Lao Dao and the other two were not the only humans with ideas about Zhao Di that he met in the waters around Island No. 8. On the third day after meeting these three, Zhao Di encountered another human cultivator who didn't know his limits - a sturdy big man over ten feet tall, relying on the powerful might of his life-pledged treasure, a gigantic stone mallet capable of shattering mountains and breaking bridges, to take action against Zhao Di.

  However, when this person approached within a hundred or so zhang of Zhao's territory, upon discovering his terrifying aura, he was actually frightened to the point of fleeing in disarray!

  A cultivator who can accumulate such a large amount of evil energy is either someone who has hunted and killed a large number of high-ranking demonic beasts, or has slaughtered many fellow cultivators of the same rank or higher. Either way, it shows that this person's strength is extraordinary, and they are by no means an ordinary early-stage Golden Core cultivator!

  Although this big Han looks rough, his mind is very clear. He is a mid-term cultivator of the Golden Elixir, and his cultivation is only one level higher than his opponent's. If his opponent's strength far surpasses that of the same level, he has little chance of killing him. In this situation, it is natural to take advantage of the fact that his opponent has not yet made a move and escape immediately!

  As he got closer to Li Ba Island, Zhao Di encountered more and more cultivators. Sometimes they were solo practitioners like him, but often they were in groups of three or four, with the latter being more common.

  After all, to hunt and kill the demon beasts here, apart from the threat of the demon beasts themselves, the threat from other human cultivators is even greater. If one were to be targeted while alone, it would be extremely dangerous to be outnumbered. Therefore, there are very few cultivators who dare to do this, and almost without exception, they are all existences whose strength far surpasses that of their peers. Only such existences can return safely to Island No. 8 after hunting the demon beasts!

  So when Zhao Di met these monks, they almost always exchanged a brief glance and then quickly passed each other by, as if they had never met before.

  Occasionally, there were also some ill-intentioned people, but as they got a little closer and saw the astonishing killing aura on Zhao Di's body, they all had similar thoughts to that big man and did not dare to make a move against Zhao Di.

  In this way, after being watched by various masters with ulterior motives, Zhao Di safely returned to Island No. 8.

  For a cultivator in the early stages of Jiedan, to have spent seven or eight years in the Eighth Island Sea and still return safely is not something that can be taken for granted, but it's also not a rare occurrence. Therefore, some cultivators on the Eighth Island who had seen Zhao Di seven or eight years ago, upon seeing him again at this time, apart from looking at him with newfound respect, didn't make a big fuss about it. For Jiedan stage cultivators, the strength of one's power is directly linked to the might of their magical treasures. If an early-stage cultivator possesses some extremely powerful magical treasures, killing off mid-stage or even late-stage cultivators wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary. Of course, as long as the difference in magical treasures isn't too great, high-ranking cultivators still have a clear advantage when facing lower-ranking ones.

  Zhao Di returned to Penglai Fairy Island after making some small purchases on the eighth island. He then went to the tower where the Righteous Path Alliance was responsible for renting out the cave mansions, and shared his gains from this trip with everyone. His harvest was extremely rich, and in the following days, he would use these gains to greatly enhance his own cultivation, as well as that of his spiritual beast, Ice Wind Python, and the two women, You Lan and You Ruo.

  This time, the amount of elixir to be refined is quite considerable, and they are all extremely precious. Even some auxiliary materials for refining elixirs are not cheap, especially since Zhao Di needs a substantial quantity, the total price is simply an astronomical figure for a Condensing Period cultivator!

  Moreover, Zhao Di made a dismal discovery that the number of mid-grade spirit stones in his storage ring was far from enough for him to use!

  This was something he had long expected. Although the Dry Heaven Treasure Tripod had provided him with a huge amount of wealth in the early stages, making his strength far surpass that of fellow cultivators at the same level, as his cultivation increased, the effect of these spirit stones would also become smaller and smaller. Even later on, when the circulation of treasures was no longer based on spirit stones, when even mid-grade or high-grade spirit stones could not be used to buy useful treasures for him, the Tripod's effectiveness had weakened greatly.

  So he has been thinking of ways to improve his own strength, which is the most important and endless!

  Zhao Di sat in a secret room within the Jade Clear Peak's cave mansion, holding a bright red, semi-transparent coral stone, smiling silently.

  This piece of fire coral looks like it's over 200 years old. It was found in the storage bags of Lao Dao and others.

  This material is relatively rare, although it's not worth many spirit stones, and very few have flowed out. Moreover, once discovered, most will be used to refine some fire-attribute treasures immediately. Therefore, Zhao Di had been inquiring around various markets for a long time but still couldn't get one.

