On the path to immortality, I can see destiny.

"Nice to meet you."

Upon receiving a response, Zhao Fan nodded slightly.

"Brother Zhao, you go ahead with your work. We have other things to do, so we'll be leaving now."

Su Zixuan was also a little embarrassed, and quickly pulled her sister away.

Watching the two figures disappear into the distance, Zhao Fan chuckled softly, then headed straight for the library.

Half an hour later, Zhao Fan returned, this time bringing back several books, all from the first floor of the library.

These books aren't very useful, but you can read them when you're bored to learn more about the world of cultivation.

Seeing that it was getting late, Zhao Fan entered the cultivation room again.

……

The next day, before dawn, Zhao Fan came out of the cultivation room.

After emerging, Zhao Fan gazed at the moon in the sky and fell into deep thought.

For some reason, with the cultivation speed boost provided by the spirit rice porridge, he felt a faint pain in his dantian when he was cultivating to the end, and the spiritual energy he absorbed dissipated automatically after circulating through one cycle.

It's like a full water tank; no matter how much water you pour in, it won't make a difference.

This was the first time he had ever felt this way, and he felt somewhat surprised and uncertain.

He wanted to ask someone, but it was still dark, and it wouldn't be good to disturb others rashly.

So he could only look through the books he had borrowed during the day by the light-emitting stones embedded in the small pavilion in the courtyard.

They looked for two hours, until dawn broke, when there was a knock on the door.

Zhao Fan heard the knocking, then put away his books and got up to open the door.

Outside the door stood Su San, with three children beside him.

Of the three children, there were two boys and one girl, the oldest being no more than eleven or twelve years old.

The youngest girl looked to be only seven or eight years old.

At this moment, Su San was still holding a bowl of spirit rice porridge in her hands.

Zhao Fan was somewhat surprised to see Su San personally deliver the spirit rice porridge.

After all, he had read some folk tales, and those big masters in the families would never do the things that servants do.

"Fellow Daoist, please come in quickly."

Zhao Fan shook his head to suppress these strange thoughts, then immediately stepped aside to invite Su San and the others into the courtyard.

"Fellow Daoist Zhao, these are the three juniors I have brought here."

"Zichen, Zihuan, Ziyun, come and greet your master."

Su San put down the rice porridge and immediately spoke to the three children behind her.

Upon hearing this, the three children immediately stood in a row and knelt down to kowtow.

"Greetings, Master."

Zhao Fan had never experienced anything like this before and was a little unaccustomed to it, so he immediately stepped forward to help the three of them up.

"There's no need for that. I'm not much older than you, how could I possibly deserve the title of 'master'?"

"From now on, you can call me Brother Xian. I will teach you alchemy properly."

Seeing Zhao Fan's helpless expression, Su San couldn't help but chuckle.

"Then do as Fellow Daoist Zhao instructs."

After saying that, he took out another storage bag and looked at Zhao Fan.

"Fellow Daoist, here is the quantity of pills needed this month and the required medicinal materials. As long as you can gather them before the end of the month, it will be fine."

Zhao Fan nodded, put the storage bag away, and then asked about what had happened before.

"Fellow Daoist Su, this morning, while I was cultivating, for some reason, the spiritual energy I absorbed dissipated on its own, accompanied by a sharp pain in my dantian. Do you know why this is happening?"

Su San was about to leave when she heard Zhao Fan's words. She fell silent for a moment, pondered for a while, and then spoke with a light laugh.

"It's normal that you don't know about this, fellow Daoist."

"I presume you know that there are differences between spiritual roots?"

Zhao Fan nodded in response.

"Of course I know that. The number of spiritual roots ranges from one to five. The fewer the spiritual roots, the stronger the talent and blood."

"Does that fellow Daoist know why this definition is made?"

Su San continued to ask questions.

Zhao Fan was now at a loss. He gently shook his head and looked at Su San, waiting for her answer.

"There are two reasons. First, the more mixed the spiritual root, the more mixed the spiritual energy absorbed. However, each cultivator can only cultivate one type of cultivation technique. Therefore, in the same amount of time, a genius with a single-attribute spiritual root can absorb five types of spiritual energy, while a cultivator with five-attribute spiritual roots can absorb one type of spiritual energy from each attribute. So, in the same amount of time, others can cultivate five times faster than you."

"Secondly, there is a limit to the amount of spiritual energy that each cultivator can absorb each day. This is because the process of cultivation is also the process of expanding the dantian. Each cultivation session has a limit. After the dantian has expanded to its limit, it needs to be nurtured and stabilized with spiritual energy before it can continue to expand."

"In other words, once you absorb a certain amount of spiritual energy each day, you will reach the limit that your dantian can withstand. After that, you will not be able to store any more spiritual energy in your dantian."

"Therefore, comparatively speaking, the fewer spiritual roots one has, the greater the advantage."

"The reason you feel pain in your dantian is because you have reached your limit in absorbing spiritual energy. Don't worry, you can continue to cultivate tonight."

"Of course, all of this will be fine after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage. Once you reach the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage, you can expand your dantian to its limit."

"Once you establish your foundation, you can cleanse your marrow and stabilize your dantian. Even if you cultivate all day long, this situation will not occur."

Zhao Fan understood Su San's explanation clearly, and his worries gradually dissipated.

"Thank you for informing me, Fellow Daoist Su San."

Su San waved her hand gently.

"These are just basic common sense, fellow Daoist, no need to thank me. If there's nothing else, I'll head back now."

Zhao Fan nodded and immediately stood up to see him off.

Only the three little ones remained, standing to one side, whispering among themselves as they watched Zhao Fan's retreating figure.

"Isn't it a bit too impulsive for the patriarch to have us become his disciples? This Brother Zhao seems so unreliable."

The younger boy, Su Zihuan, said in a low voice.

Beside her, Su Ziyun nodded, her childish voice softly ringing out.

"I already know the answer to the question he asked."

"You two shut up. There must be a reason why Uncle asked us to learn from him. He will be our master from now on, so show some respect and don't talk nonsense."

Finally, Su Zichen, the oldest among them, couldn't stand it anymore and immediately reprimanded the two of them, telling them to shut up.

Upon hearing Su Zichen's words, the two immediately shut their mouths.

When Zhao Fan returned and saw the three of them still standing there respectfully, he immediately asked them to sit down.

"Don't stand, sit down anywhere, make yourself at home."

After saying that, Zhao Fan felt something was off, as if this place was originally their home.

After the three of them sat down, Zhao Fan continued to speak.

"Actually, I don't know how to teach you, but if you want to learn alchemy, the first step is to learn how to distinguish medicinal herbs."

"I have prepared the simplest Rejuvenation Pill formula here. The three of you should first learn to recognize the seven medicinal herbs in the formula. You need to be able to identify them at a glance among all the different medicinal herbs."