After returning to Little Sam's Card Shop, Duke temporarily set aside his idea of buying a farm. If he couldn't open his Qi Sea, buying a farm would only lose him money.
He waited at home for several days, gathering the recent repair fees until he had scraped together the three 7-Silver Dragon capital.
Then he ran to the Spirit Society and bought a copy of the Rainfall Breathing Technique.
Unlike meditation techniques, which required going to the Spirit Tower to make a rubbing, or blood refining methods, which had to be bought at a monastery, breathing techniques were very easy to obtain. The Spirit Society sold them, and they weren't particularly expensive, either.
Just like the blood refining method, the breathing technique required a signature before it could be read.
After returning home and reading the entire Rainfall Breathing Technique, Xiao Yi's database updated. After calculating for a moment, it gave him a plan for opening his Qi Sea.
"First, buy a Qi Boosting Potion..."
A Qi Boosting Potion cost 7-Silver Dragon, which was equally cheap. Even the poorest families would scrape together enough money to buy one for their children, hoping they could open their Qi Sea.
Of the body's three seas, the Qi Sea was the easiest to open.
But the odds still exceeded one in a hundred. Only one person out of more than a hundred could successfully open it, and Duke's predecessor had been outside even those odds.
He drank the potion.
He swished it around twice, then drank every last drop of the medicinal residue.
Quietly waiting for the Qi Boosting Potion to take effect, Duke—eyes closed and inwardly observing his Spiritual Sea—soon felt something begin to swell and dart chaotically around his lower abdomen.
Within the Spiritual Sea, Xiao Yi released several rays of light that shone toward its depths.
Duke had experience opening his Blood Sea. Now, he followed the familiar process, sending his thoughts after the light Xiao Yi projected and flying forward continuously until he reached a new vortex gate.
Unlike the blood-red vortex gate of the Blood Sea, this one was pale green.
Xiao Yi's light passed straight through the vortex gate.
Duke's thoughts followed it through.
Before his eyes, he had left the starry Spiritual Sea and entered a verdant mass of qi. Clouds and mist churned within it, strange and wondrous.
He couldn't see into the distance, yet he could sense an expanse without end.
Whoosh!
Inhale!
The green mass of qi continuously expanded and compressed in a special rhythm, as though someone were breathing.
The Qi Sea!
The rhythm of this Qi Sea possessed an intense infectious power.
Duke's thoughts couldn't help but follow along, breathing in a calm rhythm until he gradually became immersed in it.
But Xiao Yi did not stop working.
Just as when it had opened the Blood Sea, its light spread outward in all directions across the Qi Sea, outlining the entire hazy sea as a cloud. That outline consisted of one energy pathway after another, maintaining the breathing rhythm of the entire cloud.
After an unknown amount of time,
Duke leisurely awoke from that strange breathing rhythm.
His vision was still his own bedroom, and his cross-legged posture had not changed, as if he had merely taken a nap. Yet when he focused, he could feel a rhythm of "breathing" in his mind, pulsing ceaselessly and filling him with a clear, carefree feeling.
There was also the sound of his heartbeat, loud as thunder.
The Blood Sea's resonant hum and the Qi Sea's rhythm.
Both had formed projections within the Spiritual Sea.
Duke smiled faintly and did not become overly excited. After all, he had already opened his Blood Sea, so it was no surprise that the Qi Sea had opened successfully as well.
"Xiao Yi, beautifully done. Now I can cultivate all three seas simultaneously."
"Congratulations, Master."
"Then, Xiao Yi, can you run the Field Meditation and Rainfall Breathing Technique on standby at the same time?" Duke asked.
After condensing liquid into line and advancing to a Two-Star Spiritual Apprentice, the "hardware system" of Duke's Spiritual Sea had improved rapidly.
Xiao Yi's computing power had increased greatly along with it.
"Attempting dual-technique standby cultivation..." Xiao Yi began cultivating both techniques simultaneously.
Soon, Duke felt his body begin absorbing the Free-floating Spirituality in the surrounding air. This was the normal cultivation process of a meditation technique.
Immediately afterward, the Qi Sea sent over a clear rhythm, and his breathing grew long and deep.
It also formed a faint connection with the ordinary flowers and plants growing in the courtyard, as though those flowers and plants were breathing together with Duke.
There was no doubt about it.
The Rainfall Breathing Technique had been successfully cultivated.
"Excellent, excellent!" Duke closed his eyes and began taking charge of cultivating the Universal Blood Refining Method. His heart pumped blood rapidly, and battle qi accelerated along his meridians.
Little Dou, the Long-Haired Mongoose cub, seemed to have received an order. He leaped down from the wall and sprawled across Duke's legs, cultivating along with him, but soon began yawning.
For a time,
Spiritual Sea meditation, Blood Sea blood refining, and Qi Sea breathing—three different cultivation methods—appeared in Duke simultaneously, independent of one another yet harmoniously unified.
He cultivated for a full two hours before his stomach began to growl.
Only then did Duke end his blood refining cultivation, while Xiao Yi continued running the meditation and breathing techniques on standby, unaffected by the outside world.
"Chirp!" Little Dou woke up.
During blood refining cultivation, a Contracted Spirit Beast only needed to passively receive it and required no additional action. Sleeping did not hinder cultivation in the slightest.
"Into my pocket. I'll take you outside for a stroll."
"Chirp!"
Little Dou looked chubby and round, but that was actually the effect of all his fur. He burrowed into the pocket and soon curled into a little ball, hardly noticeable inside.
"I'll buy a spiritual root and plant it in the courtyard later... Sigh, money really doesn't last." Duke glanced at the ordinary flowers and plants in the courtyard.
For a moment, he was filled with a thousand thoughts.
Only a little of the reserve money for purchasing goods remained in his Spirit Dragon Card. He didn't even have enough left to buy spirit beast meat.
"Why don't I go hunting!"
His thoughts turned, and he took Little Dou toward the outskirts of the town, crossing through the farm along the way and heading for the shrubland.
While passing through the farm, he clearly felt the breathing technique grow stronger.
That was because quite a few 0-Ring Spiritual Plant crops had been planted in the farm. After resonating with the breathing technique, they greatly enhanced its effects. However, a Spirit Plant Servant could not cultivate battle qi like a knight. The breathing technique mainly helped plants grow rather than improving the Spirit Plant Servant's strength.
"Besides, I probably can't be considered a Spirit Plant Master yet. I'm only a 0-ring Spiritual Plant Servant. I have to establish breathing resonance with a 1-Ring Spiritual Plant before I can be promoted to a formal 0-ring Spirit Plant Master."
Although both belonged to the 0-ring, 0-ring Spiritual Apprentices were divided into one to five stars.
Knights were divided into 0-Ring Knight Squires and 0-ring Knights.
Spirit Plant Masters naturally had the distinction between 0-ring Spiritual Plant Servants and 0-ring Spirit Plant Masters as well. Both were part of the internal ranking system of the 0-ring.
After entering the shrubland,
Duke slowed his pace and carefully searched his surroundings. However, he soon discovered the benefits of running the breathing technique on standby.
His body constantly maintained breathing resonance with the surrounding plants. Whenever anything abnormal happened nearby, it was clearly reflected through that breathing resonance.
And the only thing that could cause abnormalities in plants was, without a doubt, passing animals.
"Xiao Yi, help me monitor the breathing resonance. Report immediately if anything unusual happens."
"Understood, Master." Xiao Yi faithfully carried out the order.
Duke, meanwhile, carried the Sand Eagle 1.0 and continued advancing deeper into the shrubland, hoping to encounter a spirit beast. Even a 0-ring quasi-spirit beast would do.
Before you continue