The mere thought that the mist of Spiritual Energy might be highly toxic caused Shi Lei's expression to change drastically.
He quickly sat cross-legged on the ground, circulated his Cultivation Manual, and began to inspect his body inwardly.
However, after running the Changchun Formula twice, Shi Lei still did not detect any abnormalities within his body; there was not the slightest thing wrong with him.
This allowed him to relax slightly.
"It seems the Spiritual Energy inside this Vine House is non-toxic," Shi Lei muttered to himself.
...
He had only seen this Demon Python in the original owner's memories before. Seeing it again now, Shi Lei no longer felt the despair, terror, and panic of the first time. Moreover, he discovered inside the Vine House that the Demon Python outside seemed completely oblivious to his presence.
"Huh, it really doesn't seem to see me... but how am I supposed to leave this place?"
The very thought of leaving this room gave Shi Lei a massive headache.
Still, he was perfectly safe for the moment, and with food and water available, Shi Lei had plenty of time on his hands and was not in any rush.
Shi Lei figured that given enough time, a solution would eventually turn up. Sooner or after, he would surely figure out the secret of this room and learn how to leave it. After all, the room was only so big; aside from the useless artificial rockery and the pillar of light in the center, there was nothing else. Since he could get in, there had to be a way out.
...
As for the future...
He also had a plan in mind. He figured that as long as his cultivation level rose to the 7th Layer and he broke through to the Qi Refinement Late-stage, his chances of escaping would increase significantly.
At the very least, when facing this Demon Python, he would no longer be a vulnerable, defenseless little handyman cultivator who could be easily crushed!
...
After Shi Lei circulated the Changchun Formula twice, a rich wood-type Spiritual Energy slowly drifted and filled the room once more.
This was the absolute best time for cultivation!
Therefore, Shi Lei paid no more attention to the Demon Python outside and focused entirely on his cultivation once again, unwilling to miss this prime opportunity.
...
Time ticked away drop by drop...
Shi Lei's cultivation increased bit by bit...
Day after day, he practiced diligently without stopping...
He had no idea how much time had passed outside; his only reference point now was the harvest of medicinal herbs inside the room. He discovered that apart from the wild Spirit Rice, ordinary herbs grew at a terrifying speed—even chives at home would be put to shame, harvested crop after crop...
Before long, his cultivation also reached the Qi Condensation Level 6 Peak, just half a step away from the Qi Refinement 7th Layer.
At this point, his cultivation realm had once again hit a bottleneck, and his progress began to stagnate.
However, Shi Lei did not mind. Every day he continued as usual: cultivating, farming, sleeping, and resting. Although the process of cultivation was extremely dry and boring, he persisted tirelessly.
Sometimes Shi Lei even felt that having this Demon Python as a companion made things feel a little less lonely.
It was just that the Demon Python had no idea that not far away, nestled inside its very nest, existed someone like Shi Lei.
...
Originally, Shi Lei thought breaking through to the Qi Refinement 7th Layer would be just as easy as his previous breakthrough to Qi Refinement 4th Layer.
He simply hadn't expected reality to be so unsatisfactory.
Shi Lei discovered that ever since the space of the room had left the python's belly and relocated to a corner of the serpent's nest, the misty wood spiritual energy appearing inside the room, though still dense, seemed noticeably thinner than before.
Previously, when cultivating amidst the misty spiritual energy, he could clearly feel a strong sense of oppression and suffocation brought by the mist.
Lately, however, he could clearly sense that his body had completely adapted to that oppression and suffocation. As he inhaled and exhaled the spiritual energy and ran his cultivation method, he felt increasingly at ease.
"Could it be that because the room's space detached from the snake's belly, the spiritual energy inside has thinned out? Or is it because my cultivation has increased, so I no longer feel that intense oppression and suffocation? Could it truly be that the concentration of this misty spiritual energy isn't high enough, which is why I haven't broken through?" Shi Lei guessed. He now believed that the previous sense of oppression and suffocation was the key to breaking through his cultivation bottleneck.
"Is that really how it is? Sigh, it looks like my cultivation speed is going to slow down again."
If the disciples within the Qianyuan Sect heard Shi Lei say this, they would surely laugh with exasperation.
One had to know that Shi Lei was merely a cultivator with four-attribute False Spiritual Roots. For an ordinary False Spiritual Root cultivator, reaching the Qi Refinement Mid-stage was already a matter of extreme fortune.
Yet he was only fourteen years old, and within just over a dozen days, his cultivation had rocketed from the Qi Refinement 3rd Layer directly to the Mid-stage, and soon leaped all the way to the 6th Peak. Such a pace was simply like riding a rocket.
Ordinary cultivators wouldn't even dare to dream of such a thing, yet Shi Lei was actually complaining that his cultivation speed was too slow.
