A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

Zhou Ping placed the check-in token on the table and looked at the enclosed quiet room, which was almost twice the size of Tianyan Town. He felt a little more at ease.

Lying back on the large bed, Zhou Ping began to think about his next plan.

The reason he chose to spend extra spirit stones to stay here was entirely because he valued the privacy of this place.

Guiyuan Pavilion's reputation is well-known in the surrounding cultivation world. It never infringes on the personal privacy of cultivators who come here, nor does it collude with any sect to oppress independent cultivators. It is an absolutely neutral entity.

Therefore, even some notorious cultivators can freely enter and leave this place as long as they pay the corresponding amount of spirit stones according to the regulations, provided that they conceal their identities. If they are exposed, they will be hated by everyone.

Guiyuan Pavilion does not specifically investigate the identity and origin of visitors, and sometimes it even turns a blind eye to the coming and going cultivators.

After all, those who have undergone tribulation are generally much wealthier than ordinary cultivators, and some even possess extremely rare treasures. Attracting these people to the Guiyuan Auction not only enriches the variety of items available at the auction but also allows the Guiyuan Pavilion to collect a substantial commission during the transactions. It is a win-win situation, and given Guiyuan Pavilion's business acumen, it would naturally not turn away such a good opportunity.

Of course, if these cultivators are not patient and seek their own death by stirring up trouble in the Guiyuan Pavilion, the Guiyuan Dao Grand Master who is in charge here will not mind taking action to subdue them and send them to the border mining area to be miners.

Zhou Ping did not choose to stay at the sect's residence in the Spirit Mountain Realm, precisely because of the need for privacy.

Although the Spirit Mountain Realm is the safest place compared to any place in Jiyun City, Zhou Ping had inadvertently heard a rumor from his Uncle Yun a few days ago.

In the present-day Spirit Mountain Realm, on the mountaintop of the Azure Lotus Profound Sect, there is an elder in the Core Formation stage who is in seclusion.

If one day he were to suddenly decide to leave seclusion and take a stroll, given the extraordinary abilities of a Core Formation cultivator, Zhou Ping would likely be immediately exposed to their divine sense.

At that point, forcing the spiritual herbs to mature right under their noses would be tantamount to courting death.

......

Zhou Ping took out some prepared spiritual soil and tools, and then planted the Blood Emperor Grass roots obtained from the fox crow's nest, as well as the Black Scale Fruit seeds that he had specially saved until now.

The Blood Emperor Grass was ripened to meet the needs of subsequent body tempering, while the Black Scale Fruit was to be converted into spirit stones. After all, with Zhou Ping's current financial resources, he probably couldn't even afford a decent magic weapon.

After his previous experience selling medicine, he felt that directly selling spiritual plants was too conspicuous and might attract unwanted attention. In the chaotic Jiyun City, it was better to be more cautious.

As for the finished Wulin Pill, selling it to a pharmacy like Changshengtang or consigning it to Guiyuange for auction are both good options, as this kind of pill will not attract special attention from others.

Soon after, having exhausted the smoke from the top of the agarwood incense, Zhou Ping returned to his bed with satisfaction and began his routine meditation practice.

Previously, due to damage to his Dao foundation, he had neglected his cultivation. Now, after emerging from the trough and regaining his strength, he has been cultivating for a few days and has a faint feeling that with his current peak level of the fourth level of Qi Refining, he can break through to the fifth level effortlessly, without any sense of difficulty or obstruction caused by the bottleneck.

"It seems that because he had reached the fifth level before, even though his level has dropped, he no longer faces the previous bottleneck."

After a moment's thought, Zhou Ping understood the key point. According to his estimate, he would be able to reliably enter the fifth level of the Qi Refining stage after four or five more days of meditation and cultivation. So he began to cultivate without any distractions.

Zhou Ping was unaware that the mysterious sandalwood hidden inside the sandalwood token in his robes, with its rough, black surface, was faintly glowing as he cultivated. Although it was almost imperceptible, it would occasionally flash for a fleeting moment.

This situation actually occurred long before his Dao foundation was damaged. Moreover, when he and Gu Caiwei killed the demonic bird fox crow, this kind of spiritual light appeared in a subtle way. However, he hid the agarwood too well, and even he himself did not notice it at all.

At the time, Zhou Ping felt a strange sense of excitement from the killing. Not knowing why, he didn't think much of it and simply assumed that he had a hidden desire for killing.

Streams of spiritual energy from heaven and earth gathered around Zhou Ping like wisps of smoke, and were then gradually refined and absorbed by him through his Qingyuan Technique.

A tiny fraction of the unrefined spiritual energy secretly seeped into the dark agarwood, proceeding slowly but methodically in secret...

Seven days later, the figure in the quiet room exhaled a breath of turbid air, stretched lazily, and then opened his eyes, which had been concealing their spiritual light. The aura of the fifth level of Qi Refining faintly emanated from his body.

Zhou Ping sat up from the bed with a wry smile, thinking to himself that the spiritual energy concentration in Guiyuan Pavilion was indeed much lower than that in the Spirit Mountain Realm.

What should have been a four or five-day training period took a full seven days. Don't underestimate these extra two or three days, because the time is too short to be noticeable.

If we consider days as years, wouldn't cultivators under the same conditions be nearly two or three years behind disciples of sects within the Spirit Mountain Realm? That's a speed difference of nearly 30-40%, which is no small amount and could affect the short life of a Qi Refining stage cultivator.

"No wonder people are so eager to squeeze into the Five Great Mystic Sects. The cultivation environment alone is enough to make countless people envious."

Zhou Ping arrived at several clusters of medicinal herbs, smelling the fresh scent that already filled the room, and murmured to himself.

However, his cultivation speed does not rely much on spiritual veins and spiritual energy. Being in a super sect like the Azure Lotus Profound Sect, he is somewhat wasting his talents.

Due to his own aptitude, the cultivation level that Zhou Ping could improve simply by meditating was almost negligible.

The cultivation speed of a pseudo-spiritual root is ridiculously slow. Without the help of advancement pills, he could foresee his potential limit and it was hard to say whether he could advance to the late stage of Qi Refining in this lifetime.

Reaching out to touch the newly sprouted branches and leaves of the Blood Emperor Grass, Zhou Ping took the token he had obtained from Guiyuan Pavilion from the table into his hand, turned around and left the quiet room.

What cultivators look forward to most in Guiyuan Pavilion is undoubtedly its Guiyuan Auction, which is held irregularly. Zhou Ping was fortunate enough to attend one in Tianyan Town, so he was naturally familiar with it.