Yu Anran, who has dual spiritual roots of gold and fire, seems to be going smoothly in his practice, but he has been unable to cross the Golden Core stage and step into the Nascent Soul stage.

Everyone believed that Yu Anran had only gradually reached Golden Elixir Perfection after opening the market. He hadn't attempted to advance in years, simply searching for the right opportunity.

Only Yu Anran herself knew that this was not the case.

Over two hundred years ago, when he had just entered the Golden Core stage and was out training, he stumbled upon a cave dwelling left behind by an ancient cultivator and obtained a special technique. After practicing it, he could transform his dual-element gold and fire spiritual roots into a single-element fire spiritual root.

What is even more rare is that the chapters of the technique are complete. As long as one can successfully improve his cultivation, this technique can be used directly until the tribulation period. It is not common in the world of cultivation and is a top-grade technique.

Yu Anran happened to have dual spiritual roots of gold and fire. When he got this martial arts book, he felt that this was the great opportunity that cultivators often talked about. Without hesitation, he replaced the martial arts method he used in his previous sect with the new one.

It took fifty years to replace the spiritual roots.

When his spiritual roots were successfully fused, Yu Anran successfully reached the late stage of the Golden Core stage. Ten years later, he successfully became a Golden Core Great Perfection cultivator and attempted to advance to the Nascent Soul stage.

It was at this time that Yu Anran discovered that there was something wrong with him.

There was indeed a world of difference between having a single spiritual root and having two, and this difference was enough to cause Yu Anran to fall into a state of inner demons when he attempted to enter the Nascent Soul stage. His realm plummeted from the Great Perfection of the Golden Core to the Early Stage of the Golden Core.

The Tongshan Market opened when he returned to the late Jindan stage.

Acquired single-line spiritual roots are ultimately not as useful as those that are innate. When the inner demon arises, one gradually becomes unstable, restless, irritable, and sometimes even inexplicably hurtful.

To suppress the influence of his inner demon, Yu Anran searched for suitable elixirs and practiced the meditation technique day and night, finally stabilizing his emotions. However, the inner demon remained and occasionally flared up.

Even though spiritual energy had become more abundant and advancement had become easier over the past sixty years, his cultivation had remained stagnant, unable to reach a higher level.

Worst of all, after years of stagnating at the Golden Core stage, his cultivation techniques began to falter, and his spiritual energy became extremely unstable. It was like having a string of firecrackers in his body, ready to explode at any moment.

The medical practitioner's reputation has gradually grown in the last decade or so.

Yu Anran once considered whether to seek help from a medical practitioner. After all, the most famous method of medical practitioners is to help people sort out the spiritual energy in their bodies, but this idea was only fleeting.

Finding a healer wasn't easy, let alone his connections with them. Who would have the right to help him clear his spiritual energy? That was until a healing station appeared outside of Tongshan Market.

"My Spring Breeze Technique, is it suitable for you to use?"

The woman who spoke did not exude any aura of pressure, and her realm could not be determined.

"Suitable." Yu Anran said truthfully.

"Do you have enough spirit stones on you?"

Yu Anran thought for a moment, then pulled out several spirit stones that were extremely rich in spiritual energy. "If that's not enough, I have more."

"Come with me."

Eryi led Yu Anran to a medical room on the second floor.

The furnishings within the medical room were simple, save for a single, intact ice-blue crystal placed in the center. The crystal was half a person's height, nearly ten feet long and wide. This was the typical form of a sleeping medical cabin in the world of cultivation.

"I noticed that the monk had elixir poison in his body. Did he take too many elixirs on a daily basis?"

"Fellow Daoist Er is right." Aside from top-grade elixirs, other elixirs will contain some impurities. Whenever a cultivator consumes an elixir, some residual poison will remain in their body. When advancing, they typically undergo spiritual energy refinement to expel the poison.

There is currently no effective way to eliminate the poison except through advancement, so the longer you are stuck in a certain realm, the more serious the poison in your body will become.

When a cultivator learns someone has elixir poison, they'll usually offer a few words of advice, urging them to consume fewer pills, or perhaps offer a few lamentations. Not taking elixirs slows advancement, while consuming too much easily leads to elixir poison. The accumulation of elixir poison can stagnate spiritual energy—a true contradiction.

"I will first remove the poison from Master Yu's body."

As he spoke, Eryi's hands flew and he used the detoxification technique.

Yu Anran was still savoring what Eryi had said, and just as he came to his senses, a stream of spiritual power with a cool aura quickly passed through his meridians.

He subconsciously tried to use his spiritual power to capture this breath, but he found that his spiritual power flowed more smoothly than before, and it was a different feeling from the Spring Breeze Technique.

Yu Anran put aside his other thoughts and said, "Fellow Daoist Er, is this the method of medical cultivation?"

"Yes, how do you feel?"

Eryi is checking Yu Anran's personal profile.

The effects of the advanced detoxification technique were indeed still effective in the realm of cultivation. Yu Anran's [Erysipelas] condition completely disappeared after the detoxification spell was cast, rather than being temporarily suppressed. However, it was unclear whether the skill's description of 'eliminating all toxins' would still be fully effective in the realm of cultivation.

Yu Anran said after careful consideration: "The circulation of spiritual power is slightly smoother than usual." Although cultivators have a clearer grasp of their own situation than others, it takes a certain amount of time to circulate spiritual power and observe carefully to know the final effect.

