Liver Training Spell

The dark clouds obscured the moon, and the night was deep.

Outside the border town of Nanmo, the shantytown area was immersed in silence.

People were either diligently cultivating or had already fallen into a deep sleep.

At this moment, Du En calmly pushed open his door.

He glanced at the other rooms in the small courtyard. Everyone else had already fallen asleep, consumed by worry. No one noticed him getting up, and naturally, no one saw him quietly leave.

He moved stealthily, squeezing through crowded shacks, and finally reached the adjacent mountain forest. After searching carefully, he found a good spot to practice his spells.

It was pitch black all around, and the surroundings were silent.

Du En stood still, calmed his mind, and then began to circulate the spiritual energy in his dantian.

After a moment of brewing, he raised his hand.

Earth Bullet Technique!

As his spiritual energy flowed out, a one-inch-sized earth bullet, emitting a faint yellow glow, rapidly condensed a few inches in front of his fingers. Then, following his thoughts, it shot out fiercely.

The target was a tree about five feet away. It looked ordinary, but its wood was quite dense, barely comparable to the normal physical defense of someone in the Early Qi Refining stage, making it suitable for comparison.

Crack!

With a faint cracking sound, the earth bullet embedded itself into the tree, causing a damage depth of less than an inch, without any splash damage to the wound.

"The power isn't enough, and the spiritual energy consumption is significant. Even with full spiritual energy, I can only cast it six times."

High consumption, low power. It was as expected for a beginner.

Du En wasn't anxious; he just continued to practice silently.

Every moment of dedicated practice accumulated, bringing tiny changes, reducing consumption, and increasing power, though the improvements were not yet visible to the naked eye.

After every three practice sessions, he would sit cross-legged in the darkness, remaining vigilant against external threats, and circulate his energy to recover.

Practice, recover, practice, recover... Du En repeated this process for several hours in the dead of night.

He only stopped when the fourth watch had passed and the fifth watch was approaching.

Fifteen times!

This was the maximum number of times he could practice each night while reserving some energy and focusing entirely on the spell.

"I can accumulate 1.5 proficiency points per day. No, that's not right. Based on the feeling just now, nine and a half times are enough to accumulate one proficiency point now... It must be the influence of the cultivation technique. Since both are earth-element, there's a positive correlation. So, a higher-level cultivation technique gives a strategic advantage over this spell."

In other words, at this rate, it wouldn't even take seven days for the Earth Bullet Technique to break through to the next stage.

Lost in thought, Du En didn't linger. He left as soon as he could, sneaking back along the small path to the corpse-burying shantytown.

After returning to his room, he observed for a moment before going to sleep.

He didn't sleep long before morning arrived.

Everyone woke up and stretched.

Wei Ming looked listless and couldn't help but yawn. He tried to maintain the state he was in yesterday afternoon but couldn't, sighing with worry.

It was clear he had already experienced the drawbacks of being overly tense and mentally exhausted during the day.

However, his luck was quite good. Over the next six days, they encountered no accidents while burying corpses, and everyone passed safely.

By observing Du En and imitating him, they began to adjust and strive, gradually finding their footing and adapting to the job, effectively shedding their "newbie" status.

They could be considered skilled workers now!

Of course, they couldn't learn how to boil strange owls!

As time passed, Luo Heng's final deadline for demanding protection fees drew closer, causing unease.

The tension in their hearts didn't ease, but seeing Du En, their leader, still calm and unhurried as always, the others could only suppress their worries for now.

After all, only three days were left!

They could ask again tomorrow or the day after!

Du En was naturally aware of the restlessness in their hearts.

However, he maintained his own rhythm, completely unaffected.

On the night of the seventh day, in the forest on the outskirts of the shantytown, Du En skillfully cast an Earth Bullet Technique with its light converged. His Earth Bullet Technique had officially been cultivated to the Initial Glimpse stage!

He closed his eyes slightly, silently experiencing the natural transformation.

The dark forest was silent.

After a while.

Du En opened his eyes, raised his hand, breaking the silence.

The circulation of spiritual energy felt different now, faster and more efficient. It flowed through his meridians and began to overflow, undergoing profound changes. A solid earth bullet, the size of a fist, appeared a few inches in front of his fingers.

As he moved his mind, a soft "swish" sound was heard.

Bang!

The battered tree was immediately blasted open with a bowl-sized hole. Wood chips flew high into the air, followed by a grating creaking sound.

It's about to fall!

However, it didn't actually fall and smash down. Du En stepped forward, raised his hand, and supported it, stopping the trend.

He then drew the machete he carried, chopped down the tree in a few strokes, tidied it up a bit to make it look like firewood, and dragged the tree to the spot where he had spotted it the night before.

Firewood was indeed a basic necessity. He'd leave it here for now and deal with it all reasonably later.

Then, Du En found a corner, sat down, and circulated his energy to recover.

"As expected, there are some changes..."

As soon as he started circulating his technique, he immediately felt a change, even though he wasn't fully focused.

After circulating it once, his magic power had basically recovered. Du En brought up his personal panel.

[Age: 18/91]
[Spiritual Root: Low-grade]
[Cultivation: Early Qi Refining (14/100)]
[Technique: Yellow Earth Technique (Initial Glimpse 2/20)]
[Spell: Earth Bullet Technique (Initial Glimpse 0/20)]
[Divine Ability: None]
[Arts: None]

In these past few days, Du En hadn't been fully focused on cultivating, but the proficiency of the Yellow Earth Technique had increased by two points.

This was clearly a change brought about by the breakthrough in the Earth Bullet Technique.

Just as a higher level in the Yellow Earth Technique allowed him to have an advantage and shorten the time to accumulate proficiency in the Earth Bullet Technique, now the Earth Bullet Technique catching up had, in turn, boosted the proficiency of the Yellow Earth Technique.

"However, the experimental casting just now proved that at the same stage, there won't be the previous effect anymore, and it has returned to the normal situation of one point per ten casts."

"Also, although the power of the Earth Bullet Technique has indeed grown significantly, the underlying cultivation base doesn't seem to match. With the current amount of magic power, I can only cast the spell three times at most."

Next, he would focus on diligently practicing the technique to improve his underlying cultivation base, and then use his advantage of having a higher level to diligently practice spells more quickly.

Du En slightly adjusted his subsequent cultivation plan.

As for now, it was time to take action!