Back in the outside world, Xu Yang opened his eyes and held his hands in front of him. Looking closely, he saw that his skin had turned faintly black, with a dim black sheen glimmering across it. This must be the Iron Body stage of Qi Refining in the Indestructible Golden Body Art.
Once cultivated to Mahayana, the Iron Body would be impervious to blades and spears and grant immense strength, while greatly enhancing resistance to spells—far surpassing the Buddhist Vajra Indestructible Body of the martial world. Beyond that came the Bronze Body, Silver Body, Golden Body, and other stages.
After examining himself for a while, Xu Yang lowered his arms and took Old Man Tianjue's Qiankun Bag from his robes. Before, he hadn't broken through to the Xiantian realm and had no divine sense, so he couldn't refine the lingering imprint on it. Now that he had cultivated divine sense, he naturally intended to claim the Qiankun Bag for himself.
Xu Yang released his divine sense and probed into the Qiankun Bag. Before long, he had erased the imprint Old Man Tianjue left behind. After all, more than a hundred years had passed, and the imprint had long since grown feeble. Xu Yang easily left his own divine sense imprint on the bag.
Then his divine sense entered a dim, gray space. Xu Yang took a look around and found it wasn't very large, with room for no more than a big wooden chest. There were some things inside, and his divine sense immediately moved over to them.
There were three Jade Slips, a white jade bottle, two Talismans, seven or eight white stones the size of pigeon eggs, and a long sword. With a thought, Xu Yang brought them all out onto the stone bed and picked them up one by one to examine them. From the Jade Slips, he finally learned what each item was for.
One of the three Jade Slips introduced the Cultivation World, covering Dharma Artifacts, pills, cultivation arts, and the various cultivation families and sects. The other two recorded Qi Refining Realm cultivation arts.
The white jade bottle held three Peiyuan Pills. These spirit pills were all of superior quality. Even pills of the same kind came in different grades: low, medium, high, and supreme. The exchange rate between each grade was one to five, and supreme-grade pills were extremely rare, with few people ever trading for them.
One Talisman was Ice Fire Rain, and the other was a Lesser Displacement Talisman. Ice Fire Rain was an attack Talisman of considerable power, while the Lesser Displacement Talisman was a means of escape. Once activated, it would immediately transport its user one li away, making it an excellent tool for fleeing.
The white stones the size of pigeon eggs were Spirit Stones used for cultivation. There were seven low-grade Spirit Stones in all. Spirit Stones were an important resource in the Cultivation World. They could be used to speed up cultivation, set up formations, refine pills, and more. They were also the currency used in exchanges between cultivators. It could be said that cultivators couldn't do without Spirit Stones.
The last item was a middle-grade Dharma Artifact: a sword. Dharma Artifacts were treasures used by Qi Refining cultivators. They were divided into low, medium, high, and supreme grades. Supreme-grade Dharma Artifacts were tremendously powerful, and only great experts in the Foundation Establishment Realm could use them freely.
With Xu Yang's current cultivation at the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm, he couldn't use this middle-grade Flying Sword at all. He would need to reach at least the third layer before he could barely activate it. As for why Xu Yang was already at the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm, that was because he had absorbed True Spirit Essence Blood.
The immense power contained in the True Spirit Essence Blood would have been enough to burst him apart. But under the influence of the Indestructible Golden Body Art, the power in the essence blood had all become the catalyst for his cultivation of the art. Even so, the little power that remained had still raised him to the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm.
Looking at the things before him, Xu Yang felt a rush of excitement. They were all things he desperately needed. After thinking for a moment, he picked up the Jade Slip introducing the Cultivation World. The Jade Slip had another function: it could test the spiritual roots within a cultivator's body.
Spiritual roots were the foundation of a cultivator. Anyone without them couldn't cultivate Qi Refining arts. The quality of one's spiritual roots also affected their aptitude and speed of cultivation. Xu Yang naturally had spiritual roots; otherwise, he couldn't have cultivated divine sense. But he had no idea what quality they were.
Xu Yang gripped the Jade Slip and slowly poured Gang Qi into it. A hazy glow appeared, shifting constantly through red, blue, green, and gold. Xu Yang watched tensely as the Jade Slip changed. Suddenly, all the colors vanished, leaving it a murky gray.
Xu Yang's expression darkened. He stared at the gray glow, disappointment in his eyes. The result was clear: Xu Yang had the rare Void Spirit Root. Put simply, a Void Spirit Root had no attribute.
Everyone was born with the qi of the five elements, and even the internal organs each corresponded to one of the five elements. That was why most spiritual roots had five-element attributes. Occasionally, there were mutated spiritual roots such as ice, lightning, wind, and light. Void Spirit Roots were far rarer still.
But a Void Spirit Root wasn't an especially good one. It was even worse than a dual-attribute spiritual root, only slightly better than a mixed spiritual root with three attributes. The reason was that cultivating with a Void Spirit Root was far too slow, demanded too many resources, and there were no cultivation arts suited to it.
Since Void Spirit Roots were first discovered, no one had ever broken through to the Golden Core Realm. Most were trapped in the Foundation Establishment Realm until their lifespans ran out and they died. That was why Xu Yang felt so dejected. Only after a long while did he pull himself together and accept the fact that he had a Void Spirit Root.
