The Purple Gold Art

That night, in the room of Luo Clan Head Luo Dingyi.

Old Luo carefully took an orange-red metal ring from his clothes. Sanbao had seen this kind of ring on Lord Thirteen before. It was a Storage Spirit Ring.

"Sanbao, Lord Thirteen left this with me for safekeeping before he departed. He said I could give it to you once your bloodline awakened. You should recognize it, right? A Storage Ring is one of the most precious possessions a Spirit Cultivator can have. Usually, only experts at the Spirit Emperor level or above can own one. So I won't say much more about how important this ring is. Before you're strong enough to keep it, never let anyone know you have it—not even the others in the Luo Clan. Otherwise, you'll only invite disaster. You're young, but level-headed. You should understand the danger."

Sanbao nodded and solemnly took the little ring. He examined it closely, wondering how to open the space inside.

"All right, I know what you're thinking. I'll tell you how to open it," Old Luo said with a smile.

"If a ring hasn't been bound to anyone, you first need to drip your blood onto it to claim it. After that, no one else can open it unless the owner dies or a super expert forcibly erases the soul imprint. Lord Thirteen already claimed this ring for you with his blood. You only need to channel spirit energy into it, and you'll sense the space inside."

"But I don't have any spirit energy right now. I wonder what Thirteen left me?" Hearing he would need spirit energy, Sanbao could only smile wryly.

"I don't know, and I can't help you with that. Keep it safe for now. Once you have spirit energy, you'll be able to open it. Your bloodline has awakened, so Uncle's going to give you a little present."

As he spoke, Old Luo took a thin booklet from his robes.

"This is the Luo Clan's exclusive Purple Gold Art, a very unusual, growth-type cultivation art of the metal element."

Sanbao took it and saw three bold black characters on the cover: Purple Gold Art. As he tucked it into his robes, he asked,

"What's a growth-type cultivation art?"

Sanbao didn't know much about cultivation arts and Spirit Skills, but he had heard of them. Cultivation arts were methods Spirit Cultivators used to cultivate spirit energy, while Spirit Skills were the practical applications of that energy.

A Spirit Cultivator's overall strength depended not only on their level, but also on their cultivation arts and Spirit Skills.

Cultivation arts and Spirit Skills were divided into grades: low, middle, high, earth, and heaven.

And each grade had its own ranks.

Rogue Cultivators usually practiced only low-grade cultivation arts and Spirit Skills. Some small powers and minor lineages could possess middle-grade ones. Most high-grade cultivation arts were held by major powers, while earth- and heaven-grade arts and skills generally came from superpowers or legacy lineages.

Cultivation arts also varied according to their systems. The five elements, for example, were usually divided into metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

Every Spirit Cultivator had their own elemental talent. A person could only practice cultivation arts and Spirit Skills that matched their talent.

If they practiced the wrong kind, they would accomplish nothing.

Most Spirit Cultivators had an affinity for only one of the five elements.

Of course, a few exceptionally gifted people could practice two or even more elements. But they were a tiny minority, rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns even across the entire Spirit Cultivator world.

Take the Luo Clan, for example. Every member practiced metal-element cultivation arts, because the talent passed down through their bloodline came from a top-tier Divine Beast of the metal element: the Purple-Eyed Golden Peng.

Metal-element cultivation arts and Spirit Skills were the Luo Clan's specialty.

"A growth-type cultivation art doesn't have a fixed grade. If someone outside the clan practices the Purple Gold Art, it's only a basic low-grade art. But if someone with Luo Clan blood practices it, it's at least middle-grade. Its greatest advantage is that its grade rises along with our strength. How high it can go depends on each person's talent and opportunities. But one thing's certain: the stronger your bloodline talent, the faster it advances. Don't underestimate that little booklet. It's one of our Luo Clan's greatest treasures."

"To put it simply, it's tailored to our clan. Take you, for example. Even if you were given a heaven-grade cultivation art right now, you couldn't practice it successfully. It would be too difficult. You're simply not strong enough to control it. But you'd probably get the hang of the Purple Gold Art right away—and it can advance, too..."

