Cultivation: From Servant to Immortal Venerable

"But after a night of rest, my condition is at its best. It's time to test the effects of the Ningshun Sutra!"

Zhou Xun first took a bath, then entered the quiet room.

He took out a brand new calming incense, lit it, and placed it in front of him. He then sat down cross-legged on the meditation cushion, his eyes slightly closed.

Soon, Zhou Xun's mind settled.

He slowly opened his eyes, gently lifted the lid of the jade box, and carefully picked up the Spirit Gathering Grass, placing it in his palm.

He began to circulate the incantation of the Ningshun Sutra.

"The Way of Heaven reduces the excess and supplements the insufficient."

As the incantation circulated, a profound and mysterious feeling arose. Zhou Xun's mind immersed itself in a state of egolessness, merging with the natural world, as if he could control everything.

He lightly tapped the Spirit Gathering Grass with his finger, and immediately the surrounding elemental energy was drawn, converging towards it.

Suddenly, the Spirit Gathering Grass levitated, becoming more vibrant. Its green leaves emitted a faint fluorescence.

As the final incantation was completed, an invisible force materialized, enveloping the Spirit Gathering Grass.

Time trickled by, and the light from the Spirit Gathering Grass grew stronger, as if its essence was continuously being condensed.

Suddenly, a green light spot appeared above the Spirit Gathering Grass, emitting a soft glow.

Following the guidance of the Ningshun Sutra, Zhou Xun waved his hand, and the green light spot slowly floated away, heading towards Zhou Xun's dantian.

Instantly, his body felt enveloped by a warm current, like a mother's embrace, warm and peaceful.

At this moment, Zhou Xun felt as if his body had been cleansed, filled with vitality and vigor.

Simultaneously, a powerful suction force suddenly generated in Zhou Xun's dantian, and his cultivation technique began to operate unconsciously.

The bottleneck at the peak of the second layer seemed to cease to exist, and he broke through directly.

Even more miraculously, Zhou Xun's five senses were "boom" enhanced to an incredible degree.

Everything around him became clear and bright.

Places that were previously unclear in detail were now vividly visible.

Even the living room, blocked by the quiet room's door, suddenly appeared in his field of vision.

Furthermore, scents he couldn't smell before and sounds he couldn't hear now became distinct.

"Divine Sense!"

Zhou Xun was stunned by his own discovery.

Under normal circumstances, only cultivators in the late Qi Condensation stage could develop Divine Sense, which is why late Qi Condensation cultivators were called great cultivators.

With Divine Sense, one could leave a Divine Sense imprint on a Mystic Tool.

When operating a Mystic Tool, it would follow like a shadow, respond like an extension of the arm, and the spiritual energy consumed to control the Mystic Tool would also be much smaller.

With the guidance of Divine Sense, cultivators could also cast spells with tracking effects, making their power incomparable to those in the early to middle Qi Condensation stages.

Strangely, his Divine Sense could only see clearly within a three-zhang radius.

This was much smaller than the ten-zhang range of late Qi Condensation cultivators' Divine Sense.

However, this alone could greatly increase his strength.

If he had a Mystic Tool in his hand, he would not fear even a master at the fifth level of Qi Condensation.

The cultivation technique operated on its own for half an hour before finally stopping.

Zhou Xun checked his condition. Not only had he broken through the shackles of the second layer, but his progress in the third layer was also more than halfway complete.

"This has saved me several years of arduous cultivation!"

In terms of cultivation, he was now a significant distance ahead of Dan Xiong Hai. He wondered what Dan Xiong Hai's reaction would be if he knew.

"The improvement brought by using the Ningshun Sutra this time is truly beyond imagination!" Zhou Xun was immensely satisfied.

"Right, I almost forgot the most fundamental effect of the Ningshun Sutra: improving spiritual root aptitude!"

Zhou Xun immediately circulated his cultivation technique and began to refine the Spiritual Qi in the air.

After a long while, he opened his eyes.

"Compared to before, the speed of refining Spiritual Qi has increased by at least a third!"

"I wonder what my current Spiritual Qi sensitivity is?"

