All the heavens begin with the mind-monkey.

Zheng Zha picked up a rotten peach. "I'll begin."

Then he ate them one by one, one, two, three...

Not long after, Zheng Zha stopped, then looked troubled and stood there as if he was thinking about something.

This made everyone a little anxious. Li Xiaoyi wanted to ask something, but Zheng Zha continued eating.

Within a minute or two, he had swallowed all the rotten peaches, then sat down to meditate and silently circulate his qi.

Chu Xuan and the others could even see Zheng Zha assume a posture with his five hearts facing the sky. Immediately afterward, wisps of hot air emerged from his head and shoulders, creating a hazy, smoky effect, much like the way martial arts masters in novels and movies practice their internal energy.

This scene was quite exciting for everyone. Although Monkey King had eaten the rotten peach before, he hadn't made such a big move as Zheng Zha, who was either deep in thought or meditating. Yet, after eating it, his true energy had improved so much.

Could it be that Zheng Zha's method of meditation and cultivation is more effective?

They didn't think Zheng Zha's cultivation achievements could compare to those of the Monkey King, but they felt that Zheng Zha's serious and earnest cultivation might yield even better results than everyone imagined.

If his true qi and internal strength cultivation can also make great progress, then for everyone, exchanging for internal strength cultivation and then exchanging for some rare and precious herbs to consume might be the right way to exchange.

Half an hour later, Zheng Zha slowly stood up from the ground, but his expression seemed to carry three parts doubt, three parts disbelief, and four parts an unreadable meaning.

Li Xiaoyi couldn't hold back any longer and stepped forward to ask, "Brother Zheng Zha, how is it? Is your internal energy cultivation progressing smoothly? How much has your internal strength increased?"

Upon hearing Li Xiaoyi's question, Zheng Zha pondered for a moment, unsure how to respond.

Chu Xuan spoke up from the side, "If you don't know how to say it, you can tell me how you feel."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zha said, "Actually, it's not that I don't know how to say it, I was just a little emotional just now. Rotten peach, it truly lives up to its reputation as a spiritual fruit that can only be exchanged for 100 reward points!"

"I felt that after eating those rotten peaches, a powerful spiritual energy, which I can call spiritual energy, immediately spread through my body, and I could clearly feel that spiritual energy."

"Compared to the internal energy I obtained from the main god, it needs to be circulated through the body little by little through eating and cultivation, and then refined bit by bit from various parts of the body to condense into a form."

"And as long as my body can absorb this spiritual energy, it can be transformed into internal energy of the same quality in an instant. I even feel that the quality of that spiritual energy may be higher than the internal energy that I have painstakingly cultivated or exchanged from the main god!"

"You know what? If I could refine all that spiritual energy at once, the internal energy I would gain might be even stronger than the internal energy that comes with a high-level qi technique that you have to exchange for a B-level side quest from the main god!"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaoyi said happily, "Brother Zheng Zha, isn't this a good thing?"

Hearing Li Xiaoyi's words, Zheng Zha said with a wry smile, "It's a good thing, but unfortunately, I might not be able to enjoy it."

He hesitated for a long time before coming up with this word.

"What do you mean by 'not worthy of enjoying it'?" Li Xiaoyi was still somewhat puzzled.

Chu Xuan then said from the side, "What you just said implies that if you could convert that spiritual energy, you would gain many benefits. In other words, it seems you cannot convert that spiritual energy into your own internal energy."

Hearing Chu Xuan pinpoint his thoughts so accurately, Zheng Zha nodded with a wry smile and said, "That's right. At first, I was quite excited. After eating a rotten peach, spiritual energy surged within me. I even thought I was about to rise to power, but unexpectedly, the concentration of that spiritual energy in my body dropped at an extremely rapid pace. I didn't even have time to use my inner energy to contact it; I think the concentration had already dropped by more than half..."

"At the time, I thought I was just standing there in a daze and wasted a rotten peach, so I immediately ate all the remaining rotten peaches, sat down to meditate, and circulated my internal energy, wanting to take advantage of the peak spiritual energy concentration to cultivate quickly."

"And the result?" Zhan Lan asked from the side.

Zheng Zha continued, "Well... just as I was about to circulate my internal energy to complete the Small Heavenly Circuit, do you know how long it takes me to circulate my internal energy for one cycle? It takes about a day, or 24 hours. And there's always the possibility of getting a side stitch, so I have to put my internal energy back on track, which takes even longer."

"Generally speaking, the internal energy I exchanged from the Main God, even after painstakingly circulating it through my body once, might only increase by less than one-thousandth, or even one-ten-thousandth, of my original internal energy, or even less. In other words, even after a year of hard work, my internal energy growth might be very limited. So now you know why I basically don't cultivate internal energy in the Main God's space, right? That's the reason."

Zheng Zha paused here, seemingly realizing that he had gone off-topic, and then brought the topic back on track.

He said, "In short, I started circulating my energy around the earth, trying to refine that spiritual energy. Do you know what happened? In about half an hour, the spiritual energy that had been surging within my body dissipated quickly, just like the first rotten peach I ate. It was almost gone in about half an hour, and I couldn't even refine that spiritual energy with my internal energy."

"After the two energies came into contact, they didn't refine each other like in the novels. Instead, they were as distinct as oil and water. In other words, after eating so many rotten peaches and practicing for half an hour, I felt that my internal energy hadn't increased at all. It was the same as it was at the beginning."

Li Xiaoyi stared wide-eyed, saying incredulously, "In that case, Brother Zheng Zha, wouldn't you have wasted over a dozen rotten peaches?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zha nodded with a wry smile. He said, "I saw Brother Monkey eat a rotten peach and his internal strength improved quickly. I thought I should be just as good, but I didn't expect to be so much worse. Perhaps this is the difference between innate beings and acquired beings like me."

"Of course, it can't be said that I gained nothing at all. I could feel that after I ate those rotten peaches, although most of the spiritual energy dissipated, a small portion of the spiritual energy actually merged into my body."

"If I continue to circulate the energy throughout my body for the next few days, I can also integrate that spiritual energy with my own internal energy to increase my internal strength. However, the effect will probably only be slightly better than the efficiency of circulating my internal energy and strengthening my internal power on my own."

Hearing Zheng Zha's words, Zhan Lan said with some regret, "It doesn't feel like the difference between innate and acquired beings anymore. You're like a deflated balloon, letting all that spiritual energy leak out in an instant!"

"So, it means we can't be like Monkey King, exchanging for cultivation techniques and spiritual fruits to cultivate our inner strength or even achieve immortality on our own. We can only try to exchange them from the main god?"