Chapter 13: The Miraculous Use of Divine Powers (Please add to favorites! Please keep reading!)

"Something is better than nothing. Once I cultivate the 'Peiyuan Yangqi Jue' (Foundation Nourishing and Qi Cultivating Art), my cultivation speed will increase accordingly. If I encounter a better opportunity later, I can consider switching cultivation methods then."

Although Shao Heng was deep in thought, she still kept a portion of her focus on listening to what Zhao Tang was saying.

The topic was guiding Qi into the body; she wasn't interested in this part, as it was already useless to her.

However, Elder Zhao also interspersed her lecture with the characteristics of the five elemental spiritual energies, adding some of her own personal insights as a third-realm cultivator.

These supplementary pieces of information resonated with the thoughts Shao Heng had while reading last night, helping her resolve several of her doubts.

As the shadows outside the window shifted, moving from the hour of the Dragon toward the hour of the Monkey, the lecture lasted for four full hours. If these outer sect disciples hadn't swallowed a Bigu pill before coming in the morning, they would have been starving, their stomachs rebelling long ago.

Even so, when the hour of the Monkey arrived and the bell signaling the end of the lecture rang, Zhao Tang swept her gaze downward. The disciples all looked greasy-haired and haggard, as if their vitality had been drained and their souls had wandered off to the heavens.

They thought they were subtly twisting left and right to relieve their physical fatigue, and upon hearing the bell, expressions of relief immediately appeared in their eyes.

"Failing to guide Qi into the body and using magic power to restore one's spirit is quite a burden for these disciples."

But Zhao Tang suddenly noticed one exception—a familiar face.

The young girl, now dressed in her new disciple robes, looked even more vibrant than before. Wasn't she that same disciple who had been grinning foolishly at her earlier?

Her eyes were bright, and after four hours of non-stop lecturing, she remained neat and full of vigor.

Zhao Tang raised her eyebrows slightly, then said to the group, "Today's lecture is over. You must hurry to guide Qi into your bodies; do not slack off in your cultivation."

When Shao Heng heard that it was over, she quickly tucked the book containing the techniques into her bosom, actually storing it away in her storage ring.

Then, she patted her sleeves and, once she stepped out of the Miaofa Building, headed toward the disciple living quarters.

Shao Heng walked with her head down, calculating in her heart.

"High-grade immortal techniques are rare and the sect won't distribute them casually. Disciples need to complete tasks issued by the sect to earn something called 'contribution points,' which are recorded on the disciple token. Then, one can use these points to exchange for immortal techniques on the fifth floor of the Miaofa Building. I really want them."

It was a pity that she had only officially joined the outer sect two days ago, so her contribution points were a big fat zero.

There was no hope for immortal techniques for the time being, but she could start practicing the basic techniques recorded in that small booklet. Although they were like the legs of a mosquito, Shao Heng didn't mind the small amount.

Once she entered her residence, she activated the formation at the door, sat in a chair, and took everything out of her storage ring to place on the table.

Shao Heng reached out and grasped a crystal, observing it closely before her eyes.

This thing, called a "spirit stone," was cut into a regular hexagonal column. Its pale purple color was extremely beautiful, and upon closer inspection, cloud-like flocculent matter could be seen flowing inside.

According to the information in the jade tablet from earlier, these spirit stones were the common currency of the cultivation world and the primary consumable for cultivation.

Spirit stone veins were formed by the compression and condensation of dense heaven and earth spiritual energy by the earth's veins. Once mined, the spiritual energy contained within could be directly absorbed by cultivators. Furthermore, because it had been condensed, its purity was higher than the spiritual energy drifting between heaven and earth, making it easier for cultivators to convert it into their own magic power, thereby helping to rapidly increase their cultivation.

There were a total of 120 spirit stones on the table, plus three bottles containing a total of nine first-grade Zengyuan pills; this was all the cultivation resources she could receive from the sect for the year.

Shao Heng gripped the spirit stone in her palm, calmed her mind, and soon sensed the spiritual energy contained within. Perhaps because it was mined from deep underground and appeared as a crystal, the metal and earth energies were relatively dense.

With a movement of her mind, this mass of spiritual energy was soon guided into her body, circulating through her meridians. After only two small cycles, it was all condensed into liquid droplets, merging into the yellow sprout in her Qi sea, adding a furnace-worth of magic power to Shao Heng.

