Cultivation Acceleration (Requesting Follows Monthly Tickets Recommendation Tickets)

Afterward, Zhou Ling poured Chu Xing and Zhou Shan each a bowl of wine, then returned to his room.

In the hall, Chu Xing and Zhou Shan continued discussing their upcoming trip into the mountains.

"This time, we have to prepare so many things. I'm afraid we'll be heading deeper in."

"With Father's cultivation, he shouldn't be entering the Inner Mountain to begin with!"

Hearing the two men talking outside, Zhou Ling sighed.

Originally, these matters were not his to worry about, but now that he could forge First-Grade Low-Rank Magic Artifacts, he wanted to help his parents shoulder more of the burden.

Especially whenever they entered the Inner Mountain, his mother was always on tenterhooks.

Seeing it made him feel miserable too.

"Right, if I can successfully forge one more Thunder Fire Bead this time, giving it to Father would be no small safeguard!"

Zhou Ling suddenly thought of this.

Master Lu had given him six Artifact Beads.

And as long as he forged three, he would have completed the task.

The rest would be his.

So, as long as his Success Rate improved a little, he could earn a bit more.

With that in mind, Zhou Ling sorted out the thunder and fire Spirit Ink and arranged the Spirit Paper.

However, after repairing the Thick Earth Shield earlier, his Internal Spiritual Power was now less than twenty percent full.

Zhou Ling scratched his head and muttered, "Looks like I won't be able to continue drawing Thunder Fire Engravings this afternoon!"

Although there were still two hours until nightfall, given the current strength of Zhou Ling's meridians, there was a limit to how long he could circulate his cultivation art and absorb Spiritual Power each day.

Cultivating for two or three hours a day was already his limit.

But Zhou Ling did not want to waste time like this.

What should he do?

"Right, Fire Haze Grass!"

Zhou Ling immediately took out the two stalks of Fire Haze Grass Chu Xing had given him from his robes.

Fire Haze Grass was an auxiliary spirit item for cultivating the Spirit Flame Art.

He had cultivated the Spirit Flame Art for three years already. From barely being able to circulate it through one cycle when he had first begun, he could now complete seven cycles in one go.

But he had never used any auxiliary spirit items, so his overall progress had been slow.

Now that he had Fire Haze Grass in hand, he would test just how much it could advance the Spirit Flame Art.

He would also see what kind of talent attribute [Spirit Medicine Reaction] was.

Zhou Ling immediately circulated the Spirit Flame Art, gripping the Fire Haze Grass in his hand as he began trying to absorb the spiritual qi contained within it.

Refined by the Spiritual Power of the Spirit Flame Art, wisps of Fire Attribute Spiritual Power soon flowed from the Fire Haze Grass and were drawn into Zhou Ling's body.

The moment it entered his meridians, Zhou Ling felt waves of scorching pain.

The medicinal power of the Fire Haze Grass was exceptionally domineering, like a tiny flame serpent darting wildly through his meridians.

The burning pain in his meridians lasted for the time it took an incense stick to burn. Zhou Ling was drenched in sweat, yet he gritted his teeth and circulated the Spirit Flame Art, using his Spiritual Power to refine the Fire Haze Grass Spiritual Power he had just absorbed.

[You are absorbing Fire Haze Grass. Stronger from Adversity +1, Spiritual Qi +3]

[You are absorbing Fire Haze Grass. Spirit Medicine Reaction +1, Fire Haze Grass medicinal power +1]

As the notification sounded, the burning pain in his meridians gradually weakened.

The Spiritual Power contained within the spirit medicine was also completely refined.

Accordingly, the Spiritual Power within his body gradually increased.

Before long, the Spiritual Power inside him surged like a bottle filled to the brim with water.

The next moment, two popping sounds rang out.

Vast medicinal power burst forth in an instant, spreading throughout his meridians and transforming into incomparably pure Spiritual Power.

Under the impact of the Fire Haze Grass's Spiritual Power, two Spiritual Acupoints opened in succession within just a few breaths.

This brought Zhou Ling's Spiritual Acupoints to twenty-four, taking a great step toward the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation.

