Chapter 45: The Myriad Transformations Return to One Art

Mu Wanqing's unintentional remark was like the vague outline of a key, yet it faintly pointed him in a direction.

Chu Xing took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the agitation in his heart. He carefully put away the three medicinal pills and left swiftly.

Returning to his dilapidated little courtyard, Chu Xing sat cross-legged directly on the bed.

His entire consciousness once again sank deep into his Dantian. This time, he was not reaching out to take, but to explore and to comprehend.

As his consciousness immersed within, the surroundings were a expanse of chaotic nothingness. At the very center of this nothingness lay the primal core of the stone bead.

He tried, as he usually did, to mobilize a trace of his own vital energy, making it circulate through his meridians.

Having broken through to the Ninth Stage of Body Tempering, his control over his own body had ascended to another level. Under internal observation now, every single circulation of that trace of vital energy became clearly visible.

Yet for some reason, he always felt... somewhat awkward.

He had never felt this way before. But today, after witnessing Mu Wanqing's effortless fire-control technique and hearing her words about "the out-of-control furnace," when Chu Xing looked at the circulation of vital energy within his own body, he found it utterly crude.

It was like a stream flowing haphazardly through a riverbed; while it seemed smooth at first glance, countless subtle forces were being wasted and dissipated to no avail as they impacted the riverbanks.

"Where on earth does the flaw lie?"

Chu Xing frowned deeply, completely baffled.

He simply stopped circulating his own vital energy and instead mobilized a trace of the transformed, highly refined energy stored within the stone bead. The moment this trace of energy overflowed from the stone bead and poured into his meridians, Chu Xing felt a jolt in his heart.

It truly was somewhat different.

If his own vital energy could be likened to a tray of scattered sand, then this energy originating from the stone bead was a droplet of cohesive mercury.

As it flowed through the meridians, it generated almost no excess friction against the meridian walls. It carried a unique momentum of its own, flowing with incredible smoothness.

Vital energy that previously required ten tenths of his strength to propel could now flow smoothly with this energy, Chu Xing felt, using only seven tenths of his effort.

Within this, perhaps, lay the mystery he had failed to notice.

Chu Xing instantly held his breath and concentrated his mind entirely, once again mobilizing a trace of the stone bead's energy and striving to observe every single detail of it overflowing from the stone bead and streaming into the meridians.

Perhaps due to his breakthrough in realm, or perhaps because his intent was exceptionally focused, this time, he finally saw it!

The moment that trace of energy from the stone bead left the bead, it did not flow out smoothly; rather, it carried an extremely subtle, extremely high-speed rotation!

It was precisely this almost imperceptible rotation that allowed it, upon entering the meridians, to act like a precise drill bit, maintaining its integrity to the maximum extent and drastically reducing the dissipation caused by collisions with the meridian walls!

Chu Xing was stunned in his heart.

His previous crude and reckless method of control was simply a violent waste of heavenly treasures.

He began to gather his consciousness, attempting to use his own vital energy to imitate that rotation.

It was difficult!

It was a hundred times harder than using green jade to practice vital energy control!

He guided a trace of his own vital energy, striving to make it imitate that rotation, but that trace of vital energy was like a rigid iron bar; it was simply incapable of performing such delicate spinning.

The moment he tried, it instantly lost control, crashing directly into the meridian wall and dissipating into nothingness.

Failure.

Chu Xing was undeterred and tried again.

Failure.

Failure once more...

Attempt after attempt was met with failure after failure. The process was dry and tedious, and the consumption of mental energy was also exceptionally immense.

In the span of just half an hour, Chu Xing was already covered in sweat, his face pale and his spirit withered to the extreme.

He had to stop, regulating his breathing for a long time before he managed to recover some strength.

"This won't do... Blindly imitating like this simply cannot work."

Chu Xing opened his eyes, his brows tightly knitted.

The operational method of the stone bead's origin was too complex and too profound. For a mere Body Tempering realm practitioner like him to wish to operate it completely was tantamount to a fool's daydream.

It was like asking a child who had just learned how to hold a pen to copy the pinnacle masterpieces of a master of wild cursive calligraphy—there was simply no way to begin.

"If I cannot circulate the complete trajectory, then I shall start from the most fundamental details! Understand the whole through the small."

A sharp glint flashed in Chu Xing's eyes as he once again settled his mind.

This time, he no longer harbored the extravagant hope of imitating that complete and complex rotation. Instead, he concentrated his attention within the interior of the stone bead, upon the cyclical process of devouring, pulverizing, and purifying.

What he wanted to see was the most fundamental trajectory of energy flow within this cycle!

Devouring, pulverizing, purifying!

Over and over again, in an endless cycle.

During this process, he finally captured a trace of the trajectory!

No matter how the energy changed, its core operational method followed a regular pattern of going from many to one, and then from one transforming into many.

This trace of origin would then nourish the physical body, merge into his own vital energy, and ultimately return to the Dantian qi ocean.

This was it!

Chu Xing shuddered all over, as if a thunderbolt had exploded in his mind, and the path before him suddenly opened up wide!

He had found it!

He had found the most core, the most fundamental, and the most suitable cultivation technique operation to imitate right now.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately mobilized all the vital energy within his body, ignoring those complex rotations and striving with all his might to control them, constructing the simplest cycle within his Dantian.

He made the vital energy imitate the operational trajectory of the stone bead's energy, carrying out the most fundamental circulation!

This process remained arduous, but compared to before, it now had a clear direction!

Once... Twice...

I know not how much time had passed, just when Chu Xing felt as though his oil was exhausted and his lamp was dying.

Hum!

All the vital energy within his Dantian, as if it had finally found an outlet, trembled violently and spontaneously followed the trajectory he had forcibly carved out, completing a complete and smooth circulation!

He could feel that his vital energy had become unhindered at this moment, and his absorption of the surrounding ambient energy had also improved.

At the very instant this most elementary cycle was completed, his consciousness was violently yanked by an invisible force, instantly pulled into the deeper, unfathomable chaos within the interior of the stone bead!

The scene before his eyes changed abruptly!

It was no longer mere chaos; deep within that boundless nothingness, something seemed to have been touched by his previous action.

A ray of faint light ignited from within the chaos.

Immediately following that, a scripture composed of countless ancient runes emerged from the chaos like stars, slowly revolving. Every single character emanated the profound aura of the Great Dao being simple yet encompassing.

A vast and pure torrent of information instantly surged into Chu Xing's mind!

That was a complete cultivation method!

A million times more exquisite and profound than the elementary cycle he had just imitated! The complexity of its circulation route and the harsh demands it placed on vital energy control were simply unimaginable!

Chu Xing was completely dumbfounded, immersed in this sudden, heaven-sent fortune, unable to extricate himself.

He knew not how long had passed before he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze still carrying unassuaged shock.

"Myriad Transformations Unifying Art..."

Chu Xing murmured these four words softly, an unprecedented radiance erupting in his eyes.