For an entire week, the ravine remained peaceful.
Neither Su Yang nor Tu Bing had any intention of leaving.
The spirit lake beneath them continued releasing faint strands of spiritual energy day and night, and although the concentration wasn't enough to produce an overwhelming phenomenon, it was far denser than the spiritual energy outside.
For martial artists, such an environment was already extraordinarily precious.
For someone cultivating the Spirit Dao, it was even more valuable.
For Su Yang, however, the greatest value wasn't merely the spiritual energy itself.
It was what he could do with it.
For seven days, he remained seated beside the lake, continuously guiding the spiritual energy into his ten Innate acupoints.
The process was slow.
Painfully slow.
Every strand of spiritual energy had to be carefully refined and directed, and because Su Yang had deliberately designed his cultivation method around storing enormous amounts of energy before his breakthrough, he couldn't simply absorb everything recklessly.
His body had to withstand it.
His meridians had to withstand it.
His acupoints had to withstand it.
And most importantly, his foundation had to remain perfectly stable.
By the seventh day, the ten acupoints had already accumulated a tremendous amount of spiritual energy.
Su Yang finally opened his eyes.
A faint brilliance flashed across them before disappearing.
He exhaled slowly.
"That's enough for now."
He had no intention of continuing to fill the acupoints without limit.
Although there was still room for more, greed could easily turn an advantage into a weakness.
He looked toward Tu Bing.
She had been cultivating a short distance away.
Her black hair was still loose, falling naturally behind her back, and the faint spiritual energy surrounding her body was considerably more stable than it had been after her breakthrough into Leaving Aperture.
Her soul had already adapted to its new state.
Su Yang watched her for a moment before speaking.
"Do you want to continue cultivating here?"
Tu Bing opened her eyes.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Why wouldn't I?"
Su Yang was slightly surprised by her immediate answer.
Tu Bing looked toward the spirit lake.
"Do you know how rare a place like this is?"
"Not particularly."
Tu Bing gave him a strange look.
"I assumed that the Young master of the Su family would know of this."
She sighed.
"Places where spiritual energy naturally gathers to this degree are extremely valuable. Whenever one is discovered, martial artists, Spirit Dao cultivators, sects, families, and even powerful beasts will compete for it."
She gestured toward the lake.
"This place has remained hidden inside a ravine, and the presence of the two Xuan Gang experts earlier prevented ordinary beasts from approaching. Even after their deaths, the residual aura probably frightened most creatures away."
Su Yang nodded. As for her knowing his true identity, he wasn't surprised since she already screamed his name when they fell.
Tu Bing continued.
"I intend to cultivate here for at least two months."
"Two months?"
Su Yang looked at the lake again.
He fell silent for a moment.
Originally, he had planned to leave as soon as they had recovered sufficiently.
After all, they were still being pursued.
The mysterious organization behind the escort mission hadn't been eliminated, and the Xuan Gang expert who had followed them had already died.
There was no guarantee that another expert wouldn't appear.
But leaving immediately would also mean abandoning an opportunity that might never appear again.
Two months...
Su Yang considered it carefully.
His eyes gradually became firm.
"Then I'll leave after two months as well."
Tu Bing nodded.
"That's more sensible."
Su Yang didn't respond.
His attention had already shifted toward something else.
If they were going to remain here for two months...
Then he had to make full use of this spirit lake.
He couldn't simply sit around absorbing spiritual energy.
That would be wasting it.
His gaze gradually became sharp.
The Dragon Elephant Prajna Vajra Scripture immediately appeared within his mind.
It was an External Art that could be cultivated all the way to the peak of Blood Exchange.
Its requirements were terrifying.
Its methods were equally terrifying.
The ultimate goal was to possess the strength of one dragon and ten elephants.
Su Yang had already decided that he would cultivate it.
But now he had something that made the technique considerably easier to practice.
The spirit lake.
And...
The fish.
Su Yang looked down.
Countless fish were swimming beneath the translucent surface.
They weren't ordinary fish.
Each one contained a faint amount of spiritual energy within its body.
Some were more concentrated than others, but even the weakest contained energy that ordinary animals couldn't possess.
Su Yang's eyes lit up.
"Excellent."
Tu Bing looked at him.
"What?"
