Lingjian Pavilion

In the eyes of He Song, who had already gained eternal life,

nothing was more important than safety.

Lin Cong's path did not suit He Song.

Rather than risking life and limb out in the world, he would rather cultivate slowly and steadily within the Immortal Market.

The spiritual energy within the Immortal Market was far beyond anything the outside world could compare to.

Cultivating in the Immortal Market was much faster than cultivating outside.

This was why Rogue Cultivators all wanted to enter the Immortal Market, and why its rent was so exorbitant.

Spiritual energy

had never come free.

Shaking his head,

He Song cast aside the thought of venturing outside and pushed open his door to enter the house.

He first cooked himself a meal, then began meditating and cultivating qi.

Having just cast the Spirit Rain Technique for half an hour, the spiritual power in He Song's body was nearly exhausted.

Fortunately, the Immortal Market's spiritual energy was abundant, and his spiritual power recovered extremely quickly.

Even so, it still took He Song half an hour to fully replenish the spiritual power in his body.

Next came cultivation.

Cultivation during the Qi Refining Early Stage only required one to steadily absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to increase the amount of spiritual power within oneself.

Once a certain threshold was reached, one could break through to the next realm.

For instance, breaking through from Qi Refining stage 1 to Qi Refining stage 2 only required steady cultivation; there was no bottleneck during the breakthrough.

Only when breaking through from the Qi Refining Early Stage to the Qi Refining Middle Stage,

or from the Qi Refining Middle Stage to the Qi Refining Late Stage, would bottlenecks arise.

Many cultivators became stuck at the Qi Refining Early Stage, making no progress at all for decades.

Many others remained trapped in the Qi Refining Middle Stage, struggling bitterly yet unable to break through into the Qi Refining Late Stage.

For example, Meng Guan of the Spirit Medicine Pavilion had been stuck at Qi Refining stage 6 for years, unable to break through to Qi Refining stage 7. That was why he had been demoted to the Spirit Medicine Pavilion to serve as a minor manager.

The existence of such bottlenecks

was a manifestation of a cultivator's aptitude.

In this world, one needed Spiritual Roots to draw qi into the body and become a cultivator.

Spiritual Roots also had ranks.

The five Spiritual Roots were metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

Those possessing all five were known as Pseudo Spiritual Roots, the worst kind of aptitude.

Missing one of the five elements made one a Four Spiritual Root cultivator, with aptitude far better than Pseudo Spiritual Roots.

Missing two made one a Three Spiritual Root cultivator. Their cultivation speed was relatively fast, and they formed the backbone of major clans and sects.

Missing three made one an Earthly Spiritual Root cultivator. Their cultivation speed was even faster than that of Three Spiritual Root cultivators, making them promising seedlings no major clan or sect would pass up.

Missing four made one a Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivator. With only a single Spiritual Root, they cultivated techniques of that element at an incomparably swift pace. They were immortal seedlings that every sect and aristocratic family would spare no effort to fight over.

Beyond that, there were also certain mutated Spiritual Roots, matters beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Generally speaking,

one cultivated the techniques corresponding to whichever Spiritual Roots one possessed.

Take He Song, for instance. He possessed metal, wood, fire, and earth Spiritual Roots—four in total—making him a Four Spiritual Root cultivator.

Thus, when He Song cultivated the earth-element Thick Earth Technique, he encountered no difficulty whatsoever.

However, if someone gave He Song a water-element technique, then even with his four Spiritual Roots, he would still be unable to cultivate it.

The reason was simple: He Song lacked a water Spiritual Root.

There were also differences between Spiritual Roots themselves.

Spiritual power affinity was an extremely important factor.

The higher one's spiritual power affinity, the faster one cultivated.

For instance, He Song possessed metal, wood, fire, and earth Spiritual Roots, but after testing, his earth-element spiritual power affinity proved to be the highest.

Therefore, He Song cultivated fastest when practicing earth-element techniques.

Once he cultivated metal-, wood-, or fire-element techniques, his cultivation speed would decrease accordingly.

With that being the case,

whether one could choose the technique best suited to oneself became a crucial factor in whether cultivators could overcome bottlenecks.

If one could not find the technique that suited them best, and had no other means of obtaining it, then when a bottleneck arrived, they could only leave it to fate and be tortured until they wished they were dead.

Thinking of this,

He Song could not help but sigh again.

The previous owner of this body truly seemed to have had excellent luck.

His highest spiritual power affinity was his earth Spiritual Root, and he had happened to live within the Thick Earth Sect's sphere of influence. For a single Spirit Stone, he had casually purchased the Thick Earth Technique, which could be cultivated directly up to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.

Now that he cultivated the Thick Earth Technique, he did not need to worry about cultivation techniques for the time being.

Following the circulation route of the Thick Earth Technique, He Song soon entered a state of cultivation.

Threads of spiritual energy were absorbed by He Song and transformed into his own spiritual power. The spiritual power within his body gradually began to grow stronger.

In the blink of an eye, a full day and night passed silently by.

Only when hunger became unbearable did He Song open his eyes again.

A single cultivation session

had lasted an entire day and night.

Feeling the slight increase in his cultivation, He Song silently calculated.

At his current cultivation speed, he would likely need a full two years to raise his cultivation to Qi Refining stage 2.

Two years to break through from Qi Refining stage 1 to Qi Refining stage 2.

Such a cultivation speed was not slow.

On the contrary, it was already fairly fast.

He Song's earth Spiritual Root had relatively high spiritual power affinity, making his cultivation speed somewhat faster than that of ordinary Four Spiritual Root cultivators.

Though it could not compare to the cultivation speed of Three Spiritual Root cultivators, he was still among the best of Four Spiritual Root cultivators.

Furthermore, it was only because He Song was in a place like Bamboo Mountain Immortal Market, where spiritual energy was plentiful, that he possessed such cultivation speed.

If he were in a place where spiritual energy was thin, He Song's cultivation time would likely be even longer.

"Not bad. Breaking through to Qi Refining stage 2 in two years—this cultivation speed is much faster than that of ordinary Four Spiritual Root cultivators."

Ending his cultivation and rising to his feet, He Song was fairly satisfied with his cultivation progress. He nodded, then immediately began cooking.

At present, he was only a minor cultivator at Qi Refining stage 1. He could not go without food and drink like those great cultivators.

As for Fasting Pills,

a bottle of ten cost two Spirit Stones, and each pill only kept hunger at bay for ten days. For He Song, they were still far too extravagant for the time being.

The Mortal Rice he had bought earlier was more suitable for a minor cultivator like him.

Though it was somewhat troublesome, He Song only had a little over thirty Spirit Stones in total.

After eating,

He Song once again went to the Spirit Field under his care.

After casting the Spirit Rain Technique for half an hour, He Song carefully observed the growth of the Spirit Rice Seeds. Only after finding nothing unusual did he return to the Immortal Market.

Today

was the day to pay the monthly rent.

On the first day of every month, all cultivators renting homes within the Immortal Market had to go to Lingjian Pavilion, under the Immortal Market's authority, and submit that month's rent.

The ten Spirit Stones of monthly rent could not be short by even a single one.

If they could not pay,

Rogue Cultivators would immediately be swept out the door and reduced to eking out a living beyond the Immortal Market, where spiritual energy was sparse.

Unless—

"Fellow Daoist, you look unfamiliar. Have you recently taken up a post in the Immortal Market?"