Time flies like a white horse, and in the blink of an eye, it is already a year later.

Niuqi Mountain is still as calm as ever, except for the occasional small friction between Elder An Zai'er and the cliff, it is generally a relatively low-key and peaceful year. In summer, Niuqi Mountain looks more vibrant, the trees grow wildly, the sky is towering, and the birds will pass through the trees and chirp, making the whole mountain more quiet and far-reaching.

There is a cave about 500 zhang below the head cliff, which is one of the few forbidden places in Niuqi Mountain, all the disciples of Niuqi Mountain are not allowed to approach its radius of 100 zhang, and the offender will be severely punished. The reason is because it is the retreat and cultivation place of Kui Niu, the founder of Niuqi Mountain, and it is the important place of Niuqi Mountain, and there is a ban imposed by Kui Niu himself at the entrance of the cave, and the living are not allowed to enter, and those who touch it will die.

At this moment, a young man was meditating in the cave.

"Whew...... Have you finally broken through to the middle stage of foundation building? The young man let out a breath of turbidity, slowly opened his eyes, and stared ahead. A year has passed, and the young man's hair has grown to cover his eyes, his skin has become a little dark, and his facial features have become more angular. There is no doubt that this young man is He Ding.

He Ding stood up, the clothes on his body were already in tatters, and he ripped them off, revealing strong muscles and textured lines. Although he has eaten less this year, through his daily exercise, the whole person has become a lot stronger, and his height is about half a palm.

"Mangniu Jin should be about to enter the fourth layer......" He Ding clenched his right hand into a fist, and the green tendons on his strong forearm burst out, and he felt the true qi flowing in the meridians of his body.

The first time he cultivated his true qi was more than half a year ago, when He Ding meditated on luck according to the method recorded in Mangniu Jin, absorbed the surrounding spiritual qi and then transferred it to the dantian. When he found that there was a wisp of true qi in the dantian, the whole person almost jumped up with excitement, and he didn't close his eyes all night.

Cultivating the first wisp of true qi means that He Ding has officially become a cultivator and has entered the early stage of foundation building!

He Ding tried to control this trace of true qi, but the true qi was quickly discharged from his body and dissipated in the air, which made He Ding understand that he could not let his true qi leave his body now. So He Ding spent a few more hours condensing the second wisp of true qi, and with the previous lesson, He Ding quickly figured out the method of controlling true qi this time.

The control of true qi lies in the free movement of qi, and true qi cannot operate on its own, and can only move between any part of the body under the guidance of He Ding's consciousness.

And now, after more than half a year of accumulation, the true qi in He Ding's dantian is like a lake, and the sea of dantian will open up a new space to accommodate the true qi just after breaking through to the middle stage of foundation building.

To put it simply, the dantian is a container, and the higher your realm, the larger the container, and the more true qi it can store.

He Ding was not in a hurry to fill the sea of dantian, he had to cultivate the reckless bull strength every day and consumed a lot of true qi, and he felt that frequent use of true qi could enhance his control over the true qi.

"Time is so fast, it's been a year in the blink of an eye......" He Ding took a deep breath, his strong chest rising and falling. He turned around and came to a stone wall densely carved with white marks, and carved a heavy stroke.

"Hopefully this is my last day here. He Ding muttered to himself, his gaze shifted to the red prohibition at the entrance of the cave.

He said this because he had found a way to break the ban.

After more than half a year of research, He Ding found that the red prohibition was not simply rotating, and the symbols on it were changing with time. Like a compass, there are 360 squares, 180 middle squares, and 90 squares, which rotate in different directions and at different speeds. The patterns in the grid have eight trigrams, five elements, and symbols that He Ding has never seen, a total of six hundred and thirty grids, but none of the patterns are repeated.

According to He Ding's speculation, there are only two ways to break this prohibition, the first is for the caster to unlock it himself, and the second is to wait until the prohibition rotates to a specific position, and at that moment, the prohibition can be broken.

However, it is actually extremely difficult to deduce when the ban will be broken.

