Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 67 Part 1

Chapter 67: Chapter 67 Part 1

Seeing this object,

"You...." Any slight doubt Shu Ruoyun had about Lin Xin instantly vanished, replaced by an inexplicable sense of gratitude and admiration.

The Sword Qi Talisman, such a precious treasure, is something most people would hide and never reveal, let alone return to the original owner.

And here was this person, this newcomer who had entered the sect less than a year ago, of ordinary background, actually willing to return such a secret treasure to its rightful owner....

If everything he said had been true, then this was a person worthy of association!

Suddenly, his original plan to verify the truth of Lin Xin’s statements seemed less urgent.

He slightly trembled as he took the Sword Qi Talisman, biting his lip, unsure of what to say.

"This was originally your family’s property, there’s no need to say anything." Lin Xin said sincerely.

"Thank you.... thank you...." Shu Ruoyun lowered his head, tightly clutching the Sword Qi Talisman. He could see that of the three Sword Qi originally present, only one remained. The foe that not even two innate Eighth Layer Sword Qi could defeat, and who allowed his cousin to not even trigger the last one before being killed... it was clear who the murderer was without saying.

Thinking about this and the current situation of the Shu Family, if his uncle knew about this...

"Alright, I’ve done what I could." Lin Xin patted his shoulder, "Can I go now?" his voice carried a hint of regret.

"This matter... my Shu Family will remember." Shu Ruoyun said with a determined expression, then hesitated slightly, but soon firmed up his resolve. "I have another Sword Qi Talisman here, an unused one, I’ll keep it for you!"

Without another word, he actually took out a snow-white talisman paper from his waist pouch, another Blood Talisman, and stuffed it into Lin Xin’s hand.

"No way!" Lin Xin was surprised and quickly declined.

"What do you mean no way! You are a good person! It’s just a Sword Qi Talisman after all, just take it!"

Lin Xin still declined.

"Although that person due to rules cannot harm you himself, he must know from what you gained that you later went to the wolves’ area. He will likely find a chance to instruct others to threaten your life to silence you! So you must keep this item for self-protection!" Shu Ruoyun insisted righteously.

"But..." Lin Xin hesitated.

"There are no buts, you are too weak. Here is also a Dust-Transforming Elixir. It was originally prepared for me by my uncle; I will give it to you as well. I see your Inner Qi is unstable, seeming like your foundation has been damaged, and without a year’s time to recuperate, it’s hopeless. This pill can stabilize your condition, perfectly allowing you to break and then stand anew, possibly achieving a breakthrough in Innate." Shu Ruoyun stated seriously, "This is an opportunity for you, not to be missed."

Lin Xin wanted to say something.

"If you refuse again, I will get angry!" Shu Ruoyun’s face turned stern, "My Shu Family owes you a favor, rest assured, these things you told me, I would die before I speak of them! Alright, I must go now, it’s urgent, I must immediately go back and inform my uncle and the others. Farewell."

"Well... alright then..." Lin Xin nodded reluctantly, his hands forced into holding an unused Sword Qi Talisman and a small vermilion wooden pill box.

Watching Shu Ruoyun’s figure swiftly disappearing into the bamboo forest, the sincerity on his face slowly faded, replaced by indifference.

This Shu Ruoyun was evidently impulsive, had he not successfully convinced him earlier, this fellow might have genuinely crippled him on the spot.

However...

He looked down at the Sword Qi Talisman and the pill box in his hands.

"An unexpected gain..." he thought to himself.

Turning towards the direction of Tingjian Valley, he left the bamboo forest in a hurry. He had to urgently improve himself, otherwise, a random member from the Shu Family could defeat him easily.

Having lost his Talisman Sword and Talisman Stone, he truly realized, his real strength among the recorded disciples was merely mediocre. Although he had learned the Flameless Swordsmanship, his cultivation was ultimately too weak.

****************

Back at the stone house, Lin Xin immediately closed the door and locked the windows, pulling out the Dust-Transforming Elixir given by Shu Ruoyun.

With a snap, he opened the box, inside a white silk cloth lay an exotic pill.

The pill was spherical, crystal clear and transparent, as smooth and rounded as a checkers piece.

Lin Xin picked up the pill with his fingers and brought it to his nose, giving it a gentle sniff.

"It smells good." A fragrance similar to that of flowers entered his nostrils.

"The issue shouldn’t be major. It’s unlikely that Shu Ruoyun would prepare a problematic pill before coming to me, so this pill is probably genuine. Additionally, when I was browsing through miscellaneous books before, I had read about the Dust-Transforming Elixir, and it seems like the description and the illustrations of the elixir match this one...."

He took a deep breath, hesitated no longer, and threw the Dust-Transforming Elixir into his mouth.

The pill tasted sweet and sour, similar to eating a jelly, very elastic. After Lin Xin vigorously chewed it, he swallowed it completely.

Then, he began carefully observing the bundle of Inner Qi at his heart area.

The previously unstable bundle of Inner Qi was constantly trembling, as if it could disperse and collapse at any time. After eating the Dust-Transforming Elixir and as time passed, after sitting for about half an hour, Lin Xin began to feel his body temperature dropping slightly.

The bundle of Inner Qi at his heart area also began to stabilize slowly, as if a slight coolness was spreading from his stomach, wrapping the unstable Inner Qi bundle layer upon layer, much like a spider web.

