"The stinky fishmonger living in the old shack on the west side has been living there for over a month now. Have you asked around clearly? Is he really somewhat connected to the Luo Family?"
"Brother Xu, I've asked around clearly. Heh, you don't say, there really is somewhat of a connection, and that connection runs a bit deep."
"Legend has it that the waist token in that fellow Chen's hands was personally given by Eldest Miss Lüo of the Luo Family, Lüo Bing. Although it's merely a waist token of the lowest rank, this—"
"Eldest Miss Lüo is a high-ranking disciple of the Wonderful Sound Sect, possessing High-grade Spiritual Root Potential. By now, she must already be a high-level cultivator at the eighth or ninth layer of Qi Cultivation, right?"
"It seems she really did return to the Luo Family last month, and Old Master Luo even hosted a banquet. The timing matches up with that fellow Chen, too. Tsk, why would this Eldest Miss Lüo favor a mere mortal? What kind of fish does one sell to manage to hook up with Eldest Miss Lüo's connections?"
Inside a six-story-tall pavilion within the Rogue Cultivator Zone, two men were sitting by the window chatting. Among them, a man dressed in luxurious purple Dharma robes knitted his brows in thought for a moment and nodded.
"If it were merely an ordinary token and waist token of the Luo Family, it wouldn't be anything much, and it wouldn't be worth my recruiting this mere Xiantian mortal."
"Yet since it's related to Eldest Miss Lüo, it must be taken seriously. Go and recruit this person immediately, preventing the other few factions from getting word and beating us to it."
"Alright!"
"Also, take a spirit stone to use as a welcoming gift. If he agrees to join our faction, as long as he becomes a cultivator in the future, just swap him to another residence. Stop letting him live in the shantytown."
"Alright! However, Brother Xu, there is still another matter. Old Lin was found, and he is already dead. His corpse was just in one of his wild lairs in the birch forest at Lingyue Lake. It's rotted out of all recognition, but one can tell he was killed head-on by someone."
"Dead?"
The lavishly dressed man's expression instantly turned gloomy, his gaze ice-cold. He stood up, looked down past the window, and frowned. "Old Lin's cultivation was at the Qi Cultivation Second Level—low, certainly, but after all, he had the low-grade magical tool I gave him, as well as a first-tier, second-grade Golden Light talisman on his person. In this small patch of territory, the only ones capable of killing him are backbone rogue cultivators from other factions. Who could it be?"
"Brother Xu, do you think it could be that Qian from Hutong Street who sent people to do it? Because of disputes over multiple resource points, Hutong Street has always been at odds with us. I heard he was preparing to break through to the Qi Cultivation Sixth Level some time ago. Is it possible he has already broken through?"
Inside a simple wooden house in the shantytown.
Chen Deng broke out in a heavy sweat, his well-defined, streamlined layers of muscles covered in a fine layer of oil-like sweat beads flowing down.
He was currently striking an extremely bizarre pose, his True Qi continuously wandering along several pathways, causing his entire body to steam and microscopic spiritual energy to tremor all around him.
The three hundred and ninety-ninth time...
A dozen minutes later, he let out a long breath, his whole body's muscles convulsing as he collapsed face-down on the floor in exhaustion. Only after a good while did he stand back up and gaze intently at the panel.
Xiantian Eighth Layer Martial Artist [Chen Dengming] Lifespan: 82/148 Spiritual Roots: Metal, Wood (Low-grade 87/100) Martial Arts: Chen Family Martial Arts General Outline (Consummate 29/100) Daoist Techniques: Gu Refining Chapter (Proficient 0/100), Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique (Beginner 3/100)
"Phew, thirty-nine days have passed. It seems that with my kind of spiritual root potential, I really have to practice ten times a day, cultivating for ten days, just to barely make the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique increase its proficiency by a single point."
"Calculated this way, under ideal conditions, I'll still need over nine hundred and sixty days just to cultivate to the realm of the Qi Cultivation First Layer. It's too slow."
Chen Dengming looked at the information data presented in the panel, sighing inwardly. He picked up the towel hanging over the chair to wipe clean the sweat beads on his body, and then took the brush and paper on the table to practice his handwriting.
That's right, practicing handwriting.
For although the language of this Cultivation World was roughly mutually intelligible with Nanxun Kingdom, with only slight differences in individual dialects, the written characters diverged considerably.
With no other choice, Chen Dengming had no choice but to start learning to read characters all over again.
Fortunately, though he was somewhat older in age, he was after all a Xiantian martial artist. Even if he didn't possess a photographic memory, at least he wouldn't forget things after seeing them a few times. He picked up learning characters very quickly, and within a month, he had basically mastered the vast majority of written words.
Ever since he officially obtained residency in the Rogue Cultivator Zone, he kept to himself, holing up in his house to treat his injuries and cultivate. In his spare time, he practiced writing characters and copied The Art of War.
Usually, he used a bit of spirit rice to get on good terms with his immediate neighbors, extracting scraps of information concerning the Cultivation World and the surrounding area, without acting like some foolish shut-in building a chariot behind closed doors.
