Ghost Immortal

He was all too familiar with this feeling.

Every time he was thrown into the medicine pot and soaked in the medicinal soup, he would have a similar feeling, but the feeling brought by the medicinal soup was violent and hot, as if thousands of needles were pricking his meridians, making him roll on the ground in pain.

The feeling brought by this wisp of white mist was gentle and lingering, like the warm spring sun shining on the body, indescribably comfortable.

The white steam inside the cauldron continued to rise.

Without further hesitation, Li Feng lay down on the mouth of the cauldron and inhaled deeply the rising steam.

White vapor entered the body, warm currents gathered, and the dantian area became increasingly hot, as if something was brewing and growing.

He finished inhaling the white steam and looked down at the unpolished rice in the cauldron.

The brown rice is still the same brown rice, but the color has changed.

The originally grayish-white rice grains became crystal clear, like tiny pearls, with a faint luster on their surface.

The herbs also changed color; the green leaves turned into an almost transparent emerald green, like jade carvings.

Li Feng reached out and scooped up a grain of rice, putting it in his mouth.

The rice grains melt in your mouth, and the rich, refreshing aroma explodes in your oral cavity, transforming into a purer, warm current that flows down your throat and into your lower abdomen.

The heat in my dantian suddenly increased, as if a fire was burning there.

He could feel his meridians expanding, becoming wider and stronger.

The blockages and hidden injuries left by being soaked in the medicinal soup for more than ten years are being cleared and repaired little by little under the washing of this warm current.

Li Feng almost instinctively squatted down and scooped out each grain of rice from the pot, eating it all up.

Each grain of rice brings a warm current, and each warm current is transforming his body.

When he finished eating the last grain of rice, he was drenched in sweat, which was mixed with black oil and impurities and emitted a pungent, sour smell.

But the feeling inside my body was more refreshing than ever before, as if a heavy shackle had been removed.

He closed his eyes and felt the location of his dantian. There was a warm energy there, not large, but real, like a seed that had just sprouted from the soil.

This is what the strange old man meant by the feeling of qi!

Li Feng opened his eyes in surprise, suddenly remembering what the bald old man had once said.

"Once you have spiritual roots, your master will guide you in cultivating immortality."

Li Feng looked down at the remaining herbal residue in the cauldron, and a thought that excited him surged into his mind.

The bald old man spent sixteen years soaking him in various medicinal soups, all in an effort to help him develop spiritual roots.

Boiling medicine in a cauldron and then throwing people in to soak is the dumbest and cruelest method.

The correct way to use it is to put the ingredients with spiritual energy into the cauldron, and then use the flames under the cauldron's legs to activate the inscriptions on the cauldron, transforming ordinary ingredients into spiritual food containing spiritual energy.

Li Feng took a deep breath, his eyes shining as he looked at the bronze cauldron.

This cauldron is a treasure!

In the days that followed, Li Feng frantically experimented.

He searched through all the herbs left by the bald old man, boiled each one in a cauldron, and then ate them to experience their effects.

Some herbs, when boiled, have very little spiritual energy, and when consumed, they taste like a sip of warm water. Other herbs, however, have no spiritual energy at all, and when boiled, they become just ordinary herbal soup.

He recorded his discoveries one by one, writing on rags with charcoal to note the variety, year, processing method, and effects of each herb.

He soon discovered that the spiritual energy produced by boiling herbs was far less than that produced by boiling brown rice.

Brown rice is the most ordinary mortal brown rice, without any spiritual energy. But after being transformed by the cauldron, it becomes spiritual rice, and a single grain is equivalent to the effect of soaking in medicinal soup for three days.

He began to wonder if using better rice would produce even better results.

Unfortunately, the bald old man's only food was that little bit of brown rice, and once it was gone, there was none left.

Li Feng searched the entire dilapidated temple but couldn't find a second grain of rice.

He could only continue to use herbs to maintain his condition, but the herbs were far from effective. After taking them for more than ten days, the energy in his dantian only grew slightly stronger, far from the feeling of a breakthrough.

Until one day, he found a cloth bag in a crevice behind the statue.

The bag was small, tied with hemp rope, and hidden behind a loose brick at the base of the statue.

Li Feng took out the cloth bag and opened it; inside was a small handful of rice.

This rice is completely different from brown rice. Each grain is plump and round, translucent like jade, and emits a faint fragrance, not the fragrance of rice, but the fragrance of flowers.

Li Feng picked up a grain and put it in his mouth to taste it. It didn't have the astringent taste of raw rice; instead, it had a hint of sweetness.

