Chapter 184: Tempering
Chapter 184: Tempering
After arranging for Zig to forge his sword at the County Governor's Office, Chen Mu did not stay by his side. The process of refining the Mystic Fire Ore was not a quick task, and it would take at least a day. Chen Mu had other matters to attend to as well.
After visiting several apothecaries in Jingyu County, Chen Mu returned to the County Governor's Office and entered the courtyard specially cleaned for him. He dismissed all the attendants and stepped into the house.
With a flip of his hand, two round beads, one large and one small, appeared in his palm. These were the two Earth Essence Pearls he had obtained. One was from the He Family's storage, and the other he had acquired during the Earth Pulse Eruption due to his proximity, which allowed him to enter the Earth Pulse and make a discovery.
The Earth Essence Pearls were valuable, as they could aid in the cultivation of the Kunshan Diagram. Although he didn't need both at the moment, he didn't plan to take one back for future use. Chen Yue didn't need it yet, and Xu Hongyu's primary focus was not on cultivating the Kunshan Diagram.
After a moment's thought, Chen Mu picked up the smaller pearl and applied a slight force with his fingertip.
Crack!
A crisp sound of shattering filled the air as the Earth Essence Pearl broke into fine powder under Chen Mu's fingertip. However, none of the powder scattered, instead floating between his fingers.
Chen Mu then picked up several medicinal ingredients from the table and crushed them into powder with a casual tap. He mixed this powder with the Earth Essence Pearl's powder.
Next, Chen Mu casually picked up a tea cup from the table.
The powder silently fell into the cup without a single grain spilling. Chen Mu then poured some clear water into the cup and held it in his palm, slightly spreading his fingers.
Whoosh!
In an instant, flames rose from his palm, enveloping the cup in a ball of fire and quickly roasting it.
Within a short time, all the medicinal powder in the cup combined, forming a bubbling, brownish-yellow liquid that exuded wisps of Earth Spirit Essence Energy.
Chen Mu carefully examined the cup, waiting for the right moment. Then, the flames in his palm vanished, and he brought the cup to his lips, drinking the medicinal soup in one go.
Gurgle, gurgle.
The scorching soup flowed down his throat, quickly spreading through his stomach and forming a heavy, bloated sensation, almost like a tangible mass.
Chen Mu sat in a grandmaster chair nearby, his expression calm as he closed his eyes. The energy within his body circulated, transporting the dense Earth Spirit Essence Energy directly to his spleen.
In the human body, the five organs and their inner breath cycle followed the principle of mutual generation. The liver corresponds to wood, the heart to fire, the spleen to earth, the lungs to metal, and the kidneys to water.
By crushing the Earth Essence Pearl into dust and mixing it with sedative medicines, one can enhance the spleen and accelerate the tempering of the Organ Realms.
"In fact, those who cultivate the Five Elements Concepts will progress much faster in the Organ Realms than ordinary people. However, there are very few who can comprehend the complete Five Elements and condense them into a unified cycle."
Chen Mu sensed the changes in his spleen, deep in thought.
The Yin-Yang, Three Powers, Four Seasons, and Five Elements Concepts all have their unique aspects, but in the end, they converge, becoming part of the natural cycle. The ultimate form of the evolution of heaven and earth is the Eight Trigrams of Heaven and Earth.
As the Earth Spirit Essence Energy from the Earth Essence Pearl tempered his spleen, the entire organ slowly absorbed the energy, which then circulated through the inner breath cycle of the five organs, affecting the other organs as well. However, this process seemed rather slow.
"It's still a bit slow."
Chen Mu assessed the progress, his expression turning contemplative.
Since he entered the Organ Realms, the tempering of the five organs had been ongoing. Based on his previous perception, without any interruptions, it would take around three to four months to complete a full tempering cycle.
By consuming the Earth Essence Pearl and using its spiritual energy to temper his spleen, he had significantly accelerated this process. However, despite the swift absorption of the medicinal power, his perception indicated that the tempering of the five organs still required time.
