I'm determined to become an immortal!

"The immortal master has returned."

At the entrance to the Water Palace, the Green Snake rushed towards He Sheng, who had just returned.

"I've only been away from the residence for half a month. Nothing must have happened during that time, right?"

He Sheng asked casually.

The green snake shook its head and said that things had been calm for the past two weeks.

After saying this, it lowered its head, looking as if it wanted to say something but couldn't.

He Sheng glanced at it and sensed that the green snake was preoccupied with something, which was probably related to the treasure-swallowing snake and its sister, the white snake.

However, he had gained so much from his trip to Yuanxia Immortal City that his mind was filled with all sorts of cultivation techniques and secrets, and he had no interest in dealing with the entanglement of a few snakes, so he went straight to the back hall.

Inside the rear hall, the three sacred springs still gurgled and bubbled, their steam rising like mist.

He Sheng sat cross-legged on the blue stone platform by the spring and took out all the items he had obtained.

Fifteen high-grade spirit stones were neatly arranged, their spiritual light as pure as water.

The 150,000 coins from the Eight Views of the Temple were piled up like a small mountain.

Three jade slips containing the secrets of Core Formation: the "River Tide Overlapping Waves Technique" jade slip and the "Refining Yuan and Connecting with Divine Artifacts Dao Record".

There was also the Water Moon Sword Token that Ying Ruyue gave him.

He Sheng's gaze lingered among the various objects for a long time before finally settling on the jade slip containing the "River Tide Overlapping Waves Technique".

I bought this third-grade cultivation technique at the auction, originally intending to prepare for my future Core Formation.

However, this technique is completely different from the "Qinglan Water Element Technique". Once you switch to it, it will inevitably have far-reaching consequences.

What he was most worried about was the subtle and profound meaning he had painstakingly grasped.

"The 'Ripples' concept originates from the 'Clear Ripples Water Control Technique,' which is an exclusive high-level spell that can only be practiced after cultivating the 'Clear Ripples Water Element Technique' to the Foundation Establishment stage," He Sheng muttered to himself, his brows furrowed. "What would happen if the 'Clear Ripples Water Element Technique' were completely reverted?"

He had a vague suspicion in his mind, but ultimately needed to verify it.

Daydreaming is useless; it's better to take action and try it out.

He Sheng did not rush to take action.

He first spent several days carefully studying the "River Tide Overlapping Waves Technique" word by word.

After thoroughly memorizing the contents of the technique, he took out a blank jade slip and recorded all his insights and understandings about the "Qinglan Water Element Technique", "Qinglan Water Control Technique", and the subtle ripple realm into it without missing a single word.

He did this inspired by the Thousand-Condensed Poison Dragon Break, leaving behind these new insights. Even if the technique is reverted, what if it can be integrated into the heart's technique and create something new?

With everything prepared, He Sheng took a deep breath and focused his mind on returning to the time capsule.

"Let's begin."

Swish!

The magical power in his dantian and spiritual sea receded like the tide.

Late Foundation Establishment, Mid Foundation Establishment, Early Foundation Establishment, Great Perfection of Qi Refining...

In just a few dozen breaths, his cultivation level plummeted to rock bottom, and then completely returned to zero.

An unprecedented feeling of weakness swept over my entire body.

Without the support of magic power, He Sheng felt light and airy in his limbs and bones, his meridians were dry and sluggish, and his dantian was empty. But that was all; his body was not injured and could be said to have regressed without damage.

He quickly looked at the water droplet and discovered that the "Qinglan Water Control Technique" had also been forcibly reverted to zero!

Correspondingly, there are the realms of water transformation, the realm of gentle ripples, the realm of gathering water and breaking through, and the realm of a thousand condensed poisonous dragons breaking through...

All insights and understandings related to water magic vanished from my consciousness, as if they had never existed.

"The time-lapse mechanism indeed has an inherent cause and effect; once the causal relationship is violated, it cannot exist."

