East Ke Ravine.
The small town lay in the northern part of the Southern Border, a resting place for passing merchants. It was prosperous, filled with brothels and gambling dens, a chaotic mix of all sorts, with something of a lawless air.
With the sachet and no shortage of silver on him, Xiang Yuan rented a small courtyard and devoted himself to cultivation every day.
And since there were still several human-skin masks left in the sachet, and leaving them there was leaving them there, he went out in disguise once every two days to look for suitable whetstones.
Alternating movement and stillness, knowing when to tighten and when to relax, his saber techniques improved while his inner five elements also made considerable progress.
Ordinary Acupoint Opening cultivators trained from the outside in, from surface to depth. With the Five Elements Pearl, he directly cultivated the five elements within, working from the inside out and feeding the fruits of cultivation back into his nine acupoints.
The benefits were many. As all nine acupoints opened at once, his ears gradually grew sharper and his eyes clearer; his mouth could consume poison, his nose could draw in wind for nourishment, and the strength in his waist increased by the day.
The downside was that with all nine acupoints opening together, there were no stage-by-stage breakthroughs. He could not enjoy the thrill of leveling up nine times, nor did he get that immediate effect of sharpened hearing and clearer sight.
All in all, cultivating the five elements within was still better.
First of all, it was safer. There was no risk of overexerting himself and planting hidden dangers. Secondly, he would not be constrained by the five elements because of a fixed foundational cultivation method, leaving his future path narrower and narrower.
Whenever