Crude Basic Cultivation Method

Having sorted through his thoughts, Shi Quan gradually came back to himself and began examining the changes in his body.

To his surprise, the Spirit Awakening Fluid had not raised his Innate Soul Power this time. It remained at level four.

However, he could clearly sense that his perception had strengthened considerably. The world before his eyes had become clearer, and even the sounds outside the house were more distinct.

He was not sure whether these changes had come from the awakening of his Third Martial Soul or from the Spirit Awakening Fluid.

It was also due to his heightened perception that he noticed his body had become somewhat tougher under the effects of the Spirit Awakening Fluid. His figure and temperament had undergone subtle changes as well. His youthful cheeks had somehow gained a hint of mature steadiness, while his eyes seemed livelier.

In the original story, Tang San's appearance had changed after his second awakening of the Blue Silver Emperor. Shi Quan guessed that his current changes might also have been caused by his Martial Soul awakening.

Fortunately, his changes were not especially obvious, and ordinary people would not notice anything. Otherwise, he truly would not know how to explain them.

"What should I call my Third Martial Soul?" Shi Quan summoned his Third Martial Soul while idly playing with the empty bottle in his hand.

A phantom figure appeared before Shi Quan. His Third Martial Soul seemed to lie somewhere between a Beast Spirit Soul and a Body Martial Soul, revealing itself through possession.

Because it had formed from his own soul, consciousness, and obsession, Shi Quan could clearly feel the difference between his Third Martial Soul and his first two. That difference was control. With barely a thought, his Third Martial Soul could condense and appear according to his will, even performing a series of movements. His first two Martial Souls could not do that.

"Willpower? Spirit Sense? Soul? Spirit? Obsession?"

Words related to his Third Martial Soul surfaced in his mind. After thinking for a while, Shi Quan murmured, "Let's call it Spirit Soul."

First Martial Soul: Blue Silver Grass.

Second Martial Soul: soil.

Third Martial Soul: Spirit Soul.

With the Martial Soul issue settled, Shi Quan's gaze returned to the empty bottle in his hand. He skillfully stored it in the System Space.

Though it was only an empty bottle, its material was extremely unusual. Shi Quan could not casually throw away something so far beyond this era. If it caused some sort of trouble later, he would be the one left with a headache. Keeping it might prove useful someday.

After collecting his reward, Shi Quan began studying the System Space. Following a round of tests and questions, he came to understand its limitations.

The storage space provided by the system could only store items produced by the system itself. In other words, things from Douluo Continent could not be placed inside.

However, Shi Quan quickly found a bug.

He tried putting a few small items into the empty bottle that had previously held the Spirit Awakening Fluid, then returned the empty bottle to the System Space. To his surprise, the items inside the bottle were stored in the System Space as well.

In other words, the restriction preventing it from storing non-system items had a loophole. This discovery immediately piqued Shi Quan's interest. Could the system have other loopholes? Could they help him obtain more treasure chest rewards?

Thus, another hour of testing and questioning passed.

With a helpless sigh, Shi Quan ended his tests. As expected, apart from that small storage loophole, he discovered nothing else.

After an hour of questioning, Shi Quan had gained a more comprehensive understanding of the system.

The treasure chests triggered by the system produced random rewards. Once a treasure chest was triggered, it could be opened immediately without any special requirements.

The only thing giving Shi Quan a headache now was how to trigger treasure chests.

Knock knock knock!

"Xiao Quan, are you cultivating?"

Knocking sounded from outside, along with Li Meili's cautious voice.

Shi Quan's writing hand paused. Several possible directions for triggering treasure chests were written on the paper, though the contents were extremely brief and revealed nothing.

"What is it, Mom?" Shi Quan replied as he glanced at the note on the table once more. Then he crumpled it into a ball, tossed it into the trash bin beside him, and got up to open the door.

"How is your cultivation method coming along? Didn't Grandmaster Su Yuntao say that cultivation cannot be rushed and that you need to build a solid foundation step by step? I'm afraid you're pushing yourself too hard."

When Shi Quan opened the door, Li Meili immediately gave him a careful once-over. It would have been fine if she had not looked, but the moment she did, her expression changed. Panic appeared in her eyes as she rushed forward and grabbed Shi Quan's arm, her voice trembling slightly. "Xiao Quan, did something go wrong with your cultivation?"

Though Shi Quan's changes were minor, Li Meili keenly noticed them at a glance.

Shi Quan was momentarily stunned before he understood. Warmth filled his heart. Ordinary people would find the changes in him difficult to notice; even Spirit Masters might be the same. Yet Li Meili had seen them at once. It was clear just how deeply she cared about him for her to notice something unusual so keenly.

Shi Quan put on an expression that said he was the best and patted his chest. "Mom, what are you thinking? Do I look like someone whose cultivation went wrong? This is what successful cultivation looks like!"

Li Meili smiled at his little adult act. Worry had muddled her judgment. Once she calmed down and looked carefully, she realized that Shi Quan did seem more composed overall. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but she felt that his formerly well-behaved and childish face now carried a trace of her husband's bearing, which reassured her somewhat.

"It's good that your cultivation is going smoothly, but you still have to remember Grandmaster Su Yuntao's words, understand?" Li Meili instinctively reminded him.

Without blushing or missing a beat, Shi Quan said, "Don't worry, Mom. You know what your son is like."

Only he knew that these changes had nothing to do with cultivation. He had not even read a single page of the Cultivation Manual yet.

"You, honestly." Li Meili chuckled and poked Shi Quan on the head.

Shi Jian, standing nearby, had also noticed Shi Quan's changes and asked about them as well.

Only after Shi Quan explained did Shi Jian finally relax.

