Gains

Three months had passed since that storm.

The spirit ship's subsequent journey returned to normal, and they never encountered another sea beast as powerful as the two-faced whale.

Whenever the ship reached a sea region planned on the route, it would stop for a period to allow the cultivators to enter the sea and harvest resources.

The five of them, including Gu Ningyun, did not miss a single sea region and encountered many different types of sea beasts.

The sea beasts from the 《Almanac of Heavenly Wonders》 stepped out of the illustrations and into reality. The five of them witnessed the vastness of the world and the profound depths of the ocean.

They saw the sheer size of the sea beasts and the incredible diversity of the species.

They fought in the depths of the ocean where only water spirit energy existed, engaging in combat with all sorts of sea beasts.

Compared to their initial awkwardness and naivety when they first entered the sea, they had changed significantly.

Exploring the sea and fighting in the depths was now simply a change of location for them, no different from being on land.

They had grown accustomed to the darkness of the seabed. Their divine sense acted as a second pair of eyes, an extension of their consciousness.

Precisely because they would release their divine sense as soon as they entered the water, their divine sense unknowingly became increasingly resilient under the high pressure of the seabed, far exceeding that of cultivators of the same rank by several times.

Beyond their divine sense, there was also their cultivation.

The five of them were all single spirit root cultivators, and their spirit roots were far stronger and purer than those with multiple spirit roots.

Meditating and absorbing spirit energy was as simple as breathing for them.

However, no matter how great one's natural talent, cultivation levels cannot increase out of thin air without quiet meditation.

The purpose of leaving the sect for this year was to train and explore, to hone themselves, and to broaden their horizons and experience from various aspects to build a foundation and prepare for Foundation Establishment and beyond.

There was neither a necessity nor a suitable time or opportunity for secluded meditation.

Initially, they hadn't planned on any breakthroughs in their cultivation levels.

Their original plan was to return to the sect and focus on cultivation after their training expedition ended.

To their surprise, things began to change first during the body tempering at the Shocking Thunder Platform.

The blocked portions of the six primary meridians that Wen Xuan and the other three had yet to open were loosened slightly by the strikes of the heavenly lightning.

Later, after arriving at the East Sea, they found that the seawater contained only water spirit energy.

Except for Mu Chenze, it was quite inconvenient for Wen Xuan and the others to replenish their spirit energy while fighting in the sea.

Most of the time, they had to consume a large number of Spirit-Replenishing Pills in a short period.

In fact, if the frequency at which they consumed Spirit-Replenishing Pills were known to the other cultivators on the ship, they would surely be shocked.

Firstly, aside from alchemy cultivators, typical sect disciples and rogue cultivators could not possibly produce so many Spirit-Replenishing Pills, let alone be so extravagant as to eat them whenever they pleased.

Secondly, their bodies would not be able to withstand it.

Due to these two reasons, other cultivators would be quite stingy when using spirit energy in the sea.

If their spirit energy ran low, most would choose to return to the surface to replenish it.

Spirit-Replenishing Pills use spirit herbs from the eight elements—gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, and ice—as a medium, with neutral spirit herbs as balancers.

They draw in the eight types of spirit energy from the air and refine them into gentle spirit energy.

With the alchemist's repeated refinement, these are eventually made into Spirit-Replenishing Pills containing dense spirit energy along with the spirit herbs.

The gentler and denser the spirit energy within the Spirit-Replenishing Pill and the fewer the impurities, the higher the grade of the pill.

After a cultivator consumes a Spirit-Replenishing Pill, the spirit energy within it quickly passes through the meridians.

Spirit energy that matches the spirit root is accepted by the dantian, while non-matching spirit energy overflows through the acupoints and returns to the world, turning back into heaven and earth spirit energy.

This process is very fast. Having a large amount of spirit energy fill the meridians and dantian before overflowing through the acupoints places a heavy burden on the body.

For typical cultivators, especially those in the Qi Refining stage, their bodies and meridians are very fragile, not much stronger than those of mortals.

For them, taking at most one pill every two hours and no more than three Spirit-Replenishing Pills a day is already the limit of their bodies.

Consuming more is highly likely to cause damage to the acupoints, meridians, and dantian.

However, Wen Xuan and the others had practiced body refining and had even undergone tempering by lightning, so they had no such concerns.

Furthermore, Wen Xuan was a yellow-rank top-grade alchemist with a special constitution; she had as many yellow-rank top-grade Spirit-Replenishing Pills as they needed for the Qi Refining stage.

