**Chapter 7: Cultivation**
In Hell's Kitchen, night represents danger for ordinary people.
The neon lights of the Guns N' Roses bar flickered, and the noise of heavy metal music faintly drifted out.
On the bar's rooftop, six desktop-sized optical focusing mirrors were aimed at the bright moon hanging in the sky. The moonlight was gathered by these mirrors, transforming into beams of silver light projected into the underground cavity.
Thirty-six black-lacquered Fortune Longevity Golden Coffins were arranged vertically around the Eight Trigrams Platform. In the upper part of the cavity, silver crystals refracted and gathered the external moonlight, projecting it onto the coffins.
Around the coffins, blood-colored talismans, drawn with a mixture of vampire blood and cinnabar as ink, injected a continuous stream of Lunar Yin Qi into the Armored Corpses within the coffins.
Each Armored Corpse formed the Sky Corpse Worshipping Moon formation, absorbing this Lunar Moonlight and transforming it into Corpse Evil Qi within their bodies. Their skin turned patches of dark green and black, as if cast from iron.
Whoosh...
The refined azure moonlight essence flowed out from the thirty-six Armored Corpses – the purest moonlight power refined from Lunar Yin Qi.
The Eight Trigrams Altar lit up with streaks of green light. Streaks of Moonlight Essence Qi converged into the Taiji Yin Fish within the Eight Trigrams Altar.
Tang Song sat cross-legged atop the Taiji Yin Fish, on a green jade cushion carved from jade.
Streaks of Moonlight Essence Qi permeated Tang Song's crucial acupoints, refining his four limbs and hundred bones.
...
The Jambudvīpa World divides cultivation into nine realms: Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Condensing Baleful Qi, Refining Astral Qi, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Nascent Divinity, Pure Yang.
Qi Condensation is the process of drawing Heaven and Earth Essence Qi into the crucial acupoints throughout the body, connecting with heaven and earth, and refining the entire body.
A continuous stream of Lunar Moonlight Essence Qi converged into Tang Song's body along the green jade. With every breath, Tang Song could drive the circulation of all his internal organs. Eighty-four thousand pores opened and closed in unison, inhaling and exhaling, forming a single flow.
Closing his eyes, he used his spirit to explore the inside of his body, sensing the subtle changes. Tang Song could now clearly see the clusters of meridians and blood vessels, organs, bowels, tendons, and membranes within his body. With a slight movement, his entire being felt like a large ball of lead and mercury, every lift of a hand or foot perfectly smooth and effortless. His physical form felt filled with heavy mercury, possessing a dense, weighty texture.
Listening closely, the sound of Qi and Blood circulation and Essence Qi circulation was like the tinkling of mountain springs and the gurgling of a small stream.
At the same time, the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and Twelve Primary Meridians were all mapped out in his mind. On each meridian, the crucial acupoints were like beads strung on a silver thread, seemingly complex but possessing their own profound mystery. Arranged horizontally and vertically, densely packed, they resembled countless stars in the sky, each corresponding to another.
Since practicing the Tianhe True Method obtained from the Jambudvīpa World's Root Source Imprint, Tang Song had long since opened his Ren and Du meridians. Eight or nine out of ten of his body's meridians had been successfully opened by his internal essence. At this moment, with just a slight exertion of force, he stirred his Dantian. Immediately, wherever his essence and qi reached, the crucial acupoints lit up like bright lamps, one after another. The sounds of peristalsis within his large and small intestines, Five Zang Organs and Six Fu Organs were like the croaking of frogs, or the lowing of cattle.
Having reached this stage, he could freely mobilize the power of his Five Zang Organs, operating their vital functions, countless times more flexibly than before.
Subsequently, Tang Song focused on sensing his lungs. He drew a breath of essence and qi into them. In an instant, he seemed to see a white light flickering and circulating in each side of his chest, moving among the large and small alveoli. Concentrating his spirit and settling his qi, it connected downwards with his Dantian. A faint purple qi gradually diffused outwards, sending it into his heart and lungs. With a resonant clang, the two white lights rushed towards the space between his mouth and nose, instantly transforming into two streams of white qi, about the thickness of a little finger. They expanded and contracted unpredictably, like spirit snakes flicking their tongues.
