Going All-In on High-Tier, Huh?

The Spirit Stones he had worked so hard to earn—how long had it even been? He only had 17,856 left. Why did these things feel so hard to spend sparingly?

Just as Chen Qiu was about to rise—

A mature woman in a qipao, exuding an intellectual charm, slowly entered with two attendants behind her. After giving a slight bow, she spoke in a voice as soft as water. "This servant is the person in charge of Heaven-Question Pavilion at Heaven-Question Market, mainly responsible for the market's auctions. Greetings, Young Master Chen."

"Young Master Chen is an honored guest of Heaven-Question Market. There is a special passage for leaving the auction house. Please follow me later, you two."

"Are these two maidservants to Young Master Chen's satisfaction? Would you like to keep them?"

Perhaps noticing the confusion in Chen Qiu's eyes, the mature woman smiled and explained, "Our Heaven-Question Pavilion auction house has a rule: only maidservants who receive a guest's approval during their first time attending a guest may remain. These two maidservants are both attending guests for the first time today."

"If you two are satisfied, they can remain at Heaven-Question Pavilion and usually serve tea and run errands. If you are not satisfied, they will be expelled from Heaven-Question Pavilion."

As soon as the mature woman finished speaking—

The two maidservants who had served them in the private room immediately dropped to their knees with a thud. Though neither spoke, their eyes were filled with pleading and panic.

Clearly, for ordinary women, the monthly pay offered by Heaven-Question Pavilion was not insignificant. Being able to stay here as a maidservant was probably quite a decent job—at the very least, far better than the firewood chopping he had started out with.

And the work was easy.

"Keep them. They're quite good."

Chen Qiu glanced at the maidservants kneeling before him. After frowning and pausing for a while, he finally spoke softly. It truly was difficult for ordinary people to survive in this world. Perhaps because he had chopped firewood and suffered hardship himself, he could deeply empathize with the poor.

But he also hated that they would not strive to improve.

Why insist on chopping firewood? He had only chopped wood for twenty-nine days before realizing that chopping firewood had no future—only chopping people could make one rich. Why could some people chop firewood for an entire lifetime?

Though he also knew that if he had not met Fat Dragon and been led onto the path of cultivation, he might have long since died to the retaliation of those village tyrants.

The myriad causes and effects of this world—who could truly make sense of them?

As Chen Qiu's words fell, an intensely excited gleam flashed through the eyes of the girl kneeling before him. With a face full of gratitude, she repeatedly kowtowed. If it had not been inappropriate, she might have leapt into the air on the spot.

For the girls here—

Being able to remain at Heaven-Question Pavilion as a long-term maidservant instead of being expelled meant they could receive generous monthly pay for many years to come. Though there would always come a day when age withered their beauty and they could no longer work for long, the Spirit Stones they had saved would still be enough to give them a very comfortable life for the rest of their days.

"Let's go."

Led by the mature woman, Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon left through the back door without obstruction. They did not encounter a single person along the way before leaving the auction house.

By the time they emerged from the auction house—

Night had fallen.

There were gradually fewer pedestrians on the streets. Many people in Heaven-Question Market had already taken up residence in the auxiliary city beside the market, since staying overnight in Heaven-Question Market was extremely expensive. But Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon were not short on Spirit Stones.

A guest room only cost one Spirit Stone a night.

Two rooms only cost two.

No restaurants were open at this hour. After returning to the inn and parting ways with Fat Dragon—

Chen Qiu sat cross-legged atop his bed and began cultivating for the night. First, he needed to change his cultivation method.

He was going to switch his cultivation method to the top-grade Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation method, Seven Lamps Descend.

It would not take much effort. He merely needed to circulate spiritual energy and scour his Heavenly Dao Foundation. After circulating it several times and washing away the name of his original cultivation method engraved upon the Heavenly Dao Foundation, he could learn Seven Lamps Descend anew.

An hour later—

Chen Qiu slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and opened his eyes. He had successfully changed his cultivation method to Seven Lamps Descend.

Last time, when only thirty percent of the spiritual energy remained within his Dao Foundation, it had taken him an hour and three Spirit Stones to fill it.

That was with the use of Spirit Stones. If he merely absorbed the wandering spiritual energy between heaven and earth, it would take at least twenty-four hours.

After learning Seven Lamps Descend, this top-grade Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation method, he could clearly feel that his Heavenly Dao Foundation spun faster and absorbed spiritual energy faster as well. If, as last time, only thirty percent of the spiritual energy remained in his Dao Foundation—

He estimated that it would take only the time it took to drink a cup of tea to fill his Dao Foundation. That was much faster than an hour.

To him, a good cultivation method was indispensable.

The pool might be large, but if the inlet was too small, what damn use was the size of the pool? If filling it once took ten days or half a month, no one could endure that.

Chen Qiu then closed his eyes again and began cultivating the Foundation Establishment Realm spell, Lightning-Channeling Art.

Only after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm could one be considered to have truly stepped onto the path of cultivation.

At this level of cultivation, there were many ways to improve. It was no longer like the Qi Refining Realm, where one only needed to raise one's cultivation level. After disciples of proper sects first achieved Foundation Establishment, the first thing they did was cultivate Sword Flight.

Through Sword Flight, they could smoothly familiarize themselves with the process of establishing communication between spiritual energy and spiritual treasures. While gaining another means of travel, they could also unleash the greatest power of other spiritual treasures.

Beyond that, there were also simple defensive methods, such as releasing spiritual energy to form a protective aura around the body.

But Chen Qiu was a Rogue Cultivator who had learned by taking the wild road. No one taught him such things, so naturally, he could only follow his own instincts.

Several hours passed in the blink of an eye.

When Chen Qiu opened his eyes again, dawn had already arrived. He had finally learned the Foundation Establishment Realm spell Lightning-Channeling Art and reached the realm of Major Accomplishment. In the darkness, he also came to understand the power of this spell.

Whether spells or cultivation methods, there were five realms of mastery: Initiation, Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishment, Hall Entry, and Great Perfection.

At Initiation, one could only unleash part of its power. At this realm, Lightning-Channeling Art could create a thumb-thin bolt of lightning from thin air and strike an enemy. It could attack enemies at most three zhang away; beyond three zhang, its power would plummet and rapidly weaken.

Minor Accomplishment counted as some degree of progress. Its power remained unchanged, but it could attack enemies within ten zhang.

At Major Accomplishment, one could already bring out this spell's power almost perfectly. The lightning was as thick as a wrist and could strike enemies within thirty zhang.

At the realms of Hall Entry and Great Perfection, the lightning released by Lightning-Channeling Art was as thick as a century-old tree, and could strike enemies within a hundred zhang. It could truly be called the grand completion of an art!

However—

To cultivate a spell to the peak of its realm, one needed to cast it constantly and comprehend its profound mysteries from within. Yet the spiritual energy in one's Foundation Establishment was not inexhaustible; one still had to leave it time to recover spiritual energy.

That was why progress in Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation was so slow.

Besides circulating your cultivation method, you also had to improve your combat strength through practicing spells, sword arts, and the like. Otherwise, no matter how high your cultivation was, if you had no means to resist enemies and shattered at a touch, fighting with cultivation alone was utterly useless.

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