It was similar to what Li Yan had guessed. "The Fragmented Poison Body is to separate every piece of flesh, bone, and meridian in the body into small pieces, as if the body is being dismembered. Each small piece of flesh, bone, and meridian is constantly tempered, changed, and separated again, making the inside of the body feel as if it were shattered to pieces." Li Wuyi had also mentioned these words in his introduction, but someone who had not cultivated this poison body could not truly understand the meaning behind it. And Li Yan's understanding at the time was that this constitution had already formed in his body. As for what Li Wuyi had told him about "the separation is very painful," he had not felt the pain. Up to now, he had not felt any discomfort. In his subconscious, he thought that when he formed this constitution, it had already been completed while he was unconscious, so he didn't feel the pain.
The reason there was no introduction in the jade slip was because the three seniors had not encountered a situation like Li Yan's, where it was not formed in one go. Their Fragmented Poison Bodies were formed in one go, not like Li Yan's, which was still connected, with only a little separation at the meridian nodes. Theirs, on the other hand, was formed in individual pieces. They would separate when they exhaled and gather when they inhaled. Through this method of movement, they would constantly strengthen and nourish each separated body. But when they were circulating their cultivation, they would form a whole, a flawless and perfect operation.
To put it simply, Li Yan's Fragmented Poison Body was actually a semi-finished product, or even a blank. This was also why Li Yan couldn't find the answer.
On the one hand, Li Yan dared not ask others for advice, as it involved his greatest secret of the Gui Water Immortal Sect. On the other hand, no one knew that Li Yan was a semi-finished product, and Li Yan himself only had a partial understanding of the true Fragmented Poison Body. The so-called "the one involved is confused," that was it.
After analyzing this result, Li Yan began his next plan, which was how to truly separate the twelve pieces of meridians in his body. He was now the embryo of a Fragmented Poison Body, which meant that the initial formation of his body was successful. So next, he would either use his divine sense or his spiritual power. The worst possibility was that Strategist Ji's incomplete formula or the backlash from Strategist Ji's dying blow was what would ultimately allow him to form the true Fragmented Poison Body. He could try the first two himself. If it was the latter two, then he might not be able to solve it. However, at least he now had a direction, but he could only guess whether this idea was right or wrong.
Li Yan stood up, went out and got a basin of clean water, and washed his face, which cleared his mind a lot. Now he dared not use the Cloud and Rain Art recklessly to wash up. Firstly, he might not be able to cast it successfully. Secondly, he didn't know what would be released. Although he had seen in the classics that the toxins he released were harmless to the main body, he didn't want to try it now.
After taking another Grain Abstinence Pill, Li Yan rested for another half an hour.
He entered the practice room again. After calming his breath, he began to carefully circulate his spiritual power to the nearest separation node to his dantian. The next moment, he transformed those spiritual powers into the shape of a small knife and cut at the crack. Since the spiritual power had not leaked during the early stages of cultivation and only started leaking in the later stages, it meant that the spiritual power could widen the crack at the node. So he first chose to use his spiritual power for the separation.
But after one cut, a heart-wrenching pain attacked his brain. Li Yan let out a muffled grunt and almost lost his concentration. His divine sense scattered. The next moment, sweat poured out. In just an instant, his body was as if it had been washed with water. His body trembled, and he endured the pain to forcefully focus his divine sense to investigate. The crack at that node had widened a little. He couldn't help but be overjoyed. This meant that this method was feasible. As for whether the result would turn him into a corpse, Li Yan had already steeled his heart.
At that moment, he steeled his heart and continued to cut. Amidst Li Yan's continuous muffled grunts and his body trembling like a sieve, time passed bit by bit...
A quarter of an hour later, Li Yan was paralyzed on the ground, panting heavily. After resting for a long while, he found that he did not feel like he was on the verge of death. He felt a little relieved. This meant that what he had just done should not kill him immediately for the time being.
He struggled to sit cross-legged again. In that quarter of an hour, he felt as if he had suffered the greatest punishment in the world, but in the end, he had only separated one piece. Now was the time for him to confirm the result. If it didn't work, the current situation in his body might directly cut off his path of cultivation. What he had just done might have completely cut off the possibility of spiritual power circulation.
