CHAPTER 75: CHAPTER 75: HUNYUAN

He had practiced like a madman, day and night, enduring bitter cultivation until this moment.

At last, when faced with the great terror of life and death, he had comprehended his own path.

Qi Xiu had no time to rejoice.

The slender, soft, yet terrifyingly powerful jade-like hand above his head was already descending.

His eyes clear, Qi Xiu raised his hand to meet the palm, a purple-gold red gourd insignia appearing in its center!

CRACK—

It was like a thunderclap on a clear day. The sound was deafening.

The blast wave from the sudden explosion materialized as a visible shockwave, rampaging and sweeping through everything.

Everything in the courtyard shattered; even the walls spiderwebbed with countless fissures.

Surrounding residents fled in panic, thinking an explosion had occurred.

Staggering back three steps, Qi Xiu shook his arm, his eyes revealing confusion.

A Cultivator of Dao?

Jia Yufei, standing rooted to the spot, looked surprised.

This fellow had taken her palm strike yet had only retreated three steps. Indeed, he has some skill.

A hint of amusement touched Jia Yufei’s face. She shifted her stance, her movements as graceful as a fluttering butterfly, and lunged at Qi Xiu again, trailing illusory afterimages.

Still coming?

Qi Xiu, having just comprehended a new path and wishing to consolidate it, felt a chill in his eyes as this strange woman attacked again without a word.

So aggressive, and her attacks are meant to kill. Then I shall...

Purple energy surged upward, while a clear stream rushed downward. The two powers instantly converged at his heart.

A cold glint in his eyes, Qi Xiu made a grasping motion with his right hand, and a faint, colorful light began to emerge in his palm.

But just as he was about to deliver a killing blow to this madwoman, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of Song Tingye standing at the doorway, looking in.

Him?

In an instant, a hundred thoughts raced through his mind. Unwilling to reveal his newfound comprehension in front of Song Tingye, Qi Xiu’s gaze flickered, and the colorful glow in his palm suddenly dissipated.

Instead, he activated the Ghostly Shadow Without Form technique, instantly shifting sideways to appear outside the courtyard.

"Prefect Song, what is the meaning of this?" Qi Xiu said coolly, having appeared phantom-like beside Song Tingye. "Even if I am unwilling to marry into your family, surely there’s no need to send someone to kill me."

"A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding," Song Tingye said, turning his head in surprise to glance at Qi Xiu. He then took two steps forward, his voice heavy, "Sister, that’s enough. This is my territory, after all."

Having failed twice in a row, Jia Yufei also understood that this prospective marriage candidate of hers was no simple character.

"Alright, since our esteemed County Magistrate has spoken, how could I not listen?" Jia Yufei said, light on her feet. She slowly turned, her clear, bright eyes—pupils tinged with red—openly appraising Qi Xiu.

"Mr. Ye, please don’t take offense," Song Tingye quickly interjected, trying to smooth things over as he saw the tension easing. "This is my elder sister, Jia Yufei. She’s been like this since she was young; I suffered many of her merciless beatings as a child too. Today, let’s consider it a case of ’no fight, no friendship.’ How about we return to my residence for a proper chat?"

Neither of these two has a good temper. If they really were to fight seriously, they might just tear his Baoho County apart.

His elder sister? Isn’t that the wealthy woman who wants me to marry into her family...

A startled look on his face, Qi Xiu looked up at Jia Yufei before him.

Setting aside her initial murderous intensity, this wealthy woman was indeed, as Song Tingye had described, impeccable in features and figure. Especially those fair, rounded, firm, and shapely thighs—they were simply perfect.

"So that’s how it is. I didn’t expect your elder sister to be a Cultivator of Dao. Prefect Song, your family truly has a profound heritage. However, I’m not really presentable today. Allow me to freshen up before I pay a visit."

"Very well, very well. Sister, let’s head back then," Song Tingye said, eager for these two formidable individuals to part ways. He quickly grabbed Jia Yufei’s arm to lead her away. The sooner they leave, the less risk there is.

As Song Tingye pulled her along, Jia Yufei, halfway down the path, suddenly turned her head and waved to Qi Xiu. "Come visit early, alright?"

