The book looked nothing different than the cheap scrolls available in the local market which is purchased by every child who dream of joining a sect in the future. If he has not met those women with extreme power treating it as some kind of sacred scroll he would use it to keep his oily pancakes.
Another thing that was particularly different about the scroll was that unlike the usual black soot and glue mixture that is used to write scrolls, it is written in blood, the blood that has oxidized and turned into deep maroon color and although it did looked a little creepy he still decided to follow it.
"Yin and Yang align, heaven and earth entwine
Body meets body, Qi flow devine
Harmony paves strength, lust breeds decay
trust the union- ascend Dao's way"
Yan Zhen read it once, read it twice and close it before taking a deep breath.
Does this book teaches to get spiritual energy through sacred union?? But isn't it the way of demonic cultivators, from what he has noticed usually the sect members of heavenly sects are celibate, and even if they take part in sacred union transferring spiritual energy is a huge taboo especially after the huge catastrophe where many high ranking righteous master got their spiritual energy stolen and cultivation drained around six decades ago.
This cultivation is a lost art, even if he want to do it no-one would want to do it with him!!
what's the point, of learning it ?? He huffed, turned to another page it details the way to check yang energy inside his core, he sat down cross legged on the cleanest rock he could find took a deep breath and held it in. He let his core materialize in his palm as he did shallow breath to maintain the rhythm. His core was of light yellow color not like gold but a pale color that can almost be confused with white.
It was a grade four core, the one that got him admitted as a senior inner sect disciple at twelve year of age, at that time he was considered gifted genius but even after eight year with no improvement the same core has determined him to be a discard-able waste.
He looked down at the book following step by step pattern to trace his yang energy and he was himself astonished by his yang energy that reached only one part below what was described as supreme energy. He huffed letting the materialized form of his core and yang energy wisp into thin air.
No matter how amazing his yang energy is what is the point when he can't even hold a little spiritual energy in his core.
_____
Dual cultivation should not just be about satisfying bodily needs and neither it should be focused on intertwining yin and yang to gather spiritual energy to increase cultivation. Instead for maximum benefit there should be a connection between two parties, one that goes beyond dual cultivation, there should be trust, care and devotion.
Dual cultivation should be benefiting both the parties, and the parties should be willing to be a part of that. Further getting spiritual energy is like eating if body isn't able to digest or absorb nutrient it doesn't matter how nutrient and good quality food you have it's useless. Similarly, if the body isn't absorbing the spiritual energy obtained from dual cultivation it's useless so the first step should be to strengthen the body and prepare it for energy absorption.
Yan zhen closed the book looking at the steps mentioned to prepare the body, it's not like that he has not already done these things. When he entered the sect as a high potential inner sect disciple the sect have tried most of these things and spent a lot of resources on him:
- Martial Arts: He is better than the top in the righteous sect if they fight without using spiritual power
-Mandarin Cleansing:Acupuncture, elixirs, Breathing technique, Herbal Baths he had done it all
-Qi Circulation- He don't even wanna talk about it.
He turned the page and his eyes stop at the part that he never tried before and the book mention it in bold words *Crimson Bone Baptism Art* it is an ancient art as mentioned in the book and the more he read through the process the more demonic it sounds, but one thing that Yan Zhen knows was 'beggars can't be choosers' and he is the beggar.
The process is difficult or it would be considered difficult if he was anywhere else than the demonic valley, the two main ingredient required for this art is spiritual marrow of a cultivator and blood essence. Fortunately for him there is an abundance of that here. He went through the process steps and shut the book, keeping it in spiritual pouch he had picked from one of the corpse.
Usually the corpse that are way too old would have already rotted, but the heavy yin energy and unique qi in the valley has kept the body of previous cultivators nicely preserved.
He took out his dagger. The process of collecting spiritual marrow was tough, he took away femurs, skull plates and spinal segment. If it was high level cultivator one would have been enough, but the corpses in demon valley are all lower level cultivator and so using one or two may not be enough.
It took him around two days to gather all the spiritual marrows and blood essence, during this time he usually ate rats present in blood valley and maybe it's because they were demonic rats who feasted on cultivators flesh he felt his body getting stronger.
He dragged his ingredients to a little spring pond he discovered a day before, that is condensed with spiritual power of the valley, the spring was full with qi and although at this point he can't really feel or absorb it, he can still feel it, he then stripped down and threw his robe onto a rock nearby.
Yan Zhen took his book and set it on the shoreline going step by step through all the process. He threw the spiritual marrow and blood essence in the pond dyeing the water red, then he used a dagger to make a shallow cut and used it to write blood rune just above his naval as mentioned in the book and slowly submerged himself into the water.
The feeling of water entering his lungs suffocated him, but this might be his last chance to be anything other than a waste and the feeling of being discarded might just be even more unbearable than what he was feeling at the moment.
He felt warmth spread all over his body, but he can also feel a distinct coldness around his naval where is Qi core is. It feels as if his qi core is resisting against the foreign spiritual essence that is trying to enter his meridians making his body curl in pain, he felt the coldness of his qi core overpowering the warm spiritual essence inside him and the feeling that he may loose once again is excruciating.
He feel his blood rune cracking but the stakes of this failure is high. Failing would mean death and so he once again used the dagger this time pressing it directly into his skin, carving the rune on his flesh, and settled underwater chanting the spells slowly.
It was almost an hour later when he finally felt his body getting warmer and the warmth traveling slowly towards his core and slowly taking over it making it warmer and warmer before it became so hot that Yan Zhen felt like fainting his body go limp and mind went blank, with darkness closing in on him.
____
Yan Zhen opened his eyes to rats gnawing on the corpse remains beside him, he looked up to see the sun has risen and it has already been over a week since he ended up in the demon valley. He sat up feeling warm all over his body with his heart beating rhythmically.
He looked down at his bare body, still wet but there is unmistakably more muscle mass that was not there yesterday, he remembered fainting and since he was on the shore he might have washed up sometime during the night.
He picked up the book placing it in his spiritual bag before wearing his robes. He closed his eyes, sat cross-legged and tried to gather spiritual energy, he was ready for another failure and might not even care if he failed, as long as he ended up alive. But he felt a stream of light slowly entering through his skin and seeping into his core buzzing faintly before finally settling in.
He did it !!