750: Chapter 469 Firewood 750: Chapter 469 Firewood The winter nights in Di’an were cold, without starry skies or moon, leaving only a deathlike silence.
Leaving the dining hall, Xu Yuan carried a steaming tray of three dishes and a soup through the chilled winter night, his mind drifting in and out of mories.
Although cooking seed ill-suited to the stern Xu Changge, the fact was that the elder brother could indeed cook, and the flavor was quite decent.
He rembered when their mother passed away, after which their father and uncle vanished for a long ti, and the four children in the family were confined to the inner courtyard.
To prevent unforeseen events, their father and uncle had placed many things around the Pri Minister’s Mansion’s inner courtyard before leaving, forbidding entry and exit.
As the only sensible child back then, if Xu Changge, the eldest, didn’t cook, the other three younger ones would have starved to death without needing anyone else to assassinate them.
His thoughts spreading, Xu Yuan unconsciously gripped the dinner plate in his hand tighter as he passed Xu Changge’s courtyard door.
Although he was reluctant to admit it, Xu Changge was indeed a good elder brother.
Apart from being quick to use his fists, he was a good brother in all other senses of the word.
After all,
before they were confined, he had just witnessed his mother being killed right before his eyes…
And even so,
he, being rely a boy, still never showed a hint of it in front of his three siblings.
“Sigh…”
With a sigh, Xu Yuan walked past Xu Changge’s door and composed his emotions before carrying the als back to his own chamber.
Tonight’s dinner seed overly lavish for just Xu Xinyao.
Five at dishes, two vegetarian, and a soup.
Such was the treatnt when the family dined together in the past, and Xu Changge must have included a portion for him, Xu Yuan, as well.
However, Xu Yuan had no intention of picking up his chopsticks, rely sitting quietly to the side and watching.
As a consummate lady of a distinguished family, Xu Xinyao’s dining manner was still graceful and elegant as usual, chewing slowly and quietly, without making a sound.
The light tap of bamboo chopsticks against porcelain bowls beca the sole sound at this mont.
“Big brother, are you really not eating?”
After swallowing a delicate piece of five-spice fish, Xu Xinyao suddenly lifted her gaze to Xu Yuan sitting across from her.
Xu Yuan snapped back to reality and glanced over the sumptuous and tempting array of ingredients on the table, shaking his head with a light laugh:
“Cultivators below the Integration Body need to eat to maintain various bodily functions, but beyond Integration Body, they can substitute food with Origin Qi.”
Xu Yuan chuckled, glancing at Xu Yuan who spoke with a hint of smugness, and nudged the edge of the porcelain dish with her bamboo chopsticks:
“Big brother, are you not eating because of the Origin Qi contained within the Demonic Beast at and the spiritual vegetables?”
Xu Yuan was silent for a mont, then nodded helplessly with a glance at his palm:
“My body can’t digest these ingredients right now.”
The ingredients routinely kept in the dining hall of the inner courtyard, ticulously selected by the servants, contained Origin Qi.
While not as potent as Boundary Breakthrough Elixir dicine, they were harmless to the body and could strengthen one’s physique over ti, even for ordinary people.
But the problem was that Xu Yuan’s constitution was now a thick barrier away from that of a Ti Cultivator.
What are Immortal Herbs for another may be poison for him.
He was unable to absorb Origin Qi at present, and the black Origin Qi within him would even react adversely with it.
He could expel small amounts by utilizing his ridian Technique, but large consumption carried the risk of cultivational deviation.
Over this period of ti, Xu Yuan had more than once felt fortunate that he had broken through to Integration Body in his sleep.
Without it, he might now have to resort to consuming humans like those in Huizhou County did to survive.
However, this was not a long-term solution, as the Origin Qi within him would eventually be depleted without intake.
With this in mind, Xu Yuan lightly tapped the table and looked towards the newly-engraved Formation Patterns in the room, asking with so anticipation:
“Is the Formation complete?”
