Ordinary Bone

"Boom!..."

Almost the moment he began circulating his Cánxiá breathing technique, a gust of fresh wind swept through the small courtyard, and streams of spiritual energy from the heavens and earth entered his body through the open acupoints.

In the past, Xǔ Tàipíng could never sense the meridians and acupoints, but now, he could easily feel them, and the process of guiding the spiritual energy into his meridians to be refined was incredibly smooth.

Ultimately, Xǔ Tàipíng spent the time of half a stick of incense to successfully send a refined true qi into his dantian.

"Refining just this one strand of true qi in half a stick of incense is nothing compared to the geniuses Zǐyáng True Lord spoke of, but for me, it means I can finally step onto the path of cultivation."

Despite his extremely slow refining speed, Xǔ Tàipíng didn't feel too discouraged.

"Grandfather said, diligence can make up for weakness. They practice for two hours every day, I practice for four hours; they practice four hours, I practice for eight hours. One day, I'll catch up!"

Xǔ Tàipíng made a silent resolution.

"Right, I still have this soybean spirit crystal. Lingyu Immortal said that holding it while cultivating can double the results with half the effort."

He suddenly remembered the soybean spirit crystals from the Earth Tomb Fruits and took one out, starting to circulate his energy again.

With the help of the soybean spirit crystal, his speed of refining spiritual energy was more than three times faster than before.

"Lingyu Immortal didn't deceive me. This spirit crystal is a great help. With it, I might really be able to break through the Opening Door Realm within half a year!"

Feeling the speed of cultivation improving, Xǔ Tàipíng immediately showed a joyful expression.

With the soybean spirit crystal, his cultivation speed was now on par with that of an ordinary cultivator.

For the next few days, Xǔ Tàipíng spent two hours a day managing the medicinal herb fields and used the remaining time to cultivate, not daring to waste a single moment.

...

Three months passed in the blink of an eye.

In these three months, Xǔ Tàipíng could clearly feel that his true qi in the dantian was becoming more and more abundant, and he vaguely sensed that he was about to break through the Condensation Dew Period.

The Condensation Dew Period was a term used in the Cánxiá technique to describe the depth of a cultivator's true qi before breaking through the Opening Door Realm.

In the Cánxiá technique, before breaking through the Opening Door Realm, the depth of the cultivator's true qi was divided into three stages: Condensation Dew, Frost Transformation, and Ice Formation.

Only when the cultivator's true qi reached the Ice Formation stage could they attempt to break through the Opening Door Realm.

However, once the cultivator broke through the Condensation Dew Period and entered the Frost Transformation Period, a layer of cold ice protective qi would surround the cultivator, effectively equipping them with a premium fine iron armor.

Even though Xǔ Tàipíng had not yet broken through the Condensation Dew Period, the changes in his body were already quite noticeable, thanks to the increasing abundance of true qi in his dantian.

For instance, his vision and hearing were significantly sharper than they had been three months ago.

Regarding vision, now, even a sparrow standing on a tree 500 meters away could be seen clearly. As for hearing, he could distinguish what kind of wild beasts were present within a mile of the surrounding mountain forests, simply by listening.

Moreover, his physical strength and leg strength had both improved greatly.

Although Xǔ Tàipíng looked frail, he could now easily lift a 200-pound stone mill with a single hand. As for his leg strength

In addition, during his time in Niújiā Village, he often went hunting with his grandfather, using a bow and arrow and setting traps, so over the past month, he had been able to enjoy wild meat almost every day.

Purple mint leaves paired with roasted deer meat or roasted rabbit meat—he never got tired of eating them.

"Speaking of which, the traps I set in the back mountain a few days ago, it’s time to check them. Maybe I can catch a yellow goat to eat."

One noon, after having cultivated for three hours, Xǔ Tàipíng patted his stomach, got out of bed, and decided to go check the traps in the back mountain.

Due to his need to focus on cultivation, he hadn't had much time to hunt, so over the past three months, he had set up quite a few traps in the nearby mountains. All he had to do was check them occasionally to get some rewards.

But before doing that, he had a more important task:

Selling Medicinal Herbs.

It had been three months since he sowed the first batch of Nine-leaf White Purple Mint seeds, and now he had harvested over 300 pounds of mint root and more than 60 pounds of mint seeds. This was exactly three times the amount of a normal medicinal herb field harvest.

"By weight, this batch of Nine-leaf White Purple Mint could sell for 96 merit coins, which is exactly three times what I originally expected."

After placing all the medicinal herbs he was going to sell at the gate, Xǔ Tàipíng took out the bone flute from the West Wind Pavilion and blew it with force.

"Squeak!"

Before long, a white-headed eagle, with wings spread wide enough to measure ten feet, arrived at the gate of the courtyard.

"Uncle White Eagle, please take these medicinal herbs to Baicaotang to sell. Afterward, you may keep three merit coins as a commission."

Xǔ Tàipíng bowed respectfully to the white-headed eagle standing in front of him.

Using spiritual birds to sell medicinal herbs was a method he had learned from the transmission jade slip. It was said that ordinary medicinal herbs could be sold directly by the spiritual birds, saving time and effort. The only downside was that the commission was three merit coins.

"Tomorrow, I will bring the money," the spiritual bird, the white-headed eagle, nodded slightly, grabbed the herbs with its claws, and flew up into the sky.

"By tomorrow, I’ll have enough money to buy cultivation methods and martial arts techniques."

Watching the white-headed eagle

Although he still needed money to buy true fire talismans, buying a martial technique for self-defense was necessary. After all, when he was hunting in the mountains earlier, he almost got hurt by some wild boars.

Currently, he had plenty of true qi in his dantian, but he had no idea how to use it.

For cultivators, it would be better to buy a spell to practice, but he couldn’t afford one at the moment, so he would have to wait until he had more money.

Moreover, even if he practiced Cánxiá, his true qi wouldn't be sufficient to cast spells until he broke through the Opening Door Realm.

"This bow and arrow, and the hunting knife, should be replaced soon."

At this point, Xǔ Tàipíng had taken the bow and arrow and the hunting knife from his house, preparing to head for the back mountain.

These bow and arrow and hunting knife had been left behind by the previous owner of the Qīngzhú Residence. The knife had chipped edges, and the bowstring had snapped once, but Xǔ Tàipíng had managed to fix it.

In the mountains, where wild animals surrounded the area, these basic weapons for self-defense were still necessary.

...

Half an incense stick later.

Back Mountain.

Although Xǔ Tàipíng called it the back mountain, according to the map in the jade slip, this mountain should be called Yanglu Mountain, because it was named after the abundance of yellow goats and mule deer there.

However, during his previous trips, Xǔ Tàipíng found that there weren't many yellow goats or mule deer in the mountain, but there were plenty of wild boars in groups.

"If I can catch a wild boar, that wouldn’t be bad. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about food for the next half month."

While trekking through the mountain, Xǔ Tàipíng kept a watchful eye on his surroundings, muttering to himself.

Though cultivators could fast (abstain from food), that was only possible after breaking through the Opening Door Realm. As of now, not only could he not fast, but he also needed a lot of meat to replenish the energy he used during cultivation.

[--------------------------------------------]

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