Chapter 14: Spirit and Flesh

  More and more spiritual energy is rising from the abdomen, guided by Yuan Tian, slowly continuing. Last time, due to practicing Ling Yu Jue, I touched the fourth layer of walls, which showed signs of loosening.

  The spiritual energy was accumulated and compressed, then burst forth in one movement. A cool sensation flowed down from the top of the head through the Baihui acupoint, passing through the Xuanzhong point all the way to the Dantian, before spreading out and permeating the entire body.

  What a refreshing feeling, the whole body has changed, this is breaking through to the fourth layer of practicing Qi.

  The effect of the spiritual beast meat is really good, it's a great thing. This kind of good thing, not to mention the miscellaneous disciples, even the outer door disciples can't eat it often. Take the outer door disciples of the Tianyuan Sword Sect for example, when eating, they usually eat more spiritual vegetables. Occasionally ordering spiritual meat to satisfy their cravings is only once or twice a month.

  Some disciples, in order to obtain more spiritual meat, went hunting in places where spiritual beasts were more abundant. Those with good luck managed to catch carnivorous spiritual beasts, such as the brown-gold rabbit that Yuan Tian ate today. Those with bad luck encountered ferocious spiritual beasts; "carnivorous" and "ferocious" sound similar, but are actually vastly different.

  Before being domesticated, the carnivorous spiritual beast was not much different from a demon beast. Its violent temperament combined with its powerful physique meant that anyone who encountered it would either be injured or lose their life.

  Those who have the ability to capture fierce spiritual beasts are all cultivators of a higher realm. Capturing spiritual beasts is not for eating their meat, but for training them into spiritual pets to assist in battle.

  The flesh of the spiritual beast is too difficult to swallow, but it's also extremely delicious and useful. As a result, there was the emergence of captive-bred carnivorous spiritual beasts, and a large part of the Tianyuan Sword Sect's income comes from selling these meat-eating spiritual beasts.

  Spirit meat, spirit meat, wanting to eat it just right requires money, can't always be so lucky as to catch the brown golden rabbit in a mountain cave. Thinking of this, Yuan Tianhui tidied up and quickly started printing flame talismans.

  The spiritual power inside the four-layered body is more abundant, and the resting time when making talismans is also shorter. The time required to make talismans is shorter, so the number of spiritual talismans that can be manufactured within a certain period of time will naturally increase.

  On this stormy night, in the dark and conical cave, a skinny man with a smiling face and greedy eyes was dancing wildly with the seal in his hand.

  The flickering red light inside the cave and the raging thunder outside complemented each other, as spirit symbols were born one by one in the red light. All 100 sheets of talismans were printed into flame talismans. One hundred flame talismans shouldn't cause a market crash and lower prices. This was equivalent to 150 spiritual stones, which he carefully put into his pouch and held close to his chest, before falling asleep peacefully.

  The flame talisman from just now had warmed up the cave, and this sleep was very sound. Yuan Tian had a dream where he printed many, many talismans and exchanged them for a large amount of spirit stones. He finally bought the large painting boat he had been eyeing for a long time, and inside the boat, he ate meat in big chunks and drank wine in big gulps. A beautiful female cultivator walked over, sat on his leg, put down her wine cup, and just as he was about to take a look at what this female cultivator looked like, he suddenly woke up.

  Outside the cave came the chirping of birds, and the morning dew was a bit damp. Yuan Tian shivered slightly, feeling a little cold.

  He rubbed his slightly numb hands, and the half-roasted rabbit from yesterday's leftovers had long gone cold, but Yuan Tian didn't mind and finished it off. The tender meat entered his mouth, and his body felt a hint of warmth.

  When the cultivator is at a lower level, their physical quality is much weaker than that of a body cultivator. Although they generally won't get minor illnesses like wind-cold or colds, they still need to pay attention to nourishing their life. Only after reaching the Gathering Spirit stage, when the body has been tempered and refined, eliminating impurities and hidden diseases, will it no longer have the weaknesses of ordinary people, laying a solid foundation, can it withstand extreme temperatures without being affected.

