Chapter Twenty-Nine: Evolution of the Cultivation Technique

He decided to test the spiritual fire he had cultivated, acting on the thought as soon as it occurred to him. Dao Sansheng took out a piece of ore and summoned the flame from within his body. The fire licked at the ore, and before long, it melted into liquid. Now it was time to cool it. He tried out his own ice crystal as well—fire in the left hand, ice in the right, alternating back and forth. Soon, the ore was fully refined, the finished product turning transparent.

Meanwhile, Chao Xiong hadn’t even finished half a cycle. Dao Sansheng picked up another piece of ore and continued refining, his movements growing ever more skillful and rapid. By now, he could refine ten pieces in the time it took Chao Xiong to finish one.

As time passed, the number of finished products in front of Dao Sansheng grew steadily. Chao Xiong, after many hours of hard work, finally stood up, intending to rest. But when he saw the pile of refined ore before Dao Sansheng, he was so shocked he nearly fainted.

This guy had to be dreaming—he had refined in a month what an ordinary disciple would take half a year to accomplish, and yet he looked perfectly spirited.

“Senior Brother Chao, how am I doing?” Dao Sansheng called out to the still-dazed Chao Xiong.

“Excellent, excellent! Your extraction speed is on par with the Golden Core elders—it’s simply incredible. The greatest obstacle in artifact refining is melting down the ore; normally, it’s a slow, painstaking process. The most time-consuming part of crafting a spiritual artifact is refining the materials. This will greatly improve efficiency.”

“Senior Brother Chao, I think I can finish the sect’s assigned task in five months. I’ve found the cultivation conditions here quite favorable. Why don’t we stay and train for four or five months before heading out? What do you think?”

Dao Sansheng had his own motives. The two pools of water here seemed extraordinary; beneath them, he was certain, lay the flames and ice crystals he needed, which could help him ascend to a new level.

“Let’s do as you suggest, Senior Brother,” Chao Xiong replied, a bit embarrassed.

Dao Sansheng then resumed his relentless ore-refining routine. As the ore dwindled, both became wholly absorbed in their work. Time slipped by quietly, and the young woman who had led them down never appeared again. In the blink of an eye, five months had passed, and the last piece of ore in the storage pouch was refined.

They both stopped, rising to their feet as the final ore was completed. Dao Sansheng swept the pouch, collecting all the finished ore from the cave.

After six months of toil, he could finally rest. Dao Sansheng remembered the pills he’d been issued—judging from these results, they must be quite effective. He decided to try one before continuing.

Sitting cross-legged, he drew out a white porcelain vial. As he uncorked it, an intoxicating herbal fragrance wafted out. There were three pills inside, none missing. Dao Sansheng tipped the bottle, and a single white pill rolled into his palm.

It was pure and flawless. He capped the bottle and was about to store it when he noticed characters on the bottom: “Qi Gathering Pill.” Only then did he remember the cultivation-detecting lens he possessed—he could check how to use this pill.

He scanned it. His spiritual sense revealed: “Qi Gathering Pill: The most commonly used elixir for Foundation Establishment practitioners. Can be taken directly, combined with Calming Powder, or soaked in spirit wine to enhance potency. Effects vary by individual.”

He’d never heard of Calming Powder, so direct consumption it would be. He picked up the pill, tossed it into his mouth, and just as he was about to swallow, it dissolved instantly, turning to liquid that flowed down his throat to his dantian.

Once it reached his dantian, the internal flame ignited, activating the pill’s power and sending waves of spiritual energy surging through his meridians, returning to the dantian. In the cave, a vortex formed around Dao Sansheng, drawing in all surrounding spiritual energy.

From each of the two pools, a stream of fire and ice spiritual energy poured into him, his body becoming a bottomless black hole, absorbing everything.

Chao Xiong, disturbed from his cultivation, saw this and thought Dao Sansheng must have consumed some rare heavenly treasure. Now unable to meditate, he could only watch from afar.

The scene outside grew more terrifying, while inside, Dao Sansheng’s body was in chaos. His dantian grew restless again—the spiritual fire he had just suppressed began to riot. His meridians burned and ruptured in places, the pill’s energy still not fully absorbed. The remaining power was forced to repair the shattered pathways, one after another.

His scorched meridians, parched and dry, instantly absorbed the rich medicinal energy. Within his dantian, the warring ice and fire now churned like a vortex, gradually forming a pattern reminiscent of two interlocking fish, one black, one white—the yin-yang symbol. In the white pattern, an ice crystal served as the center; in the red flame, a seed of fire marked the core. Gradually, the yin-yang fish quieted, briefly splitting into black and white halves before returning to their original form.

The turmoil inside him subsided, and the chaos outside faded as well. The two pools stilled, the vortex in the cave disappeared.

Half an hour later, Dao Sansheng opened his eyes and checked his cultivation—still at the third layer of Qi Refinement, no change. With all that commotion, he’d expected a breakthrough, but now not only was his third layer stable, he also sensed he was close to breaking through to the fourth.

Chao Xiong approached. “Senior Brother, what on earth did you take to cause such a spectacle? I thought you were about to build your foundation!”

“I just took a sect-issued pill—nothing special,” Dao Sansheng replied, puzzled. Could the effect really be so strong? He still had two pills left.

“So that’s it. The first time you take a pill, the effect is particularly pronounced. Later on, the impact diminishes. Still, your results are remarkable.”

After a brief conversation, Dao Sansheng immediately began meditating again. With two pills left, perhaps he could break through the fourth layer’s bottleneck.

He produced the vial, tipped out a pill, and repeated the process—tossed it back and let it dissolve. The medicinal power entered his dantian, but this time, luck was not on his side. The yin-yang fish swirled, quickly absorbing the pill’s energy, and Dao Sansheng felt nothing at all.

He took the last remaining pill and swallowed it. Once again, the yin-yang fish in his dantian absorbed every trace of the pill’s power.

“What on earth is this?” Only now did Dao Sansheng notice the yin-yang fish spinning in his dantian. Wasn’t this the taiji symbol? How had it appeared in his dantian, and when had his fire and ice changed form?

He didn’t understand, so he checked his cultivation method with the detecting lens.

Three Lives Technique, Earth Volume

Immortal-grade cultivation method

Rank: Yellow Grade

Level: Intermediate

Skill: Devouring Black Hole, based on Yin and Yang, using ice and fire as catalysts, able to absorb and neutralize certain energies.

Requirements: None. Master chosen at random.

Cultivation method: Devour and evolve. Requires fire and ice crystals, which must be balanced.

Description: Can evolve into an immortal technique. Currently Yellow Grade, Intermediate.

The technique hadn’t advanced, but now included a yin-yang ice-fire art. It didn’t seem very powerful, but he wasn’t sure how it would perform in practice.

He had nothing else on hand, so he decided to borrow a spiritual herb to test it.