Chapter 152: 14: When in Doubt within, Consult Qing Ping

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Having returned to the belly of Shiping Mountain and said farewell to Jiang Liyan, Wei Dongliu went to check on Guo Jin’s condition.

At that moment, Guo Jin was sitting upright on the stone bed, adopting the Five Hearts Facing the Sky position for Qi Refinement, breathing in and out slowly, opening up his Qi Sea.

The Cadaverous Yin Needle given to him by Jiang Liyan lay wrapped in black cloth on the stone table beside him and seemed untouched since he had returned.

The thousand-year-old Polygonum multiflorum that Wei Dongliu had left him before descending the mountain had been partially consumed, with the remainder sitting untouched in a pot—such aged Polygonum was particularly resistant to hunger and excellent for Fasting.

The “Dispersing Demons and Invoking Spirits, Dividing the Clear from the Turbid Scripture” from Tai Yi the Mysterious True Person also contained methods for Fasting and Qi Refinement.

These foundational entry-level steps were largely the same across all major sects; even the Fasting and Qi Refinement methods of Kunlun were not significantly superior.

Having confirmed that Guo Jin was still diligently cultivating, Wei Dongliu leisurely returned to his own room, also assumed the Five Hearts Facing the Sky posture, and began to circulate his mental method.

Being at the Refining Mansion realm himself, he circulated the mental method from the “Dispersing Demons and Invoking Spirits, Dividing the Clear from the Turbid Scripture” for a moment and felt his Qi Sea suddenly become heavy, as if a weight were hanging in his lower abdomen.

Nowadays, whether it’s the Three Pure Ones of the Orthodox Sects, the Six Paths of the Demon Cult, as well as the Buddhist and Confucian sects and other heterodox paths, there were myriad methods of breathing, but their essence all boiled down to refining the turbid and purifying the clear.

That is, to refine and expel the turbid Qi within the body and to absorb Pure Qi from the outside world to constantly purify.

The reason is straightforward: the Pure Qi is ethereal, whereas the turbid Qi is dull.

The former, being light and agile, can be refined into True Qi, used for powering spells, improving physique, advancing realms, and so on.

The latter, being muddy, is practically immovable and thus unusable.

For these turbid Qis, the Orthodox Sects would typically discard them entirely, expelling them from the body.

The Demon Cults, on the other hand, often retain a tiny amount of turbid Qi and use Demonic cultivation methods to refine it into Demonic Qi, cautiously storing it within the Qi Sea. When necessary, they push it out wrapped in True Qi in combination with cultivation techniques to harm others.

This so-called Demonic Qi is millions of times more inert than turbid Qi, extremely difficult to eradicate, much like venom:

Corrupting Magic Artifacts, rendering them unresponsive; hitting cultivators, blocking their meridians and stripping them of cultivation levels… a particularly insidious and malignant form of magical combat.

Before long, Wei Dongliu inverted the circulation of the mental method of the “Dispersing Demons and Invoking Spirits, Dividing the Clear from the Turbid Scripture,” transforming all his True Yuan into Demon Origin.

For an ordinary Demon Path Cultivator, such a feat would be impossible. With the Jade Mansion filled completely with Demon Origin, they would have met their end by exploding Dantian.

But Wei Dongliu possessed a Chaotic Demon Body, within which any Demonic Qi could flow as freely as Pure Qi… This included the condensed essence of Demonic Qi, the Demon Origin.

After the transformation was complete, Wei Dongliu stood up and looked into a bronze mirror.

What he saw startled him.

The man in the mirror had distinct handsome features, with no changes in size or position.

But the iris of the eyes had turned from brown to pitch black, the hair from jet black to dark red, and although the skin tone had dimmed, there was no sense of weakness from a “loss of blood color.” Instead, it carried an additional air of evil rebellion.

Quite the dashing Demon Lord!

“Tsk tsk tsk,” the Kunlun Mirror didn’t speak in the Sea of Consciousness but just clicked its tongue.

Knowing that Ah Jing was taunting him for “self-praise” and “shamelessness,” Wei Dongliu said sternly,

“What’s there to click your tongue at? Has Ah Jing never seen such a charming and attractive Demon Lord before?”

“Alright, alright, whatever you say,” the Kunlun Mirror replied helplessly.

Wei Dongliu couldn’t be bothered with it and simply flicked his left hand in the air several times, setting up an isolation Formation.

