Huang Yulang was suddenly overcome with ecstasy.
‘What a stroke of luck!
A truly incredible fortune!’ He had long heard from his master that the world of Cultivators was filled with countless Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that could advance one’s cultivation, but he never imagined he would actually find one today.
‘The Striped Tiger must have become a Demon Beast because it ate these lotus seeds.’
‘Just two lotus seeds increased the Spiritual Qi in my Dantian more than tenfold.
This is simply heaven-defying!’
Huang Yulang was also quite amazed.
How could such Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures be grown in a place like this?
He knew very well that the Spiritual Qi in the Yun Country was scarce, making it almost impossible for such a heaven-defying item to exist.
Huang Yulang shook his head, not bothering to dwell on it.
He quickly stood up and, in one fell swoop, harvested every single lotus seed.
From the six flowers, he gathered a total of seventy to eighty seeds.
‘Just two seeds increased the Spiritual Qi in my Dantian fourteenfold.
If I take ten-odd more, won’t I have enough Spiritual Power to open my meridians and break through to the first layer of the Qi Refining Stage?’
At the peak of his excitement, Huang Yulang stuffed more than ten lotus seeds into his mouth and swallowed them all at once.
In an instant, the energy in his body surged, rampaging wildly as if it were about to burst right out of him.
“Ugh!” The corner of Huang Yulang’s mouth twitched.
‘I took too many.’ He couldn’t worry about anything else and immediately focused all his effort on absorbing the energy.
The lotus seeds were truly heaven-defying.
The Wood Attribute Spiritual Qi they contained was exceptionally pure.
His Wood Attribute Spiritual Root greedily devoured it, causing it to surge into his Dantian at an unbelievable speed.
Huang Yulang could clearly feel the mass of qi in his Dantian rapidly growing stronger.
By the time Huang Yulang had completely refined the ten-plus lotus seeds, the mass of qi in his Dantian had grown viscous.
His Spiritual Root was completely saturated and would no longer absorb any more Spiritual Qi.
Huang Yulang was thrilled.
‘I’d calculated it before.
If I just cultivated through meditation, it would have taken me at least thirty years to break through to the first layer of the Qi Refining Stage.
I never imagined that just over ten of these mysterious lotus seeds would be equivalent to thirty years of hard cultivation!’
‘Talent, my ass!
In the face of a cheat like mine and heaven-defying opportunities, talent is worthless!’ Huang Yulang grew more convinced that as long as he worked hard, one day he would become a mighty Cultivator who could soar through the skies and traverse the earth.
These mysterious lotus seeds were, for Huang Yulang, a tremendous stroke of fortune.
Without hesitation, he began to circulate the dense mass of Spiritual Qi within him, using it to assault his meridians.
Using his Wood Attribute Spiritual Root as the starting point, the Spiritual Qi made the root seem to come alive.
It began to charge along a specific meridian pathway.
Even though he had accumulated more than enough Spiritual Qi, breaking through the meridians was still no easy task.
After a full week of cultivation in a state of total self-forgetfulness, Huang Yulang finally forged a complete meridian for the circulation of Wood Attribute Spiritual Qi.
The moment the meridian was cleared, Huang Yulang felt as if his entire being had become thoroughly cleansed.
The Spiritual Qi in his Dantian began to flow through the meridian in a Great Cycle, instantly spreading throughout his body.
Huang Yulang felt as though his body had undergone a transformation; his perception of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, especially the Wood Attribute Spiritual Qi, instantly increased severalfold.
It seemed that if Huang Yulang just focused his senses, the faint Wood Attribute Spiritual Qi in the world would converge upon him.
He couldn’t help but close his eyes in blissful comfort.
But the next moment, Huang Yulang opened his eyes again.
He was stunned for a moment, then quickly shut them.
But as Huang Yulang’s eyes closed, a peculiar power suddenly emanated from the spot between his eyebrows.
Wherever this power went, everything in the vicinity was revealed in perfect detail, even without him using his eyes.
It was like an omnidirectional map with no blind spots, projected directly into his mind.
Huang Yulang knew exactly what this was.
