The Azure Jade Shuttle he had obtained was of even higher quality, reaching the Medium Grade.
All told, it was the most valuable of all the treasures.
Zhou Xun briefly played with it before putting it away.
He would test it out another day after leaving Red Leaf Square.
Then Zhou Xun's gaze fell upon that exquisite jade box.
Zhou Xun opened the lid. Inside lay a two-leaved spirit plant mottled in dark green and black.
"Spirit Condensing Herb!"
Zhou Xun was overjoyed.
He had searched everywhere in worn-out iron shoes, only to find it without the slightest effort!
He had thought he had missed out on this Tier 2 spirit herb, never expecting it to return to his hands in the end.
It seemed the two cultivators he had killed were the pair who had bought the Spirit Condensing Herb at the auction that day.
This saved him more than a hundred spirit stones.
After taking stock of everything, Zhou Xun took out a Storage Pouch and hung it at his waist.
He was now a low-grade Tier 1 Dan Master, so possessing a Storage Pouch was perfectly normal.
With a sweep of his hand, he packed all the scattered treasures into it.
As for the other one, he hid it at home.
Early the next morning, Zhou Xun returned to Danbao Pavilion.
Because of the Black Market matter, he had specifically asked the steward for several days off. Quite a few tasks had piled up by now.
He spent an entire day before finally finishing them all.
At his home in Green Willow Alley.
After eating Spirit Rice, Zhou Xun entered the Meditation Chamber and casually lit a stick of Spirit Soothing Incense.
By now, Spirit Soothing Incense had become one of his daily consumables.
He sat cross-legged and patted the Storage Pouch at his waist. A flash of azure light passed, and 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 circulated the Essence Spring Art.
Very quickly, he extracted a speck of essence light.
Zhou Xun carefully guided the speck of light toward his body.
It went smoothly. The instant the light touched Zhou Xun's body, it melded into him.
A profound sensation arose. Only after a long while did Zhou Xun open his eyes.
"A Tier 2 Spirit Herb really works!"
This enhancement felt far stronger than the last one.
He then circulated the Essence Cultivation Art. As the cultivation method ran, the Spiritual Qi in the air was drawn over in streams, entering Zhou Xun's meridians, circling through his body once before being refined into mana.
"My Spiritual Qi conversion speed has increased considerably!"
"Judging by spiritual root sensitivity, it should have risen by nearly one point!"
"It seems ordinary Tier 2 Low-Grade spirit herbs can only raise spiritual root sensitivity by one point!" Zhou Xun had roughly grasped the enhancement pattern of Spirit Herb Essence.
"Tier 2 spirit herbs... It seems becoming a Superior Spiritual Root is still a long road with heavy burdens!"
With a sigh, Zhou Xun took out a Qi Induction Pill, swallowed it, and began refining it.
Qi Induction Pills were originally medicinal pills for early- and mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivators to strengthen their foundations, nourish their essence, and increase cultivation speed.
Only because they could help one break through the bottleneck of the second layer of Qi Condensation did they gain such a great reputation, regarded by low-level cultivators as sacred pills.
An hour later, the Qi Induction Pill had been completely refined.
All of its medicinal power had been converted into mana.
That single hour was equivalent to at least four or five days of Zhou Xun's bitter cultivation.
The price, however, was forty Spirit Essence.
"Unfortunately, my meridians aren't strong enough. The number of times I can circulate my cultivation method each day is limited!"
"But at my current pace, I'll reach the peak of the third layer of Qi Condensation in no more than half a year!"
His previous encounter with rogue cultivators had given Zhou Xun a sense of urgency.
Third-layer Qi Condensation cultivation was ultimately somewhat too low. Last time, he had seized the initiative, and with his sharp magical artifacts, he had not given his opponents any room to strike back.
Only then had he defeated the strong while weak and killed those two.
Otherwise, the medium-grade talismans in their Storage Pouches alone would not have been something Zhou Xun could withstand.
