Cultivation begins with harvest.

It has been ten days since I last entered the noodle shop.

Inside the ice mist array, a new, largest pond was excavated, and all the white mist duckweed was transferred here. During this time, the white mist duckweed has multiplied into many offspring, extending outwards by three inches from the mother plant. This is a spiritual plant, and such a reproduction speed is truly astonishing.

Among all these offspring, only two parent plants have emerged. Only the white mist duckweed of the parent plants can be considered an independent spiritual plant, as the offspring will not grow any further.

So many white floating wisps gathered together, gradually emitting some visible white gas, which merged into the ice mist and disappeared, but involuntarily gave the ice mist a more lively feel, and the degree of mist drifting became more obvious.

This is the hidden benefit of the white mist duckweed.

Chen Guang teased the two ice-armored turtles with his fingers, and the turtles obediently followed his fingers, as if trying to please him.

Ten days of training had made these ice-armored turtles accustomed to Chen Guang's presence and to following the rules he had taught them. The remaining task was to continuously reinforce their understanding and ensure that these rules were firmly ingrained in their minds.

The seeds of the Concentration Flower and Frostweed, which had been delayed for so long, have finally all been planted.

There were a total of twenty Concentration Flowers. Nine Concentration Flowers were the previous number. After Chen Guang obtained the Black Void Serpent Belt, Zhong Qi gave him some more seeds, making a total of twenty Concentration Flowers.

There were quite a few Frost Grass seeds, about a hundred, which could help the yin-cold attribute spirit plants grow quickly. However, when Chen Guang used the Earth-Wood Interaction technique, he found that only about eighty of the seeds could grow normally. As he became more and more proficient in the Earth-Wood Interaction technique, he was able to detect the seeds.

Chen Guang's original intention was simply to observe the effect of the density of Frost Grass on other spiritual plants. However, he discovered that he had made some progress in his use of the Earth-Wood Interaction technique, but it was not a fundamental improvement and was not enough to cause any further changes in the introduction of this technique.

With this ability, Chen Guang tested all the seeds he had again and found that the seeds from the sect were of the highest quality, with almost 100% germinating. The next best were the seeds of the blood he shou wu he had received this time. Although it was said to be a quantity for one acre, only 70% of the seeds were intact.

Compared to Frostweed seeds, it was immediately apparent that Frostweed was a wild spiritual plant seed, possessing a natural quality that the seed-forming technique lacked.

The Blood Polygonum multiflorum didn't have this feeling; its germination rate couldn't even compare to that of wild spiritual plants. Clearly, its seed-condensing technique wasn't proficient enough, Chen Guang thought with disdain.

Everything was going well within the ice mist array. There were four ponds, one large and three small. The large one was filled with white mist duckweed, while the small ones were all filled with ice-tailed shrimp. Both were quite easy to raise. The white mist duckweed was a simple and pure spiritual plant that even the reward light cluster didn't describe in much detail. The ice-tailed shrimp originally had some risk of disease, but ever since Chen Guang used the Heavy Water Technique to initially condense a little bit of cold water spiritual liquid in the pond, none of the ice-tailed shrimp had died.

After just one session in the Cold Water Elixir, the Ice Tail Shrimp's discomfort and minor injuries will naturally begin to heal, at the cost of losing some of the Cold Water Elixir.

This wasn't much of a price to pay, and it was even within Chen Guang's expectations. This was one of the reasons for choosing the Ice Tail Shrimp. The Cold Water Spirit Liquid had a significant effect on spirit beasts and plants with the Yin and Cold attributes. The effect was more pronounced on spirit beasts of lower rank. Although it didn't have a universal effect, it was effective in most cases.

Chen Guang diligently cast the Heavy Water spell several times a day on the four ponds. By the time the Concentration Flower sprouted, some Cold Water Spirit Liquid would naturally accumulate at the bottom of the ponds.

"Little turtle, little turtle, it would be so nice if you were fire-type." After teasing the two ice-armored turtles one last time, he took out some monster meat pellets from the Black Void Serpent's belt and fed them to them.

This was Chen Guang's insatiable greed. If it were a fire-attribute spirit turtle, its blood could be used to nourish the Fire Blood Turtle Back Tree. But now, if the blood of an Ice Armor Turtle were poured on it, the three Fire Blood Turtle Back Trees would immediately die in front of Chen Guang.

Chen Guang only left the ice mist array after the ice-armored tortoise had eaten and drunk its fill and returned to its nest to sleep.

Five hundred catties of spirit soil were piled up in the courtyard. The winter on Purple Spirit Peak was not short, lasting for four months. There were still more than three months left. During this time, Chen Guang devoted all his energy to cultivation. Besides refining his magic power, there were many other things he could do.

The only things that cannot be started yet are alchemy and the cultivation of the Azure Flame.

Cultivating the Azure Flame is a very demanding task, requiring pure dedication. In contrast, secret technique cultivation does not require much talent; one only needs to gather the materials required by the technique to begin cultivation.

