Chapter 785 - 272: Two Years (Part 6)
Shen Li paused slightly, then lightly smiled.
"I will be in closed-door training tomorrow, don’t run around at that time."
"If the closed-door training is successful this time, after coming out, I’ll go out for a walk."
Upon hearing this, the Golden Toad’s eyes flickered with a strange color, but it didn’t ask any more questions.
...
After the Spiritual Red Flame Radiance was taken away, there was temporarily no news of other spirit manifestations in the Yangnao Land.
All forces in the Southern Border sustained considerable damage during the battle at Celestial Aromatic Mountain and need to recuperate and gather strength for the next struggle for a spirit.
More importantly, having witnessed the strength of the Shen Family and Cyan Ruo Sword House, several major forces are now more worried that the Shen Family will settle accounts with them at all costs.
In such circumstances, the entire Yangnao Land experienced a rare period of peace.
The leaves on the mountain turned green and then yellow, yellow and then green again.
A heavy snowfall descended, covering Yunshui City and the surrounding areas for hundreds of miles in thick snow, creating a silvery landscape.
It was the annual ancestral festival again.
In the blink of an eye, two years had passed since the great battle at Celestial Aromatic Mountain.
The two rare years of peace allowed the Shen Family to make significant progress.
First, the Shen Family’s fourth-generation eldest son Shen Xiuzhuo married Xu Qingzhi, a disciple from Luoxia Mountain, as a dao couple.
The Foundation of the Immortal Embryo, repaired in Shen Chonghong, was abundant with the Power of Life, resulting in him and Xiao Hongxiao having another son, named Shen Xiusi.
To the south of Black Water City, within the small courtyard where Shen You and Xu Zhan lived.
Ever since the battle at Celestial Aromatic Mountain back then, Xu Zhan had been in closed-door training, pondering over the Impeccable Golden Body.
He knew that without mastering the Impeccable Golden Body, each time he appeared, he would be akin to a walking human elixir, drawing greedy attention.
But both the rare books treasured by the Shen Family and his main cultivation manual, the "Nine Fiends Gathering Body Technique," lacked a cultivation technique for the Impeccable Golden Body.
It had been three years since he swallowed the Golden Core of the Yin Tiger Demon King.
The Golden Core is the essence of a cultivator’s Dao practice condensed into a core.
The Yin Tiger Demon King was at the Middle Stage of Golden Core during his lifetime, and after Xu Zhan fully refined the Golden Core, his realm had advanced from the Early Stage of the Fifth Realm to the Middle Stage of the Fifth Realm.
In these three years, he had thoroughly refined the power of the Golden Core into his flesh and blood.
The only remaining Immortal Golden Nature was locked within his body with Qi Blood Power, but he could not refine it.
After several months in closed-door training and struggling to refine the Golden Nature and master the Impeccable Golden Body, Xu Zhan felt somewhat agitated and realized that this state of mind was clearly not conducive to continued cultivation. So he emerged from the secluded chamber.
In the courtyard, the continuous exploding sounds of fists and kicks echoed.
Following the sound, Xu Zhan arrived at the martial arts arena in the small courtyard, where he saw a child of about seven or eight years old, bare-chested, practicing boxing.
Despite the freezing winter, the little boy’s body was steaming with sweat.
"Jingzhe."
Watching for a while from outside the martial arts arena, Xu Zhan called out with a smile.
Upon hearing this, Xu Jingzhe immediately stopped his practice, exhaled a mouthful of foul air, and sprinted over to him.
"Dad, you’ve exited seclusion?"
Xu Zhan nodded: "Where is your mother?"
Xu Jingzhe looked around and shook his head slightly: "I don’t know, she should have gone to the old house."
"Dad, did you master that Impeccable Golden Body?"
Changing the subject, Xu Jingzhe looked at him with anticipation.
