Three months is just enough time to summarize one's own cultivation, and see if there are any useful techniques that can be utilized. Zhou Qing knew that going out would inevitably lead to fighting, so making some extra preparations wouldn't hurt!
In a place tens of miles away from the city, there were several small mountains with elegant scenery. Although the spiritual energy was not particularly strong, it was much better than the increasingly polluted city today. Zhou Qing often came to play and brought Liao Xiao Jin to a very secluded valley. Zhou Qing used his flying sword to open up a small cave, set up several hidden arrays, and then used a few cinnabar brushes to fill the symbol records on the large stone at the entrance of the cave, forming a primitive Taiji diagram to absorb the power of Taohua from the moon energy. Although it was not as good as Zhou Qing's carefully refined jade card, two months' time was enough for Liao Xiao Jin to evolve into an earl.
After handing over the good things, Zhou Qing entered the mountain cave and began to retreat. The formation method is a way to follow the heavenly path, to steal the momentum of heaven, and to emphasize a sudden enlightenment. The formation method recorded in "Practicing Equipment General Outline" is vast like a sea of smoke, including sealing demons, controlling equipment, practicing symbols, summoning gods, and dozens of other chapters. It's impossible to master them all without hundreds of years of hard work.
"This formation is indeed profound and intricate! However, it's a pity that our sect doesn't have its own cultivation technique. No wonder we've fallen to this state. Look at this Qingxu Sword, it was forged by a high-ranking cultivator from the Shushan Huan Shen period, although powerful, but in terms of formation, it can't compare to ours. What's the point of adding so many complicated patterns on the hilt with the 'Seal Demon Eight Trigrams Formation'? But their cultivation is indeed deep! The Three Flavors True Fire can melt anything. They succeeded by relying on the power of heaven and earth. Although clever, it's not one's own cultivation, and there are many drawbacks. Especially for high-level formations, without high-level cultivation, it's hard to comprehend. But now I have the Sword Immortal's cultivation technique, which complements our sect's formation perfectly! With the 'Sword Qi Ling Kong Jue' and our sect's formation, my self-created Tian Dao Sect will surely flourish one day, and I'll become a revered founder, admired by all! A great man must achieve greatness, otherwise, it's a waste of life!"
With a determined mind, Zhou Qing summoned the flying sword, and the Qing Suo Sword, forged from Taiyi's refined gold, transformed into a cyan glow that enveloped his body. Large amounts of spiritual energy were absorbed by the Qing Suo Sword and converted into his own true yuan, which was then sent to his dantian. Meanwhile, Zhou Qing's mind sank into the strange, yet grand and ancient symbols that had been appearing in his mind lately. The Symbolic Records! Countless Daoist sages and saints had comprehended the most fundamental laws of the universe, using simple symbols combined with their own potential to drive the free energy in the universe, summoning powerful beings from parallel spaces.
Liao Xiao Jin has also made great progress recently, successfully evolving into a viscount in just two months. Especially since he no longer needs to drink blood, he has abandoned the most basic characteristic of his clan. From his chest, he pulled out a talisman paper and Liao Xiao Jin also learned it by rote, "Heaven and earth, golden spirit, listen to my command, urgent as a law!" The yellow talisman transformed into a fine golden light that shot out, whoosh! Even the hard granite rock was scraped off a small piece. Liao Xiao Jin looked at the mirror-like cut surface, haha, haha! He burst into a fit of mad laughter!
"Boom!" A bolt of lightning as thick as a bucket and as long as who-knows-how-many meters struck the entrance of Zhou Qing's cave, which was not far from Liao Xiao Jin. The sound of the impact was deafening, and the cave entrance was blown to smithereens. Rocks flew everywhere, hitting Liao Xiao Jin in the face and making his nose swell up. He let out a loud cry and quickly transformed back into his original form, using his wings to protect himself from the flying rocks. The rocks finally stopped falling after what seemed like an eternity.
