Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 144

When the elixer was finished, it took only a single day.

Convenient and fast.

In addition, the cold flame of the Cold Chi Pill was still first-rank. But because second-rank demon core and Yin Marrow Liquid, both precious second-rank spiritual materials, were used in its refining, once Wang Yu broke through to Foundation Establishment the flame would also advance to second-rank. This was one of the reasons he chose the incomplete Cold Chi Alchemy Technique.

It had some potential for growth, but only to this point.

Once the medicinal power was exhausted, if he wished to advance it to third-rank, he would need to refine another Cold Chi Pill using a third-rank ice attribute dragon beast demon core as the main ingredient.

Only after refining could it grow smoothly and advance into third-rank cold flame.

Beyond that was impossible, since even in its complete state, the Cold Chi Alchemy Technique was only a third-rank pill method.

Cultivation techniques and secret arts became rarer the higher they went. Their prices also grew more exorbitant. Often, even with spirit stones, they could not be bought. Knowledge was restricted level by level.

Most important was still access. Aside from the Taiyin Nether Eyes, Wang Yu’s most valuable asset was this cold flame pill fire.

Furthermore, once he broke through, the inheritance jade slip of the Taiyin Nether Eyes would also unlock the second level. There was much waiting for him to learn, far too many things needing to be completed.There was also the orthodox advancement technique of Cold Blood Peak, the Void Escape Art, supporting techniques, magic tools, pill recipes, and so on.

Just thinking of it gave him a headache.

The Idle Slots he once thought sufficient were now clearly not enough.

“First the realm, to unlock more Idle Slots. Then battle power, and last, support.”

He continued to plan in his heart, striving for the best utilization.

Next, Wang Yu finally stabilized.

He took medicines to nourish the dragon, constantly strengthening the foundation and essence of his dragon spine. At the same time, when he received feedback from the Idle Slot cultivation, his own cultivation also could not stop.

After all, with dual spiritual roots, his cultivation speed was not slow. With a second-rank Body-Refining cultivator’s physique, his meridians had greatly strengthened, enough to let him run a grand circulation of cultivation techniques all day.

The only shortcoming was in divine sense. He had to leave an hour each day to recover his spirit, only then could he maintain the highest efficiency cultivation speed.

Two paths advanced side by side, progressing rapidly.

Two and a half months later.

In the 4th year and 9th month of Wang Yu’s inner sect life, in a narrow dark space, only a gray-white flame with faint blue outer fire gave off a dim glow.

At a certain moment, the aura of the figure sitting cross-legged reached a state of complete unity, no further advancement possible.

“Qi Refining Great Perfection, achieved.”

A thousand streams of semi-liquid spirit power, their quality far surpassing other cultivators of the same realm, had already formed the embryonic shape of true essence. As the aura spread, the underground chamber grew colder.

Without delay, Wang Yu took out another Foundation Establishment spiritual material, the Nether Spring Lotus, from his storage bag. He had exchanged it from Yu Tangtang with a flood dragon inner core. Two top-grade Foundation Establishment spiritual items. Absolutely worth it.

He had been waiting for this day.

“They say Wasted Spiritual Roots cannot establish foundation. Then let us see how well my dual spiritual roots can do.”

Raising his head, he swallowed the Nether Spring Lotus.

Hand seals changed. The Cold Blood Ascending Spirit Art ran at its limit. Within his body it was like roaring rivers, endless torrents of spirit power surging into a higher level transformation.

The effect of a top quality Foundation Establishment item was equal to a high-grade Foundation Establishment Pill. With his foundation and aptitude, failure was impossible.

“Foundation Establishment, first trial, the Spiritual Power Trial.”

In his dantian and qi sea, the already semi-liquid spirit power condensed into a whirlpool, compressing into a single point. Not too fast, not too slow, but very stable.

At this moment, the Nether Spring Lotus dropped into the whirlpool’s center.

The spiritual storm sped up several times over. In almost an instant, the entire qi sea became empty, leaving only a single drop of black-blue true essence quietly resting in the center.

True essence had condensed. Spiritual energy from the surroundings uncontrollably surged into his body, as if inner and outer pressure had been formed.

Wang Yu split a trace of divine sense, emptied many storage bags, spreading nearly a hundred thousand spirit stones around him. The energy inside the stones was drawn out at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In his qi sea, the second drop of True Essence began to form.

Thus, the Spiritual Power Trial was passed.

“Next is the Blood and Qi Trial.”

Last time, when breaking through to second-rank Body-Refining cultivation, his flesh had already been reforged. This time the transformation would not be as great. But his adaptation and affinity to spiritual power would grow by leaps.

His body cracked and popped. His strong meridians were almost unaffected. Surging black-blue blood and qi were squeezed out, providing nourishment for bodily transformation.

Outside, spirit stones dimmed ever faster. The drawn spiritual power turned into mist, continuously washing over Wang Yu’s body.

During the transformation, a deeper level of life evolution occurred.

In less than half an incense stick’s time, Wang Yu revealed a satisfied smile.

The Blood and Qi Trial was easily passed. The Nether Spring Lotus had not even been fully used, with two-thirds of its medicinal power still remaining. Perfectly reserved for the Divine Sense Trial.

As the final trial of Foundation Establishment, the Divine Sense Trial had blocked countless aspiring cultivators. It was the hardest barrier of all.

Although Wang Yu had not yet cultivated the Ancient Soul Technique, whether it was from pill refining or the Taiyin Nether Eyes, both had greatly enhanced his divine sense.

Between his brows, in the Niwan Palace, misty gray fog dissipated over a large area.