"The poison has gone." Er Yi opened his palm and said, "Five low-grade spirit stones."

Yu Anran couldn't help but look at Eryi deeply: "Okay." He took out a medium-grade spirit stone from the storage ring and placed it in her palm.

"A mid-grade spirit stone." Er Yi put away his palm. "That's perfect. I'll use the rest to make the spirit fluid to repair your soul."

Eryi took out the nutrient solution bottle and walked to the crystal-shaped sleeping medical cabin. He gestured for Yu Anran to sit cross-legged in the middle of the medical cabin. "This is my magic weapon. Combined with my special spiritual fluid, it can repair the soul."

"Really?" Yu Anran said calmly, "Then I'll give it a try."

The phrase "repairing the spirit" is common in the world of cultivation. If you want to sell something for a high price, simply add these words and it will work wonders. However, items that truly possess this function are few and far between. Most of the time, one can only rely on time and practice to gradually repair and restore something.

If Yu Anran had initially been somewhat convinced by Er Yi because of her Spring Breeze Technique and detoxification technique, now all that trust has vanished.

As a Jindan cultivator who had failed to advance to the Nascent Soul stage, damage to his Jindan and soul was inevitable. His Jindan could be restored through various elixirs and techniques, but his soul, plagued by inner demons, remained unrecoverable and its condition worsened.

Over the past hundred years, Yu Anran has been constantly searching for ways to repair his soul. During this period, he has bought some truly effective things, but he has also encountered many "swindlers".

First of all, anything that is truly effective for the soul cannot be obtained by spending only one medium-grade spirit stone, even if the effect is extremely small.

"What should I do next?" Yu Anran cooperated.

He wanted to see what this medical practitioner in front of him, who seemed to have extraordinary cultivation, was trying to achieve.

"Master Yu, just practice as usual."

"Okay." Upon hearing this, Yu Anran silently transferred the spiritual power from the golden elixir to circulate, protecting all the vital points, and was ready to activate his life-saving magic weapon at any time.

However, soon, fog rose around him and enveloped him.

Yu Anran activated his life-saving magic weapon to leave, but found himself trapped. Turning around, he saw a person who looked exactly like him sitting cross-legged across from him, his mouth opening and closing...

…

After taking a look at Yu Anran, who was sitting cross-legged in the medical cabin with his eyes closed and his brows furrowed, Eryi put away the bottle of nutrient solution.

"Should I not use the free dream mode for him? It looks like he's having a nightmare."

"Forget it. Next time I'll help him pick another designated dream." With that, Eryi left the medical room.

A bottle of nutrient solution had 5,000 energy points, and a useful life of 24 hours. However, Er Yi had received a mid-grade spirit stone from An Ran, but only intended for him to use it for one hour, or two hours.

The first time Eryi heard about the "Soul" was from Nangong Zhen.

Originally, she had no idea what mental damage specifically referred to. But after spending three months with Master Nangong, whose primary care was mental damage, she naturally learned some common sense about the world of cultivation from him.

During his time in Tongshan Market, Eryi learned that injuries to the 'spirit' were difficult to cure and most of the time they could only be slowly repaired over a long period of time.

It might be more appropriate to call it 'raising'.

Although cultivators can live longer than ordinary people, they actually spend most of their time cultivating. Every cultivator must advance before their lifespan runs out, otherwise their pursuit of enlightenment will be considered a failure, and upon reaching the end of their lifespan, they will dissipate into the universe.

If the soul is damaged, cultivation will stagnate and be unable to progress. First, the inner demon stage of advancement will be impossible to pass. However, if a large amount of time is spent "nurturing" the damaged soul, the time available for cultivation will be greatly shortened.

The reason why Eryi made such a big fuss in Tongshan Market this time was to attract the fat sheep with injured souls.

Injuries to the soul are difficult to heal, but at the same time, the soul is not easily damaged.

Most cultivators protect their souls very well.

It's fine to use magic weapons in a fight, but why use spiritual power to fight for no reason?

For ordinary Jindan foundation-building cultivators, even if they fight with their enemies to the death and their Dantian is shattered, their souls will not be in serious trouble, unless the enemy wants to wipe them out completely and not even take their lives.

There are two main reasons why the soul is damaged.

1. The inner demon.

2. When struck by the calamity cloud, use your spiritual consciousness to resist.

The cultivators who can enter these two states are at least in the late stage of foundation building and have a lot of spirit stones in their hands.

…

An hour later, the medical cabin stopped working, but Yu Anran was still not awake.

Spiritual energy circulated rapidly around his body, and his face turned red and white.

[Host, don't go in yet. Wait for him to wake up naturally.]

The spiritual energy swirling around Anran seemed harmless, but in fact, if a mortal approached at this time, he would be minced into pieces.

"Cultivators are really scary. Fortunately, there is a defense system, so he can't destroy the house."

After seven hours, the lasting effect of the Spring Breeze Technique on Yu Anran disappeared, and his complexion, which had originally returned to normal, began to deteriorate again.

Eryi gave him the Spring Breeze Technique again.

Two days later, Yu Anran finally woke up.

"That's weird. I only gave him two hours of medical space. It should have restored 120 points of mental damage, but why only 92?"

[Host, do you want to see historical data? ]

"good."