Liao Xiao Jin stared at the three-meter radius of rock that had been blown to smithereens, and the entrance to the cave which was now gone. His mouth hung open in shock. "Wow! This power is too great, ten times greater than a hand grenade, almost as powerful as a bomb! Master, are you okay? Why did the lightning strike out of nowhere? Could it be the legendary Heavenly Tribulation?"
Just as he was lost in thought, a sharp sword aura burst forth from the rubble at the entrance to the cave. Zhou Qing appeared before Liao Xiao Jin, his face pale and disheveled, but his eyes gleaming with an intense light that seemed almost tangible. The air around him seemed to vibrate with a fierce sword aura that made even Liao Xiao Jin, a mere outsider, feel a chill run down his spine. It was clear that Zhou Qing's powers had increased dramatically.
Zhou Qing pulled out a thumb-sized, dark green jade token from his chest and swallowed it whole. Immediately, his eyes lost their luster, his body's vital energy was retracted, and he became indistinguishable from an ordinary person. Liao Xiao Jin's mouth opened wider in shock as Zhou Qing waved his hand: "Let's talk about this later, we've already attracted too much attention." Before Liao Xiao Jin could respond, a divine speed token was slapped onto his leg, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from sight. Liao Xiao Jin silently cursed a few times, but even with his speed pushed to its limits, he still managed to closely follow Zhou Qing's back.
Just after Zhou Qing and Liao Xiao Jin left, a several-zhang-long sword light shot over from the distant horizon, and the sword light stopped right above the mountain valley where Zhou Qing was in seclusion. A extremely handsome young man in white clothes, with a three-foot-long and four-finger-wide golden greatsword floating in mid-air three zhang off the ground, if Zhou Qing were still here, he would definitely see that this person is also cultivating the "Sword Qi Ling Kong Decision" and has an extremely high level of cultivation, able to ride his sword and fly, only one step away from the profound and mysterious Huashen realm!
"Hmph! Those old, undying elders are too doting on my junior brother and sister. They even gave away the Taiyi Jingjin, now look at this mess - all the flying swords have been snatched away, people were beaten to a pulp, even our sect's secret incantation was stolen, forcing me to come investigate." This person's expression is extremely arrogant.
Carefully looking at the mountain valley that was struck by lightning, the young man's expression changed suddenly, and with a grasp of his hand, a rock that had been slashed by Zhou Qing's sword energy was grasped in his hand. The young man transformed into a golden light and flew southward.
"Master, how did the lightning suddenly strike?" Liao Xiao Jin asked with a lingering fear as they returned to their residence. Zhou Qing's face was also heavy with emotion as he replied: "I'm not kidding you, I've been studying our sect's ultimate skill, 'Summoning the Divine Chapter', for two months now. It's about communicating with the heavens through one's own heart, summoning the divine spirits above, and borrowing their power. Just now, I was sensing the power of the Nine Heavens' Thunder God in the void, and I borrowed a bit of it to use. I didn't expect its power to be so great." Liao Xiao Jin nodded and said: "Yes, earlier it really scared me half to death! Hmph! With just this one move, even ten Kuralaks would be blown to smithereens! Master, when can I learn this move?"
"You haven't even learned to walk, yet you want to run." Zhou Qing said: "First learn the various talismans well, this is the foundation. Just like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in math, and vocabulary in English, the essence of our school's Taoist methods lies in the talismans and the techniques of using them. This 'Summoning God' chapter has great power, but its danger coefficient is extremely high. Master almost got himself killed by a lightning bolt just now. Do you still want to learn?"
Liao Xiao Jin chuckled twice: "If you die, you'll be a heavenly immortal, if not, you'll be a god. However, with power that even oneself can't control, one must be careful." Liao Xiao Jin's eyes rolled around restlessly, thinking of some trick.
"Let's not say more, tomorrow we'll go through the procedures and head to Las Vegas to make a big haul. Master's skills have improved greatly, what can those few American guys do to him?"
The government department's handling of affairs was slow, Zhou Qing had experienced it before. What should have been a matter of a few days ended up taking over ten days, and Zhou Qing had to use all his good words, finally resorting to using the Soul-Confusing Formation Method to get things done.