Xu Xinyao finished her al and gently placed her bamboo chopsticks aside:
“It’s only half done, and I need you, big brother, to personally test the results.”
Upon hearing this, disappointnt flickered in Xu Yuan’s eyes, but he soon ca to terms with it.
The developnt of a completely new formation often took years, so it was quite an achievent for Xu Xinyao to have concocted it within two months.
As he pondered, Xu Yuan suddenly felt the light around him dim dramatically.
Looking up, he saw that at so point, a layer of mist had begun to waft around the room.
It was white and appeared very thin, but its opacity was remarkably strong.
Xu Xinyao stood rely a ter away from him, and yet her graceful figure had already beco invisible.
Seeing this sudden change, Xu Yuan’s brow furrowed instinctively, but almost imdiately, a feeling of kinship sensed by his body made him realize that this was the “half-finished” formation Xu Xinyao had ntioned.
“Brother, try to breathe in this mist,”
Xu Xinyao’s voice ca through the fog.
She was operating the formation.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan did not hesitate and began to engage in cultivation, sothing he hadn’t done in a while.
After circulating the Origin Qi in his body for a complete cycle, everything around him shrouded in the mist beca crystal clear in an instant.
It was as if he were a fish diving into water, his senses seemingly connected with the mist itself.
But this clarity was not a visual one, rather it was akin to the godlike perspective he had when the Yin Ghost’s body moved in the spatial rift, able to discern even a speck of dust in the room with absolute clarity.
Realizing this, Xu Yuan imdiately ceased his cultivation technique and, lifting a finger, he gently swept through the mist filling the chamber, softly asking,
“How is this mist created?”
Xu Xinyao’s smiling voice ca from across the room:
“Yin Source, Life Origin, and Origin Qi are all formless, but when the formation lds the three, this sort of mist inexplicably forms.”
“No, I an how did you achieve it?
This shouldn’t be a formation that can be developed within two months, right?”
“Hmm…”
Upon hearing the question, Xu Xinyao humd hesitantly, as if searching for the right words to make Xu Yuan understand.
After a while, the mist dissipated, and Xu Xinyao’s figure reappeared across the table, her delicate fingers resting lightly on the teacup as she softly said,
“At first, I thought that in two months I could only manage to extract the Yin Ghosts’ Yin Source, but then Master ntioned sothing that made realize this might be tackled directly from the source.”
“The source?” Xu Yuan inquired lightly.
Xu Xinyao smiled and asked in return,
“Brother, what do you think generates Life Origin and Yin Source?”
“…”
Xu Yuan pondered, a contemplative look in his eyes.
“You’ve thought of it too, haven’t you?”
Xu Xinyao delicately lifted the porcelain cup, gently swirling it in her hand as ripples danced in the fragrant tea:
“Origin Qi,
“Regardless of how special Yin Ghosts and Demonic Beasts are, ultimately, they too strengthen themselves by absorbing and exhaling Origin Qi.”
“Once this idea occurred, I asked Master to bring over a hundred Yin Ghosts and a dozen Demonic Beasts for live dissection.
“I originally wanted to compare the differences between Cultivators exhaling and inhaling Origin Qi with these creatures, but with the aid of the special formation, I found they are the sa as Cultivators.”
Speaking to this point, Xu Xinyao’s eyes shone with excitent:
“After completely refining the Origin Qi, they also ‘return the Qi,’ and this ‘Qi’ not yet entered into the Dantian is free from any impurities.”
“…”
Hearing this, Xu Yuan understood completely.
‘Return the Qi’ is an academic term in cultivation.
The process of introducing the refined spiritual Qi through the ridian Technique into the Dantian is known as ‘returning the Qi.’
Thinking this through,
Xu Yuan subconsciously glanced down at his feet and asked,
“So you’re saying those hundred Yin Ghosts and more than a dozen Demonic Beasts have now beco the firewood for my cultivation?”
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