The Effect of Spirit Stones on the Fleshly Body

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Fang Yu had learned how to use the storage pouch. He played around with it several times with great interest before finally stopping, returning to the hidden chamber in his room and taking out the spirit stones from the storage pouch.

Lightning-attributed spirit stones were silver-white. If one listened carefully, one could faintly hear the rumble of thunder emanating from within them. It was quite strange, leaving even Fang Yu greatly astonished.

However, what mattered most to him now was whether spirit stones were of any use in cultivating the fleshly body.

If they were useful, then his demand for Foundation Establishment Pills would be much lower. As long as he found a way to obtain spirit stones, he would be able to cultivate.

For Fang Yu, who possessed the Heaven-Palm Bottle, that was no difficult matter. He merely needed to ripen a few more thousand-year medicinal herbs.

A quarter of an hour later, Fang Yu sat cross-legged, holding lightning-attributed spirit stones in both hands. With his eyes tightly shut, he began circulating the cultivation technique within his body, drawing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth from the lightning-attributed spirit stones in his hands and using it to temper and strengthen his fleshly body.

Before long, strands of lightning-attributed spiritual qi of heaven and earth were drawn from the spirit stones in his hands and flowed into Fang Yu's meridians.

Yet unlike other cultivators, Fang Yu did not refine them into true essence mana and gather them in his dantian to increase his reserves of true essence mana, expand the size of his dantian, and advance his cultivation.

Instead, he directly fused them into his flesh and blood, nourishing and strengthening it, forcing out its impurities and making it purer, more crystalline, and more powerful.

However, this method was far more painful than refining it into true essence mana. Fortunately, it remained within Fang Yu's tolerance, so it caused no real trouble.

The only issue was that in merely a quarter of an hour, the spiritual qi of heaven and earth within two low-grade lightning-attributed spirit stones had been completely drained. Yet the increase in his body's strength was negligible. Still, there had been an effect in the end, and that was enough to satisfy Fang Yu.

As long as it worked, that was enough. Compared with the medicinal pills of the The Great Primordial World, spirit stones were far easier to obtain in the mortal world, and there were plenty of them as well.

"I wonder whether spirit stones of other attributes will work too. There shouldn't be any problem."

Delight appeared on Fang Yu's face as he opened his eyes and muttered to himself.

Although spirit stones did not produce a very satisfactory strengthening effect on the fleshly body, they were effective nonetheless.

However, his storage pouch contained only lightning-attributed spirit stones, and there were only a dozen or so low-grade ones. Even these had been exchanged by Meng Shan the First and Meng Shan the Second after exhausting all their efforts.

After all, lightning-attributed, wind-attributed, and ice-attributed spirit stones were rarer than spirit stones of other attributes at the same grade, so their prices were naturally much higher.

The exchange rate was roughly one to one point two or three. These dozen or so lightning-attributed spirit stones had been exchanged for twenty ordinary five-element spirit stones.

For rogue cultivators like the Five Friends of Mount Meng, twenty low-grade spirit stones were already no small sum. Adding in the storage pouch worth around ten spirit stones, it was no wonder they had been so pained by the expense. Then there were the medicinal pills as well.

Yet Fang Yu had no interest whatsoever in the medicinal pills in the storage pouch.

They were called medicinal pills, but in truth they were merely crude pellets, inferior even to the pills refined by the Fang Family. How could he possibly be interested in them?

Besides, those pellets might have been mixed with something else, making him even less interested.

"I hope you bear no ill intent."

Fang Yu sighed softly, took out a Foundation Establishment Pill from his person, swallowed it, and began cultivating.

So long as the Five Friends of Mount Meng bore no ill intent, he would naturally grant the five of them a stroke of fortune. But if they truly harbored malicious intentions, he would not stand on ceremony either.

With the aid of Foundation Establishment Pills, Fang Yu advanced at a tremendous pace in both his physical realm and cultivation realm.

However, he did not have much time, and the further one advanced in cultivation, the more vital energy and time were required.

Even so, in just two short months, Fang Yu's physical realm had reached the peak of the sixth level. He was only one step away from the seventh level of the physical realm, the Internal Strength Realm.

His cultivation realm, meanwhile, had already reached the tenth level of Qi Refinement.

But the Foundation Establishment Pills he had consumed were no small number either—more than twenty in total—making Fang Yu ache with distress.

If he had not confirmed that cultivation spirit stones could also affect the fleshly body, he would never have been willing to use them for cultivation. As someone from the The Great Primordial World, he still focused primarily on the fleshly body.

As for the cultivators of the mortal realm in A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality, their fleshly bodies were at most somewhat stronger than those of ordinary mortals, making them rather fragile.

Now, however, Fang Yu no longer had this weakness.

Besides advancing his cultivation realm, Fang Yu had also cultivated a lightning-attributed spell.

Low-grade beginner spell: Lightning Technique. Though it was only a low-grade beginner spell, its power was no weaker than the mid-grade beginner Fire Serpent Technique. That was why lightning was known as the attribute with the strongest offensive power—because it truly was powerful.

Guanggui City lay in the southernmost part of Lan Prefecture. It was not a large city, with a population of only several hundred thousand, merely one-fifth that of the largest city, Auspicious Origin City. Yet it was surrounded by mountains on three sides and faced a lake on the fourth, boasting beautiful scenery and serving as a fine place for wealthy families to relax. Moreover, several rare fruits grew here that could not be found elsewhere, giving this small city a fair amount of fame.

Tainan Mountain was located not far west of Guanggui City. The entire mountain rose more than three thousand meters high and was shrouded in mountain mist all year round. It was the fourth-highest mountain in Lan Prefecture.

At its summit stood a small temple—Tainan Temple. Its divinations and fortune-stick readings were exceptionally accurate, so every year some high-ranking officials and wealthy nobles came all this way to burn incense, make wishes, and donate large sums of incense money to the temple. This kept its incense offerings unbroken and its reputation far-reaching.

On this day, after several days of travel, Fang Yu and the Five Friends of Mount Meng finally arrived at Tainan Mountain.

"Brother Fang Han, Tainan Mountain is just ahead. Judging by the time, the Tainan Gathering inside should not have ended yet. It will be a good chance for you to see what the true cultivation world is like. At the same time, we can celebrate your successful breakthrough to the fourth level of Qi Refinement. Once the gathering ends, we'll head to the Ascension Conference."

Meng Shan the First said with a beaming smile.

"Many thanks, Fellow Daoist."

Fang Yu nodded and thanked him.

"Hehe, it's nothing. By the way, Brother Fang Han, have you still not decided which cultivation sect to choose?"

Meng Shan the Third, the man in blue, asked.

"I plan to think it over some more. There's still time, so there's no need to rush."

Fang Yu said with a smile.

"That's true. It really is something that should be considered carefully."

Meng Shan the Third agreed.

"Yes! So long as Brother Fang Han can enter a great cultivation sect, perhaps we might be able to ride your coattails and enter one as well."

Meng Shan the Fifth smiled radiantly, joy covering her lovely face.

For her, entering a cultivation sect and becoming a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator was undoubtedly her greatest dream. Fang Yu had now given her an opportunity, so naturally she was delighted.

Yet what left her helpless was that no matter how she tried to show him favor, Fang Yu had no interest in her. Instead, he got along remarkably well with the Third.

"That's right. Fifth Sister is correct."

Meng Shan the Fourth now found Fang Yu much more pleasing to the eye and nodded in agreement.

"Then let's hurry inside!"

Seeing this, Meng Shan the First's smile did not fade. He exchanged a glance with Meng Shan the Second and said with a laugh.