“Can it be obtained?”

Wei Yuan and Bai Ze were both stunned. Bai Ze knew Wei Yuan’s plan. From the start, he had no intention of passing the Kunlun Trials. He only came to kill Yi Riyue. There was no stopping him; he was cut from the same cloth as Yu.

And Wei Yuan originally had no hope for the Kunlun Trials.

He didn’t know about Zhu Jiuyin and the Kai Ming beast’s bet on him.

He only intended to find a place to recuperate and first resolve the medicinal effects in his current body. Otherwise, things would truly become as Bai Ze had warned. But he hadn't expected the white-clothed girl to offer another possibility.

“Yes, it can.”

“However, I have a question.”

The expressionless girl looked at him and said,

“Just now, with your final sword, why did you channel the residual power into the ground?”

“You held back then, didn’t you?”

Wei Yuan said awkwardly, “You saw through it? I originally wanted to unleash it completely.”

“I sensed the problem when you were building up the sword momentum.”

“After all, there are still some unpredictable aspects to this body, and the medicinal effects were triggered faster than I expected. If I didn’t restrain it, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to control the power. A complete eruption of full power would mean a decrease in precision because sacrificing control often leads to a greater burst.”

“If the sword stance had fully unfolded, even I wouldn’t have been able to grasp it perfectly.”

“There would have been aftershocks and stray energies.”

“So, I had to channel those aftershocks into the ground.”

Bai Ze gritted his teeth and said, “What, were you worried about killing those two gods?”

“No, not gods.”

Wei Yuan frowned, looking at his palm, and replied, “Just now, I was just fighting. I suppressed them with my sword stance, but once the sword stance fully unfolded, the sword energy and the divine powers would inevitably clash, and this city would be destroyed by the aftershocks, at least a third of it…”

Bai Ze opened his mouth.

Wei Yuan lowered his head, remained silent for a moment, then looked at the ordinary people hiding in his house and said,

“Gods may disregard people, but if those of us who come from the human race do the same… it wouldn’t be right. Bai Ze, if I disregard the lives of others for my own survival, then how am I different from Yi Riyue?”

“Possessing great power, absolute self-centeredness, and wanton actions, despising others… how am I different from Xi He, who drove the ten suns for her own pleasure? There would be no difference…”

Wei Yuan shook his head and said, “To seek advantage and avoid harm is the nature of living beings.”

“But humans often impose constraints upon themselves.”

“The stronger one is, the more one must know how to restrain oneself. At least for me, the lives of ordinary people should always be the bottom line for the powerful. The strong of the human race should take the lives of the innocent as their boundary. If that sword had been unleashed completely, it might have achieved greater results.”

“But it wouldn’t just have been a sword scar on the Great Dao…”

“Thousands upon thousands of ordinary people would have died because of it.”

Bai Ze was silent for a moment, his tone weakening, “I see.”

“Then what happened to those two gods just now?”

Wei Yuan said, “They were forced back.”

“As for their injuries…”

He thought for a moment, then raised his hand and made a chopping motion, saying,

“I was aiming at them when I slashed down, and there’s no way they could have avoided that sword.”

“But the aftershocks struck the buildings behind them.”

“Guess what happened to them…”

After listening to Wei Yuan’s answer, the white-clothed girl lowered her gaze, remained silent for a moment, and said in a plain voice,

“You held back that sword. I will bring back the Sanqing Bird’s belongings for you.”

Wei Yuan was thoughtful, then tentatively asked,

“If I had unleashed that sword with full power before…”

Full power unleashed, the city destroyed, heavy casualties among ordinary people.

The white-clothed girl looked at him quietly.

Her eyes were calm, reflecting Wei Yuan’s own face.

Wei Yuan scratched his head, awkwardly looked away, and said, “It was just a hypothetical, a hypothetical.”

But in his heart, he was thoughtful.

Familiar with the Sanqing Bird, Bai Ze seemed faintly fearful, and valued the human race.

Bai Ze sensed Wei Yuan’s expression.

And felt very gratified.

This was how a hanger-on should be.

He sighed, “Really… even that works.”

“But it’s also good. By undergoing the Kunlun Trials, your body will be able to recover…”

“Body?”

Wei Yuan raised his head and said, “I know there’s a problem with my body right now.”

“Bai Ze, what you said just now wasn’t wrong.”

“But there’s no need to act like this, right?”