As Old Luo explained, Sanbao finally understood just how precious the cultivation art was.

The two of them talked through the entire night.

It wasn't until the next morning that Sanbao staggered out of Old Luo's room. His face was drawn, but the excitement in his eyes was impossible to miss.

"Third Master, you're so weak. How could you stay up all night? Come on, drink this bowl of pheasant soup," Meimei fussed when he returned to his room.

"It's fine. I've been asleep for more than half a year. It's rare for me to be this happy. All right, I'll drink the soup..."

Though Sanbao's bloodline had awakened, his body was so emaciated he looked like a skeleton. At first glance, he was frightening to behold.

A month later, after Meimei's careful nursing, Sanbao's health gradually began to improve.

At Old Luo's urging, Sanbao began to practice.

He had made ample preparations beforehand. He had long since memorized the Purple Gold Art and gone over the traits of his heart meridians and other meridians again and again. Old Luo had also given him detailed guidance. But once he actually began cultivating, he discovered that practicing spirit energy was far more difficult and painful than he had imagined.

He had to draw spiritual energy from the outside world into the Dantian in his heart meridian, then circulate it through every part of his body. As it tempered his flesh, he also had to endure the pain and discomfort of the energy surging through him again and again.

The slightest loss of control could send the energy down the wrong path. Then it would stab into every part of his body like countless disordered steel needles, bringing agony beyond words.

Worst of all, despite his relentless effort, the essence that made it into his Dantian was pitifully scant.

Only then did Sanbao understand that every success was built on countless sacrifices, and every cultivation session was an ordeal for both body and mind.

Fortunately, where there was a will, there was a way. Sanbao had always been strong-willed, and his soul was powerful. His flesh and meridians were also exceptionally clear and unblocked. After three full days, he finally completed one cycle.

No matter which cultivation art one practiced or what grade it was, the general process was much the same: draw the spiritual energy one needed from the outside world into the heart meridian, guide the flow through the body's meridians, then return it to the Dantian at the very bottom of the heart meridian.

That was one cycle of cultivation. Once the cycle was complete, the spiritual energy that returned to the Dantian became part of the body. It slowly settled and transformed into spirit energy, like "water," which remained in the Dantian.

The difference was that a good cultivation art greatly shortened the time needed to complete a cycle and brought more spiritual essence into the Dantian.

Of course, high-grade cultivation arts had advantages beyond that. They also tempered the flesh more effectively than low-grade arts, along with a whole host of other benefits.

During his practice, Sanbao discovered something rather interesting.

In his previous life, Sanbao had been an acupuncturist. His knowledge and understanding of the body's acupoints far surpassed that of ordinary people. Those acupoints were almost all junctions in the body's meridians. Because he knew these "junctions" so well, the spirit energy circulated exceptionally smoothly, saving him months of hard work.

Otherwise, as a novice cultivator like Sanbao, it would have taken him not just three days but perhaps three months to make sense of all the meridians in his body.

In his previous life, Sanbao had often mocked himself: "A scholar is useless in every way." Who would have thought that fate had already laid things out? Even his obscure field of study would one day get its chance to shine.

Feeling the faint trace of spirit energy in his Dantian, Sanbao smiled and took the orange-red ring from his clothes.

He finally had spirit energy. Now he could open the ring and see what Thirteen had left him.

Under Sanbao's control, that wisp of spirit energy slowly flowed from his Dantian toward the Firefly Acupoint in the palm of his right hand. But before it had covered even half the distance, all the energy vanished into his meridians. There was simply too little of it; it couldn't even fill the meridians it passed through, let alone emerge from his palm.

"Just wait. Sooner or later, I'll open you."

Sanbao gave a wry smile. He realized he had been too impatient.

After succeeding once, Sanbao's practice gradually steadied. Though it remained agonizing, he grew increasingly skilled at controlling his cultivation.

The first cycle had taken Sanbao three whole days. The second took less than two, and by the third, he completed it in a single day.