Absorbing spiritual energy through practicing cultivation techniques was a very simple matter for Leng Zhuxin, who had practiced the Dao in her past life. The difficult part was how to guide spiritual energy matching her own attributes into her body.
Leng Zhuxin guided the technique through a minor circulation and immediately understood that beginner cultivation techniques were, in reality, enhanced versions of Daoist arts.
It was just that in later generations, spiritual energy was sparse, and the Five Elements spiritual energy was not as clearly demarcated as in the Immortal Cultivation World. Later generations had merely modified immortal cultivation techniques into methods that only required bone structure to guide energy into the dantian for practice.
At their core, the two were identical—or to some extent, the techniques of later generations were even more formidable.
Dantians were possessed by cultivators, and bone structures were also possessed by cultivators. The Immortal Cultivation World distinguished them by Spiritual Roots, dictating which attribute's Spiritual Root could only practice a corresponding technique and absorb a corresponding type of spiritual energy.
However, cultivators of later generations were not restricted to absorbing spiritual energy matching their Spiritual Roots; naturally, that spiritual energy could not be stored within the Spiritual Root, but was instead stored in the dantian.
A flash of insight crossed Leng Zhuxin's mind. She first discarded the Qingxuan Sect's beginner technique and used the Daoist cultivation methods she had learned in her past life to guide the spiritual energy directly into her dantian.
The dense Five Elements spiritual energy rushed eagerly into her meridians, rendering itself not in the pale white of later generations, but in brilliant colors due to the power of the Five Elements.
"It works!" A wave of joy washed over Leng Zhuxin. Unhurriedly, she then began operating the second half of the Qingxuan Sect's beginner technique, channeling the water- and ice-attribute spiritual energy—which her ice Spiritual Root could utilize—into her ice Spiritual Root.
This seemed merely to replace the external screening of matching spiritual energy with internal screening within the dantian, but in reality, it greatly accelerated the process.
While this might not be apparent with a single Spiritual Root, for those with mixed Spiritual Roots, it would drastically improve cultivation speed.
The reason the Immortal Cultivation World currently revered single Spiritual Roots was simply because they only needed to absorb a single type of spiritual energy, resulting in fast cultivation. Yet if everyone could absorb energy into the body regardless of attribute and then use the dantian to shunt the various elemental energies into their respective places, this problem would be solved to a certain extent.
Moreover, since the Five Elements generate one another, this might actually prove even stronger than a single Spiritual Root, allowing for a much greater variety of applicable techniques and moves!
Even for those with single, dual, or triple Spiritual Roots, the other elemental energies stored in the dantian should theoretically be releasable—though without the corresponding Spiritual Root, advancement would be impossible, and the power would be somewhat inferior.
As Leng Zhuxin thought this, she overlooked the fact that not everyone possessed her level of comprehension and bone structure. Her bloodline was inherently special, her meridians were broader, and she had the cultivation experience of a past life, which was why she could guide the Five Elements spiritual power into her dantian with such ease.
If someone else were to rashly guide the Five Elements spiritual power inside, the conflicting elements would overwhelm the body, causing it to burst apart and die.
All this was still unknown to Leng Zhuxin, who was currently immersed in cultivation. She only felt a slight regret that she possessed a mere single Spiritual Root, and even felt the impulsive urge to use the Spirit-Evoking Grass to turn herself into a person with mixed Spiritual Roots.
Yet mixed Spiritual Roots enjoyed the fewest resources across all major sects and almost invariably ended up as handymen. If she did not possess the Heavenly Ice Spiritual Root, Gu Langhuai likely would not have taken her as a disciple. Furthermore, the purity of a Spiritual Root obtained through Spirit-Evoking Grass was extremely low, severely limiting future advancement. For Leng Zhuxin at present, the disadvantages outweighed the benefits, forcing her to temporarily suppress the thought.
Suppressing the urge to use the Spirit-Evoking Grass, Leng Zhuxin resumed her earnest practice of the technique, patiently attempting to merge the two methods to draw upon their respective strengths and discard their weaknesses. Moving from initial unfamiliarity to complete mastery took her merely a quarter of an hour.
