Cultivation Starts with Rejuvenation-Chapter 46 - 12: One Year Fulfilled
"Oh my, I already told you, at your age, you can directly start absorbing and refining spiritual qi, you don’t need to sense qi anymore... Qi sensing is for children whose spirit roots haven’t fully developed yet, to nourish their spirit roots. You..."
Faced with Li Ji’an’s very sincere request, Chen Qingling was quite impatient.
Until he saw the specially made garlic fried chicken Li Ji’an handed over...
"That’s all trivial, I’ll teach you right after I finish eating."
After a year together, Li Ji’an became more familiar with Chen Zhaohu and his brother.
Chen Zhaohu did not spend resources on his own cultivation in order to provide cultivation resources for his brother Chen Qingling.
When Chen Qingling was eight years old, his spirit testing showed five strands of Fire Element spirit charm, with hope to nurture middle-grade spirit roots.
Therefore, over the years, Chen Zhaohu rented a Dao field for him at the United Marketplace. He occasionally stayed with Chen Zhaohu when he got bored, but mostly spent his time "sensing qi" in the marketplace.
Half a year ago, after spirit testing confirmed there wasn’t much growth potential left, he began his true cultivation.
Unfortunately, the Fire Spirit Root sensed nine strands, just short of entering the ranks of middle-grade spirit roots.
He cultivated the Fire Element Technique "Flame Spirit Technique" that Chen Zhaohu purchased for him and stepped into Qi Cultivation 1st Layer last month, truly becoming a Qi Cultivator.
"Old Li, you’re already at the age of thirty, what are you sensing qi for? You don’t need to sense qi anymore after fifteen, spirit roots have long since set, sensing won’t make a difference.
If you’re truly unwilling to give up, then buy a cultivation technique and start practicing. Stop wasting time."
In the team, another Tier One Early Period Body Cultivator teased while drinking.
"What qi are you practicing? Brother Li’s bones are extraordinary, probably exceeding even Brother Hu’s. Body refining is enough, at least he doesn’t spend as much as we do, struggling to save spirit stones, reluctant even to go to the Celestial Immortal Tower, life is too dull!" another Qi Cultivation 2nd Layer teammate complained.
In Chen Zhaohu’s hunting team, besides Chen Zhaohu, Li Ji’an, and two Beginner Body Cultivators, the rest of the Qi Cultivators were temporary.
Most of these temporary cultivators were loose cultivators without support, and they had to find all sorts of ways to earn spirit stones to stay in the marketplace and cultivate.
Li Ji’an shook his head with a smile: "I’m late, but I can teach the next generation in the future. Practicing it myself gives me understanding, so I won’t be clueless when my descendants ask for guidance."
He indeed thought so.
The difference was, he was accumulating qi sensing experience for his next life.
"Ah, you guys, you haven’t lived well yourselves but keep thinking about making the next generation live well... isn’t it exhausting?"
"If Brother Hu wasn’t doing it for this ungrateful kid, with his body refining strength alone, he could marry a houseful of wives. He might even find one with good spirit roots, what a pity..."
Chen Qingling sucked his finger while rolling his eyes at the Qi Cultivation 3rd Layer cultivator who called him ungrateful.
However, he didn’t dare to talk back.
No reason, only because after stepping into Qi Cultivation, he understood the difficulty of it. In his current view, a Qi Cultivation 3rd Layer is already a senior expert, unlike a newborn calf unafraid of the tiger anymore.
That night, Li Ji’an finally managed to learn the Qi Sensing Technique from Chen Qingling without spending, saving three spirit stones.
The reason for targeting Chen Qingling was that his Qi Sensing Technique was also the superior technique bought for him by his brother with spirit stones, superior to those used by the loose cultivators in the team.
"Heaven has Five Elements, mutual overcoming and generating; humans have Five Elements, mutually aiding and complementing; the Heaven and Man are interconnected, storing energy within the body..."
After Chen Qingling’s impatient explanation, Li Ji’an returned to his room to comprehend alone.
"It’s not difficult after all..."
With the accumulated divine souls from five lifetimes, this beginner-level technique was easily comprehensible.
On merely the fifth operation, he sensed a faint resonance between the air and his dantian.
