Chapter 27: Spirit Embryo Cultivation Method
Whoosh—
In the forest outside the Village of the Crippled, Qin Mu struck out with his palm. Primal energy surged from his arm like a fiery dragon coiling around it, and the air before him instantly became scorching hot, as if it had been set ablaze!
He shifted his steps, his palms striking repeatedly. The air grew hotter and hotter, like a vast yellow desert under ten blazing suns, unbearably scorching hot!
He was using the old man Ma’s fist technique, the fourth form of the Eight Sounds of Thunder: Kua Fu Chases the Sun, Wind and Thunder Urgent.
Suddenly, Qin Mu’s footwork changed, and his techniques shifted with it. Each move and stance flowed like a mighty river surging into the sea. His primal energy directly switched from fire attribute to water attribute. A water dragon formed from vapor coiled around his arm, and as he linked his moves, the sound of crashing waves echoed, as if a great flood surrounded him.
His technique changed again. His hands grasped empty air, and the water vapor coalesced into a spear, like a long dragon, churning rivers and overturning seas.
These past few days, he had been honing his skill of using primal energy to control the sword within the village, focusing entirely on refining his primal energy. However, he still needed to visualize fire first to imbue his primal energy with the fire attribute before he could execute the technique of controlling the sword with energy.
As he practiced again and again, the time needed to visualize fire grew shorter. Now, he no longer needed to look at the furnace. As long as he thought of the flames within it, his primal energy would automatically become scorching hot.
However, the Butcher’s pig-killing saber technique belonged to the Combat Technique School. Qin Mu’s progress in using it to refine his energy-controlled sword technique had been minimal.
On the other hand, practicing the old man Ma’s Eight Sounds of Thunder and Blind Man’s spear technique had yielded great results. His progress was rapid.
Now, when he executed the fourth form of the Eight Sounds of Thunder, Kua Fu Chases the Sun, Wind and Thunder Urgent, he moved like a giant sprinting. With a tremor of his palm, the air cracked and exploded—this was the power of primal energy!
Of course, the fire-attributed Vermilion Bird primal energy could not perfectly unleash the full power of the old man Ma’s Eight Sounds of Thunder. The technique was best suited for Azure Dragon primal energy.
On the other hand, the water-attributed Black Tortoise primal energy allowed him to fully express Blind Man’s spear technique.
After a long while, Qin Mu stopped. He took two Solidify Origin Pills to replenish his rapidly depleted primal energy and carefully pondered the shortcomings in his energy usage.
Previously, he could only take one Solidify Origin Pill before feeling overwhelmed to the point of madness. But ever since his spirit embryo had fallen asleep and awakened, taking two pills caused no major issues—only a slight feeling of being overstuffed.
“Solidify Origin Pills... can the demon ape eat them? Probably not. Pharmacist Grandpa said the pills contain four attributes and are poison to anyone who isn’t an Overlord Body. Maybe another day, I’ll refine a vat of Solidify Origin Pills for the demon ape.”
Qin Mu thought of the big fellow who had sparred with him. His heart stirred. He hadn’t visited the demon ape in the past few days and wondered how the beast was progressing with the “Overlord Body Three-Pellet Art.”
He leaped up, his steps swift as the wind, heading toward the demon ape’s territory. After all, he was still a youth. In the village, everyone was his elder, and he had no friends. His bond with the demon ape had been forged through their fight, and after a few days apart, he found himself missing the creature.
Before long, Qin Mu arrived outside the valley where the demon ape lived. Suddenly, a mountain-like figure rose from the forest—it was the demon ape.
In just a few days, the ape had grown even more robust. Seeing Qin Mu, it was overjoyed. It beat its chest and gestured for Qin Mu to jump onto its shoulder.
Qin Mu leaped onto its shoulder. The demon ape bounded like the wind, carrying him into the valley and deeper inside.
This was Qin Mu’s first time entering the demon ape’s lair. The valley was filled with wild deer, horses, some musk deer, and silly moose. At the heart of the valley lay an ancient ruin—crumbling walls and broken pillars, utterly dilapidated.
The demon ape’s dwelling was a half-collapsed palace. In front of it stood a broken stone statue, half-beast and half-human. Qin Mu activated his Divine Firmament Heavenly Eye and felt a tremor in his heart.
This stone statue was the same as the one in the Village of the Crippled. Under the Divine Firmament Heavenly Eye, the divine aura within the statue seemed to manifest as a towering beast god—fierce, malevolent, and radiating overwhelming power!
“It seems the demon ape relies on this statue every night to fend off the darkness and survive.”
“Such extraordinary divine aura... Could this also be a statue carved by a god for a god?”
Qin Mu jumped down from the demon ape’s shoulder. A silly moose wandered up, sniffed the corner of his clothes, and chewed on it as if it were food.
The demon ape gently picked up the moose, set it aside carefully, and then waved for Qin Mu to follow.
It was the ruler of this valley and also its protector, guarding these animals. It was only fierce toward intruders.
