74, Taoist Association

  Why did he think the woman's face was familiar? It wasn't until that night when Mo Tian Ge washed his face that he suddenly realized.

  Wipe off the disguise, her face in the mirror is clearly similar to that woman's.

  The similarities between them are the eyebrows and facial contours, the contours are fine, but the space between the eyebrows is really too similar, if she hadn't disguised herself, she would have been discovered on the spot.

  It's strange, she doesn't have any sisters, and her close relatives are all ordinary people, it's impossible that someone from the Ye family is still in Kunwu, right? Second Uncle said before, when they moved the entire Ye family to the mortal world, he specifically left a message, unless someone with spiritual roots appeared, otherwise no one would set foot in Kunwu again. This girl is an ordinary person, obviously without spiritual roots.

  She stood in front of the mirror for a while, couldn't figure out what was going on, and then went back to her room to sit down. If she wanted to think it over clearly, it would be better to go ask again tomorrow.

  She had a breakthrough in her cultivation. She discovered that the spiritual energy within her body had changed. Her cultivation technique consisted of two parts: one was **, and the other was Qingmu . Because cultivating ** was faster, it was her main cultivation method, while Qingmu was secondary, used for fighting. However, both techniques absorbed roughly the same amount of spiritual energy into her body. Although Qingmu absorbed wood spiritual energy, it also absorbed a small amount of other spiritual energies. On the other hand, ** could absorb any type of spiritual energy. The spiritual energies absorbed by both techniques mixed together in her body without distinction.

  But after the refinement of Qi was complete, a small amount of cold spiritual energy gradually appeared in her body, which was very different from others. The two spiritual energies ran separately in the meridians, neither conflicting nor repelling each other. She hadn't had time to tell Second Uncle about this yet, but for now, it seemed harmless, so she let it be.

  She had already reached the peak of refining her Qi, and further cultivation could not increase her spiritual energy, but only make it more refined. Even her daily routine of practicing the "Heavenly Song" had become a habit, so she would often sit in meditation to circulate her Qi whenever she was free. But this time, as she practiced her habitual routine, something unexpected happened that left her astonished.

  In the dantian and meridians, two unrelated spiritual energies continued to flow separately. However, that cool spiritual energy gradually increased. Upon discovering this phenomenon, she conducted an experiment in the dantian, separating one strand of each spiritual energy and allowing them to slowly come into contact. As a result, after not too long, the spiritual energy belonging to the xinghun combination decreased somewhat, while the cool spiritual energy increased somewhat.

  Confirmed that this gloomy spiritual energy can erode her original spiritual energy, Mo Tian Ge immediately stopped cultivating. Although she can currently control both spiritual energies without any difference, she still hasn't understood what this gloomy spiritual energy is all about, so it's better not to act rashly.

  After some thought, she felt that this cool and refreshing spiritual energy might be the yin energy cultivated through **secret cultivation methods**, but it was not mentioned in the manuals of her sect's techniques, so she did not dare to confirm.

  Generally speaking, heaven is yang, earth is yin, male is yang, and female is yin. In fact, regardless of whether one is male or female, the body contains both yin and yang, it's just that males have more yang and less yin, while females have more yin and less yang. From this, it can be inferred that in the realm of cultivating immortality, methods specifically created for female cultivators tend to lean towards yin attributes. **Since the method is only suitable for female cultivators with a purely yin constitution, it must be even more so. However, she had never heard of any difference between the spiritual energy cultivated by female and male cultivators, so she couldn't determine whether this was indeed yin energy or not.**

  The night passed quickly, and Mo Tian Ge packed up his things and headed out the door.

  This day was the opening day of the Taoist gathering jointly organized by the nearby streets. On this day every month, monks from all around would swarm in, mostly being Qi-refining cultivators who aspired to the Tian Dao Sect, and occasionally some Foundation Building cultivators who wanted to come and discuss the Tao with the Tian Dao Sect's cultivators.

  Mo Tian Ge had already inquired about the location of the Daoist temple and walked around for a few directions before heading straight to an ordinary-looking small courtyard.

  The gate of the small courtyard was open, and two low-ranking monks were guarding the entrance. Occasionally, someone would come over, hand over a spirit stone, and exchange it for a token.

  Mo Tian Ge followed them from behind, took two pieces of Ling Stone, received a wooden token with a number engraved on it, and entered the small courtyard. Then he walked through a hall, was led by someone into a room, and went up the stairs leading to the underground floor. After many twists and turns, they finally entered a large hall. The hall was extremely large, comparable to the Cloud and Fog Sect's Transmission Palace. At least it could hold a thousand people. At the far end of the hall was a high platform, with several cushions on top, and below the platform were tables, chairs, and cushions.

  After hearing the host's introduction, she only knew that with a piece of spiritual stone, one could sit on a chair. At that time, she didn't ask any questions and just paid the entrance fee, so she could only sit on a cushion. Anyway, she wasn't particular about it, so she found a corner not far or near to sit down, closed her eyes, and meditated.

  In fact, most people still sit on a futon, two pieces of spiritual stone per month, which is already not a small amount for scattered cultivators. The ordinary Qi-refining disciples of the Yunwu Sect only receive five pieces of spiritual stone each month.

  More and more people came into the arena, after a while, there were gradually more and more people.

  As the hall gradually filled up, Mo Tian Ge opened her eyes and took a look around. There were many people present, with only twenty percent of the seats left empty. Among them, there were some casual cultivators, some disciples from various sects wearing their respective uniforms, as well as some family heirs accompanied by their entourage. It seemed that this Dao conference would be very successful, not only attracting loose cultivators but also people from sects and families who were willing to attend. This had given her some expectations for the conference.

