Chapter Twenty-Five Preparations and Worries

  After purchasing good talismans and cinnabar, Wang Chen began his career of making talismans again, or using the special effects of creating talismans with the aura of creation to cultivate himself.

  One day was equivalent to half a month of normal cultivation, and this astonishing effect gave Wang Chen tremendous confidence that his own cultivation could be rapidly and stably improved. As expected, it took Wang Chen only three months to advance from the third layer of Qi Refining to the fourth layer.

  Having reached the peak of the third layer of Qi cultivation, the primary task is to break through to the fourth layer and enter the intermediate stage of Qi cultivation. Every breakthrough in cultivation is extremely difficult, especially the small-stage breakthroughs, such as from the initial stage to the intermediate stage of Qi cultivation.

  When breaking through to the middle stage of Qi cultivation, the spiritual energy inside the Dantian not only increases greatly in quantity and purity, but also forms a vortex. This vortex is very important and relates to future cultivation, however, Wang Chen doesn't know how to condense it.

  After three months of closed-door training, Wang Chen went out and sold some talismans, then spent 200 spirit stones to buy a Foundation Building stage cultivator's notes on breaking through the Qi Refining Middle Stage.

  The shops in the market love to sell the cultivation experience of high-ranking cultivators to low-ranking scattered cultivators. The cost of this transaction is extremely small, but the profit is enormous. However, for scattered cultivators, it is very suitable, without a teacher's guidance, they may make mistakes that affect their cultivation or even their lives. Spending 100 spirit stones to avoid these mistakes is a good deal.

  Besides, the experience annotation of a late-stage Qi-practicing cultivator only requires several tens of spirit stones, which isn't too expensive!

  Wang Chen had obtained the Ling Stone, so he would naturally buy a better one. After all, foundation-building cultivators looked at their previous cultivation more deeply than Qi-refining cultivators, and it was also more beneficial to themselves.

  A month later, in the cave. The five-element spiritual energy surrounded Wang Chen, and upon closer inspection, hundreds of various attribute spirit stones were arranged around his meditation mat.

  At that moment, the spiritual energy around him seemed to hear an order and poured into Wang Chen's body without stopping. Even the spiritual power in the Ling Stone was sucked out cleanly.

  After a while, Wang Chen opened his eyes, and his whole body emitted an aura that was much stronger than before.

  "Finally broke through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining!" Wang Chen's face lit up with joy, and his divine sense immediately sank into his dantian. The five-colored spiritual energy in his dantian slowly rotated to form a vortex. The colorful vortex was exceptionally beautiful, and the spiritual energy repeatedly circulated back and forth within the funnel-shaped vortex, becoming purer by a thread each time it passed through.

  Recalling his mind, Wang Chen thought of this breakthrough. In fact, this breakthrough was simpler than he had imagined. According to the notes on the foundation period, condensing the vortex in the dantian was supposed to be somewhat dangerous, but when Wang Chen tried it slightly, he found that the five-element spiritual energy inside his body was surprisingly easy for him to control, and the vortex condensed easily, after which he naturally broke through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

  The fourth layer of Qi training is a watershed. In terms of combat power, the cultivator's divine sense can extend over 20 meters, and controlling mid-grade artifacts is no longer a problem; in terms of cultivation, each time the cultivator sits in meditation to absorb spiritual energy, they absorb more, but because the amount of spiritual energy required for cultivation is too great, the time needed to make further progress is also longer.

  At the same time, with this cyclone, the recovery speed of the monk's Fa Li also accelerated. Most importantly, after having a cyclone, it is very difficult for monks to change their Gong Fa, because each type of Gong Fa condenses into different cyclones.

  If it's the same attribute of Gongfa, it's fine. After a period of grinding, you can transform Gongfa. If it's different attributes of Gongfa, like Wang Chen, forcibly changing to practice other Gongfa will cause spiritual power to collide, and if not dead, you'll be seriously injured.

  Even knowing this, Wang Chen still chose the most ordinary five-element basic skill. This is not because this skill is particularly powerful, but on the contrary, whether it's the amount of spiritual power cultivated or the attached spells, they can't compare to other skills.

