Jade Rock Spirit Origin Art

Zhou Changxi's great vengeance was finally achieved, bringing a wave of joy throughout the Zhou family. Even the younger children gained a spark of bloodline ferocity, feeling both anger and heartache over their clan uncle's ordeal. Zhou Hong was so delighted that he rewarded all the servants, directly elevating two of them to village stewards. This caused the servants to feel an even more profound gratitude toward the Zhou family.

Zhou Changhe took this opportunity to have stories and theatrical plays compiled about the eastern expedition from four years ago, along with other conflicts, spreading them throughout their domain.

Naturally, in these tales, the Zhou family was portrayed as a righteous clan that saved the common people from the fires and floods of great disasters. It was solely because of the Zhou clan that the single town and four villages now enjoyed peace and tranquility.

As for Wu Siliu, Ma Datou, and the rest, even including the Liu family, they were painted as unforgivable villains of utmost evil.

Zhou Xuanya took the dozen or so spiritual plants Zhou Minghu had brought back and planted them one by one, filling the space around the Purple Gold Vine until it grew lush and vibrant.

Afterward, he began studying the methods of battling with spirits. He knew that only by forging his own strength could he avoid the covetous glares of outsiders.

Chen Fusheng, meanwhile, brought the Ghost Shadow Mirage Formation to the Earth Yin Cold Spring. He concealed the array disk in a hidden spot. The two formation flags did not require intricate placement; they merely needed to be planted opposite each other.

It was precisely because Spirit Awakening Realm formations were far too crude. Even a Spirit Awakening Realm cultivator could faintly sense the flow of Spiritual Qi within, allowing them to locate the array core and break the formation.

Without a cultivator stationed to oversee it, a formation of this level could only guard against ordinary mortals.

However, the three technique arts Zhou Minghu brought back gave Zhou Ping some measure of joy.

Starting from the Qi Condensation realm, a cultivator's spiritual power was relatively abundant. They would no longer exhaust their reserves after casting one or two minor techniques, as was the case in the Spirit Awakening Realm.

Therefore, to possess stronger offensive means, cultivators would weave several techniques together to form powerful killing moves.

Summon Wind could complement the wind blades. In a single instant, one could condense dozens of wind blades, with each blade three parts stronger than its original form. Zhou Ping named this move Wind Whirl Thousand Blades.

Guide Qi could also be combined with Wind Shadow, making it significantly swifter and more ferocious, allowing one to flee over a hundred zhang away in mere breaths.

The emergence of these two techniques allowed Zhou Ping's mastered techniques to form a rudimentary system, instantly multiplying his strength several times over.

Yet, the final wood-attribute technique, Level Ground Clear Stream, gave Zhou Ping an endless headache. It was simply too profound and difficult to grasp. Even after pondering it for several days, he had only grasped the general concept, succeeding but once every five attempts.

Over the past few days, the earth energy of Baixi Mountain had become noticeably clearer and more harmonious. Some ordinary plants visibly flourished, and even the Purple Gold Vine hummed with greater vitality.

Zhou Ping, however, suffered the consequences. His face was pale and dull, and he spent his days looking utterly weak and drained.

This was because failing to cast a technique resulted in backlash, and the stronger the wood-attribute technique attempted, the more terrifying the rebound. Level Ground Clear Stream could harmonize earth veins and earth energy across a vast area, expending an immense amount of Spiritual Qi. The powerful force of the backlash was something even Zhou Ping found difficult to endure.

Another day passed, and Zhou Ping appeared in a dark, damp room. It was deathly silent inside, filled only with the rustling sounds of crawling insects and ants-a noise that would send a freezing chill down any listener's spine.

Amidst a dense, swarming mass of Golden Border Earth Centipedes, a figure entirely bereft of human shape muttered to himself in frantic delirium.

"Dog scum, your grandpa... isn't afraid of you..."

"Ah, mm... I... uh... buried it under the pine tree... to the east..."

"Kill me... kill me..."

"Ah woo... ah woo..."

The figure continuously let out horrifying wails. Sometimes he thrashed violently, sometimes he lay deadly still, and eventually, his voice devolved into the hoarse roars of a wild beast.

Blind in both eyes, all four limbs severed, he was being gnawed upon by insects at every waking moment. He was like an isolated island in the absolute dark, mercilessly drowned by a ceaseless, tidal wave of extreme agony!

