Seeking Immortality

In this way, the young Xu Qingfan who accidentally entered the world of immortal cultivation officially began his cultivation career.

It can be seen that Lu Huayan cares a lot about this "Withering and Flourishing Art" in his heart, because it is his only hope now. So from the first day Xu Qingfan entered, he eagerly began to teach him about the practice of this technique, and always supervised and guided Xu Qingfan in person.

Xu Qingfan knew that Lu Huayan was so eager to find the unique mystery of "Withering and Flourishing Art" so that he could verify it with his "Changchun Dafa" and make his skills further. Only in this way can he delay his aging and live longer. And all this also shows from the side that Lu Huayan's time is indeed running out.

Who said that the people who practice cultivation are free and easy and don't care about life and death? That's just the prejudice of secular people.

From what Xu Qingfan has learned over the years, most immortal cultivators are more afraid of death than ordinary people. After going through a lot of hard training, they finally made some progress in their skills. How could they be willing to die easily if they could live longer? Therefore, all the immortal cultivators tried every means to improve their skills all day long.

Moreover, the immortal cultivation world has experienced tens of thousands of years of development. Although the skills and techniques have been continuously improved, and geniuses and masters have continued to emerge, immortality is still just a legend. It has even become an obsession in the hearts of all immortal cultivators.

Since the first day Xu Qingfan officially worshipped Lu Huayan, Lu Huayan began to carefully teach Xu Qingfan the practice method of "Withering and Flourishing Art". Every night, he personally practiced to help Xu Qingfan refine the wood energy in his body, and the various elixirs he supplied to Xu Qingfan were like free of charge.

Lu Huayan was very strict with Xu Qingfan. Not only did he have strict requirements on Xu Qingfan's daily practice time, but in order to allow Xu Qingfan to concentrate on practice, Lu Huayan did not teach him any practical Taoist techniques other than "Ku Rong Jue". He said that the practice of Taoist techniques would have to wait until Xu Qingfan had made some progress in practicing "Ku Rong Jue".

Xu Qingfan knew that Lu Huayan had aged rapidly in recent years, and he was extremely concerned about his own life and death, and was very nervous about the possibility of further improvement in his skills. In addition, Xu Qingfan himself also wanted to practice immortal techniques as soon as possible so that he could avenge his family as soon as possible. Therefore, although Lu Huayan pressed him very hard about practice, Xu Qingfan did not care at all, but enjoyed it. He even practiced on his own every day, often far exceeding the time stipulated by Lu Huayan.

It must be said that Xu Qingfan, who loved reading since childhood, had a very strong understanding. As long as Lu Huayan explained the general idea of ​​"Ku Rong Jue" to him once, Xu Qingfan could basically understand it. In addition, he practiced diligently, had the thousand-year-old Mu Yi Qi in his body, and Lu Huayan's help every night, so Xu Qingfan's cultivation plan progressed very quickly. Even later, Lu Huayan often sighed that with Xu Qingfan's comprehension and diligence, if it weren't for his poor aptitude and bones, and his natural inability to absorb the five elements of heaven and earth, then Xu Qingfan would have a high chance of cultivating to the Mahayana realm and become a master of the world of immortal cultivation.

Unfortunately, comprehension and diligence are just icing on the cake for immortal cultivators who have excellent aptitude and bones, but they cannot play a decisive role. Therefore, Xu Qingfan can only reach the late stage of spiritual silence in this life, which can be said to be a trick of fate.

Besides, the "Withering and Flourishing Art" that Xu Qingfan practiced was damaged due to its age, and the exercises in it were mostly incomplete. But Lu Huayan relied on his profound skills and extraordinary knowledge. The "Changchun Dafa" he practiced was no less profound than the "Ku Rong Jue", so he could barely fill in the many incomplete parts of the "Ku Rong Jue". But whether the content he added was right or wrong, only God knew.