It was the Divine Sense his master had spoken of.
There were things the naked eye could not see, but wherever one’s Divine Sense swept, nothing could remain hidden.
Huang Yulang began to spread his Divine Sense in all directions.
Five meters, ten meters, twenty meters, fifty meters…
It wasn’t until it was approaching a hundred meters that it could extend no further.
‘This must be my limit.’ But Huang Yulang was stunned.
His master had explained that one could release Divine Sense at the first layer of the Qi Refining Stage, but the range would be about a meter at most.
The majority of Cultivators at the Perfection stage of Qi Refining could manage a radius of ten meters, tops.
Only a select few who practiced Cultivation Techniques that strengthened the Divine Soul would have a stronger Divine Sense.
‘But why is my range nearly a hundred meters when I’ve only just broken through to the first layer?’ This left Huang Yulang completely baffled.
Huang Yulang was bewildered.
Since he couldn’t figure it out, he decided not to dwell on it.
‘My Divine Sense is abnormally powerful.
It’s definitely not because of some innate talent, and it’s not a problem with my Cultivation Technique.
The most likely cause, nine times out of ten, is the Mysterious Jade Pendant.’
After all, every time he absorbed the Essence of Blood and Qi, it wasn’t just his physical body and strength that improved—his Essence, Qi, and Spirit were enhanced as well.
That was the only explanation Huang Yulang could come up with.
As he retracted his Divine Sense and focused it inward, Huang Yulang saw a mysterious, cosmic diagram of his own body.
The Dantian Vortex was at the bottom, surrounded by six small dots of different colors.
‘Those must be my other six Spiritual Roots.’
Above that were six hazy gray regions, and higher still was a five-colored mass of clouds.
At the very top was a series of dim black dots, like a cluster of unlit stars.
‘I remember Master saying that the six hazy regions are the locations of the six fu-organs, the five-colored cloud mass represents the five zang-organs, and as for those dim black dots, they are the undeveloped Acupoints All Over the Body.’
Countless dense threads linked all the organs, too many to count.
This was the body’s entire network of meridians and collaterals.
However, only a few of these channels were open, maintaining the body’s normal functions.
The rest were clearly blocked.
Two other open meridians stood out, especially one where, in tandem with the Dantian Vortex’s rotation, green energy flowed up and down in a profound and mysterious way.
The other, of course, was the meridian he had opened by practicing the One Qi Primordial Skill.
“Tsk, tsk.
The human body is truly a mysterious and extraordinary thing,” Huang Yulang marveled.
Withdrawing all of his Divine Thought back into his mind, he opened his eyes and smiled in satisfaction.
Huang Yulang drew the wooden sword from his shoulder, circulated the Spiritual Qi in his body, and channeled it directly into the blade before casually swinging down.
A beam of green sword light shot out, striking a stone two meters away.
With a soft SLICE, a corner of the stone was sheared clean off, revealing an incredibly smooth surface.
Huang Yulang clicked his tongue in amazement.
‘This must be something like the legendary Sword Qi.’ The crucial thing was that he could now heavily injure enemies from a distance, without needing to engage in close combat.
The power was also quite impressive, which undoubtedly gave his combat abilities a significant boost.
His interest piqued, Huang Yulang circulated his Spiritual Power and began swinging the wooden sword continuously.
WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH!
A series of Sword Qi blasts tore through the air, and soon, the surrounding area was a complete mess.
Before long, however, Huang Yulang stopped.
He frowned as he sensed the remaining Spiritual Qi in his body, and his expression immediately soured.
‘If I go all out with these attacks, I’ll exhaust all my Spiritual Power after sixty or seventy swings at most.’ Huang Yulang sighed and shook his head helplessly.
‘The first layer of the Qi Refining Stage is still too weak.
I wonder how high my cultivation will get if I refine all of these lotus seeds.’
‘It took about fifteen lotus seeds to advance one layer.
With eighty-six seeds, I should be able to reach the fifth layer!
If I had the cultivation of the fifth layer of the Qi Refining Stage, I should have enough Spiritual Qi to swing my sword and produce Sword Qi hundreds of times at will.’
