Chapter 22: Dispersing Cultivation

  Made it onto the new book chart, wasn't easy, didn't ask for votes before, this time I'm mustering up the courage to ask for some, hope it doesn't drop off.

  There is still one more shift in the afternoon.

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  After returning to his room, Wang Lin immediately closed the door. The four Soul Devouring Pills he hadn't consumed were placed in his storage bag. Now, he was going to conduct an experiment with a mysterious pearl.

  Carefully taking out the beads and gourd, Wang Lin pondered for a moment, his face changing unpredictably, weighing the pros and cons in his heart. The dew was the key to his future cultivation; without it, his own cultivation would definitely slow down.

  The mysterious pearl's cloud was still tightly grasping his curiosity, and after a long time, he made up his mind that even if the dew was gone, it could be accumulated again, but at the cost of some time. However, once this pearl appears with its tenth cloud, who knows what kind of strange changes might occur, and by then, soaking in the spring water might increase his spiritual energy to an unimaginable realm.

  He thought of this, and without saying a word, he immediately took out the best morning dew water gourd, prepared a stone bowl, and slowly poured out the frozen liquid from the gourd after exerting himself for half a day.

  Before long, the dew was gone, and in the stone bowl, a small half-bowl of green oil appeared. A refreshing fragrance gradually wafted out, and as soon as Wang Lin smelled it, he felt his heart expand with joy, and his whole body relaxed.

  He was worried that this breath would attract the attention of others in the school, and immediately threw the beads inside, observing carefully, only to find that they were slightly reduced after a long time.

  Wang Lin felt somewhat disappointed, he had thought that it would catalyze immediately. Fortunately, the fragrance dissipated instantly after throwing in the stone beads. Wang Lin meditated for a moment, placed the stone bowl under the bed, sat cross-legged on the bed holding the low-grade spirit stone to practice breathing exercises.

  His breathing gradually stabilized with one long and three short breaths. Although he still hadn't succeeded in summoning a spirit into his body over the past two months, he was no longer unable to use this breathing method for more than a short period of time without becoming winded. He had now become accustomed to this way of breathing and even when not meditating, he mostly breathed like this normally.

  One night passed and at dawn, Wang Lin opened his eyes. He hastily took out the stone bowl from under the bed and found that it was half gone, but the tenth cloud on the bead still hadn't appeared.

  He didn't give up, after putting the stone bowl back in place, he hesitated for a moment, took out a pill from his storage bag and swallowed it, a surge of heat immediately appeared from within his body.

  Wang Lin spent a month at Sun Dazhu's place, going through this process every day. He was familiar with the routine and would hurriedly inhale and exhale until nightfall again. He slowly exhaled a long white breath, furrowed his brow, and muttered to himself: "This Lingdan is actually similar to Sun Dazhu's medicinal soup, both containing some spiritual herbs that make my body feel comfortable and my spirit full, even eliminating hunger. Unfortunately, I still can't condense any spiritual energy."

  He let out a light sigh, Wang Zuo could reach the first layer of Qi Condensation in just three months. On the surface, Wang Lin didn't seem to have any abnormalities, but in his heart, he was deeply moved. Innate talent, indeed, it's the key to cultivating immortality.

  But Wang Lin's character did not allow him to give up easily, he secretly told himself that he had a mysterious pearl, and his spiritual energy was not lacking, although he could not condense the spiritual energy now, with time, he would naturally succeed.

  "Time..." Wang Lin gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and pulled out the stone bowl from under the bed. He looked at it and saw that there was only a little left, but the bead still hadn't appeared on the tenth cloud.

  He immediately took out the night dew gourd and poured out what was inside, this time a bit more, and after filling it up there was still some left. Wang Lin drank the remaining liquid in one gulp and continued to spit out air.

  This time, the heat flowing inside his body was thicker than all the previous ones, almost reaching a substantial level as it slowly flowed through his body. The feeling of dry mouth and tongue immediately appeared, and Wang Lin gritted his teeth and breathed in and out in a long-three-short rhythm.

  Not long after, Wang Lin felt something was off. The heat flow within his body did not slowly dissipate as it had before, but instead grew more and more intense with each breath, a thread of suffocating pain spreading throughout his entire body. Wang Lin had the illusion that he was an expanding balloon, already reaching the limits of his physical form.

  Wang Lin was shocked and hastily stopped his breathing exercise, but the bloated pain still existed. He opened his eyes and immediately discovered with terror that all the blood vessels on his body had bulged out, as if a strip of dark green worms were stuck to his skin, making people's hair stand on end.

  Wang Lin did not know that the medicinal soups he had been drinking previously contained very little spiritual energy. Even if he absorbed the surrounding heaven and earth spiritual energy in a long-three-short rhythm, the total amount of spiritual energy was still less than the rate at which his body lost spiritual energy due to its lack of spiritual roots.

  Furthermore, every time a critical moment arrives, Huā Líng Cǎo will take effect, so the gathering of spiritual energy within the body has never been successful.

  But now it's different, the dew he drank contains spiritual energy far beyond medicine, almost to an unimaginable degree, far exceeding the speed at which his body's spiritual roots dissipate spiritual energy. At this time, if he didn't practice breathing exercises, it would be fine, and over time, it would naturally slowly dissipate. But once he practices breathing exercises, it's like adding fuel to the fire.

  He knew he was in trouble, but didn't know how to deal with it, and could only watch as his blood vessels bulged to the point of bursting. At this moment, a ray of spiritual light flashed into his mind, and Wang Lin didn't have time to think before gritting his teeth and reversing his breathing, exhaling in short bursts and inhaling deeply in a 1:3 ratio.

  In his opinion, since proper breathing is absorbing vital energy, reverse breathing is likely releasing vital energy.

  Wang Lin's guess was more or less correct. This reverse breathing method is known to everyone in the Cultivation Realm, as it is precisely the early preparation for rebuilding one's foundation after scattering their Qi.

  As he breathed, strands of spiritual energy emerged from every pore on his body, only to be sucked into the bed and absorbed by the stone beads.

  Time slowly passed, and the swelling sensation in Wang Lin's body gradually dissipated. The blue veins on his skin also slowly returned to normal. At this time, what was emitted from his body was no longer spiritual energy, but rather strands of turbid gas. These gases were not absorbed by the stone beads, but instead dispersed into the air on their own.

  Wang Lin coincidentally managed to completely expel the Spiritual Herb from his body.

  If you want to force out the Huā Líng Cǎo, there are only two methods. One is to use a large amount of spiritual energy to grind it away bit by bit until it's completely transformed. This was also the method used by Sūn Dàzhù. Later on, because he was disheartened and disappointed with Wáng Lín, he became indifferent to him.

  The second method is to disperse the cultivation, dispersing all the spiritual energy in the body and starting over. Sun Dazhu did not choose this method because Wang Lin's body lacked spiritual energy at that time, and as soon as he had a little, it would immediately disperse, making it impossible to meet the requirements of dispersing the cultivation.

  The process of dispersing his cultivation lasted for a day and night, and Wang Lin finally fell weakly onto the bed, grateful that he had managed to save his life. From now on, he definitely couldn't drink dew randomly again.

  He was drowsy and his whole body felt sleepy, he fell asleep in a daze.