"Grow, grow, grow!"

"Short and short!"

"Big big!"

"So tiny!"

"May everything go as I wish, may it change, change, change!"

Bai Cang held the Ruyi Vajra pestle in his hand, chanting incantations as he played with it with great enjoyment.

What boy could resist a stick that can stretch and shrink at will?

As the saying goes: "With a pearl in one's mouth, one can advance or retreat with ease."

Let alone men who remain youthful until death, even women can't resist!

However, Bai Cang was playing with the Ruyi Vajra Pestle mainly to relieve stress and ease his tense emotions.

With Jiao Fei delivering a thousand taels of silver and a hundred taels of gold, he finally collected all the offerings needed for his official promotion.

"Come on! Heavenly Dao Talisman, let me see your limits!"

With an excited heart, Bai Cang stretched out his trembling hand and arranged the gold, silver, pearls, and jade in special positions.

Then he sat cross-legged in the middle and silently recited in his heart: "Ranking, promotion!"

"boom!"

The next moment.

A magnificent and powerful roar resounded, and Bai Cang felt his spirit soar to new heights.

In the blink of an eye, they found themselves in a mysterious void, boundless and without distinction of up or down, or of any direction.

The boundless Daoist scriptures of the heavens filled his entire field of vision.

An ancient aura, like that of the beginning of time, rose up at this moment.

"Disciple Bai Cang humbly requests the Ancestral Master to bestow the title!"

Bai Cang silently recited in his heart, and the Great Dao's divine voice rang out once more.

[A second ordination, additionally granted the Rank 8, Lower: Supreme Righteous Unity Alliance Ordination Register, with the following enhancements: Netherworld Connection (Fragment), and awakened talent: Soul Suppression!]

Tongyou: It means to reach the netherworld, to be profound and divine, to communicate with the nine netherworlds, and to break through illusions!

[Talent: Soul Suppression] Suppresses the three souls internally, suppresses ghosts and gods externally, enters and exits the netherworld, and commands hundreds of ghosts.

Bai Cang looked up and saw that in the vast and deep void, the Azure Heaven Dao Talisman was like a celestial curtain, with two stars appearing and disappearing, corresponding to the two great blessings of "Phoenix Mandate" and "Tongyou".

But only the star that "Fengyi" transformed into shone with brilliant light, shining brightly in the high sky.

"Next, advance your talent: Quality Food!"

As Bai Cang's thoughts turned, an invisible Daoist aura rose.

The glittering stars suddenly dimmed, weaving together into even more intricate and exquisite runes.

[Quality Improvement in Food: Etiquette in Drinking]

[There are proper ways to drink: those who eat meat are brave and fierce, those who eat grains are wise and skillful, those who eat air are divine and long-lived, and those who do not eat are immortal and divine, able to eat wind and drink dew, and absorb the essence of the sun and moon.]

In an instant.

Bai Cang suddenly felt as if he had opened his "heavenly eye," and observed the invisible flow of primordial energy in the darkness.

The whole world became colorful, with white metal energy, yellow earth energy, red fire energy, green wood energy, black water energy, and so on.

The variety is dazzling and endless, but what is most abundant is the cool moonlight and the dazzling starlight.

"Drinking ceremony, begin!"

Upon seeing this, Bai Cang's heart stirred, and he immediately activated the "Drinking Ceremony".

Strands of starlight and moonlight began to slowly converge upon him, following his will.

However, when it approached his body, it seemed to pass right through him like a phantom, unable to enter his body at all.

It was as if some kind of heavenly gate was forcibly shutting them out.

"Hmm? Could it be because I failed to open the Ren and Du meridians and the two bridges between heaven and earth?"

Bai Cang pondered to himself, "Or is it that I need to open the Xuan Guan acupoint, sense the heavens and earth to enter the Dao, and then directly absorb the primordial energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon to cultivate?"

Unable to find a solution externally, Bai Cang didn't dwell on it too much and decisively turned inward to examine his own body.

The "Yin You Yi" talent not only allows one to absorb the vital energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon, but also to benefit oneself.

"boom!"

In an instant.

Countless cloud-like bird-shaped scrolls intertwined in his dantian, forming an immense and unparalleled vortex.

