As Li Yan regained consciousness, a wave of pain that was even more suffocating than before once again pierced his brain, instantly throwing his mind into chaos and making him sway. At the same time, a voice buzzed in his mind.
"Circulate the incantation now! What are you waiting for? You can't hold this state for too long. Hurry up!" This voice was like rolling thunder, and a warmth filled Li Yan's entire mind, startling him and making him much more clear-headed. At this moment, his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, and his vision was a sea of blood, unable to see anything clearly. With that one sliver of clarity from the sharp shout, Li Yan's consciousness, which was on the verge of fading, made him feel that the cultivation posture should have been formed. Enduring the extreme pain that made him want to faint, he began to circulate the Qiongqi Purgatory art's incantation, rapidly circulating his spirit power.
Seeing that Li Yan had already begun to circulate the incantation, Pingtu let out a sigh of relief. But the spirit power that was restraining Li Yan did not slacken in the slightest. Looking at the few sections of white bone sticking out from under Li Yan's two ribs, like broken branches with jagged, sharp, thorn-like breaks, Pingtu sighed. If he hadn't seen that Li Yan's consciousness had reached its limit just now, he would not have been willing to act so forcefully.
Pingtu then wiped a conjured large hand over the few sections of broken bone. Under the wipe of that large hand, the few sections of broken bone actually began to slowly retract into the wound. He did this process very carefully, without affecting Li Yan's cultivation. This was an immortal's immortal art, what mortals would call a miracle. But although the broken bones had been retracted, they were not immediately reconnected, because at this time, Li Yan was still maintaining that strange posture, which was not the best time to mend bones.
Just as Pingtu was thinking, on the other side, Li Yan had already barely managed to circulate his spirit power and began to cycle it along a certain route. At first, every inch of spirit power advanced with the difficulty of ten steps. In addition, the physical pain made blood continuously pour from Li Yan's mouth. And this was under the condition that Pingtu had used his magical power to protect his internal organs. Otherwise, with the few sections of broken bone left in his abdomen just now, the organs would have been pierced as they writhed under the impetus of the spirit power, and he would have died long ago.
Li Yan held on to that sliver of clarity in his spiritual platform, forcing himself to calm his emotions. Like a millstone grinding through a mountain, bit by bit, inch by inch, he made his spirit power continuously circulate according to the route of the incantation. With every inch the spirit power advanced, this time, Li Yan clearly felt a difference from his previous cultivation. Wherever the spirit power had passed, that heart-piercing pain and the agony of having his skin and flesh peeled apart were diminishing at a speed he could feel. This lifted Li Yan's spirits. At this rate, as long as he circulated the incantation for one full cycle, all of this inhuman pain would disappear.
But what Li Yan didn't expect was that although it was just a simple three-sentence incantation, how could it be an ordinary method? For an ordinary cultivation method, it would take half an hour for a Qi Condensation stage cultivator to circulate spirit power for one heavenly cycle. Even for the True Scripture of Gui Water, its circulation route involved the interweaving of the five elements' spirit qi to open up the meridians, which was already extremely complex. It would take Li Yan about an hour and a half to circulate it for one heavenly cycle. But this Qiongqi Purgatory did not follow the eight extraordinary meridians of a heavenly cycle. It followed extremely remote and fine meridians. For example, the fingers. When the spirit power circulated to a little finger, it was divided into more than a dozen strands to travel through the extremely fine meridians within. As long as one of these dozen or so meridians was opened, the remaining spirit power, after several fruitless attempts to break through, would return and gather, and finally continue forward along this opened meridian.
This change made Li Yan, who was immersed in it, feel strange, and for a moment, he didn't know whether he had succeeded or failed. In fact, how could he know that although this introductory chapter followed the extremely remote meridians in the body, as long as the main route in that area was opened and the spirit power could form a complete major route, it was sufficient? The real difficulty was the subsequent cultivation. Those small, unopened meridians needed to be opened one by one through repeated tempering and impact. As more and more meridians were opened, and they became denser and denser, the spirit power could be more evenly and seamlessly distributed throughout the body, forming an increasingly dense fine net of refined steel under the skin. The loopholes in this net would become smaller and smaller, until finally, it formed something like a completely airtight suit of refined steel armor. Therefore, the toughness of the body was a process of slow polishing. The gaps between the unopened meridians were the weak points for attack.