Xu Yang silently considered the matter, then his expression suddenly brightened. He had thought of the Indestructible Golden Body Art. It seemed to have no requirements regarding attributes; perhaps it could bypass the shortcomings of his Void Spirit Root. At once, he hurriedly studied the cultivation art in his mind.
A moment later, Xu Yang opened his eyes, excitement written across his face. Just as he'd thought, the Indestructible Golden Body Art had no attribute requirements at all. Its sole requirement was True Spirit Essence Blood. At last, Xu Yang had a broad road stretching ahead of him.
Xu Yang's expression relaxed. A flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind, and he seized upon it. After pondering it, he rose excitedly to his feet. He had realized that the Indestructible Golden Body Art was a body-tempering method, a path unto itself, and it wouldn't interfere with his continued cultivation of Qi Refining arts. Perhaps he could cultivate both body and magic.
As for the restrictions of the Void Spirit Root, he refused to believe he couldn't reach a higher realm with a vast supply of resources. Once his body-tempering cultivation broke through and his strength increased, he would naturally be able to obtain abundant resources. In the future, cultivating both body and magic would make him all the stronger.
Having decided on his path of cultivation, Xu Yang felt at ease. After eating something, he took out the Jade Slips containing cultivation arts. The two slips each recorded one art. One was the Lesser Clear Wind Art, a cultivation art for cultivators with wind spiritual roots. It was the art Old Man Tianjue had cultivated in life.
This art was useless to Xu Yang; he couldn't cultivate it at all. The other, the Qi Refining Secret Record, caught his interest. It was an attribute-free cultivation art, with instructions for every layer from the first to the ninth of the Qi Refining Realm.
Of course, despite the grand-sounding name, the Qi Refining Secret Record was merely a basic cultivation art in the Cultivation World. Nearly everyone had a copy. It was the art cultivated by Rogue Cultivators without backing; given any choice, no one wanted to practice it.
Xu Yang, however, was overjoyed. An attribute-free cultivation art was just right for him. Other people had a choice; he didn't have one at all! He was lucky just to have an art he could cultivate. Xu Yang immediately took the Jade Slip in hand and studied it carefully.
A moment later, he set the Jade Slip down and sat cross-legged, following the art's instructions. Since he was already at the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm, cultivating the Qi Refining Secret Record came easily to him. He broke through one barrier after another, quickly reaching the second layer. Of course, the fact that the Qi Refining Secret Record wasn't a particularly profound art had a lot to do with it.
After reaching the second layer, Xu Yang's speed slowed considerably, though it was still faster than with other arts. Seeing this, he stopped cultivating and let out a long breath. Only after practicing it himself did he understand why other cultivators didn't want to cultivate this art.
Though the art was quick to cultivate, it had one fatal flaw: the Gang Qi it produced was too impure. Not only was it extremely weak, it also greatly hindered future breakthroughs. If things continued that way, avoiding cultivation deviation would be sheer luck.
But this flaw didn't apply to Xu Yang at all. The Black Little Sword in his dantian was purifying his Gang Qi every moment. It perfectly resolved the art's shortcomings. At that moment, the Black Little Sword was constantly drawing in and releasing Gang Qi. It absorbed all the impurities in the Gang Qi, leaving it incomparably pure.
After discovering this, Xu Yang was thrilled. The Qi Refining Secret Record really was perfect for him. From then on, he devoted himself to cultivation. He practiced the Indestructible Golden Body Art and tempered his body in the morning, cultivated the Qi Refining Secret Record in the afternoon, and studied the mysteries of cultivation arts at night. With pills and Spirit Stones to aid him, his progress was rapid.
Just like that, three months passed in a flash. One day, Xu Yang sat cross-legged on the stone bed, his aura rising and falling unsteadily. Suddenly, a series of sharp cracks rang out, and his skin quickly turned a dark, bluish black.
Xu Yang opened his eyes, leaped down, and went to a stone wall. He hammered it with a series of thuds, and the wall immediately caved inward, its surface crumbling into powder.
Xu Yang smiled at the sight. "Excellent. My Iron Body has finally reached minor mastery. It should have the power of the fourth layer of the Qi Refining Realm." As he spoke, he raised his left hand and chopped down at an angle. A white blade of light shot out and carved a wide gash into the stone wall. Xu Yang nodded. "Not bad. My Gang Qi has also advanced to the third layer of the Qi Refining Realm. It doesn't match my physical body's level, but it's still good."
Thinking back on the past few months of cultivation, Xu Yang gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Cultivating both body and magic really does consume far too many resources. All my Spirit Stones and pills have been absorbed and refined. Thank goodness for those three superior-grade Peiyuan Pills; they were ten times more potent than low-grade pills. Otherwise, my body couldn't have broken through. I never expected body cultivation to consume even more resources than Qi Refining."
At that thought, Xu Yang knew he would have to roam far and wide for cultivation resources from then on. And when he thought of the brutal competition in the Cultivation World, a chill ran through him. He could imagine the bloody storm that awaited.
Before you continue