Cultivation

Wang Hong returned to that great plaza. This time, he carried a large burlap sack on his back, filled entirely with Spirit Grains.

This was also nearly half a year's yield from his space. After finding a merchant who bought Spirit Grains and haggling back and forth, he finally sold them for one hundred and thirty-five Spirit Stones.

He found the same bookstall where he had bought books last time, intending to purchase a cultivation technique. Wang Hong possessed wood, fire, earth, and water spiritual roots, so he could cultivate techniques from any of those four elements.

The four elemental techniques each had their own distinctive traits, with none superior or inferior to the others. Wood was brimming with vitality, fire was violent and explosive, metal specialized in slaughter, earth was heavy and steadfast, while water was soft yet enduring.

"Come take a look, come have a glance! Every book is a treasure! Don't let this golden opportunity slip away!"

He heard the lanky man's hawking from far away.

"Oh! Brother, long time no see. I've missed you terribly! What book are you buying today?"

The moment he approached the stall, the lanky man greeted him. Wang Hong silently mocked him. He had bought the Comprehensive Guide to Cultivation here only the day before yesterday, and that already counted as a long time no see? He missed him, all right—he probably missed his Spirit Stones.

"No need to miss me. It would show more sincerity if you gave me a twenty percent discount. I'm looking for a wood-element cultivation technique." Wang Hong grinned and seized the pole as soon as the snake offered it.

After careful thought, Wang Hong decided that he still liked wood-element techniques best. Since each had its own strengths and weaknesses, he might as well choose what he liked.

"Oh, brother, I only make a little hard-earned money. Ask around if you like—my books are already the cheapest in the whole city." The lanky man cried miserably.

Wang Hong rummaged through the piles of books and found several wood-element techniques: the Yi Wood Art, the Green Wood Longevity Technique, and the Evergreen Technique.

After comparing them, Wang Hong ultimately chose the Yi Wood Art. This technique was the most widespread. It had no particular advantages, but no glaring flaws either. It was relatively easy to get started with, making it most suitable for a Rogue Cultivator like Wang Hong, who had no one to guide him and had to feel his way across the river by touching the stones.

Wang Hong also selected a copy of the Spirit Medicine Illustrated Record. Although the Comprehensive Guide to Cultivation contained information on spirit herbs as well, it was far too simple and included few medicinal herbs. The Spirit Medicine Illustrated Record gave detailed introductions to more than a thousand kinds of Medicinal Herbs, including their characteristics and effects.

His space could grow spirit medicines, and he would certainly be dealing with all kinds of them often in the future. He might as well familiarize himself with them in advance.

The lanky man's words were warm beyond measure, but when it came to collecting Spirit Stones, he did not yield an inch. He charged Wang Hong forty Spirit Stones for the two books, not a half-stone less.

Having bought his cultivation technique, Wang Hong did not linger in the city. He hurried back to the camp, summoned the five squad leaders, and told them to enter the city in batches to familiarize themselves with its surroundings—especially the market, its goods, and their prices.

He also gave each of them two Spirit Stones to buy supplies, especially clothing. After several months of fighting, the dozens of them were all dressed in tatters, looking like beggars.

Wang Hong instructed them not to disturb him unless something happened over the next few days, then ducked into his space. He first placed one Spirit Stone on the soil of the space, then placed another on the wooden rack.

He carefully observed the changes in the two Spirit Stones. After a quarter of an hour, a small corner of the Spirit Stone on the soil vanished. Once that corner disappeared, only a tiny trace of powder remained.

Spirit Stones could become the currency of the cultivation world because they contained vast amounts of spiritual energy. Cultivators could refine and absorb it, and it could also be used in artifact forging, alchemy, array formation, and more. Once the spiritual energy inside a Spirit Stone was exhausted, only a tiny amount of powder would remain.

The Spirit Stone on the wooden rack was exactly as it had been before, without the slightest change. It appeared that the soil was absorbing spiritual energy.

Yet after absorbing spiritual energy, the soil showed no visible changes. Perhaps it absorbed too little.

Wang Hong tossed another ten Spirit Stones onto the soil and let it absorb them slowly, then went to read.

After a while, all the Spirit Stones disappeared. Wang Hong gritted his teeth and directly scattered fifty Spirit Stones across the soil.

When the fifty Spirit Stones had all vanished as well, Wang Hong carefully sensed the space. This time, he finally discovered something, and a smile could not help appearing at the corner of his mouth.

As a Xiantian Stage expert, Wang Hong's senses were naturally extraordinarily sharp. The space had become just a tiny bit larger than before.

Wang Hong muttered to himself. It had absorbed more than seventy Spirit Stones, yet only expanded by such a little. Many Rogue Cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage could not earn that many Spirit Stones even in a year.

It seemed expanding the space would be extremely difficult as well. He would have to take it slowly.

Inside the space, Wang Hong studied the first level of the Yi Wood Art until he knew it inside out before coming back out.

Facing east, he sat cross-legged in a five-hearts-facing-heaven posture, slowly circulated the technique, and simultaneously sensed and absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

As the technique circulated, the abundant Internal Energy of his Xiantian Stage gradually transformed into strands of green spiritual power.