The Nether Spring Lotus settled there. The gloomy light it released caused Wang Yu’s once-insubstantial divine sense to condense into substance. Just as spiritual power transformed into true essence, his divine sense also underwent a qualitative change.

The range he could sense was getting farther and farther. In the future, once he learned the secret art of Searching the Mountains and Seeking Demons, an area within fifty miles with himself at the center would all be under his control.

Once the medicinal power of the Nether Spring Lotus was completely exhausted, the breakthrough also reached its final stage.

The Divine Sense Barrier was broken.

Having passed through the three barriers, Foundation Establishment was naturally achieved. The fluctuations of heaven and earth spiritual energy became even more apparent, pouring into Wang Yu’s body like a celestial river in reverse, entering through his head and exiting through his legs.

Heaven and earth baptism. A complete transformation and rebirth.

Moreover, every perfected spell, secret technique, bone art, strange art, and cultivation method Wang Yu had mastered all turned into mysterious ancient seal characters, fusing into his dantian and spiritual sea, disappearing without a trace.

This phenomenon made his brows furrow slightly.

He had previously felt an impulse, believing that the more perfected arts he had at the time of Foundation Establishment the better, but he had never imagined such a puzzling outcome.

There had been no records of this in the Scripture Hall, so he could only look it up after returning.

Now was not the time to think about this.

With the breakthrough complete, Wang Yu felt his life essence had once again improved slightly, as though he had regained the ten years he had lost when cultivating the Life-burning Demonic Technique.

His body had never felt as comfortable as it did now, even surpassing the pleasure of advancing in body refinement.

Looking inward at his spiritual sea, he saw three drops of Cold Blood True Essence lying quietly there. When a Qi Refining cultivator broke through to Foundation Establishment, normally condensing a single drop of true essence was already considered a success.

A thousand streams condense into a single drop.

However, cultivation methods differ, and so do the traits they emphasize. For example, techniques that place emphasis on spiritual power would allow two, three, four, or even more drops of true essence to condense during the breakthrough.

With the aid of heaven and earth baptism, the more one could absorb, the more profit there was.

For Wang Yu, to have this number was naturally thanks to the foundation laid by the Xuan Essence Flower, as well as the benefits he received from a second-rank perfected cultivation method under the baptism of heaven and earth.

To break through from the first layer of Foundation Establishment to the second, one needed to cultivate one hundred drops of True Essence.

Breaking through from the second to the third required three hundred drops, and continuing to accumulate up to five hundred would lead to the first bottleneck.

This bottleneck was known in the cultivation world as Condensing Essence.

Five hundred drops of true essence had to be condensed into a pool of Origin Spring. This was essentially the same as the three Spirit Refinements in Qi Refining, all being processes of improving the quality of true essence.

The first condensation forms a spring.

The second condensation forms a lake.

The third condensation forms a sea.

Beyond this point, the path of Core Formation begins.

According to the requirements of the Foundation Establishment stage, at his rate of fifty wisps per day, it seemed impossible to break through to the second layer any time soon.

But thinking this way would be underestimating his dual spiritual roots.

These were high-grade spiritual roots. With proper resources, there was a chance to attempt Core Formation before the end of his lifespan. His speed could not possibly be so slow.

Spiritual roots were the tools with which a cultivator extracted spiritual energy from heaven and earth.

In the past, it was like using chopsticks to pick up vermicelli, each strand difficult to grasp and easy to slip away.

After being seized by the Demonic Embryo, it became like sucking with a vacuum cleaner, but his mouth was only so big, and what he could actually eat and digest was still limited.

Now that he had broken through to Foundation Establishment, it was as if his mouth had suddenly become a gaping bloody maw, and he had also grown several more mouths all over his body, perfectly utilizing the vacuum cleaner to eat his fill.

The metaphor was a little abstract, but the principle was clear.

This was the complete transformation brought by a breakthrough in realm.

Similarly, the efficiency of a single Idle Slot was again enhanced, rising from fifty wisps per day to two thousand five hundred wisps per day, a fiftyfold increase.

Two thousand five hundred wisps equaled twenty-five strands per day.

With two Idle Slots working together, that was fifty strands per day. Every twenty days he could condense one drop of True Essence, and in two thousand days he would have one hundred drops, enough to ascend to the second layer of Foundation Establishment.

Only five and a half years to break through.

A normal dual spiritual root would require eleven years to advance a layer, and that was with the early stages being relatively easy and the aid of high-grade pills to shorten the time by half.

If one reached Foundation Establishment by one hundred years of age, there was a slight chance of approaching the threshold of Core Formation.

Wang Yu was still young, not yet forty years old. In this lifetime he would definitely reach the peak of Foundation Establishment, and Core Formation was not far from him.

After completing the breakthrough, he glanced at the Idle Slots.

Unfortunately, the sixth machine had not been born. Although he had long known this would be the case, truly confirming it still left him with a trace of disappointment.

He then felt tremors in the swamp approaching.

Sweeping with his divine sense, he discovered it was the late second-rank Crocodile Dragon beast nearby, likely drawn by the abnormal concentration of spiritual energy in this place.

His breakthrough had taken less than the time of three incense sticks. This speed could only be described as astonishingly fast. Such was the benefit of a solid foundation and the aid of treasures.

Not intending to tangle with the beast, he swept his sleeve, gathering up the large number of blank spirit stones on the ground. Around forty thousand spirit stones remained unaffected.

The consumption was acceptable. He was not bankrupt.

Immediately afterward, Wang Yu willed himself upward and his whole figure shot into the sky.