"Among the Five Zang Organs, the heart masters fire, and the lungs master metal. Daoism emphasizes alchemy to seek pills, which is essentially achieved by refining with heart fire. However, I have integrated the Sky River Sword Immortal Arts, using fire to refine metal, removing the dross and retaining the essence, thereby obtaining these two streams of lung qi. These are true Great White Essence Qi. Stored within the body, they grow stronger day by day. Sent outwards, they become the legendary sword qi, capable of severing all rigid things in the world, far sharper than any divine weapons and sharp blades." Feeling the subtle changes occurring within his Five Zang Organs, with just a slight movement of his body, the essence and qi within him flowed naturally with his form, circulating autonomously. From inside to out, and from outside to in, everything was integrated as one. In this instant, Tang Song immediately knew that his cultivation had finally, tonight, stepped into the Qi Condensation realm.
Although there was only a thin line separating 'before Qi Condensation' and 'Qi Condensation', the difference between the two was like heaven and earth, seemingly close yet infinitely far. Only by piercing this veil could Tang Song be considered to have truly entered the cultivation realm.
One must know that he had struggled to seek the Dao for several years in the Jambudvīpa World, yet he had only just stepped through the gate of Qi Condensation.
In the Era of Dharma Decline, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi does not exist. However, the Great Dao Fifty, Heaven's Dao Derivation Four Nine, Man Escapes the One.
Nothing is absolute. After two years of testing, Tang Song found that although this world lacks Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, it is not without Sun and Moon Essence Qi and the countless stars in the sky. If truly utilized, it would not be inferior to ordinary Daoist immortal mountains and blessed lands.
It's just that Sun Essence Fire is not something ordinary people can withstand.
Even Lunar Yin Essence Qi, Tang Song only dared to absorb and utilize it after layers of filtering.
After all, the worlds are different, the sun and moon are different, and the Sun and Moon Essence Qi has many deviations.
These thirty-six Armored Corpses are used by Tang Song as filters, filtering out the impurities in the Lunar Yin Essence Qi.
Tang Song utilized the most advanced spectrograph, combined with thirty-six body-protecting Armored Corpses, to set up a Sky Corpse Worshipping Moon Feng Shui array. The concentration of Lunar Yin Essence Qi in this underground space is not inferior to some ordinary mountains, rivers, and earth meridians in the Jambudvīpa World.
If no accidents occur, and Tang Song continues cultivating like this, within the next hundred years, he will be able to attempt to collect and condense Astral and Baleful Qi, and attempt Forming the Core.
By then, if he successfully Forms the Core, Daoism calls it Human Immortal, Buddhism calls it Arhat. One obtains the Vajra Indestructible Body and Leak-Free Penetration. The Six Manifestations appear: radiant light shoots out in all directions, the external kidneys do not rise, and the Yang Pass closes. Living for seven or eight hundred years is quite normal.
And the two streams of Great White Essence Qi he just condensed between his lungs are also exceptionally precious. If nurtured over a long period, these two streams of essence and qi will also grow stronger and stronger.
In the future, should Tang Song ever want to try cultivating Sword Immortal flying sword, having these two streams of Great White Essence Qi will make it a hundred times easier than for others. He only needs to find a high-quality sword embryo, combine it with the Great White Essence Qi, and after a hundred days of nurturing, he can immediately forge a true 'sword implement'.
In the Jambudvīpa World, throughout history, how many Daoist hermits, in order to refine a flying sword, hid deep in the mountains, busy all day collecting herbs, refining medicine, deconstructing five metals to seek their essence, and practicing Qi Condensation and meditation? In the end, some even had to irrigate their sword implement with their own blood every day, walking down an evil path, just to refine a 'flying sword'! Someone like Tang Song, who hasn't cultivated sword arts but has coincidentally refined the metal qi of his lungs and condensed Great White Essence Qi, is simply unimaginable among rogue cultivators.
And this is also knowledge Tang Song obtained from the Jambudvīpa World's Root Source Imprint, it is the True Inheritance Method of the Tianhe Sword Sect in the Jambudvīpa World, a Secret Not Passed Down.
The reason Tang Song could easily obtain this from the World Imprint was that one of the two Great Divine Ability Users who fought back then was a certain patriarch of the Tianhe Sword Sect.
...
Tang Song had been in the Marvel World for two years without a single day of slackening, practicing day and night. From outside to inside, he first opened up his skin, hair, tendons, and bones, then from inside to out, he used Muscle Changing Bone Forging to open up his meridians and collaterals. Now, following the guidance of the Daoist methods described in the Tianhe True Method, inferring other cases from one instance and building a strong foundation for a powerful outburst, he finally stepped into the Qi Condensation realm.
(End of Chapter)