Chapter 3: Terrifying Cultivation Speed

It took a quarter of an hour for Wang Ping to recover from his shock, after which came a burst of wild joy.

He never expected that after the energy bar filled up, the vortex it formed would actually lead him to the Spirit Realm.

This is the world that all cultivators dream of!

Wang Ping looked around at his position; stone walls on both sides clearly showed he was in a mountain crevice.

Standing where he was, aside from the gray-brown stone walls, there was nothing else, barren as a wilderness.

If not for the immense spiritual energy filling heaven and earth, he would have thought he'd arrived at a desert wasteland.

Wang Ping reached out and touched the stone wall; a cold sensation came through, and he tried to pinch it.

So hard!

He involuntarily crouched, wanting to pick up a palm-sized stone on the ground; he lifted it lightly, but it wouldn't budge.

He exerted force again, still no movement; using both hands, he finally managed to lift the palm-sized stone, trembling.

Wang Ping's face finally changed; a stone in the Spirit Realm was so heavy it was unbelievable.

If such a stone were thrown at someone, even a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator couldn't withstand it!

Wang Ping finally realized that, for a Qi Refining newbie like him, every stone in the Spirit Realm was a treasure.

Though it looks barren here, each fragment of stone on the ground is astonishingly heavy; if brought back and forged into a magic artifact, its incredible weight alone could smash through anything.

Looking ahead, there were many small stone fragments on the ground; Wang Ping's eyes burned with fervor as he walked forward, and after walking about five zhang, he found he could go no further.

Ahead it was as if an invisible wall stood; reaching this point meant the end.

He tried pushing several times, found he really couldn't get out, Wang Ping pondered, then walked the opposite direction; when he had gone about ten zhang, resistance appeared again.

"Ten zhang!"

Wang Ping murmured, "I can only move within a circle of diameter ten!"

With this discovery, Wang Ping felt a bit disappointed, but he quickly rallied.

He thought: This is also good; it's a kind of protection for him, the Spirit Realm's rules are clearly different from the Lower Realm's, as shown by the stones on the ground.

With his strength, rashly appearing in the Spirit Realm, he might not even know how he'd die.

Turning his thoughts, another question arose: How long can I stay in the Spirit Realm?

This is a very important question.

Wang Ping sat cross-legged, his consciousness sinking back into his mind; where the energy bar had appeared, a silver hourglass now appeared.

Upon seeing the hourglass, Wang Ping understood he could remain in the Spirit Realm for one Spirit Realm day.

And one Spirit Realm day equals a month in the Lower Realm.

In other words, spending a day here means a month has passed in the Lower Realm upon return.

He somewhat understood this; in his previous life, there had been the saying that a day in heaven equals a year on earth.

After all, the Spirit Realm is not the Immortal Realm; the time flow difference between them is not that exaggerated.

Immediately afterward, Wang Ping noticed a silver-white block beside the hourglass.

The next moment, he understood the silver-white block's function; it was equivalent to storage space.

If he wanted to bring things from the Spirit Realm to the Lower Realm, he could only do so through this silver-white block.

Otherwise, the powerful inter-realm force would pulverize items carrying Spirit Realm aura into powder.

The silver-white block is currently only one cubic centimeter in size; according to the information he received, ten strands of spiritual power can expand one cubic centimeter of space.

Withdrawing his consciousness, Wang Ping curled his lips; one cubic centimeter could carry a little thing.

Now he basically understood some issues; next, it was time to seize the moment and cultivate.

It's true that time flows faster in the Spirit Realm, but cultivation speed is also fast; a Spirit Realm day, combined with the pure and rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth here,

Wang Ping had a premonition that his cultivation speed would be astonishingly fast.

Sitting cross-legged, Wang Ping activated the Bluewood Longevity Technique; as soon as he began cultivating, he immediately noticed a difference.

Normally, the Bluewood Longevity Technique runs as slowly as a turtle crawling, but now it raced through his body.

A large amount of pure, rich heavenly spiritual energy was drawn into his body; these spiritual energies basically needed no refinement from him, and the Longevity Technique, after just one circuit, caused his forty-first strand of spiritual power to increase greatly.

In hardly the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, the forty-first strand of spiritual power had already been condensed.

Hiss!

Wang Ping sucked in a breath of cold air; such speed, astonishingly fast.

As he knew, the area with the scarcest spiritual energy in the Spirit Realm still equaled a fourth-rank spiritual vein in the Lower Realm.

What does a fourth-rank spiritual vein mean? With his inferior spiritual roots, being there he could condense sixteen strands of spiritual energy in a month, just like a heavenly spiritual root.

This is the effect of wealth, partners, methods, and land in the cultivation world.

Now, being in the Spirit Realm, he condensed a strand of spiritual power in the time it takes to finish a cup of tea; this speed absolutely surpasses a fourth-rank spiritual vein.

A fourth-rank spiritual vein can boost his cultivation speed sixteenfold; a fifth-rank would double that again, but Wang Ping has a feeling that even a fifth-rank vein wouldn't give him such astonishing cultivation speed.

Could it be? An unseen sixth-rank spiritual vein in the Lower Realm?

Wang Ping's heart stirred; what cultivation speed could a sixth-rank spiritual vein bring him?

No one knows.

He only knows to bury himself in diligent practice, seize this opportunity, and strive to condense spiritual power.

Time quietly passed.

42, 43, 44, …, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100.

In Wang Ping's dantian, strand after strand of spiritual power was condensed; his frail body emanated a powerful surge.

A powerful sense of strength filled his entire body.

Such cultivation speed shocked him.

Checking the time, the hourglass still had about one-twentieth of its time left.

His dantian was already filled with spiritual power; 108 strands of spiritual power merged into a spiritual power cluster, emitting oppressive fluctuations.

This is the peak of early Qi Refining.

He spent three years cultivating to reach 40 strands of spiritual power.

In the Spirit Realm, in less than a day in the Spirit Realm, he cultivated 68 strands of spiritual power.

Such speed made Wang Ping so excited he almost shed tears; without such a fortuitous encounter, he did not know when he could achieve completion of early Qi Refining.

His wager with his family was to break through to mid Qi Refining within five years.

Two years remained until the wager deadline; it was obvious that, without this Spirit Realm trip, in two years he would likely be sent back to the family to propagate the lineage, after which his path to immortality would be cut off.

Now, the willows are dark and the flowers bright; parting the clouds to see the moon, the thousand-jin weight pressing on his mind suddenly vanished.

Wang Ping felt his whole body relax and his thoughts became unobstructed.

Such a state let him seize the opportunity; with one sustained effort, he broke through to mid Qi Refining.

Closing his eyes again, the Azure Wood Longevity Technique operated once more, and spiritual qi surged in from all directions.