Ascending from the mortal realm to become an immortal begins with taking charge of a grotto-heaven.

The moment the medicinal liquid in the bucket touched the skin, the entire bucket of liquid suddenly began to boil vigorously. The medicinal soup that had just looked warm and peaceful was now completely activated by the body. The dense, scalding bubbles, carrying the violent medicinal power, rushed into the pores of the whole body.

"what!"

A cry of pain escaped uncontrollably from between his teeth, and Zhang Li's whole body trembled violently.

At that moment, he felt his muscles and bones being torn apart by a brute force, and his internal meridians were being repeatedly scraped by red-hot wires, the pain cutting through his skin and meridians, the pain penetrating deep into his soul.

Every drop of the medicine inhaled brought excruciating torment. Zhang Li subconsciously raised his hand to grab the Pain-Relieving Pill placed to the side, but stopped abruptly the moment he touched the jade bottle.

The Pain-Relieving Pill can indeed alleviate pain, but it weakens the effects of secret techniques. In the world of cultivation, methods to improve one's aptitude through acquired means are extremely rare. He was already incredibly lucky to have obtained even one of them.

Furthermore, this is only the beginning; there are still two full days and nights of torment ahead, and he may not be able to endure it.

As time went on, the medicine penetrated deeper and deeper, and the pain only increased, as if it were gushing out from the cracks in the bones. With every breath, the meridians throughout the body were torn apart and ached.

Zhang Li trembled uncontrollably, his lips turned white from biting them, and several times his vision blurred, his consciousness wavering. Only one thought kept running through his mind: he might as well swallow a pain-relieving pill.

My hand was extended again and again, and then forcibly withdrawn each time. It wasn't that it didn't hurt, but I just wanted to make it more effective.

Later on, the pain became so intense that it caused numbness, and his consciousness would waver from time to time. He almost fainted several times. The color of the medicine in the bucket gradually faded, and the medicine was continuously absorbed by his body.

By the morning of the third day, the color of the medicine in the bucket had completely faded. Zhang Li felt as if all his strength had been drained away. He slid to the bottom of the bucket as if he had no bones, without even the strength to lift his face.

But when the first ray of morning light pierced through the window and fell precisely on his pale, paper-white face, Zhang Li slowly opened his eyes.

Although the excruciating, bone-deep tearing pain had subsided, Zhang Li still felt weak and sore all over. He forced himself to climb out of the tub and, without taking a break, immediately sat down cross-legged to cultivate and recover his condition.

As soon as he activated his cultivation technique, he sensed a tremendous change.

The surrounding spiritual energy was no longer as difficult to draw upon as usual; instead, it surged into his body one after another, like a swarm of bees returning to their nest.

The efficiency and speed of absorbing and refining spiritual energy should be about half that of taking pills, far exceeding the previous level.

Based on his current speed of absorbing and refining spiritual energy through breathing exercises and meditation, fire element likely accounts for half of his four elemental roots.

When he entered the sect to test his spiritual roots, among the four elemental roots, his fire element was the highest, about 30%, followed by the wood element, which was only slightly lower than the fire element, while the earth and water elements were not much different.

For someone with a mixed spiritual root that has a relatively balanced distribution of the four attributes, cultivation is the most difficult, as the four attributes can be seen as stumbling blocks to each other.

An hour later, Zhang Li, who had fully recovered, slowly finished his practice and exhaled a long breath.

The benefits of improving one's spiritual root aptitude go far beyond just accelerating cultivation speed.

Zhang Li made a hand seal, and a blue flame rose from his fingertip. With a flick of his wrist, the flame passed through the wooden window and landed on the stone table in the courtyard.

Shila-

A faint burning sound suddenly rang out, and the surface of the bluestone was instantly scorched white by the high temperature. The surface stone softened rapidly, and the stone table, which was the size of a millstone, was completely melted and burned by the little finger-sized blue flame, leaving only half of it.

"Sure enough, after the fire element in my spiritual root was enhanced, the power of my fire-based spells was also significantly increased compared to before."

Zhang Li muttered to himself.

The benefits of improving one's spiritual root aptitude are multifaceted.

After breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage, if one can cultivate a suitable fire-based technique, the speed of cultivation and the strength of activating fire-based spells can be further enhanced.

Thinking of this, Zhang Li nodded in satisfaction. The hardships he had endured over the past two days had not been in vain.

……

After staying in the cave for another day, Zhang Li took back the extra money and left the south of the city.

During his extra day of stay, he took the time to adjust to the many changes that had occurred after his spiritual root aptitude had improved.

When passing by a talisman shop, Zhang Li went in and spent a few spirit stones to buy a spirit-testing talisman. After injecting a stream of magic power into it, a pale white halo spread out from the talisman's surface, and four colored bands of varying thicknesses appeared one after another.

The crimson fire color is the thickest, occupying 45% of the area, followed by the emerald green wood color, occupying about 25% of the area, while the earth yellow and light blue color bands are the thinnest, occupying the remaining 30% of the area.

The test results showed a lower success rate than Zhang Li had expected, which was still due to his age. If it had been two years earlier, the results would definitely have been better.

But then he thought about it again and quickly calmed down.

Although this secret technique can improve one's spiritual root aptitude, it can only be used by cultivators who have achieved success in their cultivation.

The aura of the spirit-testing talisman slowly dissipated, turning into fine powder that drifted away in the wind.

Zhang Li then left without lingering and headed out of Yunyu Immortal City.

As soon as they reached the city gate, they saw a group of cultivators gathered around the law board, their heads thronging and their voices rising and falling.

Zhang Li glanced at it but didn't care, intending to simply take a detour and leave.

But a few scattered words drifted into his ears on the wind, causing him to pause slightly.

"Black Crow... wiped out the entire family..."

These words immediately piqued his interest.

Zhang Li turned and walked forward, only then noticing a wanted poster affixed to the bulletin board.

The document was bordered in vermilion and featured a portrait of a sinister-looking man, along with a reward of eight hundred spirit stones.

This person, known as Black Crow, is a Qi Refining Level 9 cultivator. He previously operated in the border area between the Tianzhao Sect and the Qingxuan Sect, and was notorious for robbing passing cultivators and plundering small cultivation families.

The border area between the two sects has always been a no-man's-land, and there are no powerful family forces there. With Black Crow's cultivation level, he can be said to be in his element in such a place.

However, at some unknown time, this bandit who had been entrenched on the border for many years left his familiar territory and wandered into Huangfeng County.

If it weren't for the fact that a few days ago, Black Crow had returned to his old ways, slaughtering the entire Li family of Huangfeng County, a Qi Refining clan, and leaving behind his distinctive black raven feathers at the scene, no cultivator would have discovered that he had entered Huangfeng County.

Several onlookers sighed, "The battle for the spiritual vein is just a few days away, and the Li family has been wiped out at this crucial moment. Do you think it might be the Huang family...?"

Before he could finish speaking, his companion quickly raised his hand to stop him: "Don't talk nonsense. What does this have to do with us? We're just here to watch the show."

The man shut his mouth in frustration, ceasing his wild speculations.

Standing at the back of the crowd, Zhang Li took in the whole scene and secretly marveled at the sect's ingenious methods.

With just two high-grade spiritual veins, these Qi Refining families fought tooth and nail, and before the struggle even began, the Li family was wiped out.

Perhaps one day, the same methods will be used against these disciples.

"Sects..."

After silently sighing to himself, Zhang Li turned and left.