Zhou Xun first took a thorough bath, then walked into the quiet room.
He took out a brand-new calming incense stick, lit it and placed it in front of him, then sat cross-legged on the rush mat with his eyes half-closed.
Soon, Zhou Xun's mind and spirit settled.
He slowly opened his eyes, gently lifted the lid of the jade box, and carefully picked up the Spirit-Gathering Grass, placing it in the palm of his hand.
He began to circulate the incantation of the Condensing Spring Scripture.
"The way of heaven is to diminish excess and supplement deficiency."
As the incantation circulated, an ineffable and profound sensation arose. Zhou Xun's mind plunged into a state of selflessness, merging with the heaven, earth, and nature, as if he could manipulate everything.
With a gentle tap of his finger on the Spirit-Gathering Grass, the surrounding primordial energy was instantly drawn in, converging from all directions.
Suddenly, the Spirit-Gathering Grass rose into the air out of nowhere, becoming even more vibrant, its green leaves emitting a faint luminescence.
As the final sequence of the incantation concluded, an invisible force materialized from thin air, enveloping the Spirit-Gathering Grass.
Time slipped away bit by bit, and the radiance upon the Spirit-Gathering Grass grew increasingly intense, as if its essence were being continuously condensed.
Suddenly, a green speck of light emerged above the Spirit-Gathering Grass, emitting a gentle glow.
Guided by the Condensing Spring Scripture, Zhou Xun waved his hand, and the green speck of light slowly drifted away, flying toward his Dantian.
In an instant, his body seemed to be enveloped by a warm current—a current as warm and serene as a mother's embrace.
At that very moment, Zhou Xun felt as though his entire body had been washed clean, brimming with vitality and vigor.
Simultaneously, a powerful suction force suddenly erupted from his Dantian, and his cultivation technique began to circulate involuntarily.
The bottleneck of the second-layer peak seemed to vanish entirely, broken through in a single bound.
Even more wondrously, Zhou Xun's five senses were elevated with a muffled roar to an unimaginable degree.
Everything around him became sharp and bright.
Details that he previously could not see clearly suddenly became distinct and visible.
Even the living room, blocked by the heavy door of the quiet room, instantly sprang into his field of vision.
Beyond that, odors he could not smell before and sounds he could not hear suddenly became crystal clear.
"Divine Sense!"
Zhou Xun was stunned by his own discovery.
Under normal circumstances, only late-stage cultivators could generate Divine Sense, which was precisely why late-stage cultivators were referred to as great masters.
With Divine Sense, one could leave a spiritual imprint inside magic tools.
Wielding magic tools would become as fluid as one's own shadow and as obedient as one's own arm, while the spiritual power consumed in driving them would be drastically reduced.
With the guidance of Divine Sense, a cultivator's spells would even acquire a tracking effect, a power incomparable to that of early and mid Qi Condensation.
Oddly enough, his own Divine Sense could only perceive a radius of three zhang.
Compared to the dozen-or-so-zhang range of a late-stage cultivator's Divine Sense, it was much smaller.
Even so, this alone was enough to vastly increase his strength.
If he held a magic tool in his hands, he would have nothing to fear even against a Level 5 Qi Condensation expert.
The cultivation technique circulated on its own for half an hour before finally coming to a halt.
Zhou Xun checked his condition and found that not only had he broken through the shackles of the second layer, but his progress into the third layer had already passed the halfway mark.
"That has easily saved me several years of bitter cultivation!"
In terms of cultivation level, he was now a full cut above Shan Xionghai; if that man were to find out, one could only imagine what his reaction would be.
"The enhancement brought by using the Condensing Spring Scripture this time truly exceeds all imagination!" Zhou Xun thought, utterly content.
"Right, I almost forgot the most fundamental effect of the Condensing Spring Scripture—enhancing one's spiritual root aptitude!"
Zhou Xun immediately circulated his technique and began refining the spiritual qi in the air.
After a long while, he opened his eyes.
"Compared to before, my spiritual qi refinement speed has increased by at least a third!"
"I just wonder what my spiritual root affinity is now?"
