Chapter 15: The Method of Cultivation

“Senior brother, senior brother, senior brother…”

He Pingsheng rushed in from outside the alchemy room, through the courtyard, and arrived outside Hao Yun’s chamber.

He found Hao Yun wearing a black Daoist robe, strolling leisurely inside his room.

“You… are you well?”

He Pingsheng looked astonished.

“Oh!” Hao Yun said: “I’m fine… wasn’t it because I ate the Supreme Golden Bone Elixir you gave me?”

“Heh… I used to think that Supreme-grade and High-grade elixirs were completely different things, and I thought that was just an exaggeration!”

“Turns out it’s true!”

“The Golden Bone Elixir has four grades: inferior, medium, superior, and Supreme!”

Hao Yun looked at He Pingsheng and began counting on his fingers: “With my injuries, if I didn’t use any elixir and relied solely on natural recovery, it would take about four months!”

“If you swallowed one inferior Golden Bone Elixir, that time would shrink directly to two months!”

“If it were medium grade, about one month would suffice!”

“If superior, half a month is enough!”

“But what you gave me was Supreme—Supreme-grade elixir—and it worked instantly!”

“In just half a stick of incense, I was fully recovered, with zero side effects!”

“Astonishing!”

As Hao Yun spoke, he nodded, then looked at He Pingsheng and asked: “By the way… did you find out what I asked you to look into?”

“I found out!” He Pingsheng said: “I heard from Zhang Da and the others that Linglong and the other two disciples involved were punished—they’re to reflect in silence for three days on the teleportation square!”

“Three days of reflection?”

Hao Yun shook his head: “Not bad. This punishment isn’t severe. I broke so many bones, and they only get three days of reflection—how lucky they are!”

“Don’t worry—after this three-day punishment, Linglong won’t come bothering me again.”

“Come, sit down!”

Hao Yun gestured to He Pingsheng.

The two sat down on opposite sides of the table.

He Pingsheng noticed a large bowl and some fruit on the table.

He thought Hao Senior Brother was going to treat him to fruit!

“Don’t move!” Hao Yun slapped his hand and said: “Today I’ll explain the principles of cultivation to you… listen carefully!”

“Do you understand the difference between spirit roots?”

He Pingsheng said: “I do.”

Hao Yun asked again: “Do you know why single-spirit-root cultivators advance faster?”

He Pingsheng shook his head.

Pah…

Hao Yun slammed the black iron bowl down in front of He Pingsheng: “For example… the bowl’s mouth represents a person’s spirit root!”

“This is a single-spirit-root.”

“During cultivation, all spiritual energy flows through the bowl’s mouth into the body!”

“Do you understand?”

He Pingsheng nodded: “Oh.”

Hao Yun took out two crisp pears and placed them inside the bowl—they filled the bowl’s mouth completely.

“Look… now, these two pears inside represent a dual-spirit-root!”

“Each pear is one spirit root.”

“Now look… isn’t each spirit root in the dual-spirit-root much thinner than the single-spirit-root?”

He Pingsheng understood—he nodded: “Yes.”

The iron bowl was the single-spirit-root!

Inside it, two pears—each representing one spirit root of the dual-spirit-root—showed clearly that the single-spirit-root’s diameter was twice as wide.

Hao Yun said: “You see… for example, a wood-fire dual-spirit-root cultivator cannot cultivate both roots simultaneously, because the human meridians are only one system!”

“When channeling and refining fire spiritual energy, you cannot refine wood spiritual energy—do you understand?”

“So although dual-spirit-root cultivators have two roots, only one is useful!”

“And that one root’s thickness is only half that of the single-spirit-root!”

“Half the thickness means only a quarter of the cross-sectional area—so the amount of spiritual energy flowing in during cultivation is only a quarter!”

“That’s the difference!”

“A dual-spirit-root cultivator’s theoretical advancement speed is only one-quarter that of a single-spirit-root cultivator!”

“Understood?”

He Pingsheng nodded: “Understood.”

“Good!” Hao Yun took out the two pears and placed three tangerines into the iron bowl: “Look… this is a triple-spirit-root!”

“Triple-spirit-root—thinner still, and even slower to cultivate!”

He removed the three tangerines and added four eggs.

The eggs were even smaller.

But the smallest were five plums placed together in the bowl.

The plums were smaller than the eggs.

“Look for yourself!” Hao Yun said: “You’re a five-spirit-root—you have five roots… each one is nearly one-tenth the thickness of a single-spirit-root!”

“With the same resources and the same scripture, a single-spirit-root cultivator takes only ten years to go from Qi Refining Level One to Twelve!”

“You’ll need a hundred years!”

“Tell me—how do you catch up? How do you cultivate?”

Hao Yun’s analogy was spot-on.

He Pingsheng had no reply.

Looking at it this way, cultivation was truly unfriendly to five-spirit-root cultivators.

It was almost hopeless!

But the next moment, He Pingsheng’s fighting spirit flared again: Yes… cultivation is indeed unfriendly to five-spirit-root cultivators—but so what?

I have the Treasure Basin.

With this, why fear bad spirit roots?

My roots are thin, so I absorb spiritual energy slowly—but the spiritual energy in heaven and earth is coarse and sparse; even dual-spirit-root cultivators can’t fully tap their roots’ potential, let alone single-spirit-root ones.

What if I eat elixirs every day?

And they’re all Supreme-grade elixirs?

Who knows who’ll advance faster in the end?

Hao Yun continued: “I’m a four-spirit-root, you’re a five-spirit-root… we’ll never reach Foundation Establishment in our lifetimes!”

“But… since you want to cultivate, I do have a basic breathing and qi absorption method.”

“Take a look—but don’t expect too much.”

As he spoke, Hao Yun pulled out an old-looking book.

He gently placed it on the table and pushed it toward He Pingsheng.

He Pingsheng’s heart pounded with excitement.

The thing he’d longed for had finally arrived.

On the cover, vertical characters read: Basic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method!

“Seven days!” Hao Yun held up a hand: “I’m giving you seven days—no copying, only memorization!”

“I just want you to look at it—not to cultivate it!”

“Because I memorized this from memory back then… the first three levels might be correct, but beyond that, I can’t guarantee anything!”

“About… eighty percent is wrong.”

He Pingsheng’s face darkened: So crude?

But three levels is better than none!

“Yes… senior brother… I’ll take it and study it.”

He Pingsheng took the book, bid farewell to Hao Yun, returned to his bedroom, closed the door, and began reading carefully.

He Pingsheng took the book, bid farewell to Hao Yun, returned to his bedroom, closed the door, and began to read carefully.