Body Tempering Art

What delighted Wang Hong was that he actually found a body-tempering cultivation technique, the "Body Tempering Art," in Hu Qing's storage bag.

This cultivation technique did not place high demands on spiritual roots, but it required consuming vast amounts of resources. Ordinary cultivators mainly absorbed the spiritual qi of heaven and earth through meditation, so they had rather high requirements for spiritual roots.

For this technique, however, the main source of spiritual qi came from all kinds of spirit pills, spirit medicines, and even various foods containing spiritual qi.

The spiritual power gained would then be stimulated throughout every part of the body through a special circulation method.

Wang Hong was overjoyed. He felt this technique suited him perfectly. His spiritual root aptitude was poor, and meditating to cultivate was extremely slow; he had relied entirely on pills to attain his current cultivation.

He lacked everything else, but with his space, he would never lack resources.

This technique mentioned two pills and their formulas: the Body Tempering Pill and the Golden Body Pill. It also listed several spirit fruits, all of which could assist in raising one's body-tempering cultivation.

Wang Hong had Zhang Chunfeng arrange for people to search for the required spirit herbs and spirit fruits.

In truth, this body-tempering technique shared the same wondrous essence through different paths as the "Henglian Liuhe Gong" he had cultivated in the mortal world.

The difference was that one cultivated Internal Energy, while the other cultivated spiritual power.

A thought suddenly occurred to Wang Hong. If he combined these two cultivation techniques, drew together their strengths and weaknesses, and reorganized them into a new technique, could ordinary people without spiritual roots cultivate it?

No sooner thought than done. He decided to test it first. He handed the Body Tempering Art to Zhao Ning and Luo Zhongjie, asking the two of them to copy it out, study it, and try cultivating it to see what results it produced.

Wang Hong swallowed a Qi Gathering Pill and began circulating the "Body Tempering Art." The spiritual power produced by refining the pill did not merge into the vortex in his dantian as usual. Instead, it passed directly through certain meridians, then seeped beyond them into his muscles, bones, and internal organs, nourishing and improving those tissues.

An hour later, the medicinal power of the Qi Gathering Pill had been fully exhausted. Wang Hong could clearly feel that his physical strength had increased somewhat, while his skin had become a degree tougher than before.

Wang Hong felt that he still had strength to spare, so he swallowed another Qi Gathering Pill.

When the medicinal power of the second Qi Gathering Pill was exhausted, he felt soreness and swelling in the muscles all over his body. Several capillaries had even burst, oozing out tiny beads of blood. He discovered that his body had temporarily reached saturation.

With his current cultivation, the Body Tempering Art could help him refine at most two Qi Gathering Pills a day.

That meant that, together with the one Qi Gathering Pill needed for normal spiritual power cultivation, he would consume three Qi Gathering Pills every day—over a hundred a month. That was absolutely an astronomical figure.

Even an ordinary cultivation Lineage could not afford such consumption. Lin Junjie, whom he had killed, had received only two Qi Gathering Pills per month.

Three days later, Zhang Chunfeng reported that among the medicinal herbs for the two pill formulas, they had only managed to gather a complete set for one batch of Body Tempering Pills. For the Golden Body Pill formula, they had found only a small portion. They had not found a single spirit fruit.

At the same time, he brought back news that half a month later, the Myriad Treasures Tower would join forces with several major merchants to hold the annual Ten-Store Joint Auction. Many rare spiritual treasures would appear then.

For the Ten-Store Joint Auction, ten major merchants gathered treasures together for centralized auction. Ordinary cultivators with treasures could also consign them for sale.

Wang Hong pondered it and decided to go take a look when the time came. He had never attended an auction before.

Wang Hong planted all the Body Tempering Pill spirit herbs he had collected in his space, intending to let them propagate for a while before using them to refine pills.

Over the following days, Wang Hong became even busier. Refining three Qi Gathering Pills every day took at least three hours.

With the remaining time, he refined several batches of pills. His alchemy had now improved noticeably, and his pill success rate had reached twenty percent.

Over half a month, Wang Hong refined one hundred batches of Qi Gathering Pills, producing a total of two hundred and thirty pills.

After half a month of cultivation, aided by a large number of Qi Gathering Pills, Wang Hong's cultivation of the "Body Tempering Art" showed obvious results. His strength had increased greatly, and he could now lift a massive stone weighing eight thousand jin.

