Chapter 78: Small Funnel

Lu Ye wasn't discouraged by repeated attempts and failures; instead, he was enthusiastic because each failure helped him accumulate experience.

The greatest challenge in imbuing a Spirit Gathering pattern into a spirit aperture was the surge of his own spiritual energy; the circulating energy would simply wash the pattern away.

To successfully imbue a spirit pattern into an aperture, Lu Ye needed to avoid the spiritual energy's impact, as success would otherwise be impossible.

However, this introduced another problem: a spirit pattern constructed too far from the spirit aperture wouldn't be very effective. For instance, if Lu Ye created a pattern on his hand, it would gather spiritual energy, but his body struggled to absorb external energy, making it difficult to convert into his own spiritual power.

Finding a balance was crucial to make the spirit pattern effective while maintaining its stability.

Fortunately, the cost of constructing a Spirit Gathering pattern wasn't high, a fact Lu Ye had noted when he first acquired it.

Two hours later, he still hadn't succeeded.

Lu Ye attempted to alter the spirit pattern's shape. Normally, a cast spirit pattern appeared flat, and only those with profound mastery in the art could modify them.

Although Lu Ye had never formally studied spirit patterns, when he acquired these specific ones, a vast amount of information flooded his mind, allowing him to grasp their various mysteries.

For the three spirit patterns he now possessed, Lu Ye had the ability to alter their forms; he only lacked practical experience.

He continued to try, and after half a day, a Spirit Gathering pattern finally took shape. This time, it wasn't dispersed by his own circulating spiritual energy.

Success!

Lu Ye looked pleased. Silently, he sensed the spiritual energy from his surroundings gathering under the pattern's influence, flowing into the spirit aperture, and transforming into his own spiritual power.

He had transformed the Spirit Gathering pattern into a funnel shape and applied it to the spirit aperture. The funnel's tip extended minimally into the aperture.

In other words, external spiritual energy gathered by the pattern would flow directly through this small funnel into his spirit aperture, converting into power through the energy's circulation, without needing to pass through his body.

This way, the effectiveness of the Spirit Gathering pattern would remain unaffected, regardless of whether Lu Ye's talent was "one-leaf" or "sixty-four-leaf."

"What a clever idea!" Lu Ye couldn't help but mentally pat himself on the back.

Although he had successfully imbued a Spirit Gathering pattern onto the spirit aperture, enabling him to absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth, the pattern's small size meant its effect was quite limited.

But this was just one spirit aperture...

Lu Ye had already opened twenty-nine apertures...

What would happen if he imbued all twenty-nine of his apertures with Spirit Gathering patterns?

Lu Ye couldn't help but feel a surge of anticipation. If this idea worked, his cultivation would no longer be limited to consuming spirit pills; he could also absorb spiritual energy directly from the heavens and earth! This would not only save vast cultivation resources but also significantly boost his cultivation efficiency.

The moment this thought popped into his mind, Lu Ye couldn't suppress his excitement and immediately began to experiment.

With the first success under his belt, the second attempt became much simpler.

In less than half an hour, Lu Ye had imbued his second spirit aperture with the small funnel pattern, followed by the third, then the fourth... Lu Ye steadily gained proficiency.

By the tenth aperture, Lu Ye could vaguely sense the effect, and by the twentieth, it was even more pronounced. By the time he had imbued all twenty-nine of his spirit apertures with Spirit Gathering patterns, night had fallen.

By now, he clearly felt the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth continuously flowing into each of his spirit apertures, transforming into his own power as the energy surged and circulated.

The Spirit Gathering patterns could last for a very long time because they continuously gathered spiritual energy from heaven and earth to replenish themselves. In theory, as long as Lu Ye didn't actively disperse them, they would persist indefinitely.

Of course, this was practically impossible. While Lu Ye was in a stable state, the patterns remained, but once he engaged in combat, his spiritual energy would surge and fluctuate, easily destroying the patterns.

Still, this was ultimately a no-cost venture. Lu Ye only needed to construct the patterns on his spirit apertures at the opportune moment; after that, he could do nothing, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth would gather and pour into his body. He could even attend to other matters...

Now, the only question was how much benefit these spirit patterns could bring him within a given timeframe.

To determine this, he calmed his mind, focused his attention, and sensed the changes in his spiritual energy.

Three hours later, he concluded that if the patterns on all twenty-nine spirit apertures could be maintained for a full day and night, the benefit would be roughly equivalent to consuming one Spirit Nourishing Pill...

It wasn't a huge amount, but it wasn't insignificant either.

It was important to remember that these were only twenty-nine apertures, whereas a cultivator's body contained a full three hundred and sixty. If Lu Ye could someday imbue all three hundred and sixty apertures with Spirit Gathering patterns, the returns would be enormous.

With many Spirit Nourishing Pills, the auxiliary cultivation method 'Gluttonous Feast,' and the aid of Spirit Gathering patterns, Lu Ye felt an irrepressible urge, wishing he could find a secluded spot to cultivate intensely until he reached the ninth level of the Spirit Creek Realm...

What frustrated him, however, was his lack of a suitable cultivation method.

The Golden Cicada Carefree Art he'd received from Steward Yang could only be cultivated up to the third level of the Spirit Creek Realm.

He had originally planned to wait until the next market town to visit the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance branch, hoping to buy a new cultivation method. To this end, he had sold four pieces of Prime Magnetic Ore on his journey, accumulating over two hundred spirit stones.

But now, he was unexpectedly trapped in Sky-Rift Gorge, unable to leave.

This was quite troublesome...

After a moment's thought, Lu Ye tapped his battle imprint, sending out a message.

Chu Tian was meditating to recover when he suddenly felt a message arrive. He quickly checked and found it was Lu Ye contacting him.

Having learned from the previous day's experience, Chu Tian replied cautiously, "Junior Brother One-Leaf, what's wrong?"

"Do you have any Profound-grade cultivation methods? Sell me one."

Chu Tian was puzzled. "What do you need a Profound-grade cultivation method for?"

In the passage, Lu Ye stared speechlessly at Chu Tian's reply, thinking, *Is this guy an idiot?* He patiently responded, "For cultivation!"

Chu Tian looked at Lu Ye's reply and couldn't help but scratch his head.

A moment later, the message was relayed back to the Xuanmen stronghold.

Wang Yang looked at Xiao Zhu with a surprised expression. "Is the message accurate?"

Xiao Zhu nodded. "It came from Chu Tian, so it should be correct."

Wang Yang pondered for a moment, then clicked his tongue. "This is truly typical of those major sects. Their dispatched disciples have to rely entirely on themselves; they don't even provide cultivation methods. It seems he was only cultivating a Yellow-grade method before. Now that he's at the peak of the third level of the Spirit Creek Realm, he needs a new one."

"Chu Tian's waiting for a reply. How should we respond?"

"It's just a cultivation method, commonplace stuff. Just give him one. Tell Chu Tian to ask him about his elemental attribute."

"Oh," Xiao Zhu nodded in acknowledgment, thinking, *Disciples from these major sects seem quite pitiful. Although our Xuanmen is only a ninth-grade sect, in the early stages of cultivation, the senior and junior disciples help each other, so they don't face as many hardships.*

"Oh, and don't give it to him for free. Those major sects are particular about that. Sell it to him, but charge a little less in spirit stones. They're quite poor, after all."

"Got it."