Spirit Pills Breaking Through

After three years of seeking immortality, Lin Xuan was experiencing the ease and exhilaration of cultivation for the first time. It was no longer as difficult as every step being fraught with hardship.

After shutting the doors and windows, Lin Xuan dragged over a meditation cushion and sat cross-legged on the floor. He took a jade bottle from his robes and poured out nine Marrow Cleansing Pills.

To break through this bottleneck, Lin Xuan had gone to great pains. Just yesterday, he had made a special trip to the Library Pavilion to consult several books on medicinal pills. He no longer lacked spirit herbs, but was it really better to take more Marrow Cleansing Pills? Would taking too many beyond a certain amount harm his body?

He had to get to the bottom of this question. Otherwise, if he took too many and suffered side effects, regret would come too late.

Books on such common cultivation knowledge could be found on the first floor. In Annotations on Pills, Lin Xuan had found this entry: Marrow Cleansing Pill, the lowest-grade and most common pill in the Cultivation World. It can increase the spiritual power of Spirit Movement Stage disciples. No more than nine pills should be taken per day.

It did not say what would happen if one took more than nine, but that information was already enough for Lin Xuan.

He only needed to know the maximum dosage of the pill. Lin Xuan took out another jade bottle from his robes and poured out nine Marrow Cleansing Pills. He swallowed them all, then began circulating his spiritual power and launching an assault on the second layer of the Spirit Movement Stage.

The medicinal power quickly spread through his limbs and bones.

Boom!

A vast torrent of heat surged from his dantian into every meridian. Lin Xuan felt as though he were inside a furnace.

In almost the blink of an eye, his clothes were soaked through with sweat. The heat within him showed no sign of weakening; instead, it continued to intensify.

He had never encountered this situation when taking Marrow Cleansing Pills before. Could the book have been wrong? Should he not have taken so many at once?

The thought flashed through Lin Xuan's mind, but he did not panic. When faced with an unexpected situation, one needed to remain even calmer.

Though the heat was nearly unbearable, Lin Xuan had endured even the trial of the Heart Refining Path. This was nothing. He gritted his teeth and ignored the torrent of heat, letting it churn through his limbs and bones while keeping his mind firmly anchored in his dantian. So long as his spiritual platform remained clear, nothing should go wrong.

The facts proved that Lin Xuan's judgment was correct. Around two hours later, the heat gradually faded, replaced by a warm, comforting sensation throughout his body.

At the same time, the spiritual power in his dantian began to change. As though it had absorbed nourishment, it grew explosively. Its volume alone had doubled from before.

Lin Xuan guided his spiritual power through his meridians in a full circulation. This process had once been difficult, and the flow had been slow, but now it became effortless.

Things were going even better than he had imagined, yet Lin Xuan did not grow impatient or rash. As time passed, he entered the most critical stage. His expression turned grave, and he remained utterly motionless, as if deep in meditation.

Pop. A faint sound rang out, as though something had shattered. All the spiritual energy in his dantian immediately became unstable—or rather, it underwent a rapid transformation. Through his divine sense, he could see that the spiritual energy had deepened in color and become more robust. Though the peak of the first layer and the second layer of the Spirit Movement Stage were only one step apart, it was a qualitative transformation.

The instant he broke through to the second layer, Lin Xuan immediately sensed the difference. Both the quantity and quality of the spiritual energy in his dantian had improved greatly.

Though Lin Xuan was delighted, his expression remained calm. This was entirely within his expectations. With a vast supply of Marrow Cleansing Pills supporting him, it would have been truly strange if he had still failed to break through the bottleneck.

This successful breakthrough also proved that medicinal pills could indeed make up for the flaw of lacking a Spirit Root. Lin Xuan was filled with confidence in his path to immortality.

After carefully savoring the wonderful feeling of entering the second layer of the Spirit Movement Stage, Lin Xuan began making plans for the future. The road ahead was still long and arduous. His cultivation remained far behind that of his fellow disciples, and his most urgent task was to catch up from behind.

Leaving everything else aside, just the Spirit Tools he had looted from Zhou Yan and Zhang Yu could not be activated without fourth-layer Spirit Movement Stage cultivation. He could only stare at them and salivate. Thus, what he needed to do now was still to raise his strength as quickly as possible.

With that in mind, Lin Xuan sat cross-legged and prepared to use the inner vision technique to inspect his physical condition. Only then could he arrange his next training plan according to the specifics.

However, what Lin Xuan discovered next was entirely unexpected.

The change came from his dantian. Apart from the growth of his spiritual power, the Star Sea had also expanded by a full circle. There were more light spots, and they shone more brightly.

How could this be?

Lin Xuan rested his head on one hand and sank into thought. Could the Star Sea grow in direct proportion to his cultivation level? The higher his spiritual power, the stronger the Star Sea's energy?

The inference seemed somewhat inconceivable on the surface, but upon careful thought, it was perfectly reasonable. Moreover, it solved a problem that had long troubled Lin Xuan deep within.

First was the speed of purification. Though the light spots in the Star Sea could recover after being depleted, that still required a certain amount of time, which was unfavorable for purifying large quantities of pills. Previously, the Star Sea within Lin Xuan could at most support the purification of two Waste Pills. Now that its volume had doubled, purifying four pills in succession should not be a problem.

Second was the long-term consideration. According to Lin Xuan's conjecture, since the Blue Light Spots could purify Marrow Cleansing Pills, they should also be able to purify other pills.

Marrow Cleansing Pills were the lowest-grade spirit medicine. Relatively speaking, fewer kinds of medicinal ingredients were used to refine them, and their impurities were correspondingly simpler. Other, higher-grade spirit medicines contained more complex impurities, so their purification would consume more light spots. If the Star Sea's volume did not change, it might not even be enough to support the purification of a single pill.

Lin Xuan had already tested this: the purification process could not be interrupted, or the pill would be ruined. Though this weakness had not yet revealed itself, one who had no far-sighted worries would soon face near troubles. Lin Xuan was already planning for the future.

If things were truly as he had guessed—if the Star Sea grew in tandem with his spiritual power, and the higher his spiritual power, the stronger the Star Sea's energy—then this problem would be solved as easily as a knife cutting through bamboo.

Of course, whether that was truly the case still required time to confirm. As his spiritual power increased, he would have to see whether the Star Sea continued to grow in step with it.