Blinking, it was already the fifth day after cultivating the Life-Damaging Seedling Pulling Technique.
Late at night, inside the house, Chen Dengming already sported sideburns of full white hair, and crow's feet were faintly visible at the corners of his eyes. His Essence, Qi, and Spirit were depleted quite severely.
Yet by now, his spiritual root had officially transitioned and upgraded from a low-grade to a medium-grade spiritual root.
The entire upgrade process, starting from dusk today and lasting until an hour ago, left him feeling that his ability to sense the spiritual energy in the surrounding air was growing increasingly intense.
Even though the absorbed gold spiritual energy would still hack at the wood spiritual energy upon sight, chopping away over half of it and causing the cultivation effect to be heavily discounted, it was still ten times stronger than before, and even the sensation of sensing spiritual energy was exceedingly clear.
If the first enhancement had still been a very faint feeling that one might mistake for a psychological effect,
then now, as the spiritual root upgraded, that sense of heightened spiritual energy perception was extremely intense—much like the difference between holding a mouthful of cool water versus holding a block of ice in one's mouth.
His spiritual root potential had genuinely improved, but his lifespan had also been depleted by ten years.
Chen Dengming stood up from the floor, picked up a towel to wipe down his toned physique whose muscles remained unrelaxed, ended his cultivation of the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique, and checked the panel.
Both his spiritual root attributes and lifespan had changed.
Xiantian Eighth Layer martial artist [Chen Dengming] Lifespan: 92/152 Spiritual roots: Gold, Wood (medium-grade 1/100) Martial arts: Chen Family Martial Arts General Outline (completion 32/100) Daoist arts: Gu Refining Chapter (proficient 0/100), Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique (beginner 6/100), Life-Damaging Seedling Pulling Technique (beginner 50/100)
Consuming ten years of lifespan upgraded my spiritual root to medium-grade, and my efficiency in cultivating the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique has also greatly improved. This is the benefit of a stronger spiritual root.
Chen Dengming's mood was somewhat invigorated.
During these five days, apart from going out for an hour each day to gather materials for the Golden Silkworm Gu, he had holed up indoors for all other time. While waiting for the people from the Golden Character Workshop to come and arrange his duties, he frantically cultivated the Life-Damaging Seedling Pulling Technique to raise his spiritual root quality.
At the same time, he had not relaxed his cultivation of the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique.
From yesterday until today, he had already completed the practice of the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique eighteen times.
Merely cultivating it eighteen times had already raised the proficiency of this Daoist art from 5 to 6.
Especially after the completion of his spiritual root upgrade, the speed at which he gathered spiritual energy when cultivating this Daoist art was exceptionally rapid—almost ten times that of five days ago.
At my current cultivation speed, practicing the Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique ten times a day can raise this Daoist art's proficiency by 1 point. Using a Pure Spirit Pill can speed things up a bit; practicing it about nine times should raise the proficiency by one point.
Viewed this way, in less three months, I'll be able to steadily break through the Xiantian realm and become a Qi Cultivation Cultivator.
Chen Dengming paced inside the room, stopping from time to time to carefully sense the spiritual energy flowing in the air, a smile appearing on his face.
Previously, sensing the spiritual energy flowing in the air was like looking at flowers through a veiled layer of gauze.
Today, that layer of gauze had been removed, and he could 'see' much more clearly.
Of course, the specific benefits of an upgraded spiritual root quality were not merely reflected in perception.
Moreover, in the future he only needed to continue practicing the Life-Damaging Seedling Pulling Technique, and there would still be room for his spiritual root quality to improve further.
Currently, this Daoist art had not yet broken through to the first layer; practicing it once a day only depleted two years of lifespan, which he could still handle.
However, precisely because it had not yet broken through, coupled with the fact that his spiritual root had already reached the medium-grade level, it was obvious that depleting two years of lifespan yielded less improvement in spiritual energy affinity.
If he broke through to the first layer, practicing it once might consume six years of lifespan, and then he would need to slow his pace.
A medium-grade spiritual root is temporarily sufficient. Right now, the main task is still to immediately break through his strength realm; perhaps cultivating in a region with more abundant spiritual energy will make the time it takes for me to break through to the Qi Refining First Layer even shorter.
Pondering and reflecting inwardly, Chen Dengming put on a pair of gloves, dug out a spirit stone that had been crafted into a stone gu from the soil in the corner of the room, and carefully put it away.
This stone gu was a clever alternative path Chen Dengming had taken using the Gu Refining Art, kneading toxins and spirit stones together so that the spiritual energy within the spirit stone would also gradually soak in some poison. It was sharper and more vicious than ordinary stone gu, making it a fine item for self-defense and backstabbing in daily life. After all, when it came to stuff like spirit stones, there was nobody who didn't like them.
Lifting the broken blade, Chen Dengming donned a patched cloak and put on a hood to cover his white sideburns, preparing to go out and practice with the blade.
As the saying went: if you want your kung fu to be good, train three hundred and sixty early mornings a year; making progress is like a spring silkworm spinning silk, while regressing is like flowing water fading away.
