After meditating for four hours to replenish his energy, Wang Ping finally came out from the world inside the "Heaven and Earth Shell." By then, the sun had long risen in the outside world —it was already noon.
Wu wu wu!
Seeing Wang Ping come out, Xiao Feng—who had been holding the silver clamshell in its mouth and had not eaten or drank anything for more than a night— instantly looked at him with eyes full of grievance, whimpering softly with a look of extreme displeasure.
Wang Ping's low spirits were suddenly lifted when he saw Xiao Feng. He couldn't help but smile as he caressed its head. "Alright, alright. I know you've worked hard. Let's go to the beach and see what we can find for you to eat."
With that, he led the way down the hill. According to his childhood memories, they followed a path along the foot of the hill that led to a beach.
The noon sun was very vicious. Even the fishermen who had lived by the sea since they were young would not choose to come to the sea at this time. They would usually come by during the high and low tides to look for a harvest.
As a cultivator, Wang Ping had a physique that was stronger than that of mortals. As such, he did not mind this too much.
As for whether there would be any woman who would like his tanned skin, that was not within his scope of consideration. He had never thought about that.
Ever since he embarked on the path of cultivation, Wang Ping rarely went to the beach to collect sea snails and seashells. He also seldom went there to catch prawns and crabs.
But before the age of nine, the only reason he was able to survive on his own after his parents' passing was because of the abundant seafood available on the beach.
At that time, without his parents to rely on, he had to rush to the seaside to pick up the seafood before others every morning and night. Only then could he not starve.
Even so, most of the things he painstakingly picked up would often be snatched away by the children in his village. Sometimes, they would even take everything away from him.
Having lost his parents, there was nothing he could do about it.
It was only until one morning when he was nine, when he "picked up" an unconscious old man on the beach, did this completely change.
Even now, Wang Ping still did not know the old man's name.
But he could clearly remember the appearance of the old man who had changed his life.
At that time, he had laboriously carried the old man back home from the beach. He then took care of the man for three days before the latter finally woke up.
Then, he saw the old man effortlessly taking a number of porcelain bottles out from the beast-skin pouch on his waist. He poured out pills that emitted a fragrant smell and swallowed them, before instructing Wang Ping to help keep watch outside and not let anyone come in to disturb him.
At that time, due to the old man's special temperament, Wang Ping did exactly as he was told and was beyond obedient.
This continued for another three days before the old man finally got off the bed. After Wang Ping ate a pill that the old man gave him, he didn't feel hungry for the next three days.
Afterward, the old man explained to Wang Ping that he was actually a cultivator, the kind whom the fishermen would worship as if they were gods.
The reason why he was "picked up" by Wang Ping was that he was ambushed by his own companions when he went out to sea to hunt for demon beasts. After using a secret spell, he was fortunate in being able to escape. He then fainted from exhaustion, fell into the sea, and was eventually washed to the beach outside the Golden Shell Village.
Under the old man's examination, Wang Ping realized that he also had the aptitude to become a cultivator; he possessed the spiritual core required to become one.
Unfortunately, his spiritual core was poor, as its composition was made up of the five elements. Though he could still become a cultivator, it was almost impossible for him to break pass the Refinement Stage.
Because of this, although the old man was grateful to Wang Ping for taking care of him the past few days, he was unwilling to take him as a disciple. In the end, he merely gave him a book on the basic cultivation technique, the "Cloudwater Incantation," and three pieces of gold to allow him to go to the city to read and learn. He could then choose whether or not to embark on the path of cultivation.
Watching the old man fly away in front of his eyes, Wang Ping decided to become a cultivator just like him.
A few days after the old man had left, he brought the book containing the "Cloudwater Incantation" and the three pieces of gold, along with some items of commemorative value with him and headed to White Sand City.
After that, Wang Ping used the gold from the old man to enter a private school in White Sand City to learn to read and write. He would then study in the school for two years.
When he was eleven years old, Wang Ping felt that it was no longer as difficult to read the "Cloudwater Incantation." In addition, he had almost used up the three pieces of gold. He then left his private school and wandered in the wilderness outside the city while cultivating the "Cloudwater Incantation."
After meticulously cultivating for a year and a half, he opened the nine basic acupuncture channels in his body and officially became a first-level Qi Refinement cultivator.
By now, Wang Ping had been cultivating for more than five years. He had also advanced from the first level to the third level of Qi Refinement.
From what Wang Ping knew, there were a total of five cultivation realms: Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and Deity Transformation.
In these five realms, the Refinement Stage was the most basic stage. It required one to open up all 108 major acupuncture channels in the body, so every nine acupuncture channels were used as a threshold.
Opening the nine acupuncture channels was the first level of the Qi Refinement Stage. Opening eighteen was the second level. This continued until the 108th acupuncture channel was opened at the twelfth level of the Qi Refinement Stage.
