Seeing the description, the attendant immediately impatiently handed Lin Chuan a testing artifact and told him to return it when he was done. Then he ignored Lin Chuan completely. In his eyes, a good-for-nothing like Lin Chuan, who hoped to soar to greatness by testing his talent, was simply deluding himself. He had seen far too many people overestimate themselves like that.
Lin Chuan didn't care about the man's attitude. He took the artifact into a small booth, pricked his finger, and let a drop of blood fall onto the crystal-clear orb.
The most common Spirit Roots in this cultivation world were the five elemental roots: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Other mutated Spirit Roots were exceedingly rare. Spirit Roots were divided into four grades—Heaven, Earth, Human, and Mortal—and each grade was further subdivided into superior, middle, and inferior.
The higher the grade of a Spirit Root, the faster one could absorb spiritual energy and cultivate. One would also encounter fewer bottlenecks, and they would be easier to overcome.
After blood was dropped onto the crystal orb, the artifact would automatically analyze the Spirit Roots it contained. If the root was fire, a flame would appear inside. The larger the area the flame occupied, the better the Spirit Root's quality. If it filled the entire orb, that meant a Heavenly Grade Superior Spirit Root—the finest talent imaginable, enough to astonish the entire continent.
At that moment, Lin Chuan stared at the testing artifact, his expression shifting again and again before finally settling into calm.
As he handed the orb back to the attendant, the man casually asked, "How did the test go?"
"Same as before. Nothing has changed," Lin Chuan replied calmly, then turned and left the Artifact Pavilion.
"Hmph, figures. A toad dreaming of eating swan meat!" the man sneered under his breath, then eagerly went to check the other people's results.
After leaving the Artifact Pavilion, Lin Chuan went straight to the mountain behind their house. Sunlight bathed the place, and leafy trees shaded it. He felt indescribably good.
"The test results were just as expected! Heavenly Grade Superior Spirit Roots in water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, yin, and yang. Aside from water, fire, and earth—the three fairly ordinary elements of the five-element roots—I also have the four mutated roots of wind, lightning, yin, and yang. They happen to match my chakra affinities!" Lin Chuan murmured calmly.
If news of his talent got out, he would scare countless people half to death. The entire cultivation world would go mad over him.
"But I'm missing the metal and wood Spirit Roots. I wonder if there's any way to make up for that?" Lin Chuan said softly.
Lin Chuan had always coveted Senju Hashirama's secret Wood Release technique from Naruto. Although it was formed by combining water and earth chakra, without a wood-attribute Spirit Root, Lin Chuan would have no way to perform Senjutsu Wood Release. That was a real problem.
As for the metal attribute, just hearing the name made it clear that it excelled at offense. He didn't know exactly how it worked, but it surely couldn't be bad.
After lounging on the mountain for an hour, Lin Chuan got up and headed back to his room. He was going to test his ideas about Sage Mode!
When it came to cultivation, the first thing one needed was a Spirit Root. Once they had one, they needed a cultivation technique.
A cultivation technique was a method for circulating and absorbing spiritual energy. Different techniques used different meridians and circulation routes, producing spiritual power of varying strengths. Techniques were therefore classified by grade, just like Spirit Roots: Heaven, Earth, Human, and Mortal, each with superior, middle, and inferior ranks.
Cultivation techniques were the foundation of any faction. A single excellent technique could gradually give rise to a powerful cultivation sect. As a result, cultivation techniques were extremely rare, especially those of a higher grade.
So Lin Chuan immediately gave up on looking for a technique within the Lin Clan. Even if he could get one, it would be the worst kind, perhaps not even worthy of a grade.
But that wouldn't stump Lin Chuan. At least, according to his memories, the former Lin Chuan had once obtained a technique called the Mystic Yellow Art from the Lin Clan. It was only Mortal Grade Superior, but still decent enough to make do with. If he got the chance later, he could look for a stronger technique and switch to it.
"Then I'll try cultivating first. If anything goes wrong, I'll stop immediately. After all, my body is different from the people of this world. If the chakra inside me makes me turn to stone, that would be disastrous!"
With that thought, Lin Chuan sat cross-legged on the bed and slowly entered a state of cultivation according to this world's methods. Before starting, he also remembered to activate his Byakugan so he could monitor the entire process.
First, he tried circulating the Mystic Yellow Art to absorb the Natural Energy drifting through the world. To his surprise, it went smoothly. Strands of spiritual energy flowed into him through the acupoints all over his body, slowly coursing through his meridians. After completing one circuit, they entered the dantian in his abdomen and formed a small ball of energy.
"This... worked?" Lin Chuan exclaimed in shock. That had been far too easy.
He continued cultivating for half an hour. There seemed to be no problems at all. The spiritual energy entering his body flowed through his meridians and into his dantian without any danger or discomfort. Under his Byakugan, he could even clearly see the spiritual energy constantly circulating, gradually transforming and strengthening his body.
The spiritual energy in his dantian was also remarkably well-behaved. It seemed that the Fruit of the God Tree had already taken up the center of his dantian, leaving the spiritual energy no choice but to circle around it, not daring to overstep by the slightest bit. It was just like a big brother with his underlings.
"I didn't expect it to be this easy. It must have something to do with my Heavenly Grade Superior Spirit Root!" Lin Chuan thought. Then his expression turned tense, because next he was going to try activating the Sage Mode unique to him.
He slowly began refining chakra from the cells in his body, then let it circulate through his meridians. The next moment, he cautiously drew a strand of spiritual energy out of his dantian and added it to the flow in his meridians. Instantly, Lin Chuan sensed danger. His entire body seemed to be changing, starting from his dantian.
"Not good!" Lin Chuan cried inwardly. He immediately drew the strand of spiritual energy back and stopped cultivating.
"Was my theory wrong?" Lin Chuan's expression darkened. If he couldn't use Sage Mode, his strength would be greatly affected.
"No, that can't be right. Senjutsu Chakra is a combination of spiritual energy, physical energy, and Natural Energy, and all three have to be balanced. That means I had too much spiritual and physical energy just now, so the three weren't each at one-third of the balance. Next, I need to refine spiritual energy and chakra at the same time and keep them balanced!"
After thinking it over for a long while, Lin Chuan found the key to the problem and tried again. Bu Lianshi came by to bring him a meal during that time, but he didn't pay her any attention at all, completely immersed in cultivation and developing Sage Mode.
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