—entwined and merged perfectly, releasing alternating temperatures. This gave Xiao Yan a rough time. If he had known earlier that the pill’s effects would be related to the refining flames, he wouldn’t have used the Bone Spirit Cold Flame so casually…
Although the initial attack of the Dou Qi had somewhat restrained the pill’s potency, as the three energies continued to circulate, they merged into a single energy with three colors. The energy’s volume suddenly increased, and what was once an almost ethereal energy now transformed into a three-colored liquid.
As the energy expanded, Xiao Yan could faintly hear an excited roar. Before he could react, the three-colored energy surged through his meridians like a speeding train, aggressively charging along. Just as Xiao Yan prepared to exert full control, the three-colored energy trembled, splitting into countless smaller streams that rushed in all directions, even entering uncharted meridians.
A drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead, and Xiao Yan’s face twisted in pain. Cool air hissed between his teeth. Inside his body, countless tiny streams of energy brutally charged into narrow, previously unexplored meridians. The energy roared like a river, expanding the tight meridians, causing tiny cracks to appear on the walls. A faint light shone from these cracks, a sign that the meridians were about to burst…
As the cracks widened, the trailing three-colored energy left behind a trail of cold, white liquid. This chilly fluid quickly adhered to the cracking meridian walls, seeping in and causing the cracks to shrink.
Soon, the cracks disappeared, but the previously narrow meridians had dramatically widened. Similar events were happening throughout Xiao Yan’s countless meridians.
Though in excruciating pain, Xiao Yan realized that the widening and strengthening of his meridians would greatly benefit him. Once these small meridians were fully opened, he would be able to summon Dou Qi much faster, giving him a significant advantage in combat.
After clearing a small meridian, the divided energy continued forward. A low sound followed, and a stream of three-colored energy shot out from the pores on Xiao Yan’s skin.
Following the first sound, Xiao Yan’s body started to tremble, and more three-colored energy gushed out like a fountain, making him look like a perforated water pot.
The eruption lasted only a few seconds before stopping. Afterward, blood seeped from the pores where the energy had exited, drenching half of his body. The now-opened pores gradually returned to normal, but Xiao Yan could clearly feel that whenever he formed a cultivation seal, these pores, now connected to the meridians, absorbed external energy at a rate ten times faster than before.
Relieved as the pain in the small meridians subsided, Xiao Yan could now focus entirely on the largest, still-rushing three-colored energy. Watching the seemingly tireless energy, Xiao Yan felt a headache coming on. He hadn’t expected the Three-Striped Green Spirit Pill to contain such immense energy. Even the energy split from the main body had already opened many small meridians, connecting them to the skin. The main energy, after several rounds of circulation, had only been slightly refined. At this rate, how long would it take to completely refine it?
Sighing, Xiao Yan muttered, “I have no choice but to use the Green Lotus Earthfire.”
With a sigh, Xiao Yan’s mind moved, and the pool-like liquid energy in his Qi nucleus began to spin rapidly around the core, spewing green flames. Under his control, the flames surged toward the three-colored energy, causing it to churn and boil like a heated oil pot.
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