Having already entered seclusion, Li Xingkong did not rush to begin cultivation immediately. He first made a general assessment of his current cultivation state.
Currently, my cultivation level is at the Early Foundation Establishment Stage. The biggest difference between the Foundation Establishment Stage and the Qi Refining Stage Qi Refining Stage that the Foundation Establishment Stage begins the cultivation of Divine Sense. The Qi Refining stage, on the other hand, focuses on the cultivation of essence and qi. Essence, qi, and spirit are the three treasures of the human body. The main purpose of these two stages, Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment, is to improve these three aspects as a whole, and to bring essence, qi, and spirit to their theoretically perfect state when Foundation Establishment Perfection.
In the context of spiritual practice, "essence" refers to physical cultivation, which involves enhancing physical strength; this is the foundation of all spiritual practice.
Qi refers to the cultivation of Magic Power. Although it requires the help of Spiritual Qi, once one has Magic Power, there is a connection between the energy of heaven and earth, enabling the casting of various spells. This is also the fundamental reason why humans can cultivate.
God refers to a person's will and mind. While both physical strength and Magic Power are improved, the spirit also needs to be improved. This is because as the physical strength increases, the original spiritual power is no longer sufficient to control the increasingly powerful body, and a stronger spirit is needed to adapt to the body.
Since improving one's vital energy is fundamental and the foundation for cultivation, these two must be started first. The biggest problem with spiritual cultivation is that it requires a lot of energy, which can only be supplied after the Foundation Establishment. Therefore, spiritual cultivation can only be placed in the Foundation Establishment Stage or even later.
Therefore, if one wants to cultivate the spirit before the physical body, the most likely outcome is that the spirit will be successfully cultivated, but the energy supply will be insufficient, ultimately leading to the transformation into a rainbow and passing away.
In terms of magic, Li Xingkong now possesses a considerable number of spells. In addition to the spells he used before, he has also read through all the spellbooks he obtained from the system and handed over to Divine Land. Although he has not studied them in practice, it is not a problem for him to learn them on the spot when he encounters a corresponding situation.
He can now use Qi Refining Stage spells with ease, and as for Foundation Establishment Stage spells, he has only learned one so far: Sword Control Technique. This spell is so powerful that it far surpasses all Qi Refining Stage stage spells. With this spell, he feels there is no need to learn any other spells in terms of offensive capabilities.
In terms of unorthodox Daoist techniques, Li Xingkong has recently learned the art of formations, barely scratching the surface. However, after several hands-on practice sessions, setting up formations and designing formation diagrams is no longer a problem for him.
As for the spiritual plants he had learned before, Li Xingkong hadn't created any new ones recently. After all, the cultivation of the Foundation Establishment Stage mainly focuses on cultivating Divine Sense, and he had only just begun to cultivate this aspect. He wasn't familiar with it, and he wasn't even familiar with the essence of the cultivation method, so how could he design related spiritual plants?
After all, there is no Spiritual Qi or spiritual plants in the entire Solar System. Any spiritual plant with a specific effect must be designed by humans, which requires the designer to have a very thorough understanding of the cultivation method that the spiritual plant is intended to assist.
In the cultivation world, all kinds of rare and precious materials emerge endlessly because Spiritual Qi is a naturally occurring substance. The native plants and animals can interact with Spiritual Qi and thus evolve. However, the Spiritual Qi of Earth Star is man-made. Unless there is human intervention, it would take millions of years of natural evolution for plants and animals to learn to use Spiritual Qi. Perhaps only occasionally will a mutated plant be able to interact with Spiritual Qi.
In other novels, the plants and animals undergo drastic mutations upon revival. This is less about Spiritual Qi and more about a weapon—an extremely invasive weapon that can forcibly alter the habits, state, and even the mind of living beings. In today's world, such a weapon is practically unsolvable.
Therefore, although Li Xingkong also wanted to create a spiritual plant to assist in the cultivation of Divine Sense, he still only had a superficial understanding of Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation, so creating such a spiritual plant was just wishful thinking.
As for asking the system for help, that's out of the question. If it's something he absolutely can't do, then the system will step in to help him. But if it's just because he doesn't have enough knowledge to do it, then the system definitely won't step in. This is a test for Li Xingkong in itself.
After reviewing his current cultivation progress, Li Xingkong found it to be fairly good. As for spells, before his seclusion, he thought he knew quite a few and should be able to handle most situations. However, upon closer inspection, he realized that he was already at the Foundation Establishment Stage, but only knew one Foundation Establishment Stage spell. Thinking about it carefully, he realized that it was still somewhat insufficient. It was only because he hadn't encountered any opponents of similar strength that he felt he had enough spells.
To put it bluntly, he can still easily defeat weaker opponents, but when he encounters opponents of the same cultivation level, his methods become somewhat limited. While his sword-wielding attack is indeed powerful, Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators have many other methods besides direct confrontation. They possess a wide array of mysterious and powerful techniques.
It is only in a world like Earth Star, which lacks Spiritual Qi, that Li Xingkong's combat strength can be considered the number one cultivator. But if he were in a world with Spiritual Qi, among Foundation Establishment cultivators of the same level, he would be nothing more than an ordinary person.
Nevertheless, after learning the Sword Control Technique, there was still good news: Li Xingkong was truly invincible on Earth Star.
Previously, there were nuclear bombs and missiles that could attack him, but since he mastered the Sword Control Technique, the speed of missiles is now like a tortoise crawling in front of him. As for nuclear bombs, we have to mention them again. In Earth Star's atmosphere, the explosion wave also has a speed, which is approximately Mach 30.
In other words, even if a nuclear bomb were to explode right in front of Li Xingkong, he could immediately fly away on his sword, faster than the blast wave.
Although it hasn't been tested whether it can withstand a nuclear bomb, escaping from a nuclear attack is absolutely no problem. As for the subsequent shockwaves and Fallout, the initial explosion can't compare to it, let alone those.
Moreover, Li Xingkong had been exposed to Fallout once in space. This stuff is the source of all evil that no Earth Star dares to touch right now, but Li Xingkong knows that if he wants to cultivate the Golden Core, he will have to come into contact with this thing sooner or later.
After this period of seclusion, my cultivation level will improve, and I need to keep up with my spellcasting. I'll need to learn at least a few more spells. Of course, besides spellcasting, there's another major system that I can start exploring after this seclusion ends.
That relates to weapon crafting. How can one cultivate without magical artifacts? Now that the Spiritual Qi is abundant, weapon crafting can naturally be put on the agenda. Putting everything else aside, I'll first refine my precious flying sword so I don't have to carry it around everywhere I go.
Of course, besides magical artifacts, he could also start exploring knowledge about space. Li Xingkong had previously considered a spatial ring, but the system warned him that with his Qi Refining Stage cultivation and thinking speed, trying to master knowledge about space would directly overwhelm his brain.
Only when his Divine Sense reaches a certain level can he be qualified to begin learning about space-related knowledge. This qualification is not artificially restricted; rather, forcing oneself to learn when one is not qualified will truly result in death.