Chapter 12: The Goblin Clan's Cultivation Method

  Li Muran nodded and took out a Yuanqi symbol from his bosom.

  The young scholar suddenly delightedly said: "Great! One yuan qi symbol can let you read books in the library for a day."

  "Is it just for one day?" Li Muran said with some disappointment.

  The young man saw Li Muren hesitate and persuaded him, "This junior brother, the price of a yuanqi symbol is recognized as one piece of spiritual stone. The senior brother used his own spiritual stone to buy your yuanqi symbol, but didn't take advantage of you at all!"

  "Shixiong wants to buy a Yuanqi symbol?" Li Muran was taken aback.

  "Yes, in a few more days it will be the beginning of the month again, which is also the date when we disciples have to pay our respects to the sect by submitting Yuan Qi symbols. As an intermediate disciple of the Qi Pulse Sect, I need to submit ten one-star Yuan Qi symbols at a time, but I'm still short of three. I was just thinking of going to the market to buy a few from other fellow disciples." The young man let out a light sigh and explained his intentions.

  "Why doesn't Senior Brother refine the yuanqi symbol himself? With Senior Brother's cultivation, it shouldn't be difficult, right?" Li Muran asked with some surprise.

  Young man smiled wryly and said, "Those yuanqi are not easy to cultivate, using them to make talismans is a waste. In fact, many of my fellow disciples choose to buy talismans and keep their yuanqi to speed up their cultivation progress. You newcomers don't need to hand over your yuanqi talismans, if you refine them into talismans, why not sell them to us instead? We can also exchange some ling stones."

  "Ah-ha!" Li Muran's mind stirred and he asked in pursuit: "Earlier, senior brother mentioned the market, where is it? Are there talismans for sale?"

  "It's Pingnan Valley Market," the young man replied without hesitation. "It's a market jointly established by our four clans of Kuanglu, located in Pingnan Valley, forty miles south of the mountain gate. There are all kinds of treasures in the market, and as long as you have spirit stones, you can buy all kinds of talismans. Like this most ordinary first-grade talisman, two spirit stones can buy ten!"

  " Pingnan Valley Market!" Li Muran secretly remembered and said: "Senior brother, I'll exchange three one-star yuanqi symbols with you."

  "Thank you, young brother!" The youth was overjoyed: "Haha, this way, big brother, I can save the trouble of going to the market. However, for a novice disciple like little brother, it's necessary to go to the market and broaden his horizons. There are all sorts of precious treasures on display, and disciples from various sects gather there - that's what the true world of cultivation is like!"

  The young man took out three crystal stones the size of pigeon eggs, each emitting a faint glow, containing uncommon heavenly and earthly primal energy.

  Li Muran took a closer look and found that these crystal stones were exactly the same as the Ling Stones mentioned in the classics, and he could also sense the abundant yuan energy within them.

  After the transaction, Li Muran handed over a piece of Ling Stone to the other party and took out the disciple token to register his name, so he could enter the Book Pavilion to read freely.

  This young man surnamed Xiao, known as Xiao Shusheng; after trading with Li Muran, he became more familiar with him, and he specifically reminded him: "Zhao Shidi, my brother will put the books in this library according to category, each bookshelf has a special type, either Gongfa, or symbols, or strange things, or sect history materials, or introduction to Tiancai Dibao data, or random notes left by the elders of the sect. If you want to find Gongfa, go to the second floor; if you want to read biographical data, go to the third floor; the first floor's classics are mostly some miscellaneous random notes."

  "Thanks for the advice, Senior Xiao." Li Muran smiled slightly. He also used to like categorizing the books at home, arranging them by type and number of strokes in the title, making it easy to find them.

  "There are indeed many books hidden here, and I should be able to find the reason why my Yuan Qi disperses on its own at night!"

  "I hope to find a method that is suitable for nighttime practice and can preserve the primordial energy cultivated at night, so it doesn't dissipate on its own!"

  Li Muran had a clear goal and headed straight to the second floor, while Xiao Shixiong was not surprised at all. After all, the vast majority of disciples who came here were attracted by those countless techniques.

  Li Muran arrived at the second floor and was startled. The bookshelves here were dense and towering, with some books requiring a wooden ladder to reach. The total number of books stored here was more than ten times that of the first floor.

  "So many skills!" Li Muran was unsure whether to be delighted or worried, as if he had entered a treasure trove but unfortunately had limited strength and could only move a few treasures.

  This floor is also very clean and tidy, and there are no other people, it's very quiet, Li Muran is quite satisfied with this.

  "Where to start?" Li Muran muttered to himself, and casually took down a thin book from the nearby bookshelf.

  "The Key to Exhaling", just by the name, it's not the book Li Muran was looking for. He quickly flipped through a few pages and found that it was a classic that described the basic breathing techniques of Taoist internal alchemy, which was quite detailed. The many details mentioned in it matched Li Muran's current cultivation experience perfectly, and he was immediately drawn to it.

  Unknowingly, Li Muran had read for nearly half a day, until he turned over the last page of this book, and only then did he "suddenly wake up".

  "I've actually been reading for so long!" Li Muran was secretly surprised, but fortunately this book brought him a lot of gains, and it would definitely be beneficial for his future meditation and breathing exercises.