  But he never thought that someone would actually deliver the treasure he had been searching for to his hands! This coincidence of fate made Zhao feel a bit sentimental!

  With this, Zhao Di had gathered all the Buddhist seven treasures. As long as he used the small cauldron to cultivate the year's spiritual energy of the fire coral and other treasures to the limit, he could start refining the Hunyuan Seven Star Sword that held Zhao Di's infinite hopes!

  This perfectly complements his skills and can be used as a primary treasure to continuously refine and strengthen, and from the material point of view, its power is absolutely extraordinary, making it one of the best ways to enhance Zhao Di's strength.

  In addition, a large amount of 6th grade demon pills can be used as the main material to refine Huayuan Dan and other dan medicines that are useful for cultivators in the early and middle stages of their cultivation. With the help of these dan medicines, Zhao Di's cultivation will likely make rapid progress.

  In the following days, Zhao ordered Erniang to continuously cultivate mid-grade spirit stones using small tripods. At the same time, she used yin fire to refine some 6th-level demon souls into "Linghun Dan", a kind of elixir that was extremely beneficial for Erniang's cultivation as a ghostly entity and helped her break through the bottleneck of forming the Golden Elixir.

  Zhao Di himself took the few sixth-grade Jiao-class demon pellets in his hand and refined them all into sixth-grade "Jiao-huan Dan" for Bingfeng Python to refine and take.

  Then Zhao Di began to refine the Huayuan Dan for his own use. When the auxiliary materials were not enough, Zhao Di would take a batch of middle-grade spirit stones to buy some in the market.

  Like this, Zhao Di would go out every few months to purchase a batch of items and then continue refining the elixir. During this time, he also casually went to the tower pavilion responsible for renting the cave mansion of the Orthodox Alliance and extended the lease period of his own cave mansion by 50 years.

  This place has a strong spiritual energy, far surpassing the Hualian Island. In the past when my cultivation was lower, it didn't matter, but for me, Zhao Di, who is already in the Golden Elixir stage and needs a lot of spiritual energy to meditate and breathe, any more favorable conditions cannot be easily let go!

  Two years later, Zhao Di finally refined a large batch of elixirs and began to retreat and cultivate, taking the Huayuan Dan, refining the medicinal properties, and then according to the "Hunyuan Jue" method, repeatedly circulating the medicinal properties throughout his body.

  Youlan and Youruo were also busy, on the one hand they continued to cultivate Huoxu coral and other four treasures with a small cauldron, on the other hand they took "Luohun Dan" to refine their souls, and at the same time they had to take care of Bingfeng Python, feeding it Liuji Huahou Dan on a regular basis.

  As for the work of guarding the cave, studying classics and so on, it is naturally also the responsibility of the two girls. It can be said that with the help of Gui Nu's two daughters, Zhao Di was able to focus on his cultivation. This is exactly why he took in Gui Nu in the first place. However, You Lan and You Ruo are even more excellent than what Zhao Di had originally expected. If they were only allowed to handle some trivial matters, it would be a waste of their talents.

  Wholeheartedly devoted to bitter cultivation, time flew by quickly, and in the cave, whether it was humans, ghosts, or spirit beasts, all were frantically increasing their cultivation.

  In the blink of an eye, more than ten years have passed again.

  On this day, Zhao Di let out a long sigh and stood up.

  He swallowed a top-grade Huayuan Dan cultivated by Xiaoding yesterday, closed his eyes and meditated, spending a day and night's effort to refine the medicinal power, but still couldn't transform the powerful spiritual energy contained in the Lingyao into his own use, hitting the last bottleneck of the initial stage of forming the elixir.

  Something similar has happened to him dozens of times, that is, he has wasted dozens of top-grade Yuan Dan, and dozens of times he has impacted the initial stage of the Great Perfection Realm but to no avail, unable to enter the middle stage of the Great Perfection Realm. Judging from the current situation, even if Zhao Di takes more elixirs, it will still be in vain and a waste!

  Since he had the Heaven-Defying Cauldron that could upgrade ordinary pellets to top-grade pellets, such things rarely happened to Zhao Di. This kind of advancement within the same realm usually only required Zhao Di's cultivation to reach a certain level, and then with the help of several powerful top-grade pellets, he would often be able to break through the bottleneck relatively easily and enter the next level.

  Only when encountering major boundary advancements, such as from the 13th layer of Qi Refining to the initial stage of Foundation Establishment, or from the later stage of Foundation Establishment to the initial stage of Core Formation, would Zhao Di encounter extreme difficulties.

  Zhao Di was able to easily break through the early stage of foundation building with just two top-grade elixirs, and in the later stage of foundation building, he even succeeded without using a single top-grade elixir.

