Chapter 92: First Encounter with Cultivation (Part 2)

  The book also introduces the characteristics of the five spiritual roots of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, as well as the pros and cons of their corresponding techniques.

  The Golden System's techniques are well-rounded in both offense and defense, with neither aspect being weak. However, cultivating the Golden System's Dao methods is the most difficult, as those with slightly inferior innate abilities will find it hard to achieve anything. This is because the Golden System's magical powers have the worst nourishing effect on the physical body, and when condensing True Yuan, the pressure on the physical body is also the greatest, making foundation-building extremely challenging.

  The wooden system's offensive and defensive abilities are relatively weak, and it is restrained by the golden system. However, the wooden system's spiritual energy is most nourishing to the physical body. Most elixirs are made from plants and trees, so the wooden system has a special advantage in absorbing and refining elixirs, making its cultivation speed the fastest among the five elements.

  The Water-based Taoist method is not good at attacking fortresses, but the water quality is extremely soft, and it has a strange effect on trapping enemies, blocking enemies, and disturbing enemies. The Water-based Taoist method is also not inferior to others in terms of fighting methods. The Water-based spiritual energy nourishes the physical body, which is only slightly worse than the Wood-based one. Moreover, the Water-based Taoist method can wash away the accumulated poison of taking elixirs, so the cultivation speed of the Water-based Taoist method is also not weak.

  The Fire-based Taoist method is extremely strong in attack but weak in defense. Although the Fire-based magical power cannot nourish the physical body, it can use the special properties of fire to secretly cultivate the physical body through a secret method, and its effect is not inferior to the nourishing effect of the Wood-based method. It can also refine the poison of the elixir after taking the medicine, so the cultivation speed of the Fire-based Taoist method is also extremely fast; but the Fire-based magical power is violent and fierce, and it is extremely difficult to condense the true yuan, so although the cultivation speed is not slow, most people will be blocked by the foundation-building stage.

  The earth-based Taoist method is good at defense, and its attack power is not weak either. However, whether it's the speed of casting or the flight speed of the spell, they are all the slowest. As a result, it often has no way to deal with opponents who are faster in evasion. The earth-based Taoist method is also not good at nourishing the physical body. But the earth-based Taoist method has the strongest inclusiveness, even if the Taoist method is slightly impure, it can often succeed in building a foundation.

  In addition to the five elements of spiritual roots, there are three extremely rare heterodox spiritual roots: ice spiritual root, wind spiritual root, and thunder spiritual root.

  These three spiritual roots are extremely special and will never be mixed with other spiritual roots; as long as a heterodox spiritual root appears, it must be the Tian Ling Gen.

  The book speculates that the Ice Spirit Root may be a variation of the Water Spirit Root. The ice-based spiritual power nourishes the physical body, and its effect on washing away poison is not as good as the Water Spirit Root, but the ice-based spells are far superior to the Water Spirit Root in terms of offense and defense, and unlike water-based spells, they will not be restrained by earth-based spells. Therefore, disciples with Ice Spirit Roots are highly sought after by various sects.

  But as a heterophyte root, Fenglinggen and Leilinggen are far inferior.

  The nourishment of the Wind System's magical power to the physical body is inferior to that of the Metal System. The essence of the Wind System's magical power is loose and scattered, making it more difficult to condense into True Essence than the Fire System. Even if a Wind System cultivator achieves success in their practice, they are still the weakest among cultivators of the same rank, aside from having fast movement speed. The Wind System's defensive shield cannot withstand attacks from other systems' magic of the same level. Although the casting speed of Wind System magic is extremely fast, its power is pitiful and does not even reach one-third of that of the Water System's magic, which has the weakest attacking power.

  The power of the Thunder System's magic is extremely strong, and its effect on the physical body is similar to that of the Fire System's magic. However, the extreme violence of the Thunder System's magic makes it impossible to overcome the two major hurdles of building a foundation and forming a dan. In the Western Cool Country, from ancient times to the present, only one person, the Five Thunder True Man, has been able to cultivate the Thunder System's Taoist magic to the Golden Dan stage or higher.

