Imperial Cultivation

The residence was swept clean, empty, and desolate, with only an old couple as gatekeepers and no other servants.

Chu Zhiyuan arrived at the study in the backyard of the residence.

The books in the study were still there, mostly miscellaneous records, with few related to martial arts.

The previous owner probably didn't practice martial arts.

Besides the carved desk in the study, there was also a carved cloud-pattern Luohan bed against the east wall for napping.

Chu Zhiyuan sat cross-legged on the Luohan bed, closed his eyes, and expanded his super-sense to encompass the Hou Tu Hall, focusing on Feng Zhihao.

The lanterns in the backyard of Hou Tu Hall were extinguished, and the cold moonlight灑落.

Feng Zhihao, naked, moved around the small training ground, casting a string of afterimages.

The cold wind blew the rising white vapor around his body.

As he moved, he constantly extended his palms forward, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, the direction abrupt and bizarre, making it impossible to defend against.

It vaguely resembled a snake moving rapidly, its tongue hissing out.

The structure of a snake is different from that of a human, often allowing it to make movements that humans cannot. The same movements appear strange and unimaginable when performed by a human.

This is where the power of this palm technique lies: extreme speed and strangeness.

Chu Zhiyuan shook his head.

He knew Feng Zhihao was extremely frustrated.

This palm technique was fast and strange, impossible to defend against, but he hadn't had the chance to use it before being interrupted, unable to unleash its power.

He surmised that the frustration of being constantly suppressed had made Feng Zhihao extremely angry, resentful of his own incompetence, and only this self-abusive hard training could alleviate it somewhat.

Chu Zhiyuan secretly compared.

The 'Shichitenya Step' and the 'Great Avalanche Swordplay' were about pushing power to the extreme, equivalent to a one-shot deal, violating the common sense of martial arts.

Martial artists usually use seven parts of their strength, reserving three parts to respond to changes, and would not go all-in unless in desperate situations.

Others use seven parts of their strength, but he uses ten, so it's almost impossible for someone of the same realm to be his opponent.

Not to mention Feng Zhihao was only at the Second Level, even someone like himself at the Third Level would not be his opponent.

There were very few unique skills in the world that could match the 'Great Avalanche Swordplay' and the 'Shichitenya Step', and he also had the 'Local Origin Art' to complement them.

Feng Zhihao practiced hard in the moonlight and cold wind, again and again, until he was exhausted before dragging his heavy body into the warm quiet room.

He took down the landscape painting, revealing the Earth Venerable Diagram, and he sat down with difficulty on the bed opposite, crossed his knees, and slowly calmed his breathing.

After a bout of self-abusive hard training, his mind gained a brief moment of peace, making it the best time to practice.

The room was warm like spring, he was naked, his hands formed a seal, and his lips made a mouth shape. Chu Zhiyuan determined it was the word 'Suppress'.

Feng Zhihao's gaze fell on the word 'Suppress' on the Earth Venerable Diagram.

Super-sense accurately perceived that his gaze was not only on the word 'Suppress', but also on the mountain next to 'Suppress'.

If he didn't have super-sense, even if he saw Feng Zhihao practicing with his own eyes, he wouldn't be able to truly understand the range of Feng Zhihao's gaze.

Feng Zhihao changed a hand seal, his lips forming the shape of the word 'All', his gaze falling on the word 'All', and also on the blue sky next to the word 'All'.

Chu Zhiyuan pondered while carefully observing.

This was the unity of heart, mouth, and intention. This Earth Venerable Diagram was equivalent to a visualization diagram.

He knew the path of royal cultivation from Chu Qingfeng's mouth: 'Lesser Violet Sun Art' for foundation building, 'Greater Violet Sun Art' for Qi training, and 'Violet Sun True Scripture' for spirit refinement.

Upon reaching the Grandmaster realm, one had to study the 'Violet Sun True Scripture', which contained the 'Violet Sun Visualization Diagram'.

He had speculated that the diagram hanging in the Ming Martial Hall was the 'Violet Sun Visualization Diagram', and upon reaching the Great Grandmaster level, the 'Violet Sun Realm' manifested on Chu Qingfeng would appear.

According to the cultivation sequence of the 'Violet Sun True Scripture', one could not refine the spirit right away. One had to first refine essence, then refine Qi, and finally refine the spirit.

'Lesser Violet Sun Art' refines essence, 'Greater Violet Sun Art' refines Qi, and 'Violet Sun True Scripture' refines the spirit. Only then would one use the visualization diagram.

Breaking this order and directly refining the spirit was certainly a shortcut that could speed up cultivation progress, but it would damage the primordial spirit, inevitably leading to an unstable foundation, greatly increasing the difficulty of achieving Great Grandmaster.

Great Grandmaster was already difficult to achieve, and this increased difficulty almost cut off the path to Great Grandmaster.

To become a Great Grandmaster, those damaged primordial spirits needed to be replenished. If they couldn't be replenished, the Great Grandmaster's aura wouldn't appear, and most people would waste away in the Grandmaster realm.

He got up and paced back and forth with his hands behind his back.

Could it be that he couldn't practice this 'Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture'?

That phoenix pattern could enhance his mental power, so was it also enhancing his primordial spirit?

He finally decided not to act rashly.