"The first benefit of cultivating with spirit stones is that there is no need to painstakingly sense spiritual energy from heaven and earth and slowly absorb it; it is not affected by the environment. The second benefit is that it is easier to convert into magic power. By my estimation, it is about 30% faster than my normal cultivation."

After the spiritual energy in this spirit stone was absorbed, it turned from its original pale purple to a grayish-white, covered in cracks, and was clearly no longer usable.

Shao Heng tossed it aside, picked up the cyan jade slip containing the "Peiyuan Yangqi Jue," placed it against her forehead, and read the information within.

After about half an hour, having firmly memorized all thirty thousand-plus characters and pondered their subtleties, she put down the jade slip, stood up, and sat cross-legged on the cushion.

"Compared to the cycle circulation method recorded in this cultivation technique, my previous breathing method was indeed too crude."

According to what Zhao Tang said earlier, she would focus on guiding Qi into the body for the first half of the month. For Shao Heng, attending the lectures just for those few interspersed insights into the five elemental spiritual energies was a waste of time, so she decided not to go to class.

She would use this time to first cultivate the "Peiyuan Yangqi Jue" and then practice the basic techniques in the booklet.

Shao Heng closed her eyes, let go of her mind, and sensed the surrounding spiritual energy.

The Zhenyi Yuan Sect was built on a blessed land; even in the outer sect, the concentration of spiritual energy was incomparable to what she had experienced in the spirit boat cabin.

Clusters of spiritual energy began to rush into Shao Heng's body, following the technique to forge a brand-new circulation cycle.

As she continued to cultivate, Shao Heng suddenly discovered something wrong.

Beside the yellow sprout, the [Qingdi] rune floating there had actually condensed two emerald-green liquid beads at its base.

She remained calm and checked carefully, only to discover that every time a wisp of magic power flowed into the yellow sprout, the cyan-gold rune would quietly steal a little bit.

The amount it secretly absorbed each time was extremely small, and since the condensation of spiritual energy into magic power involved loss anyway, it didn't affect her normal cultivation at all. If it weren't for those liquid beads, Shao Heng feared she would never have noticed.

Sensing her internal observation, the rune suddenly trembled, acting guilty as it stuck closer to the yellow sprout, looking somewhat sneaky.

"The record on the Divine Ability Ranking says, 'Grace covers the four directions, frost covers the world.' A single divine ability can have many changes; these green beads should count as the first change of [Qingdi]. Let's just call it 'Grace of the Four Directions.' I've tasted these droplets before, and they don't taste bad. Hmm... would they be delicious for cooking?"

Shao Heng cast aside this somewhat amusing thought and then associated it with the description given by the servant woman at the Pingnan Marquis's mansion at the time.

"Plants growing wildly?"

A flash of inspiration struck Shao Heng's mind. Perhaps these droplets could be used to accelerate the growth of plants?

In the cultivation world, there were spirit rice and spirit plants used for making spirit meals, as well as rarer spirit materials and precious medicines that could be used directly for cultivation.

If these emerald-green liquid beads were truly effective on all of them...

"When I checked human aptitudes last night, I flipped through the 'Qixia Feixian Lu' (Record of Extraordinary Heroes and Flying Immortals) and saw records of innate spirit bodies, jade marrow apertures, and true immortal bones—all top-tier aptitudes. It seems I might be an innate saintly body for farming?"

Disciples of the Zhenyi Yuan Sect needed to complete tasks every year, but the content was not uniform; there was room for choice. One could hunt down criminals for thousands of miles, exterminate demonic cultivators, or stay in the sect to complete miscellaneous chores.

Shao Heng remembered that the jade tablet mentioned earlier that the sect had tasks related to planting.

Disciples could receive seeds and spirit fields from the Law Enforcement Pavilion, and then submit the required amount of spirit plants or medicines before the designated deadline.

"That is a pretty good way to verify it."

However, all of this would have to be discussed later.

Since the [Qingdi] rune did not affect her cultivation, Shao Heng simply ignored it. As the operation of the technique reached a state of perfection, her mind could only hold this one thing, and not a single stray thought could arise.

(End of chapter)