On the 24th day of the 11th month of the 5th year, Wang Ping consumed the first elixir, the "Water Concentration Pill," in the world within the "Heaven and Earth Shell."
He swallowed the pigeon-egg-sized blue-white elixir into his stomach, allowing it to slowly disperse within him.
As the elixir dispersed in his stomach, a cooling and refreshing aura began to spread out. After Wang Ping sensed this, he relaxed his mind and entered a meditative state, fully focused on circulating the Cloud Water Technique cultivation technique to refine that cooling aura.
The speed at which an elixir was refined from an unknown material dissolved in the stomach was not very fast. However, every time a portion of it was dissolved, a cooling and refreshing aura would be released, before being absorbed and refined by Wang Ping.
This aura was the "medicinal energy" that cultivators often spoke of. It was the essence of the spiritual ingredients used to refine elixirs.
For example, in the "Water Concentration Pill" that Wang Ping was currently refining, the various spiritual materials used to refine this kind of elixir were all materials that contained water-elemental Spirit Qi.
Therefore, this "Water Concentration Pill" was most suitable to be refined and absorbed for cultivators like him who cultivated water attribute techniques. They were the only ones who could maximize the effect of this kind of elixir.
On the other hand, if a cultivator with fire-elemental cultivation techniques that conflicted with water, or one with earth-elemental cultivation techniques tried to absorb this kind of elixir, not only would they be unable to increase their cultivation level after consuming the "Water Concentration Pill," their internal organs might even suffer injuries.
It took Wang Ping a full 24 hours to completely digest the pigeon-egg-sized "Water Concentration Pill." Nearly 70% of the medicinal energy in the core of the pill had been absorbed and refined by him, turning into his own cultivation and Dharma power.
However, because his cultivation base wasn't high enough, the speed at which he absorbed and refined the medicinal energy wasn't fast enough. In the end, 30% of the medicinal energy was wasted. The fact made his heart ache.
Originally, only middle-stage Qi Refinement cultivators could consume and refine the "Water Concentration Pill." With his current cultivation at the third level of Qi Refinement, he would naturally waste some of its medicinal energy away.
Although he was heartbroken that part of the medicinal efficacy was wasted, the powerful effect of the "Water Concentration Pill" still made Wang Ping extremely excited. It also seemed to let him see the light of hope as a cultivator with five elemental mixed spirit roots.
The sheer effect produced from this "Water Concentration Pill" was comparable to his usual three to four months' worth of secluded cultivation.
Furthermore, with the help of the medicinal energy produced by the elixir, the effect of him striking the next acupuncture channel was much stronger than that from his usual daily grinding.
After consuming and refining this "Water Concentration Pill," the 28th acupuncture point that he had spent half a year trying and failing to open was opened right away.
"No wonder Gu Feng and the other cultivators would first gather resources and wait until their cultivation is about to advance to the next level before exchanging for spirit pills to make a through. It turns out that these spirit pills can not only increase one's Dharma power and cultivation level, but they can also help in opening acupuncture channels!"
Wang Ping felt like he had discovered yet another "secret" the cultivators who had consumed elixirs had a tacit understanding of. The effects of elixirs were far greater than what ordinary cultivators could imagine.
This made him cherish his nine remaining "Water Concentration Pills" even more.
He decided that, in the future, he would only consume elixirs to aid in his breakthrough when his cultivation reached the next acupuncture channel.
He then looked at the Golden-Striped Prawns in the sea.
After the 37 Golden-Striped Prawns had eaten the corpses of the Waterwolf Beast and the two Alligator-Tailed Toads, their sizes increased once again. The largest one was already two feet long.
At this rate, as long as Wang Ping fed them three or four more demon beast corpses in the next one or two years, most of them would reach adulthood and become true low-grade Tier-1 demon beasts.
By that time, the adult Golden-Striped Prawns could not only be killed for food and harvested for materials that could be sold but they could also be reproduced to strengthen the farm of prawns here.
"It seems I should focus on collecting the eggs of other demon beasts in the future. Other cultivators don't have the things I have. Even if they obtain the demon beast eggs, they either eat them or try to sell them to the Li Clan. As long as I offer a higher price than the Li Clan, they should be more willing to sell them to me, right?"
"Eh, but I'll have to wait until my cultivation reaches the middle stage of the Qi Refinement realm before I can do this. Moreover, I'll have to think of a suitable reason for buying those when the time comes. I can't possibly say that I am buying the demon beast eggs to raise them!"
While on the beach, Wang Ping looked over at the Golden-Striped Prawns swimming in the sea, carrying the food that he had thrown into the water. He held a greater ambition in his heart.
He had the "Heaven and Earth Shell" in his hands. The conditions he had for raising these demon beasts were far better than anyone else's, and he didn't have to worry about them escaping.
If he could breed hundreds of Tier-1 demon beasts inside the shell, he wouldn't even need to risk going out to sea to hunt. He only needed to wait for some of the beasts inside to mature, and then he would lure them from the sea and kill them on the shore to extract materials.
When Wang Ping had passed by that small town in the past, he had seen fishermen domesticating seabirds to catch fish. This time, he was going there to learn how to train birds so that he could find a tailored way to train Bai Yu.
At the same time, he also wanted to buy some live fishes and prawns to put them into the ocean within the "Heaven and Earth Shell" so that the Golden-Striped Prawns could catch their own food. After all, he wouldn't be able to go in to feed them every day.
The bird-training technique was actually the specialty of the fishermen in the town. Apart from their own children and descendants, they would not easily teach it to others.
But if it was Wang Ping, who was accompanied by a vicious wolf, none of the fishermen in town dared to refuse him when he told them that he wanted to learn.
Although Wang Ping did not cast any spells, Xiao Feng's huge body, which was twenty feet long from head to tail, was enough for the fishermen to guess that he might be one of those legendary cultivators.
Therefore, although they did not understand why an "omnipotent" cultivator like Wang Ping would want to learn the art of bird training, the fishermen in the town still taught him their specialty without hiding anything.
This was because this skill wasn't something that could be learned in a day or two. It wasn't something that could be comprehended just by listening to someone's recount or with notes.
Wang Ping decided to stay on a cliff near the town for the time being. He invited fishermen to help him with Bai Yu's training during his daily cultivation.
Even the most knowledgeable fishermen in the town did not know what kind of mortal bird Bai Yu was. When they heard from Wang Ping that this bird could have a wingspan of 30 feet upon maturity, many of them were in disbelief.
Then, when they remembered that Wang Ping might be a cultivator, they believed him, though they were not fully convinced.
As such, they became more interested in training Bai Yu; they wanted to see how the bird would look when it grew up.