But it was precisely because there were many incomplete parts in the "Ku Rong Jue" that Xu Qingfan's practice was very difficult, and he had to grope his way forward every step. During the practice, he almost fell into the crisis of going crazy many times. If Lu Huayan had not been able to rescue him in time every time, Xu Qingfan would have turned into a dry skeleton now.

But it was also because Xu Qingfan had more experiences of going crazy than ordinary immortal cultivators. Under the impact of various spiritual powers, his meridians and dantian were much tougher than ordinary immortal cultivators, which was of great benefit to his future practice. Of course, neither Xu Qingfan nor Lu Huayan realized this at the moment.

It must be said that this "Withering and Flourishing Art" is indeed unique. No wonder Lu Huayan would place his hopes of further improvement on it.

Most of the wood-based skills currently circulating in the world of immortal cultivation are to absorb the Mu Yi Qi between heaven and earth and transform it into the Mu Yi spiritual energy of the body. And this Mu Yi spiritual energy contains the most powerful breath of life between heaven and earth. If it is cultivated to a high level, it can even directly fight against the power of heaven and earth.

But Xu Qingfan didn't know if it was because his cultivation method was wrong. The spiritual energy cultivated in his body was not pure Mu Yi spiritual energy.

Whenever he refined a part of the Mu Yi Qi accumulated in his body, that part of the Mu Yi Qi would be transformed into two spiritual energies, one blue and one gray. The blue spiritual energy was naturally the Mu Yi spiritual energy containing powerful vitality. But the gray true energy was completely opposite. Not only did it not have a strong vitality, but it also gave Xu Qingfan a strong sense of desolation and death.

Whenever Xu Qingfan performed the "Withering and Flourishing Art", the Wood Yi spiritual energy would involuntarily transform into a gray dead air and continue to circulate in the body after a circle. After a circle, it would turn into a green Wood Yi spiritual energy again, and so on.

The two kinds of spiritual energy that were originally completely opposite, miraculously get along well in Xu Qingfan's body, and even have the wonderful effect of promoting each other. However, the gray dead spiritual energy is not like the spiritual energy that should be cultivated when practicing wood-based exercises. On the contrary, it is a little similar to the spiritual energy cultivated by magic cultivators, but it does not have the evil spirit in the spiritual energy cultivated by magic cultivators. So after repeated research, even Lu Huayan, who thought he was knowledgeable, was confused.

There is no sixty years of cultivation in the mountains. In this kind of cultivation, time has passed unknowingly for a full ten years.

......

Ten years later.

Unknowingly, Xu Qingfan has been practicing in Jiuhuamen for more than ten years. The naive expression of a 17-year-old boy has now turned into a calm face. However, his master and senior brothers have become more and more old and haggard.

Xu Qingfan sat cross-legged on the bed in his room, his eyes closed and his expression solemn. According to the practice method of "Withering and Flourishing Art", Xu Qingfan carefully circulated the two spiritual energies in his body, one blue and one gray.

At first, a faint blue glow slowly shot out from his body, and for a while, Xu Qingfan's room was full of vitality. But after an incense stick of time, the blue glow slowly turned from prosperous to declining, and a layer of faint gray light outside the body became more and more conspicuous, and finally completely replaced the blue glow, and a feeling of death filled the whole room. Then, the gray light slowly transformed into the original blue glow, but this blue glow was more dazzling than the first time, and then slowly transformed into gray light again.

In this way, the blue and gray lights kept converting to each other.

I don't know how much time has passed, nor how many times the blue-gray light has switched. Finally, both lights began to fade slowly, and finally were slowly absorbed into Xu Qingfan's body.

After the exercise was completed, Xu Qingfan slowly opened his eyes and sighed, with a look of satisfaction and loss in his eyes.

The overflow of Qi is a sign that the Qi Refining Realm has reached its peak. With even a little improvement, Xu Qingfan can break through the Qi Refining Realm and reach the Great Valley Realm.

