Chapter 72: The Dao Ancestor’s Secret
2025-08-18 Author: Kindergarten Kingpin
Chapter 72: The Dao Ancestor’s Secret
“Body Refining? Even a dog wouldn’t refine their body!” – Chu Huaixu.
——
Inside the bamboo hut, the young man in the black robe sat on a meditation cushion. His face was slightly flushed, and sweat beaded on his forehead, his lips trembling uncontrollably.
“Pain, it hurts so much!”
Chu Huaixu gritted his teeth, feeling as if he were being driven mad.
The pain he was experiencing was vastly different from cultivating the Sword Refining Art.
The Sword Refining Art relied on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to temper one’s body, using one’s own flesh and blood as a Sword Embryo, enduring the pounding of spiritual energy.
This was a pain from the outside in.
The Dao Canon, however, provided him with a different experience. Some spiritual power entered the Spiritual Embryo Treasury, feeling warm and comfortable.
The other portion of spiritual power surged into his physical body, bringing a pain from the inside out!
—Tsk! It was a completely new kind of pain!
As the spiritual power within him continued to increase, the burden on his physical body grew heavier.
Chu Huaixu gnashed his teeth in hatred, suddenly recalling the words written in the booklet that introduced the Dao Canon: “Upright and harmonious.”
And he was supposed to call this “upright and harmonious”?
The agony intensified, reaching its peak at the moment of breaking through.
Han Shuangjiang, in the adjacent room, was just about to meditate when she heard a familiar scream.
She was already accustomed to this, seeing it as nothing unusual.
A playful smile flickered across the young girl’s face as she closed her eyes on her meditation cushion.
However, she soon opened her beautiful eyes, immediately stood up, and rushed out with a look of anxiety.
“Didn’t he already open all nine apertures? Didn’t he obtain the Dao Canon!”
“Why is this still happening?”
“No, I have to go check. What if he’s gone mad from cultivation or something has happened!”
A deep concern appeared on the “Big Ice Block’s” face as she immediately knocked on Chu Huaixu’s door. There was no response from within.
Han Shuangjiang no longer cared about propriety between men and women and directly pushed open the bamboo door to Chu Huaixu’s room.
She saw him lying on the meditation cushion, his black robe and inner shirt both soaked.
There was sweat, and there was blood.
For some reason, large lumps had appeared all over his body, the skin cracking in many places, leaving him with open wounds all over. It was as if a force from within his body was trying to break out.
It swelled his body, almost as if it were about to burst!
Han Shuangjiang’s eyelashes quivered. Driven by her concern for him, she fell into a moment of panic.
But she quickly calmed down, and her first thought for seeking help was Steward Niu.
She could feel that Steward Niu was a very, very good person.
Just as the “Big Ice Block” was about to rush over, she suddenly noticed something.
“Is this my illusion?”
“Why do the wounds seem less deep, and the swellings have also reduced a bit?”
She peered closer and saw that they were healing rapidly, at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“It’s like…”
“Like when I was soaking in the body-tempering medicinal liquid!” Han Shuangjiang remembered that day at the pool.
Han Shuangjiang felt a little relieved, guessing in her heart, “What kind of Spirit Pill did he eat?”
Such a recovery speed was definitely not something the human body could achieve on its own.
However, the cold-faced girl was still not completely at ease.
“I need to stay here,” she thought.
“If anything else goes wrong, I’ll go find Steward Niu immediately.” The “Big Ice Block” made up her mind.
Han Shuangjiang slowly squatted down beside Chu Huaixu.
Before squatting, she habitually pulled up the hem of her clothes. Otherwise, her full hips would be too strained by her robe when she squatted.
She rested her arms on her knees, then leaned her small face against her arms, squatting and observing him.
“The injuries on that damned fox should heal completely in a little while.”
The “Big Ice Block” thought for a moment before extending her slightly cold hand and placing it on his forehead to check his temperature.
“His body isn’t that hot anymore either.”
