Cui Jue carefully took the monk's spirit, put it away, and showed a relieved expression. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Xiao Ning, he took his leave, eager to return and report back.
"Take care, Judge Cui. No need to see me off. Feel free to chat with me anytime you have time!"
The Xiao family saw them off outside the hall, bidding them farewell with smiles.
He then returned to the hall and sat down. He waved his hand and took out a pill of the Other Shore. It was about the size of a longan, pale yellow in color, like the color of a chrysanthemum, and had a faint fragrance wafting in his nose.
The aroma, once it enters the nose, is like taking a powerful tonic, instantly invigorating the spirit and greatly stimulating the body.
"As expected of a peerless elixir renowned throughout the Three Realms, it greatly benefits the cultivation of the soul. I've really struck gold!"
As he swallowed the Other Shore Pill, a clear stream flowed directly to his soul, like a powerful tonic. The Yang spirit in his Niwan Palace seemed to grow much larger in an instant, and Xiao Ning secretly praised it.
With such miraculous effects, the Other Shore Pill could be called a divine pill, but it is not without its flaws. It is not only useless to demons and monsters, but also harmful. Only pure human cultivators at the second level of the Longevity Realm can increase their spiritual power by consuming it.
However, once the primordial spirit is formed, further consumption will be useless.
This is why, despite its miraculous effects, the Other Shore Pill has not caused an overabundance of high-level cultivators in the Three Realms.
On the contrary, because the underworld is well-controlled, even a single pill is extremely rare.
In short, this elixir seems tailor-made for Xiao Ning in his current state.
"Hmm..."
After a while, Xiao Ning felt as if his soul had been satiated, and let out a groan. He knew he couldn't take the same pill again for a while, otherwise it would be more harmful than beneficial.
"It will take about three days before you can take the second one. After that, it will take about a month for your soul to be perfected and you will transform into a primordial spirit!"
Xiao Ning pondered for a moment, came to a rough conclusion, and nodded with satisfaction.
Then, he closed his eyes, refined his spirit, and adapted to the surge of his soul power.
Time flies in the mountains; in the blink of an eye, another month has passed.
In the main hall of Qingxu Temple, Xiao Ning sat cross-legged, as still as an old pine tree, exuding a powerful aura throughout the hall.
Xiao Ning closed his eyes, his mind completely absorbed in the Dao. Sometimes he felt like he was Pangu, the great god who created the world, sometimes he felt like he was a ten-thousand-foot-tall divine elephant traveling through the universe, and sometimes he felt like he was Yin and Yang embracing each other.
Sometimes I feel like I've fallen into the eighteenth level of the Avici Hell, suffering inhuman torture, my whole body being crushed to pieces;
Sometimes I feel dizzy and disoriented, as if I am about to be evaporated, while at other times I feel an infinite power rising from my Yang spirit.
At other times, he felt the ancient Bodhi tree in his upper dantian niwan palace emitting boundless clear light, illuminating the universe, and his yang spirit was nourished and grew by it.
Endless changes, limitless possibilities!
Immersed in the enlightenment of the Dao, Xiao Ning had completely lost the concept of space and time, and was unaware of any changes in the outside world.
When he opened his eyes again and came back to his senses from the Dao Realm, he found that the whole world seemed to have changed.
"So this is the primordial spirit...?"
With a thought, Xiao Ning's soul left his body, grew in the wind, and transformed into the height of an ordinary person, standing beside him, exactly like a real person.
The primordial spirit is completely different from the yin spirit and yang spirit.
That was a qualitative change, like the difference between a firefly and the bright moon.
As the saying goes: Heaven has three treasures: the sun, the moon, and the stars; Earth has three treasures: water, fire, and wind; and man has three treasures: essence, energy, and spirit.
There are countless different paths to cultivation, such as internal strength, qi and blood, battle qi, witchcraft, magic, and so on.
In fact, no matter how many paths there are, or how many or varied the methods are, they are all one or more of the cultivation of essence, energy, and spirit. Their purpose is to transcend, to evolve, and to achieve immortality.
Moreover, no matter how its realm is divided, it remains the same in essence, just different forms of the same substance.
In the initial stage of cultivation, one must first have a sense of Qi, and then open up the meridians and circulate Qi throughout the body; this is the acquired stage.
The transition from the acquired to the innate realm is a crucial first step. Cultivators open the two bridges between heaven and earth, activate the ancestral aperture between their eyebrows, and guide the primordial energy of heaven and earth into their bodies, storing it in the lower dantian. This is the innate realm.
Entering the innate realm and transcending the mundane is considered the first step on the path of cultivation.
The cultivator's physical strength and swordsmanship have both improved significantly. With every move, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth follows, enhancing the power of their attacks.
As for the later Grandmasters and Great Grandmasters, in addition to their own insights, they absorbed more of the primordial energy of heaven and earth into their bodies.
When one's vital energy transforms into liquid and comprehends its essence, one becomes a master.
When true essence gathers and combines with spirit and energy, one becomes a Grandmaster.
These two realms are clearly related to the world itself and the quality and quantity of the primordial energy of heaven and earth.
In the world of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber," during the Dharma-ending Age at the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming dynasties, even a genius like Zhang Sanfeng could only barely reach the Grandmaster realm in a world where the primordial energy of heaven and earth was almost exhausted, let alone the Great Grandmaster realm, let alone others.
If Old Zhang were placed in another world with abundant spiritual energy, he would definitely be a genius in cultivation, and becoming an immortal or a god would be a piece of cake.
After all, even someone like Xiao Ning was merely seeking the Dao, practicing methods created by others, simply picking up scraps of others' wisdom.
But Zhang Sanfeng had already attained enlightenment, broken free from the constraints of the world, created his own cultivation method, pioneered the Way of Tai Chi, and was ahead of countless others.
It's all about timing and luck!
You can't raise a real dragon underwater; you can only raise small fish and shrimp.
The world itself limited him; the world of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" was too small to nurture a Grandmaster.
In worlds like "Battle Through the Heavens" and "Green Snake," the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is incredibly abundant. Many people, even those with mediocre talent and low comprehension, can easily advance to the Grandmaster level or even higher.