After concentrating, Li Yan raised the spiritual energy in his dantian and circulated it towards that node. Watching the spiritual power approach bit by bit, and the two ends of that node were still independent of each other like two broken cliffs, Li Yan's heart couldn't help but turn cold bit by bit. Perhaps his path of cultivation had been cut off by his own whimsical act today, without even a trace of a way back. In the future, his spiritual power would no longer be able to circulate for a heavenly cycle, and the remaining spiritual power in his body would slowly disappear.
Just as he felt that he might be beaten back to a mortal tomorrow, the slowly moving spiritual power finally reached the end of the broken cliff. But the next moment, the flesh and meridians that had been separated on the other side of the broken cliff had already leaned towards the other end in an instant. The next moment, the spiritual power passed through without any obstruction. Li Yan didn't have time to be surprised. He quickly used his divine sense to probe the magnitude of that spiritual power. After a moment, he couldn't help but be ecstatic. That spiritual power hadn't decreased in the slightest. On the contrary, it had become a little purer during the circulation. This was exactly the result needed for cultivation. When the circulation of spiritual power became more and more pure and reached a certain level, the quantity would increase again.
Li Yan let out a long sigh of relief and dispersed the circulating spiritual power in his body. Now he had confirmed that this method was really feasible. He was truly at ease. Then his face immediately wrinkled as if he had eaten countless bitter herbs. There were still eleven nodes to be separated. The thought of this made him shiver.
Twenty hours later, Li Yan was lying on the ground with his limbs spread out. The ground was already a large wet patch, with a large amount of sweat accumulated in some places like a small stream. The pain during this period now made Li Yan have the urge to commit suicide just thinking about it. After each separation, he had to drink a lot of water to replenish, and then immediately proceed to the next separation. He didn't dare to rest for too long. He wanted to finish it as soon as possible while his nerves were numb from the pain. But he had to replenish the water lost in his body, otherwise, he would definitely die of dehydration before he finished the separation.
After relaxing, Li Yan didn't even want to move a finger now, let alone go back to the rest room. He just lay on the ground and fell into a deep sleep. This sleep lasted for two days and two nights.
When Li Yan woke up, he was full of energy. He sat up again, sat cross-legged to regulate his breath. A quarter of an hour later, a burst of wild laughter escaped from the practice room and echoed in this courtyard. If it weren't for the formation on the courtyard wall, it would probably have traveled a li or two.
When he woke up, the first thing he did was of course to carefully confirm whether his cultivation had returned to normal. After circulating for a heavenly cycle, it had indeed returned to the normal state of cultivation of the previous few days. This made him overjoyed, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud, as if venting the frustration in his chest from the past few days.
In the following days, Li Yan temporarily gave up the cultivation of immortal arts. Apart from cultivating the True Scripture of the Nether Water, he focused on exploring the twelve separated meridians and flesh in his body.
Just like that, in the fulfilling and busy process of cultivation, time flew by. In the blink of an eye, another four months had passed. In these four months, apart from the gradual growth of his cultivation of the True Scripture of the Nether Water, Li Yan also carefully read the summaries and insights in the three jade slips of the Fragmented Poison Body in his sea of consciousness, and had a new understanding of the twelve separated meridians in his body.
These twelve meridians in his body were different sources of toxins. They would be released with his spiritual power. Some were strongly corrosive, some would release poisonous mist, and some would only form different potent poisons under moonlight, sunlight, or even starlight. And some were colorless and odorless potent poisons. If these potent poisons were made from herbs, often one potent poison might be made from one or several potent poisonous herbs, or refined to form. It was truly incredible and strange.
Normally, these twelve toxins were separated and nourished by their own movement with his breathing. But the jade slip stated that this method of nourishment was not the best way. The best way was to use his divine sense to forcefully stimulate them every day. This would strengthen their activity even more. It was said that in this way, they could slowly separate into more small pieces of toxins before reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.
Li Yan tried this method, and it was simply unbearable. It wasn't that the twelve separated meridians caused any pain, but his divine sense. Every time he stimulated those meridians for a period of time, it was as if that part of his divine sense had been infected with the poison in them. It was either a splitting headache or nausea and the real urge to vomit. His mind was like a thousand knives stirring at the same time. All kinds of pain made Li Yan wish he were dead. After trying a few times, he wanted to give up and just let this Fragmented Poison Body grow naturally. He just needed to learn to control and use it slowly.
Just as Li Yan was about to give up on stimulating the separated meridians with his divine sense, he discovered that his divine sense had actually grown after stimulating those separated bodies. This made him a little confused at first, but then he was replaced by joy. He now knew how rare and precious the method of cultivating divine sense was. Although the True Scripture of the Nether Water also had the effect of enhancing divine sense, from his cultivation during this period, it seemed that his divine sense would only grow after his realm was upgraded. It was not something you could grow just by wanting to.