And the immortal cultivators who have reached the Great Valley Realm can rely on the Qi of the five elements of heaven and earth directly absorbed by their bodies to nourish themselves, and they will no longer eat worldly fireworks. At this level, the immortal cultivator's body can absorb the five elements of spiritual energy between heaven and earth all the time, and the degree of fit between heaven and earth is greatly enhanced. Therefore, both the ability and the speed of cultivation will be greatly improved, which is a world of difference compared with the Qi Refining Stage.

Even now, there are still many radical immortal cultivators who believe that the cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage cannot be regarded as true immortal cultivators, but just more powerful mortals. Only those who have entered the state of fasting can be considered to have truly stepped into the threshold of immortal cultivators.

Unfortunately, there are very few people in the world who have the talent for immortal cultivation, and about two-thirds of them can only stay in the Qi Refining Stage for their entire lives. These people are the so-called registered disciples, who have a low status in various immortal cultivation sects and are no different from slaves in the secular world.

Xu Qingfan reached the peak of the Qi Refining Stage in just ten years. Although it was because he had a thousand-year-old Mu Yi Qi in his body and had a great master like Lu Huayan to help him all the time, the speed of cultivation could not be compared with those talented people, but it was also quite good.

Although the speed of cultivation was not satisfactory, the power of the "Withering and Flourishing Art" he practiced was far from what he imagined.

When Xu Qingfan had just cultivated to the late stage of Qi Refining, he could not resist his curiosity and pestered his senior brother Yue Qingru to secretly teach him two of the lowest-level Taoist techniques. One is the Falling Tree Technique. After mastering it, the Mu Yi Qi in the body can be transformed into a giant tree and shot down from the sky to kill the enemy. The other is the Sky Vine Technique, which uses the Mu Yi Qi in the body to transform into a long vine to whip or tie up the enemy. Both are the most basic and practical spells for cultivators who practice wood-based techniques.

However, when Xu Qingfan finally mastered these two spells after much hardship, the results surprised the three people in Changchunju. It turned out that the two spells that Xu Qingfan used the Withering and Flourishing Art were only half as powerful as those of cultivators of the same level! !

His own Taoist magic was inexplicably reduced in power by half, which means that when confronting cultivators of the same level, Xu Qingfan would not have the slightest resistance! After discovering this result, Xu Qingfan was discouraged for a while, because his hope of revenge for his people became even slimmer. And when Lu Huayan knew this result, he became even more suspicious whether Xu Qingfan had practiced the "Withering and Flourishing Art" incorrectly.

During these ten years, Lu Huayan wanted to help Xu Qingfan refine the gray dead aura in his body into the aura of Mu Yi more than once. However, the gray aura was not only extremely difficult to refine, but also every time after it was finally refined into the aura of Mu Yi, once Xu Qingfan practiced the "Withering and Flourishing Art" again, the gray dead aura that had been refined into the aura of Mu Yi would return to its original state, causing headaches for the master and the apprentice.

During these ten years, whenever Xu Qingfan practiced the Withering and Flourishing Art, Lu Huayan would guard by his side and probe a trace of aura into Xu Qingfan's body to check how the "Withering and Flourishing Art" was working, hoping to verify it with his "Changchun Dafa".

Unfortunately, ten years have passed. Apart from the gray dead aura, Lu Huayan did not find any strangeness in the "Ku Rong Jue". He finally began to determine that there was something wrong with Xu Qingfan's own cultivation method, so he finally gave up hope for Xu Qingfan three years ago.

Originally, in the first seven years of Xu Qingfan's cultivation, he would accompany Xu Qingfan every day, use his power to help Xu Qingfan practice and study and explore the "Ku Rong Jue", but this behavior has become less and less in the past three years.

Because the "Changchun Dafa" that Lu Huayan himself practiced and the "Ku Rong Jue" fragments counteracted each other, he could not practice this set of skills at all.