"This is the spiritual qi... truly thin!"
No wonder Chen Qingling said that in such spirit-poor land, sensing qi was useless, because nothing could be sensed.
Li Ji’an tried multiple times, confirming that he already understood the Qi Sensing Technique.
The reason why he was able to sense the resonance between spiritual qi and his dantian in such a spiritually deficient place was thanks to the accumulation of the five lives’ divine souls.
Over this year, he also figured out the source of why every time he experienced rejuvenation, his mental strength grew, his thinking became sharper, and his comprehension higher.
It turned out to be the divine soul!
In this cultivation realm, Qi Cultivators absorb spiritual qi, refine magical power, and transform the dantian.
Body Cultivators, similar to the Immortal Dynasty’s Martial Dao, initially temper muscles and bones, refine energy and blood, without external materials, but in the mid to late stage, they require techniques and corresponding spiritual objects to push the physical body’s limits continuously.
No matter which type, the divine soul is vital.
Qi Cultivators need the divine soul for Foundation Establishment; many practices of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation also require a divine soul. As the divine soul refines into spiritual sense, when spiritual sense becomes powerful enough, it aggregates into divine sense, then primordial spirit, and ultimately divine thought... be it cultivation, magical combat, alchemy, or talisman painting, it’s indispensable.
Body Cultivators also require divine souls, especially in mid to late stages. The stronger the divine soul, the more impact they can withstand during body forging. Otherwise, if the physical body can endure, but the divine soul is too weak to bear it, the divine soul can easily be damaged.
Moreover, the divine soul greatly affects the sensitivity of a Body Cultivator’s senses.
As for the rare Soul Cultivators, who specialize in divine soul cultivation and exist with their souls, needless to say further.
Li Ji’an had a great advantage in this regard!
Comparing several early-stage Qi Cultivators, their initial spiritual sense was evidently weaker than his own.
"I should quickly find a technique to refine spiritual sense... strengthening spiritual sense will enhance the five senses a lot."
"It’s just a pity that Soul Cultivation methods are too scarce and rare, otherwise, the path of Soul Cultivation would probably be more suited for this life."
He ended his practice and stood up, just in time to see the sky filled with the dawn’s rosy hues.
A new day had begun.
It also signified that the agreed period of one year with Chen Zhaohu had ended.
During this year, Chen Zhaohu truly treated him as a good-luck charm, saying just to follow the team.
And indeed, as Chen Zhaohu said, their team suffered no casualties this year, and their harvest was somewhat better than before.
This further deepened Chen Zhaohu’s belief that Li Ji’an was someone with great fortune.
What he didn’t know was, all of this was because Li Ji’an, with his powerful divine soul, sensed potential dangers in advance and subtly guided the team to avoid them.
As for the gains, Li Ji’an also did so to save up more spirit stones.
Cultivation is not easy; money, companions, techniques, and place are essential!
From a secret compartment, he took out, apart from the necessities deducted from the year’s savings, the remaining twenty-four spirit stones and seventy-three taels of spiritual sand and put them in his pocket.
He also collected the pile of letters from below.
A total of eight, one was from Zhang Tiezhu three months ago, mentioning that he smoothly joined a pioneering team and, after almost a year of effort, gained the attention of the Yan Family steward, received commendation, and saw hope for ascending to immortality.
Another was from Zhu Linxian, sent half a year ago, mentioning leaving the United Marketplace to seek opportunities elsewhere, without saying more.
The remaining six were all from Zhao Shuyao.
Almost one letter every two months, from last year’s departure from the gathering place to the marketplace, then to parting with Dong Jiangling and Zhu Linxian, then to failing the interview at the Spirit Pill Pavilion... every detail.
The first half-year contained mostly persuasion, describing the hope and future of the cultivation marketplace, hoping to inspire Li Ji’an’s fighting spirit.
However, the second half, especially in the letter from last month, no longer persuaded Li Ji’an to cultivate, its words were filled with exhaustion.
Dong Jiangling, however, disappeared without a word.
"I hope these spirit stones will allow me to establish a foothold in the marketplace!" Li Ji’an went to bid farewell to Chen Zhaohu.
It’s time to truly enter the cultivation realm.
