Yu Mi’s Spirit Gathering Array in Bao Gu’s room drew spiritual energy from all directions into the array, making the spiritual energy within as dense as fog. Bao Gu didn’t need to deliberately guide the spiritual energy; it entered her body with her breath and through her pores. The continuous flow of spiritual energy surged into Bao Gu’s body, permeating her limbs and converging towards her dantian, making her cultivation speed tens of times faster than when she was sitting in the mountains absorbing the spiritual energy of the world.
She cultivated according to the techniques of her sect, guiding the spiritual energy to condense in her dantian.
Entering the third stage of Qi Refining, the Sensing Phase, was like gaining a special eye. Not only could she clearly see the spiritual energy floating in the air around her, but she could also “see” the spiritual energy entering her body.
The spiritual energy that gathered in her dantian like countless stars was refined into true qi in a great furnace and gathered in her dantian.
The fourth stage of Qi Refining is Condensation, which involves gathering the absorbed spiritual energy into the dantian and refining it into true qi. Entering this stage is not difficult; as long as one absorbs enough spiritual energy, one can naturally break through to the fourth stage of Qi Refining.
In fact, in the world of cultivation, the entire Qi Refining period is not difficult to cultivate. Even those with the worst spiritual roots can advance to the third stage of Qi Refining. However, if one’s spiritual roots are poor, the amount of spiritual energy that can be absorbed and converted into true qi is limited. Thus, the Condensation phase of the fourth stage of Qi Refining could become a bottleneck, requiring a lot of time to accumulate.
Although Bao Gu was known to have the worst spiritual roots, the Five Spirit Roots, she had the Spirit Gathering Array to absorb spiritual energy and was confident in breaking through to the fourth stage of Qi Refining.
Time passed bit by bit.
The true qi condensed in Bao Gu’s body grew more and more, almost filling her entire dantian, but she never felt the transition from quantitative change to qualitative change.
Moreover, after her dantian was filled with true qi, the absorbed spiritual energy would circulate in the dantian, be converted into true qi, and then mysteriously dissipate.
If the spiritual energy dissipated, there should be a place it went to, either dispersing in the meridians or leaking out through the pores. However, Bao Gu didn’t feel any spiritual energy leaking out of her body. She felt as if her dantian was a bottomless pit; it seemed full, yet it could always hold more!
It would be fine if her dantian could always hold more, since she had the Spirit Gathering Array and plenty of spiritual energy to consume. But what about breaking through? Where was the qualitative change induced by quantitative change? Where was the Condensation phase? She hadn’t even seen a shadow of it!
Bao Gu had to admit dejectedly: she had encountered a bottleneck.
Could it be that the absorbed spiritual energy was not enough?
Bao Gu could only suppress her impatience and continue to absorb spiritual energy for cultivation.
She didn’t feel tired or sleepy while cultivating. When she was hungry, she would swallow a few Qi Refining Pills to fill her stomach, practically cultivating day and night.
Bao Gu didn’t know how many days she had been cultivating. She only felt the spirit stones that powered the Spirit Gathering Array gradually depleting until they were completely exhausted. She still hadn’t broken through!
Bao Gu was so frustrated she wanted to cry! She had absorbed so much spiritual energy that if it were condensed into water and stored in a bucket, it could fill a small bucket, yet she hadn’t broken through!
Was the Five Spirit Roots really so useless?
Bao Gu thought about asking her senior sister for advice when she returned, but she was afraid of being scolded for being stupid. After thinking it over, she took out her tiger skin coat from her storage bag, wrapped herself tightly, left the small courtyard, and ran to find Elder Lu. As soon as she left the small courtyard and randomly asked a disciple of Qingfeng Pavilion, she learned where Elder Lu lived.
Bao Gu stood outside Elder Lu’s courtyard and bowed, saying, “Disciple Bao Gu of Xuantian Sect pays respects to Elder Lu.”
The courtyard door opened, and Elder Lu’s voice came from inside: “Come in!”
Bao Gu saw Elder Lu and respectfully greeted him.
Elder Lu asked with a smile, “What’s the matter? Are the sect’s disciples not taking good care of you?”
Bao Gu replied, “No, it’s not that! It’s… like this. My senior sister and senior uncle have been out for many days and haven’t returned. I… I’ve encountered a bottleneck in my cultivation and can’t find anyone to ask for advice. I… I only know you here, so… I wanted to ask for your guidance. I… I haven’t disturbed you, have I?”
Elder Lu found it both amusing and speechless but didn’t send Bao Gu away. He kindly asked, “Tell me, how did you encounter this bottleneck?”
Bao Gu explained her process of trying to break through to the fourth stage of Qi Refining in detail.
Elder Lu frowned as he listened. He intended to release his divine consciousness to investigate, but it was blocked by the jade pendant on Bao Gu’s neck. With his cultivation level, breaking a mere protective jade pendant was not difficult, but since Bao Gu’s sect had given her the pendant, it meant they didn’t want others to probe, so he refrained from acting.
Bao Gu asked dejectedly, “Does Elder Lu also have no solution?”
Elder Lu was amused and exasperated by her words! How could he, a great cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, have no solution for the cultivation bottleneck of a minor Qi Refining third-stage cultivator? Even if you wanted to form a Golden Core, I have a way! It just costs some resources! He said, “It’s not that there’s no solution, but your situation is strange. Normally, once you gather enough true qi, you should naturally break through. But now, not only have you not broken through, the excess true qi you’ve absorbed has also disappeared without a trace. This situation is quite bizarre.” He laughed, “Unless you are the legendary Five Spirit Roots.”