A series of popping sounds echoed within her body. The meridians throughout her physique—previously having only cleared the Governor and Conception vessels—were now completely unblocked.
At this point, Qi Guidance had actually been successfully achieved, yet Leng Zhuxin continued her cultivation, attempting to compress the spiritual energy within her dantian and meridians so as to store an even greater volume of it.
After continuously executing several major circulations, she finally grasped a hint of the knack, successfully stepping into Qi Condensation Level 1!
Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, Leng Zhuxin opened her eyes and decided to cultivate within the Dimension.
Her meridians were now much wider than before, and she had successfully completed Qi Guidance. Entering the Dimension to cultivate now was optimal, as her meridians would not be injured by excessively dense spiritual energy.
...
To the naked eye, the Dimension seemed unchanged, yet Leng Zhuxin simply sensed that it had grown slightly larger.
"A growing Dimension?" Leng Zhuxin muttered to herself. Finding a suitable measuring tool, she measured its width and length respectively, then sat cross-legged on the ground and began to cultivate.
The spiritual energy inside the Dimension was so dense it felt almost tangible. With every breath Leng Zhuxin drew, spiritual energy entered her body; even without running a technique, she would benefit immensely, and when she did run her technique, the absorption became faster still.
The aura surrounding her surged step by step, breaking through to Qi Condensation Level 5 in a mere half-hour.
She could have broken through to Qi Condensation Level 6 as well, but she believed cultivation was like building a house, where the foundation was paramount. The foundations of cultivation were the Qi Condensation Stage and the Foundation Establishment Stage. Breaking through all the way to Qi Condensation Level 6 today was already a realm many failed to reach in several years; fearing an unstable foundation if she pushed further, she halted her progress, intending to consolidate her gains for a few days before attempting another breakthrough.
The changes within the Dimension during this consecutive five-tier breakthrough were visible to the naked eye. After measuring, Leng Zhuxin found it had expanded by a full five meters! This proved her hypothesis: this Dimension grew alongside its master.
With each breakthrough in the Qi Condensation Stage, it should expand by roughly one meter, and who knows—once she reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, the increase might be even greater.
Thrilled, Leng Zhuxin inspected the medicinal herb field and the Cold Abyss from the front of the thatched cottage to the back. As expected, the areas of the herb field and the Cold Abyss had also grown.
The Cold Abyss, in particular, now featured a new well-mouth-sized pool opening right beside the water where she had soaked, bordering the mist. Recalling that ingesting the spiritual water of the Cold Abyss had miraculous effects in treating internal injuries, Leng Zhuxin felt an even greater surge of joy.
She retrieved a jade bottle and filled it with the water, keeping it ready for emergencies.
The thatched cottage remained unchanged, just as before. Because she had previously only made Chenbing acknowledge her as master without fully refining it, and now that she had successfully completed Qi Guidance and could refine treasures, Leng Zhuxin first refined Chenbing and stored it within her body.
Only then did she check the technique jade slips on the wooden cabinet beside her.
There were four jade slips in total. Leng Zhuxin pressed them against her forehead one by one. The first was a talisman jade slip, which recorded the drawing and usage methods for various talismans—more profound and comprehensive than those of the Qingxuan Sect.
The second was for alchemy recipes. Compared to the first jade slip, which bore Leng Hua's annotations, this one was clearly rarely used by Leng Hua, containing nothing aside from the original pill recipes.
Of the remaining two, one was the Chenbing Scripture, suitable for ice-attribute cultivation, while the other was a sword technique called the Chenbing Sword.
The sword technique and the cultivation method clearly formed a complete set. Their grade was unclear, but it was certainly not low; both were self-created by Leng Hua. The sword technique jade slip also mentioned a sword named Chenbing, which was precisely meant to be used in conjunction with this sword style.
The Chenbing Sword—Leng Zhuxin felt the name was somewhat familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before, but try as she might, she could not recall it.
The Chenbing Sword could not possibly be an item from her original world. If she had heard of it, it could only be from the original owner's memories or the plotline, and there was a very high probability it was right here within the Qingxuan Sect! Thinking of this, she resolved to go and ask her eldest senior brother.