He Had Actually Grown So Much Taller?

Ye Han gazed at the Purple Cauldron, his face brimming with excitement, then picked it up to examine it.

The Purple Cauldron had changed from looking entirely like stone to being half stone and half purple.

Then he checked his cultivation.

Even he was startled. He now felt filled with magical power, roughly twice as much as before.

In disbelief, he held out his hand and stared at his palm. This feeling of having magical power at his command...

Suddenly!

He noticed that his sleeves had grown considerably shorter. Looking down, he found that his trousers were shorter too...

He sprang to his feet and discovered that he had suddenly grown several inches taller. Before, he had been a half-grown child; now, he was almost as tall as a short adult.

Ye Han could barely contain his excitement. Heavens, I actually grew so much taller!

He discovered that not only had his cultivation reached the peak of the fourth level of the Qi Refining Realm, but his aura was also extremely stable. He had grown so much taller, and his body felt filled with strength. The feeling was simply wonderful.

Before he became a cultivator, back when he was herding cattle in Green Ox Village, he had imagined countless times how he would go to a big city to make his way in the world once he grew up, rising above other men.

He truly had never expected to grow so much just from spending this long meditating and cultivating.

Wait, just how long have I been meditating?

Ye Han suddenly sensed something was wrong. He felt that he had spent far longer meditating this time than he ever had before.

Could I have been meditating for several years?

How could that be possible?

With these thoughts, Ye Han walked out of the Cultivation Room and surveyed his surroundings. There was little dust inside this cultivator's Cave Abode, so he could not tell much from that.

He then opened the Cave Abode and looked outside.

He suddenly noticed that many of the leaves outside had withered and turned yellow. It was already autumn.

He knew it had been summer before he started cultivating. Did that mean several whole months had passed during this meditation session?

Moreover, with his cultivation improved, he discovered that his five senses had become incredibly keen. When he looked at a leaf, he could see even its veins with perfect clarity, discerning the finest details.

His ears could pick up the sounds of insects crawling dozens of yards away, and with a careful sniff, he could detect scents from far off...

This feeling was simply wonderful, as though he had already become someone extraordinary in this world.

A cultivator.

They truly were powerful.

Then he carefully examined the trees with their withered yellow leaves, checking how much they had grown. If a year or two had passed, they should have grown considerably taller.

After a close inspection, they did not seem to have grown much. That meant he had probably spent around three full months meditating this time.

A single meditation session had consumed so much time, bringing his cultivation all the way to the peak of the fourth level of the Qi Refining Realm.

According to the divisions Senior Brother Zhang Qingshan had explained to him, he was no longer an early-stage Qi Refining Realm cultivator. He was now a middle-stage Qi Refining Realm cultivator, and at the middle stage, he could begin practicing spells.

Ye Han stayed outside for a little while before promptly returning.

He took out the Purple Cauldron and examined it closely. He found that his cultivation was extremely stable and his foundation exceptionally solid. He felt no instability at all in his cultivation or magical power.

This was completely different from the result of taking that inferior Qi Refining Pill before.

He remembered that when he had reached the third level of the Qi Refining Realm last time, his magical power had been insubstantial and weak. It had not flowed smoothly through his meridians either, and he had felt that he would need a long time to stabilize his cultivation...

These were the aftereffects of taking pills that Senior Brother Zhang Qingshan had told him about. He would need to spend more time stabilizing his cultivation and making his foundation solid...

He went back over everything he had experienced and put it in order.

The extraordinary Qi Refining Pills Azure Phoenix Fairy had given him had originally been placed together with the Purple Cauldron. After practicing his blood-refining art, he had discovered that the Qi Refining Pills had turned to ash.

Meanwhile, the Purple Cauldron had regained its stone-like texture. Then he had cultivated, spending three months in a single meditation session, and his cultivation had soared.

Moreover, his foundation was extremely stable, and his body had grown considerably.

In other words, the Purple Cauldron could absorb the medicinal potency of pills. Once it had absorbed that potency, he could cultivate facing the Purple Cauldron and absorb the medicinal potency stored within it.

Why does this feel like adding an unnecessary step?

No!

This wasn't an unnecessary step.

Senior Brother Zhang Qingshan had told him that cultivators could encounter all sorts of unexpected situations when taking pills to cultivate.

One particular trait pills shared was that they contained pill toxins. If a cultivator took too many pills, these toxins would remain hidden within his body, requiring him to slowly refine them and expel them...

Second, although taking pills to improve one's cultivation produced relatively rapid gains, it left one's foundation unstable. This could create enormous obstacles during breakthroughs, easily causing insufficient magical power and unstable meridians that led to failure.

Third was resistance to pills. As the name suggested, taking the same pill too many times, or too frequently, meant that the results would no longer be the same.

The first time someone took a pill, it might be extremely effective, increasing their cultivation considerably in one go. But after taking it several times, or at intervals that were too short, its effects would become exceedingly weak and might even turn harmful...

Fourth, taking several different kinds of pills together could cause conflicting effects. Instead of improving, one's cultivation might plummet, and one might even suffer cultivation deviation...

More importantly, taking too many pills would make the body increasingly dependent on them, while its ability to absorb their effects would grow worse and worse.

Thus, most cultivators left intervals between taking pills during cultivation. Experienced cultivators would reduce their pill intake and settle down to build their foundation, consolidating their cultivation before taking pills again.

Yet the Purple Cauldron Ye Han possessed allowed him to bypass every side effect of pills. In other words, if he had enough pills, he could let the Purple Cauldron absorb them and then convert their potency into cultivation for him.

His foundation would be incomparably solid, and he would not suffer the adverse reactions caused by taking too many pills...

How terrifying was that? Did it mean there was no limit to how many pills Ye Han could use to cultivate?

Of course, all of this was merely Ye Han's conjecture. In truth, he had yet to fully understand the Purple Cauldron's functions. If it really worked as he imagined, he would be able to improve his cultivation much faster in the future.

However, on second thought, Ye Han realized that he was not entirely without limits. He was penniless right now. How could he possibly obtain large quantities of pills without Spirit Stones?

He did not have even a single Spirit Stone on him.

Where would he even begin if he wanted to acquire large quantities of pills?

As he pondered this, his stomach began to rumble. After meditating for so long, he was evidently hungry too.

He went to check the food he had brought back last time. Good grief, practically none of it was edible anymore. It had all gone moldy...

It seemed he would have to go out for a walk. Still, he had grown more than a head taller. Before, he had looked like a little child through and through; now, he looked like a youth of thirteen or fourteen...

There shouldn't be any problem with going out for a look around now, should there?