Chapter 25: Qi Sea

"And that Yuanyang Spiritual Root is also very popular among the Heavenly Spiritual Roots, after all, everyone in our school is a virgin. The Yuanyang Spiritual Root can refine the primal yang essence within a virgin's body into magical power, and the effect of improving magical power is quite remarkable."

Zhao Tianxing proudly said: "Especially this Yuanyang Spiritual Root from our high school has been passed down for nearly twenty years. After being handled by generation after generation of seniors, it has absorbed the primal yang essence of thousands of students, and there is an even more mysterious aspect to it."

Zhang Yu frowned as he listened, feeling that this Yuanyang Spiritual Root sounded rather dirty, and besides...

"Isn't everyone sterilized? Can we still use this virgin spiritual root?"

"It's the Yuanyang Spiritual Root." Zhao Tianxing explained: "The sterilization surgery only temporarily removes some organs, but the primal yang essence within our bodies still continuously surges out from the kidneys; it just no longer stimulates our emotions and spirit."

"Otherwise, how could those who undergo restorative surgery after growing up and regain their roots manage it?"

As Zhang Yu walked, he continued asking: "Among the school's Heavenly Spiritual Roots, is there one that is relatively more helpful for improving magical power?"

Zhao Tianxing's heart stirred at this, recalling Zhang Yu's recent actions, thinking that the other party had been quite focused on improving magical power lately.

"Could it be for participating in the Dharma Competition?"

Zhao Tianxing thought for a moment and said: "There are many spiritual roots that can assist in improving magical power. The most effective one in our school should be the Qihai Spiritual Root, though it's relatively expensive. But since you're getting it as a free reward, the price doesn't matter..."

The Qihai Spiritual Root, nicknamed the Wall-Piercing King, has the greatest advantage of an extremely wide coverage range and can penetrate various walls, buildings, and even the earth's barriers to absorb spiritual energy over a large area, thus improving the efficiency of refining magical power.

After listening to Zhao Tianxing's introduction, Zhang Yu decided in his heart to try this Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Arriving at the spiritual root rental office next to the meditation room, Zhang Yu didn't rush to state his goal; instead, he picked up the introduction manual on the desk and started reading.

The clerk on duty was a female teacher with a baby face.

Seeing Zhang Yu's actions, she seized the opportunity to ask: "Student, are you a member here? Do you have any familiar spiritual roots?"

Zhang Yu didn't look up and said: "No. No."

The clerk quickly recommended: "We currently have a promotion for new members: spend ten thousand and get one thousand free. Student, would you like to try it?"

Zhang Yu: "I'm here for the Heavenly Spiritual Root rental as a reward for 0% daydreaming rate. I'm just taking the reward; I'm not interested in anything else. You don't need to pitch to me."

The clerk gave a helpless smile and stepped back: "Then if you need anything, student, just let me know."

Hearing his words, she silently labeled him as stingy in her mind and lost interest in selling.

Zhang Yu didn't care what she thought; he just lowered his head and quickly scanned the manual, finding that it said much the same as Zhao had.

So he said to the clerk beside him: "I want to rent the Qihai Spiritual Root."

The other party said: "Swip your student card."

Zhang Yu took out his student card and handed it to her.

This student card from Songyang High School represented his identity as a high school student and was an important credential for him to legally practice immortal cultivation and enjoy various related services on the path of immortal cultivation.

After a short while, the clerk in the office brought a jade box and placed it before him.

"The Qihai Spiritual Root is inside. In a moment, go to Meditation Room 2, open the jade case, and take the spiritual root."

"Your rental time is one hour, starting from the moment you enter the meditation room. Overtime by one minute counts as one hour. Be sure to keep track of the time and come out..."

The clerk in charge of rental matters reminded him of some relevant details before letting Zhang Yu go in.

Zhao Tianxing beside him said: "Well, Zhang Yu, you go ahead and get busy. I need to leave too."

Zhang Yu nodded at him: "Thanks."

Watching Zhang Yu turn and leave, Zhao Tianxing kept replaying Zhang Yu's expression and tone in his mind, thinking: "Is my relationship with him getting closer this time?"

On the other side, inside Meditation Room 2.

This was a room about twenty square meters in size. A meditation cushion was placed in the center of the room, and the surrounding walls were covered with soundproofing material, on which were drawn numerous twisted talismans of various sizes.

It was said that these talismans could accelerate the gathering of spiritual energy and had a certain effect on improving the efficiency of breathing exercises.

But from the moment Zhang Yu stepped through the door, he only had one hour for breathing exercises. He had no time to care about the room's arrangement; he directly sat on the cushion and opened the jade case.

Inside the palm-sized jade case lay a crystal that was exquisitely translucent and shimmered with a faint green light.

The crystal floated in the center of the jade case, surrounded by wisps of light particles like green smoke.

This was the spiritual root he had rented this time, known as the Qihai Spiritual Root, a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Zhang Yu carefully picked up the Qihai Spiritual Root. As soon as he brought it to his lips, he felt a chill in his throat. The Heavenly Spiritual Root, like a lump of ice water, drilled into his body, sinking straight into his lower abdomen and burrowing into his lower dantian.

As soon as this Qi Sea Spirit Root entered his dantian, it seemed to take root and sprout, extending crystalline root-like tendrils that burrowed into the surrounding mana.

Zhang Yu understood that, according to the instruction manual and the administrator's reminder, the Heavenly Spirit Root had now been successfully implanted into his dantian.

From now on, as long as he breathed and cycled his energy as usual, the Heavenly Spirit Root would naturally take effect.

Thinking this, Zhang Yu took a deep breath and immediately began operating the Cyclical Heaven Qi Gathering Art.

Boom!

A tremendous roar seemed to explode within his mind.