There are two paths to cultivating the Azure Flame Kui Flame. One path involves using the Kui Flame along with a large number of auxiliary spiritual items, which requires a one-time investment of tens of thousands of kilograms of spiritual rice.

Another method is to refine the [Azure Flame Pill]. This pill was created specifically for the Azure Flame. It can absorb the flame into the pill and greatly reduce its harmfulness. With the help of secret techniques, the flame can be easily absorbed into the liver and formally refined into the Azure Flame.

For others, the second method is not cost-effective.

Refining a pill with an extremely niche purpose is like a bottomless pit, whether you refine it yourself or ask someone else to do it. When alchemists refine a new pill, their unfamiliarity with it will affect the quantity and quality of the pills produced. Unless they are high-level alchemists, the success rate will not immediately rebound as they become more familiar with it. Instead, there is a considerable period of familiarization before the success rate slowly increases.

During this period, it is unclear what resources need to be invested to achieve a satisfactory success rate.

For Chen Guang, however, it meant being able to put some of the theories in the "Red Heart Scroll" into practice and truly make them his own. What did it matter if there were some losses along the way?

Losing some money now is actually building the first step on the road to success in alchemy.

It's certain that the consumption will be high. With less than three thousand catties of spirit rice left, Chen Guang naturally didn't want to start the furnace immediately. Starting the furnace would require continuous investment, and it couldn't be solved by selling some valuable assets now. It would be best to wait until he had a much better source of income before proceeding.

I haven't had the "Red Heart Scroll" for very long, and I haven't even fully grasped the theory yet, so there's no rush.

This winter, my main goals are to master the basics of formations and various spells.

The next morning, as the first rays of sunlight shone on the bright but not intense earth, Chen Guang sat cross-legged on the large rock in front of the door for the first time in a long while, holding his breath and concentrating. When the sunlight passed through Ziling Peak, the already short-lived purple aura of dawn within a thousand miles became even more intense and powerful.

Chen Guang did not hesitate to take in the first wisp of purple energy.

The purple energy, once absorbed into the body, was about to move on its own, but was affected by Chen Guang's magic power. Several acupoints were filled with magic power, emitting a peculiar attraction that drew the purple energy to obediently follow a fixed path. In this process, it was involuntarily influenced and absorbed by the pure spiritual energy, strand by strand, and continuously captured and integrated into the already weakened pure spiritual energy within the body.

Once the first step is completed, Chen Guang only needs a small amount of energy to operate and continue the process on its own, no longer requiring such focused control, which gives Chen Guang time to cultivate the "Purple Qi Rising to Brightness Technique".

Purple blossoms and green guide, success achieved!

Having spent an entire autumn comprehending the secrets, Chen Guang has finally completed his task. Once again, he can focus wholeheartedly on cultivating with the purple energy without worrying about the two types of true energy clashing within his body and causing a violent disturbance.

The pure and ethereal energy, almost transparent blue, now has a hint of vibrant purple. It has changed from its previous passive state to actively attacking and purifying the last vestiges of worldly energy within its body, that stubborn, deep-rooted part.

The time it takes to drink a cup of tea passes in the blink of an eye. The world becomes clear and the purple mist completely dissipates. Chen Guang finishes his cultivation with a feeling of physical and mental well-being. He examines his body internally and finds it completely clean. Only a trace of worldly energy remains in his bone marrow, which is now completely annihilated by the attack of the pure spiritual energy that still retains its purple essence.

A peculiar feeling spread throughout Chen Guang's body, his senses and connection with heaven and earth became clearer, and he even had the illusion that his entire body was free of any impurity.

"With all worldly desires completely eradicated, there are no more obstacles in the early stages of Qi cultivation."

Chen Guang understood immediately. At the same time, he checked the remaining pure spiritual energy and found that it was almost gone. Without the mundane energy, it would no longer disappear so violently. Instead, it continued to release its influence, which was being weakly absorbed by Chen Guang's body, transforming him into the acquired spiritual body [Transparent Body].

A clear and transparent body is one of the necessary prerequisites for Foundation Establishment. It can greatly improve the efficiency of a cultivator's absorption of spiritual energy and conversion of mana, and make the connection between the cultivator and the world clearer. It usually appears gradually after the eighth level of Qi Refining as the cultivator continues to progress. Those with poor aptitude need to reach the ninth level of Qi Refining to achieve this.

A cultivator's aptitude is not static. As cultivation progresses and reaches higher levels, the pure and powerful magical energy will naturally cleanse the body, washing away impurities. A clear and transparent body is one manifestation of this. However, the improvement in aptitude is much smaller, and there are only more obvious changes when advancing to a higher realm.

If Chen Guang can overcome the Foundation Establishment stage, he will be able to change from a weakling to a top-tier talent.

The worse the quality, the better the effect. It's like a piece of gold; it's much easier to go from 10% to 20% purity than to improve the purity of 90% gold by even a tiny bit.

Despite the arduous task ahead, Chen Guang'an remained calm, for there were still two complete streams of pure spiritual energy waiting within the Black Void Serpent Belt. He had originally planned to transform them into a transparent body at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, ideally at the fifth level of Qi Refining or even earlier.