Chapter 20: The Distinction of Spiritual Energy

  "In the future, think about refining Dan yourself and prepare the materials." After finishing speaking, the strange old man casually threw a Qiankun bag to Leng Yun, "According to the sect's rules, one thousand low-grade spirit stones, one hundred mid-grade spirit stones, as well as all of the sect's earth-level dan formulas and all of the xuan-level dan formulas. From today on, you can consider yourself graduated in terms of refining Dan. Those two purple gold sandalwood medicine cabinets are the master's gift to you for your graduation."

  "I'm done with my apprenticeship? Master, isn't this a bit too fast?" Leng Yun was stunned, but instead provoked a burst of white eyes from the old man.

  "Who told you to learn so quickly, if you slow down I can teach for a longer time!" By this point, the old man's temper was clearly getting worse. "Don't stand there being a nuisance, go out and buy some ordinary dan furnace, then you can try refining dan on your own. However, I advise you to get a new furnace, that Xuan Yin Ding of yours will produce dan medicine with an extremely cold yin energy, which those ordinary small fry who cultivate qi won't be able to withstand. Also, the dan formulas I gave you are all unique to our Dan Du Men, don't foolishly take them out to sell, those turtle grandsons from the Dan Ding Sect have noses more sensitive than dogs, be careful or your life will be finished in a few days."

  Leng Yun is currently studying the Xuan-level Dan formulas of the Dan Du Men, which do not require true fire. By adding the true yuan to the special Xuan Yin energy of the Xuan Yin Ding, it can be directly refined. In essence, it is using the unique Xuan Yin energy of the Xuan Yin Ding to refine the elixir, which is also a special skill of the Dan Du Men, just like Guai Lao Tou, who uses the Jin Gang energy to refine the elixir. Of course, this is also related to the quality of the Ding used by the Dan Du Men, which generally uses Tian Jie Ding. At the level of Tian Jie, the Ding itself already has a mysterious aura, so true fire is not necessary.

  Of course, the higher-grade elixirs in the later stages, or some special elixirs among the Xuan-grade ones, will definitely not be possible to refine with the cauldron's own special abilities.

  Leng Yun thought for a moment and couldn't help but think of the legendary Tianjie Dan formula, so he asked: "Master, what about our sect's Tianjie Dan formula?"

  Among the more than 3,000 books, Leng Yun had seen many records of Tianjie Dan medicine, and in fact, many were unique to Dantongmen, but this time, the old man didn't give him any Tianji Dan formula.

  "For a Heaven Rank Dan recipe, one million top-grade spirit stones for one recipe. Our sect currently has forty-nine Heaven Rank Dan recipes. If you want them, take 4.9 million top-grade spirit stones and they're yours."

  "What!" Lingyun exclaimed, "Master, isn't this too cruel?"

  Leng Yun learned from the book that Ling Shi is divided into four types. The lower grade is the most common and can be seen everywhere in the cultivation world, while the middle grade is already very rare and is generally used in some important places. As for the top grade, it can only be described with two words: extremely rare. Generally, a large spiritual stone mine will produce only a thousand or so high-grade spiritual stones, which are exclusively supplied to major formations or large arrays. Any sect that extracts them will never let them flow out easily, and ordinary cultivators may not even see one in their lifetime.

  "Harsh? This is the ancestral rule passed down from our sect." After saying that, he seemed to feel a bit too harsh and hurriedly added: "However, as long as you work hard every day, travel around, and diligently practice alchemy, by the time you reach the Nascent Soul stage and can refine Heaven-tier elixirs, you should have enough spirit stones to exchange for them. At that time, I'll be generous and let you choose freely."

  Leng Yun was taken aback, then asked strangely: "Master, is it random selection or your generosity?"

  The old man's eyes widened as soon as he heard this, "Of course, your master's ancestor was a stubborn old man who made me draw myself back then. I drew nine times before finally drawing the Divine Transformation Pill."

  Afterwards, Leng Yun didn't bother with the strange old man again. In his heart, he secretly scolded him. For the first time, he walked out of the courtyard, perhaps influenced by the strange old man. As for the strange old man as a master, Leng Yun didn't have any sense of reverence in his heart. Although he wasn't like the strange old man who cursed all day, privately cursing the old miser was also a common occurrence.

  As he walked out of the hospital, listening to the sounds coming from outside, Leng Yun somewhat understood why the old man didn't like squatting in the deep mountains. Afterwards, Leng Yun headed straight for the city gate, his purpose naturally being to head towards the famous Qiongjiang River outside the city of Rongzhou.

  Leng Yun wore the original coarse linen shirts that his mother had prepared for him when he left home. Although they were a bit small after two years, Leng Yun's mother had anticipated this possibility and made several larger ones. Now wearing them was still quite suitable, so Leng Yun didn't attract anyone's attention all the way out of the city to the riverbank.

  Walking to the riverbank, Leng Yun found a secluded clump of grass and looked around cautiously without being noticed. Then he skillfully slipped into the Qingjiang River. The extremely gentle movement of entering the water almost made the strange old man hiding in the dark with the hidden body technique and turtle breathing technique put the title of "yao shou" back on Leng Yun's head.

  Leng Yun naturally didn't know that the strange old man was secretly following him from behind. After entering the water, he swam quickly towards the area with the densest water energy, near the Crystal Water City. It's unlikely that any monster would dare to stay here. After more than half a time, Leng Yun finally found a cave at the bottom of the river at a bend in the river. This kind of cave excavated by the river vortex was not difficult for Leng Yun who was familiar with water. He swam in directly and sat stably at the bottom of the cave, which was also the place where he felt the strongest water spirit energy.

  Leng Yun didn't come to the river this time to swim, his purpose was actually very simple, he just wanted to refine his life-bound artifact. His target naturally wouldn't be the Xuan Yin Ding, if it were, he could have openly refined it in front of Gu Lao.

  He pulled out the strange bronze oil lamp from the dry Kun bag under his armpit, and with the appearance of this lamp, a faint blue glow immediately enveloped the originally pitch-black cave. Although the light was not strong, it seemed to allow Leng Yun to see even further than before. But this change was not the main thing; with the appearance of the lamp, the originally extremely dense water spiritual energy began to rapidly condense towards the small lamp, and its speed even exceeded Leng Yun's current perception - he could only feel that the surrounding water spiritual energy seemed to have transformed into a spiritual power vortex, with the exit being in his hand holding this small lamp.

  About an hour later, the condensation speed of the water spiritual energy had not decreased at all. To be honest, among the five elements of heaven and earth, gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, the easiest to gather should be the water spiritual energy. There are abundant water spiritual energies everywhere on the ground, in rivers, lakes, and seas. Next should be the earth spiritual energy. Unfortunately, these two types of spiritual roots have relatively weak attack power, and people with such spiritual roots are even the least among the five-element spiritual roots. Even if there are such spiritual roots, their quality is much lower than that of the gold, wood, and fire three elements.

  Of course, for this reason, many people have analyzed it from ancient times to the present, and generally believe that water is too light and spiritual, and human settlements are mostly slightly far away from water sources, so that the spiritual roots of water cannot condense. The earth's spiritual energy is too thick and heavy, and most of them are deeply buried underground, making it difficult for people to absorb, so one is too light and the other is too thick and heavy, resulting in both types of spiritual roots being extremely rare.