Each wisp of true energy, after passing through the vortex, is as if reborn, becoming extremely pure and without any trace of fire.

"Doesn't that mean I'm consuming Pure Yuan Pills every single moment?"

Seeing this, Bai Cang was delighted and immediately took out another small health-preserving pill, tilted his head back, and swallowed it.

"boom!"

The next moment.

The invisible medicinal power exploded, yet it was also like ten thousand dragons returning to their source or ten thousand rivers converging, being absorbed by the invisible vortex in the dantian.

When it flowed out again, it had transformed into one-tenth of the purest true energy.

"The good news is: I will never need to hone my inner energy and open up the eight extraordinary meridians again; it's just a matter of time."

Seeing this, Bai Cang felt a mix of joy and worry. "But the bad news is: the cost-effectiveness of taking drugs is even lower, and the intensity of spending money on in-game purchases will be even greater in the future!"

"As expected, Daoist Master never cheats poor people. The right way is to work hard to make money!"

So all I care about is making money, and I can only become stronger by spending real money?

Bai Cang slowly opened his eyes, and a semi-transparent light screen appeared before him.

[Lord of the Azure Heavens]: Bai Cang

[Ordination Title]: Supreme Righteous Unity Alliance Ordination Register

[Rank]: Lower Eighth Rank

[Blessing]: Phoenix Embrace (incomplete), Netherworld Connection (incomplete)

Phoenix (missing): A phoenix arrives, a humble gentleman, a blessed family, auspicious energy arises naturally, and innate talents are blessed [drinking with ceremony].

Tongyou (Remnant): Reaching the netherworld, profound and divine, able to communicate with the Nine Netherworlds, and also able to break through illusions, enhancing the talent [Soul Suppression].

Promotion requirements: 10,000 taels of gold, 1,000 taels of pure gold, 100 bushels of pearls, 10 pieces of spirit jade, and 1 spirit fire.

"Holy crap! It's increased more than a hundredfold!"

Looking at the requirements for the next Daoist advancement, Bai Cang couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness, deeply aware of the poverty he had to endure.

What does it mean to have ten thousand taels of gold?

Gold in this world is also a type of cultivation resource, and its exchange rate with silver is quite impressive.

Bai Cang used a full 15,000 taels of silver notes to exchange for 100 taels of gold.

Ten thousand taels of gold is equivalent to one and a half million taels of silver. Is that the kind of figure one should have in the mortal world?

Pure gold is even more incredible!

What is pure gold? As the saying goes, "No gold is pure, and no man is perfect." Pure gold is the finest gold.

It takes thirty taels of gold to refine one tael of pure gold, and even then, it requires a secret method to refine it.

Even without considering "processing costs" and "fire loss", one thousand taels of pure gold is equivalent to thirty thousand taels of gold, which is a total of four million five hundred thousand taels of silver.

Compared to this, the price of pearls jumped from ten to a hundred bushels, leaving Bai Cang speechless.

In any case, these are not the hellish numbers he can currently imagine.

Putting aside the requirement of ten pieces of spirit jade, the mere requirement of one spirit fire extinguished Bai Cang's extravagant hope of advancing to the next level before entering the Dao.

What is spiritual fire? It is born from the essence of heaven and earth, a spirit among fires.

In the records of "The Lesser Heavens' Qi-Gathering Elixir Method", the spiritual fire has another name: Elixir Fire.

As the name suggests, it is the best aid used by alchemists in refining elixirs.

But those who flock to the spirit fire are not just alchemists.

Weapon refiners need it, as do cultivators who practice fire magic; it's a case of "one family with a daughter, a hundred families will seek her," so you can imagine how sought-after spiritual fire is.

Let alone Bai Cang, many formal alchemists have never even seen a glimpse of spiritual fire in their entire lives.

"That's enough! One shouldn't be too greedy!"

Bai Cang temporarily abandoned the idea of ​​being promoted to a higher rank, "Every time I'm promoted, it's like getting a new cheat code."

"If promotions were so easy, wouldn't I be rolling in cheat codes in no time?!"

With this in mind, Bai Cang immediately put the matter aside and turned his attention to his new talent: Soul Suppression!