Chapter 138 Advancement of Cultivation Techniques

The Qingling bamboo in the thin mist seemed to be still asleep in a dream. Ji An sat cross-legged deep in the bamboo forest, cultivating the Qingmu Changchun Gong.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth formed a vortex above his head and was inhaled into his body through his nose.

As he inhaled, tiny green specks, the size of sesame seeds, drooped from the nearby bamboo and were swept into the vortex.

The spiritual energy circulates through the immortal veins, and the flickering light of the Dao seeds dormant in various acupoints processes the spiritual energy.

Most of the spiritual energy was refined into magical power and channeled into the Qi Sea acupoint, while the rest of the spiritual energy dissipated from the pores of the body.

Mixed in with these dissipated spiritual energies were some brighter green specks of light, which were then reabsorbed by the nearby Pure Spirit Bamboo.

Ji An seems to have become a green bamboo in the bamboo forest, participating in the cycle of nature.

The thin mist was also drawn into the vortex of spiritual energy, entering his body with his breath.

Liang Qiu, busy preparing breakfast, tilted his head to look at the bamboo forest, then gazed eastward, scratching his head in puzzlement.

The fog in the woods is much lighter than usual today and will soon dissipate. Normally, the fog only begins to dissipate slowly after the sun comes out.

Another half hour passed, and a red sun peeked out from behind the mountains. By this time, the thin mist in the bamboo forest had completely dissipated.

When Ji An finished his cultivation, he felt completely relaxed, as if Pigsy had eaten a ginseng fruit, with every pore opening up comfortably.

He keenly sensed that today's cultivation was different from his usual practice.

Spiritual energy needs to be refined in the immortal meridians after entering the body. In the past, after finishing cultivation, the immortal meridians would always feel slightly sore.

That was the fatigue from refining spiritual energy for a long time, but I didn't feel that way at all today.

During his cultivation, he noticed that things started to change slightly from a certain moment.

At that moment, the stone tortoise trembled slightly, and its shell shimmered with a warm, spiritual light.

He focused his inner energy on his dantian, carefully observing the patterns on the stone tortoise's body, trying to find the source of this unusual activity.

After observing for a quarter of an hour without finding anything, he then focused his mind on the stone turtle and finally found the root of all this.

[The Dao Seed - The Birth of All Things (Lower Grade), hidden in the Huagai acupoint, allows one to comprehend the true meaning of the Jia Wood Dao spell 'Flourishing,' slightly enhancing their understanding of Jia Wood Dao spells.]

[The Dao Seed - Yi Wood Rejuvenation (Low Grade), hidden in the Jade Spring Cave, allows one to comprehend the true meaning of the Yi Wood Dao spell's 'Life, Death, Withering, and Flourishing,' and slightly enhances their understanding of the Yi Wood Dao spell.]

It turned out that the two wood-element Dao seeds had reached the lower grade level. He began to internally examine the Dao seeds in his acupoints and found that the two Dao seeds had grown from the size of sesame seeds to the size of mung beans.

Ji An withdrew his consciousness from the stone tortoise and couldn't help but laugh three times, his voice echoing through the forest.

After his Dao Seed is upgraded, he can more intuitively feel the changes in Yin and Yang energies within the Wood element, and more easily comprehend the divine intent within the cultivation technique.

As one's understanding of the techniques deepens, one can also accelerate the comprehension of the essence of wood-elemental spells, forming a perfect closed loop.

The arrogant laughter startled several bamboo partridges that were foraging for food, causing them to flutter away into the distance.

Ji An closed his eyes and continued to circulate his cultivation technique, carefully experiencing the changes as he refined the spiritual energy.

He discovered that when spiritual energy passed through the Huagai acupoint, the color of the Jia wood Dao seed became more emerald green, while when it passed through the Yuquan acupoint, the color of the Yi wood Dao seed became more profound.

There is an implicit resonance between the two paths, as harmonious and natural as human breathing.

