Staring at Xiao Yan, who had a bright smile on his face, Queen Medusa let out a cold snort. However, she secretly resolved that once she was free from the influence of the Heavenly Fire Venerable’s soul, she would first tear this guy to pieces! With a smile, Xiao Yan sat up from the boulder and said to Queen Medusa, “From now on, we can consider ourselves companions.”
“This is a transaction, not a partnership!” Queen Medusa retorted with a quirk of her rosy lips, completely dismissing Xiao Yan’s attempt to establish a closer relationship.
“Alright, alright, a transaction then,” Xiao Yan shrugged nonchalantly. He then chuckled, “But since we’ll be together for a whole year, I can’t just keep calling you Queen Medusa, right? How about I give you a name? Otherwise, if I call your name, others will know your identity.”
“No need for your concern!” Queen Medusa replied coldly, rejecting Xiao Yan’s offer.
“How about we call you Cai Lin? It suits you well.” Xiao Yan persisted, utterly indifferent to whether the name he chose was ordinary or not.
“Leave!” Annoyed by Xiao Yan’s incessant chatter, Queen Medusa became furious. Her beautiful eyes, filled with coldness, glared at the young man in front of her. But when she saw the warm, radiant smile on his face, for some reason, the anger in her eyes subsided slightly. She said coolly, “Queen Medusa is my name and my identity. I don’t need you to change it.”
With that, she turned around. In a flash, she sped off into the distance.
“You have already evolved into a human form, not the half-human, half-snake shape you used to have. Therefore, you naturally need a name. From now on, I’ll call you Cai Lin. Calling you Queen Medusa is too much trouble.” Xiao Yan, seemingly oblivious to any danger, shouted loudly at Queen Medusa in the sky.
Queen Medusa’s figure paused slightly, her eyes flickering for a moment. This time, however, she didn’t shout angrily. Instead, she flashed away in a streak of light towards the distance.
“Additionally, please keep an eye on the surroundings for me. Don’t let anyone disturb me, or else if something goes wrong, our deal will be void…”
Ignoring Xiao Yan’s loud remarks, Queen Medusa flashed away, disappearing over the horizon. No one knew if she had taken Xiao Yan’s words to heart.
Watching Queen Medusa disappear, Xiao Yan smiled slightly. He had finally resolved this major problem. With the so-called ‘Soul Restoration Pill’ as their deal, he no longer had to worry about the terrifying woman reappearing and killing him at any time.
“Hehe, Han Xue’s collection is indeed vast. He even had such a formula for a medicine with unique effects. I really have him to thank for solving this problem.”
Xiao Yan, stroking the Nether Sea Ring on his finger, smiled softly. He himself didn’t have the ‘Soul Restoration Pill’ formula; it was only after he found it in Han Xue’s Nether Sea Ring during his healing period.
“Now, I can finally focus on cultivating the Imperial Seal Technique…”
Stretching lazily, Xiao Yan smiled and sat cross-legged on the boulder again. His eyes closed slightly, and with a slight movement of his mind, a stream of information flowed through his heart.
Carefully studying the cultivation method of the Mountain Opening Seal, after a while, Xiao Yan frowned and opened his eyes. The Imperial Seal Technique was indeed a high-level Earth Class combat technique, and its cultivation difficulty far exceeded that of the Flame Splitting Wave.
“Apparently, I need to open three specific meridians to condense the hand seal and channel the Dou Qi to perform the technique…”
Xiao Yan furrowed his brows. Within the human body, meridians are as complex as the stars in the sky, endless and intricate. Some are so small and fragile that they could shatter with even a slight energy impact. The three specific meridians for the Mountain Opening Seal were located in obscure areas of the right arm, and opening them would undoubtedly take a lot of time.
Techniques that require opening specific meridians are usually either extremely powerful or belong to the legendary level. When Xiao Yan cultivated the Flame Splitting Wave, he did not open any specific meridians. It was clear how unique the Imperial Seal Technique was.
With a soft sigh, Xiao Yan shook his head helplessly. At this point, no matter how difficult it was to open those three meridians, he had to try. Abandoning the gift that Xun’er had painstakingly left for him would be too disrespectful to her effort.
