Translator: StarveCleric Editor: StarveCleric
This gourd was the very same Dongxu Gourd which shamelessly chose to linger inside his dantian, refusing to leave at all! The last time, it leaped out and devoured the Dragon Blood he had acquired from Sovereign Chen Ling whole, and the same thing was happening this time too…
Of all times to appear, why did it have to appear now and eat the recovery pill which he just so needed so much at this instant?
Did I offend you in my previous life or something?
How in the world did I end up being plagued with a dastardly thing like you?
With his body trembling uncontrollably, Zhang Xuan spat through gritted teeth, “Vomit. It. Out. Now!”
He grabbed the middle part of the gourd and exerted his strength angrily, but it was unfortunate that the amount of strength he could exert was limited due to his injuries.
“Already swallowed it. I can still poop it out if you want it though,” the Dongxu Gourd shook its bottom gleefully.
“Poop your head!”
Zhang Xuan threw the Dongxu Gourd on the ground and stomped on it angrily twice before his anger finally subsided slightly, “Let me warn you. If you dare interfere in my recovery once more, I’ll throw you right into a pool of feces!”
“You were injured by spacetime turbulence, and its devastating power still lingers in your body. Do you know how long it’ll take for you to recover using that kind of pill?” the gourd snorted impatiently.
“Are you telling me that the Bluesun Pill isn’t enough to heal my injuries?”
He couldn’t check his own condition using the Library of Heaven’s Path, and he was unable to drive his zhenqi to carefully check his current internal condition either. As such, he was unable to accurately discern how severe his injuries were.
“Duh! It can heal up normal injuries, but for those caused by spacetime turbulence… Even if you were to eat a cart of them, it wouldn’t make much of a difference at all!” the gourd replied.
“That… Then what kind of medicine will I need?” Zhang Xuan asked.
He knew that there was something extraordinary about the Dongxu Gourd, so he decided to seek the latter’s opinion this time around. Perhaps, something good might come out of this.
“You need pills that are specialized in treating wounds caused by spacetime turbulence. However, those are incredibly rare and extremely expensive. It’s impossible for someone like you to find it… However, you are in luck. As long as you bring me a few more of the earlier pill and let me have my fill, I’ll tell you how you can cure your injuries…” the gourd replied proudly.
But before it could finish its words, Zhang Xuan had already struggled his way to the doorway of the chamber and shouted, “Dan Xiaotian, bring a chopper over!”
“A chopper?”
“I have a gourd over here that needs to be sliced to two. If you don’t have a chopper, an axe will do too!” Zhang Xuan bellowed.
As soon as an ax was delivered into Zhang Xuan’s hands, he immediately brought it down on the Dongxu Gourd, smashing it furiously as if a person went berserk.
Seeing that Zhang Xuan was serious about it, the gourd immediately surrendered, “Fine, fine! I’ll tell you how you can solve the problem… Actually, the reason why I want those pills isn’t because I’m greedy at all. It’s because my energy is weak, and I need to consume some pills in order to recover a little before I can heal your wounds!”
“Don’t try to play games with me…” Zhang Xuan glared coldly at the gourd as he pressed the tip of the ax against the gourd.
“O-of course not! Why would I…” the Dongxu Gourd quickly replied.
Shooting the Dongxu Gourd with one last vicious glare, Zhang Xuan returned back to the Ethereal Hall and spent all of his remaining 100,000 Ethereal Coins on buying five Bluesun Pills before returning.
After swallowing the five pills, the Dongxu Gourd burped in satisfaction before instructing lazily, “Prepare a pot of water and boil it together with me. Drink the water two hours later, and your wounds will recover…”
“You want me to drink your bathwater?” Zhang Xuan was stunned.
Was this a legitimate healing method?
“Un!” the Dongxu Gourd said as it lay lazily on the ground. “Hurry up. If you aren’t going to do it, I’m going to head back in to rest…”
Knowing that the darned Dongxu Gourd would really do as it had said, Zhang Xuan sighed deeply. He didn’t really believe in the method which the Dongxu Gourd had provided him, but he had no better alternatives at the moment either. Thus, he decided to just give it a try.
He swiftly instructed Dan Xiaotian, who was waiting outside, to bring a pot of water into the room.
