Chapter 43: The Real Harvest

  The second jade slip talks about the way of cultivation.

  The cultivation of the master is divided into the process of practicing qi, building foundation, golden elixir, and yuan ying. Even Wang Chen doesn't know what's above that. There are two methods for cultivating: one is taken by the vast majority of cultivators, which is to refine the qi into the body, condense the qi vortex, condense the spiritual energy, build the foundation liquid, then gather the golden elixir, open up the spiritual lake, shatter the elixir into a baby, and transform the spiritual lake into a sea!

  These are the main steps from the Qi Refining stage to the Yuan Infant stage. The cultivator's magical powers will break through to which level, and the cultivator's realm will also break through accordingly. This method is relatively stable, as long as there are sufficient conditions, the cultivation will be relatively steadily improved.

  The second method is the one adopted by a small number of extraordinary geniuses. First, enlightenment, then cultivation. For example, Wang Chen used the aura of creation to comprehend the simple Five Elements Way, although it was superficial, this realization was something that ordinary foundation-building cultivators would have. Therefore, having gained an understanding equivalent to the foundation-building period, Wang Chen's cultivation in the Qi-refining period will be promoted so quickly.

  In seven or eight years, from a spiritual cultivator who knew nothing to becoming a master of the ninth layer of Qi Refining, this speed is not considered very fast. In seven or eight years, if there were high-ranking cultivators providing elixirs, it wouldn't be too difficult to go from the first layer of Qi Refining to the ninth layer.

  But Wang Chen only tried a few elixirs at the beginning and didn't eat any of them, which was shocking to hear.

  However, this method is still effective in the Qi Refining stage, but as one's cultivation level increases, its effectiveness becomes less apparent. For example, during the Qi Refining stage, one can gain a portion of spiritual energy through intuition every day, while during the Foundation Building stage, they can only gain a fraction of that amount. In contrast, breaking through to the next stage requires tens or hundreds of portions of spiritual energy during the Qi Refining stage, but millions or even tens of millions of portions are needed during the Foundation Building stage.

  After Wang Chen laid the foundation, his cultivation would slow down like that of an ordinary cultivator. Even with the help of the Causal Spirit Qi, Wang Chen's cultivation speed could at most only catch up to that of a Three-Spirit Root.

  "Alas!" Wang Chen sighed, putting down the second jade slip. His expression was somewhat gloomy, although he had gained something, but felt that his future cultivation would be difficult and couldn't help but worry.

  At this moment, a foot-long green snake poked out from his bosom, crawling up the vine to Wang Chen's neck, circling around and around, as if comforting Wang Chen.

  Wang Chen saw the small snake smile slightly, and his mood improved a lot. He stretched out his right hand to his chest, stroked it a few times, and the small snake seemed to be enjoying itself, moving its tail twice before crawling into Wang Chen's palm.

  "Alright, Xiao Qing, you rest first!"

  After a moment, Wang Chen put Xiao Qing into his arms, and the small snake hid in Wang Chen's robe, curling up.

  This little snake is the green snake hatched from the green snake egg that Wang Chen picked up in the Black Bird Mountain Range. Of the six snake eggs, only this green snake was hatched from the green snake egg, and the vitality of the other snake eggs slowly withered away.

  However, Wang Chen did not disappoint. At that time, the White Phosphorus Snake, which had broken through to the Foundation Period, had already grown pale blue dragon scales all over its body, and its two horns were slowly rising on its head. Five of the six snake eggs were white, and according to experience, it should have been a White Phosphorus Snake that hatched from them, but the green egg actually hatched into an Jiaolong.

  Although still young, it has not shown the characteristics of a Jiaolong, but a harder scale on its abdomen than other places has proven that Xiaoqing is extraordinary. There is no doubt that if Xiaoqing reaches the foundation period, his strength will absolutely crush others of the same rank!

