Chapter 33: Perfection of the Cultivation Technique (Please keep reading, please vote)

"Agreed."

Wang Yu had been foresightful enough to have Huang Kai and the others secure formal credentials. With these in hand, Zhao Shang's entry into the Ice and Snow Pavilion's public accounts would proceed smoothly and logically.

"Then, a pleasure doing business with you."

Reaching out to shake Wang Yu's hand, Zhao Shang felt a complex mix of emotions. To suppress his inner greed, cooperate with him, and even yield a portion of the profits—this was no small feat.

A person like this, even with a wasted spiritual root, could absorb every scrap of nourishment to gradually grow.

Wang Yu patted Zhao Shang on the shoulder with a familiar air and said warmly, "All past grievances are wiped clean; from now on, we are friends. I won't be staying in the Pavilion's rooms anymore. Come to this address in three days, and I'll introduce you to a few friends."

"Alright—"

After a thousand words, only a single syllable escaped him.

Having settled these matters, Wang Yu returned to his residence in the Evil God Workshop. Only then did he find the time to take out the "High-Grade Cold Blood Pill" he had purchased for five hundred spirit stones.

The pill was ice-blue in appearance, emitting a faint chill even while inside its box. Within the pill, a blood-colored dot pulsed with abundant spiritual energy.

According to the medicinal description, this pill could assist cultivators of the *Cold Blood Art* by increasing their spiritual power cultivation by forty strands, with an effect lasting up to a year.

This characteristic did not necessarily mean the effect was exceptionally good; rather, it indicated two traits: the pill possessed massive medicinal power and was extremely difficult to refine.

At Wang Yu's current cultivation speed, it took him two days to refine a single wisp of spiritual energy. In a year, he could only cultivate 18 strands of spiritual power. This was only thanks to the benefit of his Idle Slots; on his own, he would be lucky to condense one or two.

Refining Qi through pill consumption.

As the ice-blue pill went down, a cool, refreshing sensation spread from his dantian to his limbs and bones, making Wang Yu feel incredibly comfortable.

Using his divine sense to look inward, he could see the pill being continuously refined within his dantian, enveloped by gaseous spiritual energy. The speed at which it shrank was so slow it was almost imperceptible; the difficulty of refinement was indeed very high.

After a long time, one full cycle of the Great Orbit was completed. His cultivation had indeed improved significantly compared to before, but the power to refine the pill could only rely on himself.

For the coming year, he would have to spend a great deal of time on this.

He waited quietly like this for three days.

At the agreed-upon shop, he introduced Zhao Shang to the three members of the Alchemist Association, including Zhou Tao. After deciding on the types and quantities of the first batch of pills, everyone contributed their own funds to purchase a significant amount of low-priced spiritual herbs.

Because Huang Kai and Luo Pinghu were short on funds and could not afford many materials, Wang Yu lent out the remainder of his five hundred spirit stones. Zhou Tao also contributed an extra thousand to help his brothers complete the purchase of the first batch of herbs.

These spirit stones were to be repaid once the transactions were completed.

The scale of the three alchemists' transactions was not particularly large, and the potential profits were limited, so Wang Yu did not participate for the time being; he planned to wait.

Zhao Shang, however, felt the amount was somewhat small. Wang Yu could only reassure him that as the number of alchemists increased, the amount of spirit stones they could earn would naturally grow.

This was true, but the growth of the Alchemist Association must never attract undue attention. If Wang Yu were to join in the future, it would only be to temper his divine sense.

Therefore, the pace would be very slow. Zhao Shang had no choice but to accept his dissatisfaction; once you are on a pirate ship, you cannot simply jump off.

As for the Alchemist Association, with the channel provided by the Ice and Snow Pavilion, Wang Yu had proven his previous promise: he was truly a man of action.

Huang Kai and Luo Pinghu were completely won over by him. Even though he had the lowest cultivation, they treated him with increased respect. Only Zhou Tao possessed a more calculating mind.