At the same time, with every major acupuncture channel opened, the Qi Refinement cultivator would obtain a unique ability. In the cultivation world, the first to the third level was known as the Early Qi Refinement Stage, the fourth to the seventh level was the Middle Qi Refinement Stage, the eighth to the eleventh level was called the Late Qi Refinement Stage, and the twelfth level was known as the Top Qi Refinement Stage.
As for the realms above the Refinement stage, Wang Ping had heard that they were also divided into Early, Middle, Late, and Top stages. Breaking through every minor stage would similarly allow the cultivator to obtain powers that surpassed that of the cultivators of the previous minor stage. Meanwhile, breaking through major realms would greatly extend the cultivator's lifespan.
Wang Ping was at the third level of the Refinement realm, and he was only nine acupuncture channels away from breaking through to the middle stage.
But he could clearly feel the pressure by now. When he was meditating to open up the next acupuncture point, the obstruction he encountered was much greater than before.
He knew that this was the reason why the old man refused to accept him as his disciple.
His mixed spiritual core allowed him to absorb and refine the Spirit Qi of the outside world. But the efficacy of this absorption and transformation was far inferior to those cultivators with a single-elemental spiritual core or dual-elemental spiritual core. In the cultivation world, his spiritual core was "crippled."
In most places, the Spirit Qi was made up of the five elements, and all kinds of Qi existed.
Cultivators with a spiritual core that were a mixture of all five elements would also be able to absorb all kinds of Spirit Qi that corresponded to their spiritual roots when they meditated.
However, due to the nature of the cultivation techniques these cultivators practiced, they could only refine and use a portion of the Spirit Qi that matched the attributes of their techniques. As such, not only would the remaining Spirit Qi be useless to them in cultivation, but they also had to spend extra energy expelling them out of their bodies. One could only imagine the impact it had on the efficiency of their cultivation.
On the other hand, for cultivators with a single-elemental spiritual core, as long as the cultivation technique they practiced corresponded to their type, the other kinds of Spirit Qi would basically not be absorbed into their body when they meditated.
This way, even if everyone were to absorb the same amount of Spirit Qi during meditation, due to the differing efficiencies of conversion, the cultivation speed of cultivators with single-element spiritual roots would naturally be many times faster than cultivators with mixed spiritual roots.
Therefore, in the cultivation world, when cultivators chose people to be their disciples, most of them would place great importance on the disciples's spiritual core.
Normally, unless they had no other choices, cultivators would definitely not choose people with a mixed spiritual core as their disciples.
Of course, the cultivation speed of cultivators was not entirely determined by their spiritual core.
In other words, while the type of spiritual root was only one major factor that was unchangeable, there were other factors as well.
If one cultivated in a place with especially abundant and pure Spirit Qi along with the consumption of elixirs and the use of spirit objects that could directly increase one's cultivation efficiency, cultivators with mixed spiritual core could catch up to those with three or two-typed spiritual roots with worse cultivation conditions.
Unfortunately, these two conditions were impossible to fulfill for cultivators with a mixed spiritual core.
Wang Ping, who possessed the "Heaven and Earth Shell," was barely able to meet the first condition.
After the "Heaven and Earth Shell" had acknowledged him as its master, it would, at all times, absorb Spirit Qi from the outside world to increase the concentration of the Spirit Qi in the world within it.
As the owner of the shell, he was also able to slightly influence the distribution of the Spirit Qi within, creating a spot where the Spirit Qi was a lot denser than in other places.
However, the problem was that the Spirit Qi that the shell absorbed was primarily used to maintain the world inside. This included increasing the area of the island and of the sea. All of these were achieved by consuming the Qi that the shell had absorbed, and it was beyond Wang Ping's control.
Thus, up till now, the concentration of Spirit Qi on the small island inside the "Heaven and Earth Shell" was only comparable to the weakest spiritual vein outside. It allowed Wang Ping to have a place of cultivation that was scarcely better than that of most individual cultivators on Golden Pearl Island.
This was also the main reason why Wang Ping was able to reach the third level of the Refinement stage after cultivating for more than five years. Otherwise, with his mixed spiritual root, and without a blessed spiritual mountain to live in and cultivate in, he would normally have to cultivate for at least eight years before he could reach his current level.
However, as his cultivation level increased, the environment within the "Heaven and Earth Shell" was no longer as effective as before in helping his cultivation.
If he was unable to improve the density of the Spirit Qi in the shell, and could not find any other way to advance, he likely would not be able to advance to the Middle Refinement stage even if he cultivated for another three to five years.
Roar—
All of a sudden, the Great Wolf Xiao Feng's excited howl interrupted Wang Ping's deep thoughts.
He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a few sea turtles— the size of millstones— running out from the bushes on the beach under Xiao Feng's pursuit. They spread their legs and ran toward the sea, trying to escape the tragic fate of losing their lives to the wolf.
But of course, that was impossible. How could a sea turtle outrun a wolf on land?