Chapter 1309: Longevity: My Steady Farming-Style Cultivation Chapter 1309 — Everyone Is Like This!

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Protagonist:

Xu Zhangqing

When he returned to the stone cave, the sky had already darkened somewhat.

The cave's furnishings were crude: a stone bed, a stone table.

Xu Zhangqing sat down by the stone bed, then took out Jiang Yuan's belongings one by one.

First was a volume of beast hide.

He unfolded the beast hide; on it were charcoal drawings of various spirit plant patterns, with simple text annotations beside them.

This was the Hundred Herb Record hand-drawn by Jiang Yuan, documenting his process of tasting a hundred herbs while following in the Green Emperor's footsteps.

For example, Black Poison Grass: black veins on the leaf underside, juice contains deadly poison; if ingested by mistake, the poisonous Qi attacks the heart meridians directly.

Silver Thread Grass: silver veins on the leaf underside, its juice can neutralize Black Poison Grass's poison.

Every tasted spirit plant had its color, scent, growing environment, and post-ingestion reaction marked beside it.

Some spirit plants had a red cross drawn beside them, with dangerous notations like "abdominal pain for three days," "vomiting white foam," "nearly went blind," and the like.

These... are all records exchanged with lives.

Xu Zhangqing flipped through the Hundred Herb Record from beginning to end; currently it recorded thirty-seven spirit plants in total.

Admittedly, it was still a long way from the target of over a hundred species.

But one had to admit, this spirit was worthy of encouragement and admiration.

He closed the beast hide and placed it in the most eye-catching position on the stone table.

Then he picked up another item.

It was a bamboo slip.

The characters on the bamboo slip were carved with a saber, the strokes neat and orderly.

This was the "Breath Regulation Art" personally created by Primordial Dao Ancestor, a most fundamental spirit energy guiding technique.

The content was not much, only a hundred or so characters.

It spoke of how to sense heaven and earth spirit Qi.

How to guide spirit Qi into the meridians.

How to store it in the Qi Sea and transform it into spiritual power.

The content could be described as simple and unadorned, without any abstruse metaphors; every step was written clearly and plainly.

Xu Zhangqing read the Breath Regulation Art from start to finish three times, then laid it flat on the stone table.

He sat cross-legged on the stone bed, and following the method on the bamboo slip, for the first time used Jiang Yuan's body to formally cultivate.

Closed his eyes.

Emptied his mind.

Began sensing the spirit Qi between heaven and earth.

A moment later, he truly sensed it.

But immediately after, his brows furrowed.

In Xu Zhangqing's perception, the surrounding spirit Qi was indeed abundant, even abundant to an inconceivable degree.

As if the whole person were soaked in a vast ocean.

But this ocean was not clear.

On the contrary, it was turbid like river water after a rainstorm, mud and sand mixed together, everything jumbled.

He tried to guide a wisp of spirit Qi into his meridians, but the moment the spirit Qi entered his body, he felt a strong scorching sensation.

This wisp of spirit Qi was mixed with other auras.

It was scorching, heavy.

Carrying an intense sense of rejection, not allowed to be absorbed.

A god's aura?

Xu Zhangqing had no choice but to force this wisp of spirit Qi out of his body and guide another strand.

This time, the mixed aura in the spirit Qi changed.

It was icy cold, viscous.

Carrying an intense foreign sensation, fundamentally impossible to absorb.

A demon's aura?

Xu Zhangqing's expression did not change; he once again forced the spirit Qi out.

The third time, the spirit Qi was still mixed with other auras.

It was not scorching like a god's, nor gloomy cold like a demon's.

Instead it rampaged in all directions, like a wild beast locked in a cage, completely untamable.

A yaoguai's aura!

Three consecutive times, all were contaminated with other auras.

Xu Zhangqing frowned: "The Primordial Period's spirit Qi is indeed dense, pity it is contaminated with too many other auras, making it rather impure."

However, he did not give up, choosing to continue.

The fourth time was even stranger.

In the spirit Qi, there was mixed an unfamiliar aura.

Its texture was indescribable, entirely beyond Xu Zhangqing's understanding.

This aura seemed older than the previous three, and also stranger.

It spread silently through his meridians; everywhere it passed, flesh and meridians alike seemed to have been peered into from within by something.

Xu Zhangqing opened his eyes, and a layer of cold sweat had already broken out on his forehead.

He had cultivated for several thousand years, advancing from Qi Refining all the way to the Unity Stage—what harsh environment had he not seen?

But something like this, with burning pain or yin cold appearing in at least five out of every ten guidings, he had truly never seen!

This simply was not an environment for human cultivation.

The aura of Gods and Demons seeped into every corner of heaven and earth.

For the human race to cultivate in such an environment was simply too dangerous.

After a while, Xu Zhangqing tried once more.

This time, he was much more patient.

No longer rushing to draw spiritual energy into his meridians, he patiently sensed, distinguished, and filtered.

It took a full incense stick's time before he captured a trace of relatively pure spiritual energy.

Immediately, he carefully guided it into his meridians; after circulating it through the heavenly circuit, he finally stored it in his Qi Sea.

"This..."

The moment the spiritual energy transformed into spiritual power in his Qi Sea, Xu Zhangqing widened his eyes.

This trace of spiritual power was completely different from the spiritual power in his understanding.

It was more solid, more heavy, containing energy far beyond its volume.

Xu Zhangqing sensed it carefully, and an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.

Good Fellow, the power of this spiritual power!

Equivalent to the Qi Refining Stage realm, yet possessing the power of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

That is to say, although the spiritual energy of this era was mixed, its quality was astonishingly high.

The aura of Gods and Demons corrupted the spiritual energy, but also tempered it.

However, Xu Zhangqing did not feel happy about this.

He was all too aware of the cost of this cultivation method.

Low efficiency.

Extremely high risk.

Limited ceiling.

Every cultivation required spending a large amount of time filtering impurities, and one careless moment would lead to corruption.

Therefore, Xu Zhangqing decisively abandoned the Breathing Art and turned to cultivating his own Elemental Dao Heavenly Book.

Indeed.

The effect was immediate.

The Elemental Dao Heavenly Book was like a sieve, filtering the mixed spiritual energy of heaven and earth layer by layer.

The auras of Gods, Demons, and Demonic Beasts were sifted out one by one.

Even that incomprehensible strange aura was sifted away.

Only the purest spiritual energy surged into his meridians, its efficiency more than ten times higher than the Breathing Art.

From this it could be seen that ancient things were not necessarily good.

And new things were not necessarily bad.

For example, Spiritual Marks and Spirit Patterns.

Spiritual Marks were ancient and simple; every stroke could draw upon the power of heaven and earth.

Spirit Patterns were novel and rich in content, able to be freely combined.

This was why, in the era Xu Zhangqing lived in, Spiritual Marks were gradually eliminated while Spirit Patterns began to shine brilliantly.

"Hah~"

Xu Zhangqing exhaled a long breath of turbid qi, and finally felt at ease in his heart.

The familiar feeling returned.

He continued cultivating, wanting to recover his Unity Stage cultivation as quickly as possible.

At first, this was merely restorative practice, but as time passed, Xu Zhangqing gradually discovered an astonishing thing.

This body... actually had no Spiritual Root!

Not that the Spiritual Root was ruined.

But that the concept did not exist.

Every trace of spiritual energy in heaven and earth was naturally compatible with this body, needing no conversion through a Spiritual Root at all.

He recalled Jiang Yuan's memories, and also recalled the situation of Zhang Daoxuan and other fellow disciples.

Finally he shockingly discovered.

In this era, everyone could cultivate immortality!!!