“Why do you two look like I’m about to die…”

Bai Ze was stunned and couldn’t help saying, “You know that your body can’t handle the effects of these medicinal properties right now. If you leave it alone, aren’t you afraid your physical body will collapse?” Wei Yuan asked in confusion, “Of course, there will be problems if I leave it alone, so I don’t intend to leave it alone.”

“With so much medicinal power, I’ll definitely collapse if I don’t do anything.”

“Even a random little Daoist knows what to do…”

Bai Ze nodded, taking it for granted,

“That’s right, if you want to do something, you have to go to the Kunlun Trials.”

“???”

Wei Yuan was choked by those words and suddenly realized a very serious cognitive problem. He looked at Bai Ze, hesitated, and still asked a question that seemed idiotic to him: “Although I think it’s stupid to ask this, I’ll still ask. Bai Ze… does the Great Wilderness have cultivation methods?”

This time, it was Bai Ze’s turn to be puzzled, “Cultivation methods?”

“What’s that?”

Wei Yuan was silent and asked again,

“How do the humans of the Great Wilderness cultivate?”

Bai Ze looked at him as if he were an idiot, and said without thinking,

“Like you, taking spiritual medicines step by step, strengthening the physical body, and gaining divine abilities.”

“For example, eating it to control water, eating it to control fire.”

“And then finding ways to maximize the effects of these divine abilities.”

“Your *Shan Hai Jing* (Classic of Mountains and Seas) is a record of them taking spiritual medicines, but almost no one can obtain top-tier spiritual medicines; they are all in the hands of the gods. If you don’t want to ingest spiritual materials, then go and worship the gods, and receive the gods' blessings. Like Yi Riyue, you can also obtain very strong power.”

Wei Yuan recalled the scenes he had seen before and whispered,

“No wonder there are so many spiritual material merchants. Most of the spiritual materials must be turned over to the gods in various places before the traveling merchants can sell them everywhere. In other words, most of the spiritual materials are in the hands of the celestial gods; and the other path directly requires the gods’ blessings.”

“The two paths of cultivators are both controlled by the celestial gods.”

“There’s no fear that these cultivators won’t obey orders.”

“And the cultivators are pressing down on the heads of ordinary people…”

Bai Ze asked in confusion, “What is this cultivation method you’re talking about?”

Wei Yuan came back to his senses and said, “About cultivation methods…”

“Um, how do I explain it to you?”

“It’s kind of like this.”

He brought his fingers together and pointed at his body, breathing rhythmically for several cycles. Bai Ze suddenly sensed the changes in Wei Yuan’s energy on his back. Those floating medicinal powers filling his body actually condensed into a stream, slowly circulating within his body. With each rotation, a wisp of medicinal essence was integrated into his body, while the remaining medicinal essence continued to circulate within his body.

Bai Ze was almost stunned.

What?

What is this thing?

How can a human body accommodate so much medicinal essence?

Are you a demon beast in human skin?!

Wei Yuan slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air and said, “Seventy-two Earthly Fiends Techniques, *Caiyao* (Gathering Herbs).”

“The human body contains great medicine, which can be obtained for longevity. The methods of utilizing medicinal power by various schools all originate from this. Of course, the body cannot accommodate violent medicinal power, so one must learn to guide and transport it, gradually dissolving the medicinal power. This is a principle that everyone who enters the path of cultivation knows.”

“Actually, what I’ve been troubled by before is how to squeeze out the medicinal power in my body.”

“This body’s physical body is strong, but its aura is still a bit weak.”

“This time, under provocation, I squeezed out so much, which is quite pleasing.”

Wei Yuan restarted another Daoist incantation, took a deep breath, and it seemed that the energy between heaven and earth was drawn into his body. With one breath, he inhaled three hundred times, slowly exhaling, silent and soundless. The medicinal power and this energy merged, transforming into a special existence.

When it rotated, not only would it no longer harm the body, but it would also slowly replenish the physical body.

A stream of natural and peaceful aura emanated from his body.

“This is Thirty-six Heavenly Generals Divine Abilities, *Jiuxi Fuqi* (Nine Breaths Inhaling Qi).”

“All things and all energies, gather to form shapes, scatter to form qi. It is the foundation of the Thirty-six Heavenly Generals Techniques.”

“But if one cultivates to the extreme, one can also swallow and exhale the primordial qi of heaven and earth to transform it into mana, and can also scatter one’s own mana into primordial qi to merge with heaven and earth, heaven and earth and I are of one mind…”

“This is cultivation.”