After being tempered by the Dao Seed, the refined magic power has an extra touch of very faint emerald green, but it seems to have changed nothing.

Ji An withdrew from cultivation, took a long breath, and knew that as time went on, the changes brought about by the cultivation technique would become more and more obvious.

He had a strong feeling that his cultivation speed would be faster than before, and he should be able to break through to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage more easily.

When he stepped out of the bamboo forest, he found Liang Qiu leaning against the kitchen doorway talking to Huang Feihu. The meals that were usually served on time had not yet been served.

"You came out a quarter of an hour later than usual today, and your breakfast is already cold."

I've already put them in the steamer to keep warm; dinner will be served shortly.

After finishing his breakfast, Ji An unleashed his Wind Control Technique, then channeled his magical power, and like a soaring bird, he drifted towards the mountainside.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the cave, he approached the Crimson Cloud Pine and nurtured it with his magic power. The wood element contained in his magic power was able to further stimulate the fire nature of the spirit pine.

The tall, sacred tree swayed gently, and the front half of its pine needles became as clear as fire jade, radiating a brilliant light.

After nurturing the two sacred pines, Ji An stepped into the cave and began to prepare the medicinal solution, adding it to the mineral powder to make a medicinal mud.

He took off his outer robe, smeared medicinal mud all over his body, and then began to temper his skin and flesh by circulating the skin-refining technique of the Golden Jade Bone Body.

After applying the medicinal mud twice, Ji An ended his body training for the day. Continuing would cause too much damage to his skin, and it wouldn't be easy to recover within a day.

With his Foundation Establishment stage cultivation level, he progressed extremely quickly in the Qi Refining stage of body tempering.

After just a few days of training, his skin had begun to turn bronze, with a faint metallic sheen in the sunlight.

The first level of skin refinement is called Copper Armor. Once fully mastered, the skin will have a dull brass color.

The second realm is called Silver Armor. The skin changes from bronze to moon white. Entering Silver Armor means that the skin's defense is comparable to that of a Foundation Establishment stage demon beast, and it is the kind of thick-skinned demon beast.

The third realm is called Golden Glaze, where the skin turns to a normal skin color, only revealing countless golden points when attacked.

That is the highest level of the Golden Jade Bone Body, where the defense of the skin and muscles is comparable to that of a demon beast in the Chaoyuan stage. It can only be achieved by combining it with a body-refining mental technique. At most, one can only achieve the Silver Armor Great Perfection by using tricks to refine the skin.

Ji An finished his body tempering and left the cave, flying to the mountaintop.

The golden sun hangs high in the eastern sky, freely scattering its light and heat.

Golden-red clouds rolled in the crater, and intense winds blew outwards, creating a baking and roasting effect.

Stopping at an appropriate distance, Ji An focused his mind on the stone turtle.

"Refine the spiritual energy and enhance the Five Elements Spirit Gathering Technique."

[Spell: Five Elements Spirit Gathering Technique (Mastery 5% → 6%)]

With any improvement to this type of spell, the efficiency of extracting essence will increase slightly.

These past few days, Ji An has been refining spiritual energy every day to improve the Five Elements Spirit Gathering Technique, preparing to upgrade it to the perfect level as soon as possible.

He began to cast a spell, and a faint golden light gathered in his palm from the nearby drifting mist.

Before long, strands of gold, finer than a hair, appeared in his palm, constantly bending and stretching.

This is the essence of metal. Don't be fooled by its thinness; it possesses both sharpness and resilience. Sword cultivators love to use this essence to nurture their flying swords.

The Five Elements Essence has a wide range of uses. Golden Core cultivators also need to use the corresponding essence to nurture their magical treasures, but the demand from Golden Core cultivators is enormous.

Seeing that the gathered gold essence had coalesced into a ball, Ji An immediately took out a yellow jade bottle engraved with a magic restriction and put the essence into it.

Through the bottle's walls, a dreamlike, dazzling golden light began to flow within.