After she placed her palm on his forehead, Han Shuangjiang noticed that Chu Huaixu’s tightly furrowed brow seemed to relax slightly.
It took nearly an hour before Chu Huaixu slowly woke up.
He curled up on the floor, opened his eyes, and saw Han Shuangjiang sitting on a chair, pretending to pour herself some tea.
“Awake?” Her voice was calm, as always cool and indifferent, betraying no trace of concern.
“Mhm.” Chu Huaixu shook his head vigorously, trying to clear his head.
He got up from the floor and looked at his robes.
“Why is it still bleeding!” He was truly speechless.
“I don’t know. When I arrived, you had many swellings, and much of your skin was cracked. Now they’ve all recovered, without even leaving scars,” Han Shuangjiang recounted what she knew.
This made Chu Huaixu frown even more deeply.
He was momentarily unsure whether to praise the Dao Canon for its miraculousness or its malevolence!
The “Big Ice Block’s” tone remained icy as she asked, “Didn’t you go back to your room to cultivate the Dao Canon? Why did you end up like this again?”
“Because I think I discovered a secret of the Dao Ancestor,” Chu Huaixu said.
“What?” Han Shuangjiang’s curiosity was immediately piqued by the man.
“I suspect that the revered Dao Ancestor was a crude body cultivator!”
The “Big Ice Block’s” eyes immediately narrowed, and she said displeasedly, “Don’t joke like that!”
With that, she glanced around, subtly hinting that he should be mindful of his surroundings when speaking so wildly.
This was the Daoist Sect! And he was speaking in the Daoist Sect, claiming the Dao Ancestor was a body cultivator?
It was utterly preposterous!
Chu Huaixu composed his features, saying seriously, “Alright, I’ll be serious then. In fact, I suspect the Dao Ancestor was a true cultivator of both internal and external arts!”
“Mhm?” Han Shuangjiang’s confusion grew with every word.
At this moment, Chu Huaixu himself also felt a degree of bewilderment in his eyes.
During the Meridian-Opening Stage, when he claimed to be cultivating both internally and externally, he had been embellishing his abilities.
The Sword Refining Art was a hundred percent a deviant Body Refining Cultivation Technique entirely reliant on external tempering to stimulate the digestion of Meridian-Opening Pills.
When others heard him say he cultivated both internally and externally, they would simply assume that Chu Huaixu was also refining his body in his spare time while practicing his cultivation technique.
He was very persistent, but that was all there was to it.
In reality, many cultivators who practiced Body Refining used the term “internal and external cultivation” to elevate themselves.
However, most people dismissed it with disdain.
This touched upon the different cultivation styles of Body Refining.
Most Body Refiners practiced because their Spiritual Embryo quality was too low, and the wondrous effects of the Spiritual Embryo Treasury could not manifest. It could not store much spiritual power.
With scarce spiritual power, their cultivation was naturally meager, and breaking through was extremely difficult.
Perhaps, in ancient times, some great genius had a sudden idea—why not simply not store spiritual power in the Spiritual Embryo Treasury?
Try storing it in other parts of the human body!
The result for him would undoubtedly be death by explosion.
Perhaps subsequently, there were more great geniuses, or rather, a group of lunatics.
Since death by explosion was a risk, it must be because our bodies were too fragile!
This gave rise to the Body Refining school of thought.
These fanatical individuals continuously developed and strengthened their physical bodies, discovering that various parts of the body could indeed contain spiritual power, but only if the body was made very strong, otherwise, it couldn’t be locked in!
The entire process of progress would be incredibly difficult and agonizing.
The vast majority of Body Refiners who claimed to cultivate both internally and externally did so because their Spiritual Embryo Treasury could indeed store spiritual power, albeit in very sparse amounts, with the majority of it contained within their physical bodies!
It was usually a two-to-eight or three-to-seven split, with the worst cases being a one-to-nine split.
However, during his recent upgrade, Chu Huaixu’s experience was peculiar.
He could clearly feel the spiritual power being divided within his body, and the division seemed quite even?