Bai Ze: “The human world has actually already…”

He was silent for a long time and said, “Do many people reach the highest realm of that Nine Breaths Inhaling Qi?”

“Of course not.”

Bai Ze slowly breathed a sigh of relief and said,

“Swallowing and exhaling the primordial qi of heaven and earth to transform it into mana, and being able to scatter it into primordial qi to merge with heaven and earth, why does this sound so much like a god… Strange, why didn’t such a method appear in the Great Wilderness, where gods exist, but your human world, which has no gods, does?”

Bai Ze felt strange in his heart, and driving the cloud qi, he instantly moved away from the city.

In the palace, the celestial god who had retreated to dodge stabilized his breath and saw the people lying on the ground around him. Wei Yuan did not deliberately pursue killing, but all of these people were seriously injured. Interspersed among them were those who were seriously injured and died. Not deliberately pursuing casualties did not mean that it would not cause casualties.

Someone ran in in a panic, helping up those they knew.

A disciple running from outside gritted his teeth secretly:

“We must take revenge in the future…”

A swordsman staggered upright, looking at the broken sword in his hand, and said with a bitter smile:

“Revenge? What revenge are we taking…”

“They spared our lives.”

“This is considered giving us face. To continue to pester them would be failing to see ourselves clearly.”

“Today, this matter is over for me. I will withdraw from this matter and also acknowledge this person’s life-saving grace…”

He looked at the broken long sword, sighed, threw the sword heavily to the ground, bowed, and was helped away by his disciples. The remaining experts were silent. Those who could still get up sighed, threw down their weapons, and then left.

The celestial god hated it secretly, but did not express the anger in his heart. Turning back, he saw that the divine general holding a spear was still standing opposite him, not moving. He frowned, walked over, and said, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Huh? Why aren’t you talking…”

He reached out and pressed his hand on his friend’s shoulder, but saw a trace of terror appear in the other’s eyes.

The celestial god was stunned, his pupils constricted, and he saw a scar appear on his friend’s brow.

The sword scar spread silently, from the brow all the way down, gradually expanding. Finally, a faint ray of light passed through this sword scar, falling into the celestial god’s eyes. With the visual ability of a celestial god, he could even see the part behind this sword scar—the crack went forward until it struck the stone tablet.

The final sword directly slashed past this celestial god, and the aftershocks were still enough to shatter the earth.

One sword severed the city.

Naturally, it had to strike the enemy first.

The expression on the celestial god’s face froze.

After that, this ray of light turned completely blood red.

Inside the city, a young man in plain clothes, Yi Shi, looked at the sword scar on the ground, vaguely horrified, his face pale. He felt that this city was a bit dangerous, and staying here was not as good as returning to his old home. A voice came from behind him: “Big brother…”

Yi Shi turned his head in surprise and saw his younger sister, as well as a neighbor’s family from the town.

“Why are you here?”

“Of course, we have to come here to see such a lively event. We just didn’t expect to see such a big thing as soon as we arrived. Alas, this place is even more dangerous than our small place…”

The middle-aged man looked at the crack in the ground and couldn’t help but click his tongue.

“Little Shi, why don’t you just go back with us.”

“It’s better than being frightened here.”

Yi Shi nodded, and he quietly pulled his younger sister aside, took out a piece of candy from a small cloth bag, then cut off a large piece and handed it over. The little girl took a bite, her eyes narrowed: “It’s so delicious…”

“Brother, where did you buy it?”

The young man, who had lost his memory of the white-haired swordsman, was stunned for a moment and said, “I, I don’t remember.”

“It must have been a kind person…”

……………………

Bai Ze landed on the ground.

He returned to his sloppy uncle appearance, rubbing his back, baring his teeth.

“My old back, I can’t do it anymore, I can’t do it anymore…”

Wei Yuan exhaled and inhaled, taking advantage of the state of being stimulated by the medicinal power, using the Earthly Fiends Technique to gather herbs, and the Heavenly Generals Technique to absorb qi, circulating and moving the medicinal power, which was considered to be further developing this physical body. The white-clothed girl stood on the ground, looking at him, thought for a moment, and said, “I’ll go find the Sanqing Bird.”

“But…”

“I’m very interested in the Heavenly Generals and Earthly Fiends Divine Abilities you mentioned.”

ps: Today’s first update…………three thousand eight hundred words.