Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Improving Spiritual Root Aptitude

"Each spiritual root has twenty-one strands of spiritual essence... So, all five of my spiritual roots are actually of the middle grade?"

As Wu Fan felt the twelve strands of spiritual energy suddenly appear within his body, his joy was palpable, and even his voice trembled slightly.

All mortals in the world possess the five elements as their origin, but very few are able to cultivate spiritual roots.

Only when a child reaches the age of nine will the five elements within their body manifest their spiritual roots.

Some people can only manifest one or two of the five elements, while others can manifest all five elements.

However, the quality of a spiritual root is not determined by its quantity; the key is the amount of spiritual essence contained within a single spiritual root.

Spiritual roots are divided into six grades: inferior, low, medium, high, earth, and heaven.

One to ten strands of spiritual energy are considered inferior, eleven to twenty strands are considered low-grade, and so on. Fifty-one to sixty strands represent a rare and precious spiritual root, a rare find even in a hundred years.

Unfortunately, since ancient times, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth has become increasingly scarce, making it difficult for people to not only cultivate the Great Dao, but also to cultivate multiple spiritual roots at the same time.

The resources required are too terrifying, so nowadays cultivators choose to specialize in the spiritual root with the strongest spiritual energy in their bodies.

Wu Fan originally manifested three spiritual roots, with the fire attribute being the most abundant, but it only had nine strands, while the earth and wood attributes had only three and six strands respectively.

Later, he absorbed many of the five elements' origins, and except for the earth element, the spiritual roots and essence of the other elements all increased to nine strands.

But he never expected that this time he would leap to have twenty-one strands of each kind of spiritual root.

All of this is thanks to the Five Elements Beads within his body.

This treasure can not only greatly enhance his sensitivity to the spiritual energy of various attributes in the world, but also strengthen his control over the five elements magic and spiritual power.

Such an effect is comparable to the special constitutions recorded in ancient books, which can be described as defying the heavens.

And the fact that it can even improve spiritual root aptitude is an unheard-of wonder.

Wu Fan had been carefully collecting the power of the five elements, thinking that he could only raise his spiritual root to the lower grade at most. Unexpectedly, he directly stepped into the middle grade.

With the help of the Five Elements Pearl, he already had a cultivation foundation close to that of a low-grade spiritual root. Now, his aptitude has increased nearly threefold, and his hope of establishing his foundation in this life is no longer slim.

Thinking of this, Wu Fan could no longer suppress his emotions, and his eyes reddened.

He has suffered greatly these past few years, not daring to spend a single extra spirit stone, and even reluctant to buy the elixirs necessary for cultivation.

Now that his hardships have finally come to an end, he is undoubtedly much closer to his goal of reaching the third level of Qi Refining.

After calming down his turbulent emotions, Wu Fan got up and went to the medicine-making room.

Inside stood a large blue stone, which he often used to test the power of his spells.

He muttered incantations, his fingertips rapidly forming hand seals, and a fireball the size of a fist instantly materialized.

But the fireball didn't stop there; instead, it continued to be infused with spiritual energy until it swelled to the size of two fists. Only then did Wu Fan realize that he was losing control of it.

This was the limit of his ability to use fireballs.

Without further hesitation, he swung his hand and threw the fireball at the blue stone.

With a muffled thud, the bluestone, though not shattered, was scorched black.

Looking at the fireball spell whose power had increased dramatically, Wu Fan nodded in satisfaction, and then raised his hand to cast the Fire Screen spell, which should have been mastered only by those at the third level of Qi Refining.

In a short while, a barrier of flames condensed in front of him.

Although the barrier was still thin, it was much thicker than before when it was as thin as a cicada's wing.

It seems that the blessing of the Five Elements Beads not only made his cultivation progress advance by leaps and bounds, but also greatly amplified the power of the Five Elements spells.

In future battles against opponents of the same level, he will have the upper hand with just this one spell.

......

One year later.

In the secluded courtyard, Wu Fan, dressed in a blue robe, sat cross-legged in the center of the bedroom, his eyes closed.

The sparse spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the room was being drawn in by his cultivation technique, transforming into wisps of energy that slowly seeped into his body.

Over the past year, he has meticulously calculated the time for the medicinal power of the Qi-Inducing Pill to be refined and the time for the pill's toxins to be expelled, and has been taking the medicine and cultivating without interruption. Now he has reached the second level of Qi Refining.

He had been sitting quietly for nearly three hours, his whole body was soaked in sweat, and his robes were sticking to his skin.

Within the dantian, the originally gentle and flowing spiritual energy became turbulent under the influence of the cultivation technique, repeatedly impacting the barrier of the third level of Qi Refining.

