Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

As Yi Chen's gaze shifted, Daoist Qingxu felt as if he was being watched by a ferocious beast, his whole body jolted, and he couldn't help but take a step back, forcing a smile and saying, "What Yi Taoist said is indeed profound."

"I greatly admire it."

The atmosphere around them suddenly became tense again.

After a moment of silence, Yi Chen's face revealed a smile once more. "Haha, just a joke. For our success in slaying the evil spirit that destroyed the Wang family, I must thank Daoist Qingxu, Master Lianhua, and Abbess Shuiyue for holding off that fog ghost."

Yi Chen naturally saw Daoist Qingxu's subtle movements, but now was not the time for pettiness. He had already offended Lingfeng Temple, and to offend Zhen Temple was not the act of a wise person.

At least not now, when it was time to let the bullets fly for a while.

What he lacked most at the moment was time, not to create more chaos after showing his strength.

"So," Yi Chen thought, "should one prioritize harmony, or wait until my cultivation has greatly advanced and, on a moonless and windy night, break the old Daoist Qingxu's limbs as a minor punishment and major warning? Then, consider the matter settled?"

Seeing the atmosphere turning a bit awkward, Master Lianhua stepped forward to deftly change the subject with a smile.

"Everyone, although the evil spirit was fortunately eliminated under Yi Taoist's display of divine power today, we still need to discuss together how to proceed and come up with a plan."

"After all, behind this evil spirit is a mysterious master."

At these words, everyone fell silent.

What kind of powerful existence could control corpse ghosts, fog ghosts, and earth-grasping mud spirits, bringing these three together under one master?

Today, they had managed to slay the three great evil spirits largely thanks to Yi Chen's display of divine power. Otherwise, they could only have fled for their lives. But these three were only servants of that mysterious master.

I only took a few pieces of silver, why risk my life for this?

And even if I risked my life, it wouldn't be enough to fill this deep pit.

It would be truly sinful to deplete the heritage passed down from the ancestors and end up like Hidden Dragon Temple, with all its masters gone.

The four of them exchanged knowing glances and decisively chose to trust the wisdom of the government.

"The day is drawing to an end, so why don't we discuss this further tomorrow morning and then report the actual situation to the county magistrate?" Yi Chen said in a deep voice.

Having contributed the most to the battle and deeply impressed the others, Yi Chen's words were naturally met with nods of agreement from everyone, bringing a satisfactory close to the night's intense confrontation.

…

…

Nighttime, Fengyun County, Ping'an Inn.

Dressed in undergarments, Yi Chen sat on the terrace of the number one room in Ping'an Inn, with a cup of fragrant tea on the table next to him.

The room was specially arranged by County Magistrate Zhou, who had allocated the best upper room to Yi Chen, which was very considerate.

He couldn't help but rub his brow with his thumb, his face showing a trace of fatigue. After a night of battling both people and evil spirits, even someone with extraordinary stamina like Yi Chen felt somewhat weary.

"However, it's all good in the end. Though no Origin Points were gained, a substantial one hundred and ten Deep Red Points were accumulated to my account," he thought with relief.

Thinking of the Deep Red Points, the fatigue on Yi Chen's face gave way to a surge of vigor.

The efforts of this ordeal had not been in vain.

He picked up the fragrant tea from the table, drained it in one gulp, and stood up against the fierce cool breeze and under the bright moonlight.

"Minor Pure Yang Skill, level up."

With that thought, one hundred Deep Red Points were instantly deducted, and a lengthy memory emerged in Yi Chen's mind.

Like watching a fast-forward film, Yi Chen began to peruse this sudden recollection.

Standing in a secluded mountain valley, a young daoist with his hands clasped behind his back, the mountain wind billowed his wide sleeves fiercely.

The young daoist stood in the valley, watching the sunrise, sunset, morning glow, and evening clouds.

He neither ate nor drank as he observed the world around him.

He watched a little grass struggle to break through the rocky crevices, take root, sprout, grow into a grass blade, wither to yellow, and repeat the cycle.

He watched the sunlight bathe the entire valley, nurturing all living creatures.

Time passed, and one day the young daoist seemed to have an epiphany. He stretched out his large, fan-like hand towards the rising sun in the sky and made a grabbing motion.

As if he had seized the light itself.

"Yang Qi, Pure Yang Qi."

"Infuse my body!"

The daoist suddenly spoke, his clear voice echoing throughout the valley.

His body, gaunt from prolonged fasting, began to fill out, resembling an inflating ball, as his once tight daoist robes became loose with his body's expansion.

The morning glow was harvested, and the evening sun was refined, through countless seasons.

As the young daoist continued to cultivate, the pale purple Pure Yang Inner Qi within him slowly darkened and thickened. One morning, the color became as deep as amethyst.

The memory suddenly ended there.

Yi Chen felt as though he had just watched an accelerated stream-of-consciousness film, with countless insights crowding his mind, as if he had truly undergone years of cultivation.

He looked up slightly at the bright full moon and smiled.

A deep purple hue of Pure Yang Inner Qi danced within his palm.

Minor Pure Yang Skill level seven, achieved.

At this moment, with the circulation of the deep purple Pure Yang Inner Qi, earth-shattering changes were also occurring within his body.

His muscles, which were already like well-forged steel, now took a step further, evolving toward the direction of thousand-refined mysterious iron. The cells interlinked even more tightly, and the previously somewhat exaggerated muscles became beautifully streamlined.

But this didn't diminish his strength at all; on the contrary, his power received a further boost.

His hands were like white jade, and with a gentle clasp of Yi Chen's hands, the sound of a sonic boom occurred, bursting air had become an easy task for him now if he wished.

