The jade slip laid everything out clearly, step by step.
Sense the spiritual energy, draw it into the body, circulate it through the meridians, complete a cycle, and gather spiritual power.
It even highlighted the mistakes beginners were prone to make.
The instructions were easy to understand and perfectly suited to beginners.
"Simple."
Su Yun's lips curled up.
He closed his eyes and adjusted his posture according to the jade slip's instructions.
He relaxed his shoulders, touched his tongue to the roof of his mouth, and rested his hands on his knees.
Gather his breath and focus his mind.
He cleared his mind of every stray thought.
The first step in cultivation: sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Ordinary mortals could go their whole lives without sensing spiritual energy.
Someone with an ordinary spirit root needed at least ten days to vaguely detect even a wisp of it.
Even someone with a superior spirit root needed several hours.
That was common knowledge in the cultivation world.
Su Yun emptied his mind and silently recited the sensing formula.
One second.
Two seconds.
Thirty seconds.
Less than a minute later,
he clearly sensed it.
Countless tiny, faint, invisible motes of light drifted through the air around him.
Cool, pure, gentle.
This was spiritual energy.
Su Yun was startled.
That fast?
He hadn't even deliberately focused his thoughts yet.
The next moment,
he gently guided it according to the method.
The drifting spiritual energy stopped floating aimlessly and surged toward Su Yun.
It poured through his pores, furiously burrowing into every part of his body.
The cool current flowed through his flesh, warm and tingling.
It felt so good he couldn't help shivering.
The spiritual energy entered his body and slowly flowed along his rudimentary meridians.
Su Yun's eyes flew open, full of astonishment.
"That can't be right."
"The book clearly said beginners take the longest to sense spiritual energy. Even the fastest need at least half a day."
"Most people need several days at a minimum."
"Me? Less than a minute?"
A metal-aligned Heavenly Spirit Root was certainly astonishing.
But no matter how extraordinary it was, it couldn't be this absurd.
There was only one explanation.
Thousandfold Amplification.
That prismatic Mythical Entry.
It had taken effect from the very first second of his cultivation.
"Freaking awesome."
Su Yun held back the urge to burst out laughing and closed his eyes again.
Stay calm. Stay calm.
A genius had to learn to be reserved.
He continued cultivating the Golden Spirit Art.
The first step, drawing spiritual energy into his body, was complete.
The second step, guiding the energy through his meridians.
Ordinary beginners struggled to control the spiritual energy after drawing it in. It scattered and slammed into their meridians, causing unbearable pain and swelling.
They had to slowly adapt to it, soothe it, and guide it.
But the spiritual energy pouring into Su Yun's body was astonishingly docile.
It followed the route marked on the jade slip, flowing along at an unhurried pace.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
A complete cycle.
Each time the spiritual energy completed a circuit, it was refined.
Impurities were automatically stripped away, leaving only the pure essence in his body.
Thin threads of spiritual power began slowly gathering in his dantian.
Other people had to grind away at cultivation, bit by bit.
Here, spiritual energy poured into his body in an endless, ceaseless stream.
The spiritual energy in the air was being drained over a wide area.
Su Yun was immersed in cultivation, forgetting the passage of time and the world outside.
The pure aptitude of a Heavenly Spirit Root, combined with Thousandfold Amplification.
Absorption, refinement, circulation, accumulation.
Every step was amplified a thousandfold.
He completed in an instant what others cultivated in a day.
The faint spiritual power rapidly accumulated in his dantian, growing from a thread into a mass.
The pure white spiritual power shimmered with a faint golden light.
That was the distinctive color of a metal-aligned spirit root.
He had reached the first level of the Golden Spirit Art.
Su Yun opened his eyes, his gaze clear and bright.
He circulated the spiritual power that had just formed within him. A gentle yet resilient force flowed through every part of his body.
His lips spread into a grin, pride welling up inside him.
So this was cultivation? That was it? It was way too easy!
Sense spiritual energy, draw it into the body, circulate it through a complete cycle.
He had crossed with a single step the threshold that took others ten days or half a month.
It hadn't been difficult at all. He hadn't even had time to experience the tedium of cultivation.