Watching the two disappear around the corner of the alley, Qi Xiu slowly shook his head.

Are people from these prominent families all so mentally unstable?

After Song Tingye and his sister Jia Yufei departed, Qi Xiu returned to the courtyard, now a ruin, and closed the main gate behind him.

He looked up at the clear, bright sky. A sense of relief and pleasure gradually welled within him.

Ignoring the ravaged state of the courtyard, Qi Xiu went back to his inner room, took out paper and a brush, and began to transcribe the path he had just comprehended. This was a common method he used during his periods of arduous cultivation. He would transcribe his thoughts and insights, continuously reviewing and correcting them, extracting the essential and correct core, and retaining only the most useful elements.

Biting the end of his brush, he pondered for a moment before writing a title on the paper: "The Secret of the Primordial Dragon-Tiger Scripture."

This was the path he had forged by integrating all he had learned. He would treat the Heart Scripture’s Mana as the dragon, and the True Cultivation Power’s Inner Qi as the tiger. The dragon coils and the tiger crouches—cultivating both Inner Qi and Mana simultaneously. He would utilize the principle of yin and yang generating and overcoming each other, maximizing all cultivation conditions to their utmost limits, and draw upon an entirely new power generated from the intertwining of yin and yang, thus paving a path utterly different from conventional ways.

However, this path was exceedingly perilous, like dancing on a knife’s edge. Dragons would clash and tigers battle; yin and yang would collide. A single misstep could lead to a plunge into an abyss from which there was no return. In the best-case scenario, one’s cultivation would dissipate, reducing them to a cripple—a fate worse than death. In the worst, one would explode and die, their soul disintegrating and scattering.

This was a new path. It was also a perilous path.

But for him, this path meant he would no longer be trapped before the threshold of the Initiate Realm. It meant he had broken the monopoly held by the great sects and powerful clans. It meant he had regained the most precious thing—freedom!

Summoning the Proficiency Panel, Qi Xiu looked at it.

[The Primordial Dragon-Tiger Scripture (Incomplete)]: Pending integration.

Still not enough. The current Hunyuan Dragon Tiger Scripture Mystery is just a general theoretical outline. Its specific content system isn’t complete enough, preventing the Proficiency Divine Marvel from recognizing it as a true skill. It’s like the Frigid Waterfall Genuine Skill; being incomplete, it can’t be formally cultivated. And the reason for this situation... is that the Purple Golden Skill and the Bitter Pool Elusive Scales Heart Scripture are insufficient to support the entirety of the Hunyuan Dragon and Tiger Scripture. I need more True Cultivation Powers and Heart Scriptures as nourishment, to fill into the Hunyuan Dragon and Tiger Scripture. Gathering sand to build a tower, merging rivers to form a sea. This process is now just a matter of time.

Slowly opening his right hand, purple and cyan forces collided within his body, and wisps of colorful energy converged in his palm. This power, generated from the friction and collision of yin and yang, Qi Xiu named:

Hunyuan!

This force, born from the grinding and blending of yin and yang, far surpassed both Inner Qi and Mana. It also possessed an absorbing power, a quality of returning to simplicity and unifying the Ten Thousand Laws.

Ever since cultivating this power, Qi Xiu had a premonition: the protective force of Cultivators of Dao, claimed to be unbreakable unless one also reached the Initiate Realm... Hunyuan could shatter it in a single strike!

"However, mere destructive power is the most superficial application of Hunyuan. The true essence of this force is its ability to help me cross the threshold of the Initiate Realm. But to use this Taoist Method, I still need to complete the Hunyuan Dragon and Tiger Scripture. Hah, who could have thought that ’Ancient Gathering of Celestial Strength’ was actually an abbreviation of a complete sentence. These monopolists were so afraid that outsiders with extraordinary talent would deduce the Taoist Methods for entering the Initiate Realm from this phrase, that they even resorted to such base wordplay."

Having deduced the meaning of ’Ancient Gathering of Celestial Strength’ by leveraging the general outline of the Hunyuan Dragon and Tiger Scripture, Qi Xiu slowly shook his head.

...