He knew this was definitely not an ordinary thing; it must be the so-called "spirit rice" that the strange old man had been secretly eating.

Sure enough, when he cooked the rice in the cauldron, the entire dilapidated temple was filled with a rich spiritual energy.

The moment the lid was lifted, a plume of white steam shot into the sky, more than ten times stronger than when the brown rice was cooked.

Li Feng didn't even have time to grab a bowl; he immediately leaned over the cauldron and inhaled the rising white steam.

The feeling of spiritual energy entering the body was like a sudden enlightenment; the lukewarm energy in the dantian suddenly surged, as if something had been opened up.

He felt all his meridians open up in an instant, and spiritual energy flowed along the meridians, penetrating his limbs and bones, finally converging in his dantian and condensing into a thin vortex.

The vortex slowly rotates, extending outwards and embedding itself into the meridians; this is the spiritual root!

A spiritual root grows one inch, and that is a spiritual root of one inch!

Li Feng stood there blankly, feeling the spiritual root in his dantian and meridians, and it took him a long time to dare to be sure.

He has indeed made a breakthrough.

He simply used this cauldron to cook a pot of spirit rice and had a meal, and he broke through to the first inch of spirit root.

The old bald man once said that the first step in cultivating immortality is to grow spiritual roots. The maximum length of a spiritual root is ten inches. The longer the spiritual root, the better one's talent for cultivation, and the further one can go on the path of cultivation.

This is the origin of the saying "the higher the virtue, the better the path."

For an ordinary person to go from having no spiritual root to having at least one inch of spiritual root, it would take at least three to five years of arduous cultivation, and also require the assistance of elixirs.

He accomplished in the time it takes others several years of hard work in just one meal.

Of course, the old man's medicinal bath might have played a part, but it was already astonishing enough.

Li Feng finished the remaining spirit rice without leaving a single grain, then sat cross-legged on the straw and circulated his spiritual energy according to the rudimentary method recorded in the tattered book.

The vortex in his dantian spun faster and faster. Although the growth of his spiritual root slowed down after he finished eating the spiritual rice, the fire in his body did not go out. Instead, it burned steadily and continuously.

A month later, with the help of Lingmi, his Qi cyclone underwent its first qualitative change, and his spiritual root penetrated further into the distant meridians.

Two inches of spiritual root!

Li Feng could feel the changes in his body.

His five senses became acute; he could hear the sound of wind rustling through grass a hundred paces away and see every speck of dust in the corner of a dilapidated temple in the dark.

He has also become much stronger; large rocks that he couldn't lift before, he can now overturn with one hand.

But his joy was short-lived, as the rice had already been eaten.

The sacred rice hidden behind the statue was the bald old man's treasured collection of many years; there was only a small handful in total.

No matter how frugal Li Feng was with his food, it would only last him a few days.

In the days that followed, he returned to a state of relying on herbs to sustain himself.

The herbs were of thin spiritual energy. After taking them for almost two months, although the Qi vortex in his dantian had grown stronger and his spiritual root had increased significantly, it was still far from reaching the threshold of breaking through to the three-inch spiritual root.

Li Feng was so anxious that blisters appeared on his lips, because the bald old man could return at any moment.

Once the old man returns, he will be thrown into the medicine cauldron and refined into a human pill, and then everything will be over.

He must have enough strength to protect himself before the old man returns.

That night, Li Feng paced back and forth in the dilapidated temple, his mind racing.

The spirit rice is gone, and the herbs are too ineffective. What else can be cooked?

His gaze unconsciously fell on the statue.

This dilapidated temple enshrines a Buddha statue, a clay sculpture with a gilded body, which has long since become mottled and peeled off.

The Buddha statue is about ten feet tall, sitting cross-legged on a lotus throne, with lowered eyebrows and eyes, and a compassionate smile on its face.

Li Feng suddenly remembered something.

About half a year ago, the bald old man got drunk one night and got up in the middle of the night, mysteriously touching the back of the Buddha statue.

Li Feng pretended to be asleep and peeked through his squinted eyes. He saw the old man reach into the crack on the back of the Buddha statue, rummage around for a while, and finally pull out a small wooden box.

The old man opened the wooden box, glanced at it, and a hopeful smile appeared on his face. Then he quickly stuffed the box back in.

Li Feng initially thought it was the old man's secret stash of money and didn't pay much attention to it.

Looking back now, there seems to be something off about the place where the old man hid the things.

The crack on the back of the Buddha statue was caused by the clay sculpting cracking. However, when the old man reached in, his arm went in very deep, almost his entire forearm didn't go in. This indicates that the inside of the Buddha statue is hollow. What secret is hidden inside?