Cultivation Progress and Red Cliff Market

Beside a pool of water somewhere on the outskirts of Cloudmist Mountain. To say that ever since he counterkilled two rogue cultivators who intended to ambush and kill him, Zhou Chun had galloped furiously for dozens of miles; it was only after confirming through the Red-beaked Sparrow that there were no traces of human presence nearby that he stopped by this pool of water to rest and reorganize. He first sat in cross-legged meditation for more than two hours, restoring his magical power to its peak state, and then took out the stone jar as usual to purify the turbid fiendish energy within his body clean with the Purifying Spirit Water. Only afterward did he begin to examine his harvest this time. There were not many valuable things on the two rogue cultivators; besides a total of thirty-four spirit coins, there were only two First-grade Low-tier magic tools that barely counted as being worth some spirit coins. When adding up the rest of the sundries, they were not even worth ten spirit coins. With such meager financial resources, no wonder the two of them had been struck with avarice upon guessing that Zhou Chun was a solitary Zhou Family cultivator who had migrated over, giving rise to the thought of murder and treasure seizing. One had to know that even without counting that priceless treasure of a stone jar, Zhou Chun alone possessed one hundred and thirty-five spirit coins, along with two First-grade Mid-tier magic tools and two First-grade Low-tier magic tools. Even the remaining sundries, when added together, were worth forty or fifty spirit coins. So these are the rogue cultivators at the very bottom of the Cultivation World! The spirit coins they usually earn are mostly spent on purchasing time for sitting in meditation and cultivation, so how could they possibly save any surplus wealth? Just like those fellows burdened with mortgages and car loans, no matter how desperately they work overtime, just how much surplus wealth can they possibly save in their bank accounts? Zhou Chun could not help but be moved and filled with endless emotion. At the same time, it made his choice even firmer: he must return to the Zhou Family. In this dangerous Cultivation World, low-tier cultivators with organizational protection and those without it presented completely different situations. He quickly discerned the direction and hurried toward the region where the cultivator market he had inquired about was located. ... Early in the morning, Zhou Chun sat cross-legged on a mountain peak, undergoing today's meditation and cultivation. And just when he was halfway through his meditation, with the appearance of the first ray of sunlight in the east, purple qi came from the east and was absorbed by him into his body to be refined. A soft pop suddenly rang out from within his body. It was yet another acupoint within his body being forced open. Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Violet Palace, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation—these are the six major cultivation realms currently known in the Cultivation World. Among them, the Qi Refining Stage is precisely refining essence to transform it into qi, externally gathering the essences of heaven and earth while internally gathering one's own essence and qi, combining the internal and external to condense magical power. As for measuring the height or depth of a Qi Refining cultivator's magical power, it depends on the number of apertures he has forced open. The human body has one hundred and eight major acupoints; for every acupoint a Qi Refining cultivator forces open, his magical power becomes a fraction deeper. At the same time, because after every nine apertures forced open, both the quality and total volume of a Qi Refining cultivator's magical power undergo minor changes, cultivators have further divided the Qi Refining Stage into twelve layers. Furthermore, Layers 1 to 4 of Qi Refining are classified as the early Qi Refining Stage, Layer 5 to Layer 8 of Qi Refining are classified as the mid Qi Refining Stage, and Layer 9 to Layer 12 of Qi Refining are classified as the late Qi Refining Stage. Zhou Chun is currently at the sixth layer of Qi Refining cultivation, belonging to a mid Qi Refining Stage cultivator; now, along with a new acupoint being forced open, the number of his forced-open acupoints has reached forty-seven. At the age of twenty-one, possessing the cultivation of the sixth layer of Qi Refining, Zhou Chun's speed of cultivation was quite exceptional. Yet in reality, his spiritual root aptitude was not outstanding, being merely a mid-grade spiritual root aptitude. It could be said that he was able to possess this level of cultivation at this age truly entirely by relying on his own efforts, cultivating diligently bit by bit. Indeed, Zhou Chun had gradually adapted to this new identity of his present self. In his subconscious, he had already regarded himself as the cultivator Zhou Chun, while his daily habits and ways of speaking were also leaning closer toward the cultivator Zhou Chun. At this moment, upon perceiving that his cultivation had made further progress, Zhou Chun also felt a surge of joy in his heart, hastily continuing to circulate his cultivation technique to absorb the external heaven and earth spiritual qi to refine it into magical power, filling that newly forced-open acupoint. The cultivation technique practiced by disciples of the Three Absolute Sect is mostly the Five Qi Facing the Sun Scripture, which is a foundational cultivation technique suitable for practicing with almost all spiritual root aptitudes. The magical power cultivated through the Five Qi Facing the Sun Scripture is upright, peaceful, and pure in aura, making it very convenient to transition to any cultivation technique in the future after establishing his foundation. This cultivation technique is not exclusive to the Three Absolute Sect