"So this is the benefit of Fire Haze Grass!"

"No wonder cultivation progresses so quickly with auxiliary spirit items!"

After the Spiritual Power within his body had completely stabilized, Zhou Ling opened his eyes and gently exhaled, his face brimming with delight.

It had been more than two months since he entered the Third Layer of Qi Condensation, and he had only opened one additional Spiritual Acupoint.

And now, he was nearly eight years old.

At this pace, entering the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation before the age of ten would not be easy.

Especially since the Third and Fourth Layers of Qi Condensation were separated by a bottleneck.

Breaking through was no easy task.

Yet this first refinement of Fire Haze Grass had unexpectedly activated two Spiritual Acupoints at once.

Zhou Ling could feel that the spiritual power he had heavily depleted had now fully recovered, and had even improved by quite a bit.

"For it to have such an effect this time, the two talents, [Stronger from Adversity] and [Spirit Medicine Reaction], played a major role as well!"

As Zhou Ling reflected on what had just happened, he thought to himself.

At the same time, he pondered the properties of those two talents.

The [Stronger from Adversity] talent meant that no matter what adversity he faced, as long as he remained unyielding, he could unleash even greater potential.

Just like the searing pain of the Fire Haze Grass's medicinal power burning through his meridians earlier—if he had been unable to bear the pain and given up refining the medicine's power, he would have gained nothing at all.

As for [Spirit Medicine Reaction], judging from what had just happened, it enhanced the effects of medicinal power.

He had only absorbed the medicinal power of two stalks of Fire Haze Grass, but under the effects of [Spirit Medicine Reaction], the amount of medicinal power he truly absorbed was doubled.

"With this effect, I need to earn more spirit stones and buy Fire Haze Grass as soon as possible!"

Zhou Ling thought to himself.

Seeing that it was still light outside the window and that the hall beyond was silent, Chu Xing had presumably already left.

Zhou Ling drank a few mouthfuls of water, then picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

After calming himself a little, he began drawing the Thunder Fire Array again.

He picked up the Engraving Brush, dipped it in Spirit Ink, and set it to the paper.

This time, everything went incomparably smoothly.

As he lifted his brush after the final stroke, a slender flash of lightning seemed to flicker across the Spirit Paper.

In an instant, a Thunder Fire Engraving condensed upon the Spirit Paper.

[You are drawing a Thunder Fire Engraving. Born to Excel +1, Engraving Proficiency +1]

[You are drawing an engraving. Precise Control +1, Engraving Proficiency +1]

"It's finally done!"

Zhou Ling's heart surged with excitement.

But soon, sensing the depletion of the spiritual power within him, Zhou Ling frowned again.

Though he had successfully drawn it, nearly half of his spiritual power had still been consumed.

Zhou Ling could only temporarily give up on continuing to draw.

He left his room and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

That night, he successfully drew another Thunder Fire Engraving on Spirit Paper. As his proficiency rose, his spiritual power consumption also noticeably decreased.

As his engraving proficiency increased, the changes in these engravings became increasingly less difficult for him to grasp.

The next day was still a Rest Day. During the day, Zhou Ling successfully drew another two Thunder Fire Engravings on Spirit Paper.

Only when he felt he had grasped it well enough did Zhou Ling take out the Thunder Fire Bead artifact and begin formally engraving it.

Engraving on an artifact consumed far more spiritual power than engraving on Spirit Paper.

It was also much harder to control.

The first Thunder Fire Engraving ended in failure.

Zhou Ling could only activate the [Basic Analysis] talent and painstakingly summarize the lessons from his failure.

That night, he rested properly once more.

At dawn the next day, he began another attempt.

This time, he finally succeeded in drawing it.

Over the following days, he attended classes at the Dao Academy during the day and refined Thunder Fire Balls whenever he returned home at night.

Over four days, he successfully refined another three, while one failed.

Out of six Artifact Beads, four had succeeded, leaving Zhou Ling in high spirits.

Not only had he earned seven spirit stones, he had also gained an extra Thunder Fire Bead.

At market price, it would be worth more than a dozen Low-grade Spirit Stones.