Chapter 80: Same heavenly-earthly resistance, different resistance

After leaving the market, Wang Ping flew west for a month straight and arrived at a stretch of wasteland.

This place is in the Western Drooping Land, and it is called the Wasteland.

How barren is it? A Foundation Establishment cultivator once said that even with a heavenly spirit root, cultivating here would never let one reach the late-stage Qi Refining Great Perfection in a lifetime.

No cultivator knows how vast the Wasteland is, because no one would think of crossing it.

The entire Wasteland rarely has mountains, only an endless expanse of earth-brown land like the Great Gobi.

Wang Ping chose this place naturally because few cultivators come here; this time he almost drew a lot of attention, fearing he would fall into the eyes of those with ulterior motives.

Whoosh!

Wang Ping landed on the backside of a soil slope, regulated his breath for half an hour, and the pallor on his face improved slightly.

Over the past month, he hardly had any rest, flying here with all his might, because his intuition told him that if he did not quickly flee the Western Drooping Land, he would eventually be found.

He has now developed a pseudo-divine sense, and this intuition is often accurate.

Only after entering the Wasteland did that feeling in his heart gradually fade.

Then, after traveling three thousand li into the Wasteland, that feeling completely disappeared.

After finishing his breath regulation, Wang Ping flew west another thousand-plus li, then stopped at a rock wall about fifty zhang high.

Floating in the high air and observing his surroundings, Wang Ping did not choose that rock wall but stopped twenty li to its north.

Here there is an inconspicuous small soil mound, perfectly suitable for cultivation; although the spiritual qi of heaven and earth is nearly extinct here, he has ample spirit stones, spirit liquids, medicinal pills, and spirit pills.

Cultivating here to the limit of Qi Refining Great Perfection poses no problem.

Actually, in the cultivation world, cultivators who have reached Qi Refining Great Perfection are almost all in seclusion; if it weren't for the Foundation Establishment spirit items and Foundation Establishment pills being auctioned in the market, hardly any of them would be attracted.

Cultivators at this stage, unless faced with an enormous temptation, basically do not leave seclusion, and they also cherish their lives even more.

Therefore, after Wang Ping slaughtered over thirty cultivators, and after being threatened by Wang Ping, they would obediently pay compensation.

Wang Ping took out a shovel-shaped magic artifact from his storage bag, spent half a day, and repaired his cave dwelling three meters underground.

After doing all that, setting up the formation, and sending a drop of spirit liquid into his body, he almost fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

That sleep lasted six days and five nights straight.

Swish!

Wang Ping suddenly opened his eyes; after a moment, he realized he was now in the Wasteland.

Extending his divine sense outward, the outside remained just as when he first arrived—desolate and silent, vast and empty.

Seeing nothing abnormal, Wang Ping went to sleep here; this time his sleep was shorter, and he woke up three days later.

Still extending his divine sense, after finding nothing abnormal, he went out to check around, then returned to his cave dwelling.

Here, do not even think about absorbing spiritual qi from heaven and earth.

Therefore, he held a spirit stone in each hand, the Qingdi Changsheng Gong circulated, and the spirit qi within the stones was slowly absorbed into his body.

Cultivating with spirit stones is naturally much faster than painfully drawing qi from heaven and earth.

One low-grade spirit stone can generally condense thirty threads of spirit power; two stones yield sixty threads.

Normally, for Wang Ping to fully absorb them would take at least sixty months, but the Qingdi Changsheng Gong compensates for his cultivation speed, barely letting him reach the cultivation speed of a superior spirit root.

In just about seven days, he condensed a single thread of spirit power.

Exhale!

Wang Ping slowly exhaled a breath and slowly opened his eyes.

Satisfaction showed in his eyes; the Qingdi Changsheng Gong increased his cultivation speed fourfold.

If he entered the Spirit Realm, his cultivation speed would quadruple again; in one day of the Spirit Realm he could almost condense three hundred twenty threads of spirit power.

This time entering, his stay will be increased by one Spirit Realm day.

