Today I have to travel again on business, so here is only this chapter, for which I feel rather ashamed.
If senior cultivators learned of Mei Qing’s cultivation method, they might well die of anger on the spot. While the natural energies of heaven and earth are relatively easy to gather, they are far inferior in purity to one’s own innate true energy. Therefore, when drawing in the energies of the sun and moon, it is essential to refine them thoroughly, eliminating impurities that might otherwise damage the purity of one’s internal energy.
As for Mei Qing, who recklessly directed external energies to attack the internal blockage without regard for the consequences, it was extremely risky. He might easily be misled by these external forces, causing his internal energy to become impure and chaotic, thus ruining his chance to maintain a pure and clear internal state and damaging his future cultivation path.
Ignorance often breeds fearlessness, yet Mei Qing had no other choice. Every time he recalled the scene where he helplessly watched Bi Zhen being subdued by Lu Bing, his heart ached unbearably. Never before had he felt such an urgent desire for power.
Even if it meant drinking poison to quench thirst, he would not hesitate, especially since he wasn’t entirely aware of the consequences.
Fortunately, the purple flame within his body played a significant role at this time. Although it consumed all the external energy Mei Qing had drawn in, it also protected him from the potential harm of external energies.
Similar to other talisman-based cultivation methods, the practice of the Divine Thunder Method of the Divine Heaven Sect also begins with gathering the energies of the sun and moon. Generally speaking, there are various methods for gathering energy—such as drawing in the energies of heaven and earth, the sun and moon, mountains and rivers, and living vitality. While the approaches may differ, the principle remains the same: guiding external energy into the body and then refining it for one’s own use.
However, the Divine Thunder Method differs from other talisman-based cultivation methods in one important aspect—it combines both energy cultivation and alchemical practices. After drawing energy into the body, instead of simply refining and purifying it like other sects, it follows the alchemical approach, cultivating an internal sun and moon. The heart represents fire and the sun, while the liver represents metal and the moon. As these internal celestial bodies revolve, the energy is further refined and transformed into dew-like Elixir Dew (dān lù), which is then absorbed into the body.
Although Mei Qing’s golden elixir (dān) had been sealed, he had still attained a certain level of cultivation. Initially, only the heart-fire was active, but as the elixir (dān) began to form, a golden moon emerged from the kidney water. The phrase “golden arising from beautiful waters” refers to the stage where the sun and moon rise together, symbolizing the tenth month of fetal cultivation. At this point, Mei Qing’s Divine Thunder Method had advanced to a stage where the final step of nurturing the elixir (dān) could not yet be completed. However, he possessed more than sufficient capacity to draw in external energy, blending it with the purple flame.
Over these past two weeks, Mei Qing had already begun to sense the gradual erosion of the restrictive energy within him, although progress was extremely slow. The purple flame was not intentionally attacking the blockage but rather incidentally wearing it away during its struggle to refine the external energy. Naturally, one could not expect rapid progress under such circumstances.
Though Mei Qing was anxious, fearing it might take years to eliminate the blockage at this rate, he had no alternative. Aside from intensifying his morning absorption of solar essence and nightly refinement of lunar energy, he had no better path to follow.
Now, not only during the times of gathering energy at dawn and dusk, but even in his daily activities—walking, sitting, or lying down—he continuously employed the mutual refinement of internal sun and moon, constantly stimulating the purple flame’s circulation, hoping to dissolve the restrictive energy more quickly.
Each day upon arriving at the military station, Mei Qing would first take a quick round, then retreat to his room to focus entirely on cultivation. To sustain such long periods of practice, Mei Qing had to attempt releasing the gathered solar and lunar energies in fine threads, carefully controlling their release—not expending them all at once, but using only a tiny portion to stimulate the purple flame’s refining process. He also exerted great effort to prevent the energies from being consumed too quickly by the purple flame, hoping to prolong their interaction and achieve more dissolution of the restrictive energy.
This may sound relatively simple, but putting it into practice was extremely difficult. Not only did it require precise control over each thread of energy, but even the act of dividing the external energy into multiple strands nearly drove Mei Qing to madness. After all, this energy originated externally and was not his own innate energy. Without the support of his dantian, he had to rely solely on his spiritual awareness to control it—no easy feat.
But Mei Qing was determined. If it didn’t work once, he tried again; if twice failed, he tried a third time. Every day, he sat motionless in his room, focusing inwardly, carefully guiding the flow of energy. Within his body now raged a battlefield of three forces: the external energy drawn in, the refining purple flame, and the restrictive energy mass. Mei Qing was like a commander, leading one faction, entangling another, and consuming a third. Each refining session consumed so much spiritual energy that it left Mei Qing feeling utterly exhausted, as if on the brink of death.
Fortunately, his efforts were not in vain. Now, Mei Qing could finally begin to control the internal energy flow effectively, ensuring that the purple flame’s refining process was neither too fast—consuming the restrictive energy too quickly—nor too slow—failing to stimulate the desired effect due to insufficient energy input.
What Mei Qing didn’t realize was that his ability to manipulate internal energy with such precision, as if moving his own limbs, would have shocked other cultivators if they had known. Normally, only cultivators at the energy cultivation stage could command internal energy like Mei Qing did. Even then, they proceeded with extreme caution, as if walking on thin ice. For Mei Qing to guide external energy, transform it into true energy, and integrate it with the purple flame—such a level of control would have surpassed many cultivators at the energy cultivation stage.
