Ascending from the mortal realm to become an immortal begins with taking charge of a grotto-heaven.

Three days later, at dusk.

Zhang Li returned to the Crescent Lake Spirit Site. After seeing off Li He and Wang Mu, who had come to report on the situation, he turned around and went back to the small courtyard in the center of the lake.

Although the trip was fraught with difficulties and I nearly died, the gains were absolutely substantial.

After washing away his fatigue and having a big meal, he finally took out the jade box, two storage bags, and a jade slip.

During the few days that the Azure Python was waiting for Qin Mu to recover from his injuries, Zhang Li had already taken the time to treat it. Apart from the demon core being destroyed, the other valuable parts were preserved quite well, especially its scales, which were extremely intact.

After sending Qin Mu back to Xiaohuan Mountain, Qin Mu used a secret technique that could cleanse and refine spiritual roots to exchange for four Marrow Cleansing Fruits from Zhang Li.

This secret method is called "Root Shaping Method". It can change one's spiritual root aptitude after birth. The cultivator who created this secret method believes that if a person's cultivation aptitude is a bowl of water, then for a cultivator with a single heavenly spiritual root, it is a whole bowl of water divided into one attribute.

For cultivators with multiple spiritual roots, the various attributes are divided into several categories, clearly defined, but often with a primary and secondary distinction.

This is a common consensus in the cultivation world. For example, Zhang Li has a mixed spiritual root of four elements, with fire being the highest. Therefore, the magical power formed by cultivating the "Azure Profound Breathing Technique" is fire-attributed.

The core of the "Root Shaping Method" is to increase the proportion of a certain attribute in the spiritual root after birth, thereby encroaching on the share of other attributes. Although it cannot turn four spiritual roots into three spiritual roots, or three spiritual roots into two spiritual roots, and cannot completely erase the source of other spiritual roots in the body, it can squeeze and reduce the proportion of other attributes, allowing the main spiritual root to occupy more water, thereby accelerating the cultivation speed.

Of course, while the secret techniques are valuable, there are conditions for their use.

This secret technique works best on women who will menstruate in the future and boys who have not yet experienced nocturnal emissions.

Once you are over twenty years old, the effect will be reduced, and the effect will become worse with age. After losing your original Yin and Yang, it will have no effect at all.

He was over twenty years old, but his virility was still intact. Although the effect was somewhat diminished, it still had some effect. As for how effective it was, it depended on his appearance.

Zhang Li weighed the jade slip in his hand, lost in thought. No matter how you looked at it, exchanging four Marrow Cleansing Fruits for this secret technique to cleanse one's spiritual roots was a worthwhile trade.

However, there was another matter that needed to be done: collecting the spiritual herbs needed to cultivate this secret technique. The Marrow Cleansing Fruit was one of the three main ingredients, and there were more than forty auxiliary herbs in addition to the other two main ingredients, more than ten of which were second-tier spiritual herbs.

"It seems necessary to make another deal with Su Qinghe."

A thought flashed through Zhang Li's mind.

However, this matter can be put on hold for now. I can just go to Yunyu Immortal City and meet with Su Qinghe when I have some free time.

After thinking it through, Zhang Li picked up the storage bag he had obtained from Zhou Xuan, quickly removed the remaining magical imprints from it, and emptied out all the contents.

As a rogue cultivator in the late stage of Qi Refining, Zhou Xuan had quite a few items in his storage bag.

Two mid-grade magic artifacts, a cyan magic sword and a golden shield. The former's attributes were incompatible with his, or it had been damaged after being contaminated with snake venom.

Zhang Li didn't plan to keep these two magical artifacts; he could dispose of them at some point. In addition, there were over four hundred spirit stones, four bottles of common pills that he could keep for future use, as well as some talismans and other materials.

He carefully sorted through the items, setting aside the useless miscellaneous materials and keeping the pills and talismans that he could use separately. After finishing the inventory, a look of satisfaction flashed across his eyes.

This storage bag is practically free; as long as it yields any benefits, it's a worthwhile investment.

After checking Zhou Xuan's storage bag, Zhang Li turned his attention to the jade box. The restrictions on the jade box were quite troublesome, and even after so much time, they could not be broken in a short time.

"It seems necessary to resort to some measures."

Zhang Li whispered something and put the jade box away for the time being.

Then he reached out and picked up the dusty storage bag. After a cultivator successfully establishes his foundation, he can open his sea of ​​consciousness and generate divine sense, and then he can imprint his divine sense on his personal items.

The higher the cultivation level, the stronger the mark. Even cultivators of the same level would have to put in a lot of effort to remove it.

Fortunately, the owner of this storage bag had been dead for countless years, and the remaining divine imprint on it was already very weak. Under Zhang Li's continuous erosion, it had completely dissolved.

Without the binding of its original owner's divine sense imprint, this second-tier storage bag became completely ownerless.

After clearing the divine sense imprint, Zhang Li couldn't wait to open the dusty storage bag.

A storage space several tens of feet wide appeared before his eyes, far exceeding the size of a first-grade high-quality storage bag.

"It really is a Tier 2 storage bag!"

Zhang Li's eyes lit up; the storage bag itself was a windfall.

Not to mention, the storage bag was also filled with a large number of items.

Thanks to the high quality of the storage bag, most of the items inside were preserved even though it had not been refined by magic for a long time.

Zhang Li glanced through it for a moment and saw spirit stones, pills, talismans, jade slips, spiritual materials, and a broken spiritual artifact...

"It seems this Foundation Establishment senior isn't having an easy time either!"

The storage bag contained a wide variety of items, but nothing particularly rare.

This is a common problem among cultivators. Unless they come from a distinguished family, have outstanding talent, or possess a skill that can supplement their cultivation, whether they are cultivators from a sect or independent cultivators, they will always live a life of financial hardship.

Moreover, this Foundation Establishment senior has also studied a beast taming technique as a secondary skill, which requires even more resources.

Therefore, it's not without reason that alchemy, array formation, talisman, and artifact are the four most prominent fields of study. In terms of earning power alone, these four are in a league of their own.

However, Zhang Li only sighed slightly. He wouldn't mind getting resources for free, even if it was just one spirit stone.

The first thing to be counted is the spirit stones.

Zhang Li found about three hundred spirit stones in his storage bag, ten of which were mid-grade spirit stones.

Yes, the spirit stones used in daily transactions by cultivators are also graded. The most commonly used are low-grade spirit stones, followed by mid-grade and high-grade spirit stones. There is also a top-grade spirit stone called spirit crystal.

Spirit crystals are extremely rare; even Golden Core cultivators have never been able to possess one.

Apart from the Spirit Crystal, which Zhang Li is unclear about, the other three grades of spirit stones are converted between each other using a hundred-unit conversion system.

Of course, this is just the official price. When it comes to the actual implementation, various factors need to be considered. For example, in resource-rich areas, such as within sects, the conversion will naturally be based on a hundred.

In some remote and desolate places, a mid-grade spirit stone can be exchanged for at least 120 to 130 low-grade spirit stones, and the exchange rate for a high-grade spirit stone can double.

After all, the higher the grade of the spirit stone, the rarer it is, just like elixirs. This is a very simple and realistic principle.