Zhang Yu only felt the spiritual energy around him surging in, pouring into the Heavenly Spirit Root inside his body.

"Twice as much?"

"Three times? Too fast… it's still rising!"

Sensing the ever-increasing influx of spiritual energy, Zhang Yu quickly calmed down and fully activated his level-6 Cyclical Heaven Qi Gathering Art.

As the mana circulation throughout his body accelerated, strands of spiritual energy were refined into mana.

His dantian, which had felt somewhat swollen from the flood of spiritual energy, returned to normal.

But it was as if the Qi Sea Spirit Root sensed his speed of refining mana—it contracted and expanded, once again increasing the rate at which it gathered spiritual energy.

This time, not only did the spiritual energy around Zhang Yu surge in, but even the spiritual energy outside the room was attracted.

The hallway… outside the window… the sky… even underground…

The Qi Sea Spirit Root, following the efficiency of Zhang Yu's mana refinement, gradually expanded its range of gathering spiritual energy, eventually stopping at a radius of fifty meters.

He felt a torrent of spiritual energy, like a great river, pouring into his body without end, then being guided into the mana circulation throughout his body, finally refined strand by strand into his own mana.

At that moment, Zhang Yu experienced a thrilling surge of mana.

!.

"So this is the true efficiency of the level-6 Cyclical Heaven Qi Gathering Art?"

At that moment, Zhang Yu finally understood that his usual breathing and refining of spiritual energy had never truly brought out the full power of the level-6 Cyclical Heaven Qi Gathering Art.

Only now, with the help of the Qi Sea Spirit Root, had he actually pushed the mana refining efficiency of the Cyclical Heaven Qi Gathering Art to its limit.

Not daring to waste a single second, Zhang Yu then devoted himself fully to breathing in spiritual energy and refining mana.

Meanwhile, in the spirit root rental office, the administrator who had just served Zhang Yu looked at the computer screen in surprise. "Huh? The concentration of spiritual energy dropped?"

The cultivation meditation rooms rented by the school naturally did more than just provide quiet; the spirit-gathering talismans arranged inside could control the concentration of spiritual energy in the room, enhancing cultivation efficiency.

The administrator carefully examined the monitoring parameters and found that Room No. 2 showed a clear phenomenon of spiritual energy convergence, heavily attracting surrounding spiritual energy, causing the concentration in nearby rooms to drop.

"Room No. 2… I remember that high school freshman just used it, right?"

"Spiritual energy convergence of this level—can a high school freshman really achieve this?"

The administrator grew even more surprised. In her memory, it took at least a high school sophomore to bring out such an effect from a Qi Sea Spirit Root.

"Zhang Yu?"

Recalling the name and class the student had just registered, the administrator silently took note and discarded the "stingy" label she had placed on him earlier.

"To be this impressive as a high school freshman, he must have spent a lot of money on the path of immortality."

While activating more spirit-gathering talismans to adjust the spiritual energy concentration back, the administrator thought to herself, "I'll get his contact later. If he can open a platinum membership with me, I won't have to worry about my performance for the next few months."

She decided not to tell anyone, focusing entirely on developing this promising customer.

In a blink, an hour had passed.

Immersed in the pleasure of spiritual energy surging in, Zhang Yu's mana had unknowingly increased from 9.4 to 9.5—this hour alone was worth half a day of his usual hard training.

Just then, a female voice came from the intercom in the room.

"Student Zhang Yu, your hour is almost up. Would you like to extend your time?"

For some reason, Zhang Yu felt the administrator's voice had become much gentler.

Feeling the satisfaction of spiritual energy raging and the Cyclical Heaven Qi Gathering Art operating at full power, Zhang Yu couldn't help but ask, "How much does it cost to extend time?"

The administrator hurriedly said: "The rental price for a Qi Sea Spirit Root is 5000 yuan per hour, but we have a promotion today. If new users recharge 100,000 yuan in one go, not only will they receive a 10,000 yuan bonus, but they will also get a 12% discount on rental fees."

Zhang Yu sighed helplessly in his heart, slowly stopped his breathing exercises, and said: "I have things to do today, so I won't extend the session."

When returning the Spirit Root, Zhang Yu increasingly felt the administrator's politeness, and he also had some questions he wanted to ask.

So Zhang Yu reluctantly glanced at the Qi Sea Spirit Root being put back into the jade box, and asked: "If this Spirit Root were to be sold, how much would it cost?"

The administrator's eyes flickered, and he smiled: "The price of a Qi Sea Spirit Root is sixty million."

Zhang Yu gasped inwardly, but his expression remained unchanged as he remarked: "So expensive?"

The administrator smiled and said: "Yes, actually we don't really recommend buying. Renting is much more cost-effective than buying. After all, equipping a Heavenly Spirit Root in the early stage of Qi Refining is too extravagant. Ordinary cultivators only consider buying a Spirit Root after they have been admitted to university."

Zhang Yu nodded slightly. He knew that the final hurdle from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment was to implant a Spirit Root of one's own, which was indeed something only university students needed to consider.

However, whether the implanted one was a Heavenly Spirit Root, Earth Spirit Root, or Human Spirit Root depended entirely on the cultivator's financial means.

As for the higher-grade Divine Spirit Root and Immortal Spirit Root, they could only be re-implanted after joining a special department or entering a major sect.

"A good Heavenly Spirit Root is really... damn expensive."

Taking a deep look at the stored Spirit Root, Zhang Yu thought to himself that one day he would buy a Spirit Root of his own.

And before he left, the administrator proactively added him as a contact, and only then did Zhang Yu learn that her name was Wei Xin.

Wei Xin silently changed Zhang Yu's contact note to "Zhang Yu (Platinum Member Seed)."