Source Opening

In terms of value, the total worth of these items had already exceeded tens of thousands of taels!

This was an amount Lu Wangchuan had never possessed since crossing over!

In terms of significance, the Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps could grant him an extremely powerful movement technique, greatly improving him in battle, escape, travel, and every other aspect.

The pill formula could save him countless taels of silver, since finished pills were considerably more expensive than finished Body Strengthening Soup.

Lu Wangchuan hid each item away one by one. A man was innocent, but possessing jade became his crime. If a mere Bone Forging cultivator like him exposed these treasures, it would only invite a fatal disaster.

Moreover, to prevent thieves and bandits from paying him a visit, Lu Wangchuan hid them separately rather than storing everything in one place.

After finishing this, he immediately began cultivating the Dao Embryo Breathing Method.

After learning it and imprinting it onto the Light Screen, Lu Wangchuan directly added points.

This time, the qi and blood within his body boiled wildly, several times more intense than when he had added points to the Mountain Splitting Fist or Eight Section Brocade.

Had Lu Wangchuan not cultivated for over half a year and broken through to Bone Forging, giving him an incomparably sturdy physique, he likely would not have been able to endure it.

When his qi and blood gradually calmed and the Dao Embryo Breathing Method rose to the first level, Lu Wangchuan discovered that a full eight hundred points of qi and blood had vanished!

"Impressive! The Mountain Splitting Fist and Eight Section Brocade only need one hundred points of qi and blood for each breakthrough, but the Dao Embryo Breathing Method actually requires eight hundred!"

However, when Lu Wangchuan tried cultivating it once and circulating the qi through the meridians in his body, he discovered that it was truly worth every penny.

In the same amount of time, cultivating the Dao Embryo Breathing Method once was actually equivalent to cultivating the Eight Section Brocade at Great Perfection.

And this was only the first level of the Dao Embryo Breathing Method. If it reached Great Perfection, who knew how many times greater the cultivation and qi-and-blood gains from a single day would be!

With over eight hundred points of qi and blood remaining, Lu Wangchuan did not hesitate. He added points again, raising the Dao Embryo Breathing Method to the second level, then began cultivating in earnest.

The battle outside the city soon ended. Though the Black Lotus Society was arrogant, they did not dare remain exposed before everyone for long. If they drew the Imperial Court's army, they would undoubtedly die.

The Imperial Court naturally launched a thorough search afterward. Martial law was declared within the city for a full three months, and even the Martial Halls suspended their teaching. Yet by the time the restrictions were gradually lifted, four or five months had already passed.

During this period, Lu Wangchuan obediently stayed home cultivating. Even after the restrictions were completely lifted, he did not immediately become too active.

And so, after another six months, Lu Wangchuan finally welcomed another breakthrough.

That day, the qi and blood in his body roared. Acupoints across his entire body opened, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth flowed into him at a faster rate, announcing that he had broken through to the fourth level of the Physical Body Realm—Source Opening!

Source Opening meant opening the body's one hundred and eight acupoints, accelerating the absorption of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, drawing qi into the body more quickly, and promoting the fleshly body's evolution toward the fifth level, the Dantian Realm.

The changes brought by this level were the greatest. After breaking through, not only did one cultivate faster, one also became as light as a swallow!

One had to know that as one's strength grew and the physical body became more powerful, its weight also increased, because spiritual energy began to be compressed and contained within the meridians.

Before Source Opening, the physical body might have been powerful, but it was not sufficiently agile. After Source Opening, speed underwent a tremendous leap, and practical combat ability soared by leaps and bounds!

Lu Wangchuan opened his eyes, pressed a palm against the floor, and borrowed the rebound force. His body instantly shot from one end of the Training Room to the other. The distance of over twenty meters was crossed in the blink of an eye, swift as lightning.

"What incredible speed. Even if I encountered Fine Steel Crossbow bolts now, I could easily evade them."

The corners of Lu Wangchuan's lips rose. Every explosive surge in strength was what made him happiest.

He summoned the Light Screen again, and the changes were obvious.

Name: Lu Wangchuan.

Cultivation: Source Opening Realm.

Qi and blood: 1950.

Techniques: Mountain Splitting Fist (seventh level), Dao Embryo Breathing Method (fourth level), Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps (not cultivated)

"First, I'll learn the Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps."

He had only added points to the Dao Embryo Breathing Method before because he had not stepped outside for the past few months, quietly cultivating and building himself up at home. Under those circumstances, there was naturally no need to strengthen his movement technique; he merely needed to continuously raise his cultivation and qi and blood.

Now that he was preparing to go out, he needed to improve his speed and gain a few more chances to preserve his life.

His qi and blood boiled and churned. A moment later, the Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps rose to the first level.

The Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps cost even more qi and blood than the Dao Embryo Breathing Method, consuming a full thousand points!

Only a little over two hundred points of qi and blood remained.

Lu Wangchuan tested it out. His speed was more than twice as fast as before, so fast that even he had a slight delay in reacting.

Yet what delighted him even more was that this Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps movement technique was somewhat similar to the body-tempering arts among external techniques. Repeated use could also slightly increase cultivation and qi and blood, since it was equivalent to accumulating gains through exercise.

Though the gains were minute and could not compare to dedicated body-tempering arts or internal cultivation methods like the Dao Embryo Breathing Method, even a mosquito was still meat. Over time, the accumulation could become quite a respectable surplus.

After completing all this, he swiftly left the Lu residence and went out to purchase the materials required by the pill formula.

Having broken through to Source Opening, with his physical body transformed once more, and with the Dao Embryo Breathing Method cultivated to the fourth level along with the Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps, the previous Body Strengthening Soup was truly no longer enough for him.

It was like eating. If one did not eat well enough, one would quickly exhaust oneself while working, become hungry, and be unable to continue.

Xiao Wu was sweeping the courtyard with Xiao Yue when he suddenly raised his head and said with a frown, "Xiao Yue, did you just see a big black rat run out?"

"What big black rat? Are your eyes playing tricks on you?"

Lu Wangchuan went to the streets to purchase materials. He first obtained some from the Longtai Merchant House, but he did not buy all the materials there, lest Lao Tan notice something suspicious.

If Lao Tan guessed that Lu Wangchuan had obtained the pill formula amid the chaos at Moon Gazing Pavilion, it would inevitably become another source of trouble.

In troubled times, the human heart was unfathomable. It was better to remain on guard.

He also did not purchase a pill furnace. That thing was far too conspicuous and easily exposed him; more importantly, it was exceedingly expensive.

Though he had some silver, he was ultimately not from some wealthy, powerful household. Martial cultivation consumed immense wealth, so he had to plan carefully and split every copper coin in two.

Lu Wangchuan chose to prepare it directly as he had the Body Strengthening Soup. After boiling the ingredients according to the formula's list and producing Spirit Elixir, he would drink it directly rather than refine it into pills, saving quite a bit of time.

Others refined it into pills because Spirit Elixir easily lost the nutrients within through evaporation, while pills were easier to preserve.

Furthermore, Spirit Elixir was not as concentrated as pills, so it contained far less nourishment by comparison.

It was like a piece of candy and sugar water made by dissolving that candy in water. Eating the candy was easy, but to obtain the same amount of sugar from the water, one had to drink every drop.