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As they walked, roads soon disappeared, leaving behind only rocky mountains that if one didn't know the way, they'd have difficulty climbing to the peak
Tian Ye just followed without any questions, and soon, they arrived at a cave.
The entrance towards the cave wasn't that big, nor was it that small.
The entrance had a diameter of 3 meters.
Standing in front of the entrance of the cave, Han Yi explained, "This is the cave that elders usually use for long term seclusion, it has the highest level of density of spiritual qi within the sect considering it's on the highest peak of the mountain. It's common knowledge within the sect that the higher it is in the mountain, the higher the spiritual qi density is. Within the cave, there's a lot of fasting pills that can fill one's stomach for a day. As for your resources, I'll bring them to you once a month, I'll bring this month's resources to you tomorrow."
Tian Ye nodded and gratefully replied, "Thank you, master."
Han Yi stared at him and with a slight nod, he said, "There's a condition."
"Please speak, master." Tian Ye nodded, there's no such thing as free lunch in the world even if he had contributed a chant-guided cultivation technique to the sect.
"You have to learn martial arts from me. Depending on your talent, it can be once, twice, or four times a month. Consider it as a way of passing down my martial arts. Unlike the other elders that have a few to several disciples and even a few to several offspring, you alone are my disciple." Han Yi explained with a gentle smile on his face.
'That's it?' Tian Ye couldn't help but be surprised by Han Yi's generous words but still nodded.
He was already getting resources, and will be taught high level martial arts in a low level sect. Who was he to refuse such a good thing? Furthermore, it doesn't take too much time, at most 4 times a month, he has plenty of time to cultivate.
Han Yi rubbed his chin with a thoughtful look before shaking his head with a wry smile, "With your ability to deduce how to refine the mortal pathway into a spiritual pathway by just looking at the manual says that you don't need me to guide you in your spiritual qi cultivation so I'll leave that part to you and every end of the week, I'll come here to teach you martial arts."
Tian Ye just nodded as he strode forward inside the cave. Upon entering the cave, he observed what was in store inside.
The cave was only about 10 meters in diameter which was more than enough for a seclusion.
There was also a box, filled with little pills, and a simple bed on the side.
Besides these two things, there was nothing else.
Tian Ye nodded in satisfaction as he walked towards the box and grabbed a pill from the mountain of pills inside, he turned to Han Yi who was by the entrance of the cave, "Master, are these the fasting pills you were talking about?"
Han Yi nodded and explained, "That's right, taking one of these will fill your stomach for an entire day giving you the energy to cultivate without rest."
With a slight excited feeling, he threw a pill into the air, as it dropped, he caught it with his mouth, swallowed, then directly sat down in a lotus position.
"I'll cultivate first, Master."
Han Yi just gave a nod of affirmation before saying as he waved his hand, "I'll arrange your friends, and make some plans with your chant-guided cultivation technique first, then I'll bring your resources to use for cultivation, tomorrow."
Tian Ye simply looked at Han Yi's back as he walked away.
Slowly closing his eyes, he couldn't help but think, with a slight smile visible on his childish face, 'How nostalgic… It's been awhile since I've been alone… In my past life, I've always been alone but when I reincarnated, I surrounded myself with friends to cultivate with…'
Thinking this, he chuckled, 'It's lonely… but it's not bad…'
He then breathed in, and in the next second, out, and in the next second entered the meditative state.
As a cultivator who has developed a chant-guided cultivation technique from theory alone, and from the sheer amount of time he spent on meditation for the last 4 years, entering the meditative state was akin to second nature to him.
He entered it naturally as if he was merely breathing.
And as he fell deep into his consciousness, spiritual qi began to gather around him at a faster pace than before.
It was at least twice… thrice… no… at least five times the amount of spiritual qi than when he was just a mortal trying to break through to the 1st layer at the bottom of the mountain.
Maybe this was the difference between a mortal and a cultivator along with the difference in location. The spiritual qi affinity was greater than when he was a mortal, thus, creating the effect of being able to gather spiritual qi much more easily and recklessly. Furthermore, he was at the peak of the Eternal Lotus Sect Mountain where the spiritual qi density was at its peak.
Inside the cave, it was frighteningly quiet, the only sound there, was the subtle sound of wind circulating around Tian Ye's body as he gathered spiritual qi towards him.
Although it looked like he absorbed a terrifying amount of spiritual qi, the spiritual qi around was actually just a hollow energy, only a part of it was equal in terms of density to the spiritual qi in one's dantian.
In the blink of an eye, 24 hours passed, and Tian Ye opened his eyes slowly as his stomach grumbled in hunger.
He didn't even stand up, he simply turned to his back, and grabbed a fasting pill from the box near him, then swallowed it within one gulp.
In the next second, he immediately closed his eyes to cultivate further.
The spiritual qi in his dantian, after 24 hours, merely increased by a measly 1% but it wasn't that bad.
Despite only absorbing spiritual qi naturally without resources, he's expected to break through to the 2nd layer after 99 more days or a little over 3 months.
The 1st layer to 2nd layer interval will most likely close to double the amount of spiritual qi, but the next realm will probably not. Because if it did, the spiritual qi within one's dantian would amount to at least 256 folds when it reaches the 9th multiplier.
Even in a cultivation world, that's illogical.
Soon, another 24 hours passed, and Tian Ye slowly opened his eyes to grab another fasting pill and continue to cultivate but when he opened his eyes, he was a little surprised to find a bag in front of him filled with glowing herbs with a similar glow to spiritual qi.
He excitedly reached out to them, and saw that there were 10 spiritual herbs in total.
Chuckling, he thought, 'Master is so considerate, he didn't even wake me up.'
Grabbing another pill, he swallowed it to quench his hunger, then grabbed one of the 10 ten-year old spiritual herbs and began absorbing it.
Within one ten year spiritual herb, was the total of a cultivator's 1 years qi absorption. And in that, only 1 month can be absorbed by the cultivator, and maybe even less.
He then began to absorb the spiritual qi within the spiritual herb in arms as he entered the meditative state. And soon, the absorption was so fast that even his subconscious was excited.
Within 1 hour, he was able to absorb a total of 1-2% of the total spiritual qi within his dantian and he continued to do so. After 10 hours, he felt the spiritual qi in his dantian to be a little heavy.
The spiritual herb in his hand also lost all its color and vitality like a withered flower. He threw it on the side and didn't pay further attention to the herbs in front of him and began to stabilize the spiritual qi he had just absorbed.
Although the spiritual qi became even more abundant within his body, it was too heavy, like it wasn't a part of his body, he still needed to digest and refine it as he circulated it within his dantian and throughout his body.
He couldn't help but sigh considering that the spiritual herbs weren't as good as he expected but it did indeed boost his qi by at least 20%!
As for why he was quite disappointed, he had a slight hope that he had some kind of hidden genius within him that even he didn't know about and would just be able to absorb a lot of the spiritual qi within the spiritual herb but clearly and unfortunately, his hope was crushed and that wasn't the case.
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