Lingnan Town.
A small boat slipped into the deep sea beneath the cover of night, and before long, entered an endless bank of dense fog.
This trip out.
Without realizing it, another two months had passed.
With no martial path left for him to cultivate, Chen Sanshi could only practice the Five Elements Art day and night. At last, he had reached the threshold of another breakthrough.
His spirit root, complete in all five elements, continuously drew spiritual energy from the spirit pearl. After being refined through complex circulation cycles, it returned to his dantian, changing from a wisp of ethereal white mist into something increasingly solid, its quantity growing as well.
Two strands...
Five strands...
Until ten strands had condensed, they twisted together in his dantian into a rope-thick mass of mist.
Finally.
The System Panel stirred.
Technique: Five Elements Art. Qi Refining Early Stage Progress: 0/500
The proficiency required for the second layer had not increased and remained at five hundred. In truth, the first through third layers were all collectively called the early stage. The reason for such detailed divisions lay entirely in the cultivation method itself.
A year!
It had been nearly a year since Ziwei Mountain.
Yet he had only barely reached Qi Refining Second Layer, unable even to fly on a sword.
Moreover, it was said that cultivation became exponentially more difficult starting from the Qi Refining Mid Stage. Judging by the aptitude of his spirit root, it would take him roughly forty years to reach Peak Qi Refining, while his chance of Foundation Establishment was... zero!
This trip.
Besides the various materials needed for True Force Realm cultivation, he also needed to obtain some magic cultivator techniques, pill formulas, and the materials for them.
At the stern.
"Chen Sanshi, I caught