“Closed, closed-door cultivation?”

Standing at the door of Jian Chou’s room, Shen Jiu’s gaze was already fixed on the wooden plaque that had changed to the three characters “Scripture Pavilion.” He simply had an urge to grab Fudao Shanren by the neck and shake him to death!

“Master! How can Senior Sister enter closed-door cultivation at a time like this?”

 He had finally waited for that perverted Second Senior Brother to be away so he could come and ask for the “Heavenly Fire Lamp”!

Shen Jiu was simply on the verge of tears.

During the morning, he and Qu Zhengfeng had fought with drawn swords, and the entire Yashan was still discussing their combat abilities.

But for Shen Jiu, it was nothing more than his first and only defeat in his life so far!

Right, he didn’t care about that at all!

He only cared about his Heavenly Fire Lamp!

Qu Zhengfeng had gone somewhere to cultivate in the afternoon, and after Shen Jiu scouted around the entire Yashan, he hadn’t found any trace of him. So he figured that since he wasn’t around, if he went to ask for the Heavenly Fire Lamp, it shouldn’t be too embarrassing.

After all, the Heavenly Fire Lamp was also quite a unique treasure.

As a little miser, Shen Jiu couldn’t bear to part with it.

He had finally made it to Jian Chou’s door, only to run into Fudao Shanren.

When Shen Jiu asked, Fudao Shanren answered that Senior Sister had entered closed-door cultivation.

He simply couldn’t accept this!

“How long has Senior Sister been here? Not even a day? Master, you’re too heartless and inhumane! Female cultivators are meant to be cherished! How can you treat Senior Sister like this? Quickly let Senior Sister out!”

Fudao Shanren’s eyelids drooped, and he directly kicked out, hitting Shen Jiu.

“So disrespectful! Try howling two more times and see what happens!”

Shen Jiu let out a miserable cry, his snow-white robes immediately marked with a dark footprint. Completely caught off guard, he was directly kicked off the cliff.

“After three hundred years, you old bastard’s temper has gotten worse!”

An angry voice came from below the cliff.

Fudao Shanren put his hands behind his back and snorted, “Little bastard wants to fight me? Dream on! And you want to set your sights on your Senior Sister? Bah!”

This time, he must keep a good watch over this disciple.

No matter what, he couldn’t let those already crooked ones lead her astray.

What he was going to teach was the strongest female cultivator in all of Yashan!

Thinking about how difficult it was to finally take on a proper person as a disciple, maybe later he could have Jian Chou go out and stand around, clearing Yashan’s reputation full of oddballs?

Well, well, that was all very far in the future.

With these thoughts, Fudao Shanren turned around, glanced at the three characters “Scripture Pavilion” hanging at the door, then lingered no more, disappearing from the spot in a flash.

Inside the Scripture Pavilion.

The closed door shut out all light from outside.

But inside the Scripture Pavilion, there was still light.

This light emanated from above Jian Chou’s head.

The moment Fudao Shanren closed the great door, the relief carvings on the Scripture Pavilion’s dome instantly transformed into a vast galaxy, with stardust hanging upside down, brilliant yet gentle radiance cascading down, covering the entire Scripture Pavilion.

Jian Chou looked up, walking from one end of the Scripture Pavilion to the other, then stopped.

The row in front of her happened to contain various miscellaneous books, information about the cultivation world, or some basic cultivation knowledge—exactly what Jian Chou urgently needed right now.

So she immediately took down a book and began reading through it slowly.

“Jade Slip Chapter?”

When she was halfway through this book, Jian Chou suddenly discovered this section. She glanced at the many jade slips floating in the air and seemed to understand something at once.

Looking down, Jian Chou patiently finished reading this section, then smiled.

She stood up, placed the heavy thread-bound book back on the bookshelf, then stood before a floating jade slip, reaching out to gently grasp it, and the jade slip was in her hand.

The material for making jade slips in the cultivation world was the most ordinary green jade. Through forging, the impurities in the middle were removed, then arrays were carved in, allowing them to carry large amounts of information while being extremely convenient to carry.

