Pawn Crossing the River

The boat travels very fast, and the ninety-mile journey takes just one hour.

No matter what kind of beautiful scenery, it is naturally wonderful when you first look at it, but after looking at it for a long time, you will inevitably get tired of it.

At first, Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu discussed the scenery and any allusions. As time went on, Zhang Yuelu was no longer willing to talk. Qi Xuansu simply suggested playing a few games of Xuansheng Cards to pass the time.

This was exactly what Zhang Yuelu wanted, so he agreed directly.

Time flies when playing cards. After the passenger ship arrived at Badong Guandu, it docked for an hour. Neither of them got off the ship and continued playing cards.

When the passenger ship was on its way again, Zhang Yuelu put away the Xuansheng tablet and urged Qi Xuansu to refine the medicine.

Qi Xuansu was still very concerned about his own cultivation. He could not only think about shortcuts like "Xuanyu", nor could he leave behind the right path of hard work, so he did not hesitate and returned to his room to start meditating on his luck.

Zhang Yuelu simply came to Qi Xuansu's room to protect him so as to avoid any accidents.

In this way, Zhang Yuelu really saw something was wrong.

Sanren are originally lower-ranking Immortals, so there are many similarities between the two, especially before the Immortals convert all their true energy into true essence.

Before the heavenly beings, the cultivation methods of Sanren were not much different from those of the banished immortals, both focusing on Qi training. But Zhang Yuelu discovered at this time that as Qi Xuansu began to use his luck to refine the accumulated medicinal power in his body, the qi and blood in his body also circulated, intermingling with the true qi, just like the cultivation methods of Sans and Wufu in parallel.

The reason why she didn't notice it before was because when Qi Xuansu drank the medicinal wine for the first time, the hot medicinal wine was too strong and covered up many abnormalities. But now that the medicinal power has weakened, they are gradually revealed.

Zhang Yuelu looked at Qi Xuansu thoughtfully.

Is this just because of a demon pill?

Qi Xuansu knew nothing about Zhang Yuelu's doubts. At this moment, he only felt that there were two completely different qi in his body. One was true qi, like a gurgling stream, and the other was blood qi, like a wider and faster flowing stream. creek.

True qi comes from the refined qi of a qi refiner, and blood qi comes from the qi and blood of a martial artist. The word "jing" in "refining" means essence and blood. It can be said that the two have the same origin.

The difference between the two lies in the word "refining". A qi refiner refines the human body's natural essence and blood, just like refining iron ore into refined iron, while a martial artist not only does not cultivate the soul, nor refines the essence and blood, nor does he understand internal and external communication, heaven and man. The method of uniting and controlling the vitality of heaven and earth, focusing solely on oneself, training the flesh, muscles, skin, and bones until the body is reborn and the body becomes an immortal.

Because he has no distractions and only cultivates his body, the warrior's vitality is very strong. If his limbs are mutilated, they can be regenerated over time. This is the realm derived from flesh and blood. If his mind is pure, he is the realm where he can connect with the heavens. It has great restraint on the spirits of alchemists who have not yet become gods.

As for Qi practitioners who practice Zhenqi, including banished immortals and Sanren, due to their pursuit of the unity of heaven and man, although Zhenqi is more majestic and abundant and endless, it also loses its purity, so the restraint of Qi and blood on opponent warriors is reduced. Many of them cannot be derived from flesh and blood.

When Qi Xuansu killed the alchemist who was returning to his true form in Yishan City, he relied on the human-immortal inheritance to restrain the ghost-immortal inheritance. But if he were replaced by a qi-refiner, a shaman, or even a banished immortal or a hermit, he would never be able to easily defeat the scholar. , this is why among the Five Immortals inheritance "Heaven, Earth, Gods, Humans and Ghosts", the inheritance of human immortals is ranked before the inheritance of ghosts and immortals.

As for why the inheritance of human immortals comes after the inheritance of the other three immortals, it is because even if a martial artist achieves celestial status, fighting with humans depends entirely on his physical strength. He does not have magical powers such as controlling the air, manifesting the law, and calling the wind and rain. Against the other three immortals, , if you can't get close, you can easily be manipulated by others. The so-called "human immortals" are still "human beings" after all, and can only be ranked below the three immortals of "the gods of heaven and earth".

Not only that, because the martial artist cannot circulate the heaven and breathe the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he has to eat a lot to replenish and strengthen his own qi and blood. The requirements for food and medicinal materials are extremely high, so there is a saying that the martial arts are poor but the martial arts are rich. The martial artist's expenses are It is far better than the alchemist, but compared with the witch wish, the incense and wish power does not require peace money, but the effort and manpower required to collect the incense and wish power can be converted into peace money, which may not be less than the peace money spent by a martial artist.

From a Taoist perspective, Qi Refiners are the pillars of the Taoist sect, and there are relatively few other inheritances. The warriors are mainly concentrated among the men in black in the imperial court, and there are not many warriors in the Taoist sect.

Before Xuansheng integrated the inheritance of the five immortals, the various inheritances were very confusing. Most of the time, they were simply and roughly divided into warriors and alchemists. Qi refiners and immortals who preferred close combat were classified into the ranks of warriors. Qi warriors and banished immortals are also confused. Many banished immortals are regarded as Qi warriors with better talents and qualifications, while Wu Zhu is mostly classified into the ranks of alchemists.

It wasn't until Xuan Sheng integrated the five major inheritances that it was completely clear that only the human immortal inheritance was a martial artist, and the rest of the Qi Refiners and Banished Immortals were not martial artists, but belonged to the earthly immortal inheritance and the heavenly immortal inheritance respectively.

