Chapter 4: Dragon-Elephant Power
Bai Yunfei was gone.
He had left, taking the [Yuhua Ascension Scripture] with him.
Watching his retreating figure, Lin Jiufeng finally understood — the young boy who had once loitered around the Canon Pavilion alongside him had quietly shouldered the weight of Yuhua Sect for decades. Suppressed at every turn, he had maintained stability and cultivated all the way to the peak of the Seventh Seal.
His talent was no less than Zhou Sheng's.
But his burdens far exceeded Zhou Sheng's.
Zhou Sheng had dared to leave Yuhua Sect, and under the pressure of life and death, he had derived the [Yuhua Ascension Scripture] from scratch.
Bai Yunfei could not do the same.
He was the Sect Master of Yuhua Sect. He could not abandon it — that was his responsibility. And so he had always been fighting like a cornered beast.
That morning, he had come to the Canon Pavilion and taken away a powerful cultivation technique. His departing figure had been resolute — a sign that he knew Yuhua Sect was on the verge of destruction and intended to stake everything on one final gamble.
Lin Jiufeng naturally could not allow such a thing to happen.
If Yuhua Sect fell, where would he go?
He had been in this world for over a hundred years. Yuhua Sect was his home in this world.
Naturally, he would not let this home crumble.
"With the [Yuhua Ascension Scripture], Bai Yunfei has a strong chance of breaking through to the Eighth Seal. At that point, he would be a Dao Ancestor — a supreme expert of the mortal world. The only threat would be the Ninth Seal Supreme Patriarch of the Taishang Sect, but from what I've heard, that old patriarch has been in seclusion for over a century, attempting to pierce through the Ninth Seal. He hasn't appeared in a hundred years." Lin Jiufeng mused quietly.
As long as Bai Yunfei didn't overstep, Yuhua Sect could be considered saved.
Standing by the window, Lin Jiufeng gazed at the autumn colors spreading across the mountains and smiled softly.
Let Bai Yunfei worry about Yuhua Sect's affairs. He would simply continue cultivating in his own quiet way.
After all, he was still only a minor cultivator at the Second Seal.
* * *
The next day.
The great sun rose, and rosy clouds filled the sky.
After a night of cultivating the [Yuhua Ascension Scripture], Lin Jiufeng exhaled a breath of stale air and rose to wash up.
He drank a mouthful of sweet dew from a mountain stream, absorbed the morning vitality, and through rhythmic breathing, expelled the impurities from his body.
Afterward, he lit a stick of sandalwood incense, brewed a pot of clear tea, picked up a scripture, and began to quietly read through it, seeking comprehension.
The book recorded how, in the ancient era, divine elephants had shattered the earth beneath their feet and true dragons had soared across the heavens.
The divine elephants and true dragons possessed boundless strength — a height that no human power could ever reach.
Later, exceptional individuals had studied the divine elephants and true dragons, creating countless cultivation techniques and ushering in a golden age of cultivation.
That era was called the Dragon-Elephant Age.
Lin Jiufeng read on, gradually becoming entranced.
Divine elephants shattering the earth, true dragons tearing open the sky, roaming freely between heaven and earth, unrivaled in the world — how mighty and awe-inspiring they were.
If one were to take the divine elephant and true dragon as a foundation, fusing the qualities of both to create a body cultivation method, then at its peak, it could completely shatter the limits of the human body.
"Cultivation is, at its core, a process of continuously breaking through limits." Lin Jiufeng's eyes gradually lit up with excitement.
He carefully studied the characteristics of the divine elephants and true dragons, cross-referencing other texts, and slowly inspiration began to take shape.
These flashes of insight gathered and collided within his mind, igniting sparks.
Finally, a line of text appeared before Lin Jiufeng's eyes.
[You have earnestly studied the ancient Dragon-Elephant, activating Heavenly Comprehension. You have comprehended Dragon-Elephant Power.]
A surge of memory flooded into Lin Jiufeng's mind.
[Dragon-Elephant Power] was a method of cultivating the physical body as though it were an ancient divine elephant or true dragon — giving birth to Dragon-Elephant Power within the body and shattering all limits.