As for reading…

Jian Chou calmed her mind, closed her eyes, and pressed this jade slip that felt warm to the touch against her forehead.

The moment the jade slip touched her forehead, misty starlight seemed to scatter from her ancestral aperture, tiny motes of light dispersing into the air, infinitesimally small.

Countless pieces of information suddenly flooded into Jian Chou’s mind.

Due to the discomfort, she frowned slightly.

This feeling of accepting too much information at once was somewhat dizzying, but she carefully adjusted and adapted.

A moment later, she put down the jade slip and reopened her eyes.

“I see.”

Not only did she understand how to use jade slips, but she had also completely absorbed the content within the jade slip.

Using jade slips to read books was truly much more convenient if one didn’t need to memorize everything—in a flash of thought, countless things could enter one’s mind. The knowledge Jian Chou most lacked was almost filled in during this moment.

Walking along the bookshelf, Jian Chou selected some content that interested her to read, and her steps finally stopped before the Qi Refining stage bookshelf.

One jade slip after another floated there, and Jian Chou’s gaze moved over them one by one, finally settling on “Sealing the Disc and Foundation Establishment.”

She reached out to take the jade slip and read it.

Foundation Establishment meant building the foundation for one’s cultivation.

Only by formally establishing a foundation could one truly embark on the path of cultivation.

Every Kun line on the Wanxiang Battle Disc represented every meridian in the human body, whether large or small; every dao character on the Wanxiang Battle Disc represented every aperture in the human body, whether obvious or hidden.

The Qi Refining stage involved refining essence into qi, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth into one’s meridians, continuously circulating and operating it to gradually open meridian after meridian.

Reflected on the battle disc, this meant Kun line after Kun line lighting up.

So the essence of Foundation Establishment was to open as many meridians in the body as possible, clear blocked apertures, and create an excellent foundation for future cultivation.

Thinking of it this way, Jian Chou understood.

The jade slip already contained much accumulated experience from predecessors—different meridian circulation routes, different directions, and how to open more meridians were all described.

Jian Chou pondered for a moment, then put down the jade slip and simply sat cross-legged on the clean floor of the Scripture Pavilion, closing her eyes.

Her innate battle disc finally gradually appeared.

Strand after strand of spiritual energy was drawn to her, flowing toward her body’s apertures. Jian Chou’s cultivation finally began.

Kun’s lines lit up one after another.

The entire process lasted far too long—even Jian Chou herself lost track of the days.

Many meridian routes were imprinted in her mind, and each time she circulated spiritual energy through them, she encountered no obstructions whatsoever, passing through directly without any of the problems other cultivators faced, where certain meridians simply couldn’t be used.

The size of one’s innate battle disc represented a person’s talent and potential.

The larger the battle disc, the more Kun lines it would have, proving more meridians in the body; but how many Kun lines could be lit depended on individual ability. Some meridians simply couldn’t be opened no matter what, so their corresponding Kun lines would remain forever dim.

In the cultivation world, there was talk of a “Perfect Battle Disc,” also called “Heavenly Disc,” referring to a Wanxiang Battle Disc with not a single unlit area.

As Jian Chou cultivated, she kept feeling something wasn’t quite right.

Kun line after Kun line lit up, and as she opened meridian after meridian, it became incredibly swift…

Countless streams of spiritual energy flowed through every part of her body without a single feeling of obstruction.

Jian Chou couldn’t help but look down at her battle disc and began counting bit by bit…

One line, two lines, three lines…

It was too smooth, so smooth she could hardly believe it herself!

She still remembered what Fudao Shanren had told her before entering closed-door cultivation: Your battle disc is one zhang—if you can light up half of it, you’ll be among the elite; if you can light up seven or eight-tenths, you’ll be able to defeat those few foolish junior brothers!

Though she didn’t remember the exact words, that was the general meaning.

However, now…

She had already opened all the meridians recorded in human anatomy jade slips, the corresponding Kun lines had lit up one by one, and even the entire battle disc’s perimeter had expanded by more than a foot.

The remaining unlit Kun lines were ones Jian Chou had no clue about, and which weren’t recorded at all in the jade slips.