The Ten-Store Joint Auction was held once a year, mainly for Qi Refinement Realm cultivators.

However, every auction would feature several Foundation Establishment Realm treasures. That was because some treasures could be used not only by Foundation Establishment cultivators, but were also desired by Qi Refinement cultivators.

On the side of the auction building was a small door. More than a dozen people were lined up outside it; it was specifically for accepting items consigned for auction.

Wang Hong joined the line. From time to time, he saw people emerge from the small door. Some wore delighted expressions, some looked dejected, while others kept their faces tightly drawn, doing their utmost not to reveal a trace of emotion.

At last, it was Wang Hong's turn. He entered through the small door and saw an old man seated behind a rosewood table.

"Fellow Daoist, what treasure do you wish to consign for auction? We do not accept items worth less than five hundred Spirit Stones."

Wang Hong hurried forward and placed two jade boxes on the table.

The old man opened one jade box and glanced inside. His originally indifferent expression swiftly turned to delight. Then he opened the other jade box and took a look; his old face bloomed like a chrysanthemum.

"Good! Good! Two three-hundred-year Crimson Blood Ginseng." As he spoke, he handed Wang Hong a token. "After the auction ends, settle the Spirit Stones with this token. We recognize the token, not the person. In addition, the auction will take a ten percent commission."

Wang Hong hastily accepted the wooden token and walked out through the small door with a deeply furrowed brow.

Outside, a cultivator waiting in line saw Wang Hong's expression and said to a companion, "So many people love to overestimate themselves. They want to bring every scrap of broken copper and rotten iron, every withered branch and wild blade of grass here to try their luck."

His companion said, "Ah! How could ordinary Rogue Cultivators have the chance to see true treasures? Our Lineage only has a few treasures left because a Foundation Establishment cultivator once emerged from it. We're selling them this time in exchange for Qi Gathering Pills—perhaps enough for us to cultivate to the late Qi Refinement Realm."

Wang Hong left in a hurry, looking somewhat bedraggled, but inwardly he despised them beyond measure. A few cultivators living off their ancestors' old capital still had the mood to mock others.

Two late Qi Refinement Realm cultivators stood guard at the auction entrance.

Every cultivator entering the auction had to pay a deposit of one thousand Spirit Stones. This was to prevent certain cultivators from maliciously raising bids and then being unable to pay. If that happened, the deposit would be forfeited and not returned. It also raised the threshold for entering the auction.

Wang Hong paid one thousand Spirit Stones at the entrance, and a guard handed him a tiger-head mask. This kind of mask was also a magical artifact, capable of blocking Spiritual Sense probing.

Beyond the door was a deep, dim corridor. Wang Hong put on the mask in the corridor. At the corridor's exit, a guard handed him a number plate.

It was a palm-sized wooden plaque bearing a set of numbers: "697." When the time came, he only needed to raise the number plate once to indicate a single increase in bid. Of course, some people preferred to shout when they got excited, and that was allowed as well.

Emerging from the corridor, he saw a hall that could accommodate several thousand people. Only several hundred had arrived at the moment, so Wang Hong casually found a seat and sat down.

It seemed there was still time. Wang Hong picked two clusters of raspberries from his space and ate while waiting. The raspberries were now as large as fists, covered in black beads the size of fingertips. They were Wang Hong's favorite snack; whenever he had time, he would eat a few.

He bit several little beads into his mouth and lightly pressed them with his tongue. They instantly melted into sweet juice and slid down his throat. There was no need to deliberately circulate his cultivation technique to refine them; in his stomach, they slowly transformed into spiritual power and flowed into his dantian.

Eating one whole fist-sized raspberry provided more spiritual power than he could absorb from an hour of meditation.

By the time he had finished the two clusters of raspberries, the hall was already packed with several thousand people. At the very front, the auction platform slowly rose until it stopped at a height of two zhang.

An old man with white hair and a white beard, bearing the air of an immortal sage, slowly walked onto the auction platform.

He cleared his throat. Once everyone's attention had turned toward him, he said, "Everyone, welcome to this year's Ten-Store Joint Auction. I am Feng Qing, and I will serve as the auctioneer for this event.

"This auction contains a total of eight hundred items and is expected to last one day."