Cultivation begins with harvest.

Chapter 252 On Cultivation Techniques

It turns out to be a cultivation technique involving corpse dissolution and wood implantation, and soul forging of a sword. It's suitable for spiritual cultivation, but to establish a foundation, one needs to cultivate divine consciousness at the Qi Refining stage? To cultivate sword intent in the sword path, to cultivate a fixed wood element Dao rhythm within the Five Elements—besides all these conditions, a fixed spiritual root of heaven and earth is also required, which can be used to implant oneself in spiritual wood after corpse dissolution for cultivation. It's not a pure Qi Refining technique.

Qi cultivators, spiritual cultivators, and mystical cultivators each have their own paths that lead to higher realms. For Qi cultivators, the other two paths are secondary cultivations, and it is also possible to cultivate them separately. The "Azure Origin Wandering in the Netherworld Sword Technique" is a very pure spiritual cultivation technique. However, the various conditions made Chen Guang hesitate because the prerequisites were too high. After taking a closer look, he realized that it was a technique from the Primordial Era.

In ancient times, the concepts of sects and schools had not yet been established. The master-disciple relationship was often one-on-one, with very high thresholds. Usually, only Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivators would accept disciples and teach only one disciple. Although the conditions were difficult, they were possible. Without the protection of a high-level cultivator, it was probably unthinkable.

After taking a closer look, Chen Guang realized that the "Qingyuan Youming Yixu Sword Manual" consisted of eight volumes, which made him thoughtful. He then quickly looked at several other cultivation techniques and found that they were from ancient or primordial times, often consisting of eight or nine volumes. He immediately understood that these techniques were likely incomplete and too ancient. Even if they were not incomplete, they would not be suitable for cultivation in the present day, unless a high-level cultivator personally helped to modify the techniques and assist in cultivation.

Spiritual cultivation is the most peculiar and difficult. It requires visualization diagrams to strengthen and refine the soul, as well as separate techniques to guide the true forging of the spirit. Chen Guang only had visualization diagrams and simply strengthened his soul. Although his realm could be improved, when he really encountered a situation where the spirit needed to play a role, he could only resort to brute force, without any skills or adaptability.

It's not just spiritual cultivation; even Qi cultivators, if they obtain rare and precious materials, can still advance to the late stage of Qi cultivation without any cultivation techniques. However, without these techniques, their magical power cannot be guided or utilized, making them merely empty shells with magical power.

Although lacking in spiritual cultivation techniques, the *Qingyuan Youming Yixu Sword Art* was beyond Chen Guang's reach. Understanding this, Chen Guang felt much more relaxed. He would continue on his journey as a way to broaden his horizons. He would learn about the *Juxing Dinghuo Maoxiang Shen*, a profound cultivation technique requiring the plucking of stars from the heavens; the *Jin Gou Fa*, which surprised him with its ability to awaken and reincarnate; the *Jiuyou Yingmo Jue*, which resembled a heretical technique; and the *Dalu Leiyin Forbidden Technique*, imbued with deep killing intent.

Each one is more exaggerated and more bizarre than the last, and the cultivation conditions are all strange and difficult.

When Chen Guang stopped, he had already passed six or seven antique shelves before he came across a much more normal-looking cultivation method.

The ancient cultivation technique "Starry Sky Reflecting the Sea Technique" consists of seven volumes. It grants cultivators more magical power than normal cultivators. At the second level of Qi Refining, one can obtain one pot of magical power, and at the seventh level, one can obtain thirty pots of magical power, equivalent to the magical power of a normal eighth level of Qi Refining. Although one still needs to reach the completion of Qi Refining to obtain one hundred and eight pots of magical power, for Qi Refining cultivators who only experience quantitative changes without qualitative changes, having more magical power is already considered a leap forward.

The accompanying spell [Starry Sea Well Diagram] can store three times its own mana and can also directly convert stellar power into mana, making it difficult to run out of mana. However, it is difficult to cultivate, requiring a large amount of stellar power and occupying many acupoints, making it impossible to cultivate spiritual cultivation or mystical cultivation techniques. The choice of skills is also relatively limited. To attempt to enter the Foundation Establishment stage, one also needs Star Fiend. It is a very pure Qi cultivation technique.

The ancient cultivation technique, "The Great Method of the Earth Mother's Origin," consists of seven volumes. From the very beginning, it can cultivate different Earthly Masters from the spiritual soil: one each for the early, middle, and late stages of Qi Refining. The type of spiritual soil produces different Earthly Masters. From rare spiritual soil, it can cultivate the "Myriad Transformation Earthly Master," which is more focused on defense and transforming matter for its own use; from jade sand, it can cultivate the "Pure Profound Earthly Master," assisting in comprehension and purifying spiritual energy.

The accompanying spell [Di Mai Xuan] allows one to perceive vague Daoist principles from the earth; touching the earth brings various blessings.