A wave of excitement washed over Huang Yulang.
He rushed out of the valley, killed an antelope, and eagerly returned to get to work.
He hadn’t eaten in seven days and was quite hungry.
Although Spiritual Qi could nourish the physical body, allowing one to go without food for a short time, the pangs of hunger still hit him from time to time, which was very unpleasant.
After a hearty meal, Huang Yulang once again entered secluded cultivation.
One by one, he consumed the lotus seeds.
Surging Spiritual Qi gathered in the vortex, and the Spiritual Energy Vortex itself expanded at a visible rate.
As the Spiritual Qi circulated, it continuously nourished his physical body.
His Wood Attribute meridian, in particular, grew tougher and more resilient under the nourishment, becoming capable of handling a greater flow of Spiritual Qi.
To Huang Yulang’s frustration, however, once the vortex grew to a certain size, there was no sign of a breakthrough to the second layer, even when he continued to consume lotus seeds.
The excess Spiritual Qi simply dispersed throughout his body to nourish it, no longer entering the Spiritual Energy Vortex.
It seemed the vortex was saturated and could not hold any more Spiritual Qi.
‘Have I hit another bottleneck?’ Huang Yulang was speechless.
‘Why do I keep running into bottlenecks?
This is so troublesome.’
Huang Yulang only thought this way because he lacked a master’s guidance.
Breaking through from the first layer to the second required a considerable amount of time to temper and nourish the Dantian and meridians with Spiritual Power.
If one forced a breakthrough without allowing enough time for this tempering, the Dantian and meridians wouldn’t be able to handle more Spiritual Qi, making a breakthrough impossible.
A forced attempt could even lead to cultivation deviation, resulting in scrambled meridians and a damaged Dantian.
Huang Yulang was just a rookie at cultivation.
Master Xuanmu hadn’t even believed Huang Yulang could take this first step, so he had never explained such matters to him.
Resigned, Huang Yulang could only put his cultivation aside for the time being.
He glanced at the remaining lotus seeds in his hand.
He had consumed nearly forty of them, a fact he found somewhat hard to believe.
‘I haven’t even reached the second layer of the Qi Refining Stage, but I’ve already used more than twice the number of lotus seeds it took for the first layer.’
The corner of Huang Yulang’s mouth twitched.
‘At this rate, the lotus seeds I have left won’t even be enough to get me to the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage.’
“This…?” Huang Yulang slumped to the ground, feeling helpless.
‘I was counting on these seeds to get me to the fifth layer of the Qi Refining Stage.
That’s obviously a lost cause now.’
‘And this is just the Qi Refining Stage.
When I get to Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and even higher realms, the resources needed for each breakthrough will increase exponentially.
I can’t even imagine how many resources I’ll need to become a true Immortal.’
Huang Yulang felt a wave of discouragement.
He wallowed in dejection for a moment before shaking it off and steeling his resolve.
‘What the hell am I afraid of?
I’m a Transmigrator!
I have a cheat!
Worst case, I’ll focus on Body Refining first.
Once my physical body reaches Great Success, I’ll find opportunities to seize the resources I need.
What’s there to worry about?’
Huang Yulang gave himself a mental pep talk and suddenly broke into a wide grin.
‘I will definitely become a Cultivator who can soar through the skies and traverse the earth.
No one can stop me.’
‘Of course, just relying on blind luck like this, who knows how many years it would take to achieve anything in my cultivation.
It looks like I have to go to Qingcheng Mountain and find my master.
With a proper backer and connections, my chances of getting cultivation resources will be a thousand times better than just wandering around aimlessly.’
Huang Yulang decided that after he eliminated the River Bandits, he would leave the Yun Country and head to Qingcheng Mountain to find his master.
Huang Yulang meditated for a few more days and even swallowed a few more lotus seeds, but the Spiritual Energy Vortex remained completely unresponsive.
He could only give up for the time being.
Huang Yulang glanced at the canyon and the few remaining lotus flowers in the pool.
‘After all, someone else planted them.
No need to take every last one.’ He gave a faint smile and departed with a carefree air.