  However, the basic exercises have a characteristic that is often overlooked by many cultivators, which is that the spiritual energy cultivated from the exercises is extremely pure, much purer than that of cultivators of the same rank.

  The purer the spiritual energy, the greater the chance of breaking through the bottleneck, even the foundation and golden elixir. This is a sentence mentioned by the cultivators in the annotation period, Wang Chen deeply remembered this point in his heart, and he can lay a solid foundation for future cultivation, that is, sharpening the knife does not mistake chopping firewood work, this truth Wang Chen has always believed.

  After breaking through his cultivation, Wang Chen didn't stop and continued to cultivate with the help of the Causal Spirit's aura.

  At the same time as Wang Chen's mastery of the art of Kuxiu, his understanding of metal, wood, water, fire and earth also deepened. This not only allowed Wang Chen to have a three-layered success rate when using talismans without the aid of Cihua Qi, but also greatly increased the power of his Wu Xing spells.

  Half a year has passed in the blink of an eye, and on this day, a young monk came to Tingyu Xuan, which was under Luo Yunzong's jurisdiction. His cultivation was impressive, at the peak of Qi Refining Fifth Layer, just one step away from reaching Qi Refining Sixth Layer.

  In a room, an old man gently handed over a storage bag.

  "Wang Dao, you have 300 talismans, totaling 1,500 units of spiritual stone!"

  The young man took out the storage bag, and after a moment, he took out the spirit stone and returned the storage bag! The transaction was completed, and the young man smiled in satisfaction. He then asked casually: "Li Dao, do you have any relatively cheap medium-grade artifacts? It's not easy to accumulate so many spirit stones, I want to buy some artifacts for self-defense!"

  The old man had just made a not small deal with the young man and was able to get some commission, so he was very happy in his heart. He replied enthusiastically: "Fellow Taoist, please wait for a moment!" After finishing speaking, he turned around and left.

  A moment later, the old man came in with five trays. The trays were covered with red cloth, looking exceptionally luxurious.

  The old man opened the first tray, revealing a yellow hammer. "This is a Huan Shan Hammer with earth attributes, forged from yellow crystal stone and iron essence. Its power is exceptionally strong when struck, even an ordinary mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator would find it difficult to withstand a single blow."

  The young man looked at him faintly and did not answer. The old man put down the first tray and continued to introduce the second ritual vessel.

  A moment later, the young man bought a golden attribute sword with five hundred spirit stones. Seeing the old man's slightly painful expression, he spent more than two hundred spirit stones to buy some blank talismans and over a dozen bottles of medicine for healing wounds and restoring spiritual power. After that, the old man was much happier, and they agreed to meet again next time after the young man had obtained the talismans. The young man then left!

  Two days later, the young man entered Jian's Flowing Cloud Pavilion. This time, he sold two hundred talismans and then purchased a water-attribute shield defensive artifact and information about the whereabouts of the Liang Kingdom's demonic beast.

  After a few more days, the young man entered the Cloud Heaven Pavilion of the Qingyun Gate and sold 100 talismans to the Cloud Heaven Pavilion. He then bought 100 spiritual stones worth of physical repair items, including methods for strengthening his body and the materials needed!

  Finally, the young man entered the Beast Sect's Beast Pavilion and sold a hundred talismans. After that, he spent 500 pieces of Hundred Spirit Stones to buy three sets of array techniques and some commonly used elixirs!

  The Liuyunfang market had a period of time where all the shops' mid-grade spiritual symbols were in stock, with various attributes available, causing excitement among the low-level cultivators in the market. However, this situation disappeared after a while.

  This young man was naturally Wang Chen. In half a year, Wang Chen made over 1,000 mid-grade talismans every day, worth a total of 5,000 spirit stones. This was not a small sum for a Qi Refining stage cultivator.

  However, having too many talismans also made people anxious. If something went wrong and attracted the attention of other cultivators, it would be disastrous. Moreover, Wang Chen didn't have a shop yet, and the slow and steady approach wasn't suitable either. So, Wang Chen had to change his appearance, find several larger shops, sell the talismans separately, and buy some items at the same time, thus diverting the other party's attention and avoiding drawing too much attention to himself.