Soon enough, Dan Xiaotian came into the room and placed down a pot filled with water. He was slightly perplexed as to what his teacher was doing… First, his teacher asked for a chopper and an ax, and now, he wanted a pot of water… Was he intending to prepare a hotpot?
With such thoughts in mind, the caring Dan Xiaotian immediately asked, “Teacher, do you need lamb meat, fishball, or that sort? I can get someone to prepare it right away!”
“…” Zhang Xuan.
It took him quite a bit of effort to convince the overly welcoming Dan Xiaotian that he wasn’t intending to having a hotpot. After he finally managed to send this tenth direct disciple of his out, he started a flame beneath the pot before tossing the Dognxu Gourd inside.
The Dongxu Gourd didn’t seem to be affected by the temperature at all. One moment, it would be swimming freestyle inside, and the next moment, it would dive underwater. It was as if it was having the time of its life.
This ridiculous image made Zhang Xuan clasp his forehead as he wondered if he was really sane to actually heed the Dongxu Gourd’s instructions.
He was such an imposing figure on the Master Teacher Continent, but up here in the Azure, he felt like he was at the beck and call of the Dongxu Gourd, and this made him feel extremely stifled within.
To make things worse, he still hadn’t figured out the true identity of this bizarre gourd?
While the other cultivators were able to order their artifacts around, this fellow bolted right into his dantian as soon as they met, and it refused to come out no matter how he ordered it around. Furthermore, it had no hesitation in putting all sorts of stuff in its mouth…
It felt like the Dongxu Gourd would do him in as soon as he let his guard down, and the fact that he could do nothing about it made him feel deeply exasperated. He had no idea how he ended up getting stuck with this dastardly thing.
Two hours soon passed, and without requiring Zhang Xuan to fish the Dongxu Gourd out from the pot, it dashed right out of the pot and shook its body to get rid of the water on its surface before bolting back into Zhang Xuan’s dantian on its own accord.
Heaving a deep sigh, Zhang Xuan carried the pot up and took a sip. It immediately sent a refreshing sensation across his body, alleviating the aches caused by his injuries significantly.
It really works… Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up in excitement.
He had already prepared an ax in case the Dongxu Gourd had scammed him, but to his astonishment, it was really effective!
The Dongxu Gourd is an artifact related to space, so that might be the reason why it’s able to heal the wounds caused by spacetime turbulence… Zhang Xuan deduced.
It didn’t take him long to finish the pot of water, and his injuries were beginning to heal at a visible pace.
In less than an hour’s time, the bandages around his body unwrapped themselves and fell to the ground.
My injuries are finally healed, but I haven’t regained my zhenqi yet… Zhang Xuan thought.
He was finally a sickly man no more, but his depleted energy hadn’t been restored yet.
Thus, he sat down on the ground once more and carefully felt the mercury-like spiritual energy around him. He opened up his acupoints and began taking it in slowly.
Tzzzzzz!
As the energy gushed into his body, he felt some weight pulling down his meridians, but fortunately, he didn’t experience the same ripping sensation he felt previously.
Is my body starting to adapt to this energy along with the recovery of my wounds? Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up in excitement.
He was driving the normal Heaven’s Path Divine Art at the moment instead of the reverse version. The last time he did so at the Kunxu Domain, he nearly ripped his meridians apart. However, the recovery from his wounds seemed to have enhanced the resilience of his meridians, allowing him to take in the mercury-like spiritual energy without any trouble now.
Gugugu!
As the spiritual energy entered his body, Zhang Xuan swiftly circulated it around his body and converted it into zhenqi.
“At this rate, I should be able to make a full recovery within three days!” Zhang Xuan quickly calculated his rate of absorption before heaving a sigh of relief.
As a Celestial Saint and the World’s Teacher, the capacity of his zhenqi had reached an alarming level. Even with the Heaven’s Path Divine Art and the mercury-like spiritual energy in the air, it would still take him three days to regain all of it back.
However, as long as he had some zhenqi, he would be able to exert the strength of a Dimension Shatterer realm primary stage cultivator. In other words, there was no longer anything for him to fear in Xuanjiang City.
He continued cultivating for a while till he finally had a hundred surges of zhenqi in his dantian before finally calling Dan Xiaotian in.
As soon as Dan Xiaotian walked in, he noticed that his teacher’s bandages had fallen to the ground, and the feeling of frailty he previously sensed from the other party had vanished. His eyes lit in excitement as he asked, “Teacher, you have recovered?”