Generally speaking, when cultivators had opened all the meridians they could, they could seal the disc and establish a foundation.

That is to say, Jian Chou could completely establish the foundation right now.

Only…

Jian Chou felt somewhat dazed at this moment.

Ninety-nine percent of the Kun lines were lit.

Only the last few remained—if she could light them up, what she would possess would be a terrifyingly perfect “Heavenly Disc”!

“Heavenly Discs” were rare in the world, let alone a one-zhang “Heavenly Disc”!

Should she continue researching the correspondence between Kun lines and her body’s meridians?

Or should she directly seal the disc and establish a foundation like this?

Two choices flashed through Jian Chou’s mind, and finally, she glanced at the jade slips filling the Scripture Pavilion and stopped cultivating.

At this moment, sealing the disc and establishing foundation, Jian Chou would still be among the elite. She didn’t consider herself someone who pursued perfection, but if she could be a bit more perfect, who wouldn’t want that? Moreover, she only half-understood the correspondence between Kun lines and meridians right now.

And this was extremely important to Jian Chou.

What flashed through her mind were the patterns she had drawn on Zhanye Island and Deng Tiandao.

The patterns she had accidentally obtained outside Qingfeng Nunnery and the hidden realm were all Dao Seals.

Dao Seals were combinations of dao characters, with dao characters representing apertures in the human body. Spiritual energy passing through different aperture combinations could unleash different powers—what ordinary people called “techniques.”

Since she knew about Dao Seals, to a certain degree, reverse-engineering which apertures spiritual energy would pass through wasn’t necessarily impossible.

It could even be said that for someone with sufficient calculation ability, it was achievable.

Jian Chou now had those several Dao Seals deeply imprinted in her mind, and could even recall the boundless shock that golden light piercing the sky had brought her.

That scene was very beautiful.

Could the Dao Seal cast with that golden light into the clouds be ordinary?

Jian Chou was an ordinary person, and this was something even an ordinary person found extraordinary.

So Jian Chou’s choice was: research it.

In the following days, Jian Chou neither drank nor ate, yet didn’t feel very tired—she had long passed the fasting stage.

She read through vast quantities of jade slips and experimented within her body’s meridians, accidentally and effortlessly breaking through several meridians. On her battle disc, the dim Kun lines lit up again—one, two, three…

If any outsider were present, they would probably be so shocked that their jaws would drop to the ground.

Jian Chou had no idea how astounding what she was doing was.

She fell into a strange state of focus and didn’t find it tedious at all.

While reading jade slips, she simultaneously tried guiding spiritual energy to flow through various parts of her body, feeling the spiritual energy flowing within her body while observing the moving lights on her battle disc.

There was a correspondence between the battle disc and the human body—wherever spiritual energy went, Jian Chou could feel it and see it.

If she used this to deduce the positions of nearby meridians, it became much simpler.

The last unlit Kun line was at the very edge. Jian Chou raised her right hand and looked at her fingertip.

She lightly moved her finger, and a ray of spiritual light passed over her fingertip. On the battle disc, a cluster of bright light ignited beside the dim Kun line.

Right here!

Jian Chou’s mind flashed, and she controlled spiritual energy to slowly pierce into that extremely fine meridian at her fingertip.

Like piercing through a thin membrane, the meridian hidden behind it finally accepted the entry of spiritual energy.

On the battle disc, the last dim Kun line finally seemed to join a trickling stream, gradually lighting up…

At this moment, the entire battle disc emanated an extremely gentle, misty white light.

Jian Chou sat cross-legged on the ground, and the stardust-like things floating in the Tianyuan position suddenly became somewhat denser, instantly condensing above that foot-square Tianyuan space, transforming into drop after drop of liquid that fell.

Thus, the Tianyuan that had originally been like a small starry sky suddenly became a small jade bowl filled with liquid.

Jian Chou could feel the full and abundant energy in that bowl.

Her hands resting on her knees formed seals at this moment!

Jian Chou brought her hands together, drawing them tight to her chest, executing one hand seal after another. Spiritual power traveled along specific trajectories through her body, stabilizing the paths of meridian after meridian.