Now that he had suddenly discovered this method of increasing his divine sense, how could he be willing to give it up? After gritting his teeth, he set aside an hour every day to use his divine sense to stimulate those separated meridians. If he used his divine sense for any longer, he felt that he might have a nervous breakdown and go crazy. After a few days, his divine sense was indeed growing at an extremely slow speed. The separated meridians in his body were also more active, as if they could self-separate with another stimulus.
Li Yan also had some other ideas looking at these active meridians and flesh. Apart from making these meridians and flesh more active, this action of his did not strengthen his physical body in the slightest. According to his thinking, since his flesh and blood were being stimulated, his physical body should also be strengthened.
However, he soon threw these thoughts aside. How could there be such a good thing in the world, where all the benefits fell to him alone? Now that he had this method of growing his divine sense, he was already very satisfied, although the growth was abnormally slow.
Four months later, after mastering the various toxin characteristics of these twelve separated meridians, Li Yan's next plan was how to slowly and proficiently use these things. As such, Li Yan became even busier. Cultivating his cultivation method, stimulating the separated meridians and flesh with his divine sense, and cultivating immortal arts combined with toxins, his days were packed to the brim. He would often only return to his rest room to sleep for a few hours every few days, usually using meditation and practice to replace sleep.
During this period, Wei Zhongran also sent a message through the sect token to ask if Li Yan's cultivation problem had been solved. After Li Yan replied that it had been solved, he sent another encouraging message and told him that the special resources from the sect for him had come down. He would receive an additional five low-grade spirit stones and two bottles of "Spirit-Raising Pills" every month. These were all specially distributed by the sect for him to better cultivate the "Fragmented Poison Body." He didn't say much else and didn't disturb his cultivation again. This also made Li Yan have some good feelings for this master. From these few months, it seemed that this master didn't have any malicious intentions. But this was only his current view and couldn't completely eliminate his suspicion.
At the same time, he also knew that the sect had tilted some resources towards him, and he couldn't help but sigh. However, he still didn't know that if his aptitude was three spirit roots or more, then the sect's resource tilt would not be so lukewarm.
As for the other few senior brothers and sisters, apart from meeting his Fourth Senior Sister and Second Senior Brother a few times when he went to the main hall in front to collect his monthly spirit stones and Grain Abstinence Pills, he hadn't seen any of the others. He heard that they were either out on training and hadn't returned, or were in seclusion practicing hard. Including his Seventh Senior Brother, who had started his seclusion two months ago and was said to be about to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage in the near future. As for that handsome Eldest Senior Brother, he had been in seclusion since a few months ago and had not come out. But the handyman department said that they had seen the Eldest Martial Uncle go out a few times at night, but he was always in a hurry.
It was just that when he went to collect resources every month, the way his Fourth Senior Sister and Second Senior Brother looked at him was a bit strange. Under his questioning, they also told him the use of the "Spirit-Raising Pill." This kind of medicinal pill had a great auxiliary effect when upgrading a small realm in the Qi Condensation stage. Normally, only elite disciples of the Outer Sect could get two bottles a year, while he got two bottles a month. This made them look at Li Yan in a new light. His Second Senior Brother even patted Li Yan like a bear and gave him a thumbs-up, which made Li Yan's face hurt while he kept sucking in cold air.
As for the other disciples of the other four peaks, they had nothing to do with Li Yan at the moment. He didn't know them, and they naturally wouldn't come looking for him.
Another few months passed. In the middle of this, something else went wrong with Li Yan. Of course, it wasn't a problem with his cultivation, but a problem with his practice place. It was completely fine to meditate and practice in this courtyard and practice room. But when he started to practice immortal arts, problems arose whether in the practice room or in the courtyard. The reason was of course the fragmented toxins that came out with his spiritual power. After destroying two more sets of stone table and benches, Li Yan decided that he needed to go out and find a place where he could practice immortal arts.
Li Yan thought about it. With his current low cultivation, he certainly couldn't go outside the sect. He heard that the outside of the sect was teeming with demonic beasts, which was not something he could deal with now. So it was better to set his sights on Little Bamboo Peak. He thought that in such a large Little Bamboo Peak, he only needed a quiet place where he wouldn't disturb others. Such a place should be easy to find.