Cultivation: From Mortal to Immortal Venerable Section 35

This Azure Jade Shuttle he acquired was of Medium grade.

It was the most valuable of all the treasures.

Zhou Xun played with it for a while before putting it away.

He would find an opportunity to test it out later, after leaving Red Leaf Square.

Next, Zhou Xun's gaze fell upon the exquisite jade box.

Zhou Xun opened the lid, revealing a two-leaved spirit plant with alternating green and black colors inside.

"Spirit Condensing Herb!"

Zhou Xun rejoiced, I searched high and low for it, and now it's come to me effortlessly!

He had thought he'd missed out on this second-tier spirit herb, but it had ended up back in his possession.

It seemed the two cultivators he had killed were the ones who had bid on the Spirit Condensing Herb that day.

This saved him over a hundred Spirit Stones.

After finishing his inventory, Zhou Xun took a Storage Pouch and hung it at his waist.

As a first-tier, low-grade alchemist, it was normal for him to own a Storage Pouch.

With a wave of his hand, he put all the scattered treasures into it.

As for the other one, he hid it at home.

The next morning, Zhou Xun returned to Danbao Pavilion.

He had specifically asked the manager for several days off due to the Black Market incident, so he had quite a few tasks piled up.

It took him the entire day to complete them.

At his home in Green Willow Alley.

After eating his Spirit Rice, Zhou Xun entered the quiet room. He casually lit an incense stick to calm his mind.

Now, calming incense was a daily necessity for him.

He sat down cross-legged, patted the Storage Pouch at his waist, and with a flash of green light, the jade box containing the Spirit Condensing Herb instantly appeared in Zhou Xun's hand.

He opened the lid and took out the Spirit Condensing Herb.

Then, he began circulating the Essence Spring Art.

Soon, a point of essence light was extracted.

Zhou Xun carefully guided the light point into his body.

It was smooth; the moment the light point touched Zhou Xun's body, it merged into him.

A mystical sensation arose, and after a while, Zhou Xun opened his eyes.

"Second-tier spirit medicine is indeed effective!"

This refinement process felt much stronger than the previous one.

Next, he circulated the Essence Cultivation Art. As the cultivation technique spun, the spiritual energy in the air was drawn in, entered Zhou Xun's meridians, circulated a full circle, and was refined into magic power.

"The spiritual energy conversion speed has improved significantly!"

"Based on the spiritual root sensitivity calculation, it should have increased by about one point!"

"It seems ordinary second-tier, low-grade spirit medicine can only increase spiritual root sensitivity by one point!" Zhou Xun had a rough grasp of the improvement pattern of spirit herb essences.

"Second-tier spirit medicine... it seems the path to becoming a Superior Spiritual Root is still long and arduous!"

Zhou Xun sighed, then took out a Qi Induction Pill and began refining it.

The Qi Induction Pill was originally meant for early to mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators to strengthen their foundation and increase their cultivation speed.

However, its ability to help break through the bottleneck of the second level of Qi Refining gave it such a grand reputation, making it a sacred pill in the eyes of low-level cultivators.

An hour later, the Qi Induction Pill was fully refined.

All its medicinal power had been converted into magic power.

In that single hour, he had achieved at least four to five days' worth of arduous cultivation.

However, the cost was 40 Spirit Essence.

"It's a pity my meridians aren't strong enough, and I can only circulate the cultivation technique a limited number of times each day!"

"But at this rate, it will take me at most half a year to cultivate to the peak of the third level of Qi Refining!"

His last encounter with a rogue cultivator had instilled a sense of urgency in Zhou Xun.

His cultivation at the third level of Qi Refining was still too low. Last time, he had the advantage of striking first, coupled with his sharp magical artifacts, which left his opponents no room to counterattack.

That was how he, the weaker party, had defeated the two of them.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to withstand the Medium-grade talismans stored in their pouches.

Time flew by, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye. Zhou Xun successfully reached the peak of the third level of Qi Refining.

At this moment, he was only missing a catalyst to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation.

This catalyst could come at any moment, or it might never arrive, leaving him stuck forever.

There were plenty of people like him in Red Leaf Square.

Of the eighty percent of cultivators who couldn't reach the mid-stage of Qi Condensation, nine out of ten were stuck at this very bottleneck.

After all, even with inferior spiritual roots, relying on the passage of time and not being excessively lazy, it was still possible to cultivate to the third level of Qi Condensation within decades.

However, Zhou Xun currently possessed a Medium Spiritual Root, so this bottleneck would, under normal circumstances, trap him for at most one to two years.

Since he had reached a bottleneck, Zhou Xun decided to research other methods to improve his strength.

In the quiet room of his home in Green Willow Alley.

Zhou Xun sat cross-legged, with the body-refining technique gifted by Dan Xiong Hai placed before him.

After much deliberation, Zhou Xun decided to cultivate both.

Firstly, body refiners relied on resources rather than innate talent.

Secondly, body refiners possessed formidable combat power, often far exceeding cultivators of the same level.

Thirdly, as long as body refiners had sufficient resources, their advancement speed was several times faster than Qi cultivators.

Looking at the animal skin scroll before him.

Zhou Xun recalled Dan Xiong Hai's solemn expression that day, which made him vaguely feel that this cultivation technique was not as simple as it seemed.

The technique was made from a piece of animal hide, its style extremely ancient, suggesting it was very old.

Unfolding the hide, the words "Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art" met his eyes.

He continued to study it.

This turned out to be a body-refining technique capable of strengthening a cultivator's meridians.

As everyone knew, when cultivators at the peak of Qi Condensation broke through to Foundation Establishment, they needed to overcome three hurdles: blood qi, magical power, and spiritual sense.

Blood qi referred to a robust physical body; only a sufficiently strong body could withstand the violent onslaught during the Foundation Establishment breakthrough.

Magical power referred to the qualitative change required for magical power upon reaching Foundation Establishment.

This process of qualitative change involved absorbing a large amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, infusing it into the body, and channeling it into the dantian through the meridians, eventually forming liquid magical power.

This ultimately led to a qualitative breakthrough.

However, the infusion of spiritual energy into the body placed immense strain on the meridians.

Those with weak meridians often couldn't withstand the spiritual energy infusion. Minor cases resulted in damaged meridians and severe depletion of vital energy.

Severe cases led to ruptured meridians, ruined cultivation, and even death by explosion, which was not uncommon.

One of the functions of the Foundation Establishment Pill was to temporarily reinforce the meridians, increase their resilience, and improve the success rate of spiritual energy infusion.

And this Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art, with its ability to strengthen meridians, was clearly invaluable.

Coupled with its body-strengthening effects, this body-refining technique was equivalent to about half a Foundation Establishment Pill.

However, with such a potent technique came demanding cultivation requirements.

The materials for just the introductory stage were worth dozens of Spirit Stones.

And this was merely the cost for one practice session.

To successfully get started, one needed at least several attempts, and some even required over ten.

This expenditure was enough to cultivate a cultivator with an Inferior Spiritual Root to the late stage of Qi Condensation.

However, considering the remarkable power of the Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art, Zhou Xun couldn't help but be tempted.

"This technique is quite costly, but the benefits upon mastery are immense. It's worth a shot!"

Soon, Zhou Xun changed his attire and went out to purchase materials for three sessions of the Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art.