A speed like this completely surpassed even Heaven Spiritual Root cultivators; only those who experienced sudden enlightenment could compare to Shi Lei's current rate of growth.
Furthermore, Shi Lei did not know that his previous breakthrough to the Qi Refinement Mid-stage happened because he had lingered at the 3rd Layer for many years, meaning the foundation of his Early-stage cultivation was already thoroughly consolidated and solid.
It was simply that because he possessed False Spiritual Roots, breaking through bottlenecks was naturally exceedingly difficult—unless the sect bestowed a breakthrough pill, which was an entirely different matter.
However, alchemical pills themselves were exceptionally expensive, and breakthrough pills were the pinnacle among alchemical pills; their value went without saying.
Nameless little handymen like him were countless within the sect, and cultivators of their sort had zero presence, existing entirely at the margins. Why would the sect spend resources to cultivate a False Spiritual Root with no prospects?
Therefore, his previous breakthrough past the Qi Refinement 4th Layer bottleneck was due to three things:
First, his Early-stage foundation had been polished until it was extremely solid and stable.
Second, the dense wood-type Spiritual Energy inside the Vine House he obtained was exceptionally compatible with his cultivation manual, the Changchun Formula.
Third, along the way, he had followed the patrol and demon-hunting team to gain practical experience. Although he rarely fought personally, his state of mind and experience had improved considerably.
With these three factors coming together, he broke through easily. It was entirely a natural result of conditions coming together, with nothing particularly strange about it. In other words, Shi Lei's opportunity had arrived, and it was simply time for him to break through.
It was just that Shi Lei did not fully understand the logic behind it yet, as this was his first time breaking through a cultivation bottleneck.
Right now, he kept thinking about escaping this place and was in a rush to break through to a higher cultivation realm; it was just that his opportunity to reach the Qi Refinement Late-stage had not yet arrived.
The outcome could thus be imagined. He blindly and deliberately cultivated, repeatedly trying hard to break through. After many attempts, Shi Lei found that the bottleneck of the Qi Refinement Late-stage remained extremely firm with no signs of loosening, which left him quite discouraged for a time.
Now, not only was he unable to leave the Vine House, but outside there was also a mutated First Order Late-stage Demon Python that he was powerless to fight. All of this made Shi Lei very depressed.
Even though a stroke of fortune and destiny lay directly before him, compared to the opportunity, Shi Lei naturally wanted to escape this place immediately and stay far away from that huge, terrifying Demon Python.
"Huh, this room seems to have grown a lot larger again." Just as Shi Lei was feeling somewhat dejected, lowering his head to look at a corner of the room, he suddenly discovered that the Vine House had grown a circle larger than before.
The entire Vine House now actually measured six zhang across!
Looking at the golden, plump grains of rice piled up before him, Shi Lei fell into a brief trance.
"Should I give it a try?" As a time-traveler hailing from the Blue Star, Shi Lei had naturally never eaten raw food, let alone ever imagined that one day he would have to eat rice grains raw. Originally, he had no desire to consume this spirit rice, especially since all his cooking utensils had been lost.
Even a clever housewife could not cook a meal without rice, and without pots, bowls, and ladles, it was difficult for Shi Lei to make a decent pot of spirit rice.
However, he was now a Qi Condensation Level 6 cultivator, and his physical body was countless times sturdier than that of an ordinary mortal!
Moreover, recently he had been constantly consuming ginseng, Polygonatum, kudzu, goji berries, and other medicinal plants. Although these were only ordinary herbs, whether due to the dense spiritual energy of this place or not, these mature herbs actually carried faint wisps of spiritual energy.
Shi Lei ate these herbs like meals and used them like water every day. Over a long period, the effects he gained were already comparable to consuming some First Order spiritual herbs. Naturally, this had a tremendous effect on a cultivator's cultivation and physique.
Previously, Shi Lei hadn't eaten the Spirit Rice because there wasn't much wild spirit rice to begin with. However, after all these days, the quantity of mature rice had piled up.
Now, thinking that the spirit rice was a spiritual plant rich in spiritual energy, consuming it would definitely yield far better cultivation results than ordinary herbs. In order to break through to the Qi Refinement 7th Layer as soon as possible, he decided to risk it—so what if it had to be eaten raw?
Without further hesitation, Shi Lei hurriedly plucked the wild spirit rice grains from the ears one by one, popped them into his mouth piece by piece, and began to chew slowly.
As he chewed, Shi Lei spat out the outer husks...
"Huh, this actually tastes pretty good. So spirit rice is this delicious." While chewing the spirit rice and running the Changchun Formula, Shi Lei indeed felt the mana within his body grow significantly thicker.
"As expected of spirit rice, it truly didn't let me down." Great joy welled up in Shi Lei's heart.