Mortal Cultivation: Starting from Hiding in the Cultivation Techniques Pavilion

The disciple in charge accepted the spirit stones and handed him a palm-sized jade token: "Cave No. 7, East District. This jade token is the key to unlocking the cave's seal. Don't lose it. If you lose it, you'll have to pay ten mid-grade spirit stones."

Su Xiaoyuan took the jade token and followed the directions to find the cave.

Although it is called a cave, it is actually a narrow space carved out of the mountain, about ten feet square, with rough rock walls and a futon on the ground.

There is a simple sealing formation at the entrance of the cave, which can isolate external sounds and spying, and can also block external interference to a certain extent.

Of course, higher-level cave dwellings will have natural sources of spiritual energy, and even small spiritual veins passing through them, which can make cultivation twice as effective.

These inferior cave dwellings offer almost no additional benefits beyond shelter from the wind and rain and protection of privacy.

Su Xiaoyuan didn't care about this.

He entered the cave and sat down cross-legged on the prayer mat.

The opening behind him slowly closed under the control of the jade tablet, and the sealing formation was activated, separating the inside from the outside into two worlds.

Su Xiaoyuan didn't rush to start cultivating. He closed his eyes, first letting his breathing gradually calm down, suppressing the surging emotions in his mind little by little.

After calming down, he took out the jade bottle that Zhang Yao had given him from his pocket and poured out a mid-grade Qi Gathering Pill.

The pill was small, entirely emerald green, with a soft sheen on its surface, and emitted a rich medicinal fragrance.

As the name suggests, this Qi Gathering Pill helps to gather spiritual energy and prevent it from leaking out, allowing the absorbed spiritual energy to be better converted into one's own reserves.

He first ate a few fasting pills, then put a Qi gathering pill into his mouth, and began to circulate his optimized Basic Qi Induction Technique.

This was his first cultivation practice after his spiritual roots were reshaped!

With just this one breath, his body suddenly shuddered.

With the Chaos Spiritual Root combined with the Qi-Guiding Technique after Tracing the Origin, the speed of Qi circulation is incredibly efficient!

Almost the instant the technique was activated, the surrounding spiritual energy seemed to be strongly attracted and surged towards him!

The spiritual energy inside the cave was quickly sucked out, and even the faint traces of earth vein spiritual energy seeping out from the cracks in the rock walls were pulled out by this powerful suction!

This is partly due to the top-tier aptitude of the Chaos Spiritual Root!

It has an extremely high affinity for all kinds of spiritual energy in the world, without any rejection or hindrance, just like a huge container with all doors open, welcoming all who come.

On the other hand, it is thanks to the most original method of inducing qi that was obtained after tracing back to the source.

That is the purest and most direct way to communicate with heaven and earth.

The spiritual energy surged in from all 365 acupoints corresponding to the stars in the heavens!

A complete cycle was completed in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Su Xiaoyuan clearly felt that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth absorbed from the outside world completed a complete cycle in her meridians, and finally settled in her dantian, transforming into a wisp of incomparably pure chaotic spiritual energy.

It used to take him almost an hour to complete one cycle of his energy.

Now, it only takes less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Efficiency has increased by more than tenfold!

Su Xiaoyuan had no time to reflect. He closed his eyes and continued to circulate his cultivation technique, guiding the increasingly powerful torrent of spiritual energy to wash and settle through his meridians time and time again.

One cycle, two cycles.

Each operation brings a subtle, almost imperceptible improvement, and the feeling is absolutely wonderful.

However, this feeling did not last long.

He gradually realized that after the surrounding spiritual energy was completely drained, the flow of the Qi-guiding technique began to become sluggish.

The source has dried up.

When he fully activated the Qi-Inducing Technique, the speed at which he absorbed spiritual energy far exceeded the natural replenishment speed of this space. It was as if he had drained all the water from a well at once, and it would take time for groundwater to slowly seep out before it could be replenished.

Just as he was feeling he could not continue, he felt a slight tremor in his arms, and four strands of extremely pure spiritual energy surged into his body at the same time, instantly filling the gap in his spiritual energy absorption.

It's those four mid-grade spirit stones!

Su Xiaoyuan was shocked!

Normally, spirit stones need to be placed at the acupoints at the ends of the body for absorption through direct contact.

For example, you can hold it in your palm or step on it, and use specific methods to guide the spiritual energy sealed in the spiritual stone out and then into your meridians.

This is common knowledge in the cultivation world; almost all cultivators in the Qi Refining stage do this.

The ability to absorb the spiritual energy inside a spirit stone directly into the body without contact or guidance is something only high-level cultivators can do.

Because the surface of the spirit stone has a naturally formed outer layer of stone skin, which is used to seal the pure spiritual energy inside and prevent it from dissipating.

But he's only at the third level of Qi Refining!

Su Xiaoyuan didn't have time to think about the reasons in detail.

The spiritual energy was continuously flowing into his body, like a flood that had found an outlet, rushing and roaring along his meridians.

He could only instinctively circulate the Qi-guiding technique, guiding the four powerful streams of spiritual energy to flow along the predetermined route, refining, settling, and returning them to his dantian step by step.

Soon, he entered a state of complete absorption in the world around him.

There is no concept of time, no perception of space, and no physical boundaries.

Only when the spiritual energy is flowing can the dantian be filled, solidified, and expanded little by little.

Mid-grade spirit stones contain pure and abundant spiritual energy. According to the normal absorption rate of a Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator, one mid-grade spirit stone can support about a week's worth of cultivation.

Four mid-grade spirit stones are enough to absorb for more than twenty days.

Su Xiaoyuan had already overestimated the effectiveness of the optimized Qi-inducing technique.

But he forgot to take into account the reshaped Chaos Spiritual Root!

The combined effect of the two is terrifying.

After only two days, on the third day near dusk, the four mid-grade spirit stones exhausted their spiritual energy and turned into stubborn rocks.

If there were other embellishments, people would be quite surprised to see this scene.

The four mid-grade spirit stones were completely absorbed in less than three days!

This speed is simply astonishing.

Su Xiaoyuan also noticed the depletion of spirit stones.

However, he was at a crucial juncture in his practice, and the circulation of his internal energy had already become a kind of inertia.

The Chaos Spiritual Root is like a water pump running at full power, continuously drawing upon all available spiritual energy from its surroundings.

He had already absorbed all the spiritual energy within the cave.

As a result, the range of spiritual energy absorbed by the Chaos Spiritual Root is expanding.

Gradually, his body seemed to become the center of a vortex.

The surrounding spiritual energy was converging in this direction at a slow but steady pace.

And this vortex of spiritual energy continues to expand.

The cave dwelling he was in was built on an abandoned spiritual vein mine. Because of this, the spiritual energy here was more concentrated than in other places, so many cave dwellings were built and opened up against the mountain.

These cave dwellings are not far apart; some are even only a few feet apart.

There are three cave dwellings next to Su Xiaoyuan, two of which are deeper and have spirit-gathering arrays.

At this moment, in a cave northwest of Su Xiaoyuan, Guo Zhanyuan, who was at the fifth level of Qi Refining, was sitting cross-legged in the center of the Spirit Gathering Array, cultivating.