Spirit Tea

The Dantian, also known as the Dantian.

Before achieving the Golden Core, it was one of the most important parts of a cultivator's body.

The creators and refiners of the Breath-and-Spirit Absorption Art had designed this secret method for expanding the Dantian with the utmost protection of the Dantian in mind.

It placed certain demands on a cultivator's spiritual power.

This was why all major sects, including the Heaven Sect, had attached great importance to nurturing their disciples' spiritual power from the very beginning.

They spared no expense in crafting Illusion Artifacts to strengthen the spiritual foundations of their disciples.

By this point in the development of the cultivation world, the foundations for mass-producing such basic Illusion Artifacts had essentially been perfected.

The major sects now used these Illusion Artifacts as tools to signify a disciple's identity and conveniently contact their disciples.

Of course, in most sects,

these Sect Jade Tokens made from Illusory Spirit Jade were issued only to elders and core disciples.

There were only a few sects in the world as wealthy and generous as the Heaven Sect.

Illusory Spirit Jade, the core material used to craft jade tokens, was an exceedingly precious material.

Mass production on such a scale required not only wealth, but also qualified Illusion Artifact smiths.

Smiths capable of crafting Illusion Artifacts were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Every sect treated cultivators with such abilities as honored guests.

Even a top immortal sect like the Heaven Sect had only twelve or thirteen people capable of crafting Illusion Artifacts.

Although the Breath-and-Spirit Absorption Art was extremely basic, it was by no means mediocre.

Its requirements for spiritual power when breaking through minor realms stumped a great many people.

This was why, despite the widespread circulation of the Breath-and-Spirit Absorption Art, very few cultivation sects truly used it as their introductory cultivation method.

Its practitioners generally fell into two extremes.

One group consisted of the foremost great sects, while the other consisted of Rogue Cultivators without resources.

For unaffiliated Rogue Cultivators, the Breath-and-Spirit Absorption Art was the easiest cultivation method for them to obtain.

Yet most of them were trapped in the Early Qi Refining Stage, unable to make any further progress for the rest of their lives.

This was because, upon reaching completion in the Early Qi Refining Stage, practitioners of the Breath-and-Spirit Absorption Art

had to simultaneously circulate the spiritual energy through the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and Twelve Primary Meridians, moving it slowly, bit by bit,

and "press" that spiritual energy into the Dantian, thereby continuously expanding it.

This process was exceedingly slow, but among the many cultivation methods, the possibility of damaging the Dantian was relatively low.

However, because it was slow and required too many meridians to be circulated at once, its demands on spiritual consciousness were far from ordinary.

Dong Lin focused his mind on his Dantian, silently sensing the spiritual energy flow slowly through the meridians of his body before finally returning to the Dantian.

After training with the Verdant Growth Acceleration Technique, Dong Lin's fine control over spiritual energy had improved dramatically.

But one involved using spiritual energy for external control, while a breakthrough required its internal circulation.

There were still some differences between the two.

The process of expanding his Dantian lasted a full three days.

Dong Lin did not feel the weakness that came from excessive consumption of spiritual consciousness.

He gradually realized that something about his spiritual consciousness was abnormal.

Yet he could not exactly ask around about such an abnormality. That would make him seem somewhat conspicuous.

After all, it was truly terrifying to say that heavily using one's spiritual power caused no depletion.

Dong Lin vaguely had a guess that it was related to the mysterious dusky yellow orb in his mind.

It seemed to replenish his spiritual power at every moment.

Although Dong Lin felt nothing from this replenishment, after cultivating for so long, he could still sense some of his own unusual qualities.

Half a year passed as Dong Lin gradually digested and absorbed the two supreme immortal arts in his mind.

Yet he could not enter the gate of either. With Dong Lin's current understanding of cultivation, he was completely incapable of independently cultivating immortal arts of this level.

"Take it slowly. I've grasped lightning arts so easily myself; I wonder whether that has anything to do with the Five Thunder Mastery Method in my mind."

After successfully entering the Middle Qi Refining Stage, Dong Lin slowly rose to his feet.

His Dantian, once brimming with spiritual power, felt somewhat empty after its expansion.

Dong Lin could clearly sense that the cultivation he had been unable to improve after reaching the limits of the Early Qi Refining Stage could finally advance once more.

Dong Lin came to the table in the outer chamber of the spirit room.

Using the simple Water-Gathering Technique, he caught a cup of water from thin air.

As cultivators, so long as the water vapor around them was not too scarce, even those with no understanding of water-element spells

could use their control over spiritual energy to draw some water from the air and condense it for drinking.

He warmed it slightly, took some tea leaves from the table, and brewed himself some tea.

Ever since arriving at this spirit room left behind by the father of his previous body, Dong Lin had taken nothing except the few high-grade spirit stones beside the meditation cushion.

Now that he had successfully broken through and slightly dispelled the fog shrouding the road ahead,

he was no longer wound quite so tight as before and had gained a little leisure to appreciate life.

After closing his eyes and resting for a quarter of an hour,

Dong Lin picked up the teacup. The tea leaves had unfurled like green sparrows spreading their wings, their crisp, tender leaves lying quietly at the bottom of the cup.

The tea was clear and bright as amber. It was a fine cup of tea.

Dong Lin brought the cup beneath his nose and inhaled gently. His spirits instantly lifted, and his whole body seemed to become clearer.

The fragrance of orchids and angelica seeped into his heart and spleen. As he took a small sip, a rich, mellow flavor spread across his tongue.

What came with it was an extremely pure stream of spiritual power.

Dong Lin hurried back to the meditation cushion in the inner chamber and began circulating his cultivation method.

A single small sip of superior spirit tea had provided Dong Lin with an extremely pure stream of spiritual power.

It took him quite some time to refine it completely.

"This brief while has increased my spiritual power by more than one unit.

No wonder resources are so important on the path of cultivation.

Others might cultivate diligently for a month and still not gain as much as those second-generation immortals who casually drink a cup of spirit tea or swallow a spirit pill at home.

If I could drink a cup of spirit tea like this every day,

then I would be confident of reaching the Late Qi Refining Stage in just half a year.

Dong Lin began fantasizing about the classic beautiful dream of 'what if I had a million.'"

After finishing one cup of spirit tea, an entire day quietly slipped away.

At this moment, Dong Lin's Dantian had gained a full four units of spiritual power.

That was comparable to the results of Dong Lin's five days of arduous cultivation in the past.

Not only that, Dong Lin seemed to have made some progress with the Thunder Summoning Art as well.

This tea seemed to have temporarily raised Dong Lin's comprehension a little.

Unlike the yellow orb's silent, imperceptible nourishment, after drinking the tea,

Dong Lin could clearly feel that his spiritual power had been strengthened to a certain degree.

However, the more of this spirit tea he drank, the worse its effects seemed to become.

The path of cultivation could not produce an immortal expert merely by piling up heavenly treasures and earthly wonders.

For most spiritual treasures, their effects were usually greatest upon the first use.

Afterward, their effects became increasingly unsatisfactory.

It somewhat defied science, yet it was common knowledge in the cultivation world.

Perhaps Dong Lin would understand the reason only after traveling far enough along the immortal path.

Dong Lin counted the tea leaves in the jar. There was enough left to brew roughly nine more times.

"I wonder what this spirit tea is called."

After tidying up, Dong Lin left for the spirit fields.

He had not gone to tend the fields for several days, and he wondered how the spirit rice was growing.