"Exactly."
An Jing agreed with the Sword Spirit's caution. "One careless step, and you could go astray!"
He sensed the 'Tai-bai Prohibition Seed' inside him. It didn't interact with the Spiritual Energy outside his body at all in its day-to-day cultivation. It was a purely 'internal cultivation method.'
Spiritual Energy could speed it up, but it could cultivate just as well without any.
The Sword Spirit had once been a Sword Immortal. Even if there were things it couldn't think of, its instincts could still help it avoid some dangers.
A body-tempering technique like the Tai-bai Haoling Divine Prohibition, which could be cultivated using external objects, was precisely the sort least vulnerable to demonic energy contamination.
The advantages body-tempering techniques held in resisting contamination from demonic energy might also explain why the Huaixu Realm had evolved from an immortal-cultivation world into a Martial Dao world.
"Spiritual Energy and metals are both resources from other worlds."
An Jing shook his head with a sigh. "Looks like I'll have to go to another world if I want to practice Qi Refining and cultivate immortality."
Then he leaped down from the tree trunk and prepared to continue on his way.
That was simply An Jing's nature. He never spent much time thinking about problems he couldn't solve.
The Spiritual Energy contamination in Huaixu was clearly a world-level calamity. Since he couldn't solve it, he might as well ignore it.
Besides, although the Spiritual Energy was contaminated, the Huaixu Realm's produce wasn't.
On the contrary, it was exceptionally abundant!
As he ran through the forest, An Jing casually picked a good number of in-season berries. Most were sour and astringent, and some were mildly poisonous, but they were just the thing to cut through the Tooth Pig's rich meat and hone his Internal Breath.