Chapter 41: Determined

Thinking of this, Feng Xue tried referencing the Jin Shen Zhou method, spreading his cultivation energy over his skin; though his locked Hua Yu granted sufficient attribute energy, his control was far too weak to cover his entire body—after immense effort, he could only wrap his entire index finger.

As a modern shut-in who couldn't lift a heavy load, Feng Xue's skin was already decent, but once coated with this cultivation energy, it took on a crystalline translucence, his nails glowing with a faint luster, like a piece of Hua Yu jade that had been polished for years.

Slightly flexing his fingers, he felt no stiffness as described in the Jin Shen Zhou—Feng Xue wasn't sure whether this was due to the differing natures of Yu and Jin energy, or simply because his controlled energy was too minimal.

But this didn't hinder his next attempt.

He lightly tapped his fingertip against a stubborn stone; a crisp sound rang out. When he pressed harder, the sound grew duller, yet his fingertip felt only the feedback of contact—not the slightest pain.

He pulled a camping knife from his Hutian Bag, gently pressing his fingertip against the blade. After a moment's thought, he withdrew his hand, swapped it for a nail clipper, and clipped down on his Hua Yu nail.

"Ding!" The collision produced a tremendous resistance; Feng Xue strained, but couldn't close the nail clipper another millimeter. When he released it and examined his nail, he saw only a faint white mark—not even a scratch.

He thought again, then walked to the window, dragging his fingertip across the glass—a clear, though shallow, scratch appeared. He pressed his fingertip against a sharp table corner with force; though a slight indentation formed, he still felt no pain.

"Hardness and toughness have both improved significantly. Unfortunately, the only cultivation technique that can be locked by Hua Yu is probably just Hua Yu itself. Any subsequent filtering or replacement would generate entries but offer little practical use."

Feng Xue dispersed the cultivation energy from his fingertip and pulled out his Core Treasure.

He activated the Fu Ling Zhou at zero distance.

Though far inferior to the Fu Ling Zhou released in locked state, the Hua Yu energy did indeed adhere to the seal—and even began to taint the seal's original neutral energy, transforming it into Yu attribute energy.

Seeing this, Feng Xue immediately cut off his energy output and realized the key issue—

Ding Tian Ming had locked his cultivation energy onto the "trajectory" of Hua Yu. While convenient to use, any energy of his would be turned into Hua Yu. Elsewhere, this was fine—but if applied to his Core Treasure, it would strip away its original freedom to accept any technique, turning it into nothing more than a device that converts all energy into Yu attribute energy.

"Hmm, not necessarily bad?"

Feng Xue recalled his earlier idea, but didn't touch the seal. Instead, he pulled out the carving tools bought from the tooth-carver, selected a thumb-sized fragment of extremely poor quality from the scrap pile, roughly polished it, and began the Fu Ling ritual.

He first slammed multiple Ding Tian Ming-locked Fu Ling Zhou onto it. Under Feng Xue's complete neglect of training, solely focused on results, the low-grade green jade quickly gained a faint luster. After his locked lifespan restored some energy, he locked Hua Yu and began engraving the ritual.

Feng Xue carved the traces of cultivation energy into this coin-sized jade tablet. Its originally terrible appearance gradually became lustrous. As the Hua Yu ritual fully permeated the center of the tablet, the nearly sixty years' worth of cultivation energy within it rapidly condensed. The once cloudy, black-spotted green jade instantly became transparent and smooth—had the clouds and spots not remained, no one would have linked it to its former state.

But Feng Xue's goal now wasn't to nurture jade. He unlocked Hua Yu, pinched the jade tablet between his index finger and thumb, and as the energy connection flowed, Yu attribute energy surged forth!

"It worked!"

Though merely a useless Yu-attribute converter, this small success meant the feasibility of Feng Xue's Core Treasure mass-production plan.

If the nature of cultivation energy can be engraved, what about its form? Could he shape it into energy balls or energy arrows?

Further still, if he linked two treasures together, could he simply dump energy into them and fire bullets of different attribute energies based on his own combinations?

Ultimately, the spells Feng Xue currently knew were merely extensions of those four basic applications—so if he could break them down and recombine them, could he convert all his spells into treasures? Then in battle, he could just become a ruthless energy-output machine?

Of course, Feng Xue understood such treasures would inevitably suffer from low precision, complex craftsmanship, and easy detection—but they were currently the fastest way for him to gain combat capability.

Ultimately, resources in this world were still too scarce. With his current spirit refinement progress, Feng Xue saw no hope of entering the Dao within nine years.

After all, his talent for spirit refinement wasn't high. He had endless yuan energy, yet couldn't utilize it well.

Worse still, no sect in this world studied how to increase the spirit's single absorption capacity—

After all, even the demonic cultivators here who fed on others' yuan energy rarely had his condition.

No demand meant no research—and Feng Xue wouldn't be so arrogant as to think he, an outsider who didn't even understand the theoretical foundation, could develop such a method himself.

So his only options were two—

Either find celestial treasures that strengthen the spirit.

Or try his luck again, seeking opportunities in other worlds.

Whether celestial treasures existed, Feng Xue suspected they probably did—but finding them was hard. Again, no demand meant no research. Since cultivators here didn't need to improve spirit efficiency, no one studied which celestial treasures could achieve such effects. Even if they existed, they'd be incidental side-effects—and such side-effects were nearly impossible to notice even when flipping through encyclopedias.

So for Feng Xue, trying his luck again was still more practical.

Ever since obtaining the Cultivation Technique in Ping'an County, Feng Xue had considered trying his luck again. But first, he worried this world might have unknown properties that would prevent cultivation in another world; second, he'd just begun cultivation and had no clear understanding of his spirit's absorption rate.

Now, revisiting the idea (it had only been a few days), he had made up his mind.

But not today.

Not out of delay, but because, without knowing what world he'd cross into, he must maximize his risk resistance in this world first!

The term "scrap material" was something I never realized no one understood. Simply put, it refers to the leftover fragments cut off during carving. Different eras produced scrap of varying quality due to differences in jade mining volume and material quality. For example, in early times, jadeite was relatively less valuable (compared to Bai Yu)—after carving a bracelet from a large piece, even a palm-sized core leftover could be considered scrap. But in modern times, with jade mining nearly exhausted and high-quality material scarce, even a thumb-sized pendant qualifies as more than scrap. Of course, for top-tier quality, even a button or cabochon isn't considered scrap.

PS: Regarding Tai Yin and Lao Yin, I've mentioned this before in my previous books.

First, the Four Symbols are Shao Yin, Shao Yang, Lao Yin, Lao Yang. Though some refer to Lao Yin as Tai Yin, when both are mentioned together, they are not the same.

In this book, Tai Yin refers to the Tai Yin Star—the celestial body opposite the Sun. It can be roughly equated with pure Yin. Demons directly absorb Tai Yin lunar essence to cultivate, hence they cultivate Tai Yin.

Ghosts lack yang energy; they must draw yang from others to cultivate their own yin. Hence they are Lao Yin. When they can generate yang energy themselves, that's Lao Yin giving birth to Shao Yang—the moment their divine art reaches perfection.

Humans possess yang energy; they absorb yang to strengthen their yin spirit, hence they are Shao Yin. After achieving Dao, they return energy to balance yin and yang, extending lifespan. But if this cycle breaks, it's the moment of death.

Additionally, the process of an xuan cultivator dying and transforming into a ghost immortal corresponds to Shao Yin giving birth to Lao Yin.

By the way, the Baidu Baike entry for Lao Yang is wrong. Search for Lao Yin and Lao Yang separately—you'll find both described as "three heads on a coin."

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(End of Chapter)