Essence Refining extracted different kinds of essence depending on the cultivation art.
The paths cultivated by the various Dao Lineages were different as well.
Take the notorious Demonic Path, for example. Most of its practitioners focused on the essence of blood and bones.
Different cultivation arts also showed the perfection of essence in different ways.
Some essence was stored in the body's organs. Reaching perfection meant the essence had completely filled a particular organ.
Others extracted essence and infused it into the meridians, circulating it through the meridians along the Heavenly Circuit to transform it, before it eventually returned to the organs.
Li Qing was currently at the Essence Refining stage.
The second layer: Body Strengthening.
This was a very special stage. With the first method of cultivation, where essence was stored in the organs, those organs would gradually change once they were full of essence.
The changes would spread outward from those organs to every organ in the body, until the entire body became extraordinary.
The essence seemed to fuse with the organs, bringing about a certain qualitative change. The amount of essence that fused with the body varied depending on the cultivation art.
With the second method, circulating essence through the meridians, the essence would gradually radiate throughout the body as it flowed along them, triggering physical changes across a wider area.
Strength would become boundless, endurance would increase greatly, and recovery would far surpass that of ordinary people. From then on, all illnesses would disappear, and one could live free of sickness and disaster until the end of one's natural lifespan.
The third layer: Human Tribulation.
This was a very peculiar stage. In this world, cultivation seemed to defy the heavens.
Seizing the essence of all living beings for oneself would bring about a tribulation, unseen and unfathomable.
Once one reached the pinnacle of Body Strengthening, one would sense a karmic tribulation lurking in the unseen.
If one could survive the tribulation, an inconceivable change would occur. The essence would gradually transform into another kind of power.
Once the transformation was complete, one could enter the next level—the True Method Realm.
Li Qing read Wang Dexiu's diary carefully and had already gained some understanding of cultivation.
By now, he also knew what the transparent, round bead was.
It was something called an Essence Stone, produced by creatures formed when the essence of living beings underwent a strange transformation.
These creatures were called Anomalies.
Since ancient times, quite a few of the various terrifying legends had been caused by these Anomalies.
Anomalies originated from the essence of living beings and their imaginings.
The more prosperous a city was, the more Anomalies it had. They appeared from time to time.
Whenever one appeared, a Dao Lineage or a Rogue Cultivator would step in to slay it and seize its Essence Stone.
There were many forbidden zones for humans across this land. Legends said that incredibly terrifying Anomalies lived within them.
However, most of these powerful Anomalies had come into being for some reason, under certain special conditions.
Usually, they would not leave those horrifying forbidden zones.
As he continued reading the diary, however, Li Qing noticed that Wang Dexiu's writing had begun to grow disordered.
Strange words had started appearing.
"He came again today. He keeps watching me."
"He has no face. He seems to know me..."
"So noisy. His voice is so indistinct. It seems like he's trying to tell me something..."
Line after line of bizarre words. Wang Dexiu seemed to have begun hallucinating.
This lasted for several days, apparently starting seven days before today.
Li Qing frowned silently. "Seven days ago... that seems to be when I started cultivating the Essence Blood Art."
A trace of surprise appeared in his eyes, and his expression shifted uncertainly.
Could it be? Is it connected to me?
In this world of Anomalies, Li Qing stayed twelve times as wary of even the slightest coincidence.
He drew a deep breath, shook his head, and gave up on the thought. I can't be that unlucky.
He opened his eyes and looked at the Essence Stone. "This is a good thing."
"The essence inside Essence Stones is usually very pure. It can be used to refine treasures and pills, or even consumed directly."
He reached out and picked up the Essence Stone. The Jade Tablet in his mind suddenly trembled faintly.
The essence inside the Essence Stone was instantly devoured. A surge of incomparably pure essence rushed out and poured into his body, merging completely with the essence from the Spirit Blood Art.
The essence, which had originally occupied one-fifth of his total blood, increased by another fifth.
"Two-fifths of my blood has already merged with essence. Once it reaches one hundred percent, it'll start affecting my blood."
Li Qing mused, "There are two cultivation paths in the Foundation Establishment Realm."
"One is to merge essence with the organs. The other is to have it flow through the extraordinary and regular meridians."
"As for the True Method Realm, I have no idea."
"But there's a good chance the paths ultimately lead to the same destination, with essence eventually spreading throughout the body."
"Still, the body can only contain one primary type of essence."
"Cultivating different kinds of essence might be dangerous in the True Method Realm."
Li Qing pondered the matter. Having arrived in a world with mysterious cultivation methods, he naturally had to do everything he could to reach the peak.
It was both to protect himself and to discover what this mysterious world was really about.
"I need treasures. I can go to the Scripture Tower and try to buy all kinds of cultivation arts, then use the Jade Tablet's ability to refine and merge them, creating an invincible art for the Foundation Establishment Realm."
After reading Wang Dexiu's diary, Li Qing understood perfectly well that if he cultivated only an ordinary art, there was no way he could make it to the end.
He needed to make the best possible use of the Jade Tablet's abilities and create a method that could adapt to every kind of essence.
"Cultivating only one kind of essence will definitely make absorbing the essence in the air very inefficient."
"I need to create an art that can absorb every kind of essence and raise its efficiency to the limit."
"Also, the more advanced cultivation methods clearly have their own independent lineages. There's no way I can find them."
"I'll have to forge my own path."
"However, these shops accept only treasures. Dharma Coins mean nothing to them."
"That means the Dao Lineages behind these shops probably don't use Dharma Coins to cultivate."
"There might be a trap hidden in Dharma Coins."
As someone from Earth who had seen countless schemes and lived through an information explosion, Li Qing was instinctively suspicious of everything.
Dharma Coins were widely circulated among Rogue Cultivators. They used them to cultivate, fight enemies, and trade, and had already formed a simple financial system.
Yet these powerful Dao Lineages refused to accept them. There was obviously something wrong.
No one would turn away wealth unless it wasn't wealth at all.
Looking at the ten Dharma Coins left on the table, Li Qing narrowed his eyes slightly. "Tomorrow, I'll spend them and see if I can buy some cultivation arts from the Rogue Cultivators."
"I'll see whether my idea of using the Jade Tablet to create cultivation arts is right."
His gaze fell on the black, mushroom-like object. It was a Black Profound Ganoderma, one of the items needed to cultivate the Black Water Art.
"Would you look at that? I happen to have one of the required medicinal ingredients."
"I can have Wang Kuohai help me gather the rest. That should make things easier."
His gaze fell on the black iron ball. It was about the size of his thumb, yet it weighed a pound.
He picked up the black iron ball and infused it with a wisp of essence. It didn't change at all; all the essence was swallowed up.
"It doesn't seem useful. Could it be that I didn't infuse it with enough essence?"