My Low-Grade Spiritual Aperture Can Be Saved!

Li Xiuchang understood that with his aptitude, if he wanted to raise his Cultivation Level quickly, he could only spend money.

He had Wang Long accompany him to the marketplace, where he went on a buying spree.

Pills? Buy them!

At the Early Qi Condensation stage, he was still laying his foundation, so it was unsuitable to take Breakthrough Pills. However, he could still take many pills that aided cultivation.

Spirit Gathering Fire Formation? Buy it!

Fire Origin Fruit Immortal Brew? Buy a gourd of it!

First-grade Spirit Raising Soup? Bring him a bowl!

First-grade Waste Spirit Plant? He wouldn't even look at it! Buy second-grade ones!

Wang Long hurriedly tried to stop him. "Junior Brother, second-grade Spirit Plants are at the Foundation Establishment level. You can't absorb them!"

"Oh, then buy first-grade ones instead. Bring me several varieties!"

"Junior Brother Li, spend sparingly."

"It's fine. Even if I spend a thousand gold pieces, they'll come back to me."

Wang Long watched anxiously from the side. Seeing Li Xiuchang squander money so recklessly, he felt even more pained than if he were spending his own Spirit Stones.

People who had been poor for too long could never stand seeing others waste money without restraint.

Junior Brother Li had suddenly become wealthy at a young age and had never experienced hardship. He didn't know how to be frugal. Forget it, forget it. I can't persuade him anyway. Once he calms down and experiences the emptiness left after such extravagance, he'll naturally change... In the end, Wang Long stopped trying to persuade him.

Over the course of this trip, Li Xiuchang spent more than three hundred Spirit Stones in total!

That was only because everything he bought was first-grade. The first-grade artisans of the Immortal Dust Sect were locked in fierce competition, keeping prices low.

Li Xiuchang didn't care in the slightest about this expense. It was merely three days of income for him.

His current goal was to reach the Third Layer of Qi Condensation at any cost. Once he cultivated Spiritual Sense, what lay before him might be a broad road to prosperity!

After returning to Eastern Geng District, Number Eighteen, Li Xiuchang immediately entered the cultivation room and began secluded cultivation.

Secluded cultivation during the Qi Condensation Stage would not last too long. As long as he remembered to come out every few days to start the fire and marinate the meat, it would not delay the production of Smoked Spirit Meat.

Upon entering the cultivation room, Li Xiuchang first took out the formation plate and set up the first-grade Spirit Gathering Fire Formation he had just purchased.

The Spirit Gathering Fire Formation's function was to imbue all the world's Spiritual Energy within the formation with the fire attribute.

Pure world Spiritual Energy originally had no attribute. Only after being absorbed into the body and transformed by cultivation methods and the cultivator's physique would it turn into attribute-infused magic power.

The Spirit Gathering Fire Formation effectively imbued the world's Spiritual Energy with the fire attribute in advance. This saved Li Xiuchang a great deal of trouble during cultivation and allowed him to save quite a bit of time.

Most importantly, this fire-attribute Spiritual Energy would not be transformed into wood-attribute Spiritual Power by the "Fire Starting Skill." Thus, Li Xiuchang could cultivate all the Spiritual Energy he absorbed into fire-attribute Spiritual Power.

As for wood-attribute Spiritual Power, he could rely entirely on absorbing it from Spirit Wood.

For Li Xiuchang, wood-attribute Spiritual Power could be obtained from Spirit Wood. Fire-attribute Spiritual Power was the key factor restricting his cultivation speed.

The greater the "fire," the faster he cultivated.

The Spirit Gathering Fire Formation was merely Li Xiuchang's first step in strengthening his "fire." He took out a large gourd and drank a mouthful of the pale-red liquor inside.

It was pungent and fiery as it entered his mouth, as though a flame had burned all the way from Li Xiuchang's mouth into his stomach. It then transformed into a flowing wave of heat and shifted to the location of Li Xiuchang's dantian.

This first-grade Fire Origin Fruit Immortal Brew could stimulate the Spiritual Aperture, temporarily increasing its ability to absorb fire-attribute energy.

Immortal Brew was intoxicating. High-grade Immortal Brew was said to be capable of knocking immortals flat, so Li Xiuchang didn't dare drink too much and only took a few small sips.

After putting away the wine gourd, he drank the Spirit Raising Soup that increased cultivation speed, then swallowed several pills that aided cultivation.

After all these preparations, Li Xiuchang let out a belch and was completely stuffed.

He then took out several pieces of first-grade Spirit Wood and arranged them one by one before him.

But that wasn't all...

Li Xiuchang pulled out a handful of Spirit Stones and, without even counting them, threw them all into the Spirit Eye beside him.