However, the requirements for cultivation are quite high. At the very least, one must have pseudo-A-grade aptitude. To enter the Foundation Establishment stage, one needs to be assisted by five types of true Qi with the earth element corresponding to the five elements, which is very costly.

Modern cultivation methods are much simpler and less exaggerated. They also require less external aids and are not significantly different from other methods. The most noticeable differences begin with the accompanying spells. Even so, most of them are relatively moderate, and correspondingly, the requirements for Foundation Establishment are lower.

The foundation-building stage, regardless of the past or present, or any unorthodox or heretical method, requires at least three basic things: a cultivator with perfect magical power, a clear and transparent body, and an understanding of the Dao. These three points are not easy to achieve. However, the difference is that ancient cultivation methods also require the assistance of some tricky spiritual objects. If one fails, one can still build a foundation, but subsequent cultivation methods will be impossible to practice because the corresponding Dao foundation will not be formed.

The real difference in cultivation methods begins with Foundation Building. Foundation Building lays the foundation for the Great Dao, and all development and changes start from this point. The Dao Foundation will also grow and transform, but if it doesn't, there's nothing to talk about afterwards.

Modern cultivation methods have few special characteristics before foundation building, so whatever attribute one prefers, one can use a single true qi of that attribute to meet the foundation requirements. The "Changming Acupuncture Technique" requires true qi of the Yin-Cold attribute, and the "Purple Qi Rising Sun Technique" requires true qi of the Ziwei Zhongtian attribute. They have lost their special characteristics, but in return, they have a simpler breakthrough difficulty.

Ancient cultivation methods weren't entirely devoid of simple foundation-building techniques, and modern methods aren't always as simple as a single true foundation-building technique; the only difference is the ratio between the two. However, cultivation methods that have survived for hundreds of thousands of years mostly possess unique characteristics.

Those common and mediocre works have modern alternatives and are of very low value. They should be included in the collection, but they are not stored in the Stone Pavilion.

After all, there are contemporary works like "The Azure Sky Record," which consists of seven volumes. It requires collecting traces of the universe from the Nine Heavens for cultivation. The accompanying spell, "Heavenly Ladder," can directly communicate with or even enter the Nine Heavens. One needs to be in the Nine Heavens to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage.

There is also "Admonition Under the Stele of Youdao Zhuangyan Temple", which is even more mysterious and has no separate volumes. Its accompanying spell, "Compassionate Secret Cave", has the strange ability to make people unable to sense the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Cultivators need to cultivate the extremely rare "Heavenly Qi" among human qi, and they need more than ten kinds of human qi to cultivate successfully, including even mortal qi.

As for the other types of popularity, the [Elegant Aura], [Satire Aura], and [Outstanding Aura] that Chen Guang knew were extremely difficult to obtain. His original self was already a scholar, which was considered quite good, but he was still far from obtaining these three types of popularity. Only those outstanding individuals who achieved the highest rank in the imperial examinations before the age of thirty could potentially cultivate them, and the difficulty of doing so is unimaginable. Moreover, the characteristic of popularity is that the more people gather together, the richer it becomes. The amount of Outstanding Aura that can be extracted from such a scholar is extremely rare. Extracting even a little too much will cause the other person to run out of talent, which is a practice strictly prohibited by the sect.

There are also those whose popularity I've never even heard of. Such techniques leave a deep impression, but they don't inspire me to cultivate them.

Its entry into the Foundation Establishment stage is even more vague, only mentioning "returning from the Heavenly Tribulation and the fame of the Ten Thousand Banquets," leaving Chen Guang completely baffled. In Chen Guang's view, its uniqueness is comparable to that of ancient and primordial cultivation techniques.

There's not much point in considering cultivation methods from ancient times; they're too demanding, too complex, and not necessarily complete. Although they all have eight or nine volumes, they're all difficult to cultivate. Only the Crimson Heart Mantra is relatively simple. I'll start by looking at ancient cultivation methods. Ancient times aren't that far removed from the present, and the proportion of methods from outdated eras is small. There might be some that I can cultivate.

Chen Guang stopped reading. The further he went in the stone building, the closer he got to the new era. He had already seen the first-level technique of the "Changming Acupuncture Technique". This was not to belittle the "Changming Acupuncture Technique", but rather to review it. According to the Qingheng Sect's classification, the "Changming Acupuncture Technique" only had four volumes, and the fourth volume was still relatively vague and immature. The most valuable one was the secret technique "Qi Seeking Truth", which used the cold breath of the mountain range to comprehend the Daoist charm of the wind and snow path under the Yin-Cold category.

But this is the Scripture Hall, the culmination of the sect's accumulated knowledge. It's one thing that Chen Guang had no chance to enter, but the cultivation methods in the Xingfeng Market's Scripture Pavilion were only at the level of "Purple Qi Rising Sun Technique" and "Long Night Qi Acupoint Technique," so he naturally wouldn't look down on them. But once he arrived here, there was no reason not to look for better cultivation methods.