Attempts and Insights

After resting for an hour, the Star Sea within him returned to normal. Lin Xuan took out a Waste Pill, sat down cross-legged, and tried again.

Circulate, control the light spots as they entered the Waste Pill...

Bang!

He had failed again. It seemed the light spots needed to flow even more slowly.

He rested, then tried once more.

This time, Lin Xuan tried slowing the speed further, taking it step by step. You could not eat hot tofu in a hurry. Since the pill would explode if the light spots entered too quickly, he would make them a little slower.

Yet this time, another accident occurred. When the light spots entered the Waste Pill too slowly, the impurities were not purified out. Instead, they moved within the pill and became even more tightly entangled with the essence, inseparable as flesh and bone.

It seemed going too slowly would not work either.

Lin Xuan toyed with the failed product and pondered carefully. This purification process truly was not easy to master. Too fast would not do, and too slow was unsuitable. He had to control the speed within a certain range for success to be possible.

But what exactly was that range? He could only experiment again and again.

Lin Xuan meditated for a while to rest. Once his strength had recovered, he began purifying again. He did not sleep the entire night, resting and trying, striving without cease to grasp the secret of the Blue Light Spots as quickly as possible.

Darkness was driven away by dawn, and the sun broke over the horizon.

Lin Xuan held a snow-white pill in his hand. After a night of attempts and wasting another five Waste Pills in succession, he had finally successfully purified one again.

Carefully recalling the speed at which the light spots had flowed during that purification, Lin Xuan revealed a thoughtful expression. After resting briefly, he took out another Waste Pill.

Yet moments later, it ended in failure. Lin Xuan shook his head. Although he now understood what speed was needed, his control was still clumsy. There was no other solution but practice. Practice made perfect.

But even at his current success rate, purifying one pill from every five Waste Pills gave him a twenty percent chance of success, which was not low. Last time, Elder Ma had made things difficult for him by tossing him two bottles of Waste Pills in place of two spiritual medicines.

It had originally been a terrible loss, but now that he had the Blue Light Spots...

There were a hundred Waste Pills in each bottle. From two bottles, he could purify at least forty spiritual medicines. Compared to the original two pills, that was a full twentyfold profit.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Lin Xuan's lips, not because he had obtained a large quantity of spiritual medicines, but because with the strange ability of the Blue Light Spots, there was finally hope for cultivation. As long as one had medicinal power to support them, even ordinary people could succeed.

His research into the Star Sea had already yielded preliminary results. What remained was to deepen his understanding and mastery of it. Lin Xuan pushed open the window. The sky was already bright; it was time to cultivate. He carefully put away the jade bottle and the purified Waste Pills, left his room, and went to the Qi Refining Hall of the Young Eagle Pavilion to meditate. Even with the Star Sea now in his possession, meaning he no longer needed to worry about consuming spiritual medicines, diligent effort remained indispensable.

Over the next dozen days, Lin Xuan cultivated diligently while secretly purifying Waste Pills. It was not only to obtain the spiritual medicines he needed for cultivation, but also to become familiar with the Star Sea's methods of use as quickly as possible, to thoroughly understand and completely master them.

After all, this was the hope that determined whether he could travel far upon the path of cultivation. There could not be the slightest mistake!

Having made up his mind, Lin Xuan began carrying out his plan. The process was arduous; it could be said that he was feeling his way across the river by groping for stones. Waste Pill in hand, blue light circulating, he controlled the speed and cautiously examined it with his spiritual sense.

Bang!

He had failed again. Lin Xuan's expression darkened. In the eyes of others, Waste Pills were garbage, but to him, every one of them might become a spiritual medicine. Each pill wasted pained his heart immensely.

But this was the experimentation stage, and losses were unavoidable. Moreover, aside from consuming Waste Pills, the Star Sea had shrunk considerably as well. Lin Xuan had no choice but to rest for a while...

And so, he cultivated every day and purified pills. Two weeks passed. Practice made perfect. At first, Lin Xuan could only successfully purify one out of every five or six Waste Pills. As time passed, he could now succeed once out of every three.

Originally, after working hard through an entire night, he could purify at most two spiritual medicines. Now, after one night, he could obtain five or six Low-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pills.

Both his speed and success rate had improved greatly.

After nearly a month of effort, the returns from those two bottles of Waste Pills were better than expected. After deducting the failures, Lin Xuan had obtained a full sixty spiritual medicines.

Sixty was absolutely no small number. The spiritual medicines accumulated by an ordinary disciple over thirty months amounted to only that much.

Lin Xuan's current wealth was already quite substantial; he could be described as a rich man. He carefully stored away the Marrow Cleansing Pills. This secret absolutely could not be known by a second person.

With sufficient spiritual medicines, the next step was naturally to cultivate diligently. During his time in Floating Cloud Valley, Lin Xuan had increasingly come to understand that strength was the foundation of a cultivator's survival. Fairness, justice, and reason were merely things people said with their mouths. At critical moments, whoever had the bigger fist was the boss.

Power was directly proportional to strength!

Moreover, even cultivators did not possess limitless lifespans. The higher their cultivation, the longer they lived.

Spirit Movement Stage cultivators had not truly stepped onto the immortal path. Their lifespans were about the same as Mortals'. At the Foundation Establishment Realm, however, their lifespans doubled, allowing them to live to two hundred. At the Core Condensation Realm, they doubled again, allowing them to live to four hundred. In other words, among the eight stages of cultivation, every advancement doubled one's lifespan.

After that came the Nascent Soul Realm at eight hundred years, the Lihe Realm at sixteen hundred years, and the Dongxuan Realm at thirty-two hundred years, and so on...

In the end, if one could successfully undergo Tribulation Transcendence, one would become an Immortal, eternal and ageless, shining alongside the sun and moon.

Lin Xuan did not believe in reincarnation. Rather than place his hopes in some misty, intangible next life, he would be better off working harder now. Though he had no Spirit Root, with the Blue Star Sea, Lin Xuan's immortal path was absolutely full of hope.

Lin Xuan devised a detailed cultivation improvement plan.

Using spiritual medicines as his foundation and combining them with diligent effort, Lin Xuan took one Marrow Cleansing Pill each morning, noon, and evening, then meditated to refine its medicinal power.

Although Marrow Cleansing Pills were not considered sacred medicine in the Cultivation World, no one could afford such extravagance as taking several every day. Driven by the powerful medicinal force, after about a week, Lin Xuan felt the spiritual power within his body growing ever more abundant. The bottleneck that had once blocked his path was no longer a concern.

It was time to launch an assault on the second layer of the Spirit Movement Stage!