Cultivation Methods and Speculation

"Dou Zhe... One Star..." The Ninth Elder beside him was also stunned, stammering as he spoke. Then, as if feeling embarrassed, he deliberately coughed before loudly announcing:

"Lin Ming. Dou Zhe! One Star!"

Following the Ninth Elder's announcement, someone in the crowd below shouted, "Lin Ming! Lin Ming!" Then that voice drowned out all the others. "Lin Ming!~~~"

After quite a while, the Ninth Elder finally said, "Quiet! Continue testing the others."

Lin Ming answered and walked down, returning to his seat. The testing of the others continued afterward.

"Ya Fei, Dou Qi: Fifth Stage! Level: Intermediate." The Ninth Elder's voice carried over.

Looking at Ya Fei on the stage, whose childishness had gradually faded and whose figure was beginning to take shape, Lin Ming sighed. "This girl is almost twelve already? Time really flies!"

The Family Annual Meeting slowly came to an end. As for the sparring among the younger generation, Lin Ming had only exchanged pointers with Lei Le once. After that, no one dared challenge Lin Ming again. Thus, there had never been any more matches these past few years.

After the annual meeting ended, Lin Ming was kept behind by Mittel Tengshan. Following Mittel Tengshan, Grandpa Liu, and Master Toso, he entered a room. What concerned them most now was Lin Ming's attributes. Although Grandpa Liu already knew that Lin Ming possessed the Fire-Wood Dual Attribute, there were differences even among Fire-Wood Dual Attributes. Different proportions of fire and wood affected future alchemy. When refining the same pill, someone with more wood attribute naturally had a stronger perception of the vitality within medicinal materials.

After everyone entered the room, Master Toso took out a transparent crystal ball from his Storage Ring. He spoke first. "Lin Ming, this is an attribute-testing crystal ball. Later, circulate your Dou Qi and send a little into this crystal ball. That will reveal the attribute of your Dou Qi." He then handed the crystal ball to Lin Ming.

Lin Ming accepted the crystal ball and placed it in his palm. He guided his current blue-green and crimson two-colored Dou Qi toward his palm and poured it into the crystal ball. In an instant, dazzling blue-green and crimson light shone from the crystal ball. The two colors each occupied half of the territory inside the crystal ball, neither willing to yield to the other.

"Hahaha." The three old men all laughed. After quite some time, Master Toso finally spoke. "Lin Ming, you have the perfect fire-wood attribute. Your future achievements as an Alchemist will be limitless. Surpassing Pill King Gu He, who became a 6th Grade Alchemist some time ago, is only a matter of time. Hurry and learn your Cultivation Method, then come to my Medicine Refinement Hall. I'll personally teach you alchemy." Master Toso wished he could immediately take Lin Ming away to refine pills. At the thought that the family might have a 6th Grade Alchemist, or even one of a higher grade, decades later, he was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

"Old Toso, there's no rush these next few days. Let Lin Ming properly enjoy the New Year first. He can go to your place after the annual meeting to learn alchemy." Mittel Tengshan was also excited, but firstly, he was not an Alchemist and did not share an Alchemist's excitement at discovering a promising talent. Secondly, as the Clan Leader, he had to appear more composed.

"But... fine. Lin Ming, come to my Medicine Refinement Hall immediately after the New Year." Master Toso had originally wanted to object, but after thinking it over, he realized that delaying a few days would not matter much. After all, Lin Ming had already studied theory in his Medicine Refinement Hall for three years. A few days later was just a few days later.

"Master Toso, don't worry. I'll come over and begin refining pills immediately after the New Year," Lin Ming replied.

"Good! Good!" Master Toso said with a smile.

"Xiao Ming, the family has four high-grade fire-attribute Cultivation Methods. Three are Profound Tier High-grade: the Flowing Flame Technique, Fire Bird Song Technique, and Green Wood Blazing Sun Technique. There is also one Earth Tier Cultivation Method, the Earth Tier Low-grade Nine Nether Blazing Flame Technique." Grandpa Liu spoke to Lin Ming at this moment.

Mittel Tengshan then said, "Xiao Ming, I know you really want to choose the Earth Tier Cultivation Method, the Nine Nether Blazing Flame Technique. After all, everyone wants higher-tier Cultivation Methods and Dou Techniques. But Xiao Ming, you must understand that only what suits you best is truly the best. A Cultivation Method is like using magical beasts to pull a carriage. The higher-grade the magical beast, the faster it can pull the carriage. But the higher-grade the magical beast, the more food it needs, and the more precious that food will be. If you do not feed it enough, let alone pull your carriage, it might even eat you when it becomes desperately hungry. So, Xiao Ming, choosing this Earth Tier Dou Technique now would be like choosing a high-grade magical beast. You would need to spend more time cultivating it. My preliminary estimate is that it would take you half a year to master it, while if you chose a Profound Tier High-grade one, you could succeed in less than half a month. Those extra five months would be enough for you to advance two or three stars. Once you reach Da Dou Shi, if you exchange for the Nine Nether Blazing Flame Technique, it would take no more than a month to complete the switch..."

"Alright, Clan Leader. Then Xiao Ming will choose a Profound Tier High-grade Cultivation Method." Lin Ming put on a disappointed expression. He could not change his Cultivation Method now anyway. So let alone an Earth Tier Low-grade technique, even if they placed a Heaven Tier High-grade Cultivation Method before him, he would still take a look. If he could not cultivate it, could he not at least look at it and satisfy his curiosity?

