Volume 5 Chapter 23

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Volume 5 Chapter 23: Seclusion

At that moment, Xu Qingfan was teaching Bai Yu and Zhang Ningmei in the cavern, but what he was explaining was not the path of immortality, but rather the martial arts of the mortal world.

It turned out that after months of cultivation, Xu Qingfan discovered that, perhaps due to the "Qiongqi" bloodline within Bai Yu, the accumulated Earth and Metal Spirit Qi in his body could not be released. As a cultivator, Bai Yu’s Earth and Metal Spirit Qi became increasingly abundant, yet he couldn’t perform any spells.

However, due to the scarcity of information on "Qiongqi" and the "Qiongqi Family," even the data collected was unreliable. So, although Xu Qingfan judged this to be a unique trait of the "Qiongqi Family" descendants, he couldn’t determine the cause.

Despite this, Bai Yu’s cultivation wasn’t entirely useless. Each time he circulated the Earth and Metal Spirit Qi within his body, he found himself incredibly strong. Moreover, Xu Qingfan tested this by suppressing his own Spirit Qi to match Bai Yu’s level while using low-level spells, which couldn’t harm Bai Yu at all. It was as if Bai Yu’s entire body was made of metal and stone. Bai Yu’s every attack seemed as powerful as a mighty axe slicing with immense force.

Although Xu Qingfan couldn’t fathom the reason, he couldn’t just watch Bai Yu become despondent. After witnessing Bai Yu’s formidable hand-to-hand combat skills, two months ago, Xu Qingfan suddenly had an idea. He began teaching Bai Yu some basic martial arts from the "Xu Family Village" to enhance Bai Yu’s combat skills through martial arts, channeling the Earth and Metal Spirit Qi within Bai Yu.

Originally, Xu Qingfan intended this to alleviate Bai Yu’s frustration for not being able to cast spells. But to Xu Qingfan’s surprise, Bai Yu became highly interested in the martial arts taught by Xu Qingfan. He was so fascinated that he quickly set aside his frustration over the inability to cast spells.

According to Bai Yu, close-combat martial arts are the true skills a man should learn, which left Xu Qingfan and Zhang Ningmei both amused and helpless.

However, Bai Yu’s talent for martial arts was no less than his aptitude for cultivation. He had a remarkable ability to grasp various techniques, and after Xu Qingfan demonstrated them once or twice, Bai Yu could replicate them convincingly. Within just two short months, he mastered the essentials of the "Xu Family Village" basic martial arts. Combined with the formidable offensive and defensive skills he gained from cultivation, he was unbeatable against cultivators of the same level, even without learning actual spells.

Despite Bai Yu learning martial arts as a cultivator with naturally rapid progress, Xu Qingfan couldn’t help but marvel at him. Bai Yu managed to learn the Three Styles of boxing in just one day, showing a natural predisposition for martial arts due to his keen perception and character. For a restless young man like Bai Yu, martial arts were likely a better fit for him. If he were required to follow strict rules to learn the endless hand gestures and the intricate methods of manipulating Spirit Qi with those gestures, the tediousness would surely put him to sleep.

What Xu Qingfan didn’t know was that with his guidance, Bai Yu’s cultivation method had become vastly different from the traditional practices of the "Qiongqi Family" descendants.

No matter what, after seeing the excellent results of Bai Yu learning martial arts to complement his cultivation skills, Xu Qingfan divided the teaching time into three parts over the next two months. Half the time was dedicated to teaching Zhang Ningmei and Bai Yu to accumulate Spirit Qi and understand the Heavenly Way, while the remaining time was split into two parts: one for teaching Zhang Ningmei various spells and the other for teaching Bai Yu the way of martial arts.

Besides Bai Yu’s unique cultivation method and rapid progress, Zhang Ningmei also reached the early stage of the Qi Refining Stage after two months of training, quickly advancing towards the middle stage.

Just as Xu Qingfan had predicted, once Zhang Ningmei succeeded in her cultivation, her Divine Sense grew significantly stronger, requiring time to refine this enhanced ability, which slowed her cultivation pace. However, Zhang Ningmei was unconcerned, valuing the exploration of the unknown more than the speed of her progress.

Xu Qingfan often pondered over Zhang Ningmei. Though she was currently at the early stage of the Qi Refining Stage, her Divine Sense was already stronger than cultivators at the late stage of Qi Refining Stage. If Zhang Ningmei reached the Condensed Core Stage one day, how terrifyingly strong would her Divine Sense become?

