How difficult is cultivation?

  In the long river of thousands of years, those predecessors who have advanced to a higher realm have summarized a must-go point for their juniors with their own life experience.

  Talent, skills, spiritual medicine, magical tools, and wealth - in order to reach the end, it can be said that any one of these five things cannot be missing.

  It goes without saying that a person with great innate talent, if he doesn't have a good foundation in the Way, won't be able to take even half a step on the path of cultivation, no matter how vast his wealth is. And the quality of this foundation is what one relies on to advance to higher levels.

  Among the mortals, there are those who have a foundation in the Tao. One in ten thousand will survive. In the era of brilliant cultivation, even the Qi Refining stage is not considered to be a true cultivator. The gap between Qi Refining and Foundation Building is like a vast chasm that blocks those without special opportunities or four or five attributes from reaching the threshold of true cultivation for their entire lives.

  Except for some spiritual energy-rich Dongtian Fudi core areas, cultivators hide in the deep mountains with clear water and beautiful scenery. The density of spiritual energy is not much different, but having a high-level cultivation method can make you refine one and a half or two portions of spiritual energy in the time it takes others to refine one portion... Over a long period of time, two people who were originally similar in talent will slowly pull away from each other.

  Elixirs can give you an extra boost when you're stuck on a bottleneck, shorten your training time in normal times, or increase the effectiveness of your training. They are indeed a must-have item for both home and travel.

  As for a powerful magical artifact, it can increase the safety of a cultivator on their long journey - as long as ordinary people are not extinct, new cultivators will constantly emerge. However, some rare and precious treasures require thousands or even tens of thousands of years to grow after being harvested. How can they keep up with the consumption of cultivators? As time goes by, disputes over a single hundred-year-old spiritual herb have become commonplace. With a good magical artifact, one can naturally protect themselves in battle and even seize spiritual herbs and medicines that can deepen their cultivation, achieving two goals at once.

  Money is naturally not a problem, and although the lifespan of an immortal is longer than that of ordinary people, they cannot go out to find materials for alchemy every time - the divine continent is vast, this is a very wasteful way to spend time and energy. At this point, the importance of financial resources can be highlighted, if you have financial resources, even if you sit in the cave, there are countless immortals who need money to come to your door to sell and exchange.

  Of course, the "money" here is not today's Chinese paper currency!

  Lin Luo Ran lost the motivation to practice fireball technique after thinking that he might have poor talent, and when he returned to his room, he didn't even have the energy to try refining equipment.

  It was that one phoenix hairpin that cost 50,000 yuan to buy, quietly lying on the table, its elegant shape attracting people's attention.

  Dragons and phoenixes are both traditional totems of the Huaxia ethnic group, and their images can be seen everywhere today, not to mention in ancient times. Some dynasties even used them as exclusive patterns for imperial families, and ordinary people were not allowed to use them, lest they commit a taboo.

  But again, it is forbidden, but it can't resist the heart of ordinary women who love beauty. Golden utensils are too eye-catching, and ornaments made of silver and pearls can be seen as a phoenix's shadow.

  It was just that the "antique" Lin Luoran bought looked so fake, with a particularly unusual shape at the hairpin head - a rare double phoenix shape - or perhaps one was a male phoenix and the other a female? Lin Luoran didn't have the skill to tell the difference between individual phoenixes yet, this idea just suddenly occurred to her.

  The jade store clerk was naturally kind-hearted, but Lin Luo Ran wasn't someone who sympathized with others just because they looked pitiful.

  Due to the special material properties of pearls, they cannot be passed down for thousands of years like jade, and the longer they are worn, the warmer they become. Therefore, ancient pearl artifacts are difficult to appraise in the collecting world - except for imperial headpieces, even the most knowledgeable collector would find it hard to clearly explain the origin of a single pearl.

  Even ordinary jewelry only has a store's logo on it and there is no way to verify who wore the pearl flower, making it difficult to identify its value.

  Moreover, the one Lin Luoran bought is of good quality and doesn't look like an antique at all. If it's said to be an antique, there isn't even a trace of aging to be seen. At first glance, it looks like a pearl necklace that was strung last year, so how can it be considered an antique?

  More importantly, it's blue - come on, don't be so obvious when faking it, okay? In this world, apart from those that have been dyed later on, which pearls are actually blue?

  However, Lin Luo still bought it down. It wasn't because the old man said it was an antique, but she felt a very weak but definite spiritual energy from the pearl pendant - She was indeed a novice at cultivating truth, but she had made up her mind about one thing: anything with spiritual energy, like jade or green stone, even if you didn't recognize it, couldn't hide the fact that it was something good.

  So I guess I got lucky?

  Lin Luoran thought that she was spending Huaxia currency, and the items she bought were indeed related to cultivation, so her slightly disappointed mood earlier had improved a lot.

  But what is this blue double-headed phoenix hairpin after all?

  Lin Luoran looked at it for half a day, and it was just an exquisitely shaped pearl hairpin. Could it be that it had once been worn by a female immortal as an ornament, and after being carried with her for a long time, it had absorbed a hint of spiritual energy?

  Lin Luo immediately vetoed this idea, and without mentioning whether the female cultivators would wear secular jewelry, even if there were exceptions, ordinary materials could not maintain their spiritual energy for so long without dissipating.

  What is this thing after all?

  Could it be something like the Jade Token... Lin Luoer decided to give it a try. When she chose the spiritual energy within her body, she instinctively avoided that fiery red fire-type spiritual energy. This blue bead seemed to carry a moist feeling, and should not be compatible with fire-type spiritual energy.

  The attributeless spiritual energy entered the Phoenix Hairpin without any obstruction, and as the blue light gradually brightened, the entire Phoenix Hairpin underwent an astonishing transformation!

  First, the double-headed phoenix split in two, followed by the originally intact hairpin body slowly cracking open. If it weren't for the fact that both the phoenix head and the hairpin body's cracks were too neat, Lin Luoran would have thought that she had accidentally damaged this blue pearl hairpin while trying to force it open - but you're not only separating, you're also growing bigger, what does this mean?

  Lin Luoran furrowed her brow and remained silent, unsure if she should continue to infuse spiritual energy inside. She was afraid that this might be a one-time high-risk gamble, and unfortunately, the only condition for activation was filling it with enough spiritual energy... Would she really do something so reckless?

  The rookie Lin gazed at the double-headed phoenix hairpin... no, now it's two single-headed phoenix hairpins with unpredictable eyes. He looked around and saw that Qin Shuai's villa was decorated in a pretty decent style. If this were really a bomb, he wouldn't have anywhere to throw it!

  Lin Luoran thought for a moment and decided to try again in a more open area, so she withdrew her spiritual energy. The two single-headed phoenixes jumped up and down, seemingly venting their dissatisfaction, and reluctantly transformed back into the double-headed phoenix hairpin that was seamless. From this point on, it truly showed the ingenuity of clever craftsmanship.