Doing research is a very tedious thing. It requires participants to have great patience, meticulous thinking, and a strong liver.
The same applies to cultivators. Whether it's going into seclusion to improve their cultivation or Li Xingkong's current research on spiritual herbs, these are not simple tasks and require long periods of intense focus to accomplish.
More than half a year has passed since he completed his cultivation of the Ingestion Spell and the seed has grown. Li Xingkong has also fully resumed his life in China.
It has to be said that for an ordinary person, without the pressure of finding a job or having money, Divine Land is truly a very suitable place to live.
Comfortable, stable, and mundane, day after day.
There was no safety danger, no unrest, and the most lively thing was the various kinds of fun on the internet.
That's why Li Xingkong wanted to come back, instead of staying abroad.
Cultivating immortality is for the sake of longevity and a better life. Although cultivating immortality brings power far beyond that of ordinary people, power is merely a tool to ensure one's quality of life.
Becoming obsessed with one's own power and acting recklessly can have irreversible consequences for world stability, ultimately impacting one's own quality of life.
Although most of the necessities of life are no longer needed after cultivating immortality, a stable society can provide far more than just material things; it also offers value in terms of spiritual civilization.
Only a stable society and a highly developed civilization can give birth to a magnificent spiritual culture.
Day after day, Li Xingkong stayed at home doing research. For six months, he kept going back and forth between two places: his home and his vegetable garden.
Although time wasn't particularly tight, and he set his own schedule, he didn't let his guard down for a moment.
Time is something he has plenty of, but for others it's still very precious.
In half a year, his spiritual plant had been upgraded to its 10th version, and according to Li Xingkong's calculations, this would be the final version of the Bone-Tempering Grass. According to his cultivation plan, this version of the spiritual plant had reached its optimal effect in assisting him with Bone Tempering.
Of course, this is only true on Earth Star. He is still just a mortal being and cannot escape the atmosphere, let alone go to space.
We can only consider this within the Earth Star's sphere.
In the past six months, Li Xingkong's cultivation progress has been very encouraging. This long period of seclusion was the first time in his life that he had cultivated for such a long time. Moreover, with the assistance of spiritual plants, his cultivation progress was naturally much faster than expected.
Originally, in his and the system's plan, he was supposed to reach the Foundation Establishment level when he was close to 60 years old, which would take about 30 years of cultivation to achieve anything. If he wanted to cultivate step by step to complete the Bone Tempering, it would take about 10 years. However, completing the Bone Tempering was only one part of the many cultivations in the Qi Refining Stage, not the whole thing. After the Bone Tempering, he would also need to undergo overall tempering of his muscles, nerve cells, and even his entire body.
One must continuously refine oneself until one's entire being is transformed, and master the Qi Refining Technique, establishing a complete Mana Circuit throughout the body, before one can be considered to have achieved Greater Completion of Qi Refining.
Cultivation is difficult, more difficult than ascending to heaven; even just Qi Refining can stump 90% of people.
Fortunately, with the system's help, I was able to truly embark on this path.
Now, with the help of the Bone-Tempering Grass, Li Xingkong's Bone Tempering progress will be greatly accelerated. The Bone Tempering that was originally estimated to take 10 years to complete can now be completed in about 2 years.
That's why cultivating immortality emphasizes wealth, companionship, methods, and location.
In the world of cultivation, this wealth would be considered an absolute cheat code.
The human body has 206 bones of varying sizes, which together form the complete structure of the human body. According to Li Xingkong's original plan, it would take 10 years to complete the Bone Tempering, which means that only 20 bones could be tempered per year. This is without taking into account the size of the bones, but only their individual size.
It looks like a lot, but the total amount is also large.
Now, with the speed-up from the Bone-Tempering Grass, his tempering speed can reach 100 units per year. If there is enough Spiritual Qi, it can be even faster. The only thing restricting Li Xingkong's cultivation progress now is the amount of Spiritual Qi.
Over the past six months, although he has been constantly trying to improve it, the Bone-Tempering Grass, which is still being improved, can also increase the speed of cultivation. Therefore, Li Xingkong has completed the tempering of nearly 40 bones in the past six months.
His tempering began near his Qi Sea, meaning that by now, his entire body has essentially completed the Bone Tempering.
As the body's natural metabolism progresses, his blood and skin have been completely tempered, making him a true iron turtle in terms of defense.
Previously in the Prisoner Continent, he was at risk of being injured by bullets, and the explosion also caused him significant harm.
But Li Xingkong is now a shield guard; even if an automatic rifle is pointed at his chest and shot, he can withstand it.
It's not just about being able to withstand it; when a bullet hits the body, it causes significant damage to internal organs. Even if someone appears fine, their internal organs may actually be ruptured or burst from the impact.
But Li Xingkong is no longer afraid; bullets hitting him have no effect whatsoever, inside or out.
He even had a feeling that he could now perform a feat of being unharmed despite the smoke from a rocket he had previously come into close contact with.
In terms of Qi Refining Technique, the progress is even faster.
The Qi Refining Technique focuses on building infrastructure, which basically involves constructing Mana Circuit throughout the body. The strength and level of this technique depend entirely on the cultivator's own wishes. If one wants more abundant Magic Power, then the Mana Circuit should be wider. If one wants faster Qi recovery, then the Mana Circuit should avoid overlapping during construction to prevent blockages in the flow of Magic Power.
The Qi Refining Technique is like a technical guide; it only explains the principles. How you use those principles is entirely up to you.
This is different from what Li Xingkong previously thought was the Qi Refining Technique.
Previously, I thought that Qi Refining Technique were diverse, with various methods, and were divided into ranks according to some concept of Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow, with different ranks resulting in different cultivation speeds.
But the Qi Refining Technique he encountered in reality: This knowledge has been given to you; you can use it freely!
Well, too much freedom has led many people to lose sight of what to do.
The system also provides an explanation for this, which is very straightforward:
" Qi Refining Technique is like the basic rules of a MOBA game, such as getting gold for last-hitting minions, and what the four skills Q, W, and E are; it only tells you that much."
"As for the same hero, some people can reach the King rank while others can only stay in Bronze; it all depends on individual understanding."
"And these Qi Refining Technique you mentioned, which are divided into ranks, are actually Qi Refining Technique that high-level or king-level cultivators developed on their own to help lower-level or newly-started cultivators reach their level."
Li Xingkong got the gist of it.
I've just started the tutorial, Qi Refining Technique only teaches last-hitting minions; laning depends entirely on my talent.
The Qi Refining Method he imagined was one where he could directly learn it by reading someone else's guide and get started quickly.
It's not that it doesn't exist, but rather that, as things stand now, it's something we have to create ourselves.