There are rarely gratuitous advantages in the world; everything comes with a cost.
How precious is the Celestial Emperor's sealed forbidden book, the Nine Heavenly Secret Arts? Yet, Lord Yuan generously imparted the Divine Travel Celestial Scripture of the Celestial Gang division to Xu Qing.
At first, Xu Qing hoped for luck, thinking Lord Yuan stole the celestial scripture and was punished by the Celestial Emperor to suffer from wood damage, fire burning, earth burial, metal injury, and water drowning, enduring the tribulation of the Five Elements.
Lord Yuan has gone through four tribulations, with only the last water tribulation imprisoning him in the Bright Moon Valley, unable to recover.
However, in this great calamity, with the Heaven-Reaching Road severed, Xu Qing extended a helping hand, pulling the old monkey out from the final tribulation and aiding him in achieving perfect merit.
This was a great favor; perhaps the old monkey reciprocated for the kindness by imparting to him the Divine Travel Celestial Scripture—something coveted by even the celestial foxes.
Xu Qing never expected the old monkey to be so calculating, making every detail perfectly clear.
Even the Sword Pill secret art imparted to Xuan Yu was to entrap Xuan Yu in the White Cloud Cave ruse.
Xu Qing could not resist the temptation of the Divine Travel Celestial Scripture. According to Lord Yuan, when this escape technique is perfected, anywhere his mind can reach, he can arrive instantaneously.
It far surpasses techniques like Shrinking the Earth to an Inch, Vertical Earth Golden Light, or even the Five Elements Escape Art!
At the time, Xu Qing faintly felt something was amiss, but he thought to himself, even if there were truly an impossible situation ahead, couldn't he still escape?
After practicing the Divine Travel Celestial Scripture, he discovered that this skyscraper-like escape technique required a matching long ladder.
Yet, his magical power might only be one zhang long.
"Fooled by the old monkey!"
Xu Qing sat dejectedly at the threshold of the Funeral Shop for two consecutive days.
Xuan Yu noticed his troubled mind and came forward to ask what was wrong.
Xu Qing shook his head without speaking.
Xuan Yu said earnestly, "I am bound to cultivate with the Xu Immortal Family and should support each other. Whatever issues the Xu Immortal Family has, you can surely tell Xuan Yu. As the Immortal Hall Master, having overcome the lightning tribulation and possessing five hundred years of cultivation, I can still help ease Xu Immortal Family's burdens."
In Xu Qing's troubled eyes, a glimmer of hope seemed to appear. He looked at Xuan Yu and said, "In twelve years, the celestial fox from the White Cloud Cave will break free and seek revenge on us. Xuan Yu, surely, you have a way to defeat that old demon fox, right?"
"..."
And so, in front of the Funeral Shop, another monster with a worried expression and a face full of concerns appeared.
Xu Qing looked at the occasional passersby, even losing some enthusiasm for handing out leaflets and promoting his business.
After sitting idly for most of the day, Xu Qing finally let out a slow breath.
After some thought, he had already come up with a plan to deal with the celestial fox's emergence.
According to Lord Yuan, the Earth Shade division cultivation techniques of the Nine Heavenly Secret Arts are mostly evil techniques against heavenly harmony, such as straw men and paper horses, ghost blades, and demon swords.
And this type of technique feared the orthodox divine techniques the most. In terms of orthodox practices, Xu Qing had the Blood Lake Dharma Realm for protection. As long as the Blood Lake incense was abundant, the protective Wishing Fulfillment Scepter, Maternal Qi Bottle, and the live scripture nurtured by the Blood Lake could serve as protective Daoist treasures to repel external evil intrusions.
However, the strength of the Bao Sheng Temple is tied to the incense. If Xu Qing wanted to possess sufficient Blood Lake magical power to counter the celestial fox's evil techniques within twelve years, he must break through the two obstacles of the Celestial Master's Mansion and Emperor Jingxing, so that the Nurturing Handbook can be disseminated early in the world.
The orthodox techniques only served as protection but might not eliminate future dangers. If Xu Qing wanted to thoroughly eradicate the celestial fox threat, he also needed the Celestial Gang's divine techniques to subdue the Earth Shade.
Though the Divine Travel Celestial Scripture is a Celestial Gang divine technique, it is an escape method ineffective against subduing demons and monsters. After considering, Xu Qing only found the Celestial Gang Ax technique on him capable of eradicating the celestial fox.
However, similarly, the Celestial Gang Thirty-Six Axes need to be mastered to at least level twenty-five within twelve years to pose a threat to the celestial fox.
Xu Qing could now practice the Celestial Gang Ax technique up to the nineteenth level. Although these nineteen levels took less than ten years, Xu Qing knew that since he first learned the Celestial Gang Ax technique, he could perform the ninth-level ax technique by borrowing the Silver Armored Corpse's cultivation.
But after the ninth level, each level's difficulty in the Celestial Gang Ax technique surpassed the total difficulty of the previous nine levels.
Only after cultivating to the Golden Armored Corpse and going through the Three Corpse Transformations, could Xu Qing, with utmost effort, deduce the Celestial Gang Ax technique to level eighteen.
After the eighteenth level, each level's difficulty equated to the sum of the previous eighteen levels.
Only when Xu Qing condensed a complete Undying Bone could he barely use its metamorphic power to stack the Celestial Gang Ax to the nineteenth level.
Beyond this, it has become extremely challenging!
However, divine techniques are different from incense; they are the fundamental essence of a cultivator, only accumulated bit by bit to build a high platform.
"What's limiting the Celestial Gang Ax technique is not the divine technique itself, but my level."
Xu Qing had a clear self-awareness. To progress the Celestial Gang Ax technique beyond the twenty-fifth level, he needed the Undying Bone to be perfected, to reach the threshold of the Flying Corpse, and to possess a thousand years of cultivation.
How to enhance cultivation? Currently, aside from absorbing the Moonlight Yin Qi, the quickest way for Xu Qing is to redeem corpses, using the occasionally condensed Yin Essence Pills or Corpse Nourishing Pills from the Sutra of Salvation to aid cultivation.
Yet, most corpses do not yield these kinds of pills.
Xu Qing counted through his experiences redeeming over ten thousand corpses and faintly grasped some patterns.
Corpse Nourishing Pills are rare and mostly found on zombies or practitioners from the Yin Corpse Sect; Yin Essence Pills, although named as pills, are more like creations after purifying the deceased's Yin Qi.