Chapter Thirty-Five: Earth Spirit Pill

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  Lei Dong moved into the area where his fellow disciples lived, without any pretenses. After all, the earlier he started cultivating in the training room built on top of the spiritual cave, the more power he could accumulate. Cultivating immortality wasn't just about competing with others, but also about defying the heavens. Within a limited lifespan, constantly going against the natural order to achieve immortality and becoming one with the universe.

  The Lingxue's effect is quite good, combined with the Peiyuan Dan that is even better than the Xiaopei Yuandan, it makes Leidong's cultivation increase day by day. Every month, he would go to listen to Laozu's lecture for a whole day. In fact, Laozu's direct disciples are far more than just Leidong and his two peers in this generation. Generally speaking, every ten years, he would accept three direct disciples. This tradition has been maintained for over 70 years since Laozu advanced to the Jindan stage and had his own separate cave. Although they are nominally direct disciples, Laozu never allows those who have not reached the foundation-building period to call him "Shifu". Only after reaching the foundation-building period would one become Laozu's true inner disciple, truly being considered as one of his own people.

  In theory, over the course of seventy years, the Old Ancestor should have accepted twenty or so personally taught disciples. However, up until now, the Old Ancestor's inner sect disciples only number five, which is to say the five judges presiding over this small competition. As for the remaining personally taught disciples, there are only about ten in total. The rest either fell halfway or were stuck at a certain layer of the Qi Refining stage for decades, ultimately leaving in disappointment to establish their own cultivation families outside, branching out and dispersing. If among their descendants there were those with decent innate talent, they would be recommended once more to the sect.

  It can be seen that advancing from the Qi Refining stage to the Foundation Building stage is not as easy as one might imagine. One can imagine how many of those in the same generation as Lei Dong will ultimately reach the Foundation Building stage? Perhaps only Ding Wenyuan has a relatively high chance, while the rest, including Zuo Chao and Lei Dong, will have to rely on luck.

  Although the Qi Refining stage is divided into twelve layers, each layer may encounter bottlenecks. However, as you progress further, the difficulty of each promotion will become increasingly greater. In addition, every four layers, a relatively large bottleneck will be encountered. For example, from the fourth layer to the fifth layer, from the eighth layer to the ninth layer, and also from the twelfth layer to the first layer of the Foundation Building stage, the most cultivators are stuck at these three levels.

  Therefore, the first four layers of the Qi Refining stage are collectively referred to as the Early Stage of Qi Refining, followed by the Middle Stage and the Late Stage.

  Two and a half years, a whole two and a half years have passed in the blink of an eye.

  At this point, Leidong had been a direct disciple for quite some time. Combining the advantages of being a direct disciple with his own diligent and focused cultivation over the past two years, his progress was rapid and he broke through two levels in just one and a half years, reaching the fifth level. After that, it took him nine months to reach the peak of the fifth level. However, for the next three months, no matter how hard he cultivated, he made no progress. He tried forcing his way through the levels three times, but each attempt ended in failure, and his meridians and acupoints were damaged during these attempts, requiring a period of recuperation to recover.

  No doubt, this is the legendary bottleneck. Leidong couldn't help but smile wryly, as it was relatively easy to encounter bottlenecks in the fourth and fifth layers, and he broke through easily. However, from the fifth layer to the sixth layer, it was impossible to cross over even if one died trying. This bottleneck thing is really annoying, unpredictable, and comes suddenly.

  After reading a lot of materials about bottlenecks, Lei Dong was also speechless. Sometimes, it's possible to break through with just one battle. Sometimes, when watching the scenery, you suddenly realize something. But sometimes, even if you spend ten years traveling outside, watch countless landscapes, and fight hundreds of times, you still can't break through.

  However, after countless years of development in the cultivation world up to today, there have been countless stunning talents. After numerous attempts and explorations, many elixirs were also developed to increase the chances of breaking through the pass. However, most of these elixirs have various dangerous factors, with mild cases resulting in severe damage to the meridians and a setback in cultivation, while severe cases may even cost one's life.

  Those truly side-effect-free elixirs are all made from the Thousand-Year Divine Elixir, with powerful effects that drive cultivators to break through their bottlenecks and increase their chances of success. However, due to the materials used, the price of such elixirs is naturally extremely expensive. Consider this: a single stalk of Hundred-Year Fire-Tempered Divine Grass is worth no less than a hundred Ling, while the value of Thousand-Year Divine Elixir is at least a hundred times that amount.

