Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 693 The Path of Cultivation
"The path of cultivators is the cultivation of both body and mind; at least, that is the tradition of our world."

"What is nature? It is the primordial true nature, the bright and clear spirit. What is destiny? It is the innate essence, the primordial energy."

"In layman's terms, sex refers to the inner nature of a person, including their mind, thoughts, disposition, character, spirit, will, and so on.

"Fate" refers to a person's external circumstances, including the body, life, energy, destiny, matter, and so on.

The creation of nature resides in the heart, which is the human spirit; the creation of destiny resides in the body, which is the human vitality.

Cultivating both mind and body refers to the simultaneous cultivation of mind and form, ultimately achieving inner and outer harmony and unity with nature.

"As a wise elder once said, cultivating both body and mind can be seen as a lamp."

Lamp oil is life itself, and light is its essence; without oil, a lamp cannot shine; merely having oil without light fails to demonstrate the lamp's purpose of illumination; the purpose of spiritual cultivation is to teach people to accumulate sufficient oil and to instruct them on the method of lighting the lamp, thus ensuring a life filled with brilliance.

"Strictly speaking, our cultivation at each stage is a dual cultivation of body and mind, but with different emphases."

The Foundation Establishment, Origin Reaching, and Golden Core stages are primarily about cultivating life force and refining the body to make it a precious raft, enabling one to traverse the vast void in the future.

Body cultivators rely on tough skin and thick flesh, while magic cultivators rely on exquisite spells. They achieve this goal from different angles, and late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators will more or less choose to refine their bodies.

“Starting from the late stage of Golden Core cultivation, the focus of cultivation changes, from cultivating life to cultivating nature.”

It places greater emphasis on the soul, will, and thought, and the nascent soul is the fusion of all of these. Finally, the nascent soul hatches and breaks out of the core, just like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Both the Nascent Soul Realm and the Three Flowers Realm place greater emphasis on cultivating one's character.

"Isolated yin cannot grow, solitary yang cannot be born. Cultivating both body and mind is like the two sides of yin and yang. To go further, one needs to blend yin and yang and return to the infinite."

At that time, how to cultivate would be a matter for those at the Three Flowers Realm and above.

It is said that after breaking through the Three Flowers stage, one can be called an immortal, but only the lowest level of immortal.

Even the lowest-ranking immortal can live for thirty thousand years.

"When the Nascent Soul is first born, it is just a tangible but intangible mass of energy, which transforms into substance as cultivation increases."

Lianshan Zhenjun did not talk about specific cultivation methods, but rather about the philosophy of cultivation, first drawing up a basic framework for his disciples and pointing out the direction.

Ji An listened with rapt attention. The other person's words were like a large hand parting the clouds, clarifying the path ahead for him, something he lacked most.

With a guide, the path of spiritual practice will be much smoother in the future.

However, he needs to work harder and improve his cultivation as quickly as possible, as the opponent can't hold on much longer, probably for at most forty years.

The light cocoon enveloping the Gathering Yuan Tree shattered with a roar, scattering into countless golden light spots.

The spirit wood didn't change much, of course, because its quality didn't improve. It only had about 6,800 points of Dao essence invested, so theoretically it was impossible to find a way to improve its grade.

The eyes of the True Lord of Lianshan shone with countless sparks, and he asked in a low voice:

"Approximately how long will it take to upgrade the grade of the Gathering Yuan Tree?"

"I don't know. There's no quantifiable standard. We can only keep using treasures to invest energy."

Where does energy come from?

"The lightning tribulation during a cultivator's breakthrough contains energy, and the spiritual vein can also release energy when its grade is improved."

Does every form of lightning tribulation possess energy?

"I can't guarantee it, but based on the feedback we've received so far, that's certainly the case."

When the demonic cultivators of Yuanhe Mountain undergo their Nascent Soul tribulation, their treasures are also able to draw energy from them.

Lianshan Zhenjun lowered his gaze, seemingly lost in thought.

Two days later, cultivators gathered in the Wuji Hall of Chaoyang Peak.

Master Yuxiao looked around and nodded with satisfaction:
"If our ancestral masters were alive, they would be overjoyed to see the sect's current prosperity."

There were nine Golden Core cultivators in the main hall, and one fellow disciple was far away in the Central Continent. Such strength and prosperity was unprecedented for the sect.

However, this is also the culmination of the sect's years of hard work and accumulation. With enough disciples having made it to the next level, it is unknown how many years it will take to cultivate the next batch of disciples qualified to break through.

He looked at Lin Jiuxiao and asked:
"Junior brother, how many Golden Core pills are left in the treasure pavilion?"

Some disciples successfully broke through, while many more perished, causing the sect's Golden Core cultivation to be rapidly depleted.

"There are only five left, and only one of them is a high-quality pill."

The good news is that these Golden Core pills were all refined by Senior Brother Ji and Junior Sister Han. The pills possess the special enhancement of the Azure Lotus Burning Heart Flame, and although they are only of ordinary quality, their medicinal effects are no less than those of the previous high-quality pills.

Han Yan continued, "The day of the True Demon Tribulation is drawing ever closer, and the forces in the Central Continent are also working hard to strengthen themselves."

It's becoming increasingly difficult to acquire Golden Core pills through transactions with the Cloud Sea Merchant Alliance, but the materials for Golden Core pills cultivated by sects take approximately one hundred years to mature.

Without elixirs, there is no opportunity to refine pills.

Ji An said, "Don't be nervous about that. Before I returned to Xizhou, I accumulated five batches of materials for forming Golden Core pills in Zhongzhou. Each batch can produce three pills. In a few days, I will refine the spiritual herbs, which will be enough to add at least eleven or twelve Golden Core pills to the sect's treasury."

