Chapter Five: The Long and Winding Road Ahead

  Inside the inn.

  Li Qingyun looked at the mid-grade Spirit Gathering Array in front of him that had all turned to dust, and a hint of bitter smile appeared on his face.

  As the former chief disciple of Qingyang Palace, Li Qingyun's worth was quite substantial, at least 180 middle-grade spirit stones could be taken out. However, after he re-cultivated his Golden Elixir, Li Qingyun discovered that his previous worth was far from enough. With his Golden Elixir True Body, re-cultivating the Qi Refining stage was naturally unobstructed, and his realm was promoted extremely quickly. But the terrifying amount of spirit energy required to refine the Golden Elixir Jade Liquid left him completely helpless.

  A piece of low-grade spirit stone can provide about 1 point of spiritual energy, and a piece of medium-grade spirit stone can provide around 100 points of spiritual energy.

  However, the latter provides more pure spiritual energy!

  If it's a low-level cultivator, the speed of absorbing low-grade spirit stones will definitely not be comparable to using mid-grade spirit stones. However, for a cultivator like Li Qingyun who possesses a Golden Core-level physique, all grades of spirit stones are absorbed at the same rate.

  Since the rise of the Dharma Ending Era's teachings, the resources in the Immortal Realm have become increasingly scarce!

  Lower-grade spirit stones are still relatively easy to find, but mid-grade spirit stones have become scarce. As for the even rarer high-grade spirit stones, they often have a price but no market, and only Golden Elixir True Person-level cultivators may possess some. Li Qingyun originally had over ten of them on him, but he used them all up when preparing to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, and now he only has some mid-grade spirit stones left on him.

  After using up all the spirit stones!

  Li Qingyun found that he had only recovered to the seventh layer of Qi Refining, and wanted to advance to the tenth layer to meet the conditions for breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage, but there was still a gap of at least thirty pieces of mid-grade spirit stones.

  Not to mention that a large amount of spiritual energy is needed to complete the foundation, other cultivators need to take foundation-building pills to enhance their realm and use the explosive spiritual energy released by the foundation-building pills to refine their physical body. The spiritual energy Li Qingyun needs when he enters the refining period is already nearly a hundred times more than theirs, and the spiritual energy needed to refine his physical body during the foundation-building period is even more terrifying, it's extremely likely that he will have to take a hundred foundation-building pills at once!

  Such terrifying consumption.

  Even as a former Golden Elixir True Person, he couldn't hold on for even a moment.

  Thirty or forty pieces of medium-grade spirit stones are still manageable. After all, Li Qingyun has some magical artifacts on him, and he can exchange them for a few pieces.

  But Chūkei Dan's problem is very troublesome!

  First of all, this Dan medicine is not easy to refine. Even if it's a top-grade alchemist, one furnace of foundation-building Dan can only produce about ten or so pills at most.

  However, the consumption of spiritual medicine is not small, which also leads to the price of foundation-building pills being high. Even a large sect like Qingyang Palace, an inner disciple can only be given two foundation-building pills at most. Ordinary disciples have only one, and if they fail, they can only think of ways to get the foundation-building pills themselves. Li Qingyun has the physical body of a Golden Elixir True Man, so it's unlikely that he will fail in building his foundation, but the value of 100 foundation-building pills is almost equivalent to the consumption of all inner disciples of a sect.

  According to the current price in the cultivation world, one foundation-building pill is about ten pieces of medium-grade spirit stone, and a hundred foundation-building pills are equivalent to a thousand pieces of medium-grade spirit stone.

  Approximately equivalent to ten top-grade spirit stones, equivalent to Li Qingyun's accumulation of spirit stones over the years!

  Moreover

  Although cultivating immortality now consumes a lot of resources, there aren't many people who really rely solely on spirit stones to accumulate spiritual energy.

  Ordinary cultivators mainly focus on meditation and cultivation, but they will look for some spiritual energy-rich mountains and caves. Even Li Qingyun, the chief disciple of a sect, only uses elixirs and spirit stones to break through boundaries when he needs to make a breakthrough. At other times, he mostly uses spirit stones to set up an array to gather spirits, borrowing the power of the spirit stones to form a vortex that condenses the surrounding spiritual energy together.

  But Li Qingyun needed too much spiritual energy!

  According to his own estimate, if he didn't rely on the spiritual energy of external objects and wanted to cultivate himself through meditation, without twenty or thirty years of time, it would be impossible to reach the tenth level of the Qi Refining stage.

  "Golden Elixir and Jade Liquid!"

  Li Qingyun circulated a strand of golden elixir within his body, silently pondering the direction he would take from now on.

  He still had a strand of Golden Elixir in his body, but that was the result of his previous cultivation method. After entering the Cangjing Pavilion, he merged thousands of different foundation-building methods and created a new cultivation method for himself. The purpose of this method was to build a more perfect foundation, allowing him to cultivate each realm to its extreme limit. There were not many such methods, but it was unlikely that anyone would be willing to spend over a decade to raise one realm to its limit before starting to impact the next realm.

  But Li Qingyun was different, he could at most only cultivate up to the Golden Dan stage, and naturally didn't have that many realms to advance!

  Then he must necessarily work harder on the previous boundary.

  Even considering his future cultivation, it is highly likely that he will be unable to make any progress after reaching the Golden Core stage and will have to re-cultivate the Golden Core once again.

  So Li Qingyun called this self-created kung fu method - "Nine Turns Golden Elixir Formula"!

