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Two seconds later, the world returned to normal, and Zhao Sheng instantly "fell" out of the time-stop status.
It was magical, it was wonderful!
It was only two seconds, yet Zhao Sheng felt as if the entire process lasted at least a minute.
Two seconds VS one minute!
In a sense, it meant that time had slowed down by thirty times.
What did that mean?
Zhao Sheng hadn't fully grasped it yet, but he knew that in any world, any ability or talent involving time was exceedingly rare.
With a single Yellow-Level draw, he had drawn the talent "Bullet Time."
It had to be said, he had hit the jackpot this time!
After experimenting with his newfound talent, Zhao Sheng calmed his mood and began his first cultivation in this life.
In the quiet room, Zhao Sheng sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and focused, his spirit quickly entering a state of emptiness and clarity.
It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it felt like just an instant.
In the darkness surrounding Zhao Sheng's body, suddenly, particles of spiritual energy appeared densely packed and in various colors.
Some were red as fire, some green as wood, some dark as the abyss, some bright as gold, some yellow as earth. There were also flecks of pure white like ice, deep blue like lightning, and green darkness like the wind.
Zhao Sheng was overjoyed to see this scene, knowing that the first step of sensing spiritual energy was successful. The next step was to activate the vortex of spirit power in his dantian using the Nourishing God Skill, absorb the surrounding spiritual energy particles, and then begin the refining and fusion process.
The Nourishing God Skill Zhao Sheng practiced was called "Colorful Cloud Chasing Moon." Regard the spirit as the moon, and spiritual energy as the clouds. The skill is named Colorful Cloud Chasing Moon, but in reality, it's the moon that moves and the clouds that follow.
Simply put, it involves using one's consciousness, the embryo of Divine Sense, to activate the vortex of Spirit Power. This pulls the spiritual energy particles into the vortex, refines and fuses them based on their attributes, while also discarding "impurities," ultimately strengthening the Spirit Power.
The entire cultivation process can be described in the phrase "Nourish the Spirit, Refine the Qi, Remove the Dross, Preserve the Essence."
Why do cultivators with fewer spirit roots cultivate faster?
This has to do with "removing the dross and preserving the essence," which simply means purifying and removing impurities.
Given the same amount of time and equal quantity of spiritual energy particles absorbed, cultivators with Five Spirits Roots will absorb five types of particles but can only refine one type, with the other four being impurities.
On the other hand, cultivators with a Single Spirit Root only absorb one type of particle, eliminating the process of discarding impurities.
Other factors notwithstanding, just from this point of view, the cultivation speed of a Single Spirit Root is at least five times that of Five Spirits Roots.
This is why all Cultivation Forces treasure cultivators with a Single Spirit Root, viewing them as supreme treasures.
Zhao Sheng possessed Four Spirit Roots -- gold, water, earth, and wood -- and was cultivating the Water Element Technique "Mystical Spirit Skill."
The Mystical Spirit Skill wasn't highly ranked, and in the Cultivation World, it wasn't considered particularly precious, but it was extensively pervasive.
Many cultivators chose it as their main cultivation method. They favored Mystical Spirit Skill for its balanced and stable nature, a characteristic that reduced the likelihood of one becoming a Fallen Demon, and the Spirit Power cultivated was known for its purity.
However, the downside of Mystical Spirit Skill was also quite apparent: it was slow. Not only was the purification and fusion process slow, but the speed at which cultivation increased was even slower.
But in Zhao Sheng's view, the slowness of Mystical Spirit Skill wasn't a disadvantage,
because he had plenty of time. If not in this life, then in the next.
Under the state of spiritual introspection, Zhao Sheng "saw" the vortex of pitch-black Spirit Power deep in his dantian begin to "rotate" slowly under the drive of his consciousness.
An invisible force of attraction formed and gradually, particles of spiritual energy of gold, wood, water, and earth were drawn into the vortex.
Afterward, the particles of gold, wood, and earth were "cast out" of his body while the Water Element Spirit Qi was slowly crushed and gradually merged into the Spirit Power.
As time passed, Zhao Sheng felt his consciousness gradually weaken, and a faint pain began to emerge at his brow.
Continuing to cultivate, the throbbing pain in his brow became more pronounced, eventually turning into a stabbing pain as sharp as needles.
