Cultivating the five elemental manipulation divine abilities was not Lu Yuan's impulse. Instead, it was the cultivation direction that he had long planned out.
In his "first five-year plan", he had written down his general aim of "breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage after all five spiritual roots are perfected".
Under this general aim, Lu Yuan had many sub-projects.
1. Every spiritual root had to have at least one corresponding divine ability.
2. Every skill had to be advanced at least once.
The reason why he had set up these two sub-projects was that he was worried that in the future, he would become an amateur with cultivation but no corresponding combat power.
Although he didn't like to fight, he still needed to have the necessary strength.
Not having a sword in hand and not using one were two different things.
Even though he had always held on to the belief that "I won't cause trouble and am afraid of trouble", and thus tried his best to avoid conflict with outsiders to buy time for his secretive development, there were bound to be some things that were beyond one's control.
For example, demoness Meng Ruyan's threats, or the large-scale arrest of the marrow-cleansing pill incident.
These were all situations that Lu Yuan had not considered before.
If he had known that such a situation would happen, he would have prepared countless tricks in advance to prevent things from getting out of his control.
After all that had happened, the stable Lu Yuan, who was good at summarizing, decisively summarized the mistakes he had made in these incidents and the areas that could be improved.
After reflecting on his painful experience, Lu Yuan decided to start enriching his trump cards.
Learning defensive methods was not enough. He had to start learning some offensive divine abilities too.
Even though he already had the Green Flame Technique, a heavenly flame divine ability, and thus had decent fighting power among cultivators of the same stage, this could only be considered as one of his trump cards, and it was something that had already been exposed.
Could a trump card that was exposed still be called a trump card?
Therefore, the current Lu Yuan urgently wanted to master some other trump cards.
Among them, the ones that he wanted to master the most were the other special divine abilities similar to the Green Flame Technique.
Without exception, all of these special divine abilities had various magical abilities that could help him display strength that far exceeded his cultivation, given his lacking cultivation.
It was just that these special divine abilities were generally very difficult to cultivate.
Even if the cultivation conditions were met, the success of the cultivation depended on luck.
However, this was not a problem for Lu Yuan!
Luck, you say? His luck had always been good!
He would put it this way. Other than being handsome, eloquent, highly talented in cultivation, and having a big tool, Lu Yuan was also a little luckier than others.
Others' cultivation depended on luck, but he cultivated steadily, never depending on luck!
Luck was the excuse of the weak and the humble words of the strong.
He, the steady Lu Yuan, didn't need all these fancy things.
Because he was the carrier of luck himself!
Lu Yuan was confident that he could cultivate a few more special divine abilities.
However, he didn't have enough sect contribution points to exchange for them.
Therefore, he could only settle for the second best and start cultivating the elementary five elements manipulation techniques.
In fact, there was another important reason why Lu Yuan was learning these elementary divine abilities.
It was because he realized that although his luck talent, Destined Lucky Star, played an important role in why he could master the Green Flame Technique so easily, his high-level Fire Manipulation also played a key role in this.
Even though elementary skills didn't seem to have any significant effects at the moment, since they could be called "elementary", many powerful divine abilities were naturally developed further from the prototype of these elementary skills.
So as long as one had a good foundation, it would only take half the effort to practice the same type of skill.
Lu Yuan was prepared to practice these elementary divine abilities to a certain level before starting to learn other special divine abilities.
Since he had so many new divine abilities to learn in a short time, Lu Yuan began to plan his specific schedule for the next five years.
[The Steady Lu Yuan Cultivation Plan 1.0]
From 6 a.m. To noon, he would conduct a six-hour pill refining session. During this process, he would also increase the proficiency of his Fire Wielding Technique, Exquisite Item Manipulation, and Metaphysical Pill Refinement Technique.
From 12 to 1 in the afternoon, he would have an hour of relaxation, balancing work and rest.
From 1 to 6 in the afternoon, he would have five hours of learning various divine abilities, including but not limited to the five elemental manipulation techniques.
From 6 to 7 in the evening, he would relax for an hour and strike a balance between work and rest.
From 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day, he would do elementary cultivation and increase his cultivation.
Looking at the cultivation plan that he had formulated, Lu Yuan felt that his future life had become incomparably fulfilling.
If everything went smoothly, he should be able to successfully break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage during his five years of confinement.
Moreover, his breakthrough would be the kind where all five of his spiritual roots were well-balanced.
As he thought of this, Lu Yuan felt that his future was filled with hope.
To become stronger, he had to start with a self-disciplined life!
