Chapter 21: Jade Bone Bottle Neck and Diary

For Xu Yan, Li Xuan’s words were guidance from his master, clues about how to gain enlightenment, how to break the shackles impeding his progress. “Capture the concealed Spirit Mechanism around you, comprehend the essence of every blade of grass, every piece of wood, the nature of the heavens and the earth…” In a daze, Xu Yan seemed to have a sudden insight. "Thank you for your guidance, Master; I understand!” Xu Yan said reverently. Seeing his foolish disciple being so easily taken in once again, Li Xuan nodded in satisfaction. Over the next two days, Xu Yan stopped cultivating and began strolling around the small village instead. Feeding chickens, planting vegetables, sitting on a rock at night, and staring at the stars in the sky. His mind seemed remarkably peaceful. The obsession to break through the golden bone shackles was gone, as was the attachment to cultivation. His mind, as though having put down a heavy load, felt lighter. At one point, he even had an unbidden insight that the heavens and the earth were incredibly wondrous. After three days like this, Xu Yan was about to leave after weeding when suddenly, he noticed an earthworm wriggling back into the soil. He also saw a little bug digging a hole in the earth. A flash illuminated his mind, as if revealing the Spirit Mechanism. "Cultivate true intention, blood and Qi like a dragon… I understand!” In that moment, Xu Yan felt enlightened. Flash of insight burst within his mind, and suddenly he understood the profound meaning within the technique. "Jade bone, I will cultivate you!” "Thank you, Master, for your guidance. I was able to have an epiphany and spot the hidden spirit mechanisms around me, understanding the technique and how to breach my bottleneck!” Xu Yan was beyond thrilled. The next day, before dawn broke, Xu Yan started cultivating. Seeing this, Li Xuan was surprised. Could his foolish disciple have regained his determination so quickly and continued to persevere? As long as Xu Yan doesn’t discover he’s being deceived, it’s okay. Once the one-year limit is up, their Master-disciple relationship will be severed, the deceit will end, and I will go live my life in Wu Country! Maybe I will never see Xu Yan again. At this moment, Xu Yan was guiding his Qi and blood into the marrow of his bones, slowly, continuously accumulating Qi and blood in the marrow. After spending three days doing this, Xu Yan felt a sensation of sour swelling in his bones; only then did he begin refining. Once entered into cultivation, Xu Yan seemed to forget everything else. Only the profound Spirit Mechanism between heaven and earth appeared in his mind. Boom! The Qi and blood in his marrow roared like a dragon, his bone marrow churning as though it were alive. At this moment, Xu Yan felt an indescribable pain in every bone in his body. Itching, pricking, swelling… His bones alternately expanded and contracted. The alternating expansion and contraction birthed purer Qi and blood. Xu Yan felt as though a mysterious meaning was being born within his bones. The sensation he was experiencing now was even more painful and unbearable compared to his first time refining bones. Sweat dripped continuously. Xu Yan gritted his teeth and endured until he was on the verge of collapse; only then did he stop his cultivation. "The golden bone, it’s loosening up a bit…” Xu Yan found that his golden bone, which had already reached its limit and couldn’t be refined any further, was now loosening up and becoming a bit stronger. "I have the right comprehension; the jade bone is not far!” Exhilarated, Xu Yan continued the next few days with even more rigorous cultivation. The pain he endured was even more intense. Seven days later. The previously golden bones seemed to fade. Even though the golden color of his bones had faded, the strength of his bones had increased by over thirty percent. Half a month later, the bones all over his body turned back to white but were more than twice as hard as golden bones. The blood and energy within him had become purer and more powerful. "Though I haven’t reached the state of jade bones yet, I’m already so strong. How powerful would I be if I achieved jade bones? My martial arts foundation surpasses even the ancient prodigies!” Xu Yan was extremely thrilled; he was nearing the stage of jade bones. After ten days, Xu Yan’s bones had started to appear crystal clear, and he was just one step away from achieving flawless jade bones. However, it was this final step that Xu Yan again felt resistance. It was as if he had reached a bottleneck, unable to continue transforming. He was only one step away from completing his transformation into jade bones. How could Xu Yan bear to give up? Thus, for the ensuing two days, he continually refined his body, but he made no progress. It seemed that he needed to break through some kind of shackles to complete this final transformation. Li Xuan was not aware that his foolish disciple was on the brink of refining his jade bones. Having nothing to do that day, he dug out some relics left behind by the elderly in the village, lost articles, which were all books and related items. The people in the village who took refuge here included some literate people who left behind books. Although there weren’t many, they were considered the most valuable things in the village. Thud! A rolled-up scroll dropped to the ground, and Li Xuan bent down to pick it up, noticing there was writing on the scroll. "Whose stuff is this? I don’t think I’ve seen this before.” Out of curiosity, Li Xuan unrolled the scroll. The scroll was quite long, and when it was spread out, it was seen to be filled with words. It seemed to be a diary? "Is this Da Niu’s diary?” Li Xuan looked surprised. Did Da Niu, a rough and uneducated man, actually keep a diary? "Da Niu was the one who had died in the Evil Forest. However, the tiger that killed him has been avenged.” Li Xuan sighed inwardly. When their group had left the village, Da Niu was among them. But only he had managed to escape and return. While flipping through the scroll, reading Da Niu’s diary, Li Xuan treated it as if it were a story of gossip to distract himself from boredom. "Da Niu wanted to marry eight wives. He was ambitious, such a pity.” When he finished the scroll, Li Xuan suddenly paused, his expression turning serious. The last part of the scroll contained a record of when Da Niu left the village alone to attempt to go to the city. He had seen a fearsome beast just outside the Evil Forest! "The beast that Da Niu saw wasn’t that tiger!” The villagers had always been talking about a fearsome tiger in the Evil Forest, and Li Xuan had just assumed there was only one tiger. In reality, was there another beast besides that tiger? "The beast is larger than the tiger, has fiery sideburns, and fangs that are nearly a foot long…” After reading Da Niu’s description of the beast, Li Xuan was shocked. This beast sounded even more frightening than the tiger. Why was there another beast in the Evil Forest besides the tiger? The tiger was known as the king of the forest. How would it allow another beast to reside in its territory? Such a formidable beast, how would it allow the tiger to occupy its domain? "When I first heard that there was a beast in the Evil Forest, it was Da Niu who brought it up. He mentioned it more than once. Back then, when we were preparing to leave the village together, it was Da Niu who said there was a beast and it would be too dangerous. "It was only after that guy came back claiming that he had learnt how to kill a tiger that we had the confidence to leave the village…” Li Xuan came up with a possibility. Could that tiger be the underling of the beast in the Evil Forest? "My foolish disciple led people to hunt the tiger. Did they encounter that beast? It doesn’t seem that they did. Could it be that the beast hid because there were too many people and didn’t show itself?” "This won’t do; I have to find my disciple and ask him to lead a search of the Evil Forest and make sure that beast is killed!” After tidying up, Li Xuan went out to find Xu Yan.