Spiritual Energy Clusters

In the Mountain Lord's cave dwelling, the tiger-eared woman sat cross-legged.

Humans were born with all Five Elements complete; where did this concept of a "spirit root" even come from?

When mortals cultivated, because they were naturally different, the energy of the Five Elements within their bodies varied in strength. Therefore, when breathing in spiritual energy, they would naturally select or reject the gold, wood, water, fire, and earth elemental energies drifting in the world.

If one absolutely had to factor in cultivation efficiency, some people lacked water in their bodies compared to others, making them more receptive to water spiritual energy and better at accumulating it. Consequently, when choosing a cultivation method, they would lean toward the water attribute.

Others lacked fire in their bodies, making their fire nature stronger and their absorption rate of fire spiritual energy faster than average. Thus, it was not surprising for them to choose to cultivate fire-attribute techniques.

With the Five Elements of heaven and earth and the five corresponding attributes of humans, if one insisted on classifying them by spirit roots, then strictly speaking, everyone was born with all five spirit roots.

—In Great Xia's traditional cultivation theories, the Five Elements generated and overcame one another, and not a single one could be missing. Only through the harmony of yin and yang and the rotation of the Five Elements could one attain the Great Dao.

Cultivators were different from the demon and Witch races. If a cultivator solely absorbed spiritual energy of a single attribute, then over time, the rotation of the Five Elements within their body would become deficient, and their yin and yang would lose balance. This could easily lead to reversed meridians and a depletion of both qi and blood.

In the end, they would either become like a water skin that only took water in but never let it out, their sea of qi unable to withstand the single type of spiritual energy and exploding, or their dantian would become like a pool of stagnant, lifeless water, causing their spiritual energy to clog up and making it difficult to cast spells.

When Nan Zhi first entered Bianjing, she had debated this very issue with Xu Zi.

At the time, Xu Zi had also sneered at the theory of spirit roots, explaining the true meaning of "cultivation":

In essence, cultivation was a mortal's exploration of themselves and the world through continuous practice.

Why was it that only after Foundation Establishment could one be considered to have officially set foot on the path of cultivation?

Qi Refinement was a mortal's internal investigation and tempering. Its purpose was to open up the meridians of the entire body, elevate human potential, and raise the constitution to its peak so that the cultivator's body could withstand the pain of carving out a sea of qi to store spiritual energy within the dantian.

To put it bluntly, it was using spiritual energy to create a new organ, actively allowing more energy of the Five Elements to circulate within the body.

As for a cultivator practicing spells, they were borrowing laws from heaven and earth and contesting with all things for a chance at life, accumulating spiritual energy to convert into their dantian's sea of qi, turning the power of the Five Elements to their own use.

The process of cultivation was one of gradually expanding the sea of qi through continuous breathing and expiration of spiritual energy and the circulation of the Five Elements.

Simply put, it was slowly increasing one's maximum mana.

Therefore, aside from those rejected by heaven and earth and destined to be intolerable to the world, everyone possessed the aptitude for cultivation. It was merely a matter of who could fight to the end, who could defy heaven, and who could seize a chance at life from the heavens.

Even if one took ten thousand steps back and assumed someone truly could not carve out a dantian's sea of qi, their path to cultivation was not completely blocked.

Talismans, formations, the sword dao, martial arts, witchcraft, Gu arts, alchemy, music... the path of cultivation had countless great ways. By using external objects to convert the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for one's own use, how could there be any logic to "those without spirit roots face a dead end"?

It was just like borrowing money. If the major state banks were closed to you, were you not allowed to borrow from other banks?

Perhaps some people were indeed extraordinarily gifted, possessing absolute focus during cultivation and breathing in spiritual energy much more efficiently than others, but this was not the credit of any "Heavenly Spirit Root" or "single spirit root."

Cultivation was about seeking one's "true self." It was defying heaven and fighting against the heavens, defying heaven without destroying it. It was a contest of one's true heart, comprehension, and perseverance.

Yet, as described in the Great Freedom Joy Spirit Absorption Art, highly praising a cultivator's aptitude, labeling those with comprehension and talent as supreme geniuses and favored children of heaven destined for a smooth path to immortality, while treating cultivators without spirit roots or those who cultivated slowly as insects, pigs, and dogs, degrading them into the mud—

Such a theory, which seemed to divide humans naturally into various classes, actually shared a faint, subtle similarity with the demon race's lineage theories.

