Chapter 123: Spirit Armor and Spirit Coffin

  An Jing found a floor that showed no signs of wanderers. He then curled up behind a beam and silently circuted his qi to recover.

  Having fled the bck market and found a safe spot to settle down, his taut nerves and weary body finally rexed.

  Only at this moment did An Jing realize just how unbearably sore his entire body was.

  Sensing that he was covered in wounds, he could not help but let out a wry smile. “These injuries aren’t minor.”

  Never mind the itchy, tingling meridians; the skin not covered by burns was also riddled with cuts and scrapes of various sizes, all of which stung like fire.

  As for his chest, which had been kicked by a Fengdu Guard—even though his rain cloak’s jade pendant and triple-yered spiritual energy defense had prevented broken ribs—every deep breath now brought a distinct, dull ache. He was clearly suffering internal injuries, and even his breathing carried a thick tang of blood.

  Previously, his smooth escape from the sewers had been purely due to an adrenaline rush. Now that it had worn off, An Jing felt half-dead; even his breathing was bored and uneven.

  “This won’t do, An Jing.”

  The Sword Spirit also noticed how dire An Jing’s condition was and spoke bluntly, “We have about one day left before returning to the Huaixu Realm. Facing the sinborn demon, you must be at your peak.”

  After pondering for a moment, It said decisively, “Take out the Evergreen Wood Heart. Draw upon its vital essence to heal your injuries.

  “If some of it is wasted, so be it. Making sure you’re in perfect shape is what matters most.”

  Evergreen wood was a commonly seen first-tier or second-tier spirit pnt that thrived in warm, humid environments. Its material was thick yet soft, and only the tree heart was retively firm. It could not be used as a weapon or serve as the primary material for a Magical Artifact, but it remained one of the most common spiritual materials, widely cultivated by major sects on a rge scale.

  There was only one reason: it was simply too useful.

  Its bark and leaves could be made into talisman paper; its sweet fruit rivaled spirit rice; its sap could be used to craft healing pills or as a tonic that swiftly replenished physical strength and vital essence. Meanwhile, the wood heart was one of the main ingredients in many “primordial healing” talismans and pills.

  Furthermore, certain special roots or suitably sized branches could even be used as “artificial sinews” and “acquired bones,” helping common folk or cultivators with physical disabilities continue on their Dao path.

  Admittedly, its efficiency was not high, and it only supported greenwood-based cultivation. Still, having it was far better than doing without.

  Though evergreen wood had little use in direct combat, no one could dislike a spirit pnt so packed with valuable resources.

  Tianyuan Realm, Xuanye City, outskirts of the abandoned urban area.

  In a half-finished building on the seventh floor, next to a supporting pilr, An Jing sat cross-legged. Both hands pressed together in front of his dantian and qi sea.

  Between his palms rested a piece of Evergreen Wood Heart, dark teal and nearly bck.

  A continuous stream of green vital essence was drawn out of the Evergreen Wood Heart by An Jing, gradually flowing into his body. He guided it through his Great Circuit, sensing that evergreen vitality coursing through all his internal meridians.

  It passed along his limbs, swept across his chest and abdomen, traveled from the base of his spine into his dantian, then rose through his chest cavity to his upper dantian.

  He could feel a pure and gentle flow of life force, suffused with comforting warmth, healing the damaged tendons, meridians, and flesh throughout his body.

  It suppressed his pain, repaired nerves, sped up his digestion of the fasting pills’ nutrients, and hastened the regeneration of his flesh.

  An Jing distinctly sensed an itchy tingling in his lungs. The urge to cough hovered there constantly.

  When the healing was nearly complete, he began coughing violently. Using a Divine Ability to circute his qi, he unleashed the Sickly Qi Sword, hacking up a mouthful of bck blood ced with fine threads of golden qi. It evaporated swiftly in midair, releasing the stench of scorched metal and smoldering embers.

  Even his expelled breath was sharply searing; upon hitting the ground, it left a series of small depressions.

  This was not solely the injury inflicted by the Fengdu Guard.

  Since the lungs belonged to the metal element, and An Jing had not been a cultivator for long, repeatedly pushing himself to the limit with Taibai Baleful Qi had naturally damaged his lungs and left hidden wounds. If left untreated, these would have become a serious weakness ter.

  Fortunately, he had handled them in time. After he finished coughing, An Jing felt sudden relief, and his chest and lungs became notably clear. His spiritual energy now circuted more smoothly. “Thank goodness I mastered the Sickly Qi Sword. Otherwise, who knows how long it would have taken to heal these injuries.”