Raising his right arm, he gestured and the Myriad Demons Evil Spirit Sword sprang up from the case and flew towards him.

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The hilt fell into his palm, and as the rich Demonic Origin poured into it, the wails of myriad ghosts immediately rose.

One could only hear those cries filled with grief and yearning, weeping and lamenting, each thread piercing the ear, every sound startling the soul.

Even Wei Dongliu, with his stalwart determination, found it somewhat unbearable to withstand the wailing of these ghosts, relying on the help of the Kunlun Mirror to stabilize his mind.

What a piece! This Myriad Demons Evil Spirit Sword truly lived up to its reputation as an Eleventh Rank Immortal Sword! Even with no one deliberately invoking it, and at its lowest power, the wails of myriad ghosts could still ensnare a cultivator like me in the Refining Mansion phase.

If I were to drive it with all my strength, wouldn’t I have the power to battle a Golden Core True Person?

“It’s pretty good for ambushing,” the Green Duckweed Sword spoke.

“Qing Ping ah,” Wei Dongliu chuckled inwardly, I’ve been waiting for you to speak, “Everything else about this sword is fine, but the cries of these myriad ghosts cannot be controlled freely.”

“It can’t be that every time I unsheathe my sword, the cries of the ghosts are heard within dozens of miles, can it? The facade of my mysterious character is about to crumble… Do you have a way to tame this Myriad Demons Evil Spirit Sword, like you did with the Thunder Punishment Sword last time?”

“How can I train it if the sword has no Sword Spirit?” said the Green Duckweed Sword with a chuckle.

“No Sword Spirit?” Wei Dongliu’s brows furrowed, his gaze suddenly sharp, “How can an Eleventh Rank Immortal Sword be without a Sword Spirit?”

“First of all, there’s no such thing as an Eleventh Rank Immortal Sword,” interjected the Kunlun Mirror, “Secondly, not all Immortal Swords possess a Sword Spirit.”

“That’s right,” the Green Duckweed Sword agreed, “If I’m not mistaken, the previous owners of this sword never properly nurtured it.”

“How can a Sword Spirit exist for a heartless Sword Master?”

“In that case,” Wei Dongliu still refused to give up, and continued to ask, “There has to be some other way to suppress the cries of the myriad ghosts, right?”

“To suppress the cries of the myriad ghosts, you first need to know why there are cries at all,” the Green Duckweed Sword said indifferently, “This sword is forged with netherworldly iron and refined with the water of Netherworld. Both possess a mighty ability to bind souls.”

“You mean to say…”

“The so-called cries are the lamentations of the thousands of beings slain by this sword, whose part of the soul was seized by it,” the Green Duckweed Sword responded, “Because of the sheer volume, their collective cries shock the heart and scatter the soul.”

“If you want to silence these cries, it’s quite simple… just roast them in the Red Lotus Karma Fire for a few days to kill and remove all the souls, and the cries will naturally disappear.”

“How can that be?” Wei Dongliu couldn’t help laughing, “I don’t want to eliminate the cries of the myriad ghosts; I only wish to make them from uncontrollable to controllable.”

“In other words, they cry only when I want them to cry; and when I don’t, they stay silent without making a peep.”

Green Duckweed Sword: ………

Faced with a Sword Master who always makes unreasonable demands, it’s really troublesome and bothersome…

“There is a way, after all.” The Green Duckweed Sword pondered for a long while, then sighed and said, “These souls don’t have much sense, merely driven by the lingering pain of death, which is why they cry.”

“However, death is not only accompanied by persistent pain but by immense fear as well.”

“All you need to do is channel the Five Metals Qi through the sword, which will terrify these souls into silence, afraid to make a sound.”

“I see,” Wei Dongliu feigned sudden understanding, “Then what is the ‘Five Metals Qi,’ and what does it mean to ‘channel it through the sword’?”

“Five Metals Qi is the Qi of slaughter,” the Green Duckweed Sword said helplessly, “You can use your own Shangyang Sword Qi from the Lesser Mansion.”

“As for channeling it through the sword, I have a technique here called the ‘True Spirit Seal Sword Technique,’ which allows Daoist Magic to adhere to the Flying Sword. Listen carefully now…”

“Mhm, go ahead, Qing Ping.” Wei Dongliu immediately perked up and started to listen to the Green Duckweed Sword explaining the technique.

Indeed, when unsure about external matters ask Ah Jing, and for internal matters consult Qing Ping!

With their assistance, why worry that Tao will be hard to seek?