"It really works!" Lin Xin confirmed to himself and hurriedly took out some chocolate beans and swallowed them with water.

The Inner Qi before the Qi Refinement Realm is actually derived from the digestion of various foods, which are postnatal Essence Qi. Without food, there is no Inner Qi, so what one eats must be fine, easily digestible, and rich in nutrients and energy. Chocolate beans are a special product from the sect.

Lin Xin flipped through the booklet of the "Small Return to Origin Technique," where the details of the Fourth Layer were recorded.

’Transform postnatal to innate, first by constantly enhancing the quantity of postnatal Essence Qi until it can no longer increase. When the body is at high internal pressure due to the baking and transformation of a large amount of Inner Qi at noon, according to the principle of yang generating yin, employ the Small Return to Origin method in a calm state to naturally condense a trace of Innate Qi.’

The booklet recorded these details clearly and understandably.

The Small Return to Origin method is also a set of decree recorded in "Small Return to Origin Technique" specifically designed to capture Innate Qi. It requires the simultaneous operation of Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

The booklet stated that the formation of Innate Qi is extremely short-lived, appearing quickly and disappearing quickly, not lasting longer than a blink. If the opportunity is missed once, one must wait for the next occurrence to collect the Innate Qi in the lower Dantian, or lower abdomen, which can reactivate the body’s growth and development capabilities. It has the effect of extending one’s life.

"So, Innate Qi needs to be collected daily.... Once a trace appears, following successful capture, day after day...."

Lin Xin browsed further, from the Fourth to the Ninth Layer of Great Perfection, indeed another process of continuously collecting Innate Qi and transforming oneself inside and out in preparation for Foundation Establishment. This was a painstaking process, and one must personally endure the hardship of refining their own Inner Qi. Otherwise, impurities in the Inner Qi would not align with the body, greatly increasing the difficulty during the breakthrough phase of Qi Cultivation. This is fundamentally why many people who use pills to enhance their Inner Qi and those with unstable foundations fail to break through.

He flipped through the booklet.

’Innate Qi is of several types, commonly naturally aggregated according to one’s body constitution attributes, mainly categorized into: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The more attributes one has, the more types of Innate Qi can be refined during Qi Cultivation, making the Small Return to Origin easier to form. The ideal is to have all five elements complete.’

And the fewer the attributes, the more one needs to rely on external objects to supplement the deficiency of the five elements of Innate Qi, thus to complete the five types of Innate Qi. Thus, various Magic Artifacts and Sword Instruments are reliant on life. The path of Qi Cultivation is rooted in this. The difference lies mainly in the emphasized tendencies.’

"So, Qi Cultivation requires the formation of five kinds of Innate Qi to successfully form the Small Return to Origin," Lin Xin realized.

Feeling his Inner Qi bundle at his heart area now, the effect of the Dust-Transforming Elixir was evident. The medicinal effect had enveloped the Inner Qi bundle into a spherical shape similar to an egg, not letting a single thread of Inner Qi escape, only the connected stomach continuously digested and produced Inner Qi to inject into it.

Lin Xin could clearly feel the increasing internal pressure within the Inner Qi bundle, growing steadily over time.

He quickly concentrated, closed his eyes, and sat down on the bed, quietly waiting for the time to pass.

As time went by, the postnatal Inner Qi wrapped by the Dust-Transforming Elixir increased in pressure, and the moment of highest yang energy at noon was approaching.

Lin Xin entered a state half-asleep, half-awake, his body stationary, falling into a deep sleep, yet his consciousness maintained a dreamlike awareness.

In his blurred state, he vaguely heard someone knocking on the stone house door, but they soon left, and time continued to pass.

Finally, he felt the air outside slowly warming up, and the Inner Qi bundle inside had reached a state of great pressure, swelling to the point that his chest was beginning to ache faintly.

Crack.

It was as if he heard a faint sound, and he suddenly felt the Inner Qi bundle explode, as a massive amount of Inner Qi rushed out like a surging tide.

Whoosh....

He felt his entire body’s blood vessels were like high-pressure hoses, the flow of blood suddenly speeding up several times, his heart under great strain, beating intensely, and large amounts of sweat seeped out from his scalp and all over his skin.

Just as a massive amount of postnatal Inner Qi burst open, Lin Xin sharply sensed a cool slender thread flash quickly at his heart area.

That trace of coolness had just appeared when it was about to be scattered and diluted by the postnatal Inner Qi, and he suddenly exerted all his strength to draw in the Inner Qi, trying to concentrate and control that slender cool thread.

Unexpectedly, this slender cool thread was very slippery, and as soon as his consciousness touched it, it slid away like a loach to the side.

As a result, the cool slender thread quickly faded away, blending into the surrounding postnatal Inner Qi, and completely vanished.

"Failed...." Although Lin Xin had anticipated the difficulty of breaching the Innate, he hadn’t expected it to be so challenging. That trace of Innate Qi appeared only for a blink of an eye, fleeting quickly, and only under the high concentration and synthesis of postnatal Inner Qi, combined with the optimal solar yang, could it appear momentarily. Additionally, with its exceptionally slippery nature, it was like trying to press a small floating object in water with a finger; when you move, it moves; when you approach, it distances."