  This "Wu Xing Dao Shu Chu Jie" records seven spiritual roots corresponding to the practice of Gong Fa, with two or three techniques attached to each Gong Fa. The Gong Fa only includes the first four layers of the Qi Gong period, and the attached techniques are all first-class techniques.

  Xiao Ziyang finished reading the book, it was already late at night and people were quiet. He carefully put away the book and took out the artifact "Chuan Cheng Bao Jian" from his bag. According to the instructions on the booklet that came with the artifact, he placed the artifact, which looked like a small copper mirror, in his hand, with the circular protrusion on the back of the copper mirror aligned with his palm.

  According to the book, this method can also stimulate a martial artist's true energy. He aligned the copper mirror with his heart, but it didn't stimulate for a long time.

  Xiao Ziyang took a deep breath and slowly sent his inner energy into the artifact, and a beam of light immediately shot out from the mirror surface and shone on his chest.

  Xiao Ziyang's tense gaze was fixed on the sky above; time ticked by, but there was nothing above his head.

  According to the book, people illuminated by the light emitted from this copper mirror will have a rainbow-colored glow appear above their heads if they possess spiritual roots, and the color of the glow is consistent with the attribute of their spiritual roots.

  The golden spirit root emits a golden rainbow, the wooden spirit root emits an emerald green rainbow, the water spirit root emits a dark blue rainbow, the fire spirit root emits a crimson red rainbow, the earth spirit root emits a yellowish-brown rainbow, the ice spirit root emits a white rainbow, the wind spirit root emits a cyan rainbow, and the thunder spirit root is special, emitting not a rainbow but a flash of lightning.

  Every time the spiritual root increases by one grade, there will be an additional color of rainbow light or lightning. If the person being illuminated has multiple types of spiritual roots, the treasure mirror will induce different numbers of colors of rainbow light according to the different grades of the spiritual roots.

  If the person being irradiated is a heavenly spirit root, the rainbow light will be extremely pure. If the person being irradiated has a mixed spirit root, the rainbow light will faintly reveal the subtle glow of the mixed spirit root on its original color.

  So this treasure mirror can definitely reveal the five elements of the spiritual root of the person being reflected, what kind of quality it is, and which one of the heaven, earth, and human miscellaneous.

  After a meal's time, Xiao Ziyang disappointedly put away the magic tool. However, he didn't completely lose hope, because neither "The Initial Understanding of the Five Elements Dao Technique" nor the pages attached to the Precious Mirror of Inheritance mentioned the Chaotic Spiritual Root.

  Although there was still a glimmer of hope in his heart, he might not have the spiritual root, and the blow to Xiao Ziyang was still enormous.

  He didn't even bother to pick up the scattered packages and fell asleep heavily on the bed with his clothes on.

  The next morning, Xiao Ziyang took out the "Zi Yu Sheng Yan" manual that he had always carried with him and comforted himself before regaining some of his spirits.

  After dressing up, Xiao Ziyang went straight to Shengsheng Hall in Yuan City.

  For the next few days, he changed his identity every day to go to Huishengtang to buy medicinal materials, and the medicinal materials bought every day did not exceed 10,000 taels of silver. After buying the medicinal materials back, he used the techniques learned from An Yucan to cut the medicinal materials into thin slices, dry them in a low-fire oven, and pack them separately.

  Half a month later, Xiao Ziyang set foot on the road back to Nanba County.

  Nanba County is located at the southernmost tip of Xiliang State.

  The territory of Western Liang is extremely vast, with a north-south distance of nearly 10,000 miles, but the difference in climate between the south and the north is not too great.

  The snow in Nanba County this winter is just a bit later than in the north.

  Xiao Ziyang rode a bay horse, treading on the first snow of Nanba County this winter, and returned to Cangshan Village.