Unlike Qi practitioners who focus on the three major Dantians, the twelve main meridians, and the eight extraordinary meridians, martial arts practitioners focus on the countless acupoints in the body to carry Qi and blood, cleanse the acupoints, and then condense the body and spirit, each acupoint has one spirit. , is to see the realm of God's indestructibility, and finally reach the realm of Shattered Void, which is not inferior to the Qi Refiners in the Hedao realm.

If it were not a specialized human-immortal inheritance or a master's method compiled by Taoism, it would be difficult to discover the many acupoints in the body, because each acupoint has a very subtle and unique position, and even the acupoints are hidden in the acupoints, and one acupoint can lead to all acupoints. The condensation process is extremely complicated and difficult.

Qi Xuansu also considered taking the path of human immortal at first, but after careful consideration, he still chose Sanren. In addition to some shortcomings in qualifications, poverty was also an unavoidable problem.

Nowadays, although Qi Xuansu cannot condense his body and mind, he can move his energy and blood like a true energy, achieving some of the effects of martial arts training, making his body strong and improving the realm of flesh and blood.

In other words, Qi Xuansu is in the Jade Void stage, but he has both the Jade Cauldron realm of a Sanren and a partially flesh-and-blood realm of a martial artist. This is what makes Zhang Yuelu even more surprised.

At this time, Qi Xuansu only felt comfortable and hot all over his body. The "brook" and the "brook" converged together, mixed with the burning power of the medicine deposited in the body, as if there was a fire dragon swimming quickly, not only passing through the twelve meridians There are eight extraordinary meridians and acupuncture points.

In the process of wandering, blood and energy are constantly being drawn into it, and blood and energy are constantly left behind to fill the vacancy of the trapped blood and energy, which is in line with the principle that running water will not rot the door hinges and will not be beetrooted. However, when passing through the left arm, because the meridians here have just been connected, it is like leaving Yangguan Avenue and entering a rugged mountain trail. The progress is extremely difficult, and a lot of blood energy is left here.

Finally, the "river" formed by the blood energy dissipates throughout the body with part of the medicinal power, as if moisturizing things silently, while the true energy returns to the sea of ​​​​lower Dantian with part of the medicinal power, strengthening itself.

Qi Xuansu slowly woke up from his trance and exhaled a breath of turbid air.

Zhang Yuelu was sitting not far away. Seeing Qi Xuansu wake up, he said, "It took a long time for you to enter samadhi."

Qi Xuansu asked: "What time is it now?"

Zhang Yuelu took out his pocket watch, took a look at it, and replied: "Today is November 12th, and it is the end of noon."

Qi Xuansu roughly calculated the time. They left Jinguan Mansion on the third day of November and walked for five days to arrive at Baidi City, which was also the eighth day of November. Because Qi Xuansu was recovering from his injuries, the two stopped in Baidi City. In three days, we left Baidi City by boat on November 11 and arrived at Badong Ferry on the same day.

In this way, he actually fell into samadhi for a day and a night.

Zhang Yuelu glanced out the window: "We will arrive at Jiangling Mansion soon, which is also the destination of this passenger ship."

Jiangling Mansion is the capital of Huzhou, and Jiangling City is the city. Many powerful yamen, including the Yunmeng Governor's Mansion, the Huzhou Governor's Yamen, and the Huzhou Sansi Yamen, are all located here. It can be said to be an important town in the southeast. And because it borders a large river in the south, the Han River in the north, Chongqing and Shu in the west, and Xiaowu in the south, it is called the "thorough of seven states".

According to the division of Taoism, Huzhou is still considered the territory of Quanzhen Taoism, but it is already the border of Quanzhen Taoism. Outside of Huzhou, whether it is Jiangzhou, Xiaozhou or Wuzhou, they all belong to the territory of Zhengdao.

Qi Xuansu couldn't help but ask: "Why did Xuan Sheng divide the three major factions into three factions, so that today the three major factions are fighting endlessly?"

Zhang Yuelu sighed and said: "This is not Xuan Sheng's original intention, but the Taoist sect was fragmented at the beginning, with more than 20 various branches and factions. It cannot be said that there was constant internal fighting, but there were also many old grudges, such as our Zhang family and the Li family Xuan Sheng believed that under the circumstances at that time, it was difficult to completely integrate the entire Taoism into one place, and could only be divided into three major factions: Zhengyi Dao, Quanzhen Dao, and Taiping Dao based on the distance and ancestral inheritance of each branch."

"In addition, Xuansheng dispersed some people and divided the people who originally belonged to the Zhengdao into the Quanzhen Dao, the people from the Quanzhen Dao into the Taiping Dao, and the people from the Taiping Dao into the Zhengyi Dao. Between the three roads, there is me among you, and you among me, just like the division of state boundaries, making it impossible to form an independent and separatist power, just like the Hanzhong Prefecture in Shuzhou, both customs and geography should belong to it. Shuzhou was assigned to Qinzhou by the imperial court because Hanzhong Prefecture was the gateway to Shuzhou to prevent Shuzhou from forming a separatist regime. "

"Xuansheng originally planned to gradually cancel the Three Paths, but in his later years, Buddhism rose. Xuansheng's main energy was focused on dealing with Buddhism. He could only put this matter aside for the time being and hope that future generations of great masters can solve the problem. . Due to various reasons, the subsequent great masters were unable to integrate the three realms into one place. The three deputy chief masters, Da Zhenren, were even more powerful, leading to the current situation in which the three realms are in conflict. The position of Grand Master will be controlled by the three deputy Masters, and it is impossible to integrate the three paths."

Qi Xuansu suddenly said: "That's it."