Zhao Sheng knew this was a sign of severe spiritual exhaust, and it was time to end this cultivation session.
He took a long breath, stopped activating the technique, and exited the state of empty clarity.
"Haha!"
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After waking up, Zhao Sheng opened his eyes and suddenly burst into loud laughter.
That night, at midnight, the moon appeared hazy, with light clouds and a gentle breeze.
By the banks of Dragon Carp Lake, Zhao Sheng, dressed in a black robe, found a large rock about the height of two men on the shore.
He circled the rock and quickly started digging under a corner-shaped protrusion.
A short while later, Zhao Sheng dug out a package from a three-feet-deep pit.
Unwrapping the package, he found over a hundred milky-white, eyeball-sized low-grade Spirit Stones, a three-inch-long ancient bronze flying sword, three dark crystal shards, and a dismal green small arrow.
The ancient bronze flying sword was a First Order Mid-grade flying sword, equivalent to an ordinary First-rank top-grade magic tool. Its value was around seven hundred and fifty Spirit Stones.
It was Zhao Sheng's spoils of war, obtained from a Qi Refining Fourth Level medicine collector.
The dark crystal shards were a First-tier rare refining material called Mystic Wave Crystal, each worth a few dozen low-grade Spirit Stones.
The most precious was the dismal green small arrow. It was a one-time self-exploding magic tool, highly toxic and corrosive. Once hit by it, even someone at the late stage of Qi Refining would be severely injured, and any hesitation could lead to immediate death from the poison.
These Spirit Stones, magic tools, and refining materials were one of the contingencies left behind by Zhao Sheng in his previous life.
Now, they indeed came into use.
...
One month later,
In the quiet room, Zhao Sheng awoke from meditation, suddenly sporting an excited smile.
After a month of grueling closed-door cultivation, he had finally broken through to the Qi Refining Second Level realm.
Of course, the cost was not small; he had finished six bottles of Spirit Origin Pills in one go.
Six sevens equal forty-two.
While forty-two Spirit Stones might not seem much, they are enough to buy a First-rank low-grade magical artifact.
An average early stage Qi Refining Loose Cultivator wouldn't earn fifty Spirit Stones in a year.
Compared to those hard-struggling Loose Cultivators, Zhao Sheng was already extravagant.
But when compared with Sect Disciples, this wasn't much at all.
These Spirit Origin Pills were exchanged from the family clan's treasury.
There was a member of the Zhao family named Zhao Keru, the only alchemist in the Zhao family.
The Spirit Origin Pills were made by him.
In Zhao Sheng's plan, learning alchemy was an essential Cultivation Art.
However, as alchemy consumed too many Spirit Stones and his current conditions didn't permit it, he planned to start with talisman painting.
Talisman painting had the lowest entry barrier among the Hundred Skills of Immortal Cultivation; all it required were a magic pen, spiritual ink, and talisman paper.
Fortunately, his former self had a foundation in talisman painting.
After leaving the quiet room, Zhao Sheng was suddenly greeted by his personal servant Zhao Tai, who was waiting anxiously at the door, with a look of distress.
As soon as he saw Zhao Sheng come out, Zhao Tai immediately shouted, "Young master, it's bad! You must go and see! The elders are about to get into a fight with people from the second branch."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Sheng's eyebrows furrowed, and he said in a deep voice, "Don't panic, what happened?"
Zhao Tai quickly explained, "This morning, the elder from the second branch, along with people from the Wei Family, suddenly came storming in, demanding to settle some issues with us."
Hearing that it was the Wei Family, Zhao Sheng's frown deepened.
The Li Mountain Wei Family was a marital ally of the Zhao family, with the Wei Family's residence two hundred miles southwest of Dragon Carp Lake at the base of Li Mountain, beneath which lay a First-level top-grade spirit vein.
The Wei Family had one Foundation Establishment Cultivator and seven at the Late Stage of Qi Refining. Their strength was a notch above the current Zhao family.
Thinking of elder Zhao Jingang's behavior and manner, Zhao Sheng suddenly felt the looming sense of an approaching storm.
The presence of the Wei Family was not a good sign; they were likely after the Foundation Establishment Pills, or perhaps their target was the Zhao family itself.
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