After learning that the Five Body Cultivation Realms required mastering the Impeccable Golden Body, all the Body Cultivators under the Shen Family were hoping Xu Zhan could find a way to achieve the Impeccable Golden Body soon.
Xu Zhan sighed, shaking his head slightly:
"It’s been over four years since I broke through the Fifth Realm, and more than three years since I learned about the ’Impeccable Golden Body’."
"Three plus years of painstaking research, yet not a single clue."
At these words, Xu Jingzhe’s face, covered in sweat, also showed a trace of disappointment, but he quickly suppressed it, then grinned and said, "Dad, don’t lose heart. You are the first among the Shen Family’s Body Cultivators, even more formidable than grandfather."
"I believe you can do it!"
Hearing his son’s words, Xu Zhan chuckled as he tousled his son’s hair: "You brat, don’t put your old man on such a high pedestal."
Xu Jingzhe looked up and said earnestly: "It’s true."
"Dad is just anxious, going into seclusion repeatedly like this isn’t right."
Xu Zhan nodded.
He realized this as well, feeling as if he had hit a dead-end.
He needed a change of approach.
"Alright, continue your practice, I’m going out for a walk."
Patting his son’s shoulder, Xu Zhan left the courtyard with hands behind his back, aimlessly wandering through Yunshui City.
Along the way, numerous Shen Family clan soldiers and city cultivators would respectfully greet him as "Lord Xu."
Xu Zhan nodded in response, unconsciously finding himself at the South City Gate of Yunshui City.
"Lord Xu, are you heading out of the city?"
The soldiers guarding the city saw him and respectfully inquired.
Out of the city?
Xu Zhan looked up at the city gate, not knowing how he ended up here.
So be it, since here I am, I’ll go take a look.
"I’ll go take a look outside."
He said slowly, and the cultivators before him immediately waved to open the array.
"My lord, would you like us to accompany you?"
A burly man, clad in regulation armor and carrying a bronze hammer, asked in a booming voice.
Xu Zhan shook his head slightly: "No need, I’ll just stroll around outside the city."
Leaving Yunshui City, Xu Zhan walked on the thick snow, soon arriving at the Laishui River.
The rushing river never froze even in the harshest winter.
Standing with hands behind his back on a large rock by the river, Xu Zhan gazed at the surging river before him, lost in thought.
After a long time, he bowed to the river before him and murmured deeply, "Junior started my path with your blessing, encountered your kindness, yet now I’m facing a challenge..."
"Might you lend your guidance?"
Even now, he still did not know what lay in the ancient city beneath the river.
According to the person from the Underworld he encountered last time, the "Nine Fiends Gathering Body Technique" he cultivated was likely created by a great figure who defected from the Underworld long ago.
Xu Zhan suspected that the ancient city beneath the river was likely related to that great figure.
But whether that great figure was still alive, he did not know.
After murmuring, faint Qi Blood Power slowly steamed from his body, forming a thick shield around him.
Slightly crouching, Xu Zhan leaped, transforming into a blood-colored streak of light, heading directly to the center of the great river!
Splash!
His figure plunged into the icy riverwater, heading toward the deep riverbed.
The deeper he went, the dimmer the surroundings became, until eventually, Xu Zhan couldn’t tell how far he had descended, finding himself in utter darkness.
Cold, silent, without a single sound.
Xu Zhan felt as if he had fallen into an endless abyss, unable to distinguish direction.
The Qi Blood shield was unable to withstand the bone-chilling cold around him.
The strong physique granted by the Fifth Realm of Body Cultivation was slowly freezing under the encroaching cold.
At this moment, Xu Zhan panicked.
He wanted to struggle, to leave, but the terrifying water pressure around him kept him firmly in place.
His stiff body gradually lost sensation, unable to move.
Xu Zhan could only despairingly feel the life force in his flesh being gradually extinguished.
He hadn’t told anyone he was coming to the Laishui River.
Now trapped here, once dead and vanished, even his body might be hard to find...