In an instant, Spiritual Energy surged from the Spirit Eye like a spring erupting, causing the Spiritual Energy density in the cramped cultivation room to rise by several levels.

"Not enough!"

Li Xiuchang took out another handful of Spirit Stones and threw them into the Spirit Eye.

This time, the Spiritual Energy grew so dense that it became visible to the naked eye. The entire cultivation room was shrouded in a thin mist.

However, the thin mist was quickly dyed a faint red by the Spirit Gathering Fire Formation.

"Still not enough!"

Li Xiuchang once again lavishly tossed a large handful of Spirit Stones into the Spirit Eye.

After three deposits, he had already thrown in more than a hundred Spirit Stones.

This time, the Spiritual Energy was so dense that the entire cultivation room seemed to have become a sauna, wreathed in clouds and mist.

After all this Spiritual Energy was transformed into fire-attribute energy, the temperature in the cultivation room soared. Li Xiuchang's skin felt scorched, and even breathing in was unbearably hot.

Li Xiuchang finally nodded in satisfaction. The preparations were complete. He could begin cultivating...

After trying to circulate his cultivation method once, Li Xiuchang felt his cultivation speed and couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.

"My low-grade Spiritual Aperture can be saved!"

Li Xiuchang remained in seclusion for ten days. He came out only twice during that time, both times to marinate the Spirit Meat and stoke the furnace.

To reduce the number of times he disturbed Li Xiuchang, Senior Brother Wang Long adjusted the work schedule of the hundred furnaces, making their progress completely synchronized. That way, Li Xiuchang only needed to come out once every four days.

Over the course of ten days, two more batches of Smoked Spirit Meat came out of the furnaces. Including his income from collecting smoke, Li Xiuchang earned nearly fifteen hundred Spirit Stones.

However, he had also spent money like water during those ten days, so he didn't have much left in savings.

Wang Long had originally thought that Li Xiuchang would rein himself in after indulging once. He hadn't expected Li Xiuchang to become even more extravagant.

Every time Wang Long went to the marketplace to purchase supplies, Li Xiuchang would ask him to bring back a huge pile of things: pills, Immortal Brew, Spirit Delicacies, Spirit Wood... Each trip cost two or three hundred Spirit Stones.

"When Junior Brother Li comes out of seclusion, I really have to advise him this time. If he keeps spending like this, how are we supposed to live?" Wang Long muttered to himself.

He still didn't know how many Spirit Stones Li Xiuchang had poured into the Spirit Eye over those ten days. Otherwise, his heart might have ached to death.

As he was speaking, Li Xiuchang pushed open the door and strode into the courtyard, brimming with confidence.

"Junior Brother." Wang Long was just about to say something when his expression suddenly froze. "You... you broke through?!"

"Mm." Li Xiuchang nodded. "It's been a month since I joined the sect. I finally reached the Second Layer of Qi Condensation."

Wang Long wanted to say, "That was fast," but the words reached his lips and then died there.

For an ordinary outer disciple, breaking through from the First Layer of Qi Condensation to the Second Layer of Qi Condensation in a year counted as quite fast. Li Xiuchang had done it in only a month, which truly was astonishingly fast.

However, when Wang Long thought of all the resources Li Xiuchang had consumed and all the Spirit Stones he had spent, he couldn't bring himself to offer that praise.

You finally broke through!

With all those resources, even if they had been fed to pigs, they should have raised a Pig Demon to the Second Layer of Qi Condensation by now... This thought kept surfacing in his mind.

Then Wang Long felt guilty for thinking that way. Junior Brother Li's ability to earn so many Spirit Stones was itself a skill. Pigs couldn't earn that many Spirit Stones.

Li Xiuchang had no idea Wang Long was having such a rich inner monologue. He asked, "Senior Brother, today is another day to go to the marketplace for supplies, right?"

"Yes. Is there anything you want me to bring back?"

"No need. I'll go with you today. I'm planning to pick out a flying boat."

"Right, right. You're at the Second Layer of Qi Condensation now, so you can pilot a flying boat yourself. It'll make going anywhere much more convenient."

Wang Long paused, then asked, "What kind of flying boat does Junior Brother want to buy? I know several artifact refiners. They're all fellow disciples and can provide custom flying boat services. For example, accelerated flying boats, invisible flying boats, amphibious flying boats... The price is a little higher, but it shouldn't be a problem for you."

Li Xiuchang waved his hand. "A flying boat is merely a means of transportation. We can't start throwing money around just because we've earned a little. We should save some Spirit Stones and buy the most ordinary one."

Wang Long: ??

You're the one who's been wildly extravagant, and now you want to be frugal when buying a flying boat?

You've said everything there is to say!