"And with the system in hand, I can use its help to grow strong enough before leaving the forbidden grounds. Then, beneath the vast heavens, I'll roam wherever I please."
Li Dalong felt that the Forbidden Grounds of the Rear Mountain were actually the best place for him to develop now. His safety was assured, and he would attract no attention.
With the system supplying an endless stream of cultivation resources, the Forbidden Grounds of the Rear Mountain might be a deathtrap to others, but to Li Dalong now, they were a treasure blessed with auspicious feng shui, quiet and free of interruptions.
First, I'd better sort out somewhere to live. Li Dalong walked slowly into Everlasting True Person's cave abode.
Everlasting True Person's cave abode had been abandoned for years, and parts of it had collapsed after a great battle.
Fortunately, the outer rooms remained intact. Weeds had overgrown the entrance, but Li Dalong did not mind. He cleared away the weeds and gave the abode a quick cleaning, then sat down and began examining the condition inside his body.
The Innate Spirit Body rewarded by the system truly lives up to its name. What incredible power! Just minutes ago, I was a cripple with my cultivation destroyed and grievous injuries. Now my dantian and meridians are restored, my internal injuries are completely healed, and my aptitude is exceptional. Everything the system produces really is top quality.
Not only had his dantian and meridians been rebuilt, but his dantian was now stronger and tougher than before. If his meridians had once been fine threads, they were now like IV tubes. His cultivation potential was on an entirely different level.
Having assimilated his predecessor's cultivation knowledge and understanding of immortal cultivation, he knew that the dantian was the key to an ordinary person becoming a cultivator. Its size was crucial in determining how high a cultivator could rise.
The larger and tougher the dantian, the faster one's cultivation progressed. A larger dantian also meant storing more spiritual power than someone at the same realm with a smaller one.
The tougher the dantian, the more purely spiritual power could be compressed, and the higher one's ultimate potential.
Wider, more resilient meridians meant faster circulation and absorption of spiritual power. The greater the pressure they could withstand, the greater the power one could unleash.
Since my dantian and meridians are fully restored, it's time to start cultivating again. Let me become a cultivator once more.
He resumed practicing the Righteous Qi Sect's Basic Cultivation Method, the Qi-Drawing Technique.
The first step was drawing qi into his body. Li Dalong focused his mind and stilled his breathing, opening his awareness to sense the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.
Although spiritual qi was much scarcer in the Forbidden Grounds of the Rear Mountain than at the sect's headquarters, it was still present in the air.
Drawn by Li Dalong's awareness, the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy gathered toward him.
Wisps of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy swiftly entered Li Dalong's body through his skin, flowing into his meridians and transforming into pure spiritual power, which poured ceaselessly into his dantian.
Li Dalong's strength grew at a visibly astonishing pace. Compared with his predecessor's cultivation, the difference was as vast as heaven and earth.
In just two hours, the spiritual power in Li Dalong's dantian had reached full capacity.
He began compressing the spiritual power within his dantian. Having inherited his predecessor's cultivation experience, Li Dalong seized this second chance at cultivation and compressed his spiritual power as far as possible before choosing to break through.
After several rounds of compression, when the spiritual power in his dantian had been compressed to its limit, a crackle and pop like firecrackers erupted inside Li Dalong's body.
It was a phenomenon caused by spiritual power when cultivation broke through a bottleneck. In that instant, Li Dalong swiftly entered the qi refinement realm, becoming a cultivator once again.
It was simply unimaginable. This time, he had broken through to the qi refinement realm and become a cultivator again in less than two hours.
That was a full two months faster than his predecessor's first breakthrough. Back then, taking two months to reach the qi refinement realm had been enough for his master and sect to hail him as a genius.
On the Heavenly Origin Continent, cultivation realms were divided in meticulous detail. There were nine major realms: qi refinement, foundation establishment, gold core, nascent soul, out-of-body, spirit transformation, mahayana, tribulation transcendence, and earth immortal. Each realm was further divided into three stages: early, middle, and late.
His predecessor had possessed considerable aptitude. Before his cultivation was destroyed, he had already reached the early gold core stage.
As the Righteous Qi Sect leader's eldest disciple and a True Disciple of the sect, he had been a promising candidate to succeed the sect leader.
The qi refinement realm was only the starting point of cultivation, even though stepping beyond mortality onto the path of immortality marked a qualitative leap.
Li Dalong's current cultivation was not even remotely comparable to what he had possessed before it was destroyed. Even the Righteous Qi Sect's outer disciples were now far above him.
Although excited, Li Dalong was not satisfied. He continued refining and absorbing the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy to increase his strength.
He knew that only by growing stronger could he take control of his own fate.
He thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of spiritual qi circulating within his body again. This was the first time he had personally felt himself growing stronger at every moment, an experience he had never had on the blue planet.
Ever since being escorted to the Forbidden Grounds of the Rear Mountain that day, Li Dalong had not relaxed for a moment. He cultivated diligently and dared not let up. In the cultivation world, without strength, one's fate lay in the hands of others.
The speed of his progress could only be described as heaven-defying. In just a few hours, he advanced from the early qi refinement stage to the middle stage, then to the late stage. Now he stood only a single step away from the foundation establishment realm.
"I've finally become a late-stage qi refinement cultivator."
The Righteous Qi Art was the Righteous Qi Sect's Basic Cultivation Method for immortal cultivation.
Some portions had been lost after the upheaval the sect suffered tens of thousands of years ago, but it still ranked among the top three cultivation methods in the cultivation world.
It comprised three parts: cultivation methods, martial techniques, and auxiliary arts. It could be practiced from the Qi Refining Realm all the way to the nascent soul realm. From outer disciples to True Disciples, everyone below the nascent soul realm cultivated the Righteous Qi Art.
The cultivation method for those beyond that was the Righteous Qi Formula. It could not be passed on to anyone who had not reached the nascent soul realm.
Otherwise, the entire Righteous Qi Sect would hunt them down until the method was recovered. Anyone who obtained it would either be captured by the sect, stripped of their cultivation, and imprisoned until they died of old age, or killed on the spot.
The martial techniques section was further divided into the saber, spear, sword, fist, palm, and finger techniques commonly used in the cultivation world, along with spells, sword-control techniques, divine sense attacks, and more.
The auxiliary arts section covered combat, formations, talisman crafting, alchemy, and artifact forging. Each category had further subdivisions, and their requirements differed.
The Basic Cultivation Methods for alchemy and artifact forging both required first learning fire-control and object-control techniques.
Formations and talisman crafting required powerful divine sense.
Then what should I cultivate first? This will determine my main direction from now on. I'd better consider it carefully.
However, he was currently confined to the Forbidden Grounds of the Rear Mountain. He lacked the necessary conditions to study formations, talisman crafting, alchemy, or artifact forging, and those arts consumed a terrifying amount of resources.
With no source of resources at present, he did not meet the conditions to study those arts even if he wanted to. He could only cultivate martial techniques first to improve his fighting strength.
Then which should I learn first?
What I cultivate is the Righteous Qi Art. Righteous qi-the vast, noble qi.
It was supremely upright and unyielding. The cultivation method complemented sword techniques, and his predecessor had also specialized in the sword. At the Qi Refining Realm, his choices were limited to basic sword, spear, saber, finger, and fist techniques, and the like.
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