"Mastered it in minutes. This isn't challenging at all."
Su Yun chuckled inwardly.
This was amazing. It felt incredible.
He had firmly mastered the Golden Spirit Art, completely opening up his path to cultivation.
He might as well strike while the iron was hot tonight and push onward in one go, aiming to break through to the first level of Qi Refining.
With a thought, he reached for his storage bag.
With a clatter, he laid twenty low-grade spirit stones on the ground in front of him, arranging them in a neat circle.
The spiritual energy on Heavenly Pivot Peak was indeed rich, but the energy drifting through the air was mixed with dust and impurities. It had to be filtered during refinement, which slowed things down considerably.
It was nowhere near as efficient as directly absorbing the pure spiritual energy inside spirit stones.
Spirit stones contained concentrated, pure spiritual energy. There was no need to refine it, making them ideal for cultivation.
Su Yun didn't rush to draw on the spirit stones. Instead, he took out a bottle of Body Tempering Pills from his storage bag, poured one out, and swallowed it.
The pill dissolved in his mouth. A warm medicinal force slid down his throat and into his abdomen.
In the early stages of Qi Refining, accumulating spiritual power wasn't enough; a strong physical foundation was just as important.
If his body was weak and his meridians fragile, he'd be more likely to suffer hidden damage as his cultivation advanced.
He intended to cultivate both the path of a spell cultivator and that of a body cultivator.
He would cultivate spiritual power and comprehend the Dao while tempering his flesh, muscles, and bones.
Spell cultivators could attack from afar and wield techniques, while body cultivators could fight at close quarters. Only by excelling at both could he push his combat strength to the limit.
The medicinal force slowly spread throughout his body, nourishing his flesh, muscles, and bones, and gradually washing away the frail foundation of his mortal body.
Once he was ready, Su Yun closed his eyes and sat cross-legged again.
With a thought, he began drawing on the low-grade spirit stones in front of him.
The pure spiritual energy sealed inside them immediately flowed outward under an invisible pull.
Compared with the scattered spiritual energy absorbed from the world around him, the energy from spirit stones was richer, gentler, and completely free of impurities.
The instant it entered his body, he felt completely at ease.
On top of that, his metal-aligned Heavenly Spirit Root made his energy conversion efficiency terrifyingly high.
The spiritual energy entered his body with almost no loss. There was no need to filter it or adapt to it; it could be converted directly into his own spiritual power.
The reserves of spiritual power in his dantian surged at a speed he could practically feel.
A wisp, a mass, a pool—it kept growing fuller and denser.
With the passive effect of Thousandfold Amplification, his cultivation speed was pushed to a ludicrous level.
Time passed.
Less than an hour later,
rumble—
He heard the faint sound of an invisible barrier shattering inside him.
The spiritual energy around him suddenly drew into his body. His dantian stabilized completely, and his spiritual power began circulating in a cycle of its own.
He had reached the first level of Qi Refining.
Su Yun opened his eyes and clearly sensed the changes in his body.
His muscles and bones had grown stronger, and his five senses had become several times sharper.
His once thin, frail frame had quietly been transformed from within by spiritual and medicinal power.
"Hahaha!"
Su Yun couldn't help laughing under his breath.
He hadn't expected to set foot on the path to immortality so quickly and become a true cultivator.
The feeling of transforming from a mortal into a cultivator was so wondrous, so marvelous.
The step from mortal to the first level of Qi Refining seemed small, but it was actually a complete transformation.
Lifespan, physique, senses, strength—all had leaped to a new level.
After a brief moment of reflection, Su Yun didn't pause at all.
He had resources at hand, plenty of spirit stones, and a Mythical Entry boosting him. There was no reason to stop and waste time.
He closed his eyes again and circulated the Golden Spirit Art.
As he continued practicing the art, his understanding of it deepened. The clumsy movements of a beginner soon gave way to smooth, effortless mastery.
With Thousandfold Amplification, his comprehension of the art and his cultivation insights soared to the limit. He mastered in just a few hours the essence of a technique that took others years to understand. It was absurdly powerful.
One spirit stone after another was drained by his absorption, turning into useless gray-white fragments that he casually set aside.