  After selling more than 700 talismans, Wang Chen stopped and was replaced by a faint worry. Even with the help of the aura of creation, his cultivation speed increased by fifteen times, but Wang Chen still felt that relying on this method would not work in the future. Cultivating to the ninth layer of Qi Refining would take about 50 years, even if it was one-fifteenth, it would take three or four years.

  When it comes to higher levels? Meditating and absorbing spiritual energy can hardly increase one's cultivation by much, if all is done through meditation, then it's very common for it to take hundreds of years.

  But Wang Chen didn't have a solution and could only temporarily put aside this worry!

  Two months later, Wang Chen quietly left Liuyunfang City! In the eastern part of Liangguo, bordering Weiguo, there is a vast mountain range. This mountain range is said to have started from the vicinity of the Great Zhou Kingdom and stretched for tens of thousands of kilometers to the coastal Wu Kingdom.

  This mountain range is called the Monster Mountain Range because of its numerous monsters.

  Liáng Guó is located in the latter half of the Yāo Shòu Mountain Range, where the main mountain range is shrouded in mist, with no way out once you enter. It's said that there are many demonic beasts inside that have reached the stage of transformation.

  However, the main gathering place of the demon beasts in the Demon Beast Mountain Range is near the Great Zhou Empire, the Great Ming Empire, and the Great Chu Empire. The demon beasts within the borders of the Liang Empire are not as rampant, making it a place for cultivators to hunt and kill them.

  Hei Wu mountain range, a branch of the Yao Shou mountain range. High-level Yao beasts are rare in Hei Wu mountains, mostly Qi refining stage Yao beasts, but due to the numerous group-dwelling Yao beasts, it has also become a place that cultivators both love and hate!

  Love, it's because there are enough demonic beasts to hunt and kill, unlike some small mountains where you can't find one after searching for months. Hate, is the fear of encountering a group of demonic beasts that even the foundation-building cultivators would pale at the mention of, if they pass by, the foundation-building cultivators may also fall!

  Hei Shan is an unknown mountain in the Hei Wu mountain range. There are few spiritual herbs and medicines, and even fewer late-stage Qi-training demonic beasts within Hei Shan, so many cultivators do not want to come here!

  Not far from Hei Shan, a young figure was moving quickly through the dense forest. Upon closer inspection, the youth's feet were actually stuck with a divine movement talisman!

  Shen Xing Fu, a wind-type talisman. Although it's a low-grade talisman and cheap, low-grade cultivators rarely use it to hurry on the road except in urgent situations! But this young man actually used Shen Xing Fu to travel for almost a month, truly extravagant!

  This young man was naturally Wang Chen. For someone of his status, the cost of producing a low-grade talisman was basically free. Wang Chen wouldn't care about it at all!

  "Finally arrived!" Wang Chen stood at the foot of Hei Mountain, muttering to himself. A moment later, Wang Chen began to survey the terrain and found a secluded spot to build a simple cave dwelling.

  Although it's a simple cave, Wang Chen plans to live here for a while longer and naturally wants to prepare everything thoroughly. He needs to set up a symbol room, a cultivation room, and a bedroom, but most importantly, he wants to put the three sets of array techniques he bought to use.

  Low-level Spirit Gathering Array, Five Elements Maze Array and Earth Yuan Array. The Spirit Gathering Array doesn't need to be mentioned again, the Five Elements Maze Array is a maze array that can not only hide the cave but also isolate sounds and smells. As for the Earth Yuan Array, it's purely a defensive array method.

  The construction of the master's cave was extremely simple, with a mountain body made of earth and rocks. With a single pinch of his fingers, Wang Chen's spell caused the layers of soil to rumble and move, and the size of the house changed according to his will.

  After that, Wang Chen nodded in satisfaction. "With some understanding of the Earth Element Way, opening up a cave mansion is much easier!"

  Then Wang Chen tidied up the cave and settled down!