Lingtai Square-Inch Mountain.
Ji Yuan's gaze settled on the [Cave Abode] section.
[Cave Abode: Lv5] [Spirit Effect 1: Quiet the Mind, Condense Qi. Daytime spiritual energy density +40%; nighttime spiritual energy density +60%.] [Spirit Effect 2 (Defy Heaven, Change Fate): Cultivating within the Cave Abode can slowly improve one's aptitude, by up to 10%.] [Spirit Effect 3 (Void Teleportation): A Level Five Cave Abode can unlock the extended structure "Teleportation Formation."] [Upgrade Requirements: Cultivation reaches the Nascent Soul Realm; Middle-Grade Spirit Stones ×70,000; Basic Teleportation Formation Diagram ×1; Fourth-Order Monster Cores ×2; Mortal Dust Aura ×100 strands.]
The upgrade requirements on the Panel had long since all turned into dark-green words reading [Achieved].
As Ji Yuan looked at those lines, his thoughts drifted back to the half-year mortal-world experience he had deliberately set aside after entering seclusion and breaking through to the Nascent Soul Middle Stage half a year ago.
Everyone said that cultivators should sever their worldly ties and cast aside the seven emotions and six desires before they could comprehend the Great Dao and ascend to immortality.
Yet this upgrade for the [Cave Abode] specifically required the most intangible thing of all: Mortal Dust Aura.
At first, he had not understood either, taking it only as another strange requirement imposed by the Panel.
It was not until he had truly shed his cultivation disguise, restrained all the pressure of a Nascent Soul Cultivator, transformed himself into an ordinary wandering scholar, and stepped into the mortal towns surrounding Taiyi City that he finally understood the weight carried by the words "Mortal Dust Aura."
During those six months, he traveled to many places—birth, aging, illness, death; love separated; resentment meeting; desires unfulfilled.
Within the fleeting few decades of a mortal's