Time flowed on, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye. Zhou Xun successfully reached the peak of the third layer of Qi Condensation.
At this point, he lacked only a single opportunity to break through into Mid-Stage Qi Condensation.
That moment might come very soon, in the very next instant, or it might take a very long time—so long that one could fail to break through in an entire lifetime.
There were plenty of such people in Red Leaf Square.
Of the eighty percent of cultivators unable to break through into Mid-Stage Qi Condensation, nine out of ten were likely stuck at this stage.
After all, even if one's spiritual root was somewhat poor, with the mighty power of time, so long as one was not overly lazy, reaching the third layer of Qi Condensation over several decades was not difficult.
But Zhou Xun now possessed a Medium Spiritual Root. Under normal circumstances, this bottleneck would trap him for no more than one or two years.
Since he had reached a bottleneck, Zhou Xun simply began researching other methods of increasing his strength.
At his home in Green Willow Alley, in the Meditation Chamber.
Zhou Xun sat cross-legged, with the scroll of Body Refinement Art Dan Xiong Hai had given him placed before him.
After weighing it over many times, Zhou Xun decided to cultivate body refinement alongside his main path.
First, body refiners valued resources over talent.
Second, body refiners possessed formidable combat power and were often far stronger than cultivators of the same rank.
Third, as long as resources were sufficient, body refiners advanced several times faster than Qi Condensation cultivators.
Looking at the hide scroll before him.
Zhou Xun recalled Dan Xiong Hai's solemn expression that day, and faintly felt that this cultivation method was not so simple.
The cultivation method was made from a roll of beast hide, its appearance exceedingly ancient. It was likely very old.
He unfolded the beast hide, and the words "Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art" came into view.
He continued studying it.
This was actually a body-refinement cultivation method capable of increasing a cultivator's meridian strength.
As everyone knew, when a Qi Condensation cultivator at perfection broke through to Foundation Establishment, he needed to overcome three barriers: vital blood, mana, and divine sense.
Vital blood referred to a powerful physical body. Only a sufficiently powerful body could withstand the violent onslaught of breaking through to Foundation Establishment.
Mana, meanwhile, referred to the qualitative transformation mana needed to undergo upon reaching Foundation Establishment.
This transformation required absorbing vast quantities of heaven-and-earth Spiritual Qi, pouring it into the body, compressing it through the meridians into the Dantian, and ultimately forming liquid mana.
This would ultimately bring about a qualitative breakthrough.
Yet having heaven-and-earth Spiritual Qi flood the body posed an enormous test to the meridians.
Those with weak meridians often could not endure the Spiritual Qi flooding their bodies. In mild cases, their meridians would be damaged and their vital energy greatly depleted.
In severe cases, their meridians would shatter, their cultivation would be destroyed, and there were no shortage of those who even exploded and died.
One of the functions of a Foundation Establishment Pill was to temporarily reinforce the meridians, increase their resilience, and improve the success rate when Spiritual Qi flooded the body.
And this Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art actually possessed the ability to strengthen meridians. Its preciousness was obvious from this alone.
Together with its effect of strengthening the physical body, this body-refinement art was equivalent to nearly half a Foundation Establishment Pill.
But a powerful cultivation method naturally came with demanding requirements.
The materials for merely the entry stage were worth dozens of spirit stones.
And that was only the cost of a single attempt.
To successfully enter the art, one needed at least several attempts. Some people even required more than ten.
That expenditure was enough to raise a cultivator with an Inferior Spiritual Root to Late-Stage Qi Condensation.
But when he thought of the Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art's formidable qualities, Zhou Xun could not help but be tempted.
"This method costs quite a lot, but the benefits after mastering it are immense. It's worth taking a gamble!"
Very soon, Zhou Xun changed into a different outfit, went out, and purchased three sets of materials for the Hundred Meridian Body Refining Art.
Before you continue