This involved the Great Grandmaster realm and he must not damage his primordial spirit for the sake of speed.

But if he didn't practice this 'Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture', he wouldn't know if it was the path of incense and faith.

The path of incense and faith was absolutely forbidden by the imperial court.

After spending a whole day, he finally determined that the phoenix pattern could enhance his primordial spirit, and the increase in mental power was also due to the enhancement of the primordial spirit.

——

The bright moon hung obliquely, illuminating the myriad lights of Jade Capital City.

In the quiet room of the residence next to Phoenix Avenue, Chu Zhiyuan formed hand seals, just like Feng Zhihao in the backyard of Hou Tu Hall.

While forming hand seals, he silently recited the nine words in coordination with the hand seals, while observing the texts and patterns of the diagram.

After forming the hand seals nine times, a strange feeling arose spontaneously, as if he had transformed into the Earth Venerable in the diagram.

At the same time, the Earth Venerable statue in the main hall of Hou Tu Hall suddenly lit up, and a ray of light shot towards him, and a small ray of light also shot towards Feng Zhihao.

The two rays of light were of different sizes, the ray of light shooting towards him was as big as a fist, and the ray of light shooting towards Feng Zhihao was as small as a fingernail.

He estimated it was the difference in primordial spirit or mental power.

This ray of light landed on the Laogong points of his palms, turning into a white and yellowish aura, gentle and mellow.

After several times, Chu Zhiyuan revealed a smile.

He didn't believe that all the disciples of Hou Tu Sect could receive this secret transmission. The power on the Earth Venerable statue shouldn't be so much, it needed to be condensed and accumulated.

Rays of light shot over, and after the Laogong points of his palms had a feeling of swelling and pain, they automatically entered the Yongquan points. When the Yongquan points could no longer be irrigated, he stopped his movements.

This Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture didn't use the dantian as a container, but the Laogong points of the palms and the Yongquan points of the feet.

The Laogong points of the palms were Imperial Heaven, and the Yongquan points of the feet were Houtu.

His figure flashed and appeared in the courtyard, and the Clear Shadow Sword kept stabbing out, and the Great Avalanche Swordplay was performed again and again.

After fifty-five swords, he was finally exhausted, but there was no feeling of his meridians shattering. He activated the Local Origin Art to continue performing the Great Avalanche Swordplay.

After more than a hundred swords, his meridians were in excruciating pain, and the Clear Shadow Sword returned to its sheath.

He used the Dragon Transformation Art to guide the power of the four rays of light to circulate through the meridians, and the meridians quickly recovered, with immediate effect.

He repeated this process once, forming hand seals, chanting mantras, and visualizing, and rays of light shot from the Earth Venerable statue, and both his feet and hands were filled with a white and yellowish warm and mellow aura.

After performing more than a hundred swords of the Great Avalanche Swordplay again, his meridians were damaged.

This time he didn't use the Dragon Transformation Art, but directly guided the four rays of aura into the meridians, following the path of the Great Circulation, nourishing the meridians.

The meridians were recovering quickly, but compared to using the Dragon Transformation Art to stimulate them, the recovery speed was about five times slower, a world of difference.

The Dragon Transformation Art combined with the power of this Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture was miraculous for healing!

So was this ultimately the power of incense and faith?

After a long while, he sat cross-legged on the couch and activated the Jade Lock Golden Gate Art.

This time he condensed nine Dragon Binding Cords in one breath.

He didn't dare to condense so many Dragon Binding Cords before, but now with the power of the Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture, he was bolder.

……

A quarter of an hour later, he opened his eyes, and a sharp light burst out from his eyes, and then returned to clarity.

The fourth floor had been broken through, and his cultivation had entered the fifth level of the Congenital realm.

His meridians were about to shatter, so he hurriedly used the power of the Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture to activate the Dragon Transformation Art, and after a cup of tea, his meridians recovered.

This high efficiency made him speechless.

Unfortunately, this power could only be used to heal the meridians, and could not strengthen the meridians like the power cultivated by the Dragon Transformation Art.

One was for healing, and the other was for body refining, two different routes.

With the power of the Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture, he dared to take risks.

So he used the Jade Lock Golden Gate Art again, preparing to attack the fifth floor of the Jade Tower. When he condensed the eighth Dragon Binding Cord, a warning sign arose in his heart.

The true Qi after the breakthrough was far superior to before, and the meridians could only withstand seven Dragon Binding Cords, even with the Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture.

So he didn't continue to condense the Dragon Binding Cords, and only used seven Dragon Binding Cords to attack the Jade Tower together.

The result was unsurprisingly a failure.

His meridians were in pain again and about to collapse, and the Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture activated the Dragon Transformation Art to quickly restore the meridians.

He shook his head helplessly.

The root was still the Dragon Transformation Art, and he still had to train his meridians, and he couldn't rely on the Imperial Heaven Houtu Scripture for training his meridians, but had to rely on the Lesser Marrow Cleansing Pill and other spiritual medicines.

Feng Zhihao had already fallen asleep, his brows still tightly furrowed.

Over the past few days, Feng Zhihao's anger and unwillingness had not diminished, but had become even more intense, driving him to cultivate desperately.

Chu Zhiyuan shook his head.

The young man was too competitive and needed to be tempered properly.