Raise a sword!

The time it took to refine the medicinal power of the Jade Blood Fruit was less than Jiang Peng had expected.

Jiang Peng originally thought that it would take several months to truly refine such a spiritual root, so he had already prepared to delay his trivial matters in the market.

Unexpectedly, only five days later, the effects of the medicine in his body had completely dissipated.

With a long, drawn-out breath, Jiang Peng slowly opened her eyes by the pool.

"Just considering the benefits to my cultivation, these five days of meditation are equivalent to more than a year of arduous training in the market!"

Jiang Peng was astonished to feel the unprecedentedly strong spiritual power within his body. At this moment, he had already silently traversed more than half of the journey to the fifth level of Qi Refining, and was not far from breaking through to the sixth level.

Jiang Peng had clearly only recently broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

"Only those with spiritual roots of heaven and earth could achieve such a level of cultivation improvement."

Cultivation is not simply about absorbing spiritual energy to build up one's cultivation level; forcing growth is never advisable.

This is especially true for Qi Refining cultivators.

In ancient times, cultivators in the Qi Refining stage were merely in the initial stage of embarking on the path to immortality, and could not even be considered proper cultivators.

After all, Qi Refining cultivators cannot ascend to the heavens or descend to the earth, nor can they summon wind and rain; they merely utilize spiritual power in a rudimentary way.

Only when one reaches the Foundation Establishment stage can one be considered to have truly embarked on the path of cultivation.

As his cultivation and experience grew, Jiang Peng gradually understood why so many of the true disciples of the Cangshan Sect who were at the peak of Qi Refining chose to waste several years at that level.

This is not only due to a lack of Foundation Establishment Pills, but also because of their own choices.

Taking a few steps slower during the Qi-refining period to solidify the foundation can only bring benefits and no harm.

Therefore, there are very few methods to suddenly increase one's cultivation level by a large margin during the Qi Refining stage.

Because geniuses don't need this method; a little over ten years is enough to cultivate to the peak of Qi Refining, and they still have plenty of time to prepare for Foundation Establishment before they turn sixty.

Those who can suddenly improve their cultivation level mostly follow unorthodox paths, which are not tolerated by righteous cultivators.

"I started cultivating late, and my spiritual root is only of the middle grade. The two years of arduous cultivation I saved this time will give me more time to cultivate in the future."

The improvement in her cultivation level was just a pleasant surprise. After stabilizing her condition, Jiang Peng stopped thinking about it.

The true effect of the Blood Fruit is to cleanse the meridians and marrow.

Jiang Peng began to carefully examine the changes that had occurred in her body.

At first glance, it seems no different, and nothing like the body expelling dirt or anything like that did happen.

But soon, Jiang Peng gradually realized that something was wrong.

"My senses seem to have become more acute."

Jiang Peng noticed that her eyesight seemed to have improved.

Perhaps because the cave was too dark, he did not notice anything unusual at first. It was only after a tiny flying insect of unknown species flew past his eyes and he saw it clearly that Jiang Peng suddenly realized the change in his vision.

To confirm, Jiang Peng released a wisp of spiritual fire from her fingertips.

The moment the spirit fire illuminated the grotto, Jiang Peng felt a momentary dizziness.

With his vision fully restored, he fell into a stunned silence.

He saw the dust billowing in the air, following some mysterious trajectory, before finally being dissolved and purified.

At first, Jiang Peng couldn't understand it.

But gradually, when he discovered that those mysterious trajectories all originated from the Jade Blood Fruit Tree in the middle of the pool, Jiang Peng finally realized something.

"It's spiritual energy." He was startled.

I've always heard that geniuses can sense changes in the spiritual energy of the world even before they've cultivated.

This demonstrates superior talent.

In the past, when Jiang Peng heard such claims, she thought they were just tall tales and secretly felt envious.

After all, Jiang Peng himself only had the ability to judge the strength of spiritual energy after cultivating the technique given to him by Elder Hao and successfully entering the Qi Refining Realm.

As for changes in spiritual energy, unless there is a huge shift, Jiang Peng would hardly be able to detect them.

He then carefully observed himself for a moment.

Jiang Peng gradually realized that it wasn't just his eyesight that had improved, but that all five of his senses had been enhanced.

He could hear the sounds of tiny insects moving around in the corners of the cave.

You can smell a subtle fruity aroma in the fragrance of the blood-red fruit tree that you couldn't detect before.

"It's just because the eyes perceive things most directly that I have the feeling of 'seeing' the trajectory of spiritual energy. In reality, it's the resonance of the five senses that allowed me to touch a corner of what is called genius."

All the mysteries ultimately come down to the fundamentals.

Jiang Peng finally confirmed that her physical strength had improved, and her spiritual root aptitude had also improved.

Originally made of copper and iron, his body, tempered by the "White Ape Strength" and "Dragon and Tiger Strength," has increased in both strength and agility by about 30%.

This growth is enormous.

Even if she were to return to five days ago, and the white ape were still at its peak, Jiang Peng would be confident that she could fight it head-on.

Instead of struggling to maneuver within the formation as before.

In addition to the growth of her physical body, Jiang Peng also keenly discovered that not only had her perception increased, but she also seemed to have become more attuned to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

The meridians in the body have been widened, and the spiritual energy in the dantian and dantian has increased significantly.

Ultimately, Jiang Peng realized that her spiritual root had been improved.

"Not quite a top-grade spiritual root yet." Jiang Peng sensed every subtle change in her body.

He had heard Liu Qinghe recount his experiences during cultivation, and thus knew some of the characteristics of a genius with a superior spiritual root.

For example, a person with a superior spiritual root will have the spiritual energy of heaven and earth constantly gathering around them, passively increasing their cultivation level, even if they do not cultivate by absorbing qi.

Jiang Peng did not realize that she was experiencing a similar situation.

"Although it's not quite a top-grade spiritual root, I can vaguely see the traces of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. In addition, I am still at the fifth level of Qi Refining, but my spiritual power is much more surging than before... I think I'm not far from a true top-grade spiritual root."

This was Jiang Peng's biggest gain this time.

The improvement of his spiritual root will allow him to progress faster and more steadily in his future cultivation, and will greatly increase his chances of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

After reviewing his own improvements, Jiang Peng explored the grotto again, but unfortunately found nothing else.

Finally, when he left the cave, he set up some camouflage on site, such as sealing the entrance with boulders and moving vines to cover it.

In this way, it won't be long before the traces of the grottoes here are completely covered up.

Since we can't move the Bloodfruit Tree, we should try our best to keep it hidden from others.

After doing all this, Jiang Peng headed back to the market town in the direction she had come from.

Nothing unexpected happened on the way back, but Jiang Peng encountered groups of three to five monsters more than once along the way.

Although they were all low-level demonic beasts, they had not even developed intelligence and only possessed some bloodline.

However, the density of the monsters and the way they appeared in groups gave Jiang Peng a sense of foreboding.

"Something's not right, this is already considered a small-scale beast tide!"