The fifth day since practicing the "Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill" had arrived in the blink of an eye.
Deep into the night, within the shelter, Chen Dengming was already showing streaks of white hair, crow's feet were faintly visible at the corners of his eyes, and his essence, qi, and spirit had been severely consumed.
However, his spiritual root had now officially transitioned from a lower grade to a middle-grade root.
The entire promotion process, starting from twilight today, lasted until an hour ago, he only felt his sensitivity to the spiritual energy in the surrounding air was becoming stronger and stronger.....
Although the gold spiritual energy absorbed still devastatingly cut into the wood spiritual energy, resulting in a substantial impairment to the outcome of his cultivation, it was actually ten times stronger than before, and the sensation of sensing spiritual energy was very clear.
If the first enhancement was a very subtle feeling and could be mistaken for a psychological effect,
Now, with the promotion of his spiritual root, the feeling of improving spiritual energy sensitivity was intense, like the difference between having a sip of cold water and having an ice cube in your mouth.
His spiritual root truly improved, but at the cost of a decade of his lifespan.
Chen Dengming stood up from the ground, picked up a towel to wipe down his firmly muscular body, and checked the panel after ending the practice of the "Three Elements Spirit Gathering Skill".
Both his Spirit Root properties and lifespan had changed.
"Innate Eightfold Martial Artist[Chen Dengming]
Lifespan: 92/152
Spiritual Root: Gold,Wood（Middle-grade 1/100）
Martial Arts: ''Chen Family Martial Arts Compendium'' (Complete 32/100)
Daoism: "Gu Refining Section" (Proficient 0/100), "Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill" (Beginner 6/100), "Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill" (Beginner 50/100)"
"By sacrificing ten years of lifespan, my spiritual root has been elevated to the middle-grade. My efficiency in practicing the Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill has significantly improved; this is the benefit of a stronger spiritual root..."
Chen Dengming was somewhat uplifted.
During these five days, aside from venturing out for an hour each day to collect materials for Golden Silkworm Gu, he spent the rest of the time holed up at home, painstakingly practicing the "Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill" to improve his spiritual root quality while waiting for someone from Gold Word Workshop to assign his duties.
At the same time, he didn't slack off in practicing the "Three Elements Spirit Gathering Skill".
From yesterday till today, he had completed eighteen sessions of practicing "Three Elements Spirit Gathering Skill".
Merely eighteen sessions of practice had raised the skill proficiency from 5 to 6 for this technique.
Especially after the completion of his spiritual root upgrade, the speed of gathering spiritual energy during the cultivation of this technique was rapid, nearly ten times faster than five days ago.
"At my current pace of cultivation, practicing the "Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill" ten times a day would raise the technique proficiency by 1 point. Using Clear Spirit Pills could speed this up, probably by practicing nine times a day, I'd be able to elevate one point of proficiency.
In view of this, it would take less than three months to securely breach through the Innate realm, and become a Qi Cultivation cultivator..."
Chen Dengming paced around within the room, stopping from time to time, attentively sensing the spiritual energy flowing in the air, a smile flashed across his face.
In the past, sensing the spiritual energy flowing in the air was like watching a flower through a layer of gauze.
Now the veil had been dropped, and he could 'see' clearer.
Of course, the benefits of upgrading the spiritual root quality were not just limited to enhancing the perceptivity.
And in the coming days, he just needed to continue practicing the "Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill", and there was still room for his spiritual root quality to get better.
Currently, the technique hadn't yet broken through a level; practicing once a day only consumed two years of lifespan, something he could bear.
However, as the breakthrough hadn't happened yet, and his spiritual root had reached middle-grade, it was evident that consuming two years' lifespan made smaller improvements to his Spirit Qi Affinity.
If he broke through to the first level, practicing once might consume six years of lifespan, then he would need to slow his pace.
"A middle-grade spiritual root is enough for now...at present, my priority should be to immediately break through my power level, perhaps practicing in a place where there's an abundance of spiritual energy, the duration I will take to break into Qi Cultivation Tier One will be shorter..."
Immersed in his thoughts, Chen Dengming slipped a pair of gloves on, dug up a spirit stone that he had crafted into a Stone Gu from the dirt in the corner of the room, and carefully stored it away.
This Stone Gu was crafted by Chen Dengming using the Gu Refinement Secret method to blend toxins and spirit stones together, causing the spiritual energy within the spirit stone to slowly soak in some toxins. This was far more fiercely toxic than an ordinary Stone Gu, which is a useful item for self-defense and harm prevention in normal times, as after all, everyone liked spirit stones.
Picking up the broken knife, Chen Dengming put on a patched cloak, donned a hood to hide his whitened temples, and prepared to step outside for knife training.