Perhaps benefiting from that waist token from the Luo Family, hardly anyone came looking for trouble with him either, and his days passed quite peacefully.
This actually allowed him to relax completely, and he secretly felt that the elderly cultivator he had dispatched shouldn't bring too much trouble.
However, the only thing that still gave him a sense of urgency nowadays was the progress of his cultivation.
Ever since he moved into the shantytown house, he had already begun setting his hand to cultivating the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique.
Yet a Metal-over-Wood spiritual root was truly no joke.
Whenever he managed with great difficulty to gather the surrounding spiritual energy, the metal elemental spiritual energy would catch hold of the wood elemental spiritual energy and hack and slash away at it until both sides suffered losses, with the wood elemental spiritual energy taking the heaviest damage.
This also resulted in the spiritual energy he could absorb being very scant. After cultivating for over thirty days, practicing the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique ten times a day for over three hundred and ninety sessions, the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique had merely increased by three points of proficiency.
Still, the only thing worth rejoicing over was that once this cultivation technique was mastered, it directly increased his lifespan by ten years, bringing his lifespan limit up to as long as 148 years.
Yet judging from his current cultivation progress, wanting to break through from the Xiantian Eighth Layer to the Qi Cultivation First Layer would still require at least two or three years—truly far too long.
"After the Xiantian Eighth Layer comes the Qi Cultivation First Layer. Even though it is merely separated by a major boundary, it is nevertheless the difference between immortals and mortals. In this Cultivation World, I still need to immediately become a cultivator in order to possess a shred of status and the capital to preserve my life..."
Chen Dengming tossed the towel onto the table, pondering inwardly with a trace of agitation.
It was no wonder he grew anxious.
Stepping from the mortal dust into the Cultivation World, he had gone in an instant from a heavyweight martial world boss to cannon-fodder foot soldier of the Cultivation World.
He had originally thought he only needed to hunker down and cultivate slowly, and sooner or later he would be able to claw his way out of obscurity.
Yet experiencing that sudden battle with the elderly cultivator made him understand that the trees desire calm but the wind will not stop, and weakness is the greatest original sin.
If he wanted stability, the only way was to grow stronger.
"It seems... if you don't enter the tiger's den, you can't catch its cubs. I have to consider trading away my lifespan to cultivate the Life-Damaging Seedling Pulling Technique."
Chen Dengming took a deep breath and finished off a cup of water in the room, causing his emotions to settle.
In truth, his current situation wasn't particularly terrible.
Although he still didn't know what the cultivation speed of other cultivators with low-grade spiritual roots was like.
Yet referencing his experience over so many years in the past, he could almost imagine that it surely couldn't be as fast as his.
Because he possessed the cultivation panel, his brain seemed to have been strengthened as well when he practiced.
As long as he practiced diligently, he would naturally and smoothly strengthen his comprehension of the technique, subsequently increasing the technique's proficiency—meaning that as long as effort was expended, there would be returns.
Therefore, almost every ten days he cultivated, he could increase the technique proficiency by a point, and after nine hundred-odd days, the technique realm would naturally break through of its own accord.
For others to want to be like him, devoid of bottlenecks and obstacles, improving simply by cultivating, was fundamentally impossible.
Thus, his cultivation speed wasn't considered especially slow either; he was simply still unsatisfied.
"If I try cultivating the Life-Damaging Seedling Pulling Technique to elevate the quality of my spiritual roots, my cultivation speed will increase once more. I can cautiously give it a small try in the near future."
After offering himself a bit of encouragement.
Chen Dengming assumed another bizarre posture in accordance with the formula of the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique and continued to cultivate.
Under this alternate bizarre posture, the muscles all over his body felt as though they were being stretched taut, his focus was heightened to the extreme, and his entire body began to tremble slightly and break out in a sweat, the essence, Qi, and spirit of his three elements highly concentrated.
An incense stick's time later.
Chen Dengming collapsed to the floor, weak and sore all over, his entire body's muscles undergoing a spell of spasms. Yet his Xiantian True Qi began to rapidly roam through the various meridians and secret acupoints within his body, ultimately returning to his Dantian to become increasingly pure, transitioning toward spiritual energy.
"The four hundredth time."
Within the panel, the data information for the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique also underwent a change.
Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique (Beginner 4/100)
As the proficiency of the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique shifted, the Chen Family Martial Arts General Outline improved as well, its proficiency directly increasing to 30.
This cultivation technique was, in the first place, a martial arts general outline synthesized by Chen Dengming through the blending of various schools of learning.
Now, as he cultivated immortal Dao techniques.
Standing upon high ground and looking down, he carried this technique as well toward a state of increasingly thorough consummation.
Perhaps in the future, it would likewise become a general cultivation outline that completely suited him, allowing him to step from martial arts into the realm of immortals.
Just like that, little by little, he would always be able to walk all the way to the supreme heights of the immortal Dao.
Knock, knock—
At this moment, the thin and crude wooden door was knocked upon, and the gentle voice of a woman abruptly drifted in from outside the house.
"Young Master Chen, are you home? This concubine has come to disturb you!"
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