  Half a roasted rabbit was eaten, and the belly was full. One night did not return, and the pig brothers did not catch up with eating midnight snacks, it's really sorry. Fortunately, the small paper boat had dried up and could still be used.

  He flipped his body onto the boat and hurriedly rowed back. As for advancing to the fourth layer of Qi Refining, Yuan Tian didn't feel particularly excited. The biggest benefit was that when inscribing spirit symbols, he could save some time. As for the realm of the fourth layer of Qi Refining, there wasn't much improvement in his abilities either. If he were to engage in a physical confrontation with a Foundation Establishment cultivator, unless he had a good treasure in hand, he would undoubtedly die.

  The lowest standard for becoming an outer door disciple is to cultivate the fifth layer of Qi. The fifth layer is a small leap, and it's vastly different from the fourth layer. A cultivator at the fourth layer has only 50% more spiritual energy inside their body compared to one at the third layer. However, a cultivator at the fifth layer has twice as much spiritual power as a fourth-layer cultivator.

  Another way to become an official outer door disciple is to break through the Eight Treasure Pagoda. Each floor of the pagoda has rewards, and if you can pass the first floor as a Qi Refining stage three cultivator, you will receive a medicinal pill. After consuming it, you will at least advance to Qi Refining stage five, and after coming out, you will definitely meet the standards of an outer door disciple.

  Yuán Tiān is a person who likes to cultivate fields, raise pigs, and in his free time, eat stir-fried dishes and drink a little wine. He's not interested in the struggles of sect disciples, even if he goes to challenge the tower, it's because he's eyeing the treatment of outer sect disciples. What attracts him most is that he can get a piece of first-class spiritual land.

  Once you have a first-class spiritual field, you can plant spiritual vegetables and spiritual fruits. Spiritual fruits can be used to make wine, and at that time, there will be endless wine to drink.

  There are only three days left until the first day of next month, and now is the perfect time to sign up for the trial. Riding a paper crane back to the sect, I didn't even have time to feed the pigs. Yuantian arrived at the trial registration office and registered his name.

  The person in charge of the registration office, also known as Wang Jianghua, the manager of the outer gate. He is a cultivator of the Gathering Spirit period, actually younger than Old Wang who raises cattle by several years. Having achieved the Gathering Spirit period at over thirty years old, he can be considered to have relatively high innate talent in the Tianyuan Sword Sect. Of course, compared to those inner sect disciples with extremely high innate talent from their teens, or elite disciples who reached the Gathering Spirit period in their twenties, he still falls far short.

  Being in charge of external affairs is considered a relatively fat job, and both miscellaneous disciples and outer door disciples have to flatter him and try to get on his good side.

  In fact, every little disciple who wants to come and participate in the assessment has to give gifts to Wang Guanshi. Take Niu Laowang, who comes to assess once a year, for example. Part of the cost is spent on giving gifts.

  Yuan Tian came to sign up, and Wang Guanshi didn't make things difficult for him. The reason why Yuan Tian wasn't made things difficult was still due to the influence of Boss Fan Weidong.

  Fan Weidong may only be at the 8th level of Qi training and is an outer sect disciple. However, his niece Zhu Bing is formidable, already a top-notch inner sect disciple at such a young age. And his elder nephew Zhu Yu is even more impressive, a senior elder of a mid-sized sect. To become an elder at such a young age, that talent is naturally not something Wang Guan can compare to.

  Yuan Tiangong has always been diligent and responsible, Fan Weidong has a good impression of him. Coincidentally, Old Fan is also familiar with Wang Guanshi, and had previously mentioned that Yuan Tian should participate in the challenge.

  This time Yuan Tian came to sign up, it was within Wang's expectation. He arranged for him to enter second in the morning of New Year's Day, which also gave Old Fan enough face.