His tone was full of confidence; with a success rate of over 90% in refining the Golden Core, he naturally had the confidence to back it up.

From a personal perspective, it is in his best interest for more disciples to break through to the Golden Core realm, which is why he spares no effort in providing support.

In addition, if he captures a Golden Core stage enemy alive, he wants to discuss with the sect about "adding something extra" when he undergoes the tribulation.

If you don't do this, the accumulation of Daoist essence will be greatly affected.

At this moment, he remembered the time he was afflicted with the Blood-Transforming Soul-Chasing Curse. The Golden-Feathered Eagle King was on his blacklist, and now that he was powerful, he had to find an opportunity to make the other party pay back the debt.

Master Yuxiao smiled kindly, "Junior Brother's consideration for the sect from his perspective is truly a blessing for the sect and a good thing for his disciples."

With so many pills in storage, there will be enough for our disciples to exchange and use within a hundred years for those who have reached the Golden Core stage. This gives us some breathing room. By then, the spiritual herbs planted in the Agriculture Hall will have ripened, and Junior Brother can exchange the pills for merit points or resources.

With the problem of forming the Golden Core resolved, the sect's inheritance can proceed in an orderly manner, which solves a major problem.

He coughed and continued:

"This time, my junior brother Lin Qiubai and I participated in the trade fair. The demonic cultivators did not use any dirty tricks, and things went very smoothly."

All the requests from our fellow disciples will be fulfilled as long as they appear at the trade fair. Those who make a purchase can then exchange their merit points for resources later.

He began to take out spiritual items one by one from the Void Stone. "Junior Brother Zhang, here are the Tier 3 High-Grade Earth Core Silver Marrow, Ji Chen Pearl, and Netherworld Soul Soil that you needed. Everything is ready. Thanks to the cooperation of Falling Maple Valley, they opened the secret vault to help us."

He understood Luofeng Valley's intentions perfectly: to forge a deeper bond with the sect so that they could fight against future threats together.

He immediately stated that if the sect had the resources, it would certainly help its ally, thus reaching a verbal alliance agreement.

Zhang Zeye is a newly promoted Golden Core cultivator in the Array Formation Hall. The list he compiled is of the spiritual items needed to cultivate the sect's spiritual veins.

After carefully examining the spiritual object, he nodded and smiled with satisfaction:

"Tomorrow I can begin to lead the spiritual vein upgrade plan, which is described in great detail in the Five Elements Sect's heritage."

All you need to do is create some special array flags and inject the necessary spiritual substances into the spiritual vein nodes every few months.

These array flags can be reused, and they can also be used to upgrade a certain spiritual vein node.

Judging from the description of the formation, with sufficient resources, the speed of upgrading the spiritual vein's grade can be greatly increased, and it may only take forty or fifty years to upgrade the spiritual vein's grade again.

However, these spiritual items can only last for a little over ten years; the sect needs to acquire more resources.

Master Yuxiao nodded, "In the past, it took a long time to ask the array masters of Zhongzhou to help improve the grade of the spiritual veins. It seems that we can delay the progress now."

The sect will trade with forces in the Southern Continent and the Far North, which will certainly not delay the important matter of upgrading the spiritual veins.

Zhang Zeye then said:

"I have quite a bit of experience in the study of formations. In a few years, when my formation skills improve again, I will also compile a list of formations and materials to upgrade spiritual veins to the third-tier top grade, and then give it to my senior brother."

When the quality of a spiritual vein is improved, all fellow disciples benefit. If the quality of a spiritual vein is high enough, the cultivator's need for elixirs will decrease.

However, the improvement of the spiritual vein's grade will lead to faster growth of spiritual herbs, increased production, and a faster increase in the sect's foundation.

In this era of the True Demon Calamity, the stronger the sect, the more secure everyone feels.

Master Yuxiao smiled and sighed, "Alright, doing it this way will cause us to consume the high-level resources we obtain from Crimson Flame Peak too quickly."

Over the years, the sect has accumulated a lot of resources from the depleted spiritual veins, but in order to maintain the improvement of the spiritual veins' grade, the resources are also consumed very quickly.

However, he was very happy. Resources are inanimate and cannot be stored up to play any role, but they can be used to improve the spiritual veins, which will have a comprehensive improvement on the sect and its disciples.

Ji An laughed and said, "Resources are meant to be used; hoarding them is unacceptable."

Master Yuxiao distributed the resources one after another, and Ji An received the fire seed he desperately needed.

The seed of the Netherworld Bone Fire was contained in a black stone box of unknown material. It was oval-shaped with white flame patterns on the surface, and the patterns could be seen to be changing slightly at all times, like leaping flames.

After receiving the resources and exchanging their cultivation experiences, everyone left one after another.

Ji An was teleported back to Crimson Flame Peak and entered the gourd world.

He took out the fire seed and searched for records of the spiritual fire of heaven and earth in the Five Elements Sect's heritage, and soon found the relevant information.

The Netherworld Bone Fire is formed deep underground. The flame is white with a purple core, and it is a Yin-type spiritual fire of heaven and earth.

After successful refining, it will subtly change the cultivator's physique, thus causing adverse effects, but Nascent Soul cultivators will not be affected.

If a low-level cultivator refines a fire seed, they need to take special pills to neutralize the damage; otherwise, over time it will damage their physical body and affect their breakthrough in cultivation realm.

If one possesses Yang-type Heavenly Spiritual Fire, then no elixirs are needed. The two types of spiritual fire will mutually promote each other's growth. It is only necessary to maintain a balance between the spiritual fires in the early stages, as follows:
　This is from yesterday. Some friends said I'd update less often, but I'll make up for it even if I do.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)