Invincible Starts From Dao Fruit-Chapter 93 - 72 In the 46th year, still remembered in the gaze, beacon fires on the Innate path!

Chapter 93: Chapter 72 In the 46th year, still remembered in the gaze, beacon fires on the Innate path!

He poured over the text for several months.

Feeling that he had grasped its essence, Chen Jichuan could no longer restrain himself and began his cultivation.

Paper Cutting into Soldiers.

It sounded simple enough.

But in reality, how could such an advanced Daoist skill be so ordinary?

Chen Jichuan had prepared ten stacks of seven-colored paper, a block of Qingshi stone measuring forty-nine inches long, seven inches wide, and forty-nine fractions of an inch thick. In a secluded room, he placed a table in the east side outfitted with custom-made paper, brushes, and vermillion ink.

Just preparing these materials took him half a month and cost a hundred taels of silver.

This alone showed how arduous it was.

Once preparations were complete, he began the ritual.

At midnight, Chen Jichuan, seated within the quiet room, stacked the seven-colored paper in a specific order—white, yellow, red, blue, purple, and black. Binding them together, he cut the paper into small human figures, each seven inches tall, and made forty-nine paper soldiers.

With each cut, he chanted a spell: "Void and spirit, clear and pure; aid the struggling, and craft soldiers from paper. The three souls return to the left, and the seven spirits to the right. Rise quickly and heed my command."

He then drew a single breath and blew upon the paper.

Afterward, he pressed all the paper figures beneath the Qingshi stone, ensuring none were exposed, and inscribed a ’Ghost Suppressing Talisman’ on it using vermillion ink, affixing it to the stone.

This completed the first step.

In the days that followed,

Chen Jichuan would take a paper soldier daily, inscribe a ’Soul Summoning Talisman,’ burn it, chant spells seven times, and place it back beneath the stone.

After forty-nine such days,

Chen Jichuan removed the Ghost Suppressing Talisman from the Qingshi stone and retrieved all forty-nine paper soldiers from beneath it. Blowing lightly on them with a solemn face, he chanted, "Emperor Taixu oversees the Alchemy Room, guards spirits, forges armor; exorcising evil and upholding righteousness. The warmth of yang imbues the body, returning to the Huangting. With celestial talismans and imperial might, I subdue weapons and blades."

Instantly,

each paper soldier seemed to possess a soul; they all began to move. Some held long spears; others wielded large sabers, small but incredibly lively.

"Hoi!"

Chen Jichuan focused his thoughts, and immediately two paper soldiers leapt forward, landing in the center of the quiet room. They transformed into life-sized figures.

One carried a long spear.

The other swung a large saber.

They clashed immediately.

"Ha!"

"Ho!"

The paper soldiers’ faces flushed red as they exchanged ferocious blows and fought to a standstill.

It was an amusing scene, lively to witness yet—

"Their power and speed are roughly equivalent to Second Grade martial artists."

"One-on-one, they’re no match for experienced Second Grade fighters. But their advantage lies in their fearlessness. If all forty-nine attacked as one, forming a battle formation, even a hundred seasoned Second Grade warriors wouldn’t dare face their assault."

"Still, with my current level of cultivation, I cannot control forty-nine paper soldiers at once."

Chen Jichuan silently assessed his strength.

In the span of ten years,

and after five arduous years of training,

his Daoist cultivation had already recovered to the Fourth Layer, just reaching the Visualization Realm. Though his soul wasn’t particularly powerful and his mental energy limited, he could barely control seven or eight paper soldiers at a time. Anything beyond that would be difficult.

Even operating seven to eight soldiers came with significant limitations in range and duration.

"Compared to the ’Five Ghosts Yin Soldiers Skill,’ the ’Paper Cutting into Soldiers Skill’ is easier to cultivate, but it demands greater mastery of Daoist techniques."

Chen Jichuan understood this well.

Not only that,

but the power of the paper soldiers he had refined was still rather limited.

To enhance their strength, not only did he need to improve his cultivation, but he also required more time for continuous refinement.

Each forty-nine-day cycle added incremental strength.

Through relentless refinement over the years, masters such as Qizhenzi crafted soldiers of remarkable power. With decades of dedication, combined with Qizhenzi’s profound cultivation, the soldiers under his control each held Sixth Grade strength. Unleashed onto a battlefield, they could slaughter thousands or even tens of thousands of elite troops—a notion far from fantasy.

However, this method carried significant risks.

If the forty-nine-day cycle wasn’t completed, the paper soldiers would become uncontrollable. Once the Ghost Suppressing Talisman was removed prematurely, the soldiers would turn into malevolent entities. These would not only devour their master but also wreak havoc, bringing untold chaos and severe consequences.

Such matters always required vigilance.

Nonetheless, this remained a tremendously powerful Daoist skill.

"The Five Ghosts Yin Soldiers Skill."

"The Paper Cutting into Soldiers Skill."

With both these Daoist arts at his disposal, whether for killing or self-defense, he was adequately secure.

What he currently lacked, however, were methods for countering insidious spells like the ’Plow Head Curse.’

"The White Cloud Temple and Baoyi Temple inheritances contain countermeasures and solutions to these types of curses. It’s time to delve further into those methods."

Chen Jichuan mulled this over.

He then immersed himself back into cultivation.

...

In the days that followed,

Chen Jichuan continued to maintain a low profile.

Living in Baozhi Forest, aside from a few individuals like Sun Sihai, no one knew—

that the Baozhi Forest patriarch, Chen Jichuan, who had once perished fighting evil to safeguard the Dao, was still alive!

Even the disciples of Baozhi Forest were unaware, let alone outsiders.