...
Four years later...
The back mountain was a place where punished disciples who made mistakes were sent to.
Not only were there few disciples who came here in the past, but not many came here for punishment as well.
It could even be said that anyone who could be punished to confinement at the back mountain was favored by Qingyun Sect or had a deep background within the sect.
After all, the so-called confinement was actually a kind of forced cultivation.
On the surface, it was a punishment, but in reality, it was to let the disciples who made mistakes more restful, not to cause trouble, and to cultivate properly.
It was more a formality than actual punishment.
If the sect didn't take a fancy to one or one didn't have a strong background, why would the sect spend so much effort on one?
Today, a person who should never have come to the back mountain of Qingyun Sect arrived.
"Senior Sister Mu, why are you here?"
The Qingyun Sect disciple who was guarding the back mountain was shocked as he watched Mu Qiqi being brought over by a few disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall.
Wasn't Senior Sister Mu the daughter of the sect leader? With such status, she could do whatever she wanted in the sect.
Why did it look like she was about to be confined?
Who would be so bold as to punish the princess of the Qingyun Sect? They must have no emotional intelligence! Weren't they afraid that the sect leader would make life difficult for them?
However, what the disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall said next made the disciple who was guarding the back mountain reveal a strange expression.
"Under the orders of the sect leader, we have personally escorted Senior Sister Mu here for three years of secluded cultivation. Without the permission of the sect leader, Senior Sister Mu cannot leave the back mountain even half a step."
Good Lord, so it was her biological father who gave the order.
What kind of outrageous thing did Senior Sister Mu do to make the sect leader give such an order?
At this moment, Mu Qiqi was clearly not happy with this punishment.
"What is father doing? What does he mean by saying I have no manners? It was that guy from Yuchan Mountain who didn't watch his mouth first," She complained, "Does he even see what kind of trash he is? How dare he say that we are a match made in heaven? To think he even wants to ask my father for my hand in marriage. He's just a toad lusting after a swan's flesh. What status do I have? What status does he have? I'm not going to spoil him."
"Didn't I just find an opportunity to beat him up? Father already scolded me in public, but to think he still wants to punish me to confinement. This is too much, he's really too much! I've decided. For my entire lifetime, I'll... Forget it, I won't be nice to him for the next ten years!"
Upon hearing Mu Qiqi's grumbles, the disciple guarding the back mountain finally understood what had happened.
The most important event of the Qingyun Sect was the Five Sect Conference.
It was said that the reason was that the three demonic sects in the west were becoming increasingly rampant, and had begun to extend their hands into the territories of the five sects.
To deal with the possible situations, the five sects decided to gather and discuss a strategy.
Yuchan Sect was one of the five righteous sects.
It was just that they were here to discuss serious business. Was it really good for Senior Sister Mu to have beat them up in front of so many guests?
Mu Qiqi didn't care if what she did was good or not. She only knew that she was very unhappy right now.
Was she not allowed to make a move when others took liberties with her?
Just because the other party was one of the five righteous sects, just because the sect wanted to cooperate with the other party, they could make her suffer, huh?
Either way, she couldn't stand such a grievance.
Admit her fault? Mu Qiqi didn't feel that it was wrong to hit someone. Rather, she felt that she had been too gentle.
In fact, if not for the others' quick arrival, she might have even destroyed the other party's future "tool of crime" by then.
It had to be said that in terms of cultivation talent, Mu Qiqi was truly outstanding.
At the age of 26, she had already reached level 7 of the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Everyone said that Mu Qiqi was the most likely to reach the Core Formation Stage before the age of 30.
It was not an exaggeration to say that she was a proud daughter of the heavens.
"Hey you, tell me about the other places in the back mountain. I'll pick a place to stay."
The disciple guarding the back of the mountain hurried forward.
Just as he was about to speak, Mu Qiqi suddenly changed her mind.
"Oh right, I suddenly remembered that the outer sect disciple I caught four years ago seems to be locked up here too. Where is he now? Take me there to take a look."
Upon hearing this, the expression of the back mountain disciple abruptly changed.
"Senior sister... Let's not go there."
"Eh? Why?"
The disciple's face instantly turned pale. Then, he seemed to recall something terrifying. After hesitating for a moment, he lowered his voice and said, "Senior sister... Because there are ghosts there."
Ghosts?
It would have been better if the disciple didn't say that because Mu Qiqi became even more excited after hearing this.
She liked ghosts! They seemed very interesting!
"Let's go, let's go. I'd like to see what kind of ghosts are in this back mountain!"