Dinner was especially lavish compared to usual, and the family sat down together happily.

Shi Quan looked at the bowl piled high with food before him. Even Shi Jian, who hardly ever drank, had rare drinks that evening. The entire family was exceptionally happy, and the effects that the awakening of his Spirit Soul had left on Shi Quan's heart were greatly eased by the warm scene.

The meal did not end until late into the night.

Only then did Shi Quan return to his room. At this hour, he would usually already be lying in bed, ready to sleep.

But Shi Quan had no desire to sleep now. His gaze and attention were fixed on the small booklet on his desk.

It was the basic Cultivation Manual Su Yuntao had given him.

Because of all the delays, he finally had time to look into cultivation.

Taking the Cultivation Manual, Shi Quan quickly began reading it carefully. The manual was thin and contained little information. In less than a quarter of an hour, Shi Quan had read through the entire thing.

"This is way too simple..."

After finishing the manual, Shi Quan could not help but complain inwardly. The cultivation method described in it could not even be called simple—it was downright crude.

In a single sentence, it amounted to using the Innate Soul Power within one's body to draw the surrounding energy into the body.

There were no circulation routes, no methods of operation. One simply sensed one's spirit power, then used it to attract and pull energy into the body.

According to the manual, the higher one's Innate Soul Power, the stronger one's ability to draw in and absorb energy. The lower it was, the slower the process. Without Innate Soul Power, one naturally could not absorb energy at all. That was the advantage of Innate Soul Power.

To increase one's cultivation speed, one had to achieve a breakthrough in rank. Otherwise, the cultivation speed would remain fixed at the initial absorption rate determined by one's Innate Soul Power.

Moreover, the higher one's Innate Soul Power, the more obvious the increase would be after breaking through to a higher Spirit Master rank. For example, if the initial cultivation speed of Innate Level One Spirit Power was one while Innate Full Soul Power was ten, then after advancing from Spirit Scholar to Spirit Master, Innate Level One Spirit Power might rise from one to two, whereas Innate Full Soul Power could rise from ten to twenty, or even higher.

This was the so-called gap in talent.

"This should only be the most basic cultivation method. Whether it's Spirit Hall or the Upper Three Sects, they must have more refined cultivation methods."

Even though Shi Quan knew nothing about cultivation, he could clearly tell that this Basic Cultivation Method was far too crude.

After only one attempt, Shi Quan sensed the energy around him according to the basic cultivation method in the booklet and successfully absorbed that energy into his body.

What surprised Shi Quan was that not only could he sense the energy around him, but even with his eyes shut, he could see tiny points of energy glowing faintly around his body.

He had only heard of Inner Vision in the original work, which allowed one to observe the flow and circulation of spirit power within the body. He had never heard of this sort of outward vision that allowed one to see energy.

The only thing unusual about him was the three martial souls within his body. Shi Quan guessed that this special situation was most likely caused by his Third Martial Soul, the Spirit Soul.

The Rising Sun climbed into the sky.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Xiao Quan, are you still not up?"

Li Meili's gentle call came again from outside.

Hearing the movement outside, Shi Quan finally woke from his night of cultivation. Looking at the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the window, he realized that he had cultivated for the entire night.

"I'm up." Shi Quan answered. A night of cultivation had not left him the slightest bit tired, but sitting cross-legged all night had inevitably made him somewhat uncomfortable. He hurriedly stretched his stiff limbs before getting up and walking toward the door.

"What is it, Mom?"

"Did you cultivate again after coming back last night? And stay up late doing it?"

"It was fine, really." Shi Quan chuckled. He could see the concern between Li Meili's brows.

Li Meili had only said that because Shi Quan would normally have gotten up long ago by this time. Days like today, when the sun was already high in the sky and there was still no movement from him, were exceedingly rare.

"Cultivation is naturally a good thing, but you still need to rest. Grandmaster Su Yuntao said you mustn't be impatient. Have you forgotten?"

"I haven't forgotten. I know I was wrong. I won't do it again, don't worry, Mom." Shi Quan knew Li Meili was only worried about him, so he quickly put on an expression of remorse and clung to her arm, acting spoiled.

Li Meili both worried over and doted on her son. Seeing Shi Quan act like this, she could only shake her head with a helpless smile and get to the point. "All right, your father wants you to go to the Clay Sculpture Room. Stop putting on an act."

"The Clay Sculpture Room?" Shi Quan looked puzzled. "Shouldn't Dad be making clay sculptures at this time?"

"You'll know when you get there." Li Meili waved a hand, looking as though she did not know either.

The Clay Sculpture Room was not anywhere special. It was simply a small room behind their courtyard, used exclusively by Shi Jian for making clay sculptures.

There was nothing particularly special about it, and Shi Quan had often gone there before. The reason he was puzzled was that no one was allowed inside the Clay Sculpture Room while Shi Jian was making sculptures. According to Shi Jian, only by calming himself down alone in the room could he create those lifelike clay sculptures, and he did not want anyone disturbing him.

From childhood until now, even Shi Quan had never watched Shi Jian make a clay sculpture from beginning to end.

Within the village, Shi Jian's clay sculptures had always been unmatched. Many people had wanted to become his apprentices and learn the secrets of his craft, but every one of them had been refused. When Shi Quan was young, he had asked Shi Jian about it too, but Shi Jian's answer had been that the time had not yet come—that he had to wait until at least after Shi Quan turned six.

Shi Quan had originally forgotten all about it. Now that Shi Jian had suddenly asked him to visit while he was making clay sculptures, could it be that he was preparing to teach Shi Quan the secrets of making them?

At that thought, Shi Quan grew rather curious. What exactly was Shi Jian's secret?