  Li Muran flipped through another book beside him, called "The Quiet Way", which described the key points and effects of several common quiet practices in Taoism, with a large number of fine illustrations interspersed.

  Although Li Muran was very interested, he hastily scanned it and forcibly put it back on the bookshelf.

  Li Muran quickly flipped through the classics, and in a short while, he had read dozens of books. Among them, there were several that were related to his current cultivation, but he still forced himself not to read them carefully, and instead continued to search for clues related to his special ancestral divine light.

  After flipping through more than a hundred books, Li Muran inadvertently flipped to a book called "Tao Qi Jiu Chong", which described the basic method of Taoist qigong and meridian cultivation. The first layer's oral formula was exactly what Qingfengzi taught Li Muran and other new disciples as their foundation practice.

  This book not only records the complete nine-layer mouth formula, but also comes with some detailed illustrations and explanations, some key difficulties and highlights are also repeatedly elaborated.

  Li Muran's heart moved, this technique was his current main cultivation technique, and it was worth spending some time on it. Moreover, he didn't know if the technique would mention that the primordial energy would disappear automatically during nighttime cultivation.

  Li Muran took out paper and pen, carefully reading through the manual while recording down the key incantations to avoid any mistakes due to memory lapses.

  After spending two hours, Li Muran carefully read through the not-too-complicated manual of kung fu and copied down all the key incantations.

  Li Muran's mood was complex, he had obtained a complete and suitable cultivation method for ordinary disciples. Unfortunately, the book didn't mention anything about the disappearance of yuanqi. Moreover, from the content of the book, it seemed that cultivating during the day or at night wouldn't make much difference.

  The problem obviously lies with myself.

  Li Muran continued to flip through the book, and before long, his mind was dull and dizzy.

  This phenomenon is very common. Suddenly, a large amount of information is accessed, and it's also necessary to spend effort selecting the useful parts from this information, which consumes a lot of brain power.

  "This won't do!" Li Muran shook his head and muttered to himself, having only browsed through a couple of hundred books in the past half day, which was less than one-tenth of the total number of books in this library.

  "Let's ask Xiao Shixiong instead, he is in charge of this place and knows more about the books here." Li Muran sighed lightly.

  Although he didn't want others to know what kind of skill he was looking for, at this time he had no choice but to seek help from others.

  "What kind of kung fu is especially suitable for nighttime practice?" Xiao Shusheng was taken aback, and from his reaction, it was clear that he had not expected Li Muran to ask such a strange question.

  Li Muran smiled slightly: "Hehe, Shidi is sleepy during the day, but has a lot of spirit at night, so I'll ask if there's such a skill."

  "In fact, most of the exercises are not divided into day and night, so disciples can also practice at night. Moreover, it is quieter at night, and many brothers in the door will practice at night, without special exercises." Xiao Shusheng explained a few sentences, then paused for a moment, and said: "To say that there are specialized nighttime exercises, really isn't none."

  "Really such a skill?" Li Muran was overjoyed.

  Xiao Shusheng shook his head and said: "Zhao Shidi, don't be so happy, this method is not suitable for you to cultivate!"

  "Not suitable for me? Why?" Li Muran was perplexed.

  "Because it's a demon clan technique!" Xiao Shusheng said with a smile.

  "Yao clan's Gong Fa?!" Li Muran was shocked.

  "Yes," Xiao Shusheng continued, "I also saw it in the classics. Apart from our human tribe, some beasts and flying birds can also spit out the primordial energy of heaven and earth to cultivate into demons. However, the cultivation of demons is different from that of humans. The main focus of demon cultivation is to transform energy into essence, mainly cultivating 'essence' rather than 'energy', hence the term 'demon essence'."

  "There are many demonic tribes that naturally prefer to act at night and cultivate at night. So, there must be some demonic tribe techniques that are particularly suitable for nighttime cultivation. However, the cultivation of demonic tribe techniques requires a corresponding demonic body and bloodline. Even if we humans obtain these techniques, it's impossible for us to cultivate them. On the innermost bookshelf on the third floor of the library, there are several books related to demonic cultivation techniques. If Zhao Shidi is interested, he can take a look."

  "Thanks for the advice, Senior Xiao!" Li Muran still asked somewhat discontentedly: "Isn't there a special cultivation method suitable for humans that is specifically practiced at night?"

  Xiao Shusheng hesitated for a moment before saying, "In my impression, it seems there isn't."

  Li Muran thought for a moment and asked again: "Is there such a senior in the immortal world who particularly likes to cultivate at night, but is very ordinary during the day?"

  Xiao Shusheng replied, "From ancient times to the present, the Xianxia world has given birth to countless strange people and events. There are naturally some of these kinds of people. On the bookshelf on the left side of the first floor, there are some related strange stories and legends. If Zhao Shidi is interested, he can take a look."

  "Thank you!" Li Muran bowed and headed towards the bookshelf.

  Xiao Shusheng furrowed his brow, hesitated for a moment, and couldn't help but remind him: "Zhao Shidi, just take a look, don't learn from those people's ways."

  "What does this mean?" Li Muran's face was full of confusion.