After the technique completed seven cycles, all the Internal Energy in his body had vanished into thin air. In the end, only a small mass of green gas remained within his dantian, slowly revolving like a vortex.

Though it was only a small mass, it was hundreds of times more condensed and pure than his previous Internal Energy.

Once all his Internal Energy had transformed, he continued sensing and absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. With that small mass of spiritual power in his dantian as a foundation, absorbing spiritual power was now much easier.

He could feel wisps and threads of spiritual energy entering his body through his mouth and nose with every breath, then slowly dissipating. Only a pitifully tiny amount remained in his body and transformed into spiritual power. This was probably because his spiritual root aptitude was poor.

Wang Hong did not lose heart. He continued circulating the technique, moving that tiny bit of spiritual power through his entire body. With every circuit, it grew a fraction stronger.

After cultivating for an entire day, another small strand of spiritual power had appeared in Wang Hong's dantian, merging into the vortex and slowly revolving.

As Wang Hong sensed the fruits of a day's cultivation, heroic spirit surged within him. From this day onward, he too counted as a cultivator. In the future, once he mastered immortal arts, soaring through the skies and burrowing through the earth would be just around the corner.

Over the following days, Wang Hong cultivated steadily inside his tent. He discovered that the Dragon Tiger Elixirs he had consumed before still had some effect on his current cultivation.

Thus, Wang Hong swallowed several Dragon Tiger Elixirs every day, then ate a meal of Spirit Rice. His cultivation progress was not slow.

One day, Wang Hong harvested more than ten stalks each of hundred-year Ginseng, Purple Ganoderma, and White Jade Ganoderma from his space, wrapping them into more than a dozen small packets.

Wang Hong entered Qingxu City alone and visited more than a dozen spirit medicine shops, selling one small packet at each. A hundred or so Spirit Stones was not too much for these large medicine shops, not enough to make them covet wealth and harbor evil intentions.

Hundred-year Ginseng and ganoderma could only sell for twenty or thirty Spirit Stones, but hundred-year White Jade Ganoderma was considered excellent Healing Medicine even in the cultivation world and could sell for eighty or ninety Spirit Stones.

After selling everything, he had obtained more than two thousand Spirit Stones in total. Unfortunately, he could not sell them this way again anytime soon. It would be too easy to attract attention, and that would be troublesome.

Wang Hong casually bought some spirit medicines from the stalls scattered around the plaza, returned to his tent, then harvested some more Medicinal Herbs from his space and mixed them together.

He gathered the five squad leaders. "Zhao Ning, Xu Lun, Zhang Chunfeng, Luo Zhongjie, Wen Lan—how well have your five squads come to understand that market? Have you become familiar with the various Medicinal Herbs?"

"During this time, we've spent every day hanging around that market. Together with studying the Spirit Medicine Illustrated Record passed down by General, we have become familiar with identifying common spirit herbs and with their prices."

Wang Hong casually tested them with several more spirit medicines and found that they had also mastered the common ones. Though there were still some shortcomings, they could slowly make up for them later.

Then Wang Hong handed the five of them a large bundle of spirit medicines and one hundred Spirit Stones. Starting tomorrow, they were to take turns setting up a stall at the market, selling while purchasing. The hundred Spirit Stones would serve as their starting capital and be jointly managed by all five.

In truth, his main objective was still to unload the Medicinal Herbs from his space and exchange them for Spirit Stones.

Since the soil in the space could upgrade and expand by absorbing Spirit Stones, he had to think of every possible way to earn more Spirit Stones and increase the area of the space.

The single mu of land he had now was simply too small. It could not grow much at all. Moreover, spirit herbs in the cultivation world often took decades or even centuries to mature; with too little land, there was no room to turn things over.

Besides, what farmer would ever think they had too much land? Naturally, the more the better.

After reading the Spirit Medicine Illustrated Record, he had gained some understanding of spirit medicines. Some had originally been ordinary plants in the mortal world, but became spirit medicines after growing in places rich with spiritual energy and absorbing that energy.

Several herbs in his space, such as Ginseng, Purple Ganoderma, and Solomon's Seal, were like this. There were also spirit medicines unique to the cultivation world, which his space did not yet contain.

Spirit medicines were divided into several grades. Their grade depended on both the species of spirit medicine and its years of growth.

Some species of spirit medicine only needed several decades of growth to reach the second grade, while others remained merely first grade even after a hundred years.

So long as they grew long enough, even the most ordinary spirit medicines could become high-grade spirit medicines. For example, if a blade of weed grew for ten thousand years in a place dense with spiritual energy, it too could become an immortal herb. Of course, ten-thousand-year spirit medicines were only legends; no one in the cultivation world had ever had the fortune to witness one. Even thousand-year spirit medicines were enough to make Nascent Soul old monsters smash their heads together.

Wang Hong now planned to sell off some of the spirit medicines in his space and plant spirit medicines of somewhat higher grade. The Ginseng currently in his space needed a hundred years of growth before it was worth any Spirit Stones at all. That was far too uneconomical.