  “The wonders of a Divine Ability truly are extraordinary. No wonder that the moment I awakened my Heaven-Ordained Fate, I gained a Divine Ability—making the Heavenly Will Demonic Sect so excited.”

  After about one shichen of absorbing the Evergreen Wood Heart’s vital essence, An Jing felt that the cuts, scrapes, and burns on his body had fully healed.

  The scabs fked off without leaving any marks behind. Meanwhile, his nearly depleted spiritual energy began circuting again, bolstered by ample vital essence.

  He slowly opened his eyes and exhaled. This time, his breath shot forth like a white arrow, extending two feet with no strange discoloration.

  He was quite delighted. “It’s only been two hours, and I’ve already healed all my injuries.

  “Though my spiritual energy isn’t fully replenished yet, I feel better than ever. If I use the jade-cleaving steel to run a few Great Circuits, I can restore it completely!”

  “That’s only natural.”

  The Sword Spirit motioned for An Jing to put away the Evergreen Wood Heart, which had already shrunk by about one quarter, and remarked, “Your injuries weren’t that severe and didn’t reach your bones or organs, so of course you healed quickly.

  “The Evergreen Wood Heart can even keep a dying person alive for a short while. Using just a fraction of its vital essence, given that it’s a Foundation Establishment-level material, was more than enough to bring you back to peak condition.”

  As It spoke, the Sword Spirit sounded somewhat puzzled. “The people of the Huaixu Realm seem different from what I remember back then… An Jing, you bear a Heaven-Ordained Fate, which does strengthen your resistance to Baleful Qi. But even if we exclude the influence of the Seven Fiends Celestial Fate, your resistance is still extraordinarily high.

  “People from the Tianyuan and Huaixu Realms should share the same origin, yet there’s now quite a difference. Healing your body took about thirty percent more vital essence than I would have predicted.”

  Hearing this, An Jing grew curious. “Does that mean people of the Huaixu Realm have sturdier bodies? Is that the result of centuries of martial arts practice, or did that sturdiness cause us to choose the Martial Path to begin with?”

  “It’s probably both,” the Sword Spirit mused for a while, then shook Its head slightly. “Huaixu’s situation is unlike any other demonic-corrupted world I’ve seen. The people of Huaixu clearly have some unique traits as well.

  “Needing more spiritual energy to heal doesn’t simply mean the body is stronger—because physical wounds are mostly about material nourishment. More likely, it indicates that the souls of Huaixu’s people differ somehow.”

  With that, the Sword Spirit stopped pondering. “Fortunately, it didn’t use up too much. More than half of the tree heart remains, so it should still be enough.”

  “By the way, Fuxie.” Mentioning the tree heart sparked a thought in An Jing’s mind.

  He asked curiously, “When we fought that Fengdu Guard, I recall you saying something about a ‘Greenwood-Nether Conversion’… Why was that Fengdu Guard able to manipute both greenwood and nether spiritual energy? Didn’t you say a cultivator can only pick one form of spiritual energy as their foundational cultivation?

  “Even with spirit armor, it shouldn’t be possible to handle two types of spiritual energy so freely, right?”

  “That’s indeed the case.” The Sword Spirit nodded slightly, addressing An Jing’s question. “A person can only choose one spiritual energy as the foundation of their cultivation. If the properties are somewhat simir, there can be partial overp. But if they oppose each other, coexistence is absolutely impossible.

  “However, the Fengdu Guard was different—his fundamental cultivation was the Greenwood Longevity Withering-and-Blooming Technique, turning him into a half-living, half-dead state, then ‘burying’ himself inside the Fengdu Armor.

  “That armor is essentially a type of ‘spirit coffin.’ It gradually transforms the one inside into a ghost cultivator. The Fengdu Guard’s abundant life force is converted into nether ghostly qi of the same origin, and because he remains half-living, half-dead, he can simultaneously wield Greenwood Qi and Nether Qi.

  “Since both energies derive from his own source rather than from outside, the Fengdu Guard’s internal qi circution forms a ‘micro-taiji*’ inside the Fengdu Armor, which in turn further enhances his Greenwood Longevity Withering-and-Blooming Technique—burning life to nurture nether energy, using nether energy to foster withering and blooming. That is precisely how it works.”

  (End of Chapter)

  *I'm tired today, so here's what Wikipedia has to say about taiji: In Chinese philosophy, taiji (Chinese: 太極; "supreme ultimate") is a cosmological state of the universe and its affairs on all levels, including the mutually reinforcing interactions between the two opposing forces of yin and yang, as well as that among the Three Treasures, the four cardinal directions, and the Five Elements—which together ultimately bring about the myriad things, each with their own nature.