Through this attempt, He Sheng gained a deeper understanding of the internal mechanism of the time leak, which also confirmed some of his previous guesses.

He Sheng took out the jade slip containing his insights and immersed his consciousness into it.

A moment later, he put down the jade slip with a strange expression.

He recognized every word in the jade slip and understood every sentence, but they were like castles floating in the air, empty and without roots.

The foundation of these insights lies in genuine spiritual practice and understanding. Once the practice regresses and the state of mind dissipates, these insights become like a tree without roots, losing their resonance with one's own soul.

"Just as I thought."

He Sheng sighed, not too disappointed, since he had expected it.

Now that he had come this far, he decided to go all out and start trying various things.

He first relearned several basic spells from the Qi Refining stage of the "Qinglan Water Element Technique," and then tried to push his limits to see if he could comprehend any profound meaning from these low-level spells.

The results were disappointing. Several Qi Refining stage spells remained stagnant after reaching perfection, the plus signs disappeared, and they couldn't even touch the threshold of "mastery," let alone achieve any artistic conception.

Even if one possesses a spell capable of reaching a state of divine mastery, because the starting point is too low, one cannot even touch upon the level of intent, yet the cultivation time consumed far exceeds that of a high-level spell.

He Sheng shook his head and reset these low-level spells to zero, no longer wasting his time.

He then mastered the "River Tide Overlapping Waves Technique" and advanced all the way to the Foundation Establishment stage. He also cultivated the two high-level Foundation Establishment exclusive spells, "Water Dragon Chant" and "Nine Turns of Overlapping Waves," to the Great Perfection. Then he began to invest in them beyond their limits to see their potential.

The result was quite unexpected; neither of these two high-level spells could be cultivated beyond their limits.

In short, for these two high-level spells, the Great Perfection is the ultimate state; the plus sign disappears immediately, and there is no possibility of further advancement.

"Not every spell can exceed its limit, touch upon the essence of existence, and ultimately achieve supernatural power."

Realizing this, He Sheng took out the "Ten Thousand Demons' Joint Journey to Divine Transformation Technique". The value of this secret strategy was once again demonstrated, after all, it recorded seven high-level spells that could be cultivated into divine abilities.

Besides this, he made another discovery during this switch to cultivation: that cultivation methods vary in difficulty.

The cultivation difficulty of "River Tide Overlapping Waves Technique" is much higher than that of "Clear Waves Water Element Technique".

In the early stages of Foundation Establishment, the "River Tide Overlapping Waves Technique" required about 50% more cultivation time than the "Clear Waves Water Element Technique".

This means that if the time required to cultivate "Qinglan Shuiyuan Gong" to the late stage of Foundation Establishment were transferred to "Jiangchao Dielang Jue", it would only be able to advance to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment at most.

After all that trouble, He Sheng looked at the messy water droplets on the water clock, sighed, and started to reverse the process.

His cultivation level regressed, his techniques were relearned, his understanding of the essence of the art was re-established, and his killing moves were re-practiced.

His general cultivation time was consumed and replenished like flowing water. Only when everything was restored to its original state did he let out a long sigh of relief.

"I'm finally back."

This attempt to renovate was, in the end, a complete failure.

But he did not gain nothing; on the contrary, he reaped quite a reward.

The first and foremost point is that it has been definitively verified that reverting to a previous state can indeed restore one's cultivation level without any loss.

For other cultivators, dispersing their cultivation and starting over would be tantamount to courting death, but for him it was merely an experiment, something he could start over at any time.

"Right now, it's just that my general cultivation time is not enough to support me to switch to a higher-level cultivation technique, but this path is correct."

and..."

He Sheng flipped his palm and took out an item, which was the high-quality Foundation Establishment Pill he had bought earlier.

"Another major discovery from this back-and-forth journey is the breakthrough in major realms, which is calculated according to a certain amount of cultivation time within the time loop."

In short, if one were to rebuild their foundation using Foundation Establishment Pills, it should buy a significant amount of time!