Chapter 6:

In the kitchen of the Earthly Immortals.

Fang Yi was starving. He opened the cupboard and found the middle shelf filled with vegetables: braised pork, stewed chicken soup, steamed fish, stir-fried vegetables, and scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

"Hmm, quite a feast!"

He hurriedly took a bowl to the rice cooker.

Aside from a small portion at lunch, the entire rice cooker was practically untouched.

After all, his mother's appetite was small, so she usually only ate a small bowl.

He was truly starving, so he immediately filled a large bowl and began to eat.

Soon, the whole bowl of rice and a number of vegetables were gone.

Normally, Fang Yi would have been full after eating so much.

But today, something strange happened. He ate a large bowl of rice and a number of vegetables without feeling anything, as if he had eaten a biscuit.

He immediately got up and filled another large bowl.

Three bowls.

Six bowls.

Nine bowls.

In the end, he had eaten an entire rice cooker of rice, four dishes, and a soup, and was only half full.

"Is there something wrong with my body? Normally, I'd die from eating so much pork, let alone a human?"

Fang Yi didn't feel full at all. He was actually a little scared and wondered if he should go to the hospital.

Hey!

Can't one observe everything when the mind transcends the physical body?

I could transcend the physical body and see what's wrong with my body!

Fang Yi thought, letting his mind transcend the physical body to check on his body. But when he did, he was surprised to find that his body functions had paused, with no sign of activity at all. Even his breathing had stopped.

No,

not all of it had stopped.

There was still activity.

Fang Yi clearly saw a vague object somewhere below his lower abdomen, constantly "releasing energy," tightly connected to his bio-energy field, as if maintaining his physical function.

"Isn't that my Golden Elixir?"

He was stunned.

At first, Fang Yi wondered why cultivating the Golden Elixir was useless, but later realized that the Golden Elixir wasn't useless, but needed to be in a state of transcending the physical body to function, providing energy for his thoughts.

It now appears that the Golden Elixir not only provides energy for the bio-energy field, but also provides energy when the bio-energy field leaves the body, preventing the body from being depleted of energy after the "divine soul leaves the body."

"According to Mr. Chen's Inner Alchemy Secrets," the Taoist term for my consciousness transcending the physical body is "divine soul leaving the body." In reality, I've constructed an energy field model based on divine images and observed that there's no such thing as a divine soul. Every body has an energy field, and this energy field governs the body's actions. With the power of the Golden Elixir, I can cause the bio-energy field to separate from the body. With the support of the Golden Elixir's energy, I don't have to worry about withering away like an old seedling. I can now see the real world."

Fang Yi suddenly realized something, and he secretly felt fortunate that his soul hadn't been out of the body for too long when his Golden Elixir was taken away, otherwise his body would have decayed.

But a new problem arose.

Since the energy field had separated from the body, the body ceased functioning, making it impossible to observe its proper functioning.

So how could he observe it?

Fang Yi first returned his thoughts to his physical body and sat there to ponder.

"Oh, right, I was able to sense Aunt Wang's prayers in my physical body before. I was able to do that thanks to the energy field model I constructed within my own bio-energy field, similar to the one used by the deity. Could I use this model to observe my body?"

He decided to give it a try.

However, he couldn't mobilize the power of his bio-energy field in his physical body, so it seemed this method wouldn't work.

"Since the golden elixir can provide energy for the bio-energy field, could it also provide energy to the constructed model and make it work?"

Fang Yi tried to mobilize the energy of the golden elixir, but the golden elixir was an intangible ball of energy, and without entering an out-of-body state, he couldn't control it.

"Let's see if I can mobilize the power of the golden elixir in my

cultivation state." Fang Yi was at his wit's end, so he suppressed his distracting thoughts and entered a cultivation state.

He recalled the content of the practice: True water from Heaven, stored in the gallbladder, yin and yang harmonize, descending into the elixir, shaped like a dewdrop, the mountains, rivers, and universe permeating the spiritual body... Vivid energy fills the universe, bitter smoke curls up the ring...

Immersed in the state of cultivation, Fang Yi felt a surge of heat flowing through his body.

"As expected, this heat is the power of my golden elixir, also known as elixir qi."

Fang Yi injected this energy into the statue model he had constructed.

The next moment, he felt the statue model come alive again.

Using the model, Fang Yi could clearly see everything around him.

Unlike when his mind transcended the physical body, he couldn't observe the universe.

However, observing the inside of his body was no problem.

He clearly saw a surge of energy generated in his kidneys, which was successfully absorbed by his golden elixir.

Immediately afterwards, the golden elixir transmitted a surge of energy that activated various functions in his body.

His stomach, in particular, secreted a large amount of gastric acid, rapidly dissolving food and transforming it into strands of another type of energy that entered his kidneys. This energy was then converted into the energy I had seen earlier and absorbed by his golden elixir.

"Huh? So this is why my digestion is so fast."

Fang Yi had a rough idea of what was going on.

The golden elixir required energy to maintain itself, and this energy came from the kidneys.

The kidneys didn't generate this energy out of thin air; it needed to absorb it from outside sources,

such as food.

"I remember that Taoist practice places great emphasis on cultivating innate essence. Taoism states that innate essence, inherited from parents, is innate and the primordial substance that fuels reproduction and forms the human body. It's also called the innate true seed. According to Taoism, the innate true seed doesn't produce innate essence out of thin air. After birth, it needs to be continuously enriched by acquired essence to grow stronger."

Fang Yi kept recalling the information about innate and acquired essence.

"Acquired essence, also known as the essence of the five internal organs and six bowels, originates from the essence of food and water. It is transformed by the spleen and stomach to irrigate the five internal organs. Food and water enter the stomach, where they are digested and transported by the spleen to form the essence of food and water. This essence is then transferred to the five internal organs, becoming the essence of the internal organs."

He blinked.

This explanation differed slightly from what he had just witnessed.

Fang Yi had just seen the essence produced by the digestion of his food being directly absorbed by the kidneys, then transformed into innate essence, which was then successfully absorbed by the golden elixir.

"No wonder I've been feeling hungry and tired all day. It turns out all my energy has been converted into innate essence and absorbed by the golden elixir, so my body can't keep up with the nutrients."

"It seems there's nothing wrong with my body, I just don't eat enough."

Fang Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, he thought of something else. "Since I can control the power of the golden elixir in my physical body, can my physical body also exert extraordinary power?"

Just try it when you think of it.

Fang Yi once again immersed himself in a state of cultivation to mobilize the energy of the golden elixir.

He controlled this power to his palm, and then carefully observed it, and found that there was nothing unusual in his hand.

However, he could feel that his palm was filled with powerful force, as if it could split mountains and crack rocks.

Not sure if the feeling was right.

Let's find something to test it.

Fang Yi looked around the room.

Finally, his eyes locked on the firewood stick.

He picked up the stick, raised his hand and gently swung it diagonally.

The next second, there was a clang.

The stick was actually cut off by his palm and fell to the floor!

The most important thing is that Fang Yi didn't feel that he had consumed too much energy!

Yes, it felt like using a butcher knife to kill a chicken!

He first retracted the energy, then squatted down to pick up the stick and looked at the cut surface. He found that it was cut neatly, and there was burnt carbon ash on it, as if the wood board had not only been cut by an extremely sharp "knife", but also been ravaged by endless high temperatures.

"Hiss, this is too scary, if I chop someone with this knife, will it be a disaster?"

At this moment, Fang Yi finally understood the power of the "Golden Elixir Cultivator". No wonder people who cultivated the Golden Elixir were called land immortals in ancient times!