Before his death, Chen Jichuan had perused numerous texts from White Cloud Temple and Baoyi Temple, obtaining countless secrets.

Now resurrected, it felt almost as if he had intentionally deceived the two sects for their legacies.

Chen Jichuan found himself unable to explain and too ashamed to meet them again.

All he could do was silently wish them well and hope they thrived independently.

Time passed, little by little.

Da Liang remained in turmoil, while Chen Jichuan immersed himself in cultivation. After achieving sufficient strength for self-preservation, he employed the Transformation Technique to alter his appearance and identity, leaving Meishan Prefecture to train and broaden his horizons.

Closing oneself off was never a wise path.

Especially for Transforming Strength techniques.

These were killing arts—if you didn’t practice them regularly, your skills would grow rusty.

To keep sharp, one had to train and engage in combat.

Moreover,

inner strength training required frequent interaction and exchange with others to ensure progress.

...

In the 10th year of Xianchun,

Chen Jichuan returned to the Da Liang World, once again an eighteen-year-old.

That same year,

Emperor Xianchun passed away, sparking a nine-prince struggle for the throne.

By the 25th year of Xianchun,

fifteen years after Emperor Xianchun’s death, the eighth prince Zheng Nian swept through all opposition, uniting the world and ascending the throne. He declared a new era, Jianyan.

The second year after Emperor Xianchun’s death thus became Jianyan Year One.

Xianchun Year Twenty-Five equated to Jianyan Year Fourteen.

That year,

Chen Jichuan was thirty-three years old, with a bone age of twenty-five. He had reached the Fourth Layer in inner strength, fifth in external power, and Fourth Layer in Daoist skills.

By Year Thirty-Six of Jianyan,

Chen Jichuan was fifty-five, with a bone age of thirty-six. He had achieved the Sixth Layer of inner strength, seventh in external power, and Fifth Layer in Daoist skills, restoring his peak strength from his past life.

At this point, further progress had become exceedingly difficult.

...

"In inner strength training, from calming one’s breath to the Postnatal Realm, it’s essentially a process of refining essence into qi. Consuming large quantities of food daily and transforming it into inner breath and inner strength through practice. Over time, scattered inner breath is consolidated into solid inner strength, continuously strengthening and breaking through the meridians until the Postnatal Realm is perfected."

"This corresponds to the Sixth Layer of inner strength."

On a nameless mountain, Chen Jichuan sat cross-legged at its peak, contemplating his path.

Through years of wandering and sparring with experts, he had gained numerous insights into inner strength cultivation.

After reaching Transforming Strength in external skills, one relied on techniques like the ’Tiger and Leopard Thunder Sound’ to resonate through the marrow, strengthening it for further advancement.

The road ahead wasn’t entirely clear, but there was still room for growth at his current stage.

However, cultivating inner strength to the Sixth Layer, perfecting the Postnatal Realm, revealed a massive barrier ahead.

Without breaking through, progress was almost impossible.

Back when transitioning from dark strength to Transforming Strength, Chen Jichuan had expended immense effort and countless years.

This time was no different.

He was stuck at the threshold.

"Having achieved Transforming Strength, energy flows freely throughout my body. Combined with inner strength, I can effortlessly clear all meridians, even the smallest facial channels."

"However, advancing from Postnatal to Innate requires opening the dantian, inviting the ’Spirit’ within, then merging it with inner strength. Once completed, inner strength becomes one with the Spirit, transforming into Innate True Essence."

Chen Jichuan furrowed his brows.

Opening the dantian—Spirit entering the dantian—and merging with inner strength.

These steps seemed straightforward in theory but were profoundly abstruse in practice.

How does one open the dantian?

How does the Spirit enter it?

And how can they seamlessly blend with inner strength?

When examined closely, there were no clear answers. Though Chen Jichuan had scoured countless texts describing the Innate Realm and consulted numerous Innate Masters for guidance,

the more he read and asked, the more bewildered he became.

Days prior,

Chen Jichuan sought counsel from a Great Grandmaster often meditating on Meng Longshan—Ann Jishi. The grandmaster smiled at him and offered four words: "Only through understanding."

Ann Jishi then led him to a section of Meng Longshan’s cliffs where successive generations of Innate Grandmasters had left sword marks, blade scores, and writings.

Chen Jichuan studied the remnants for three days.

He felt dazed and disoriented.

He gained no tangible insights, but after leaving Meng Longshan, he spent several days in a stupor, as if grasping something and yet grasping nothing.

He found a random mountaintop to sit on in meditation for days and emerged feeling slightly enlightened.

He continued roaming the world, traversing mountains and rivers, engaging in life-and-death battles.

Three years.

Another three years.

And yet another three years.

...

The years flew by like fleeting shadows.

In the 45th year of Jianyan,

the emperor passed away.

The Crown Prince Zheng Shen ascended the throne, changing the era name to Longxing in the following year. This began the thirty-year period of the Longxing Regency, later regarded as equal in grandeur to the Jianyan era, collectively known as the Jianlong Prosperous Era.

In the first year of Longxing,

Chen Jichuan returned to Dai County.

Practicing the Divine Pouncing Saber, his inner strength flowed effortlessly, allowing him to execute moves without restriction. At some point during his training, Chen Jichuan suddenly stopped and focused inward, sensing his being. His dantian had opened; his inner strength surged like a vast sea, and a spark of ’Spirit’ descended.

"Innate."

"It’s done."

A smile spread across Chen Jichuan’s face.

At sixty-five years of age, with a bone age of forty-one, he had reached the Seventh Layer in inner strength, the Seventh Layer in external power, and the Sixth Layer in Daoist skills.

Unprecedented strength.

He had once again ascended a new peak.

...