Bao Gu said dejectedly, “I have five neat and tidy Spirit Roots.”
Elder Lu: “…”
Seeing Elder Lu’s eyes widen, Bao Gu asked, “Elder Lu, what’s wrong?”
Elder Lu thought to himself, “Didn’t brother Feng say that Xuantian Sect only accepts disciples with excellent root bones? How did they accept someone with Five Spirit Roots and treat them like a treasure!” He couldn’t help but take a few more glances at Bao Gu, pondered for a moment, and took out a treasure for testing Spirit Roots, handing it to Bao Gu, saying, “I want to see your Spirit Roots. Just hold this compass in your hand.”
Bao Gu obediently held the compass for testing Spirit Roots.
The compass’s face showed clear lines of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, with the five lines being quite neat, neither more nor less.
Elder Lu was first surprised, silently praising, “Such neat Five Spirit Roots,” followed by shock. Although Bao Gu’s Five Spirit Roots were not full, they barely entered the category of superior Spirit Roots. If perfection was scored as one hundred, Bao Gu’s Spirit Roots could be given eighty points. With such fullness of Spirit Roots, any cultivation sect would accept her. But Five Spirit Roots! Who could afford to cultivate them!
Elder Lu called out solemnly, “Bao Gu!”
Bao Gu responded, “Please enlighten me, Elder Lu.”
Elder Lu said, “There’s a common knowledge in the cultivation world that you might have forgotten. You have as many Spirit Roots as you need to cultivate. You have Five Spirit Roots, so you need to cultivate all five. This Xuan Yue Ancient City is located at the peak of the snowy region, among the clouds, where the spiritual energy in the air is primarily water spiritual energy. You’ve been using the Spirit Gathering Array to gather spiritual energy for cultivation, absorbing mostly water spiritual energy, while the gold, wood, fire, and earth spiritual energies are insufficient, so you can’t break through.”
Bao Gu suddenly realized, slapped her forehead hard, and exclaimed, “Ah, I’m so stupid, I forgot about this!”
Elder Lu was speechless. Even though Bao Gu’s Spirit Roots were good, the spiritual energy she needed for cultivation was not simply one more root, one more portion, but exponentially more. He saw that Xuantian Sect highly valued Bao Gu and intended to focus on cultivating her. How confident and bold they must be to cultivate such a Five Spirit Roots disciple! Even if she was a chosen successor by the Xuantian Ancestor, could Xuantian Sect afford it? Could they successfully cultivate her? He admitted that even with the strength of his Qingfeng Pavilion, he couldn’t afford to cultivate a Five Spirit Roots disciple.
Bao Gu said, “Thank you for your guidance, Elder Lu. I won’t disturb you any longer, farewell.”
Elder Lu said, “Go on.” He watched as Bao Gu, wrapped like a tiger and running away, realized that Bao Gu had no psychological burden about the difficulties of cultivating with Five Spirit Roots.
As Bao Gu ran, she checked the spirit stones in her storage bag and found that most of the spirit stones were of water and wood attributes, with a small portion of earth attribute stones and very few fire attribute stones. When she reached the courtyard gate, she ran back to Elder Lu and said, “Elder Lu… I have another favor to ask.”
Elder Lu said, “Speak.”
Bao Gu scratched her head and said, “I have very few fire and gold spirit stones in my bag. I want to exchange some fire and gold attribute spirit stones with you.”
Elder Lu smiled upon hearing this, about to say, “Don’t worry about exchanging, I’ll give you some,” and was about to take out some low-grade spirit stones for Bao Gu. He saw Bao Gu smile sheepishly at him and suddenly piled up a small mountain of high-grade spirit stones in front of him. A total of eight hundred neatly cut high-grade spirit stones, used for transactions, were neatly piled in front of him. Elder Lu was stunned on the spot.
Bao Gu said, “Elder Lu, I want to exchange for fifty wood spirit stones, two hundred and forty gold spirit stones, two hundred and fifty fire spirit stones, and two hundred and ten earth spirit stones. Elder Lu, Elder Lu, what’s wrong?”
Elder Lu’s hand trembled, decisively putting back the low-grade spirit stones he had moved to the edge of his storage treasure, and looked at Bao Gu solemnly. A Qi Refining third-stage disciple, casually using eight hundred high-grade spirit stones to exchange for seven hundred and fifty spirit stones of other attributes, and even giving him fifty spirit stones as a tip! Such a move! If it came from a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, he wouldn’t even blink. If it came from a Golden Core stage cultivator, he would just think the person knew how to earn and save. But coming from a Qi Refining third-stage minor cultivator…
Elder Lu waved his sleeve, collecting these spirit stones, and then waved his hand again, piling up a stack of gold, wood, fire, and earth attribute high-grade spirit stones in front of Bao Gu. A total of eight hundred stones, not one more, not one less.
Bao Gu gratefully thanked him, took the spirit stones, bowed, and left.
Elder Lu silently watched Bao Gu happily run away, sighing in his heart after a long while, “How does Xuantian Sect always produce such oddities!” Being a Five Spirit Roots, she had been cultivating for so long yet didn’t know she needed to cultivate all Five Spirit Roots together! She had only cultivated to the Qi Refining third stage, yet she casually used eight hundred high-grade spirit stones! Did Xuantian Sect really plan to empty their reserves to cultivate her?
Bao Gu returned to her warm little courtyard, entered the house, took off the tiger skin coat that had frozen ice crystals on it, took out the high-grade spirit stones, and began to absorb spiritual energy from the spirit stones for cultivation.