  On the other hand, when Wang Chen signed the soul contract with Xiao Qing, he was also entangled. The "Ten Thousand Beasts Heart Sutra" has more than a dozen different types of contracts. They can be roughly divided into two categories: one is a relatively harsh and strict contract for enslaving demons; the other is a relatively benevolent and equal contract.

  There are pros and cons to both methods. Although the strict slave control method is more reassuring, it will greatly provoke the dissatisfaction of the demonic beast, and when the cultivator is unconscious or in a similar situation, the phenomenon of the beast turning on its master may occur.

  Although the relatively equal ban will make the demon beast's heart closer to the practitioner and more tacit in cooperation, when encountering life danger, the demon beast's survival instinct will tend to abandon the practitioner and escape. Even some intelligent demon beasts that have grown up will yearn for a demon beast's life and automatically leave the practitioner.

  Wang Chen hesitated for a moment, and did not choose the harsh restrictions of an ordinary cultivator. Instead, he chose the equal contract that allowed for mental communication. Under this restriction, both the spiritual beast and Wang Chen could vaguely feel each other's emotions, and their communication was also very smooth.

  Many cultivators are unwilling to choose this contract because the spiritual beast will leave on its own after sensing their malicious emotions, and the Equal Restriction also has no effect on the demonic beast.

  However, after establishing a forbidden relationship with Xiaoqing who had just been born, the emotions between the two became much better, and Xiaoqing was like Wang Chen's younger brother or sister, or even his child.

  Every day, playing with Xiaoqing for a while also adds a lot of fun to Wang Chen's cultivation, and his mood has improved a lot. Wang Chen's spiritual power operation is more harmonious, and his cultivation is even smoother.

  Cultivation knows no years, and in the blink of an eye, another half year has passed.

  In the cave, Wang Chen sat on a couch, stretched out his hand and threw out a spiritual fruit. Then a green snake shadow flashed by, and Xiao Qing accurately caught the spiritual fruit. Then she climbed into Wang Chen's arms and began to gnaw at the spiritual fruit.

  This spirit fruit is a water-attribute spirit fruit that cultivators can eat. One day, Wang Chen discovered that Xiao Qing liked to eat it, so he often bought some as snacks for Xiao Qing. As for why the snake also likes to eat spirit fruit, Wang Chen was also puzzled, but he thought that since Xiao Qing, who has both water and wind attributes, likes to eat water-attribute spirit fruit, it's not surprising.

  After settling Xiao Qing down, Wang Chen carefully studied the jade slip in his hand. The task of organizing the Gong Fa Ge had been completed by Wang Chen a few days ago. Over the course of a year, Wang Chen repeated this task more than a dozen times before finally sorting out the messy jade slips in the Gong Fa Ge.

  To reward Wang Chen's contribution, the foundation period executive also let Wang Chen choose a few jade slips to take away. Wang Chen chose two jade slips without hesitation.

  These two jade slips describe the principles and manufacturing methods of a magical instrument. It's not quite suitable to call it a magical instrument, because it can be stored in the body's dantian, similar to the magical treasures of Golden Elixir practitioners, except that this kind of magical instrument can be manufactured during the Qi Refining stage.

  This special treasure is called the Five Elements Mixed Yuan Tower. The cultivator who came up with this treasure was also born with a five-attribute spiritual root, and although he didn't have any cheating methods like Wang Chen's Causal Blood, he still managed to cultivate to the Golden Elixir stage. This wasn't because the cultivator had exceptional innate talent, but rather because he had an enlightened father from a previous life.

  The cultivator's achievement in the Tianyuan Continent was already known to be the strongest, and with the help of his father during the Jiedan stage, various elixirs and other things were endless. The cultivation had already advanced to the Jindan stage, and if there were no unexpected breakthroughs, reaching the Yuanying stage would not have been unexpected either. However, the cultivator's father suddenly fell, causing this cultivator's ranking to rapidly decline.