The grades of Spiritual Roots are all divided according to Spiritual Qi sensitivity.

The grades of cultivators' Spiritual Roots are divided into:

Mortal Spiritual Root, Inferior Spiritual Root, Medium Spiritual Root, Superior Spiritual Root, Earth Spiritual Root, Heaven Spiritual Root.

Spiritual Qi sensitivity of 1-9 points is Mortal Spiritual Root.

-19 points is Inferior Spiritual Root.

-39 points is Medium Spiritual Root.

-59 points is Superior Spiritual Root.

-79 points is an Earth Spiritual Root.

Points above are Heaven Spiritual Root.

Normal cultivators possess all five elements, thus they all have Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth Spiritual Roots. As for those with Lightning Spiritual Roots, Ice Spiritual Roots, Wind Spiritual Roots, etc., they are all variations derived from multiple attributes.

Of course, cultivators with variant spiritual roots are quite rare.

However, it's strange that every cultivator with a variant spiritual root has a spiritual root sensitivity above 60.

In addition, there are also innate Spirit Bodies among cultivators, such as the Fire Spirit Physique, which naturally aligns with fire-attribute cultivation methods. Even with a Mortal Spiritual Root, their cultivation speed can be comparable to that of an Earth Spiritual Root cultivator.

There are also the Lightning Spirit Body, Three Yang Physique, Black Tortoise Physique, and so on.

It's just that these Spirit Bodies are too rare, even more scarce than cultivators with Heaven Spiritual Roots.

Every individual with an innate Spirit Body is a future powerful cultivator.

Since there are innate Spirit Bodies, there are naturally also acquired Spirit Bodies.

The types of acquired Spirit Bodies are much more complex, with some having even better effects than innate Spirit Bodies, while others are merely useful.

For example, the Lightning Attracting Body, which naturally attracts lightning strikes.

These are all obtained by chance.

Zhou Xun has a dual Fire and Wood Spiritual Root. His fire attribute sensitivity is 11, and his wood attribute sensitivity is 17. Among Inferior Spiritual Roots, this is considered on the higher side.

As for the remaining three attributes of Metal, Water, and Earth, their sensitivities are all less than 1, so they are not included in the calculation.

Although there was no sensing stone to measure spiritual qi sensitivity, judging by the speed of refining spiritual qi, his current spiritual root should have entered the Medium Spiritual Root category.

Thinking of this, Zhou Xun couldn't help but look at another stalk of Spirit Gathering Grass.

"If I refine this stalk of Spirit Gathering Grass, can I directly advance to the middle stage of Qi Condensation!"

Being in the middle stage of Qi Condensation at his age could be considered a genius within the Four Great Clans.

Soon, Zhou Xun gave up this idea.

Just a few days ago, he was at the second level of Qi Condensation. After a few days, he had suddenly become a master in the middle stage of Qi Condensation.

Even a fool would know that there must have been a great opportunity involved.

Zhou Xun naturally did not dare to take such a risk.

"This stalk of Spirit Gathering Grass will be saved for breaking through to the late stage of Qi Condensation. There are many Spirit Herbs on the market, so there's no need to use such an extremely rare treasure!"

Moreover, Zhou Xun had now broken through to the third level of Qi Condensation, meeting the standard to register as an alchemy apprentice.

Coupled with the improvement in his spiritual root aptitude, it seemed that his successful selection was highly probable.

Once he became an alchemy apprentice, he would have access to Spirit Herbs as a matter of course.

Zhou Xun then put away the Spirit Gathering Grass.

Only then did he have the leisure to examine the refined Spirit Gathering Grass.

The originally jade-green spiritual plant had completely disappeared, leaving behind only a small pile of grayish-white ash.

Anyone who saw it would not recognize that this was once the famous Spirit Gathering Grass in the cultivation world.

"It truly condensed all its essence!"

Zhou Xun exclaimed, then tidied up briefly before striding out of the quiet room.

In the following days, Zhou Xun spent his time cultivating.

Time flew by, and a decade passed.

Finally, the day for the alchemy apprentice registration and selection arrived.