either; many Cultivation Families and even cultivation sects pass down this cultivation technique as the foundational cultivation technique for their family or sect disciples. As for the best time to practice the Five Qi Facing the Sun Scripture, it is precisely at the hour when the morning sun first rises. When the morning sun first rises and all things revive, the heaven and earth spiritual qi under the intertwining of yin and yang is also the most active and most suitable for absorption and refinement. From the hour of Mao to the hour of Chen, the cultivation effects of these two hours are equivalent to the cultivation effects of four or five hours at other times. "This turbid fiendish energy is truly vexing; no wonder present-day cultivators, lacking the protection of a Spirit Cleansing Array, none dare to cultivate outside!" At this moment, Zhou Chun finished his quiet cultivation and awoke from it, slowly exhaling a breath of white Qi as he inevitably frowned and began to grumble. As it turned out, although he could rely on the Purifying Spirit Water within the stone jar to expel and purify the turbid fiendish energy inside his body, when cultivating, the turbid fiendish energy entering the body would still continuously cause the acupoints and meridians to produce a stinging sensation, all the while making it difficult for people to sit in meditation with a tranquil mind. He could not experience the slightest bit of that carefree and celestial cultivation ecstasy from his memories. From this, it can be seen that even with the stone jar in hand, Zhou Chun still only dared to cultivate with peace of mind in places protected by a Spirit Cleansing Array. With his cultivation completed at this moment, Zhou Chun stood up and stretched his body, taking some dry rations out from his storage bag to wash down with clear water, before feeding that Red-beaked Sparrow a handful of a certain kind of dried fruit it loved to eat, and then continued on his journey toward the cultivator cultivator market in Misty Prefecture of Jing Kingdom. Misty Prefecture had only one cultivator market, and that was Red Cliff Market. This cultivator market was located within the Red Rock Mountain Range in central Misty Prefecture, dominated and managed by the Green Lotus Temple, a major sect of Jing Kingdom, making it the prime destination for cultivators within the borders of Misty Prefecture to buy and sell cultivation resources. Yet at the same time, the entire Red Rock Mountain Range was a place with an extremely high degree of danger. Because of the market's aggregating effect on cultivators, many cultivators who made a profession of murder and treasure seizing would lurk and hide in the wilderness outside the market, ready at any time to ambush and kill cultivators entering and leaving the market. Although the market would sometimes dispatch patrol squads to patrol the outside and crack down on these bandit cultivators, it was still difficult to thoroughly cure this problem or prevent such incidents from happening. Therefore, when Zhou Chun arrived at the periphery of the Red Rock Mountain Range, he also became highly vigilant. Not only did he no longer swaggeringly cast the Wind Riding Technique to hurry on his way, but he also tried his best to restrain his aura and advance slowly. And the places he walked through were all places that the Red-beaked Sparrow had repeatedly scouted out in advance. Even so, he still kept a Wood Spirit Shield magic talisman grasped tightly in his hand, ready to activate it at any moment. In truth, most of the time, Qi Refining cultivators entering and leaving the market would travel in groups for the sake of safety. A solitary Qi Refining cultivator like Zhou Chun was either extremely confident in his own strength. Or else, just like his current situation, he had suddenly arrived at an unfamiliar place where he had no trustworthy friends to travel with. Viewed from this aspect, the sphere of activity of Qi Refining cultivators was also restricted; generally, they would not easily leave too far from the vicinity of a familiar market, nor would they easily head toward unfamiliar markets. For two consecutive days, Zhou Chun journeyed within the Red Rock Mountain Range, the distance he had traveled not even amounting to a hundred miles. Yet along this distance of less than a hundred miles, he had already heard the explosive roaring sounds of spells generated by cultivators fighting. Every time the sound rang out, it would end very quickly, with neither instance exceeding a quarter of an hour from start to finish. During this period, the Red-beaked Sparrow scouting ahead had given him warnings seven times, each time making him extremely nervous and directly choosing to make a detour to avoid them. Thus, relying on the Red-beaked Sparrow's scouting and warnings, coupled with his own careful caution, Zhou Chun finally arrived outside Red Cliff Market without mishap on the afternoon of the third day after entering the Red Rock Mountain Range. When he saw the market area ahead obscured by the array's mist, the heart that had been hanging in his throat finally settled back down into his belly. Then he recalled the Red-beaked Sparrow guarding in the air, holding the little fellow with a face full of gratitude as he thanked it: "Little Red, oh Little Red, these past few days you have truly rendered a great service. Once we arrive at the Zhou Family, I will definitely provide for you and raise you well." Having spoken, he fed the little fellow until it was completely full and carefully tucked it away into his pouch. Next, just like his previous entry into Azure Cloud Valley at Cloudmist Mountain, because Zhou Chun had never registered at Red Cliff Market before, he faced a background check before entering the market and paid five spirit coins as a security deposit. Once the security deposit was paid in full, he was finally granted entry into the market.