The grades of spiritual roots were all classified according to spiritual root affinity.
An immortal cultivator's spiritual root grades were divided into:
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Mortal spiritual roots, Low-grade spiritual roots, Mid-grade spiritual roots, Top-grade spiritual roots, Earth-grade spiritual roots, and Heaven-grade spiritual roots.
An affinity of 1–9 points of spiritual qi constituted a mortal spiritual root.
11–19 points was a Low-grade spiritual root.
21–39 points was a Mid-grade spiritual root.
40–59 points was a Top-grade spiritual root.
60–79 points was an Earth-grade spiritual root.
80 points or above was a Heaven-grade spiritual root.
Normal immortal cultivators possessed all five elements and were therefore equipped with metal, wood, water, fire, and earth spiritual roots. As for lightning, ice, and wind spiritual roots, they were all mutations derived from multiple attributes.
Naturally, cultivators with mutated spiritual roots were quite rare.
Curiously, however, every single immortal cultivator with a mutated spiritual root had an affinity rating above 60.
In addition, there were those among cultivators born with a natural spiritual physique, such as the Fiery Spiritual Physique, which was innately attuned to fire-attribute cultivation techniques; even with a mortal spiritual root, their cultivation speed could rival that of an Earth-grade spiritual root cultivator.
There were also the Lightning Spiritual Physique, the Three-Yang Physique, the Xuanwu Physique, and so on.
Yet such physiques were exceedingly rare, even scarcer than Heaven-grade spiritual root cultivators.
Anyone born with a natural spiritual physique was destined to be a powerhouse of the future.
Just as there were natural spiritual physiques, there were naturally acquired spiritual physiques as well.
The varieties of acquired spiritual physiques were far more complex; some had effects even better than natural spiritual physiques, while others were utterly useless.
For instance, the Lightning-Attracting Physique, which naturally drew lightning strikes.
These were all acquired through fortuitous encounters.
Zhou Xun possessed a dual fire-and-wood spiritual root, with his fire attribute affinity at 11 and his wood attribute affinity at 17, which placed him in the upper tier even among Low-grade spiritual roots.
As for the remaining three attributes—metal, water, and earth—their affinities were all less than 1, so they were excluded from the calculation.
Although he lacked an affinity stone to measure his spiritual qi affinity, judging by his speed in refining spiritual qi, his spiritual root should already rank among the mid-grade.
At this thought, Zhou Xun could not help casting his gaze toward the remaining stalk of Spirit-Gathering Grass.
"If I were to refine this stalk as well, could I directly advance to mid Qi Condensation?"
A mid Qi Condensation cultivator at age seventeen could be considered a genius even within the four major clans.
Zhou Xun quickly dismissed the thought.
Having been at the second layer of Qi Condensation just a few days ago, only to suddenly become a mid Qi Condensation expert a few days later—even a fool would know that a massive stroke of fortune must be behind it.
Naturally, Zhou Xun did not dare to take such a risk.
"I had better save this stalk of Spirit-Gathering Grass for breaking through to late Qi Condensation. Medicinal herbs are abundant on the market; there's no need to squander such an extremely rare treasure!"
Besides, Zhou Xun had already broken through to Level 3 Qi Condensation, reaching the standard to apply for the alchemical apprentice selection.
Coupled with his now-enhanced spiritual root aptitude, success in being selected was now a high probability.
Once he became an alchemical apprentice, handling medicinal herbs would be an everyday occurrence.
Thus, Zhou Xun put the Spirit-Gathering Grass away.
Only then did he have the leisure to look at the remnants of the refined Spirit-Gathering Grass.
The jade-green spiritual plant had completely vanished, leaving behind only a small pile of grayish-white ash.
No matter who looked at it, no one would ever recognize that this had once been the renowned Spirit-Gathering Grass of the immortal cultivation world.
"It truly condensed every single shred of its essence!"
Zhou Xun uttered a sigh of praise, then tidied up briefly and strode out of the quiet room.
The days that followed were all spent by Zhou Xun in cultivation.
Time flew by, and ten days slipped away in a flash.
The day for the alchemical apprentice selection finally arrived.