“Un, that’s right. I want you to execute a punching routine for me right now. I’ll determine the location fo the gu in your body and eliminate it for you!” Zhang Xuan said with a smile.
With a nod of his head, Dan Xiaotian swiftly executed a punching routine.
After taking a swift look, Zhang Xuan determined the resting location of the gu and placed his palm lightly on the spot.
Hu!
A surge of Heaven’s Path zhenqi immediately gushed into Dan Xiaotian’s body through his acupoints. In just a moment’s time, it had already arrived at the gu’s hiding spot.
Tzzzzzzzz!
As if the arrival of a natural disaster, the gu that was lazing around a moment ago immediately fled in fright upon sensing the overwhelming energy coming its way. However, before it could get far, another surge of zhenqi gushed in from its path of escape.
It was surrounded.
Under the onslaught of the two surges of zhenqi, the gu was reduced to a heap of pus.
Hong long long!
As soon as Zhang Xuan forced the pus out of Dan Xiaotian’s body, the latter began inflating at a terrifying pace as if someone was blowing him, and his body swelled up like a balloon.
“Teacher, what’s happening to me?”
Feeling the tremendous energy that was about to tear him apart from within at any moment, Dan Xiaotian’s face paled in fright.
“I told you before. The reason why your cultivation hadn’t risen despite the hard work you have put in over the past ten years isn’t because you aren’t hardworking. Rather, it’s because the spiritual energy you were absorbing has been stolen by the gu inside of you. Surely you can imagine the amount of energy it has stolen from you over the past ten years!” Zhang Xuan explained with a smile.
“It’s all returned back to you right now, so it’s a given that you would feel bloated with energy. Don’t hesitate and absorb all of this energy with this cultivation technique I’m going to impart to you!” Zhang Xuan said as he imparted a simplified version of the Heaven’s Path Divine Art into Dan Xiaotian’s mind.
There was no time for Dan Xiaotian to carefully look through the manual he had just received, but he believed that his teacher wouldn’t harm him. Thus, he began driving his zhenqi according to the instructions on the manual.
As soon as he began to absorb the energy in his body, he realized that something was amiss.
Typically speaking, when one was assimilating spiritual energy into one’s own zhenqi, one would have to refine and adapt it to one’s physical condition… However, the energy which he had obtained from the gu didn’t require such steps at all!
It was as if the energy belonged to him in the very first place, allowing him to control and absorb it with ease.
“You were the one who cultivated this energy in the first place, so it goes without saying that you would be able to drive them easily. Hurry up, and you might be able to finish before nightfall!” Zhang Xuan explained with a smile.
“Yes!” Dan Xiaotian closed his eyes and focused his efforts on absorbing the energy in his body.
Hong long long!
His meridians were swiftly opened up, allowing energy to flow through his body with ease. His cultivation which had stopped at Saint 6-dan previously began growing at an unbelievable pace.
Saint 7-dan!
Saint 8-dan!
Saint 9-dan!
He had reached Saint 9-dan in an instant, but his cultivation still wasn’t showing any signs of settling down yet.
He doesn’t have any cultivation ordeal? Zhang Xuan frowned.
Back on the Master Teacher Continent, those who had reached Saint 8-dan would face the Dimension Sundering Ordeal, and those who had reached Saint 9-dan would be struck by the Macrocosm Ascendancy Ordeal. Back then, he spent quite a great deal of effort in order to overcome it.
Yet, his tenth direct disciple was able to advance through the ranks without any problems at all.
It could be because the heavens of the Azure is much stronger. To them, Saint 8-dan and Saint 9-dan might be no different from Zongshi realm and Zunshi realm, so it doesn’t necessitate it to send down cultivation ordeals in response… Zhang Xuan figured.
Considering how even ordinary citizens were able to reach Saint 9-dan upon maturity in the Azure, the heavens would probably die of exhaustion if they had to send down lightning bolts for these realms too.
While Zhang Xuan’s thoughts were wandering around the area, Dan Xiaotian finally achieved a breakthrough to Great Sage.
Introspective Convalescence realm, Aureate Body realm, Intuitive Impulse realm…
His cultivation raced all the way to Great Sage 3-dan before slowing to a halt.
The gu had consumed ten years worth of his hard work, and when it was finally released, it allowed him to soar through six realms in a single shot, reaching a level comparable to Xue Qin!
