Chapter 128

Using wood to generate fire, Yan Buji's basic Five Elements practice follows the generating cycle, so there is no possibility for two basic inner arts to progress simultaneously.

The Five Elements generate each other in a cycle; unless Yan Buji can first reach Lianqi Fifth Layer and fully perfect his Five Elements practice, attaining the first level of the basic Five Elements aligned with the cycle, he can then wield the five different types of mana simultaneously; otherwise he must still use them separately.

Moreover, the power of the Spiritual Fire technique relies on the wood-type mana of the Planting Tree technique to catalyze it, so what Yan Buji needs right now is actually simpler.

The Planting Tree Manual mana cultivated through the Nine Turns technique is sufficiently pure and deep; by expending its fire-type mana to catalyze the Spiritual Fire, this not only ensures that the Spiritual Fire can be mastered in a very short time, but also promotes the burst of its flames.

With Spiritual Fire, Yan Buji can use it to disguise himself as an ordinary free cultivator, gaining some combat power against foes without revealing his own Martial Dao level.

"But it's best not to use that Mutant Three-Flower Eye; otherwise members of the Fire Bear Sect might target free cultivators who use special eye techniques," Yan Buji thought for a moment, then nodded.

All cultivation methods ultimately leave traces to follow, and using Mutant Force to influence Spiritual Qi is a means he does not believe a strong practitioner of any sect would fail to see.

"Since that's the case, why not press on and first perform the Nine Turns on the Lianqi Level 2 mana, wait for a Spiritual Fire seed to be born inside, then go out."

Yan Buji made up his mind; to complete the Nine Turns on Lianqi Level 1 he spent a full five thousand Spiritual Stones, and after the earlier escape costs, he still had thirteen thousand left.

Even with a ninefold increase from nine dispersions and nine cultivations, thirteen thousand Spiritual Stones should be enough!

Yan Buji spares no resources in boosting his strength; although Spiritual Stones are far more precious than ordinary currency, to cultivators they are merely a standard medium of exchange.

With Spiritual Stones as a benchmark, the various resources of the cultivation world can be priced clearly, so the circulation rate of Spiritual Stones is very high.

That means obtaining Spiritual Stones is not very difficult.

There's really no way to steal them any more.

Although he didn't take Wei Zifeng's personal Storage Accumulation Device at the time, Yan Buji knew he had another one, used specifically to manage the Hundred Treasures Shop's warehouse.

He dared not take the personal Accumulation Device because he feared it would be marked by others.

But the Hundred Treasures Shop's Storage Accumulation Device was different; after observing for many days and confirming that only Wei Zifeng's aura lingered on it, Yan Buji took it then.

When he opened it, indeed it contained Spiritual Materials of first and second turn, and even a few of third-turn Spiritual Materials!

"Clear Jade, Azure Water, and Non-Gold Sword Wood! All top-tier third-turn Spiritual Materials—could it be that Wei Zifeng prepared them to forge his own Accumulation Device?" Yan Buji laughed.

Spiritual Materials come in many varieties; those suitable for alchemy can be called Spiritual Materials or Spiritual Pills, while others are generally just called Spiritual Materials.

Of course, especially outstanding Spiritual Materials are often prepared by cultivators for refining into Accumulation Devices. So Yan Buji was very pleased with these gains.

Unfortunately, he had no way to make use of the Spiritual Materials. Many of them could be sold for Spiritual Stones, but the three crucial third-turn Spiritual Materials could not be easily part with.

If possible, Yan Buji also wanted to try refining them into an Accumulation Device himself. The key, however, is how to actually perform the refinement, for which he had no clue; the only reference he could draw upon was his experience refining Abnormal Material into the Three-Flower Eye.

Perhaps for cultivators, an Accumulation Device requires one's own vital essence to infiltrate the Spiritual Material, turning it into a desired component, and with special refining techniques, it can be assembled into an Accumulation Device.

But we still need to find out just how far we need to go with this degree, this way of measuring, in order to consider the training accumulation a success.

Yan Buji was silent for a moment, then used some Spiritual Materials to follow a potion formula from the Hundred Herbs Sect's secret manual that accelerates Spiritual Qi absorption; after successfully preparing it, he ingested it and began cultivating the Nine Turns on Lianqi Level 2!

Winter passed and spring came; another year slipped by.

Yan Buji is now thirty‑nine years old, and only six years remain until his appointment with Chen Li.

His body now radiates alternating blue and red light, the Planting Tree Manual mana surging into his heart and slowly flowing out enough Spiritual Fire mana!

As the dantian's mana deepened, Yan Buji broke through the Spiritual Fire barrier to its second layer; fire-type mana continuously gathered and whirled, suddenly spinning rapidly like a vortex.

Hoo!

Within the high‑speed rotation of this mana flow, a strand of flame suddenly surged upward, flickering like a candle in the wind. Seeing this, Yan Buji immediately sent all the Spiritual Fire mana into it, letting it absorb everything.

A moment later, the flame finally stabilized, becoming a tangible entity that settled in Yan Buji's dantian!

"It's formed, the Spiritual Fire seed. Though it's the most basic, I used wood-type mana to catalyze it; even without training the third layer of Spiritual Fire, I can keep it growing with the Planting Tree Manual mana. But now I only need this Spiritual Fire enough… sigh, after painstakingly completing the second‑layer Nine Turns and exhausting Spiritual Stones, I can only push the Spiritual Fire technique to the second layer?"

What a pity.

My aptitude must be truly poor; even with a luminous jade bone, the difficulty of this Nine Turns is a whole other realm! Not only do the resource costs multiply, but starting from the Nine Turns mana of Lianqi Level 1 and doing another Nine Turns makes it completely different from the Nine Turns mana of my previous level.

Yan Buji pondered for a moment, and his spiritual awareness directed the Spiritual Fire seed in his dantian toward his fingertips.

Seeing that this strand of pure white flame was interspersed with hints of blue and red, he realized it wasn't solely derived from the Spiritual Fire technique; the Planting Tree Manual mana was also present, giving the Spiritual Fire seed a dual fire‑wood characteristic.

Just releasing the Spiritual Fire seed caused the surrounding temperature to rise sharply, the air became scorching, and the air above the flame seemed warped by the heat.

Such a high‑temperature Spiritual Fire seed, however, differs from the description in the Spiritual Fire manual.

Yan Buji found this natural; after all, there are myriad methods, and if reaching the pinnacle requires countless cultivation techniques, then two identical schools cannot appear simultaneously.

Because every cultivator is different.

No one can guarantee they won't capsize in the hidden currents, so Yan Buji chose Martial and Law Dual Cultivation and the Nine Turns, to lay a solid foundation even with his inherently poor and harsh aptitude.

"Now that I have Spiritual Fire, I can try practicing the basic fireball technique and fire‑tongue technique," Yan Buji smiled.

I'm becoming more and more like a true cultivator!