Consequently, they never had any reservations about taking Spirit-Replenishing Pills.

For them, using Spirit-Replenishing Pills was the best choice when there was no spirit energy in the surroundings to absorb.

This was originally quite normal behavior.

But due to the various reasons mentioned above, it serendipitously brought them many benefits.

The first was their gains.

Because they didn't have to waste time returning to the surface to replenish spirit energy, they spent much more time in the sea than other cultivators of the same rank or even Foundation Establishment cultivators.

They were able to see more marine life and harvest more sea beast materials.

Whenever she saw marine life she liked, Gu Ningyun would even collect them in pairs—one male and one female—into her portable herb garden to enrich the species in her space's ocean.

The second was their strength.

Without the worry of spirit energy depletion, they could fight sea beasts with their full strength.

During this day-and-night training on the seabed, their adaptability to the environment improved.

Their combat experience and their insights into spells, sword techniques, and other areas also improved at an unprecedented speed.

Finally, there was their cultivation.

They were all single spirit root cultivators, so they could only absorb one type of spirit energy from the Spirit-Replenishing Pills; the other seven-eighths of the spirit energy would overflow from their bodies through their acupoints.

This spirit energy was massive and dense, and it consisted of seven types of energy that did not match their bodies.

As it overflowed from their acupoints, it inevitably flushed through the six primary meridians that were still blocked in Wen Xuan, Jiang Yao, and Jun Luo.

These meridians had already been loosened by the lightning, and after months of being flushed by overflowing spirit energy, they finally gave way.

The seventh primary meridian for the three of them, the Bladder Meridian of Foot-Taiyang, was suddenly completely cleared.

Wen Xuan, Jiang Yao, and Jun Luo subsequently broke through to Qi Refining level eight and completely stabilized their cultivation during their training in the sea.

Mu Chenze possessed a high-grade water spirit root, so he did not use Spirit-Replenishing Pills as frequently in the sea.

Often, while the others were resting within an array they had set up on the seabed...

While Wen Xuan and the others took Spirit-Replenishing Pills, Mu Chenze would sit in meditation and directly absorb the water spirit energy from the seabed to recover his spirit energy.

The water spirit energy on the seabed was dense and pure. Every time Mu Chenze meditated, it was like a dragon drinking water.

Behind him, a spirit energy vortex formed by water spirit energy would even appear.

As a large amount of water spirit energy filled his meridians and performed the Minor Orbit cycles, it naturally flushed through his blocked meridians.

Mu Chenze's Bladder Meridian of Foot-Taiyang was likewise cleared, and he broke through to Qi Refining level eight.

If it could be said that the cultivation of Mu Chenze and the other three had been stuck at Qi Refining level seven because the Bladder Meridian of Foot-Taiyang had not been opened...

Then Gu Ningyun's cultivation being stuck at Qi Refining level eight was due to her own deliberate suppression.

Tempering her body with lightning at the Shocking Thunder Platform had been mainly to refine her meridians.

After the lightning tempering, the only remaining task was to compress the spirit energy in her dantian.

After experiencing a place like the seabed where there was no wind spirit energy, she became even more aware of the importance of the reserves in her dantian.

She had even thought about using the seven types of spirit energy she couldn't absorb to assist in compressing her wind spirit energy after taking a large number of Spirit-Replenishing Pills.

Unfortunately, she had a pure wind spirit root.

Her body had been made too clean by the cleansing the marrow in the spirit spring; those non-wind spirit energies slipped away incredibly fast, and she couldn't utilize even a trace of them.

One could only say that everything has two sides.

Gu Ningyun smiled softly, feeling no regret.

Having a body with absolutely no impurities was certainly better than having impurities that might hinder other spirit energies from overflowing.

Every time she was on the surface, the cultivation technique within her body would operate on its own.

The higher her cultivation, the faster it operated.

During this time, the spirit energy within Gu Ningyun's body had long since been compressed to the limit.

Similarly, under the protection of her companions, she broke through to Qi Refining level nine.

It had only been a little over seven months since they left Xiaoyao, yet their cultivation levels had all broken through and advanced a stage.

Their strength, horizons, and experience had also grown significantly.

Even the seabed was no longer an area where they felt restricted.

Such a massive and comprehensive improvement was something they had never anticipated before leaving Xiaoyao.