"Boom!..."
Almost the moment he began circulating his
Cánxiá
breathing technique, a gust of
fresh wind
swept through the small courtyard, and streams of
spiritual energy
from the heavens and earth entered his body through the open
acupoints
.
In the past,
Xǔ Tàipíng
could never sense the
meridians
and
acupoints
, but now, he could easily feel them, and the process of
guiding the spiritual energy
into his
meridians
to be
refined
was incredibly smooth.
Ultimately,
Xǔ Tàipíng
spent the time of half a stick of incense to successfully send a refined
true qi
into his
dantian
.
"Refining just this one strand of
true qi
in half a stick of incense is nothing compared to the geniuses
Zǐyáng
True Lord spoke of, but for me, it means I can finally step onto the path of cultivation."
Despite his extremely slow refining speed,
Xǔ Tàipíng
didn't feel too discouraged.
"Grandfather said,
diligence
can make up for
weakness
. They practice for two hours every day, I practice for four hours; they practice four hours, I practice for eight hours. One day, I'll catch up!"
Xǔ Tàipíng
made a silent resolution.
"Right, I still have this
soybean spirit crystal
.
Lingyu
Immortal said that holding it while cultivating can double the results with half the effort."
He suddenly remembered the
soybean spirit crystals
from the
Earth Tomb Fruits
and took one out, starting to circulate his energy again.
With the help of the
soybean spirit crystal
, his speed of refining
spiritual energy
was more than three times faster than before.
"
Lingyu
Immortal didn't deceive me. This
spirit crystal
is a great help. With it, I might really be able to break through the
Opening Door Realm
within half a year!"
Feeling the speed of cultivation improving,
Xǔ Tàipíng
immediately showed a joyful expression.
With the
soybean spirit crystal
, his cultivation speed was now on par with that of an ordinary cultivator.
For the next few days,
Xǔ Tàipíng
spent two hours a day managing the medicinal herb fields and used the remaining time to cultivate, not daring to waste a single moment.
...
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
In these three months,
Xǔ Tàipíng
could clearly feel that his
true qi
in the
dantian
was becoming more and more abundant, and he vaguely sensed that he was about to break through the
Condensation Dew Period
.
The
Condensation Dew Period
was a term used in the
Cánxiá
technique to describe the depth of a cultivator's
true qi
before breaking through the
Opening Door Realm
.
In the
Cánxiá
technique, before breaking through the
Opening Door Realm
, the depth of the cultivator's
true qi
was divided into three stages:
Condensation Dew
,
Frost Transformation
, and
Ice Formation
.
Only when the cultivator's
true qi
reached the
Ice Formation
stage could they attempt to break through the
Opening Door Realm
.
However, once the cultivator broke through the
Condensation Dew Period
and entered the
Frost Transformation Period
, a layer of
cold ice protective qi
would surround the cultivator, effectively equipping them with a
premium fine iron armor
.
Even though
Xǔ Tàipíng
had not yet broken through the
Condensation Dew Period
, the changes in his body were already quite noticeable, thanks to the increasing abundance of
true qi
in his
dantian
.
For instance, his
vision
and
hearing
were significantly sharper than they had been three months ago.
Regarding
vision
, now, even a sparrow standing on a tree
500 meters
away could be seen clearly. As for
hearing
, he could distinguish what kind of
wild beasts
were present within a
mile
of the surrounding mountain forests, simply by listening.
Moreover, his
physical strength
and
leg strength
had both improved greatly.
Although
Xǔ Tàipíng
looked frail, he could now easily lift a
200-pound stone mill
with a single hand. As for his
leg strength
, he once chased a wild deer in the nearby mountains, and he wasn’t at a disadvantage.
In addition, during his time in
Niújiā Village
, he often went hunting with his grandfather, using a bow and arrow and setting traps, so over the past month, he had been able to enjoy wild meat almost every day.
Purple mint leaves
paired with roasted
deer meat
or roasted
rabbit meat
—he never got tired of eating them.
