NOVEL FROG Chapter 47: Soul-Tempering
Transmigrated back into the body of her child self, can the mighty Celestial Bing Meilu survive in a Xianxia world all the while staving off the advances of arrogant young masters and wannabe protagonists alike?
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Chapter 47: Soul-Tempering
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Jade chains wrapped around Jiang Hu, shattering as the Peak Second Realm sabre cultivator leapt forward, a jet of crimson flame exploding towards Li Ji. The Five Bones of the Origin God flashed, and the flame exploded back as a drill of icy water, knocking the drake-man backwards.
"Instant Healing Talisman!"
The item flew through the air to where Mu Gong, whom Bing Meilu knew as slave one, lay. He was a Mountain trigram cultivator who had followed Jiang Hu since the days of his Crimson Saber Bandits and now he lay on the ground, throat brutally ripped open by the mad Drake-man's teeth. None of them had been expecting him to go insane, and they had not been prepared. For a moment, it seemed as if it wouldn't work, but Mu Gong's wounds began to quickly close.
A serious-faced Shang Bolin, slave two, led the Outer-circle members, the Many-Hearts Sheilds formation layered over them as they assaulted Jiang Hu from all directions.
Without warning, ice exploded around Jiang Hu's body, growing outwards like crystals to completely encase his body. He struggled, steam explosion splitting the air as his boiling body was quenched in freezing ice. Yet no matter how much he melted, more and more ice grew, until he was completely encased.
Resembling an immortal fairy, Bing Meilu descended from the sky, wrapped in a cloak of swirling snowy wind. Her eyes impassively swept over the camp, inspecting the scenario. A slight frown covered her cold face. She waved her hand, a hazy wind putting out the fires that had broken out across the camp.
"B-boss, your back! Thank the Heavens!" Li Ji cried out, running over to her, and falling to his knees. "It was Jiang Hu- He's gone made-"
"I know, " Bing Meilu cut him off, her eyes narrowed.
She walked towards the ice-encased cultivator. Jiang Hu's appearance had changed a lot since he'd begun to cultivate the Redscale Drake's Metamorphosis. His bronzed metal skin had become a pale, rosy tone backed by subdermal red scales. Huge draconic horns curled upwards from his head.
"He advanced his cultivation too quickly. The draconic instincts overwhelmed his will and he lost control... It could be considered a form of Qi Deviation."
It did not make much sense, to be honest. The draconic might that filled a drake's blood would have to be subdued before it could be safely absorbed. To do so would also have the effect of tempering one's will. It was almost as if he had been able to absorb draconic blood without having to undergo the purification process...
"Recount to me the details of the battle, Li Ji," she ordered.
The man began to explain, going over what had happened.
"You ruined the scales?!" she spun to Xi Fu, who had a sheepish expression on his face.
"It was an accident? I mean, I didn't know it was going to do that-" he began to explain.
"It will not happen again." her voice was frosty.
It wasn't a suggestion.
At this point, she had figured out what had happened. Xi Fu's unique move, Law-Breaker, had shattered the dragon's innately dominant nature, effectively making its blood far easier to absorb. Without the contest of subduing the will, Jiang Hu's mind wasn't tempered and he lost control over his draconic instincts.
"I'll have to temper his will manually until he can regain control over himself." she declared.
From her spatial ring, she pulled out the Whispering Nettles she had used to cut off a piece of her soul and forge a soul-bound weapon. They pulsed with yin energy that could touch spiritual things. She dissolved a part of the ice around Jiang Hu, exposing the back of his neck. Waving her hand, one of the nettles drifted over to the back of his neck and sunk into his spine.
The sabre-fighter's eyes boggled and he let loose a blood-curdling scream of pain. Only damage to the soul could cause such pain. In truth, what Bing Meilu was doing, the Whispering Nettle Root Invasion was more of a torture and interrogation art than a will-tempering technique. However, to enlightened beings such as her, there was no difference. If she said it was a will-tempering technique, then it was.
She pressed her fingers against the nettle. It acted like a needle, allowing her to inject her Qi more directly into his soul. Icy Yin Qi stretched out like the roots of a tree, digging through his soul. She was careful to only leave incredibly thin wounds as strands of her Qi excavated through Jiang Hu's soul. Such wounds could be easily healed without any permanent damage.
Nevertheless, the pain was absolutely intense, like nothing a human could ever normally experience. There was no word to describe what soul pain felt like to one who had never tasted it. It was a completely unique sensation that couldn't be described like one could not explain the colour red to a blind man. Mournful screams, muffled by layers of crystal clear ice, ripped through the air. Jiang Hu struggled and twitched, desperately trying to escape the pain.
A mindless draconic will tried to batter away at her digging roots ineffectively. Bing Meilu nodded in approval. Jiang Hu had begun to attempt to fight back, and now the real tempering could begin.
Formless strands of will, guided only by the unrefined but mighty instinctual self-preservation of the soul, began to bite away at her yin-qi roots.