As time passed bit by bit, Li Yan felt it becoming smoother and smoother. At this moment, the pain in his body had already diminished by a small half. Especially when the spirit power passed through the area where the Fragmented Poison Body circulated, because some of the small meridians there had already been broken through when Li Yan reconnected the Fragmented Poison Body, the spirit power just passed through with great ease. But Li Yan also clearly felt that before he had correctly mastered that first strange posture, even if the spirit power traveled to the area where the Fragmented Poison Body circulated, it could not pass through. This confirmed for him the overall cultivation idea of the Qiongqi Purgatory cultivation method.
The strange posture of each diagram was to make the body form a structure similar to that of a Qiongqi. Although it could not be a true Qiongqi body, at least on the surface, the body had to tend toward it, so that the spirit power could circulate smoothly. Otherwise, the spirit power could not circulate normally at all, and might not even be able to reach a certain part of the body. Then, due to a large area of spirit power stagnation in the body, the cultivator would feel stuffy and faint, let alone cultivate.
Just as Li Yan was beginning to slowly immerse himself in his cultivation, outside, Pingtu's expression began to turn grave. As time passed, a look of shock appeared on the huge face that he had conjured.
In Pingtu's eyes, under the extreme distortion of Li Yan's body, as he slowly breathed, the patches of red spots under his skin that had been like lupus sores were slowly disappearing with the circulation of Li Yan's spirit power. What followed was that the skin underneath began to undulate faintly, as if fine threads were swimming. Wherever these fine threads passed, not only did the red spots disappear, but soon after, a large amount of gray substance would seep out, and it became more and more, and thicker and thicker, mixed with an extremely strong fishy smell. Coupled with the beads of blood that had overflowed from his body earlier, it almost looked as if Li Yan was wrapped in a dark red limestone.
Pingtu knew what this gray substance was. It was a large amount of impurities in the human body. In the process of cultivation, whenever a cultivator advanced a major realm, the leap in realm would bring about a fundamental change in the body, such as from a mortal to the entry level of Qi Condensation, and then from Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment, and then from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, and so on.
It was just like when Li Yan had first stepped into the early stage of the first layer of Qi Condensation. A greasy, black, viscous substance had overflowed from his body surface, as if his body was covered with a layer of extremely smelly black oil. These were all impurities in the body, and they were also the cause of people slowly aging and eventually reaching the end of their lives. But this did not mean that Li Yan had already expelled all the impurities from his body that time. He had only expelled a very small part. In the future, as his cultivation continued to increase, he would still expel impurities, but it would become less and less, until finally, his body became incomparably pure.
Logically speaking, the next time Li Yan's physique would change would be when he established his foundation. But now, he had only cultivated the introductory chapter of this body refining art and had such a great effect. How could Pingtu not be shocked? In his eyes, this body refining art had invisibly been elevated by another level.
And what happened next shocked Pingtu even more. When Li Yan's spirit power reached his two ribs, the originally broken and unconnected ribs, the broken ends of the two ends of the bone actually showed a faint tendency to connect. Although in the end, after Li Yan's spirit power had barely passed through the meridians here, those broken bones were still not connected, but in Pingtu's Divine Sense, it was extremely clear that a very small part of the front ends of those broken bones had actually begun to connect with fine threads. This shocked Pingtu again, his emotions surging like a tide. This was only the first time he had circulated this art, and it had such an effect. How heaven-defying was this? At this rate, even if Pingtu did not act later, as long as Li Yan cultivated this art for four or five days, these few broken bones might heal on their own. One must know that regrowing limbs and mending broken bones, without medicinal pills, could only be done by cultivators at the Golden Core stage and above. Pingtu had never heard of any cultivation method that could mend broken bones on its own in a short period of time without relying on medicinal pills below the Golden Core stage.
