Volume Two — The Nine Provinces Map Revealed, Entering Lingxu Chapter Ninety-Nine: Mending Heaven, Bathing in the Sun

From that day on, every morning Chen Yu went to the outer sect hall to listen to his senior brother expound the teachings, and afterward he would head to the Ten Thousand Books Pavilion to enrich himself. By the time noon approached, he would find some deserted place and use the Heaven-Mending Sun-Nourishing Method to refine the eleven corpse pills in his possession.

Thus, without his noticing, an entire month slipped by. The eleven corpse pills, once thick with baleful yin energy, had all turned golden and radiant, warm to the touch when held in the hand.

Chen Yu exhaled slowly, his heart filled with delight as he looked at the eleven corpse pills. Murmuring to himself, he said, "I'll begin seclusion the day after tomorrow. I hope these eleven corpse pills, together with the spirit-gathering pill in my possession, can help me break through to the One-Unity Realm."

He gave himself a day of unrestrained rest, replenishing his strength and waiting for the morrow.

...

Chen Yu sat cross-legged on the bed. He first swallowed a spirit-gathering pill and then invoked the Nine-Breath Breath-Refining Method to condense the breath within his dantian for nine cycles. But just as he began, he was shocked and opened his eyes wide.

"How can this be?" he murmured in disbelief.

He calmed his mind once more and inwardly examined the nine breaths in his dantian.

"That's right! I wasn't mistaken. The breath in my dantian has become even more condensed. But... but how could this be? I clearly haven't refined it during this time." Chen Yu frowned in thought. Once again he circulated the Nine-Breath Breath-Refining Method, and suddenly he was startled to discover a difference.

"Huh? This golden light is the same as the golden flame from my Heaven-Mending Sun-Nourishing Method? Could it be..."

This was the only possibility Chen Yu could think of. His gaze grew resolute as he rose from the bedside and silently thought, It seems I can't cultivate here anymore.

Chen Yu stepped out of the room, preparing to find an uninhabited peak on which to enter seclusion.

Mount Tai Zhuo was vast, with many places left unattended. Before long, Chen Yu arrived at a small hill far from the mountain peaks.

The summit of this hill was not tall, yet it was exceedingly quiet. On top of it lay a smooth, flat boulder. At the edge of the stone, a small wild peach tree clung tenaciously to life. Beyond that, there was nothing at all.

Chen Yu was very satisfied with this place. To him, it possessed a certain poetic charm.

To test his conjecture, Chen Yu immediately consumed a corpse pill. This time, while refining it with the Nine-Breath Breath-Refining Method, he also used the Heaven-Mending Sun-Nourishing Method to temper it.

Sure enough, the effect far surpassed what it had been before. He could clearly feel that this was absolutely not due to the corpse pill itself, but because of the Heaven-Mending Sun-Nourishing Method.

Chen Yu understood. He was borrowing the power of the sun to temper the breath in his dantian.

"Good... good... excellent. With this method, I can refine the breath in my dantian to the utmost limit," Chen Yu said excitedly.

Very soon, an hour passed. This was also the time in which he had swallowed his second corpse pill. Yet at that point, he discovered that the pill's effect had weakened once more.

Before long, Chen Yu understood as well. "It's because of the sun. It seems only the hour around midday is the best. In that case, there is no need for me to rush."

After that, Chen Yu refined only one corpse pill each day. He then familiarized himself with his own strength, while also cultivating and comprehending the Vault-World Creative Transformation Method and the Primordial Chaos Scripture.

And so, a full eight days passed.

On this day, he could feel that the breath in his dantian had already been tempered to the limit, and that he could break through to the One-Unity Realm at any moment.

But when Chen Yu looked at the remaining two corpse pills in his hand, he suddenly clenched his teeth and said, "Why not refine it one more time? Although the power in my dantian has already been compressed to the limit, I still feel that something is missing by just a little."

Even though the hour had already passed, Chen Yu still swallowed another corpse pill.

Once the corpse pill entered his mouth, under the combined workings of the Nine-Breath Breath-Refining Method and the Heaven-Mending Sun-Nourishing Method, it rapidly turned into strands of power that surged into his dantian.

At first, Chen Yu did not feel much. But halfway through the refinement, his expression abruptly changed, and a searing pain shot through his dantian sea, as though his dantian sea were about to be torn apart.

"No... no... stop!" Chen Yu screamed inwardly.

But the power of the corpse pill did not heed his command. More precisely, his dantian had completely slipped beyond his control and had begun to absorb the corpse pill's power of its own accord. And that was not all; Chen Yu could also feel his dantian frantically devouring the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

"Ah... ah... someone save me... no more... stop..." Chen Yu was so panicked he was nearly in tears, but the scene could no longer be reversed.

"No..." As Chen Yu howled in agony within his heart, the breath in his dantian exploded completely, surging into his extraordinary meridians, eight channels, and nine apertures. Even his dantian sea was torn apart in that instant.

Poof... Chen Yu spat out a mouthful of blood, utterly unable to accept this outcome. His eyes were hollow as he muttered, "How could this be? How could it turn out like this? No... this can't be the result..."

With great difficulty, Chen Yu sat up, still clinging to a sliver of hope as he inwardly examined his dantian. Yet reality was as cruel as ever: his dantian sea had truly been torn apart.

"Haha... haha... it's over. I never thought that my life, Chen Yu's life, would end like this," he thought bitterly. "Will all my aspirations also become nothing but a dream? Haha..."

Just as Chen Yu was sinking into despair and about to give up, his heart suddenly jolted. Bewildered, he once more carefully sensed the changes within his body.

"Not right... not right... there is still breath in my dantian. My dantian is still functioning." Chen Yu was delighted to discover this and said in alarm, "It... it's the corpse pill that has not yet been fully refined. Its power is repairing my dantian."

But very quickly, Chen Yu denied it. "No, can a corpse pill have such power?"

He carefully sensed the changes in his dantian, and then discovered that within the cracks of the dantian there were actually strands of golden flame. In that instant, he finally understood completely.

"It's the Heaven-Mending Sun-Nourishing Method. Mending the heavens... so that's it!"

This time, Chen Yu endured the pain of his dantian being torn apart and slowly circulated the Heaven-Mending Sun-Nourishing Method.

As expected, under the combined effect of the corpse pill, the power of the sun, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, his shattered dantian gradually began to restore itself. Although most of the power Chen Yu absorbed dispersed away, and breath still did not arise within the dantian, he was nevertheless incomparably excited.

Finally, just as evening approached, Chen Yu succeeded in repairing the torn dantian to its original state. Although there was still no breath within it, he knew very clearly that at this moment, he was far stronger than he had been when his dantian held nine breaths.

It was also at this moment that he fully understood, and completely grasped, the mysteries of the One-Unity chapter of the Primordial Chaos Scripture.

"So that's how it is! Is this the true way to cultivate the Primordial Chaos Scripture?"

The absence of breath in his dantian did not make Chen Yu feel disappointed or sorrowful; instead, it filled him with excitement.

He recalled every line of the Primordial Chaos Scripture, and made his decision at last. Without further hesitation, he would begin breaking through to the One-Unity Realm at once.