First of all, we must understand what each pattern on the prohibition means, secondly, we must look for the connection between each pattern, and finally wait until the moment when the three specific patterns in the three rows coincide completely, and then trigger the prohibition to completely unravel the prohibition. However, if there is the slightest mistake, a slow beat or a wrong pattern, those birds that are electrocuted by the magic circle will be the fate of He Ding.

Thanks to He Ding's extensive reading, he was able to basically figure out the meaning of all the patterns in a year's time, but at this moment, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous, only to see cold sweat on his forehead, after all, once something went wrong, he would really die. Although his self-healing ability is strong now, He Ding feels that he is not strong enough to bring the dead back to life.

According to He Ding's deduction of the forbidden rotation speed, the time when the three patterns coincide should be today, after a stick of incense. If you miss it, you will have to wait for half a year.

"If you make a mistake, or if you are slow, you will really be doomed. He Ding licked his dry lips, and his palms began to sweat.

"But if you don't try, what's the difference between being trapped in this cave forever and being a dead man?"

He Ding held the wooden tripod given to him by Qiu Shiyue tightly in his hand, and at this time, several familiar faces appeared in his mind.

"Shiyue, Xiaoting, second sister, eldest brother, father......" He Ding said lightly, the faces of his relatives and friends appeared in He Ding's mind like a marquee, and at this moment his desire to survive burned violently.

"I'm not going to die!

He Ding's eyes shot out of ten thousand essences, as if he wanted to shoot through this cave.

There are still twenty breaths before the coincidence.

I saw him take a deep breath, spit out heavily, and walked in front of the ban. The prohibition rotated slowly, and the birds and beasts that died tragically under the prohibition were still vivid, and He Ding's hands trembled uncontrollably.

And ten breaths.

"Come on!" He Ding let out a low roar, the muscles of his whole body trembled violently because of tension, he slowly raised his right hand, facing the center of the prohibition, and streams of true qi began to converge on the palm of his hand, waiting for the time to break the formation.

Three breaths, two breaths, one breath!

Now is the time!

He Ding's pupils shrank suddenly, and the three patterns in his eyes expanded and slowed down infinitely, as if time had stood still at this moment. The three lines converge in a straight line from different directions in that instant, as precise as a gear. He Ding used all his strength to condense his true qi on his index finger and poke it at the eye of the array.

The moment He Ding's fingers touched the magic circle, a red light appeared, and all the symbols suddenly shone brightly at that moment, seeing that He Ding was almost overwhelmed by the red light, he subconsciously closed his eyes.

"I ...... Did it fail?"

There was no electric shock from his fingers, and He Ding waited for a moment before narrowing his eyes slightly.

The red magic circle in front of him had disappeared, and a breeze with a scorching breath blew on He Ding's face, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and felt the thick primordial breath of summer in the air.

It worked!

"Hahahahahaha

......

The sky was getting dark, Chen San glanced at the sun that was about to go down, and secretly screamed in his heart that something was wrong.

Chen San is an ordinary family near Niuqi Mountain, and he makes a living by collecting medicine on weekdays. Because Niuqi Mountain is full of spiritual energy, and there are many precious herbs growing around it, there are many people in their town who have started the business of collecting medicines, and Chen San is one of them.

"I came out to pick it for a day today, and I picked such a point, and it was not worth much, and I was scolded by my wife again when I went back. Chen San looked at a few scattered herbs in his medicine pocket and sighed.

The herb pickers in the town never operate at night, and once the sun sets, they have to withdraw from the range of Niuqi Mountain. Niuqi Mountain is not only the sphere of influence of demon cultivators, but also a place where many fierce beasts haunt. Niuqi Mountain at night is far more terrifying than during the day, and this sentence is remembered by every medicine picker.

"Forget it, why don't you go back. ”

Chen San retreated in his heart, and the sickle in his hand was slowly withdrawn into his medicine pocket. Just as he turned around and was about to go back, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed a faint blue light emitting from a stone wall not far away.

Chen San rubbed his eyes, and after confirming that he was not mistaken, he let his curiosity drive him towards the blue light.