  "Clang, clang, clang..." As soon as I approached the pigpen, I heard the sound of the spotted pigs bumping against the fence. They hadn't eaten for a whole night and these guys were really starving.

  "Bang bang... Bang!" Good guy, that little piglet is also using its head to butt the fence. Although the strength is not great, the momentum is considerable.

  Hurry up and add the feed to the pigs, after a refreshing rain, the water tank is full of water, and the flower-patterned pigs are washed clean. These guys have been growing well recently, with one head reaching 800 catties again, but Yuan Tian is not in a hurry to sell them.

  Breaking through the pass is three days later, and for now, the most important thing is to improve one's survival ability. As a Qi cultivator, not even a single spell can be cast, let alone sword techniques. To dare to break through the pass, in others' eyes, that's simply courting death.

  An ordinary miscellaneous disciple, who has accumulated a little bit of spiritual stone to improve their cultivation, would not spare the money to buy a bunch of spiritual symbols. Spiritual symbols are consumable items, not spells that can be cast repeatedly.

  Yuán tiān piān piān bù zǒu xún cháng lù, bù xué fǎ shù, bù mǎi fēi jiàn. Shǒu xiān nòng le yī duī líng fú, yìng shì yào yòng dà liàng de líng fú lái chuǎnguān. Yào shì bèi yī xiàng jié jiǎn de yǎng niú lǎo wáng zhī dào le, bù zhī dào huì bu huì qì de tǔ xuè.

  Riding on a small paper boat, he rushed to the Tianyuan Trading Market. There were still three days left, and Yuan Tian had another important plan. Three days was not long, but it wasn't short either. He could print out quite a few spirit symbols, aside from leaving some for himself, he could exchange them for some spirit stones. With enough spirit stones, Yuan Tian wanted to buy something.

  Yes! It's a talisman paper, which has been his lucky charm for making money all along. But this time, Yuan Tian is going to buy not an ordinary talisman paper, but a mid-level talisman paper called "Mao Tou Paper".

  Making low-grade spirit symbols originally didn't require the use of medium-grade symbol paper like this. This paper is made from sheep's wool, just like the white sheep raised by Xuan Yuan. The cost is naturally higher, and the selling price has also increased a lot.

  Today there is no wind, the small paper boat flies steadily. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yuantian takes out the book on the experience of making talismans. The golden talisman made from the two-ling stone he bought has not been forged yet, but it's still necessary to read about the knowledge of making golden talismans first.

  Mr. Dongguo's book was written too well, Yuan Tian read it with great interest, if not for the noisy sound coming from the front, he wouldn't have known that they had already arrived at the Tianyuan Trading Market.

  Yuan Tian rushed into the Qi Cai Ge miscellaneous goods store, hastily walking up to the second floor to find that thin shop assistant. He didn't know how many Ling symbols he could collect this time. After all, it wasn't a specialty store for Ling symbols, and Yuan Tian was uncertain whether they would buy a large quantity of the same symbol.

  "Little brother, you're here?" The shop assistant had already spotted him before Yuan Tian could even see him.

  "Does your store still accept Flame Emblems? I've made some more." Yuan Tian asked tentatively, not very confident in his heart.

  "Is it still the same quality as last time?" Shou Shou had transformed into a thin and gaunt figure, not only in physique but also in demeanor. Even his eyes seemed to gleam with a sharp, calculating light.

  Yuán Tiān took out ninety flame talismans, which really startled Shòu Shì Dōng. In just one night, how did he manage to create so many talismans? Even if he didn't rest the entire night, drawing talismans wouldn't be that fast.

  "Huh! Raising his eyes to observe carefully, he discovered that Yuan Tian's cultivation had advanced and reached the fourth layer of Qi Refining. This kid actually broke through during the process of refining the symbol, this news must be reported back to headquarters." Qiu Shi Dong's thoughts turned rapidly, and he set his sights on Yuan Tian.