Medicine Master Disciple’s Cultivation Notes

Chapter 29: Cultivating the Locust Tree's Longevity Technique

Only when he'd walked to a place where the village was no longer visible did Li Qiuchen stop. He carefully examined his entire body up and down, confirming there was nothing suspicious, before finally feeling completely at ease.

Finding a shady and clean place to sit in meditation, Li Qiuchen closed his eyes and began recalling the text from the "Locust Tree Chapter."

First was the introduction regarding the "Qi Refining realm."

The Qi Refining realm could roughly be divided into three stages.

First was sensing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, then drawing qi into the body, which was the origin of "Qi Refining."

Second was using spiritual qi to open meridians and strengthen the physical body.

Last was training the spirit, enhancing divine sense, and thus being able to cast spells then doesn't that mean I'm already at late Qi Refining?

Of course it wasn't that simple.

When he first saw the "Locust Tree Chapter," Li Qiuchen realized the content in this booklet wasn't comprehensive enough.

It couldn't be considered a textbook, at most it was just an instruction manual.It only told you how to cultivate, not why you cultivated.

The Li family's ancestor Li Jingyun, in the book he personally compiled, detailed his mental journey over many years of cultivation and his understanding and recognition of the great Dao.

"Jingyunzi" was equivalent to a general outline.

The "Locust Tree Chapter" was a single chapter under a certain general outline.

One was the law, one was the technique.

What Li Qiuchen lacked most now was "technique," but he still looked down on the "Locust Tree Chapter" in his heart.

Too narrow in focus.

The Qi Drawing Formula within it, the first half seemed to him all empty nonsense.

Something about finding a locust tree over three hundred years old, insisting on hugging and rubbing against the tree daily, boiling tree bark and leaves into medicinal soup to consume, whittling tree branches into wooden needles to insert into one's acupoints...

The ultimate purpose was to interlink this locust tree's qi mechanism with oneself.

Why make it so complicated? Was the Medicine Master's blessing such an inconvenient thing?

Li Qiuchen felt he could skip this step directly.

The truly useful part was the last section.

Normal cultivators absorbed the spiritual qi of heaven and earth and drew it into the qi sea, which was the dantian but Medicine Master followers didn't cultivate the dantian, they cultivated the spine, also called the Dragon Court.

Precisely because of this, Medicine Master followers' cultivation levels had extremely strong deceptive qualities. When others used methods for observing ordinary cultivators to observe Medicine Master followers, it was very difficult to discern their true strength.

In the Li family's cultivation methods, the Qi Refining realm had twelve levels of division, also called the Twelve-Story Tower of the Qi Sea.

But what exactly these twelve stories were, the book didn't say, so that even now Li Qiuchen still couldn't figure out his cultivation level.

The "Locust Tree Chapter" similarly described the cultivation realm of Medicine Master followers in the Qi Refining realm, subdividing the early, middle, and late periods of the Qi Refining realm into thirty-three layers, also called the Thirty-Three Heavens, corresponding to the thirty-three vertebrae of the human body. As long as one cultivated the entire spine once, one could reach the Great Perfection realm of Qi Refining.

But doesn't the spine only have twenty-four vertebrae?

Had the human body in this world mutated? Or did I learn biology wrong?

Maybe I should find a corpse later to dissect and look at carefully.

Setting aside this doubt for now, Li Qiuchen continued recalling the book's content.

The "Soul Pulling Technique" was a very sinister spell. First, one had to find a way to catalyze "flesh buds" from within one's own body, then combined with other medicines, make them into pills or powder for the subject to consume.

This was equivalent to planting a part of the caster's body into the subject's body, then using the Medicine Master's blessing ability to influence the subject's actions and thoughts.

The simplest and most direct method was when he wanted you to do something, give you a sweet reward. When he didn't want you to do something, give you some bitterness.

Cultivating together with the old Daoist, the whole body felt comfortable.

Working the fields, the whole body felt miserable.

After ordinary people were conditioned back and forth a few times, they'd become completely obedient.

Li Qiuchen was even more familiar with the "Human Pill Formula."

Plant a pre-cultivated seed into the other party's body. The seed would frantically seize the other party's flesh and blood, growing from the victim's corpse, ultimately completely absorbing the victim's life and nurturing fruit filled with vitality.

The "spiritual root" in Yingcao's body back then, and the large tree that Song Laosan at the lakeside had transformed into, both came from this.

Yingcao had been fed various medicinal soups by Grand Uncle since childhood, while he and Hong Yang, one had a family transmission cultivation method, the other supposedly had some dragon bloodline, fortunately escaping the fate of being fed medicine.

From Grand Uncle's perspective, the more spiritual roots, the better.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the true decision-maker of Songlin Village.

Perhaps in the old peach tree's eyes, Li Qiuchen and Hong Yang counted as specially flavored delicacies.

Only by eating everything could one achieve balanced nutrition.

Li Qiuchen didn't go find any locust tree. He picked a thousand-year-old ancient pine for himself, sat under the tree, and began cultivating the Locust Tree Chapter's Qi Drawing Formula.

After completing one full great circulation, he only felt his back warm, as if he'd gained quite a bit of strength out of thin air.

Opening his inner vision, he saw that the life energy within his body that previously couldn't be effectively utilized had already gathered into the spine on his back, condensing threads of life essence, giving his perception and blood qi obvious improvements.

Li Qiuchen opened his eyes to find his body already covered with fallen pine needles.

This meditation session had actually lasted a complete day and night, and he had completely failed to notice the passage of time.

The thousand-year-old ancient pine behind him appeared to have lost quite a bit of vitality. Though it was clearly summer, large amounts of pine needles had fallen, and even some tender branches showed signs of withering.

The cultivation method in the Locust Tree Chapter was too domineering, belonging to completely unreasonable plundering and exploitation. He had a vague feeling in his heart that at most he could cultivate here for a week before exhausting this thousand-year-old pine's vitality.

Was there any more efficient cultivation method than this?

Yes, friend, there is.

Eating people.

A melodious crane cry came from the sky. The white crane flapped its wings and landed gracefully.

"A discovery?"

"Ga!"

The white crane gave a heavy gaga.

It seemed not just a simple discovery, the problem was quite serious.

While Li Qiuchen had been providing technical guidance in the village these past days, he hadn't let the white crane idle either.

Its traveling speed was quite fast. It could fly several hundred li in a day and night. Li Qiuchen had it scout the surrounding villages to see if there were signs of other Medicine Master followers' activities.

There were, and many.

As the saying goes, when one whale falls, all things flourish.

Before the old peach tree died, who knows how many tree root fragments it had cast out, luring out all the Medicine Master followers within several hundred li.

The outward appearance of these Medicine Master followers had extremely strong deceptive qualities.

After all, pursuing longevity was something everyone yearned for.

You couldn't say just because I planted some vegetables in my family's vegetable garden and wrote myself a prescription, you'd call me a Medicine Master follower, right?

Mountain Stockade, Chicken and Sheep Shop, Pig Kidney Gully, Three Ridge Pass...

Over the next month, under the white crane's guidance, Li Qiuchen quietly visited all the large and small villages and towns within a hundred li.

Eighty percent of the villages and towns had already been occupied by Medicine Master followers.