Qin Mu followed it into the dilapidated palace and immediately frowned. The place reeked of wild beasts—likely, the valley’s animals also entered the palace at night to escape the darkness.
“Little one, look!” The demon ape pointed at a wall.
Qin Mu looked up. On the palace wall were some broken murals, mottled and faded. Some parts had peeled off, others had lost their color. Only a few murals remained relatively intact.
These murals depicted people practicing cultivation. Some arrows inside the figures indicated the flow of primal energy.
Qin Mu studied them for a moment, then his heart skipped a beat. He recognized the energy-guiding paths of the “Overlord Body Three-Pellet Art”!
The demon ape must have practiced the art and noticed the similarity to the mural, so it had brought him here!
But Qin Mu quickly noticed discrepancies. The first mural was indeed a guide for the Overlord Body Three-Pellet Art, but the second was different. Though it still followed the same paths, it was more complex.
The second mural’s energy-guiding path led into the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury at the center of the brow!
After the energy entered the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury, the third mural showed the guiding path within that treasury. The energy was not directly breathed in and out by the spirit embryo; instead, it formed a wondrous energy array pattern beneath the spirit embryo’s feet.
This array pattern was extremely complex, even surpassing the Divine Firmament Heavenly Gang Array Pattern that Blind Man had taught him. Qin Mu studied it intently, memorizing it, while simultaneously using his own primal energy to simulate the pattern beneath his spirit embryo’s feet.
Once he formed the spirit embryo array pattern, his body trembled slightly. He immediately felt a mysterious connection linking him and his spirit embryo!
When he breathed, the spirit embryo breathed too. When he moved, the spirit embryo made the same motion. When he activated the Overlord Body Three-Pellet Art, the spirit embryo did the same!
Qin Mu was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed: “Doesn’t this mean it’s like two of me cultivating together?”
But he quickly realized that the spirit embryo activating the Overlord Body Three-Pellet Art did not increase his primal energy cultivation. Instead, it refined the energy.
His primal energy traveled through the array pattern beneath the spirit embryo’s feet, absorbing the golden light from the Golden Sea, then entered the spirit embryo’s body. When the spirit embryo exhaled, the energy, now fused with the golden light, became tougher and purer.
Previously, his spirit embryo had also faintly absorbed the golden light, but not as efficiently as the array pattern recorded in the third mural.
“Could this be the cultivation method for the Spirit Embryo realm of the Overlord Body Three-Pellet Art?”
Qin Mu’s heart pounded. The Village Chief had said he didn’t know the subsequent techniques of the Overlord Body. He never expected to find the Spirit Embryo realm technique here!
He looked at the fourth mural and frowned. It had fallen off, leaving only half. It should have recorded the Five Elements realm technique.
There were claw marks on this mural, likely from animals that had lived here and destroyed it.
The fifth mural was also very incomplete. The sixth had mostly fallen off, and the later murals were so damaged they were barely recognizable.
“This palace is already this ruined. I wonder how much longer these murals will last.”
Qin Mu sighed. It was already remarkable that a few murals had survived to this day. He fully memorized the second and third murals, then silently reviewed them several times before feeling at ease.
Even if all the murals in the palace were destroyed, they would live on through him, to be passed down to the next “Overlord Body”!
Few complete murals remained on the palace walls. Besides the “Overlord Body Three-Pellet Art,” one other mural was relatively intact.
It was a map. Qin Mu studied it carefully and found the location of the Yong River. His heart stirred: “Could this be a map of the Great Ruins?”
He traced the Yong River bit by bit, following its curves and turns, until he found the location of the Village of the Crippled.
“Huh? Why is there a dragon drawn here?”
Qin Mu’s gaze fell on the map about a hundred miles upstream from the village. There, on the Yong River’s map, a dragon was drawn, which was puzzling.
“Yong River Dragon King!”
Qin Mu’s heart trembled. Beside the dragon were written the four characters “Yong River Dragon King.” He didn’t know what it meant.
This map had other strange places too. Thirty miles east of the Village of the Crippled, a well was drawn, with the words “Celestial Well Dragon King” beside it.
Another place also had a well, labeled “Sea Eye Dragon King.”
He also saw a ship drawn in a more distant part of the Great Ruins map, with a sun painted on it. Beside it were the words “Sun Ship.” Not far from the Sun Ship was a place called “Sun Well,” while far away was a “Moon Ship” with a moon painted beside it. Next to the Moon Ship was another strange place called “Moon Well.”
Qin Mu searched the map but did not find the ancient temple in the river that suppressed Wu Girl, nor the Inlaid Dragon City a thousand miles downstream.
“Could this map be from before the Great Ruins catastrophe?”
Qin Mu searched a bit more, and his heart leaped. He found the canyon ruin where he had once hidden from the darkness, but on the map, it was labeled not as a ruin, but as “Goddess Pass”!
“It really is a map from before the Great Ruins catastrophe!”