"Speaking of which, the traps I set in the back mountain a few days ago, it’s time to check them. Maybe I can catch a
yellow goat
to eat."
One noon, after having cultivated for three hours,
Xǔ Tàipíng
patted his stomach, got out of bed, and decided to go check the traps in the back mountain.
Due to his need to focus on cultivation, he hadn't had much time to hunt, so over the past three months, he had set up quite a few traps in the nearby mountains. All he had to do was check them occasionally to get some rewards.
But before doing that, he had a more important task:
Selling Medicinal Herbs.
It had been three months since he sowed the first batch of
Nine-leaf White Purple Mint
seeds, and now he had harvested over
300 pounds
of
mint root
and more than
60 pounds
of
mint seeds
. This was exactly three times the amount of a normal medicinal herb field harvest.
"By weight, this batch of
Nine-leaf White Purple Mint
could sell for
96 merit coins
, which is exactly three times what I originally expected."
After placing all the medicinal herbs he was going to sell at the gate,
Xǔ Tàipíng
took out the
bone flute
from the
West Wind Pavilion
and blew it with force.
"Squeak!"
Before long, a
white-headed eagle
, with wings spread wide enough to measure
ten feet
, arrived at the gate of the courtyard.
"Uncle
White Eagle
, please take these medicinal herbs to
Baicaotang
to sell. Afterward, you may keep three
merit coins
as a commission."
Xǔ Tàipíng
bowed respectfully to the
white-headed eagle
standing in front of him.
Using
spiritual birds
to sell medicinal herbs was a method he had learned from the
transmission jade slip
. It was said that ordinary medicinal herbs could be sold directly by the spiritual birds, saving time and effort. The only downside was that the commission was
three merit coins
.
"Tomorrow, I will bring the money," the
spiritual bird
, the
white-headed eagle
, nodded slightly, grabbed the herbs with its claws, and flew up into the sky.
"By tomorrow, I’ll have enough money to buy cultivation methods and martial arts techniques."
Watching the
white-headed eagle
fly away,
Xǔ Tàipíng
crossed his fingers and stretched lazily.
Although he still needed money to buy
true fire talismans
, buying a martial technique for self-defense was necessary. After all, when he was hunting in the mountains earlier, he almost got hurt by some wild boars.
Currently, he had plenty of
true qi
in his
dantian
, but he had no idea how to use it.
For cultivators, it would be better to buy a
spell
to practice, but he couldn’t afford one at the moment, so he would have to wait until he had more money.
Moreover, even if he practiced
Cánxiá
, his
true qi
wouldn't be sufficient to cast spells until he broke through the
Opening Door Realm
.
"This bow and arrow, and the hunting knife, should be replaced soon."
At this point,
Xǔ Tàipíng
had taken the
bow and arrow
and the
hunting knife
from his house, preparing to head for the back mountain.
These
bow and arrow
and
hunting knife
had been left behind by the previous owner of the
Qīngzhú Residence
. The knife had chipped edges, and the bowstring had snapped once, but
Xǔ Tàipíng
had managed to fix it.
In the mountains, where wild animals surrounded the area, these basic weapons for self-defense were still necessary.
...
Half an incense stick later.
Back Mountain
.
Although
Xǔ Tàipíng
called it the back mountain, according to the map in the
jade slip
, this mountain should be called
Yanglu Mountain
, because it was named after the abundance of
yellow goats
and
mule deer
there.
However, during his previous trips,
Xǔ Tàipíng
found that there weren't many
yellow goats
or
mule deer
in the mountain, but there were plenty of wild boars in groups.
"If I can catch a wild boar, that wouldn’t be bad. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about food for the next half month."
While trekking through the mountain,
Xǔ Tàipíng
kept a watchful eye on his surroundings, muttering to himself.
Though cultivators could
fast
(abstain from food), that was only possible after breaking through the
Opening Door Realm
. As of now, not only could he not fast, but he also needed a lot of
meat
to replenish the
energy
he used during cultivation.
[--------------------------------------------]
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