Cultivation was about freedom and leisure, just like those magnificent and strange mythological tales—Magu offering longevity, the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, Mazu ascending to heaven, or an immortal touching one's head to grant hair-bound longevity.

Regardless of identity or status, whether beggar or Prime Minister, scholar or peasant, as long as one's thoughts were clear and they accumulated merit and performed good deeds, anyone could ascend in broad daylight.

All living things competing for freedom under the frosty sky—this was what a normal cultivation world should be like.

Yet, the Great Freedom Joy Spirit Absorption Art suggested that if one's talent was insufficient, a top-tier spirit root could be artificially manufactured, skipping the Qi Refinement stage entirely to directly create a dantian's sea of qi.

The method was incredibly bloody:

Find the corpse of a young, strong person between eighteen and thirty-five years of age, regardless of gender. Deaths by drowning, burning, earth burial, swallowing gold, or wooden coffin burial were preferred. Extract the spine from their back, take the spinal fluid, store it in a copper pellet, and swallow it before breathing in spiritual energy for the best effect.

In this way, the cultivation efficiency would progress by leaps and bounds, achieving Foundation Establishment in ten years, entering the Golden Core stage in a hundred, and directly ascending to the Nascent Soul stage in a thousand.

“So when Li Dapeng killed people, aside from venting his anger, he must have also taken the victims' spinal fluid.”

Remembering Li Dapeng's face, Nan Zhi could not help but feel a wave of disgust.

“What on earth is the background of this Great Freedom Joy Auspicious Holy Mother? This cultivation method is simply more wicked than beast-craft sorcery.

“Those who believe in this method... thinking that one cannot become an immortal without a spirit root is a top-down view, a theory imposed by those in high positions on those below. To cultivate toward immortality and still be unable to break free from the rules given by others—in the end, they can only become cannon fodder.”

The tone of the book was flat, describing the extraction of spinal fluid as simply as harvesting herbs or extracting cores, which was truly chilling.

If this cultivation method were to truly spread, it might very well cause massive chaos.

Focusing on one's own cultivation was one thing, but not wanting to see her motherland turn into the dark-themed cultivation worlds depicted in most novels was quite another.

Therefore, it was best to destroy such a method.

“I just don't know what the origin of this Holy Mother of Joy is. The name sounds somewhat intimidating at first, but upon closer inspection, the titles are all borrowed from Bodhisattvas.”

Nan Zhi let out a breath, knowing that crooked cultivation methods like this would only increase in the future. She could only hope that Great Xia's official authorities could grow a bit faster.

—It would also make her past effort in gifting the Demon Suppression Division's cultivation methods worthwhile.

After burning that cultivation method, Nan Zhi felt her thoughts clear. She then took out a glowing, bright spiritual energy cluster.

【Spiritual Energy Cluster (Large): A large cluster of concentrated spiritual energy. It can be used for alchemy and artifact crafting. When used during cultivation, it can increase the concentration of surrounding spiritual energy and improve cultivation efficiency.

(One-time consumable, exclusive drop from killing red-named monsters in the real world)】

With a gentle wave of her hand, the cluster of spiritual energy floated above the hollow of the stalactite, emitting a soft and bright light.

This time, the rewards from hunting red-named monsters were extremely bountiful. The greatest harvest was undoubtedly the fifteen large spiritual energy clusters and forty-five small spiritual energy clusters in her backpack.

Nan Zhi had tested it. With her current cultivation level, cultivating within a small spiritual energy cluster yielded an efficiency equivalent to three days of her running her cultivation method to breathe and expire.

Cultivating within a large spiritual energy cluster, on the other hand, was equivalent to the efficiency of her breathing and expiring for seven days without eating or drinking.

The former could last for six shichen, while the spiritual energy in the latter would dissipate on its own after twelve shichen.

This way, Nan Zhi could cultivate anytime and anywhere, which was essentially equivalent to carrying a rich spiritual pulse with her that constantly gushed with abundant spiritual energy.

If this news were to spread, let alone the practitioners of the real world, even Xu Zi would probably turn green with envy.

Nan Zhi closed her eyes and began a new round of cultivation.