"Isn't it, Blue Spirit Grass?" Chen San leaned over to the blue light and saw the glowing appearance clearly.

Blue Spirit Grass is one of the more precious herbs produced in Niuqi Mountain, mainly because it is scarce in quantity, and it is also one of the pills necessary for refining many pills, so it can often be sold for dozens of taels of silver on the black market.

"Damn!" Chen San's eyes lit up, and at this moment, the blue spirit grass had turned into dozens of taels of silver with white flowers in his eyes, which was enough for him to be chic for a month or two.

"No one should have noticed, right?" Chen San looked behind him vigilantly, making sure that there was no one behind him, and at this time the sky had already darkened, and there was a coldness in the gray forest.

The sound of insects came and went in the woods, and from time to time the distant howls of wild beasts could be heard in the distance.

Chen San swallowed violently, he pulled out the sickle on his waist, and hurriedly stepped forward to dig down the blue spirit grass. The blue spirit grass is covered with a faint blue fluorescence, and it seems to be a miniature lighted lamp at night. He breathed a sigh of relief after putting the Blue Spirit Grass in his medicine pocket, all he could think about now was to get away before the beast found out.

I saw that Chen San turned around and just took a leg, and immediately stopped moving.

About ten feet ahead, a gray leopard was staring at him fiercely, and a low roar came out of its throat.

"Oh my god!"

Chen San was startled, screamed, and fell to the ground with a thud.

The gray leopard is a fierce beast in Niuqi Mountain, extremely aggressive and agile, and ordinary people will never be able to escape when they encounter it. Chen San is a middle-aged man who has no power to restrain chickens, even if he has a weapon in his hand, the survival rate is very small.

"Why am I so unlucky!" Chen San secretly screamed, his legs were too weak to stand up, and he could only support himself with his hands and slowly retreat. After a few steps back, the stone wall was blocked behind him.

There is a gray leopard in front, and there is no way back.

"Roaring ......"

The gray leopard roared, its eyes glowing with fluorescence, and began to walk towards Chen San step by step.

"You, you, don't come here! The scythe in my hand is not easy to mess with!" Chen San shouted to the gray leopard with both hands holding the scythe in his hands, his voice trembling. He doesn't care if the gray leopard understands it or not, but at this time, he must have momentum, maybe he will scare the gray leopard away.

The gray leopard paused, blinked, and continued to approach Chen San.

"Ahhhh

"Ding!"

Suddenly, there was a crisp sound after the metal collided, and Chen San only felt that the sickle in his hand shook violently, shaking his mouth painfully. A few sparks flew in front of him, and the scythe slammed into the hard stone, and the blade flew out.

"It's over!

Chen San looked at the scythe with only the wooden handle left, and was instantly overwhelmed by despair.

The gray leopard walked to a distance of about five zhang from Chen San and stopped, leaning forward with his whole body, his back arched like a bow full of strings. Chen San recognized that this was the preparatory action of the beast to pounce on food. If nothing else, in the next second, he will be torn open by the gray leopard's neck.

Chen San closed his eyes in despair, at this moment all he was thinking about was his lady. Who is to blame for ending up in this fate because of greed? Wouldn't it be better to leave early?

"Lady...... You have to take care of yourself, I, Chen San, can only see you in the next life. ”

Chen San muttered in his mouth, ready for the moment when the gray leopard's claws plunged into his neck, blood splattering.

"Brute!"

"Whew......"

At this time, a low cry sounded in his ears, and with the wail of a beast, there was no sound after that, and the imaginary claws did not penetrate Chen San's neck. Chen San had a doubt in his heart, and said that this is how he felt when he died, so he narrowed his eyes and saw the scene in front of him.

A young man with messy hair and a bare upper body stood in the position of the gray leopard, and on the ground lay the gray leopard, which was already paralyzed, with blood constantly flowing from his mouth. The young man was panting, his face was pale, and his body was covered with sweat, he looked at Chen San and walked over.

"Uncle, are you alright......" As soon as the young man spoke, his eyes suddenly rolled upward, and his whole body involuntarily fell forward.

The long-haired young man fell to the ground with a thud.