"This body of mine has long been decayed. Although cultivation has made it appear younger, the foundation is weak. It needs thorough refinement. This [Dragon-Elephant Power] is exactly what can make up for that shortcoming." Lin Jiufeng said with delight, and immediately began to cultivate.
Once [Dragon-Elephant Power] was born within his body, it would be equivalent to tempering every part of him. At that point, he would be able to open the body's Great Dragon and enter the Third Seal of cultivation.
The first three Seals all pertained to the physical body. Only by forging the body to its peak could one step into the next level.
* * *
The sun rose and the moon set. Day and night alternated.
Lin Jiufeng cultivated quietly within the Canon Pavilion.
He was like a withered tree — sitting in meditation each day, the energy within his body circulating sluggishly at first, as though filled with lead, difficult to move.
Moreover, the meridians within his body had long since withered and died of natural decay. Reopening them was no easy task.
And so the initial circulation of his vital blood was far from smooth.
But Lin Jiufeng did not give up. He persisted in his seated meditation, day after day without fail.
One day.
Two days.
Three days.
A month passed quickly. Lin Jiufeng still sat motionless, his expression serene, unmoving and unhearing — like a living corpse.
Yet within his body, torrents of vital blood surged like a great river in full flood, roaring as they coursed through his meridians and spread across every inch of his flesh.
Boundless power was born within Lin Jiufeng, gathering strand by strand at the center of his heart.
* * *
On this particular night, the bright moon hung high in the sky.
Its pure, clear light adorned the cold stillness of Yuhua Sect, casting a silver sheen over the mountainside.
The forests and mountains were utterly silent.
Yet from within the Canon Pavilion came a deep, rumbling sound.
Low and resonant, like a divine elephant letting out a low growl, like a true dragon roaring.
Moonlight filtered through the latticed windows and fell aslant upon Lin Jiufeng, bathing his entire body in a reddish glow.
It was the vital blood within him in motion. Rendered vivid by the moonlight, a phantom of a divine elephant suddenly rose behind his back — its feet planted upon the earth, its head thrown back in a roar, supremely mighty.
After the divine elephant roared, it transformed in an instant. A true dragon appeared, soaring around Lin Jiufeng's body with incomparable dominance.
Lin Jiufeng remained still as a mountain. The vital blood within him surged and churned — like a dragon's cry, like an elephant's roar — evaporating every trace of decay and aged withering from his body.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
With each beat of Lin Jiufeng's heart, a sound like the tolling of a great bell rang out, sending boundless blood surging through his entire body, replacing every drop of his old blood.
In the midst of this blood renewal, Lin Jiufeng's spine blazed with light — translucent and crystalline, like a true dragon rearing its head back to roar at the heavens.
The Third Seal — Lin Jiufeng had stepped into it.
* * *
Time flew by in an instant, and a night passed.
The faintest hint of pale light had just begun to streak across the horizon.
Inside the Canon Pavilion, Lin Jiufeng rose to his full height, shaking off a month's worth of dust.
"One month of seclusion, circulating my vital blood — I have finally tempered my body and obtained the power of one dragon and one elephant." Lin Jiufeng said with joy.
At this moment, his complexion was like fine jade, his skin fair and luminous, his hair jet-black, his eyes bright and clear — every trace of his aged appearance was gone.
He now looked like a Daoist priest in his early thirties — graceful as jade, his frame upright and tall, with sharp sword-like brows and eyes like stars.
"The gains from this month of seclusion have been immense." Lin Jiufeng sighed with feeling.
He had obtained the power of one dragon and one elephant, condensed the Great Dragon of his spine, entered the Third Seal, broken free of his body's old shackles, returned to his peak, and climbed even higher.
At the same time, he had laid a solid foundation for his future cultivation.
Next would come the cultivation of the Fourth through Seventh Seals.
The Fourth Seal: refining the five visceral organs.
The Fifth Seal: opening the Divine Soul.
The Sixth Seal: comprehending the Dao Rhythm.
The Seventh Seal: Spiritual Sanctuary.
The cultivation of these Seals was a process of gradually excavating ever deeper layers of the body. Each Seal was formidable, demanding great willpower, great courage, and great comprehension.
"The path of cultivation is long. I shall seek it above and below." Gazing at the rising morning sun, Lin Jiufeng declared with unwavering resolve.