He continued to use his magic to extract spiritual essence. Here, the metal element energy was abundant, making the extraction much easier.

By the time he could no longer withstand the intense golden fire energy, he had already extracted more than forty bottles, totaling more than eight thousand strands of golden essence.

It sounds like a lot, but at most it can support four or five acres of copper-patterned mulberry trees.

Since refining his body, Ji An has been able to enter areas with denser fog and persist in extracting essence for longer periods.

He flew to the copper-patterned mulberry experimental field marked out at the foot of the mountain, where these spiritual trees had grown up to his waist.

The mulberry leaves are a dull silver color, while the veins are bronze-colored. Combined with the trunk, which has a patina resembling iron, the entire spirit tree looks like it has been cast in metal.

Ji An took out a jade bottle and made a hand seal, releasing a dozen or so strands of golden essence near the roots of each spirit tree.

The spirit tree, like a magnet, immediately absorbed the essence into its body, and the bronze-colored patterns on its bark emitted a faint, almost imperceptible spiritual light.

The dozens of bottles of gold essence were quickly consumed, and Ji An arrived at another experimental field.

Inspired by this, he believed that since the Sharp Metal Technique could stimulate tiny particles of metal-elemental spiritual energy, it should also have some effect on spiritual plants like the Copper-Patterned Mulberry.

So he set aside five acres of mulberry fields to conduct a comparative experiment.

He made a hand seal, and countless golden rays burst forth from his fingertips, scattering into the mulberry fields.

Du Huaiyuan stopped the flying shuttle beside the cold pool, nimbly jumped out of the boat by supporting himself with one hand, and then began to take out jars of spirit wine from his storage bag.

"Junior brother, this time I have experimented and discovered a new recipe, brewing fifty jars of medicinal wine that can greatly accelerate the recovery of mana."

Let it ferment in a cold pond for a few years and see how it turns out.

"In the future, the demand for this kind of medicinal wine will be huge. Whether I can earn more spirit stones depends on them."

He learned water-based alchemy, which was much less efficient than fire-based alchemy, and he lived a rather frugal life.

After the demonic calamity breaks out, cultivators will inevitably have to fight frequently, and pills, spirit wines, or other similar items that can accelerate the recovery of mana will become best-selling products.

Ji An coughed twice and said:

"Senior brother, a few months ago, the sect's spiritual veins were upgraded, and Crimson Flame Peak erupted. Several sect elders came, including one uncle who was a heavy drinker."

"Yes, you know, we've used up quite a bit of the wine stored in the cold pool. You can check the quantity and I'll pay the bill."

Uncle Jia Yu of the secret storehouse was a heavy drinker, so he took a lot of spirit wine to entertain him.

"Huh?!" Du Huaiyuan grinned. "Junior brother, if you do this, I won't dare to store wine here next time."

He wanted to keep some of the spirit wine for himself.

"Senior brother, please keep it safe. This was just an accident."

The spiritual veins of Crimson Flame Peak benefited from this, their grade also improving. The water gushing from the spring contained a more concentrated spiritual energy, and the growth of the spirit fish was noticeably faster.

Ji An pointed to the mulberry fields outside and began to make grand promises:

"Didn't you notice that my area has expanded a lot? In a few years, when these mulberry trees bloom, we can harvest a lot of mulberries every year."

"I'll provide the raw materials, and my senior brother will provide the technology. Together, we'll brew spirit wine, which will surely sell well within the sect, and we might even have to supply other markets and immortal cities."

The flowers of the copper-patterned mulberry cannot be used for honey collection, nor does it produce fruit; only the mulberry leaves can be sold.

The mulberry with emerald leaves has more value. The leaves can be used as feed, and after flowering, bees can be raised. The mulberries can be used to make wine.

When the topic of winemaking came up, Du Huaiyuan's attention immediately shifted, and his face lit up with a smile:

"I have several recipes for brewing spirit wine from mulberries. Once I go back and improve them, I will surely be able to brew a spirit wine of even better quality."

(End of this chapter)