Well, enough of the side talk, back to the main story.

One day, after Ting’er had been meditating in seclusion for three months, Xu Qingfan was sitting cross-legged in the courtyard, explaining martial arts to Bai Yu. Sitting beside Bai Yu, Zhang Ningmei listened attentively to Xu Qingfan’s explanations about the application of various martial techniques. Although Zhang Ningmei was not learning martial arts herself, she had an innate curiosity about the world and everything in it. As such, she often sat in to listen whenever Xu Qingfan explained martial arts to Bai Yu, whereas Bai Yu would disappear when Xu Qingfan taught Zhang Ningmei the art of spell-casting.

This time, just as Xu Qingfan was explaining two or three techniques to Bai Yu, he suddenly felt a slight tremor in his body and quickly turned his head to look at the room where Ting’er was meditating. Originally sitting cross-legged, he found himself unconsciously standing up.

Noticing Xu Qingfan’s unusual behavior, Zhang Ningmei and Bai Yu were slightly startled. They, too, stood up like Xu Qingfan and looked towards Ting’er’s room.

Moments later, a powerful aura burst forth from Ting’er’s room. With this emergence, the surrounding Spirit Qi began to swiftly surge towards the room, and everyone could clearly feel the friction as the dense, strong Spirit Qi swept past them. Their clothes fluttered in the energetic flow as if all the Spirit Qi from Jiuhua Mountain was rushing towards Ting’er’s room. The formation barriers outside Xu Qingfan’s dwelling also fluctuated under the immense waves of Spirit Qi.

The condensing Spirit Qi turned into multicolored immortal light, surrounding Ting’er’s room. Although the room was just a very ordinary wooden cabin, under the glow of this light, it looked like a realm of immortals.

To make invisible and intangible Spirit Qi become almost tangible reflects an impressive power.

A joyful expression appeared on Xu Qingfan’s face as the powerful aura in Ting’er’s room and the gathering of heaven and earth Spirit Qi indicated that Ting’er had successfully achieved Core Formation!

However, Xu Qingfan’s joy was fleeting; his expression soon grew more serious. With Ting’er’s situation, Core Formation wasn’t supposed to be this simple.

Indeed, as time passed and more Spirit Qi poured in, an anomaly appeared that differed from the usual sights of a cultivator’s Core Formation.

A wisp of black demonic energy gradually began to emerge from Ting’er’s room. As the influx of Spirit Qi increased, this demonic energy grew stronger, quickly turning into a vast, powerful black mist, enveloping Ting’er’s entire room. The surging demonic energy transformed the area around Ting’er’s room into something like a demonic realm, filled with ominous, fierce energy. Meanwhile, the heaven and earth’s Spirit Qi continued to pour into the room, making the multicolored glow filled with black demonic energy. The sight of an immortal realm and a demonic domain emerging together was all the more eerie.

Seeing this scene, Xu Qingfan had already understood the situation in his heart.

Since Ting’er was transformed by the magic pearl, her body was filled with traces of demonic energy, these energies having a strong assimilating ability. Over the years, half of the fire Spirit Qi she absorbed was transformed into demonic energy, resulting in Ting’er’s unique skill—the "Magic Fire Technique."

When a cultivator enters Core Formation, they reach a realm of harmony with nature, absorbing the world’s Spirit Qi to enhance their power and transform their body.

However, in Ting’er’s case, her body had already been transformed, and the demonic energy within absorbed the world’s Spirit Qi to strengthen itself.

Xu Qingfan was almost certain that as the world’s Spirit Qi poured into Ting’er’s body, a significant portion was assimilated by the demonic energy, which was why the demonic energy around her room grew stronger with the influx.

Although he understood this situation, Xu Qingfan could do nothing for Ting’er and was left anxious, as the Core Formation process allows no interference.

Before Ting’er secluded herself, Xu Qingfan had anticipated the various changes that might occur during her Core Formation, explaining his strategies to Ting’er after thorough consideration and even consulting Zhang Hualing, ensuring nothing would go wrong.

Despite all this, his concern still led to chaos, and when changes appeared, Xu Qingfan nervously watched Ting’er’s room, fearing something unexpected would happen.

In his anxiety, time seemed to flow unbearably slowly.