  A single thousand-year-old spiritual medicine, plus some precious auxiliary materials, even at cost price, would be worth tens of thousands. Assuming that the material can be refined into ten pills, with a success rate of thirty percent. Then, the final pill that is beneficial and harmless for breaking through the bottleneck, just in terms of cost, would be worth three to four thousand.

  In fact, Lei Dong had also inquired about the Earth Spirit Pill at the sect's medicine exchange. The thing was called the Earth Spirit Pill, and each pill required a contribution value of 100,000 points. He had also asked Zhao Baiwan to investigate, and the market price of the Earth Spirit Pill outside was usually between 4,000 to 6,000 spirit stones, with very limited quantities. Such value was simply astronomical for Lei Dong. However, he couldn't deny that the reputation of the Earth Spirit Pill was good. Except for those at the peak of the 12th layer of the Qi Refining stage who wanted to use the Earth Spirit Pill to build their foundation and had slightly insufficient effect, the success rate of the other layers was still quite high. Especially since Lei Dong's current bottleneck was only at the fifth level of the sixth stage. As long as his talent wasn't too far off, once he possessed an Earth Spirit Pill, he could almost certainly break through with a 100% chance. The remaining medicinal properties would also save him a large amount of time in his cultivation.

  As for letting the old ancestor bestow a grain of Earth Spirit Dan, that's simply wishful thinking. Every personal disciple who wants to break through the bottleneck has to be bestowed with Earth Spirit Dan by the old ancestor, even if he is a figure on the Golden Dan path, it will still make him poor. The vast majority of people, when encountering an insurmountable bottleneck, will choose to go out and travel, trying to smoothly pass through in a certain coincidence.

  But Lei Dong didn't think this was a good idea. Traveling, indeed, would have a chance to gain insight into the world and break through bottlenecks with the help of heaven's momentum. But the problem is that this thing is too unreliable. Maybe going out today will be settled tomorrow. But maybe it'll take three to five years, or even more tragic, ten or eight years are not impossible.

  Of course, going out is a must, staying in the Wan Gui Cave and breaking through the bottleneck has no benefits at all. It's not like nobody has done this before, sitting for many years, trying to break through repeatedly but failing every time, until one becomes disheartened. Leidong's goal is clearly placed on the Dilin Dan, but for the sake of the Dilin Dan, he must come up with some money somehow.

  Including the few spirit stones looted from Zhou Minghua's storage waistband, plus his own savings over the years, he only had a little over eighty spirit stones. As for the mid-grade spirit ghost rewarded by Laozu, it had never been moved and was sealed in something called a Soul Sealing Ball. However, even so, it was still far from being able to afford a single Earth Spirit Dan.

  After some thought, the plan was once again set on the Soul-Devouring Tower. However, every time a mid-grade spirit ghost is promoted, it requires absorbing the soul power of about 5,000 low-grade ghosts. According to the time it took for Lei Dong to capture them several years ago, it would take around a month. But now, Lei Dong was many times stronger than when he was at the second layer of Qi Refining, so his speed of capturing would be much faster. In just a few months' time, he would have more than enough capital to accumulate a Earth Spirit Pill.

  As for selling mid-grade spiritual energy, Leidong is no longer the small fry he was back in his Qi Refining Second Layer days. With his current cultivation at the peak of the Fifth Layer, plus the growth of the three ghostly servants over the years, although they didn't have many opportunities to devour flesh and blood, they gradually grew to around the fifth level peak. This kind of strength may not be enough to sweep away mid-term Qi Refining cultivators, but as long as it's not those with extremely high prices, covered in middle to upper-grade artifacts... even if he encounters ordinary Seventh or Eighth Layer Qi Refiners, Leidong wouldn't be afraid. And in this lower world of the cultivation realm, Seventh or Eighth Layer Qi Refiners are already considered small-time experts. As for Foundation Establishment cultivators, they're extremely rare. Just think about it, even among the tens of thousands of ghosts in the Wan Gui Cave, including the ghost slaves, there were only six Foundation Establishment cultivators...

  Of course, being careful and cautious is still the main theme of Lei Dong's actions. He tries not to stir up trouble whenever possible. Spending a small amount of money, he obtained a jade map of the Yin Xie Sect's sphere of influence, marking out all the relatively lower-level Yin Xie locations within it. It's no wonder this place is called the Yin Xie Sect - Lei Dong felt his scalp tingle when he saw those densely packed markings.

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