Su Yang pointed toward the lake.
"Food."
Tu Bing stared at him.
"...You want to eat the fish?"
"Of course."
She was speechless for a moment.
Then she suddenly understood.
"The Great Medicine Art?"
Su Yang nodded.
The Great Medicine Art was one of the most important auxiliary methods for External Arts.
Its principle was straightforward.
Consume enormous amounts of nourishing materials and transform their essence into Qi-Blood.
Medicinal herbs, spiritual medicines, fierce beast flesh and material parts. It also includes rare ingredients and even spiritual creatures.
Everything could become nourishment.
The important part was that the Great Medicine Art wasn't meant to crudely pile energy into the body.
It was a method of supplementing the body's foundation while using cultivation techniques and pile stances to transform that nourishment into increasingly vigorous Qi-Blood.
If cultivated correctly, the practitioner could consume enormous amounts of nourishment without destabilizing their foundation.
For Su Yang, this was exactly what he needed.
He had already checked countless other arts just to be sure.
The foundation began with Body Nourishing.
Only after Qi-Blood had been sufficiently nourished could the practitioner begin genuine Body Refining.
Skin, muscle, tendons and bones. These four stages weren't independent.
They were interconnected.
And when all four were perfected and fused together...
They formed the foundation of the Vajra Body.
Su Yang's eyes became increasingly excited.
This was precisely why the Dragon Elephant Prajna Vajra Scripture was so valuable.
It didn't merely increase strength.
It possessed methods for repeatedly tempering the body and pushing each stage toward perfection.
Ordinary practitioners would rarely have the resources to do this.
Even if they had the resources, they wouldn't necessarily possess a method capable of supporting such extreme cultivation.
But Su Yang was different. He had a spirit lake. The opportunity was almost perfect.
He stood up.
His feet settled onto the damp stone beside the lake.
He slowly closed his eyes.
Then he began cultivating.
The first step was not Skin Refining.
Nor was it Muscle Refining.
He intended to start from the beginning.
Body Nourishing.
He would rebuild his External Arts foundation from the Body Nourishing realm and perfect every stage.
His Qi-Blood began circulating.
At first, it was extremely calm.
Then gradually...
It began to surge.
The five viscera within his body slowly became active.
Heart, Liver, Spleen,Lungs and Kidneys.
The Qi-Blood produced by his body began circulating through them repeatedly.
This was the first major stage of the method.
The Five Blood Qi Nourishing State.
The purpose wasn't merely to increase the quantity of Qi-Blood.
It was to fill the five viscera until their ability to nourish the body reached perfection.
Only after that could the Qi-Blood become sufficiently vigorous to support the subsequent stages.
Su Yang's breathing became deeper.
His body began absorbing the spiritual energy surrounding him.
At the same time, his mind began controlling the Great Medicine Art.
A fish suddenly leapt from the water.
Su Yang's eyes opened.
His hand flashed.
The fish flew directly toward him.
He caught it effortlessly.
Spiritual energy flowed from the fish's body.
Su Yang examined it briefly.
Then he smiled.
"Good."
He began preparing the first meal.
The spirit fish was only the beginning.
There were countless others beneath the lake.
And there were also the beasts in the surrounding forest.
For the next two months, he had no intention of wasting a single useful resource.
The Great Medicine Art began operating.
Rich nourishment entered his body.
His Qi-Blood surged.
The Dragon Elephant Prajna Vajra Scripture began circulating alongside it.
The two techniques complemented one another perfectly.
One provided nourishment.
The other transformed that nourishment into increasingly powerful physical strength.
Su Yang's muscles slowly tightened.
His skin became faintly flushed.
His breathing became increasingly heavy.
The Qi-Blood within his five viscera began roaring like a furnace.
This was only the beginning.
After the Five Blood Qi Nourishing State reached perfection, he would proceed to Iron Skin.
Then Bronze Muscles.
Then Ox Tendons.
Then Silver Steel Bones.
He would refine them one after another.
Then fuse them.
Then...
Vajra Body.
Su Yang's expression became calm.
He sat beside the spirit lake, surrounded by spiritual fish and the faint mist of spiritual energy, and began the arduous process of rebuilding his External Arts foundation from the very beginning.
The cultivation continued.