It would take approximately ten days.
Considering the time since he broke through to the Organ Realms, completing the first tempering cycle in ten days wasn't particularly fast.
"Speaking of which, the System Interface has always been able to directly absorb and utilize medicinal power..."
Chen Mu suddenly thought of the System Interface, and with a thought, he summoned it.
Soon, he found a new section on the System Interface.
[Inner Breath Technique (Organ Realms)]
[Experience: 306 points]
"Is this possible?"
Chen Mu's expression changed slightly.
When he initially cultivated the Inner Breath Technique and broke through to the Organ Realms, the System Interface did not display this option. He couldn't directly allocate points, but now, after consuming an Earth Essence Pearl, the option appeared.
Recalling his past experiences, Chen Mu realized that ever since he obtained the Wild Wind Blade Technique and began cultivating, the system interface had appeared, leading him to believe that all skills required contact with cultivation techniques to trigger the interface.
However, upon careful reflection, he speculated that perhaps only skills and martial arts were triggered by cultivation techniques, while body tempering methods required the possession of 'cultivation techniques' and the assistance of 'medicinal power' to activate the system.
After all, skills and martial arts could be practiced to gain experience points, but body tempering methods always needed 'medicinal power'.
"But the cultivation of the Five Organ Realms and Sinew Transformation is completely different..." Chen Mu's eyes flashed with doubt.
Through his previous cultivation, he had confirmed that the experience points on the system interface came from the medicinal power that he couldn't fully absorb. However, after entering the Five Organ Realm, things were different. The medicinal power from that Earth Essence Pearl should have been completely absorbed by him, so where did these experience points come from?
Just as Chen Mu was pondering this, he suddenly looked astonished.
On the system interface, the originally displayed '306' experience points suddenly changed to '305'!
"Experience points can decrease?!"
Chen Mu was completely baffled. Since obtaining the system interface, he had never encountered such a situation. Not only had he not figured out the source of these experience points, but he also couldn't understand why they were decreasing.
But upon seeing the decrease in experience points, Chen Mu quickly discarded his chaotic thoughts and decisively consumed the experience points, adding them to his Five Organ Realm's inner breath technique.
Vibrations filled the air!
Chen Mu felt his body react as the portion of Earth Spirit Essence Energy absorbed by his spleen was quickly drawn out, rushing through his lungs, kidneys, liver, and finally reaching his heart.
"This feeling is..." Chen Mu's eyes widened with surprise.
The inner breath of the five organs was interconnected, and even with the principle of mutual generation, there would still be some loss during the transformation process. However, with the system interface's assistance, there was virtually no loss of inner breath at all!
As Chen Mu sensed the rapid transformation and subtle metamorphosis of his five organs through this inner breath tempering, he seemed to understand.
He had an epiphany! No wonder the experience points on the system interface decreased! These experience points still came from 'medicinal power', specifically the portion absorbed and stored by his spleen!
His five organs continued their inner breath cycle, with the spleen constantly refining and circulating the inner breath while tempering the other organs, but this process resulted in some loss.
Hence, the experience points decreased.
The system interface's enhancement didn't create medicinal power out of thin air; it merely completed a perfect transformation of the inner breath stored in his spleen, simultaneously tempering the other organs without any loss!
"The decrease in experience points is because I... am too inexperienced?" Chen Mu scratched his head.
The issue was that the five organs' cycle was an inner heaven and earth, and even without considering the natural minor losses during the mutual generation process, how could it be connected to the external world without any loss? Only a legendary Seventh Realm Marrow Washing Master, who cultivated the 'Leakless Body', could achieve this.
In almost an instant, the changes in the five organs gradually subsided, and Chen Mu clearly felt that the 'Dao God' within his five organs had strengthened, directly influencing his Primordial Energy true power, making it slightly more potent.
According to the amount, it was approximately one-fourth of a portion.
