38: Chapter 38 Emerging from Seclusion

Time flowed like fine sand through fingertips, passing silently day by day.

The various disturbances, conflicts, and rumors inside and outside Xiuchun Market caused by the appearance of the ruins did not disturb Li Qing in the slightest as he hid in his Immortal Cave to Cultivate with focus.

After cultivating the Five Elements Art, combined with the solid 40% increase in cultivation speed from the Level 3 training room, Li Qing truly understood what it meant to have progress that advanced a thousand miles in a day.

Previously, his cultivation relied entirely on absorbing Spirit Stones.

Now, as long as he sat cross-legged and circulated the Five Elements Art, pure Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi would continuously pour into his body.

Fortunately, Li Qing abandoned the idea of absorbing Spirit Stones.

Four months later, Li Qing walked out of the training room.

At this moment, Li Qing's cultivation was at Qi Refining Stage 7 for Earth-element spiritual power and Qi Refining Level 5 for Metal-element spiritual power.

At the same time, Li Qing discovered that as long as he circulated his Earth-element spiritual power, his cultivation displayed to the outside world was Qi Refining Stage 7, and when he circulated his Metal-element spiritual power, it displayed as Qi Refining Level 5 strength.

This effect was very suitable for Li Qing to pretend to be a pig to eat the tiger!

But after Li Qing carefully calculated the accounts, he was speechless.

The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi that Li Qing absorbed in the training room amounted to the spiritual power of four Spirit Stones every day.

This efficiency was hundreds of times faster than before, when he could only absorb one percent of a Spirit Stone's spiritual power daily.

And this speed was forcibly granted by the 40% cultivation speed of the training room.

At this rate, in another month, Li Qing had hope of his Metal-element spiritual power breaking through to Qi Refining Stage 6.

But breaking through from Stage 6 to Stage 7 would require half a year, and from Stage 7 to Stage 8 would require a year.

At this speed, it would take over thirty years for his Metal-element Spiritual Root to Cultivate from Level 1 to Qi Refining Perfection and touch the barrier of Foundation Establishment without the aid of Medicinal Pills and Spirit Stones. For other Cultivators, this efficiency was already that of a Genius, but Li Qing still had the Water, Fire, and Wood elemental spiritual powers that had not been activated.

Adding the Earth-element spiritual power at Qi Refining Stage 7, it would take at least 150 years in total.

Could Li Qing live that long? He didn't believe it himself!

In short, after Li Qing entered seclusion, he had already decided.

From now on, he would continue to use Spirit Stones to power his cultivation!

Looking at the forty-five Low-Grade Spirit Stones remaining in his hand.

"Sigh, the road is long and the burden is heavy!"

...

Li Qing's reason for leaving seclusion this time was mainly because his residence fee was about to expire.

The half-year Immortal Cave residence fee he had paid in advance would likely be reclaimed by the Immortal Cave manager if he didn't go out to renew it soon.

"Sigh, if I had known, I would have paid for several more years last time, and I wouldn't have been forced to leave seclusion halfway through."

Li Qing sighed helplessly; having a critical period of cultivation interrupted would make anyone feel unhappy.

However, on second thought, leaving seclusion was fine; he could take this Opportunity to sell all the Spiritual Rice he had stockpiled for five months, exchange it for some Spirit Stones to pay the rent, and incidentally purchase a batch of Spiritual Plant seeds to take back and continue planting.

Currently, the farmland was at eight times the speed, and Li Qing felt he could appropriately plant some Spiritual Plants.

After all, compared to Spiritual Rice, Spiritual Plants had higher returns.

Over the five months, Li Qing's farmland had harvested seven crops, totaling 8,400 catties of Spiritual Rice.

If he could sell it all, that would be 4,200 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Looking at the mountain of Spiritual Rice in his Immortal Cave, Li Qing was truly in pain and happy at the same time.