It is said that to truly master Kung Fu, one needs to practice continuously 360 days a year, success is like a silkworm spinning a cocoon while loss is like running water, it never returns.
Even though he was presently staggering on the path to immortality, his Kung Fu in martial arts must not be forgotten.
After all, he still could not gather a substantial amount of spiritual energy for the time being, so he couldn't learn to deploy Dao techniques. His lifesaving skills were still reliant on his martial arts complemented with Gu Craft. Regular practice was essential to ensure his survival.
...
As a result, he had just gone out late into the night.
He came across his neighbor, Xu Wei, who usually worked during the night. She was dodging him in a somewhat shy manner.
"Sister Xu, not so busy today?"
Chen Dengming greeted cordially out of habit. Suddenly, he stopped and stared at Xu Wei's swollen right cheek and bloodstained mouth corners. He asked in surprise, "What happened?"
"No, nothing..."
Xu Wei forced a smile, turned her face away, busied herself with opening her door, and diverted the topic, "Mr. Chen, are you going to practice your skills again at night?"
Chen Dengming frowned and then nodded, "Yes."
Xu Wei opened the door with a 'click'. Teasingly, she said, "Mr. Chen, you've been diligently practicing your martial arts all day, you must be quite skillful by now, right? If you have any spare time, you could teach me some self-defense skills."
"Not at all, it's just some basic skills. They aren't divine spells, it's no big deal really. However, Sister Xu, learning martial arts at your age is rather late."
Chen Dengming shook his head and laughed.
"Yes, it's too late..."
Xu Wei's eyes looked distracted as she half-heartedly agreed.
Seeing that she didn't want to talk more, Chen Dengming didn't ask further and turned around to leave.
Xu Wei watched his retreating figure, reminding him, "Mr. Chen, there have been intense conflicts between the cultivators of Gold Word Workshop and Hutong Street these days. You have just joined Gold Word Workshop, so you should be careful when you go out."
"Oh?"
Chen Dengming paused, just realizing why the people from Gold Word Workshop hadn't been looking for him in the recent days. They probably were all busy.
He looked back at Xu Wei.
Her swollen cheek somewhat spoiled her beauty, but her sincerity reflected in her beautiful eyes was quite precious in this chaotic place. He smiled and nodded, "Thank you for reminding me."
Finishing his words, he left promptly with his sword, without further questioning the cause of her injury.
In the end, they were merely ordinary neighbors. There was no need for deep conversations.
That said, what he said was true, it was in fact already too late for Xu Wei to start learning martial arts, or rather for many people in the community to start cultivating.
Perhaps due to living in the spiritually rich Cultivation World, these people have their meridians completely open from birth. They gradually reached the Innate realm simply by practicing some breathing techniques.
However, most of them hadn't practiced martial arts, or they only practiced some obscure martial skills that were not proficient. Hence, they performed poorly in real combat, which was nothing like what Chen Dengming had experienced in the Nanxun Kingdom.
...
After leaving the slums, Chen Dengming walked into an alley. His spirit immediately sensed signs of disturbances as several profound energies had already locked onto him from all directions. It was a grim and urgent situation.
He felt a sudden drop in his heart. He looked towards the front with slightly narrowed eyes. A shadowy figure had appeared in front of him, while two more figures blocked the way behind him.
"Chen! Deng! Ming!"
The figure in front uttered Chen Dengming's name word by word with a hint of mockery at the corner of his mouth.
"We are from Hutong Street, come with us. Our boss wants to see you."
Chen Dengming's eyebrows shot up abruptly. He discerned that the person in front of him was a cultivator, but the two figures behind him were only at the Innate stage.
Clearly, they were well-prepared for this confrontation.
Chen Dengming internally groaned about the trouble. He hesitated and said, "May I know what your boss wants with me?"
The cultivator's eyes flashed with coldness, "I am talking to you because I heard that Miss Luo personally gifted you a token. You still have many questions? Are you coming or not?"
Chen Dengming suddenly smiled, his face losing all seriousness. Bowing his hand in salute, he said, "Of course I am coming. It is my good fortune that the Immortal Master considers me. I dare not disobey."
The cultivator raised his eyebrows upon hearing this, "At least you know your place. If you dared to disagree, you would suffer miserably. Let's go!"
He waved his hand and turned to the side, his gaze cold and vigilant. His hand was still clutching a talisman in his sleeve, ready to act. The two Innate bodyguards behind him closed in too.
As if unaware, Chen Dengming approached with a smile, trying to win him over, "Why should I trouble the Immortal Master? I actually have some questions to ask, too. I have been in retreat these past few days and don't know why there is a conflict between Gold Word Workshop and Hutong Street?"