By now, Wu Siliu had been tortured to the point of complete madness, his consciousness fractured and incoherent. Through the use of certain guiding methods, Zhou Hu could naturally extract information from the mouth of a delirious madman.

"Second Master, this is the secret manual I found based on Wu Siliu's babbling." Zhou Hu bowed, respectfully presenting a rolled-up ancient text to Zhou Ping with both hands.

Zhou Ping quietly surged his Spiritual Qi, coating his palms before taking the manual.

"Do not let him die before I return."

"This subordinate understands."

Zhou Ping returned to the stone chamber at the mountain's peak and began to comprehend the secret manual in his hands. It did not take long for a look of joy to dawn on his face.

Since his capture, Wu Siliu had been subjected to a full five days of torture. For the first few days, his mind had remained clear. Though he gave up some locations, they turned out to be either beast dens or deadly traps, causing the clan soldiers sent to search to suffer miserably; some even lost their lives.

This pushed Zhou Hu past his limits of tolerance. He exhausted every cruel method of torture until he broke Wu Siliu into a madman, which finally yielded the secret manual now in Zhou Ping's hands.

Zhou Ping had not actually held much hope, but unexpectedly, this time it was real.

And it was not simply some bizarre secret technique-it was a cultivation method that could be cultivated directly to the Foundation Establishment realm!

In the cultivation world, cultivation methods naturally possessed strict grades of quality.

The most powerful among them were the supreme methods created by great almighty figures. As long as the aptitude and talent of the successors could keep up, they could sing a triumphant song along their predecessors' path, ascending to the high realms of cultivation.

It was precisely because of top-tier cultivation methods and thousand-year foundations that those great powers could produce experts in an endless stream, standing tall in the world for thousands or even tens of thousands of years!

However, these great powers guarded their secrets fiercely, leaving only low-grade cultivation methods to circulate through the wider cultivation world. Not only was progress with these methods slow, producing weak and insubstantial Spiritual Qi, but the path forward was also entirely severed.

Take the Guide Qi method Zhou Ping cultivated in the Spirit Awakening Realm. Once he reached the Qi Condensation realm, it was no longer applicable. He could only rely on Mountain Stream to forge his path forward.

But Mountain Stream could only carry him to the peak of the Qi Condensation realm. When it came time to reach the Foundation Establishment realm in the future, he would have to switch to another method to continue cultivating.

The path of cultivation was like constructing a towering pavilion on flat ground, and the cultivation method was the means by which it was built.

If one switched methods with every realm, even if the new method shared a similar origin, the Dao foundation constructed would be jagged and uneven, riddled with countless flaws.

In contrast, methods that reached the high realms directly forged a Dao foundation that was naturally seamless, much like a divine pagoda reaching into the heavens.

"Jade Rock Spirit Origin Art! Good, excellent, magnificent!" Zhou Ping stood up and burst into loud laughter.

If not for the fact that he was the cornerstone of the family and could not act recklessly, he would have wanted to disperse his cultivation and start over completely.

Although he could not cultivate it now, Zhou Xuanya and the others could. They were merely in the Spirit Awakening Realm. If they dispersed their cultivation to restart, it would take them a year or two at most to return to their current realms.

This was especially true for Zhou Chengyuan and Zhou Qianling, who had only just guided Qi into their bodies. Restarting would hardly delay them at all.

Moreover, this method also recorded a type of pill that could tremendously assist in cultivation!

"Jade Rock Green Origin Pill. Take ten liang of jadeite, half a jin of bluestone, ten Green Origin Fruits, Dragon Blood Tree, and Blood Marrow Stone..."

"When the sky is dry and the earth is parched, place the ingredients within a bronze alchemy furnace. Draw upon earth fire to refine them for seven days and seven nights, and the pill shall be formed."

"A single pill is equivalent to three months of bitter cultivation. Truly a miraculous effect!" When Zhou Ping read this line, his expression filled with fervor, but in the next instant, his face drastically changed.

"Should a mortal accidentally consume it, their physical body will transform into jade and agate, their five viscera and six bowels will suffer the constant erosion of metal and stone. Their lifespan will be cut brutally short, dooming them to die within five years!"

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