Setting aside his emotions, Xiao Yan’s mind gradually calmed down. After a while, he entered the cultivation state.
As he entered the cultivation state, Xiao Yan’s mind quickly reached the three meridians that needed to be opened. Seeing the almost completely blocked meridians, Xiao Yan sighed again, realizing that he had a long and painful task ahead.
His mind moved slightly, and a wisp of subtle Dou Qi emerged from his body. Under Xiao Yan’s control, it circulated several times before finally reaching these remote meridians. Then, following Xiao Yan’s command, it carefully seeped into one of the small meridians.
Opening meridians is an extremely painful task. The intense pain caused by the Dou Qi expanding and unblocking the meridians is not something an ordinary person can endure. However, when the Dou Qi entered that small meridian, the expected severe pain and extreme difficulty did not appear. Although the Dou Qi flow was extremely slow due to the narrowness of the meridian, Xiao Yan could still clearly feel that the blockage was slowly disappearing…
“What’s going on?” Xiao Yan gazed at the gradually opening meridian in disbelief. How had it become so easy to open the meridians?
Of course, Xiao Yan didn’t know that when he was in a near-death state underground, the Fallen Heart Flame and the strange liquid had been engaged in a long, drawn-out battle within his body. In this battle, the greatest beneficiary was Xiao Yan’s body. Whether it was the bone marrow, the meridians, or the muscles, all were thoroughly refined in that struggle. Thus, any part of Xiao Yan’s body was more resilient than that of a cultivator of the same level.
Because his meridians had been refined, Xiao Yan found it surprisingly easy to open them. It was like a tunnel that had already been roughly shaped by someone before him. All he needed to do was clear out the remaining debris in the hidden passage.
If it were an ordinary person trying to open their meridians, they would have probably ruptured their meridians from the pressure of the Dou Qi by now. They certainly wouldn’t have made such progress.
Although Xiao Yan didn’t understand why it had become so easy to open his meridians, it had no disadvantages for him. Overjoyed, he began to continuously direct the Dou Qi to break through the blocked meridian. Under the Dou Qi’s force, the previously untouched meridian expanded at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Despite the refinements in his body making it easier to open the meridians, it was still a step-by-step process. The meridians were still too fragile, and a bit too much force would cause them to burst. Xiao Yan couldn’t take such a risk.
So, as the tedious meridian-opening process continued, Xiao Yan, growing impatient, immersed himself fully into the cultivation state, splitting his attention between two aspects.
No matter how slow the turtle’s pace, it would eventually reach its destination. On the fifth day deep in the mountains, Xiao Yan finally opened the first meridian, taking the first official step in his cultivation of the Mountain Opening Seal!
With experience from the first meridian, the next ones would be smoother. Though the speed was still slow, it would likely shock others to death if they compared it to their own struggles.
About ten days after the first meridian was opened, the second one was also successfully opened without any mishaps. This smooth progress made Xiao Yan grin from ear to ear. At this rate, he should be able to complete the opening of all three meridians in a month, and then he could officially start cultivating the coveted Mountain Opening Seal.
Time passed quietly in the deep, ancient forests. Perhaps Xiao Yan’s reminder to Queen Medusa had some effect; nothing had disturbed him since he entered the cultivation state, providing him with a peaceful environment.
When exactly one month had passed, the young man on the mountain peak, who had his eyes tightly shut, suddenly opened them, a brilliant light shooting out from his eyes. It took a while before the light gradually faded.
Xiao Yan slowly stood up from the boulder and took a deep, long breath. In just one month, he had opened three meridians. He was confident that even in Xun’er’s so-called clan, this would be considered an excellent achievement.
“Since the meridians are now open… the next step is to officially cultivate the Mountain Opening Seal!” Xiao Yan smiled, forming a rather peculiar hand seal with his right hand. As he pushed the seal forward, there was no Dou Qi to activate it, but Xiao Yan knew that it wouldn’t be long before the power emitted from this hand seal would shock even him.
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