"You'll need to try better than that to kick me out," she commented.
Around her, she could see the faction members watching in absolute discomfort as their former leader writhed and screamed in pain. Bing Meilu paid them no mind.
Without experiencing pain, could one ever reach the peak?
She was doing Jiang Hu a favour by making him temper himself in a safe, controlled environment rather than facing something like this unprepared in the real world.
'The youth of today! Back in my sect, even the children had to undergo this training. I swear, some parents just spoil their children endlessly,' she shook her head in disapproval.
As the saying went, all children deserved parents, but not all parents deserved children.
Hours passed, Jiang Hu's will defence growing stronger and more refined, as he tried everything to stop the advance of her terrifying painful yin roots. Slowly, a focus seemed to overtake him. Yet every time he began to make progress, she increased the flood of Yin-qi, keeping him just barely overwhelmed at every moment.
As his soul shattered and healed over and over again, it began to become somewhat firmer. Every time she tried to re-dig a channel Jiang Hu had successfully pushed her out of, it would require more Qi, and his will would interfere.
Suddenly a lance of fiery Qi appeared, incinerating hundreds of her thin roots. She once more nodded in approval. He had finally figured out how to utilize his Qi to defend his soul. At this point, he would likely have enough mental will to slowly suppress his draconic instincts and return to normal... but this was the perfect time for some more serious training.
Within her meridian system, her seventy-two dao pillars began to rotate, Qi gushing out like a river. From every direction of his soul, roots of yin I began to dig in, a simultaneous assault on all fronts. Jiang Hu's fire-qi lashed out amateurishly, incinerating one section and moving on, only for the section to once more be attacked.
The pain ramped out and no scream could even make its way from Jiang Hu's throat, his body frozen utterly still. For hours she continued the assault, the strength of his soul increasing dramatically. The roots she invaded with were so thin that the soul could instantly heal from them.
Of course, real damage dealt to one's soul by something dangerous, like a cultivation backlash, could leave enormous rips and tears that could be nearly impossible to heal, even for something as amorphous as the soul. That was why, of all the mortal realms, Cultivation Deviation in Nascent Soul was one of the most lethal, equalled only by the Dao-Seeking Realm.
Eventually, Jiang Hu had a breakthrough. His will began to gingerly split into multiple strands, pushing her back in various places as he resisted her invasion. His soul grew more and more confident until it was expertly battering away her roots.
"Boss, how long until he recovers?" Li Ji suddenly interupted.
"Oh, he's already recovered," she explained. "I'm just taking the chance to temper his soul further."
"A-are you sure? If he had regained his mind, why wouldn't he talk and tell us to stop?"
Li Ji pointed at Jiang Hu. Through the ice, one could see his eyes rolled up in the back of his head and white foam frothing from his lips. He did not look anything like a sane, rejuvenated man.
"He's already suppressed his draconic instincts, he's just in too much pain to speak."
"B-boss, if that's the case, shouldn't you stop? He doesn't look too good?"
"Bah, he's just being overdramatic. It's only a mere Whispering Nettle Root Invasion."
"The-the Whispering Nettle Root Invasion? You mean the infamous torture method of the Moon Crying Swan Palace said to be able to break even Saint Realm cultivators, that was used to terrifying effect against demonic cultivators during the second Heaven Rejection, to the point they would give up all information and beg to die just to escape it?" Li Ji's face was entirely pale, a look of shock and horror on him.
Bing Meilu recalled the art did have such a reputation in the Bird Talon Continent. But she had already safely adapted it to be used for soul-tempering.
"If used correctly, it's a wonderful soul-strengthing technique. Don't worry, I'm not using anything that would leave real damage to his soul." she dissed, waving her hand. "If you have so much free time, you can go start doing some accounting work. Leave the torture- I mean, training, to the experts, alright?"
Li Ji could do nothing but nod, unable to disobey his boss.
A half day later, Jiang Hu's will had become even firmer, to the point it required the full focus of two of her meridians to be able to supply enough Qi to even enter his soul. Past this point, there would start to be diminishing returns. Her will fully retracted and she removed the nettle from his neck. It would likely take some time for him to regain consciousness. In the meantime, she had another matter to attend to.
"All of you who have reached the peak of Qi Condensation and formed your Sea of Energy come over here."
Li Ji, the Elemental Five, Ji Hui, and two of the outer circle members gathered. That was nine people ready to advance to the second realm. She had called them over for a very important reason.
Now that Bing Meilu had firmly entrenched herself as an enemy of the Heavenly Dao, those associated with her, her allies and subordinates, would also receive some measure of Heavenly wrath. Not nearly as much as she herself, as the primary criminal, would. It was still to the point that unless she aided them, they would likely perish for certain in the Heavenly Tribulation blocking ascent to the Second Realm. She hadn't seen the warning signs, because so far, only Xi Fu had broken through, and he was a special case, someone already defying Heaven.