'This cultivation method is so heaven-defying. How have I never heard of it? Based on my journey through the Mortal Realm with my master, True Lord Qianchong, back then, I should at least know some news. It's truly strange,' Pingtu thought with some suspicion as he looked at Li Yan, who was in the process of circulating his power.
But what he didn't know was that no matter how hard he thought, he would never have imagined that the Qiongqi Purgatory art had only truly come into being less than two million years ago. The Tianli Clan of the past, for at least a hundred million years, had relied purely on powerful shamanic arts to reproduce and survive. The Qiongqi Purgatory art was discovered by accident when the Tianli Clan opened their ancestral land more than a million years ago. This was what ushered in the beginning of a powerful era.
Another hour later, a thin layer of dark gray, greasy rock had formed outside Li Yan's body, like a gray, greasy shell enveloping him. Only the outline of a figure in a strange posture could be seen. Fortunately, this wisp of Divine Sense of Pingtu had long since sealed its six senses, leaving only the power of simple Divine Sense communication. Otherwise, it would have been knocked out by the stench of the greasy, shining gray shell that had seeped out of Li Yan long ago.
In the silence of the secret room, a series of cracking sounds suddenly came from the gray shell, as if frying soybeans. Then, a burst of loud laughter came from the mouth of the head of the gray shell.
"Haha, I've succeeded! I've succeeded! Hahaha..." as Li Yan laughed loudly, his body had already begun to return to its normal shape. Although the expression on his greasy face could not be seen clearly, his joy could be clearly felt from his voice.
"Oh? You've succeeded?" Just as Li Yan was happily standing up, about to examine his current physical condition, a cold voice came over.
Li Yan hurriedly looked in the direction of the voice. What he saw was a huge face with tightly furrowed brows, looking at him with a somewhat unfriendly gaze. This made Li Yan stunned for a moment, not knowing what had happened.
"Senior, you are?..." But before he could finish, he felt a powerful force surge through his body. A constantly changing, five-colored world appeared before his eyes. He immediately felt dizzy, and at the same time, Pingtu's somewhat angry voice came to his ears.
"Then you can scram now, old master! Come back when you're clean! You stink up this old master! This secret room is the place where this wisp of Divine Sense is usually nourished. You've made it stink to high heaven. How can I stay here... Scram!"
As Pingtu's roar still echoed in his mind, Li Yan felt the world spin, and then he sat down on the ground with a thud. A heart-piercing pain came over him. He couldn't help but suck in a cold breath, constantly making hissing sounds.
"Why do you turn hostile just like that? Hiss..." Li Yan sucked in a cold breath. As he shook his dizzy head, he looked around. What he saw was the familiar furnishings. This was still his cultivation room. Only then did he feel relieved. But the intense pain from under his two ribs made cold sweat stream down his forehead.
"He was too ruthless, directly breaking my ribs. And he turned hostile just like that. Hiss... What did he say about the stench..." as Li Yan spoke, he went to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead with his right hand. But with just a wipe, the back of his right hand slipped across his forehead, as if wiping through slippery oil. He couldn't help but be stunned. He raised the back of his right hand and looked at it closely. He saw a greasy layer of gray stuff on the back of his right hand. He couldn't help but sniff it. This one sniff was no small matter. A foul stench immediately assailed him, making him feel nauseous. He quickly looked down. Whether it was his naked body or his shorts, they were all stained with a layer of greasy gray, emitting a foul stench. It seemed he had gotten used to the smell before and hadn't noticed anything unusual.
Li Yan scratched his scalp in embarrassment, but only got a handful of grease. He was no longer a cultivation rookie. He certainly knew the basics of these things. No wonder Pingtu was angry. That was originally an enclosed space. After he made such a mess, he thought that after he was kicked out, he would definitely have to use his divine abilities and magical arts to clean it up.
But then, thinking of the result of this trip, Li Yan couldn't help but laugh out loud. Amidst his laughter, he pushed open the door of the cultivation room and strode out to clean up the filth. It was just that in this laughter, there were occasional hissing sounds of him sucking in cold breath. He was in pain and happy at the same time!