Zhang Deming shook his head, no longer letting his thoughts run wild. He opened the Sealing Array in his bedroom, allowing Spiritual Power to permeate the entire Cave Mansion.

He turned and went into the courtyard, took out a set of materials, and activated his Spirit Nurturing Technique. As specks of light appeared one by one, Zhang Deming began his life of secluded cultivation.

Because he didn’t need to actively cultivate—as long as he was on a Spirit Vein, his Spiritual Qi recovered exceptionally fast—Zhang Deming had still underestimated his own work capacity.

Back on Little Hui Peak, a full reserve of his Spiritual Power could only be used to cast the Spirit Nurturing Technique five times, which on average produced about one Spirit Nurturing Bead.

If he pushed himself a little, he could make five or six a day.

Here, however, while it wasn’t as exaggerated as a tenfold increase, making forty Spirit Nurturing Beads a day through high-intensity work was not too difficult.

The downside was that his Cultivation saw no growth, as all his effort went into recovering Spiritual Qi.

Therefore, after a brief test, Zhang Deming decided not to grind so hard, instead settling on an average daily output of twenty Spirit Nurturing Beads.

Since he was in Celestial Spirit City, making deliveries was also convenient.

Zhang Deming only needed to go out once every three to five days. He also loosened the restrictions on Qu Qizhong, allowing him to sell the beads with a bit more freedom.

A month passed in the blink of an eye as he worked at this pace.

During that time, Zhang Deming returned to the Sect once to restock on materials. In total, he had made over two hundred Spirit Nurturing Beads, selling them for more than two thousand Spirit Stones.

After paying two months’ rent, he set aside five hundred and spent the rest.

In just one month, bolstered by the automatically accumulating experience, Zhang Deming’s Experience Points bar was full.

With over two hundred Spirit Nurturing Beads sold in a single month, Zhang Deming noticed that Qu Qizhong had grown somewhat anxious during their last exchange.

Zhang Deming did not meet him in person, nor did he summon him via the Spirit Nurturing Technique.

He simply sent a message, telling him to go back to selling only two a day.

Everything else would have to wait until after he reached the Tai Chi level.

In addition to the Spirit Stones he had earned, he had also accumulated Qi Fortune and Merit during this period.

One Enlightenment Dao granted 0.2 Qi Fortune and 0.02 Merit.

The two hundred-odd Spirit Nurturing Beads that had been used brought Zhang Deming about fifty specks of light.

His Qi Fortune now stood at 11.2, and his Merit at 2.3.

This was, by far, Zhang Deming’s most abundant reserve of Energy to date.

Zhang Deming didn’t squander the Energy, saving all of it.

From the visions brought by these fifty-odd specks of light, Zhang Deming noticed that most of the users were now disciples from cultivation families; the number of Loose Cultivators was dwindling.

’This alone is enough to tell me that the shop’s situation has likely become somewhat dire.’

······

On this day, after meditating for a long while, bathing, and burning incense, Zhang Deming activated all the Arrays in his Cave Mansion and entered the Cultivation Room.

He took out all the main ingredients for the advancement, drew a deep breath, and drank a small cup of the Blood Emotion Wine he had saved.

As the wine took effect, the circulation of his Spiritual Power began to accelerate slightly.

For no apparent reason, his heart, which had been tranquil for over a decade, felt a strange stirring, and his body began to feel warm.

It wasn’t an uncomfortable heat, however. Just as the description had stated, the function of Blood Emotion Wine seemed to be to stir a person’s emotions at the most fundamental level.

Ignoring the faint, strange feeling in his heart, Zhang Deming opened his mouth and expelled a mouthful of Essence Qi.

His complexion did not grow haggard, merely a shade paler.

The Essence Qi hovered before Zhang Deming, swirling continuously.

Zhang Deming paused for a moment before expelling another mouthful of Essence Qi.

He did this three times, and the Essence Qi before him coalesced into a small mass. By now, Zhang Deming’s face had lost much of its color.

Judging that this was enough, his expression shifted, and he opened his mouth once more.

The Rune for the Spirit Nurturing Summoning Technique, along with the inlaid Aura of the script’s core, flew out of his mouth from his Dantian.

The vortex-shaped script in his Dantian spun gently, showing no other signs of activity.

Zhang Deming breathed a sigh of relief and directed the ring-adorned Rune of the Spirit Nurturing Summoning Technique into the mass of Essence Qi.

For anyone else’s advancement, this process would involve expelling a blurry Magic Ball, mixing it with Essence Qi, and then beginning to condense an illusory Rune.

Afterwards, they would add the materials and begin to condense a physical Rune.

What Zhang Deming had expelled, however, was a tangible Rune Ball, even more complete than a Mastery Level Technique.

When the Rune Ball entered the mass of Essence Qi, it was already a fully-formed Rune. He had completely skipped the most difficult and luck-reliant first step.

Therefore, Zhang Deming barely paused before turning all the materials into Spiritual Light and tossing them into the Rune Ball.

The process of condensing the Rune, which should have been exceptionally difficult, was for him merely a matter of turning something from illusory to real, all because the Rune Ball was already complete.

The entire process was so easy that Zhang Deming didn’t know how to describe it. He felt like he had gathered all his strength for a mighty blow, only to punch a wad of cotton.

Once all the Spiritual Light was absorbed, the Rune solidified directly. Not even the slightest sign of the Spiritual Power Sea Absorption phenomenon, which should occur during condensation, appeared.

’Under these circumstances, I might not have even needed to be in a Spirit Vein environment.’

The Rune he had condensed hadn’t consumed any of the materials’ Spiritual Power during its formation. The moment it took shape, it was already completely full.

It was so full, in fact, that it was radiating Spiritual Power outward instead of voraciously absorbing it.

As soon as the Rune finished forming, it shot directly into the space between Zhang Deming’s eyebrows.

A special Rune formed on Zhang Deming’s forehead.

The instant the Rune fully materialized on his forehead, Zhang Deming’s entire body levitated into the air.

His Dantian began to expand rapidly as the Spiritual Power within it gushed out, surging through his entire body.

His body began to undergo a fundamental transformation, and deep within his Dantian, the Cultivation Technique Script also began to spin.