Although there are no obvious obstacles in the Qi Refining stage, and one can break through as long as one has abundant spiritual power, the recoil from each impact still causes his blood and qi to surge, and his meridians to feel a series of stinging pains.

"Concentrate your mind and focus on one thing."

Wu Fan silently recited the key points of the mental cultivation method and immediately calmed his mind.

The spiritual energy within his dantian became increasingly condensed and began to circulate rapidly at an even faster pace.

He adjusted his breathing and guided his spiritual energy to circulate along the main meridian. The moment the twelfth cycle was completed, the barrier finally reached its limit and was completely broken open with a "pop".

With the obstruction gone, the spiritual energy in his dantian surged instantly, and the meridians along its path were also greatly expanded.

Once the spiritual energy has circulated completely through the meridians for a small cycle and then returned to the dantian, the originally misty spiritual energy has become several times more concentrated.

Wu Fan slowly opened his eyes, a flash of crimson light disappearing from them.

As he stood up and stretched, his bones cracked slightly, and spiritual energy circulated throughout his body.

"Qi Refining Level 3, accomplished."

The spiritual energy in this courtyard is barely up to the first-level standard, and it is still a bit short of the first-level low-grade spiritual vein of Qi Refining.

Fortunately, his own spiritual root had reached the middle grade, and with the help of pills, he finally broke through to the third level of Qi Refining within a year.

However, most of the prepaid annual rent for the shops has been used up during this period of cultivation with the aid of elixirs.

His monthly allowance of three low-grade spirit stones was simply not enough to support his cultivation for the next few months.

In the path of spiritual practice, "wealth, Dharma, companions, and place" are essential, with wealth being the most important.

Without sufficient resources for cultivation, even with a mid-grade spiritual root, achieving Foundation Establishment is as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Just like Wang Yan's younger brother, although he has joined the Lingjing Sect, he still needs his sister to provide him with cultivation supplies.

However, Wu Fan already had a plan in mind.

He spent ten years at Baidan Hall. For the first seven years, he paid to become an apprentice and learned the skills of identifying herbs, controlling fire and proportions, and refining pills. For the last three years, as an apprentice, he refined pills containing spiritual power, such as fasting pills and hemostatic pills, for the hall every month.

Now, he has completed his apprenticeship after ten years. In fact, he was already able to refine Qi-inducing pills more than a year ago, but at that time, the success rate was only over 40%, which was just enough to break even with a small profit.

Previously, his mind was entirely focused on breaking through to the third level of Qi Refining, so he didn't spend much energy studying it.

Now that I've been promoted, it's the perfect time to pick up alchemy again as a way to make money.

In any case, the contract with Baidantang is about to expire, and whether they continue to stay at the hall or start their own business, they can make a living this way.

Of course, staying at Bai Dan Tang as a formal alchemist is the best choice, but the hall requires that the success rate of the Qi-inducing pills of the cooperating alchemists be at least 50%.

Back then, relying on the Five Elements Insights that came with the Five Elements Bead before it was upgraded, he was able to stabilize the success rate of Qi-Inducing Pills at 40% by accurately controlling the fire and the proportion of medicinal materials when he first came into contact with them. At that time, he even attracted the attention of Master Liu of Baidan Hall.

Now that the Five Elements Pearl has been upgraded, his understanding and perception of the Five Elements far surpasses that of before, and the success rate of pill formation is certainly more than 40% of what it used to be.

With this in mind, Wu Fan decided to first purchase a few sets of materials for refining Qi-Inducing Pills, and then refine them individually to see what the success rate was like.

Having made up his mind, he turned and walked outside.

They hadn't gone far when they saw Niu Dazhuang walking towards them from not far from the other courtyard.

The other person spotted him immediately, their face lighting up with joy, and they called out loudly, "Brother Wu!"

Niu Dazhuang jogged up to him, then let out a soft "Eh," a knowing glint in his eyes. He quickly cupped his hands and said, "Congratulations, Brother Wu, on successfully advancing to the third level of Qi Refining! I knew that with your diligent cultivation, you would surely succeed!"

"I can't match your speed. You broke through to the third level of Qi Refining a few months ago."

Wu Fan joked with a smile, but a mix of emotions welled up inside him.

Niu Dazhuang has a low-grade spiritual root and no family support. It took him ten years of hard work to reach the third level of Qi Refining. If he didn't have the Five Elements Pearl to help him, he probably would have had to wait several more years to break through.

"Where is Angkor going?" Niu Dazhuang asked curiously.

"Oh, I'm planning to go out and buy some medicinal herbs."

Wu Fan responded, paused, and then added, "Our contract with Bai Dan Tang is about to expire, so we need to think about our livelihood in the future."

As he spoke, he looked at Niu Dazhuang, "Dazhuang, what about you? Are you really planning to marry into the Bai family?"