  According to his own calculations after sorting through a large number of Taoist scriptures, his current realm should be at the second turn of the Golden Elixir. If he can re-cultivate to the peak of the Golden Elixir period, then roughly speaking, with his body as an immortal, he can easily deal with cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage. Even if it's a more perfect foundation, even dealing with True Kings in the Union stage wouldn't be a problem at all. As for the third turn of the Golden Elixir later on, due to his current lack of sufficient understanding, he is unable to estimate the changes brought about by the third condensation of the Golden Elixir.

  "It seems like I'll have to go on a wild goose chase."

  Li Qingyun walked towards the outside of Jingzhou City after erasing the traces of the Zhongpin Jiling Array.

  Due to the increasingly scarce resources in the immortal world, the trading venues established in inland areas are also becoming fewer and farther between. Large numbers of immortals have turned their sights on overseas fairy islands.

  The current largest trading venue in the immortal world is almost all concentrated in the coastal areas.

  This sea city mirage is one of the most famous exchanges!

  It is said that the masters behind them are a group of overseas scattered immortals, whose strength is unfathomable. Even if Qingyang Palace's master, Xūyáng Zhēnrén, were to confront them, he might not necessarily gain any advantage.

  According to the remaining volumes of "Jiuzhou Zhi", it is recorded that about 30,000 years ago, a great war between immortals and demons took place.

  That great war directly led to the sinking of the Nine States Continent, which forced other Xianmen schools to move to the current mainland. The current mainland is said to have been called Zhongzhou in the past, and it was only a state on the Nine States Continent. Since that war, the figure of the immortal has rarely appeared in the Xianmen world, and the only ones that can be encountered are some overseas scattered immortals who cannot ascend. The current scarcity of resources in the Xianmen world is also said to be related to that war.

  The sunken continent was covered by seawater, and countless overseas monsters inhabited it.

  However, there are often some special islands emerging, or some rare spiritual treasures being born. Currently, the vast majority of power in the cultivation world is concentrated on exploring the underwater caves and overseas immortal islands.

  ………

  There is also an exchange nearby Jingzhou City.

  However, it has now declined a lot, because in the entire inland area, except for the vicinity of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains where there are still many cultivators gathering, almost all the mountains and rivers have been explored by the cultivators.

  Li Qingyun's cultivation was completely lost and he couldn't fly, but with one step out, there was still a distance of over ten zhang.

  After leaving the mortal city, he flew forward quickly and soon entered deep into the vast mountains. In the depths of this mountain range, there was a strange peak, like a sharp sword inserted into the clouds, which was a place that mortals found difficult to reach. However, for cultivators, it was extremely easy, and Li Qingyun directly soared up, arriving at the summit hundreds of feet high.

  The mountain top seems to have been cut off by a sword, leaving behind a platform thousands of meters wide, on which many ancient buildings are built.

  There aren't many people inside.

  Li Qingyun had hardly seen any masters, and even the highest among them was only at the early stage of Void Dan.

  The number of cultivators was originally small, and those who could establish a foundation were even fewer. Except for some large sects like the Qingyang Palace that had been passed down for thousands of years, other cultivation sects at most only had achievements in the Yuan Ying period. In recent years, there were also many Golden Dan true immortals in the cultivation world who established their own sects and created many small schools.

  Li Qingyun looked around and immediately found a position to place the treasure he wanted to sell.

  For a withered exchange like this, there are no decent treasure shops and auction houses. Almost all the people who come here are some scattered cultivators, and what they sell are also some medium to low-grade magical instruments.

  Li Qingyun, who originally had only seven layers of Qi Refining Stage, did not attract anyone's attention at all.

  But as soon as he took out a top-grade spiritual artifact that shone with brilliant light, he immediately attracted the attention of all the cultivators nearby.

  "What's with the high-end Buddhist ritual objects?!"

  A loud gasp erupted from all around, and immediately some malicious glances were cast over.

  Li Qingyun immediately discovered that she had done something wrong.

  That's all he has now, just a cultivation base of only seven layers in the Qi Refining stage, and not the former Golden Dan True Person.

  If he were still a Golden Elixir True Man, even if he casually took out a spiritual instrument, it would not necessarily attract any envious glances. However, now that he looks like an entry-level cultivator who rashly takes out a high-quality artifact, it almost immediately arouses the greedy hearts of others.

  If it weren't for someone maintaining order here, I'm afraid someone would have already taken action and killed people to steal the treasure!

  However.

  Even so, some people still gathered around with an air of curiosity.

  "Indeed, lacking strength is accompanied by all sorts of troubles."

  Li Qingyun was not afraid in his heart, but he couldn't help but frown slightly. Fortunately, what he took out was only a high-quality magic tool. If he had taken out some kind of precious or spiritual tool, someone might have already attacked him.

  A Taoist with a grey face spoke first.

  His cultivation seems to be in the later stage of foundation building, and among the people present, his cultivation is the highest.

  This gray-faced Taoist looks like a loose cultivator, and his appearance is about 40 or 50 years old. It's estimated that he was no longer young when he successfully built the foundation. Looking at the cultivation aura on his body, there seems to be some mixed and obscure things, and it's likely that the cultivation method is also very messy, and it seems to have some heretical techniques from other sects. If nothing unexpected happens, this person will never be able to break through into the Void Dan period in his life.

  He forced out a stiff smile and said to Li Qingyun: "Fellow Taoist!"

  "I don't know how you plan to sell this treasure?"

  ………