The few of them all breathed a sigh of relief. They had feared that Lin Ming would stubbornly insist on choosing the Earth Tier Cultivation Method. But now, it seemed Lin Ming was still sensible. When they were young, they might not have been able to resist the temptation of an Earth Tier Cultivation Method.

Grandpa Liu then said, "Xiao Ming, these three are all Profound Tier High-grade Cultivation Methods, so there is not much difference in rank. But every Cultivation Method has different characteristics. Let Grandpa Liu introduce them to you, then choose according to their traits. The Flowing Flame Technique was created by observing molten lava. Once cultivated, its Dou Qi is like flowing lava, with extremely powerful destructive force. The Fire Bird Song Technique was created by observing fire birds flying at tremendous speed, their speed creating a whistling sound. Once cultivated, it enhances movement technique speed. The Green Wood Blazing Sun Technique was created based on trees growing under the sun's rays. After cultivating it, wood generates fire, and fire in turn nourishes wood. It is a Fire-Wood Dual Attribute Cultivation Method and can only be cultivated by Alchemists like you, who possess both attributes. Otherwise, if any fire-attribute or wood-attribute cultivator could practice it, this would not be a Cultivation Method our family could protect. Look them over and choose one yourself!"

When Lin Ming heard that the Green Wood Blazing Flame Technique allowed fire and wood to nourish each other, he was immediately interested. He could examine it later to see whether there was anything worth learning from. He said, "Grandpa Liu, then I'll choose the Green Wood Blazing Flame Technique. My wood attribute can be put to use as well."

"Good. Come to the Scripture Pavilion tomorrow and get it from Grandpa Liu!" Grandpa Liu said. After a few more simple exchanges, it was about time. Lin Ming asked to leave first, and the old men did not keep him any longer.

After returning home, Lin Ming simply washed up and began his cultivation for the day. By now, although the Chaos Spirit Five Elements Technique cultivated twice as fast as an ordinary Yellow Tier High-grade technique, it still could not compare to Profound Tier Cultivation Methods, which were more than ten times faster than Yellow Tier Cultivation Methods. The only thing comforting Lin Ming was that although he now required somewhat more Dou Qi than others to advance one star, it was no longer five times the amount others needed during the Dou Qi stage. He only needed about One Third more than others now, which was still acceptable. If it were still five times as much, cultivation would have been difficult for him.

As for why he had needed five times as much Dou Qi as others during the Dou Qi stage, Lin Ming guessed that because the Chaos Spirit Five Elements Technique possessed the Five Elements attributes, it required an enormous amount of energy to transform the body and create a Five Elements Body. Once one became a Dou Zhe, the Five Elements Body had already formed, so no further energy was needed for transformation. It was simply that his Five Elements vortex was somewhat larger than others', so he needed One Third more Dou Qi. Of course, that was only Lin Ming's guess. He did not know the actual reason.

The next day, Lin Ming went to the Scripture Pavilion to get the Cultivation Method from Grandpa Liu. After chatting with Grandpa Liu for a while, he returned home.

On a street, a young man and woman were walking together. When they saw a stall selling candied hawthorns, the woman quickly ran over and took several skewers. Pointing at the youth behind her, she told the vendor, "Boss, he'll pay." Then she ran off. The youth behind her smiled and shook his head. After paying the vendor, he chased after her. The young man and woman chased and played amid the crowd, gradually moving farther away until they slowly disappeared from view.

The night was exceptionally quiet. The moon was especially bright. Recalling his playful afternoon with Ya Fei, the corner of Lin Ming's mouth lifted slightly. In his dull life of cultivation, occasionally having someone accompany him for a walk felt like office workers in a city in his Previous Life finding time to visit the mountains and wilderness to experience nature. It made one cherish and enjoy everything all the more.

After entering his room, Lin Ming took out the Green Wood Blazing Sun Technique and began reading it. Upon opening the Cultivation Method, he found words left behind by its creator. They read: This old man is Ming Shuozi. I exhausted my entire life and only reached the third grade in pill refinement. Yet how unwilling I was! If not for my wood attribute being too weak, I too could have achieved 6th Grade Pill Formation. All because I was burdened by this talent! Why was there only wood generating fire, but not fire generating wood? Sitting beneath the shade of a tree, I sighed at the beauty of wood. It seemed as though wood possessed a spirit, spilling down a ray of sunlight that shone upon my forehead. In that moment, realization came: wood grows strong beneath the sun. I sat there for forty-nine days, creating this fire-wood Cultivation Method. On the day it was completed, fire could strengthen wood. I named it the Green Wood Blazing Sun Technique. Future generations may resolve the suffering of poor talent!

Lin Ming roughly looked through the Cultivation Method and could not help admiring Ming Shuozi as a true genius. He had thought to treat the Dantian as a blazing sun and the wood attribute as trees, then construct a Cultivation Method according to that idea to strengthen his weak wood attribute. Every world had remarkable people. They could discover or invent extraordinary things from phenomena in everyday life.

Putting away the Cultivation Method, Lin Ming began his cultivation for the day. There were still a few days before the New Year ended. He would spend those days accompanying Ya Fei and having some fun. Once he began learning alchemy afterward, he would have no time again.