Feiyun meditated near the stomach of the bright golden Buddha inside the great hall.

His body turned into a maelstrom with 360 meridians fully open to absorb the Buddhist essences.

It sounded like a cauldron with loud clanking noises and Buddhist hymns.

“Boom!” He absorbed four more strands and became radiant. He broke through the early level all the way to the intermediate level. His absorption speed became even faster as a result.

Each strand of essence was as immense as a mountain, containing deep Buddhist intent and laws from the various Enlightened Beings.

Just absorbing one should be enough to increase a few levels for weaker Heaven’s Mandate cultivators.

Feiyun’s physique and talents were superior compared to others. However, this made it harder for him to break through and required more resources. That’s why four strands only increased his cultivation by one level, and it would get even harder later on.

“Boom!” One of Feiyun’s bones in his right hand became red just like a fiery ruby.

The fourth phoenix bone has taken form.

Heart bone, wisdom bone, ocular bone, and now this bone in his right hand - four total. They looked like four stars or four eternal lamps.

One could see the faint image of a phoenix floating and screeching continuously.

His physique has improved and became stronger again. Buddhist light inside and a fiery glow outside - this looked to be the form of an invincible avatar.

“Boom!” A similar bone in his left hand turned into a phoenix bone as well. This eliminated the evil energy from Yama’s hand.

“Boom! Boom!” Both of his ankles also lit up, experiencing the same transformation.

These were the sixth and seventh phoenix bone.

“Boom!” An ultimate aura erupted around him. The seven bones connected to form their own domain.

A fiery flood originated from the heart bone reached the ocular bone then moved again to the wisdom bone on his forehead. Next, it flowed down to his right hand, his right ankle, his left ankle, his left hand, then back to the heart bone.

This was the simplest minor loop of the Immortal Phoenix Physique - a sign of reaching minor completion.

From now on, the demonic energy of a phoenix would always be present in his body. He didn’t need to cultivate any longer yet could still grow stronger.

Normally, a minor loop of this physique only consisted of the heart, wisdom, and the four limb bones - six in total.

Feiyun was different. He obtained an ocular bone from Bronze Cauldron. This made his rotation consist of seven bones.

The heart bone was the leading transmitter.

The wisdom bone served as the central hub.

The ocular bone became the gate.

The four limb bones were auxiliaries.

This resulted in a perfect loop, pus.h.i.+ng his physical strength to the next level.

Feiyun would have a hard time a.s.sessing his battle potential. After all, no known human has cultivated the top merit law of the demonic race. The result should be different from a regular phoenix. He needed to fight in order to figure out the equivalent cultivation realm.

He had absorbed forty-eight strands so far after finis.h.i.+ng this minor loop. From this, one could see the insane amount of resources needed to create the phoenix bones. Each required around twelve strands on average.

As his physique improved, so did his cultivation. The latter wasn’t as impressive since he became stuck at the peak eighth level.

This was his first time experiencing an actual bottleneck. He quickly found out the reason why - the Golden Silkworm Scripture. If he wasn’t cultivating this, perhaps he would be at the ninth level right now.

Cultivating a top sacred scripture had its advantages and disadvantages.

The second diagram, Young Silkworm, had 18,000 transformations. He had only understood 300.

His main energy was the golden one from this scripture so it became his limitation. Otherwise, his improvement in his physique should have been enough to bring him to the early ninth level.

On the other hand, this energy wouldn’t be as pure without the scripture.

There were always two sides to everything - good and bad.

Nonetheless, he had already made up his mind when choosing to cultivate the scripture - dual cultivation.

Only finding this balance would allow him to reach the saint level. Just cultivating the phoenix physique meant possibly being stuck at the ninth level of Heaven’s Emergence again.

In short, cultivating Golden Silkworm meant a slower cultivation speed but far better long-term.

“I have to maintain a balance. My physique is far ahead of my dantian cultivation right now. I need to focus on the scripture. Just need to learn more and my cultivation realm will naturally increase.” Feiyun stopped and opened his eyes.

The yellow river was still floating around him. The essences felt as abundant as before.

“How long have I been cultivating?” He asked.

“Thirty-four days.” Liu Ruixin woke up and yawned. She sat on a broken praying mat, still drowsy.

She was pretty excited after seeing him awake. Her eyes opened wide as she flew over and grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing?” Feiyun thought that this brat was up to no good.

Ruixin used to be at the third level. Now, she was at the peak fifth level, only one step away from becoming a half-step.

Moreover, these essences have improved her physique and even left behind marks of Enlightened Buddhas.

This made her far more talented than before, perhaps giving her a higher chance of becoming an Enlightened Being.

This still remained difficult. Many historical geniuses might not be able to reach Nirvana. Her innate talents weren’t exceptional either. This only gave her one sliver of hope in doing so.

“Feng Feiyun, we’re considered friends, right? We’ve gone through so much together…” She asked with antic.i.p.ation.

“False, we’re not that close. Also, address me as Young n.o.ble Yi Zhenfeng.” Feiyun smiled.

Ruixin felt the urge to bite his arm but restrained herself. She suddenly became teary and pouted: “I’m the daughter of White Moon Messenger, a senior sister of the young generation in Sun Moon, but now, I’m captured by a pervert and lost all face. I probably can’t get married later since no one will want me. A certain someone ruined my life for their own benefits and actually has the audacity to put on an act. I demand compensation.”

“Haha, so that’s what you want. I can’t give the bottle to you though, your sect can’t handle the Yin Mother.” Feiyun knew that this girl was fake crying but still decided to console her by stroking her head.

“I don’t want that bottle… all I’m asking for is a little of that Buddhist energy, just one tiny… pond, okay?” Ruixin bit her lips and looked very pitiful with her bright, sad eyes.

“Pop!” Feiyun knocked her head and laughed: “A pond? You’re too greedy.”

“Okay, fine, not a pond, just one bucket will do.” She rubbed the spot where she got hit, feeling a little sore.

“You don’t have a bucket anyway to keep it right now. How about this? Be a good maid, serve me tea, make me food, wash my clothes, ma.s.sage too, then I can give you one strand each year. That’s your salary.” Feiyun posed with both hands behind his back while arching his chest, acting like an old rich man negotiating the price of a maid.

“Only one strand per year?! I’ve never seen someone as stingy as you before!”

“This is for your own good. The Buddhist essences can increase your cultivation but there are negative side effects. Your cultivation is improving but not your mentality and mind, resulting in instability. It’s the same as a talisman with increased power but not its innate quality. After reaching a certain level, the paper itself wouldn’t be able to handle this power and explode. The same with you, your foundation isn’t solid enough. I’m delaying it by one year so that you have time to carefully consolidate and acc.u.mulate, it’s better for you.” He shook his head and explained.

Not just anyone can dual cultivate like him and didn’t need to worry about self-imploding. Plus, he had the frame of mind of a ninth level Heaven’s Emergence cultivator already.