But after giving up Xu Qingfan, he did not give up on the "Ku Rong Jue", because it was his last hope to improve his skills. So he went out to travel again three years ago and accepted another disciple, named Nangong Qingshan, a handsome child, who was said to be the prince of a small country in the secular world. But unlike Xu Qingfan, he has a good talent and his bones are very suitable for practicing wood-based Taoism.

However, Xu Qingfan didn't know why he always disliked this junior brother named Nangong Qingshan. Because Xu Qingfan always felt that the look in this junior brother's eyes was just like the blood wolf he had seen in the southern wilderness, just as arrogant, selfish, and cold by nature. But Lu Huayan didn't care about these things now. He was just lucky that he could practice "Withering and Flourishing Jue" with Nangong Qingshan's talent very quickly.

And Xu Qingfan certainly wouldn't be prejudiced against his junior brother just because of his momentary feelings, but would do his best to help him. But Nangong Qingshan didn't show any gratitude for Xu Qingfan and Yue Qingru's enthusiasm, his expression was just faint, as if it was a matter of course.

This time, Lu Huayan learned from Xu Qingfan's lesson and greatly revised the incomplete parts of "Withering and Flourishing Jue". It can be said that although the technique that Nangong Qingshan practiced was also called "Ku Rong Jue", it was completely different from the "Ku Rong Jue" practiced by Xu Qingfan.

And this Nangong Qingshan did not disappoint Lu Huayan's expectations. Not only did he progress very quickly in practicing "Ku Rong Jue", he had already reached the state of the middle stage of Qi Refining in just three years, which was much faster than Xu Qingfan. And there was no abnormality of gray dead aura in his body like Xu Qingfan. Unfortunately, when Lu Huayan explored the strangeness of "Ku Rong Jue" practiced by Nangong Qingshan, he did not find any place that could be verified and referenced with his "Changchun Dafa".

Lu Huayan was also eager for quick success in order to increase his life span. However, he did not know that because he was afraid that Nangong Qingshan would have the accident of gray dead aura like Xu Qingfan again, when he revised "Ku Rong Jue" for the second time, he deliberately revised "Ku Rong Jue" to be closer and closer to his own "Changchun Dafa", so of course there would be nothing to verify and supplement each other.

Without Lu Huayan's constant help, Xu Qingfan's cultivation speed slowed down. Thinking that he was only practicing a useless technique, Xu Qingfan was about to give up several times. But he also thought that he still had a family feud to avenge, and although this "Withering and Flourishing Art" was useless, it was his only hope so far. So with this just in case idea, Xu Qingfan forced himself to keep practicing.

Another reason is that Lu Huayan's aging has become more and more serious in the past ten years. When Xu Qingfan first met Lu Huayan, he was white-haired but not old. But now looking at Lu Huayan again, not only is his head full of wrinkles, but his originally neat and slender silver hair has also fallen off seriously. A living old man who is about to die, how can he still have a trace of his original spirit?

In the past ten years, although Lu Huayan only wanted to increase his life span, it is also a fact that he has been taking good care of Xu Qingfan. Moreover, even after giving up hope on Xu Qingfan, he still did not treat Xu Qingfan badly, and still let him stay in Changchunju to practice. He still answered Xu Qingfan's questions seriously. So it would be a lie to say that Xu Qingfan had no feelings for him in the past ten years. So Xu Qingfan himself really wanted to practice something from "Withering and Flourishing Art" to help Lu Huayan improve his skills and increase his lifespan by a few years.

Unfortunately, although Xu Qingfan worked very hard in the past ten years, he still did not make any major breakthroughs. He is still in the late stage of Qi Refining, which often makes Xu Qingfan very upset.

Shaking his head, Xu Qingfan threw all these useless thoughts behind him. Over the years, Xu Qingfan has never been out of Changchunju because he was busy practicing. Thinking of his stagnant cultivation, Xu Qingfan decided to go out for a walk, take a look at the scenery of Jiuhua Mountain, and calm down his increasingly irritable mood recently.

Thinking of this, Xu Qingfan stood up from the bed and walked out the door.