Even though he was currently stumbling forward on the path of seeking immortality, his martial arts kung fu could not be abandoned immediately either.
After all, he had not yet cultivated abundant spiritual energy for the time being, nor could he learn and deploy Daoist arts. His life-saving skills still had to rely on a set of martial arts coordinated with gu arts; practicing them diligently at ordinary times was the only way to save his life at a critical moment.
As a result, the moment he stepped outside late at night,
he ran into Xu Wei, a neighbor who usually worked at night, somewhat evasively dodging him as if rather bashful.
"Sister Xu, not busy today?"
Chen Dengming greeted her cordially out of habit, then suddenly halted, looking at Xu Wei's swollen right cheek and the trace of blood at the corner of her mouth, and asked in surprise,
"What's wrong?"
"N-nothing."
Xu Wei forced a smile, turned her face sideways to approach her own door to unlock it, and deflected the topic. "Is Young Master Chen going out to practice kung fu at night again?"
Chen Dengming frowned and nodded. "That's right."
With a click, Xu Wei unlocked the door and half-joked, "Young Master Chen studies and trains diligently day in and day out; your martial arts must be quite remarkable, right? If you have any spare time, you could teach this concubine some self-defense skills."
"Where can I? Just some superficial kung fu. Not immortal magic spells, so it's nothing much. Besides, Sister Xu, at your age, learning now is already a bit late, heh."
Chen Dengming shook his head with a smile.
"Indeed, it's late..."
Xu Wei's gaze grew slightly absent, her agreement perfunctory.
Seeing that the other party did not wish to say much, Chen Dengming stopped asking, turned around, and prepared to leave.
Watching his retreating figure, Xu Wei offered a reminder, "Young Master Chen, the friction between the Golden Character Workshop and the cultivators of Hutong Street has been very fierce these past two days. You've only just joined the Golden Character Workshop, so you must be careful when going out."
"Oh?"
Chen Dengming was startled, finally understanding why the people from the Golden Character Workshop hadn't sought him out these past few days—they were probably all busy.
He turned his head to look at Xu Wei.
Her swollen cheeks somewhat marred her beauty, but the sincerity in those beautiful eyes appeared quite precious in this chaotic zone. He nodded with a smile. "Thanks for the warning."
With those words, he brandished his blade and left swiftly, ultimately still refraining from inquiring into the reason for her injuries.
In the end, the two of them were merely ordinary neighbors; there was no need to delve deeply after a shallow acquaintance.
Yet what he said was also true: it was indeed much too late for Xu Wei to learn martial arts now—or rather, many Xiantians within the gathering place were already too late.
These people perhaps benefited from living in the cultivation world where spiritual energy was abundant, allowing their eight extraordinary meridians to open naturally at birth. By practicing some breathing and guiding techniques, they slowly reached the Xiantian realm.
Yet most of them had hardly practiced martial arts, or had practiced some unknown martial arts without mastering them deeply, so the strength they displayed during actual combat was quite unsightly—completely incomparable to the Nanxun Kingdom where Chen Dengming had previously resided.
After leaving the shantytown and stepping into an alleyway, Chen Dengming felt a sense of impending danger erupting within his heart, as if several profound auras before and behind him had locked onto him, severe and perilous.
His heart abruptly sank, and he lowered his eyelids to look ahead. A figure had already appeared in front of him, while behind him at this moment, two other figures were cutting off his escape route.
"Chen—Deng—ming?"
The figure appearing ahead drawled Chen Dengming's name one word at a time, a teasing smile emerging at the corners of his mouth.
"We're from Hutong Street. Come with us for a trip; our boss wants to see you."
Chen Dengming's brow instantly furrowed. He sensed that the aura of the person opposite should be that of a cultivator, whereas the two men behind him should merely be Xiantian martial artists.
The other party was clearly well-prepared.
Chen Dengming silently thought it was troublesome, and pondered aloud, "I wonder what business your boss has with me?"
Coldness flashed in the opposing cultivator's eyes. "I'm willing to talk to you because I heard you hold a waist token personally bestowed by Eldest Miss Lüo, showing you respect. You still have so many questions? Are you going or not?"
Chen Dengming suddenly chuckled, all seriousness vanishing from his face. He cupped his fists in a salute and said, "Going, of course I'm going. Being able to gain the appreciation of an Immortal Master is truly this junior's good fortune; how could I dare refuse?"
Hearing this, the cultivator raised an eyebrow. "You still know what's good for you. If you had dared to disagree, you would have suffered miserably. Let's go!"
He beckoned and stepped aside, his gaze like cold electricity. However, a talisman clutched in his palm within his sleeve did not relax, remaining vigilant as the two Xiantian thugs behind him also crowded close.
Acting as if he hadn't noticed, Chen Dengming smiled and approached them, cozying up. "How could I trouble the Immortal Master? Actually, this junior also has some matters to consult the Immortal Master about. These past few days, this junior has been in seclusion, yet I don't know why a conflict broke out between the Golden Character Workshop and Hutong Street?"
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