During these days, Mei Qing appeared to others as if in a daze, absentminded about everything. Among the Fourth Unit, men like Qian San and Zhao Da merely thought their new superior had some odd habits and thus paid little attention. However, at home, Zhong Shu and Duo Yun were deeply worried, fearing Mei Qing might be slipping back into his former state of dullness and detachment.
Fortunately, Mei Qing occasionally regained clarity, repeatedly assuring them he was fine, merely preoccupied with deep thoughts. Everyone reluctantly accepted this explanation, secretly watching and worrying about him behind his back.
However, as Mei Qing’s spiritual awareness rapidly advanced, another problem arose.
At first, during his daily cultivation at the military station, he vaguely sensed something interfering with him. Initially, the sensation was subtle, so he paid it little heed. Yet as his cultivation deepened and his spiritual awareness grew stronger, he finally identified the source of this sensation—the Seven-Star Inkstone.
This inkstone itself was full of mystery, so strange occurrences were nothing new to Mei Qing. However, in recent days, the feeling had grown stronger, as if the inkstone were constantly calling to him, as though something deeply connected to him lay within it, as if it were trying to tell him something, yet he could not understand a single word.
Besides his relentless cultivation of the Divine Thunder Method day and night, Mei Qing also began to pay attention to the other two potential Daoist techniques embedded within the inkstone, especially the Thunder Sealing Art.
Sealing techniques formed a major branch of Daoist arts, highly valued by various Daoist sects and passed down through generations. It was said that these techniques originated primarily among shamans from the Wu and Yue regions, hence also being called “Yue Methods.” Historical records, such as those in the “Biographies of Daoist Practitioners” from the Later Han Dynasty, describe practitioners like Xu Deng and Zhao Bing who mastered such arts. Xu Deng could seal a stream with his breath, halting its flow; Zhao Bing could seal a dead tree, causing it to sprout anew. There were also accounts of sealing tigers and controlling fire. In fact, the applications of sealing techniques extended far beyond these examples, proving useful both in conflicts among cultivators and in daily cultivation practices.
Sealing techniques were generally divided into two main categories: “Qi Sealing” and “Incantation Sealing.” The Golden Elixir sects mainly practiced Qi Sealing and rarely utilized Incantation Sealing. In contrast, talisman sects employed both methods. The Thunder Sealing Art that Mei Qing had obtained from the Divine Heaven Sect belonged to the Qi Sealing category.
Mei Qing’s interest in the Thunder Sealing Art originated from two main reasons. Firstly, with his elixir sealed, every thought he had revolved around how to lift this restriction. As a type of sealing technique, the Thunder Sealing Art might provide useful insights. Secondly, talisman sects approached cultivation differently compared to elixir sects. While elixir sects focused exclusively on refining water and fire, balancing yin and yang, and cultivating the elixir internally for advancement, talisman sects combined both internal cultivation and external techniques, utilizing talismans and spells together with internal energy, thereby enabling faster progress.
Since the Divine Thunder Method belonged to the talisman sect, it naturally shared this characteristic. The reason these techniques were appended after the main cultivation methods was precisely because combining cultivation with practical techniques greatly benefited the advancement of Thunder Method practice. The earlier instructions had already clarified this; therefore, despite his dān being sealed, after thoroughly studying the Thunder Sealing Art, Mei Qing felt it worthwhile to at least begin practicing its foundational techniques.
The Divine Thunder Method combined the strengths of both internal alchemy and talisman sects, cultivating internal丹 (dān) and circulating internal energy. When one’s abilities reached a certain level, the丹 (dān) would guide the energy, and the energy would respond to the丹 (dān). The application of Thunder Sealing techniques also relied heavily on the combined action of丹 (dān) and energy. Since Mei Qing’s丹 (dān) was sealed, he could not truly reach the stage where seals would take immediate effect. Still, he could at least begin practicing the preliminary techniques of Qi Sealing.
The initial stages of Thunder Sealing Art cultivation were roughly divided into three steps: observing energy (chá qì), understanding the key points (zhī qiào), and fixing the芒 (dìng máng), as well as establishing the seal (jìn zhù). The essence of Qi Sealing lay in identifying the nature, five elements (wǔ xíng), and yin-yang attributes of the target. Therefore, the first step in practicing sealing techniques was to cultivate the ability to observe energy (chá qì).
Once one understood the energy flow of the target, one needed to identify its key meridian points—the so-called “qiào”—serving as the key to sealing. Since everything in the universe followed the principles of yin-yang and five elements, knowing the key points required further analysis after observing the energy flow. Once identified, a single point of energy could control the entire system, much like a skilled butcher effortlessly cutting through muscle and tendon.
The subsequent steps—Ding Mang and Jin Zhu—required the circulation of Dan and energy, which Mei Qing was not yet ready to attempt. However, even mastering the first two steps had already shown some effectiveness.
Now, Mei Qing had begun to detect the flow direction of the restrictive energy within his body. During the refining process with the purple flame, he could gradually guide the energy to target the weaker areas of the restrictive mass. This approach indeed yielded better results than before.
One day, while quietly observing the restrictive energy within his body at the military station, Mei Qing noticed that although its weakening was still limited, through his recent practice of the Thunder Sealing Art, he had begun to faintly perceive the state of his dān from its weak points.
Just as he was repeatedly searching for an opportunity to penetrate the restrictive energy, suddenly his mind stirred. The persistent, ever-present mental pull from the Seven-Star Inkstone, which had always seemed to follow him like a shadow, suddenly surged with intense strength. In response, his long-dormant dān (elixir) gave a sudden, powerful tremor!
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