She temporarily sent away the two outer circle members and spoke to her inner circle
"Li Ji, I've already given you a strong scripture and cultivation method. You have a very good foundation. However, your survivability is still lacking. I don't imagine you surviving the upcoming tribulation. I will transmit to you the Evading The Jade Palace Heavenly Steps'."
A Yin-metal method employed by the merchants of the higher realms. It was based on the principle of 'dodging tax', hiding from the eyes of the Dao of Heaven. The concept was simple, but the technique contained endlessly profound depths, filled with countless transformations and variations. It was a technique that was designed to manipulate and take advantage of the natural laws of the world with the same finesse as great mortal lawyers would a human legal system. In advanced stages, it could do far more than just evade the heavens, but even manipulate it in other ways.
It would be a long time before he reached that level of mastery, but even with the lowest levels of the Steps, Li Ji could evade the wrath of the Heavens and undergo an ordinary tribulation. Compared to surviving the baptism in the lethal thunder, undergoing an ordinary tribulation would somewhat reduce his combat prowess, but his primary use to Bing Meilu was to be a manager, not a frontline fighter. She carved out the most basic explanation of the technique and placed it on an ice tablet, tossing it to him.
"Once you've mastered that, you will begin your breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm."
Bing Meilu turned to the Elemental Five. With how deeply intertwined their cultivation had become, they would all break through at the same time. It wasn't to the point of becoming one singular entity but wasn't far off either.
"You all have a very good foundation as well. However, you are most focused on the Five Phases, but the Tribulation is usually centred around Heaven and Thunder Qi, which are aspects of the Eight Trigrams. Luckily, these are related. I'll teach you a formation that will help you deal with the lightning."
From Wuji or Nothingness, came Taiji, the Supreme Ultimate.
From Taiji came the Liangyi, the duality of Yin and Yang
From Yin and Yang came the Four Symbols, Sixiang.
From Sixiang came the Eight Trigrams, Bagua.
From Bagua came the sixty-four hexagrams, I Ching, which represented all of creation.
It was said the true identity of the Dao, the nameless name and mother of all things, was either in Wuji or in Taiji. Even Bing Meilu had not been able to grasp the truth of that particular mystery. If she had, she'd already have become a God.
Relevant to the Elemental Five was the fact that the Sixiang, the Four Symbols, and the Wuxing, Five Phases, were simply variations of each other.
The Four symbols were the Black Tortoise of the North which represented Water. The Azure Dragon of the East which represented Wood. The Vermilion Bird of the South which represented Fire and the White Tiger of the West which represented Metal. When one included the Center, the Yellow Dragon of Earth, the Five Phases were born.
Just like Sixiang, the Five Phases could thus also birth the Eight trigrams, which were Heaven, Mountain, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Lake and Earth.
"This formation will build off your Five Bones of the Origin God. It is called the World-Genesis Procession of the Four Symbols. Daoist Eartheart, take the center. The rest of you organize yourself in the cardinal directions..."
Bing Meilu spent several hours instructing them in the new formation. As opposed to Li Ji who could cultivate on his own, the complexity of a five-man formation required far more instruction to go right, so she spent a good amount of time preparing them so they could train further on their own.
Next was Ji Hui. Her advice for him was pretty simple.
"The Corpse Refining Red Wolf possesses a powerful Yin flame. While you cannot yet use the flame, it's still imbued you with a strong alignment to the Yin of Earth which is the opposite of the Yang of Heaven. I'll teach you a defensive art that you can use to lessen the pressure of the thunder enough that you should be able to survive."
She created a tablet of ice, inscribing onto it the Earth-Flame Ghoul Armor, which was often used by undead and ghosts to defend against exorcists and other such sources of harmful Yang. It wouldn't be anywhere near the effectiveness of something like her Heaven-Earth Inverting Palm, or the Evading The Jade Palace Heavenly Steps she'd taught to Li Ji, but it would do.
Lastly, she called back the two outer circle members.
"The chances of either of you making it to the second realm alive are low. If you join my inner circle, I can guarantee your survival."
Both remained silent. After a while, Bing Meilu nodded. In a sense, it was already impressive she had managed to convince nine of the faction members to give her their Essence Blood. Such a thing was incredibly dangerous. it was like directly handing over your life to the person. In the dog-eat-dog world of cultivation culture, not even the most magnanimous Buddhist sect could be trusted not to betray you.
"Very well then. Your best bet is to wait until the other outer circle members soon reach the peak of Qi Condensation and break through together. Focus on mastering the Manyheart's Sheild Formation even further. Now that all of you have tasted killing, you can begin to practice the Manyhearts Sword Formation. I believe Zhang has already explained how to manifest that one."
She sent away the two and returned to Jiang Hu's side. She watched as slowly his eyes began to flicker open.
"I-I'm alive?" he gasped. "Hahahah! I'm alive!"