This was a set of hand seals for sealing the disc and establishing a foundation.

Because Jian Chou was unfamiliar with them, she executed them extremely carefully.

With each hand seal that fell, a Kun line’s radiance solidified somewhat.

When the last hand seal was completed, Jian Chou felt fine sweat beading on her forehead.

When she reopened her eyes, her entire innate battle disc had expanded to one zhang, one chi, and three cun, with not a single shadow on the battle disc—all Kun lines were lit!

The Heavenly Disc was set!

Having read through vast quantities of jade slips, Jian Chou could only vaguely comprehend how terrifying this truly was, but had no particularly intuitive sense of it. So she only glanced at it once more, thinking she should be quite good, then set the matter aside.

Since the Foundation Establishment was already complete, there was no need to think about it for now.

Earlier, when impacting every meridian in her body, Jian Chou had become quite familiar with the correspondence between meridians and Kun lines, but the correspondence between dao characters and apertures was still very unfamiliar.

She had several Dao Seals and wanted to use them to reverse-engineer spiritual energy circulation through apertures to derive the secrets of technique execution.

This difficulty was much greater than deducing meridians.

The Dao Seals weren’t Jian Chou’s own—she couldn’t determine the specific position of any point on the Dao Seals, only continuously experiment based on their combinations.

However…

From another perspective, it was also simple.

When humans execute techniques, it’s nothing more than the four limbs and seven orifices—few techniques go beyond this.

This way, Jian Chou could directly select apertures on her four limbs and seven orifices as the endpoints where the final dao character of the Dao Seal would fall, thus further narrowing the scope.

“So… where to start first…”

Jian Chou held a jade slip in one hand and a Dao Seal she had drawn with brush and ink from the Scripture Pavilion in the other, pacing within the Scripture Pavilion.

She suddenly looked down at her feet.

“One hand needs to read jade slips, one hand needs to look at Dao Seals. Forget it, let me start familiarizing myself with the legs.”

This Dao Seal was the one emitted by the golden light outside Qingfeng Nunnery, composed of seven dao characters arranged in a ladle-handle shape.

Her mind moved, and spiritual energy automatically flowed from her ancestral aperture, traveling down into her legs.

A combination of seven apertures, by position, could be…

Zusanli.

Yangsanjiao…

…

The last one is, Yongquan acupoint?

Jian Chou was just trying to see if circulating spiritual energy this way would have any effect. If it were a powerful spell, it would naturally reveal the related spell effects after circulation was complete.

So she just unconsciously lifted her foot when spiritual energy entered the Yongquan acupoint.

Instantly, Jian Chou felt her sole become burning hot, as if a whirlpool had opened in that moment, trying to drain all the spiritual energy from her entire body!

This feeling was somewhat familiar!

Jian Chou immediately knew something was wrong. Though she had just entered the Foundation Establishment stage, her reactions were still quite swift. She quickly formed a hand seal and pressed it forward, sealing her ancestral aperture and locking the spiritual energy that continued to leak out!

Though spiritual power no longer leaked from her ancestral aperture, the spiritual energy that had already flowed out was difficult to recover—it all gathered beneath her feet—

Then Jian Chou witnessed a scene she would never forget.

She stood facing the great door of the Scripture Pavilion, gently lifting her soft-soled satin shoe. A massive leg phantom that appeared enormously powerful to Foundation Establishment stage Jian Chou fiercely crashed toward the great door!

“Boom!”

A tremendous crash.

Dust flew everywhere.

The Scripture Pavilion’s great door had a large hole broken through it, and even the parts connecting to the mountain wall’s rock had been hollowed out significantly. The shape of the entire broken hole resembled a leg…

Jian Chou stood dazedly inside the Scripture Pavilion.

The galaxy of stars on the dome, because light was now entering from outside, no longer shone brightly and had returned to looking like relief carvings.

The sounds from outside Yashan seemed to suddenly grow much louder.

At this moment, Jian Chou’s heart was quite calm.

If she had known earlier, would using her hand have been better?