  But now Zhao Di had prepared a large number of high-grade Yuan Dan, and also had the help of a high-level Ling Gathering Array and a pile of high-grade Ling Stones, yet he still couldn't break through the bottleneck, which made him extremely depressed!

  The reason for this, Zhao Di had already carefully thought about it many times, and finally he believed that this matter was related to his own mood.

  Many gongfa, especially those of Taoist and Confucian schools, have the concept of "transforming the mind into ordinariness".

  When a monk's cultivation advances extremely quickly, their mental state often can't keep up with the progress of their cultivation, so they need to specially temper their mental state.

  The Confucian school emphasizes entering the world, and when tempering one's mind, it is necessary to enter the mortal realm, come into contact with mortals, and guide these mortals towards the Confucian idea of governing the country and bringing peace to the world. Therefore, Confucian practitioners often take on certain official positions or act as literati, participating in major decision-making processes in the mortal realm, playing important roles. If during this process one's mind is tempered to a great extent, it may even give rise to the Confucian unique divine ability of "浩然正气" (Great and Correct Energy).

  Hao Ran Zheng Qi and Shu Juan Zhi Xi are both typical divine abilities of Confucian cultivators, and also the basis for many powerful magic techniques. For high-ranking Confucian cultivators, it is an indispensable divine ability.

  Therefore, every year there are many Confucian scholars who cultivate and come to the mortal world to lead a generation of style.

  Unlike Confucianism, Taoist qigong emphasizes "breaking through the mundane world", that is, to see through worldly attachments.

  The Taoist way emphasizes that everything is ultimately the same. Cultivators enter the mundane world to temper their mental state, generally becoming ordinary people, personally experiencing the joys and sorrows of birth, aging, illness, and death, and understanding the various changes in one's heart and mind, verifying the principles of heaven and earth. Only by seeing through and penetrating this principle can one transcend it, unencumbered and unrestrained, without attachment or entanglement, which is the cultivation of body and mind.

  Another mainstream branch of Zhengdaoism, the Buddhist monks, emphasize "crossing the world", which means to ferry all living beings. Buddhist monks should always have a compassionate heart and persuade people to do good deeds, but they don't particularly stress the idea of transforming the ordinary. Some Buddhist sects believe that all living things in the world have karma, and aging and death are the main way to resolve karma. The practitioners who practice immortal methods and forcibly extend their lifespan are going against heaven's will, and their karma will only increase. The higher the practitioner's attainment, the greater their karma, and the easier they will be affected by its backlash.

  The cultivators of the three evil gates: Demon Gate, Ghost Gate, and Monster Gate do not have so many taboos. They often pay more attention to being natural and following their own instincts, without pretending or making artificial efforts. However, it is also common for evil gate cultivators to gradually become more brutal and cruel due to the bloody and gloomy nature of their main cultivation methods, sometimes even losing themselves and losing their minds.

  The "Hunyuan Jue" kung fu practiced by Zhao Di is a purely Taoist qigong, and the mental state must be as calm as an ancient well without ripples, neither urgent nor impatient. As for this hundred-year-long cultivation career, Zhao Di thought he had already achieved these things, so he didn't take them to heart either.

  As for the saying of "refining the mind and entering the ordinary", he had also seen it many times in the classics. If this matter is not handled properly, it is indeed possible to produce mental obstacles, which can make some cultivation bottlenecks difficult by several times, or even cause the cultivation to stagnate and never progress; In severe cases, it may even lead to "fire deviation" during cultivation, causing great damage to one's cultivation!

  Zhao Di had already possessed more than twenty years of mortal life experience at birth, and thought that he no longer needed to go through the stage of refining his heart and entering the mortal world, but unexpectedly, it was only in the early stages of forming his elixir that he encountered difficulties!

  Should I spend a decade or two in the mortal realm, wasting this precious cultivation period? Or should I find another alternative method that takes less time?

  Zhao Di was hesitating and weighing his options repeatedly when suddenly the Soul Pearl in his body reacted.

  Zhao's eyebrows furrowed, and You Lan's faint smile seemed to confirm that there was an urgent matter to report to him, and the two women were unable to make decisions on their own, otherwise they would not have disturbed him at this critical moment of his seclusion.

  Zhaodi stretched out his hand and lightly tapped it, a purple gas struck the thick stone door of the quiet room, the latter slowly opened, revealing the figures of two women, Yu Lan and Yu Ruo, both with tense and solemn expressions!

  In Youlan's hand was a red transmission jade symbol, and after seeing Zhao Di, she didn't say another word, directly throwing the jade symbol to Zhao Di.

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