The strength to easily crush air with bare hands was formidable; it would be easy for these hands to twist off the heads of demons... or people, or to smash their skulls into their chests.

In the state of introspection, Yi Chen discovered that deep within his bones, changes were taking place—more golden lines appeared, winding and intertwining like strange seals, mysterious and profound, spreading throughout his skeleton.

The cells within his body also seemed to combine with the mystical substances between heaven and earth, becoming different from before. Upon closer inspection, streaks of faint purple occasionally flashed by.

Moonlight shone down from the night sky, bathing thousands of miles in its glow and also showering upon Yi Chen on the terrace. Traces of light seeped through his skin and into his body, transforming into almost imperceptible Pure Yang Inner Qi.

Yi Chen felt an inexplicable shock in his heart!

"Hiss, terrifying to such an extent!"

"Could it be that I've become a Taoist of light? What strange path has my Golden Finger led me down to?"

".…"

"By absorbing light energy and extracting the essence from food, converting it into Pure Yang Inner Qi, am I still photosynthesizing like a human? Crikey."

"The style is getting more and more preposterous."

Suddenly, a speculation surfaced in Yi Chen's mind.

Perhaps in the process of deducing and transcending in cultivation techniques, none of the paths emerged out of nowhere; instead, they are a combination of the knowledge in his mind, and then deduced by the infinite wisdom of the Golden Finger into a feasible and correct path.

Since advancing to the sixth level, Yi Chen had become a glutton—his Inner Qi was pale purple, and his Minor Pure Yang Skill had reached what seemed to be the human limit at this step.

On this basis, how could Yi Chen progress further?

Well, naturally, it was to say goodbye to being human.

Before the advancement, Yi Chen also wondered whether he might starve to death after another promotion....

Now, it seemed that the clever Golden Finger had already resolved this concern for him.

Not enough sources of energy to support further advancement, right? No problem, Yi Chen had a belly full of strange scientific knowledge from his previous life.

Spiritually awakened beings see the world filled with all kinds of peculiar qi, including the Yin and Yang, the five elements, and forces like wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. The extraordinary path of cultivators is to root themselves in the various qis of heaven and earth.

All kinds of mysteries and spells also base themselves upon this qi.

The qi of heaven and earth is endless, and spiritually cultivated beings rely on this great power to refine themselves, lever the world, and reach incredible realms.

The divine power cultivated from the "Supreme Celestial Pure Yang Origin Taoist Scripture" is based on the Pure Yang Qi between heaven and earth, combining and purifying it to cultivate and nurture.

Yi Chen, however, was different. Up to now, he still saw mountains as mountains and water as water, without the slightest sign of an 'awakened spirit.'

To leverage nature? That was something he truly didn't know how to do.

The Pure Yang Inner Qi he cultivated was a mysterious force born from the extreme enhancement and purification of his own blood and Qi. In short, his source of power was to plunder from heaven and earth to strengthen himself—it was the true might returning to himself. This was also why with each advancement of his Pure Yang Skill, his physique strengthened by a large margin.

The source of his power had a foundation. Yi Chen's robust physique was his cornerstone, the generator of his unparalleled Pure Yang Inner Qi.

He couldn't understand what qi was, but he knew what light was.

In his previous life, paths like converting light energy into starch or carbon dioxide into sugar were proven to be feasible.

Perhaps in the eyes of the Golden Finger, the light between heaven and earth was omnipresent. With proper self-transformation, solving the problem of energy supply would be child's play, and the advancement of Pure Yang Skill would no longer be rootless.

After this speculation surged in his heart, Yi Chen felt a bout of speechlessness.

He didn't know if his guess was correct or not, but regardless, his Minor Pure Yang Skill had broken through to the seventh level with a deep purple color—an ironclad fact.

He could absorb the surrounding light energy to replenish and convert it to Pure Yang Inner Qi; that was also a fact.

If his conjecture was correct, then it would truly be ludicrous.

This Golden Finger seemed to be based on logic intertwining both idealism and materialism in a state of quantum entanglement...

Whew!

Yi Chen gathered his scattered thoughts, stopped his wild speculations, and leaned on the terrace railing, exhaling a breath of turbid air that formed an arrow, shooting four or five meters into the night sky without scattering.

"Is this considered an evolution of life?"

He gazed at the night sky, his eyes focused, and a virtual screen appeared before him.

[Name: Yi Chen]

[Lifespan: 18/107]

[Strength: 45.0, Stamina: 38.0, Spirit: 41.0, Agility: 36.0]

[Cultivation Technique: Minor Pure Yang Skill level seven (Traits: Strengthen Body, Burning Heat, Divine Power, Ward Off Evil, Tenacity, Qi Recovery, Ignition). Active Skill: Yang Extreme Change (Muscle strength triples, Inner Qi becomes more active, lasts for ten minutes, after which Inner Qi and strength temporarily drop to 70% of the original). Active Skill: Soul Ignition Technique (The most intense heat is burning; ignite one's potential, burn lifespan for might, currently burning one year of lifespan for a 50% increase in strength and Inner Qi, with a maximum of five times strength enhancement).]

[Cultivation Technique: Yin Yang Cave Divine Pupil Technique level three (Traits: Eagle Eye, Night Vision, Yin Qi Perception.)]

[Passive Skills: Danqing Painting Skill lv1, Auspicious Event Host lv2, Funeral Host lv3. Culinary Skill lv3]

[Origin Points: 0] (Obtained through physical training, used to improve strength, body, spirit, and agility data.)

[Deep Red Points: 21.] (Obtained through special items or by killing malevolent beings, used to advance cultivation technique levels or for cultivation deduction.)