Over time, he might attempt to bypass Wang Yu to contact Zhao Shang.

This didn't matter. As long as he couldn't succeed and as long as he helped earn spirit stones, minor flaws could be tolerated, provided they did not touch Wang Yu's bottom line.

With that, the matter of the Alchemist Association reached a temporary conclusion.

…………

…………

The 385th day of his outer disciple life!

It had been over a year since his promotion to the outer sect, and Wang Yu was about to encounter his first turning point in cultivation.

The *Cold Blood Art* reached perfection today.

In his residence at the Evil God Workshop, Wang Yu was sensing the changes in his spiritual root. According to the manual, upon reaching perfection, the technique could provide a slight increase to the cultivator's aptitude.

This increase was almost negligible, but for Wang Yu, it was incredibly important. After all, there was no aptitude worse than a wasted spiritual root; with anything worse, cultivation would be impossible.

"This feeling..."

Through a vague, mystical perception, Wang Yu felt as if he could see his own spiritual root. The five elements—Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—were all present, but each was less than an inch long, pitifully short.

In terms of cultivation, this manifested as his difficulty in refining heaven and earth spiritual energy, his lack of affinity, and the struggle to sense and capture spiritual energy.

At this moment, as the technique reached perfection, an ice-blue spiritual light escaped from his blood and attached itself to his Water Spiritual Root.

It grew by a visible segment, reaching about half of its original length. Among the five-element spiritual roots, it stood out prominently like a crane among chickens. Wang Yu's eyes widened.

"No way—"

"Is this a 'slight' increase? It grew by almost half!"

But on second thought, anyone who could cultivate the *Cold Blood Art* to perfection would be a Great Circle of Qi Refinement cultivator. Their aptitude was typically a Three-Element Spiritual Root.

By comparison, the growth would naturally be minuscule, and it was highly likely that because their aptitude was already high enough, the power of this increase would be too weak to even be as noticeable as it was for Wang Yu.

"So, it's actually because I am weak that the growth is so obvious, not because my cultivation effect is superior..."

With a realization in his heart, Wang Yu continued to observe.

He discovered that the Water Spiritual Root had not only grown longer but also showed a tendency toward crystallization.

No!

To be precise, it was ice crystallization!

"An Ice Spiritual Root?"

Conventional spiritual roots possessed the five elements, but mutated spiritual roots could be born upon that foundation: Ice, Thunder, Wind, Void, Blood, Yin, Yang... and so on.

They were unpredictable, as elusive as the will of heaven.

This discovery gave Wang Yu more ideas. Perhaps he could attempt to actively mutate into an Ice Spiritual Root. Although five-element spiritual roots had no restrictions on cultivation attributes, they also lacked the advantages of elemental compatibility.

Every bit helped. Every increment of aptitude was precious to him, and his Idle Slots would amplify such advantages by dozens or even hundreds of times.

【Idle Slot 1: Cold Blood Art】

「Cold Blood Art (100/100): Seventy-two daily practices; completion in twenty years.」

Twenty years... This meant a Second-Tier Foundation Establishment technique derived from the *Cold Blood Art*. The effect of increasing aptitude would be amplified even further!

Wang Yu had no intention of removing it. After all, perfection was one thing, but the cultivation feedback it provided was what mattered most.

The number of daily cultivation cycles also increased significantly.

The next day.

Feeling the efficiency after the technique reached perfection, Wang Yu was overjoyed. It turned out that a single Idle Slot for a technique, which previously only refined one wisp of spiritual energy every two days, now refined one wisp every single day.

Currently, he had accumulated approximately thirty-five strands of spiritual power in his body. He had completed one-tenth of the Fourth Layer of Qi Refinement; at most, it would take a little over seven years to break through to the Fifth Layer.

This was twice as fast as his previous estimate of over ten years, and this calculation only accounted for the efficiency of a single Idle Slot.

If he used two Idle Slots combined with the effect of the High-Grade Cold Blood Pill...

The speed would be even faster.

(End of Chapter)