Chapter 57: Achievement—First Blood

He himself, on the other hand, was unburdened and at ease. For several days after returning home, he lingered intimately with Lin Yunjiao, avoiding the eyes of others and meeting her in secret. During those days, he also found time to meet his childhood friends, Ning Sichen and Huang Yuyan, both his age.

They were brothers who had grown up together, sharing everything down to a single pair of shorts; emotionally and morally, he was obliged to help them a little. So, in a roundabout way, he told them that a great upheaval was likely coming to the Dayue Dynasty, and that if they could move elsewhere, they should. He also passed on to them a method for cultivating vital energy—a technique for the Spirit-Refining stage that he had once exchanged for at the Skystaring Tower.

This method, called the "Dawn Mist Breath-Feeding Technique," was something produced by the Rankings and thus could not be transferred to others. But those obtained by other means were a different story. The high-tier techniques he mastered could not be shared, so he only gave them the initial versions of the Fivefold Leaving Fire Method and the Cloud-soaring Technique. He also gave each five bottles of supreme Vitality-Nurturing Pills for laying a solid foundation.

The pills were concocted according to the Rankings' recipes, with ingredients easily found even in the mortal world, and their effects were excellent. With five bottles each, even those less gifted could, after a year or two, reach the peak of the Vitality-Nurturing stage. That way, mingling in the mortal world, they would not have to fear for their lives. It was a token of brotherly care.

Ning Sichen and Huang Yuyan were naturally overjoyed. Before, they had no idea what Cao Chengyu had been up to, and now they realized—he had gone off to cultivate immortality! They had promised to grow old together, but he had secretly set out on the path to eternal life—absurd!

They took his warnings to heart. Upon returning home, they told their families, though whether they would move or not still depended on circumstances. Perhaps once they had entered the path and could display some immortal means, their persuasion would be greater.

As for the crisis looming over Dayue, Cao Chengyu himself did not know when it would break out; it was all up to fate. With arrangements in place for his two friends, the Cao family’s relocation officially began. The ancestral deed was not sold, as a memento for everyone, but all else that could be sold was sold. They also hired three mortal escort agencies—Tiger Might, Everlasting Forest, and Wild Wave—for protection along the way.

Cao Chengyu did not object, since he still had to go to Luozhou to find Ning Wenjun. With these escorts, there was at least no need to worry about bandits. On the carriage, he told his parents that he was going to Luozhou to visit a friend and would return soon. Their destination in Wu was a remote small city called Green Ox City, and he would go there directly when the time came.

After being urged to take care, Cao Chengyu slipped away to Lin Yunjiao’s carriage. Inside, the carriage was lined with furs, luxuriously decorated—the Lin family still had some wealth.

Lin Yunjiao looked at Cao Chengyu in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes were burning with intensity. This journey ahead was uncertain; he intended to scout out the towns along the way, using the Small Six Ren Palm Divination to thoroughly investigate what hidden schemes Dayue had laid in various places. The future was indeed unpredictable. Sending his family away was one thing; he still had to take risks himself. Who knew what plans those Golden Core masters were spinning—if disaster extended beyond Dayue, things would be dire. At the very least, he needed to understand what these people were truly after.

Now, with the enemy in the open and himself in the shadows, he had the advantage in gathering information, though the dangers remained great. Before leaving, he needed to shed one identity and fulfill an old wish.

“Lin Yunjiao, is there anything cold to drink today?”

“Cold? What cold thing? I suppose there is.” Lin Yunjiao gave him a curious look, thinking he seemed rather odd.

“As long as there is.” Cao Chengyu pounced, embracing her delicate form.

“Aren’t you afraid?” she asked.

“Afraid?” Cao Chengyu raised a brow. “In my life, I’ve never known fear. Don’t worry, the coachman and guards can’t hear a thing—I just used magic to shield the carriage.”

“Wait for me to come back.”

With that, he kissed her forehead, and a swirl of yellow clouds whisked him away. Lin Yunjiao was left alone in the carriage.

“Heartless little scoundrel, running off with your pants barely on,” she muttered.

High above, riding a yellow cloud, Cao Chengyu’s eyes gleamed as he opened a final treasure chest he had obtained from Lin Yunjiao. One hundred affection points—the reward for crossing the last threshold—yielded a superior treasure chest. Only he could see the flash of golden light.

As expected, it contained the Dao Physique chapter of the Yellow Court Scripture. In addition, there was a dual cultivation auxiliary method called the Azure Dragon Yin-Yang Dao Canon. Two items from one chest—a first for him. Perhaps only the superior chests offered such bounty.

Upon absorbing the Dao Physique chapter, he found its effects continued the lineage of the Yellow Court Scripture, further enhancing his aptitude and insight. It also provided a method for cultivating the Dao Physique realm.

It turned out that the so-called Dao Physique realm, aside from forging the Dao Physique itself, revolved around the cultivation of the Dao Physique. Take the Fivefold Rotating Organ Body, for example—the ultimate goal of this constitution was to nourish the five organ spirits, corresponding to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

The five organ spirits could merge with spells to enhance their power, merge with the body to increase physical strength, or merge with the divine aperture at the brow to strengthen spiritual sense—truly all-purpose. Moreover, the mutual generation of the five elements meant that when all five were fused together, one’s power could increase fivefold at minimum—a truly terrifying prospect.

To cultivate the five organ spirits, one had to nurture the tiny pearl left in each organ by the millennium five-element spirit pearls used in forging the Dao Physique. The heart’s fire spirit must be nourished by the wood aura released by the liver’s wood spirit; the liver’s wood spirit, in turn, required nourishment from the water aura released by the kidney’s water spirit. Thus, each of the five organs and elements generated and nurtured each other in rotation—this was the origin and core principle of the Fivefold Rotating Organ Body.

Fortunately, he had used spirit pearls of the same origin to forge his Dao Physique. Had he used disparate materials, cultivation at this stage would have been much slower. For example, the Flameheart Fire-Devouring Grass, though classified as a fire-type spirit, was essentially still a grass, and how could such a thing nurture a fire spirit? Cao Chengyu could not help but feel relieved.

Thus, cultivation at the Dao Physique stage for the Fivefold Rotating Organ Body involved absorbing spiritual energy, converting it to magic power, and using that to stimulate the different spirit pearl seeds, nurturing them in turn. Once all five organ spirits were fully formed, one would be at the late Dao Physique stage, and one’s magic power would greatly advance thanks to the infusion of the five-element auras.

If he had merely a typical fire spirit body, breaking through would require only seeking out a place rich in fire aura. Clearly, the further one progressed on the path of immortality, the greater the requirements for blessed lands. Wealth, companions, method, and land—all were indispensable, and for Cao Chengyu, this was doubly true.

Fortunately, the Fivefold Rotating Organ Body was different from ordinary constitutions. With the five-element seeds remaining within, all that was needed was to stimulate them with magic power; the environment was of little concern. As long as there was spiritual energy, it would suffice.