  Without the sect's resource supply and his father's care, the original proud son of heaven was quickly abandoned by everyone. However, this cultivator's determination to seek the way was firm, and he endured hardship to seek a breakthrough.

  However, the five-element spiritual root is really too poor. The absorption and utilization rate of spiritual energy is only equivalent to one percent of that of a single spiritual root. In this way, even if I cultivate for 100 years, it's probably only equivalent to a single spiritual root cultivator cultivating for one year. Even with the use of elixirs, the absorption effect of elixirs is also only equivalent to several tenths of that of a single spiritual root cultivator.

  Moreover, the elixirs used by high-ranking cultivators are extremely precious and cannot be consumed in large quantities.

  Thus the monk took a different path and came up with an idea to create a concept that could absorb the spiritual energy from various minerals, treasures, and spiritual herbs for his own use.

  Although this idea is absurd, it's not impossible.

  In ancient times, the demon clan's giant Kunpeng had a divine ability called Kunpeng Xiyin, which could swallow spiritual energy and objects within a thousand miles, converting them into spiritual energy for its own use.

  Putting aside the empty and fanciful talk, some demon beasts' innate divine abilities and demonic cultivation's secret methods have similar effects of devouring other objects. However, this effect is extremely restrictive and has many hidden dangers, so very few people use it.

  Although there were many difficulties, the master did not give up, but instead studied hard and finally combined the demon beasts, magic repair and ancient secret methods to create this special treasure, the Five Elements Mixed Yuan Tower.

  The Wu Xing Hunyuan Tower was supposed to be able to absorb the five elements of spiritual energy from various magical artifacts and spirit mines, for its own use. However, this cultivator, despite using up all his efforts, ended up producing a subpar product due to material limitations.

  The Five Elements Mixed Yuan Pagoda requires three types of materials: The first is the material of the five elements, in theory, any material with five attributes can be used. However, the Five Elements Mixed Yuan Pagoda produced has functional limitations. If the five-element material for making magic treasures is used, the Five Elements Mixed Yuan Pagoda absorbs the foundation-laying equipment and other five-element materials, with the most obvious effect.

  In other words, the absorption and transformation effect of Wuxing Hunyuan Pagoda can only be applied to magic treasures and spiritual objects that are one level lower than the materials used to build the Wuxing Hunyuan Pagoda. This makes the seemingly heaven-defying Wuxing Zaohua Pagoda seem a bit not worth it.

  The second material for the Five Elements Creation Tower is Voidstone. Voidstone, the main raw material for high-level storage tools. Like the storage wristbands of the Yuan Infant and Out-of-Body stages, or even higher-level storage rings, are made with Voidstone as the primary material, combined with special refining techniques and array formations.

  With the Voidstone, there will be an independent space inside the Five Elements Creation Tower, where materials of the five attributes can be absorbed and transformed, and then used to enhance one's cultivation.

  The third material is even more unbelievable, which is the spiritual root of the cultivator himself. The spiritual root of the cultivator himself is actually the most crucial material for making a magic weapon? It sounds absurd, but thinking about it also makes sense!

  Able to absorb and utilize spiritual energy, and able to establish a close relationship with the material itself, the cultivator had been searching for a long time, but it wasn't until an accidental encounter that he obtained an ancient jade slip from an ancient cultivator. The jade slip introduced a method of cultivating powerful magical artifacts using one's own spiritual roots.

  The Master's mind stirred, and suddenly it was clear; he had trampled to pieces the iron shoes that bound him, without having to search for them. His own spiritual root was the most suitable material.

  However, this is also a very adventurous idea. The reason why monks can cultivate immortality is that the spiritual root is the key. Even if it is a monk with the worst spiritual root, he will be treated as an emperor in the secular world. If something unexpected happens during this process of using one's own spiritual root, and it becomes impossible to absorb spiritual energy afterwards, it would be a complete tragedy.

  It can be imagined how great a risk it is to use one's own spiritual root as material!