That would be six hundred forty threads of spirit power; moreover, after breaking through to Qi Refining Great Perfection, his time spent in the Spirit Realm also becomes longer.

The feedback from the silver stone gate in his mind told him that his time in the Spirit Realm had already reached one and a half days.

This way, he could condense nearly a thousand threads of spirit power in just three months.

He also has Yuan-Increasing Pills; each pill can increase his cultivation speed by one month, and a cultivator can take only ten in a lifetime.

Thinking of this, Wang Ping's heart pounded; if so, wouldn't that mean he could condense nearly ten thousand threads of spirit power in the Spirit Realm?

Immediately, Wang Ping shook his head, knowing this idea was unrealistic; the path to Qi Refining Great Perfection gets harder the further along, and the heavenly-earthly resistance grows greater.

From Zhang Zuo and them, Wang Ping knew that cultivators with medium spirit roots usually encounter heavenly-earthly resistance after condensing about a hundred threads of spirit power; superior spirit roots encounter it near two hundred threads; and extreme spirit roots encounter it after three hundred threads.

As for heavenly spirit roots, heavenly-earthly resistance appears only after five hundred threads.

The initial heavenly-earthly resistance is not great; everyone can still barely cultivate, but after resistance appears and another hundred threads of spirit power are condensed, the resistance roughly doubles for every additional hundred threads.

Eventually it reaches a terrifying hundredfold resistance, meaning that the heavenly-earthly qi needed to condense a hundred threads of spirit power can only condense one thread.

How long does it take a cultivator to condense a hundred threads of spirit power?

Without the aid of pills, spirit stones, or spirit veins, an inferior spirit root cultivator condenses one thread per month.

A medium spirit root cultivator can condense two threads per month, superior four, extreme eight, and heavenly sixteen!

Even taking a heavenly spirit root as an example, condensing a hundred threads of spirit power would still take nearly six months.

Six months of time to condense a single thread of spirit power!

This cultivation speed would drive one to despair, and even more despairing is that the heavenly-earthly resistance does not stop changing after reaching a hundredfold.

It only hinders the condensation of heavenly-earthly spirit power with ever more grotesque multiples.

Therefore, ordinary loose cultivators in the cultivation world stop condensing once the resistance reaches tenfold.

Disciples of major sects, aided by various pills and spirit veins, persist until the hundredfold resistance appears before stopping condensation.

Having said all this, why wasn't the inferior spirit root mentioned? Because an inferior spirit root encounters heavenly-earthly resistance after absorbing only fifty threads.

This is also why few cultivators with inferior spirit roots in the cultivation world become Foundation Establishment cultivators.

They almost reach a hundredfold resistance after condensing three hundred threads.

But this heavenly and earthly resistance, when placed on a middle-grade spiritual root, is merely thirtyfold; for a top-grade spiritual root it's just the beginning; as for extreme-grade and heavenly spiritual roots, others still have not felt the heavenly and earthly resistance.

This is the gap, the gap between spiritual roots!

Not only cultivation speed and condensing efficiency, but in every other aspect there is a gap that makes people despair.

Why did they let Wang Ping give up entering the sect and instead return to his clan to marry and have children? It's because cultivating with a low-grade spiritual root is simply too hard!

Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs.

The heavenly and earthly resistance is the same for all cultivators, but due to the difference in spiritual root grades, they exhibit different performances under the same resistance.

Initially, Wang Ping knew nothing about cultivation, but relying on his unwillingness to lose, he resolutely stepped through the gates of the Azure Moon Sect.

If it weren't for the existence of the Silver Gate, he would probably still be wandering around the middle stage of Qi Refining.

But even now, possessing the Qingdi Changsheng Gong, having a cultivation boost that can increase a cultivator's speed tenfold, and being able to enter the spirit realm, his path to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining will not be too smooth.

Just now Wang Ping was merely momentarily excited; once he calmed down, he realized how impractical it was to condense tens of thousands of strands of spiritual power within a mere three spirit realm days.