This was a genuine fifty-fifty split, a true cultivation of both internal and external arts!
At this moment, Han Shuangjiang looked at him and asked, “The abnormality in your body just now, wasn’t it because you ate a pill, which is why you recovered so quickly?”
The damned fox winked at her and said, “Here! This is my big secret. I’m only telling you, so don’t tell anyone.”
“Okay.”
He shook his head at the “Big Ice Block” and said, “I only ate the Realm-Advancing Pill bought from the Treasure Pavilion. I didn’t take any healing pills.”
“This situation didn’t happen as I expected. I’m still exploring why this phenomenon occurred,” he admitted honestly.
Han Shuangjiang was immensely surprised upon hearing this, murmuring, “But the rumors about the Dao Canon are known throughout the world, whispered even in the mortal realm, saying no one has achieved great success in it yet.”
“However, I’ve never heard of anyone cultivating the Dao Canon experiencing what you did,” she said.
“Tsk, that means they weren’t practicing it correctly!” Chu Huaixu started to act mischievous again.
But in reality, his heart was filled with doubt.
Because what the “Big Ice Block” said was true. In the past thousand years, despite so many people cultivating the Dao Canon, none had experienced this simultaneous internal and external effect.
“Not even among players!” This was what astonished Chu Huaixu the most.
Quite a few expert players had taken the “evaluation” route. How could they possibly not have posted some evaluation posts on the forums about the Dao Canon, such excellent review material?
He was certain that no player’s situation matched his current one.
“Is it because our physical conditions were different at the early stages of cultivation?” he mused, “My body has already been tempered by the Sword Refining Art and meets the true requirements of the Dao Canon?”
He couldn’t be certain about this.
He only knew that the Sword Refining Art was also very peculiar. Other Body Refining techniques for the Meridian-Opening Stage could hardly achieve such intensity.
Especially after his eighth aperture advanced to the ninth, a significant leap occurred. Chu Huaixu suspected that Body Refining cultivators who had just entered the First Realm might not have physiques as robust as his!
“Legend has it that the Dao Ancestor accidentally obtained an unnamed cultivation technique and thus began his cultivation path.”
“So, could it be that when he was a young Daoist Priest, he also spent every day honing his physique, indulging in ‘self-abuse,’ and reached a level comparable to the great success of the Sword Refining Art?”
“Then what was he practicing before he trained the Dao Canon?”
Chu Huaixu became even more confused.
Because based on the timeline, the formula for the Meridian-Opening Pill was created by the Dao Ancestor at the Ninth Realm. Only after that did cultivation techniques matching it gradually emerge.
A thousand years ago, even the Meridian-Opening Stage – the “preschool realm” – didn’t exist. Everyone started from the First Realm, and there were very few cultivators in the world.
Therefore, the cultivation techniques from that era all began from the First Realm, and there were no foundational methods for the stages before the First Realm.
He simply felt that this person who had suppressed the world for a thousand years was shrouded in far too many mysteries.
Chu Huaixu opened his character panel and examined it carefully.
On the character panel, the display for Spiritual Power in the Spiritual Embryo Treasury was: 86.
He wasn’t surprised by this number, as he clearly remembered that the data in those Dao Canon evaluation posts showed similar figures in the eighties; he couldn’t recall the exact number.
“No wonder many people say the Dao Canon is only equivalent to a Earth-grade cultivation technique, and it was placed in the Heaven-grade category purely out of respect for the Dao Ancestor.”
“Because for an Earth-grade cultivation technique at the First Realm, upon initial completion, the spiritual power value range is 80-100. This is the standard for Earth-grade cultivation techniques after dataization,” Chu Huaixu thought.
“As for Heaven-grade, it would be 100-120.”
The path of cultivation was one where the gap widened as one progressed further.
Looking at it this way, the Dao Canon could indeed only be considered mediocre among Earth-grade techniques.
“But the problem is…” Chu Huaixu lowered his gaze.
“The spiritual power contained within my physical body is also 86!”
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(End of Chapter)