  Outside, people were still pouring in until those who came occupied nine-tenths of the seats before they gradually stopped coming.

  A moment later, the doors of the hall closed at the same time, and the small door inside opened. Several Qi-refining cultivators led a Foundation Establishment cultivator onto the high platform.

  At the same time, all the Qi-refining cultivators in the hall stood up and bowed. Mo Tian Ge saw this and followed suit.

  This foundation-building monk was a man in his thirties, wearing a light purple Taoist robe with white edges, with a calm and steady face, looking quite elegant.

  The Mo Tian Song couldn't sense which stage of foundation building this cultivator was at - unless a low-level cultivator practiced some sort of secret technique, it was impossible to sense the specific cultivation level of a high-level cultivator. However, the lifespan of a foundation building cultivator was between 300 to 400 years old, and this cultivator looked like he was only in his thirties. Estimated that his true age hadn't reached a hundred yet, and according to the average age of foundation building cultivators, he could be considered young.

  The foundation-building cultivator sat down on the meditation cushion in the center of the high platform, scanned the audience below, and began to speak: "Everyone, please be respectful. I am Wen Xiangdao from the Heavenly Tao Sect. Today, I will lecture on the Tao, and if any fellow practitioners want to come and discuss it, they are also welcome." He paused for a moment, then continued: "I think that you have all probably heard many lectures on cultivation experiences before. How about today, I'll talk to you about my foundation-building experiences instead?"

  Upon hearing this, Mó Tiān Gē's spirits lifted. She had originally only been interested in the Taoist organization of the street market, but hadn't expected that they would actually be discussing foundation-building insights, which was exactly what she most wanted to hear right now. As for foundation-building insights, even the Cloud and Mist Sect's lecturing masters had specially spoken about it with these soon-to-be foundation-building Qi-refining disciples, only it was unknown how it compared to the Tian Dao Sect's foundation-building cultivators.

  She was not the only one who was excited, others were even more so. It's worth noting that loose cultivators rarely had the opportunity to hear this kind of content, and family disciples and small sect disciples did have opportunities, but these were Tian Dao Sect cultivators, the number one sect under Heaven's End, they must be different from what their seniors in the sect would say.

  Wen Xiangdao paused for a moment, seemingly thinking about how to begin. After a brief moment, he slowly started speaking: "How Qi Refining cultivators establish their foundation, I'm sure you all know. First, cultivate to the tenth layer of Qi Refining. Next, take the Foundation Establishment Pill, then close your doors and meditate for one and a half years. If successful, you'll advance to the Foundation Establishment stage; if not, you'll remain in the Qi Refining stage. If you're relatively lucky, you might even enter the eleventh layer of Qi Refining. I'll share with you my own experience and insights on establishing my foundation."

  "I possess the Three Spiritual Roots, a common innate talent within the Tian Dao Sect. My cultivation method is also an ordinary Five Elements Cultivation Method. I was lucky enough to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill and successfully established my foundation in one attempt. I think many of you are like me, ordinary to the point where the hope of establishing your foundation is slim, yet still holding onto luck, hoping that your ancestral grave will emit a wisp of smoke, allowing you to enter the Foundation Establishment stage in one go. But what I want to tell you today is that establishing your foundation is not just about luck."

  "It is well-known that the spiritual root affects the speed of absorbing spiritual energy, affecting the effectiveness of cultivation and also influencing the probability of advancing in rank. It can be said that those with fewer spiritual roots are naturally more suitable for cultivating immortality than those with mixed spiritual roots. Some people advance in rank easily, while others struggle bitterly. Of course, you don't have to think that building a foundation has nothing to do with spiritual roots - that's impossible. However, as long as you have enough patience, you can still slightly narrow the distance between yourself and those born with excellent spiritual roots. Many cultivators, after completing the tenth layer of Qi Refining, will anxiously want to advance in rank immediately. In fact, at this time, there are still several factors affecting the success rate of building a foundation, one of which is your spiritual energy density."

  The last sentence made Mo Tian Ge surprised. What does " Spiritual Energy Density" mean?

  "This Wen Xiang Dao continued to say: 'Do you know what kind of changes will occur in your body after building the foundation?' He swept his gaze over the crowd, and as expected, the room fell silent. Then he continued, 'Let me tell you: if you build the foundation, your meridians will become wider, your dantian will become larger, and the spiritual energy that originally flowed between the dantian and meridians will become liquid. Only then will there be spare space inside your body to continue absorbing spiritual energy.' Now you should all have guessed what I'm going to say next - that's right, if you stay at the tenth level of refining energy for a bit longer, making the spiritual energy even more pure, it will be very easy to meet the conditions and make the spiritual energy turn into liquid."

  This set of theories, however, was something that Tian Ge had never heard of before. Er Shu only told her that it's difficult to succeed in building the foundation due to time constraints, but he never mentioned these reasons. She didn't know if this theory was a summary by the Tiandao Sect, and she carefully wrote down these notes, planning to go back and tell Er Shu about them so he could judge whether they were correct or not.

  Wen Xiangdao spoke incessantly for half an hour, finally finishing this part and pausing for a moment before continuing with the next part.

  "Also, I want to tell you that don't think that heart demons only appear in the Golden Elixir stage and neglect your mental state. Although it's true that the Foundation Building stage won't have heart demons, your mental state will affect your behavior and also affect your confidence. Don't ignore your mental state, a person with a stable mental state will be organized from the start of Foundation Building, and when encountering problems can calmly solve them, in this way, from another perspective, it also increases the chances of successful Foundation Building..."

  8:15 updated, thank you kemoduo for the reward.