"Completing one organ tempering can increase by about one-fourth of a portion. So, after tempering my five organs eight times, the Primordial Energy within my body will be roughly 'four portions' in strength. This is where the gap gradually widens..."
Chen Mu sensed his own power, his eyes glinting slightly.
Even a true disciple like Cheng Houhua, who hadn't cultivated the Jade Skeleton, could only temper his five organs eight or nine times, reaching 'three portions' at most upon entering the Five Organ Realm. But Chen Mu had an extra portion at this stage.
This advantage came from the foundation built in the previous four realms.
Moreover, this didn't even take into account the cultivation of the Jade Skeleton, as his physical body's strength was inherently higher than ordinary people's. In actual combat, the power unleashed by his physical body was a gap that couldn't be overlooked.
Chen Mu turned his attention back to the system interface and noticed that the description had changed.
【Inner Breath Technique (First Transformation】
【Experience: 205 points】
The previous label of 'Five Viscera' had disappeared, replaced by the description of 'First Transformation', indicating that it was the result of a single tempering process.
"Can I continue the tempering process?" Chen Mu's eyes flickered slightly.
He didn't find it surprising, as he had been cultivating the Five Viscera Realm for some time. Even with the spiritual energy from a single Earth Essence Pearl, if he were to slowly digest and temper it himself, he could still complete the process of the first transformation. However, this process would take significantly longer, and there would be some loss during the cycle of inner breath cultivation, unlike the system interface's perfect and lossless transformation.
It was also impossible to temper only one viscera, as the cycle of the five viscera was interconnected. Once there was an imbalance in strength or tempering frequency between them, it would disrupt the inner breath cycle.
Therefore, each tempering process had to be a complete cycle of all five viscera.
"Since I can continue, let's do it again," Chen Mu decided after a moment's thought.
He couldn't stop the inner breath cycle, as the experience points would gradually decrease if left unattended. Although they didn't truly disappear, there would be 'loss' during the process of inner breath cultivation. His viscera were still slowly tempering, but with the system interface's ability to accelerate the process without loss, it was better to avoid any unnecessary depletion.
Hum!
Once again, an invisible force acted upon Chen Mu, this time stripping away almost all the remaining inner breath from his spleen, then dividing it among the five viscera, causing them to quickly temper.
In just over a dozen moments, Chen Mu's five viscera completed another tempering process, but this time his face turned slightly pale afterward.
"Cough."
Chen Mu coughed lightly.
He could feel his Primordial Energy and True Force becoming slightly stronger with the transformation of his five viscera, increasing by another quarter. However, a sense of weakness also spread throughout his body.
"The five viscera cycle is different from skin tempering. With two consecutive elevations, under the system interface's effect, the tempering of the five viscera is flawless. Now, it's the meridians and blood vessels that can't keep up with the five viscera's advancement..." Chen Mu understood clearly.
The system interface's direct enhancement was nearly perfect, but it was limited to the predetermined scope. The tempering of the five viscera was just that, and it didn't affect other parts of the body.
After two consecutive tempering processes, the increased strength of the five viscera led to a significant enhancement in the inner cycle and a much stronger interaction with the external world's energy. His body, however, didn't change during this process, and his meridians and blood vessels needed time to adapt to the sudden increase in the absorption and release of the world's energy.
However, the enhanced five viscera would gradually influence the rest of his body, and his body would naturally adapt and transform.
Chen Mu summoned the system interface again.
【Inner Breath Technique (Second Transformation)】
【Experience: 5 points】
"The second tempering only consumed 100 experience points?" Chen Mu's eyes remained expressionless, even if the second tempering only consumed half the experience points, and he could still afford a third tempering. He knew he couldn't advance further in a short time, at least until his body fully adapted.
Chen Mu quickly closed the system interface and sat back in the grandmaster chair. After four or five hours, as night fell outside, he finally exhaled and slowly stood up, clenching his fist.
(End of Chapter)
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