What made him happy was that selling this batch of Spiritual Rice could exchange for a considerable sum of Spirit Stones; what worried him was that 8,000 catties of Spiritual Rice was not a small amount, and if he relied on setting up a stall in the market to sell it bit by bit, it would take until the year of the monkey to finish selling it all.

"Squeak... squeak..."

Just as Li Qing was worrying about the Spiritual Rice, a crisp chirping sound came from the nearby beast enclosure.

That was the Red-tailed Fox he was raising. Over the past six months, because this little guy had been eating Spiritual Rice and beast meat, its size had grown several times larger than before, its fur had become brighter and smoother, and its strength had just barely broken through to the Middle Stage of the First Rank.

Now, the fish pond and the beast enclosure, except for the Red-tailed Fox, were completely empty.

The Spirit Beasts that had evolved inside had all become food for Li Qing and the Red-tailed Fox.

As for the evolution effect of the beast enclosure, Li Qing had understood from raising the Red-tailed Fish and the Green-feathered Chicken that only by growing to the Peak state of adulthood was it possible to activate the evolution effect.

And for the Red-tailed Fox's evolution, the road was still long.

Li Qing casually threw a handful of leftover Red-scaled Fish meat to the Red-tailed Fox, then packed his things, locked the door of his Immortal Cave courtyard, and headed straight towards the Xiuchun Market.

When he entered seclusion, Xiuchun Market was still in a state of panic due to the ruins; the streets and alleys were full of Cultivators discussing the ruins and snatching treasures, and the atmosphere was tense everywhere.

But looking at it now, Xiuchun Market had returned to its former tranquility; people came and went, hawking sounds were constant, and it was as calm as if the appearance of the ruins had never happened. The Cultivators who occasionally mentioned the ruins on the road only said a few words, no longer as fanatical as before.

Li Qing listened to the idle chatter of the surrounding Cultivators calmly, slowly piecing together the complete process of the battle for the ruins during his time in seclusion.

It turned out that not long after he entered seclusion, a Foundation Establishment Master had personally descended upon the ruins and taken away the Puppet inside.

As for the remaining Cultivation Technique Legacies, Magic Treasures, and Medicinal Pills, they became the targets of contention for all Qi Refining Cultivators.

This tragic battle for the spoils lasted for a full month before it finally came to an end.

As for the most critical items—the Cultivation Technique Legacy left by the Foundation Establishment Master, the Lifebound Treasure, and the foundation establishment pill that Cultivators dreamed of—there was still no accurate news as to who had snatched them. Everyone who participated in the battle kept their mouths shut. The only thing that was certain was that countless top experts at Qi Refining Perfection had died in this battle, and many famous Cultivators were buried in the ruins forever.

Even Deacon Han Pei, an outer sect deacon who was in charge of maintaining order in Xiuchun Market and was a powerful Qi Refining Perfection Cultivator, had been seriously injured in the battle for the ruins and had returned to Xiuchun Market in a sorry state, where he was still recuperating.

"Truly, men die for wealth, just as birds die for food."

Standing at the street corner, listening to this news, Li Qing couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

The cruelty and reality of the Immortal Cultivation world were vividly reflected in this battle for the ruins; for the sake of illusory opportunities and treasures, countless Cultivators were willing to risk their lives, only to end up dead and their Dao dissipated.

Thinking of this, Li Qing was even more grateful that he had such a hidden Immortal Cave where he could safely hide and develop steadily, without having to get involved in these meaningless disputes.

Compared to those competitive Cultivators who coveted opportunities, his method of steady development, relying on cultivation and planting Spiritual Rice to accumulate strength, was much faster than them killing each other, and it was stable!

Li Qing shook his head, no longer thinking about the ruins. The most important thing now was to first renew the Immortal Cave fee, then dispose of the 8,000 catties of Spiritual Rice, and then purchase a batch of Spiritual Plant seeds.

Then continue to absorb Spirit Stones.