Chapter 33: Perfecting the Cultivation Method

“Yes.”

Wang Yu was very prescient, having sent Huang Kai and others to obtain formal credentials. With these, it was only natural for Zhao Shang to enter Ice Snow Tower’s public accounts.

“Then, a pleasure doing business.”

Zhao Shang extended his hand to shake Wang Yu’s, his emotions complex. He had managed to suppress his desires, choosing to cooperate with Wang Yu and even cede some benefits.

Someone like him, even with a defective spirit root, could absorb every bit of nourishment and gradually grow.

Wang Yu familiarly patted Zhao Shang’s shoulder and said kindly, “Let’s wipe the slate clean regarding past grievances. From now on, we’re friends. I won’t be staying in the tower’s rooms anymore. Come to this address in three days, and I’ll introduce you to a few friends.”

“Alright—”

A thousand words were left unsaid, ultimately condensed into that single word.

After handling these matters, Wang Yu returned to his residence in Evil God District. Only then did he have time to take out the "High-Grade Cold Blood Pill" he had purchased for five hundred spirit stones.

The pill was ice-blue in appearance and emitted a faint chill even when kept in its box. Inside, there was a blood-red dot, brimming with spiritual energy.

According to its description, this pill could help cultivators practicing the Cold Blood Art increase their spiritual power cultivation by forty strands, and its effects would last for an entire year.

This characteristic didn't necessarily indicate its efficacy but rather highlighted two properties of the Cold Blood Pill: its immense potency and its difficulty to refine.

At Wang Yu's current cultivation speed, he could only refine one wisp of spiritual energy every two days, cultivating merely 18 strands of spiritual power in a year. This was thanks to the "placement slot"; on his own, he would be lucky to condense one or two strands.

He took the pill and began qi cultivation.

As the ice-blue pill was swallowed, a cool, refreshing sensation emanated from his dantian, spreading throughout his limbs and bones. Wang Yu felt incredibly comfortable.

Using his divine sense to examine his body internally, he could see the pill in his dantian, continuously being refined while enveloped by gaseous spiritual energy. Its shrinking speed was almost imperceptible, confirming the extremely high difficulty of its refinement.

After a long while, a grand circulation cycle was completed. His cultivation had indeed improved noticeably compared to before, but the power to refine the pill could only come from his own efforts.

For the next year, he would have to spend a significant amount of time on this.

And so, he waited quietly for three days.

At the agreed-upon shop, he introduced Zhao Shang to Zhou Tao and the other two members of the Alchemist Society. After determining the type and quantity of the first batch of pills, each person contributed their share to purchase numerous low-priced spirit herbs.

Huang Kai and Luo Pinghu, being short on funds, couldn't buy many herbs. Wang Yu lent out all his remaining five hundred spirit stones, and Zhou Tao also contributed an extra thousand to help their brethren complete the purchase of the first batch of spirit herbs.

These spirit stones were to be repaid after the transactions were completed.

The transaction scale for the three alchemists wasn't very large, and the profits they could gain were limited. Wang Yu did not participate for now, intending to wait a bit longer.

Zhao Shang, however, felt the amount was somewhat small. Wang Yu could only reassure him that once the number of alchemists increased, the spirit stones they could earn would naturally be greater.

This was true, but the Alchemist Society's growth in volume absolutely could not attract attention. If Wang Yu were to participate in the future, it would only be to hone his divine sense.

Therefore, this pace would be very slow. Zhao Shang was dissatisfied but helpless; once on a pirate ship, one couldn't simply disembark at will.

As for the Alchemist Society, with Ice Snow Tower's channel, Wang Yu's previous promises were validated: he truly could get things done.

Huang Kai and Luo Pinghu were convinced and respected him, even though their cultivation was the lowest. Only Zhou Tao's thoughts were more active.

Over time, he might try to bypass Wang Yu and contact Zhao Shang directly.

This didn't matter. He wouldn't succeed, and as long as he could help him earn spirit stones, minor issues could be tolerated, provided they didn't cross Wang Yu's bottom line.

Thus, the matters of the Alchemist Society came to a temporary close.

Day 385 of his Outer Sect life!

More than a year had passed since his promotion to the Outer Sect, and Wang Yu was about to reach his first turning point in cultivation.

The Cold Blood Art was perfected today.

In his Evil God District residence, Wang Yu was sensing the changes in his spirit root. According to the cultivation method, perfecting it could slightly enhance a cultivator's aptitude.

This enhancement was almost negligible, but it was extremely important to Wang Yu. After all, there was no worse aptitude than a defective spirit root; any worse, and one couldn't cultivate at all.

“This feeling…”

Through a subtle perception, Wang Yu seemed to see his own spirit roots: all five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—were present, but each was pitifully short, less than an inch long.

In terms of cultivation, this meant he had difficulty refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, lacked affinity, and struggled to sense and capture spiritual energy.

At this very moment, as the cultivation method was perfected, an ice-blue spiritual light emerged from his blood and attached itself to his water spirit root.

It visibly shot up a small section, reaching about half of its original length. Among the five-element spirit roots, it stood out significantly, causing Wang Yu's eyes to widen.

“No—

“Is this a slight enhancement? It’s grown by almost half!”

But then he thought, anyone who could cultivate the Cold Blood Art to perfection must be a cultivator at the Great Perfection stage of Qi Condensation. Their aptitudes were usually tri-element spirit roots.

Compared to them, the growth was naturally subtle, and it was even highly probable that because their aptitude was already high enough, this power to enhance aptitude was too weak to be as noticeable as it was for Wang Yu.

“So, the noticeable growth is actually because I'm weak, not because my cultivation results are good…”

With a newfound understanding, Wang Yu continued to observe.

He found that his water spirit root had not only grown longer but also showed a tendency to crystallize.

To be precise, it was crystallizing into ice!

“An Ice Spirit Root?”

Conventional spirit roots are typically of the five elements, but mutated spirit roots can also emerge from this foundation: ice, lightning, wind, void, blood, yin, yang, and so on.

Their variations are unpredictable, as elusive as the will of heaven.

This discovery gave Wang Yu more ideas. Perhaps he could try to actively mutate into an Ice Spirit Root. While five-element spirit roots had no cultivation attribute limitations, they also lacked the advantages of complementary attributes.

Any advantage gained, no matter how small, was incredibly valuable to him. The placement slot, moreover, would amplify this advantage tens or even hundreds of times over.

Placement Slot 1: Cold Blood Art"Cold Blood Art (100/100): Seventy-two practices a day; can be completed in twenty years."

Twenty years… this meant that a second-tier Foundation Establishment cultivation method, derived from the Cold Blood Art, would amplify the effect of aptitude enhancement even further!

Wang Yu had no intention of removing it. After all, while it was perfected, the cultivation it provided was what mattered most.

The number of cultivation cycles per day also increased significantly.

The next day.

Feeling the efficiency after the cultivation method's perfection, Wang Yu was overjoyed. Previously, a single cultivation method in a placement slot could only refine one wisp of spiritual energy every two days; now, it was one wisp per day.

Currently, he had accumulated about thirty-five strands of spiritual power in his body, having progressed one-tenth through Qi Condensation Fourth Layer. He would likely break through to Qi Condensation Fifth Layer in at most seven more years.

This was half the time of his earlier estimate of over ten years, and this was considering only one placement slot's efficiency.

If he used two placement slots plus the effect of the High-Grade Cold Blood Pill…

The speed would be even faster.