Aotian, upon receiving the information he had requested from the Dark Hand, felt slightly disappointed.

It wasn’t that there were no such herbs or treasures that enhanced talent, but all of them were hard to acquire and extremely precious. Usually, when found, they weren’t stored—they were used almost immediately.

Aotian had expected this of the best ones, but even the lesser ones—those only capable of raising the quality of a low-grade root to a medium one—were also very rare and used as soon as obtained, otherwise there would be bloodshed over such treasures.

But thinking it over, he understood. Although raising the quality of a five-element root like his to the medium level didn’t change the fact that it was still considered trash outside the sect, when this happened to a single-element root, it meant the difference between a decent talent and a genius.

Of course, that was outside the sect, since in the Infinite Dao Sect, the difference between a five-element root and a single-element one wasn’t significant. Only the quality of the root mattered.

‘Haah… even if I want to try other paths to improve my root, they would take too long. A shortcut would be to hunt for these types of treasures, but is it worth risking the lives of a few elders just to save a few years of searching and speed up my cultivation?’

Aotian reflected, now alone, back in his room after letting Rihai rest.

He liked sleeping beside her after a round of dual cultivation, but this time, feeling a bit anxious, he decided not to sleep and left her room earlier.

Aotian’s gaze turned to the ceiling as he thought.

‘To manipulate the quality of my roots by myself, I need access to information about Nascent Soul cultivation and beyond, since it involves the soul. Roots exist between the real and the unreal, in the body and the soul, and they are relatively fragile. If I want to alter them without killing or crippling myself, I also need information about people who tried to manipulate root quality, preferably those who had some degree of success.’

‘But where would I get that? From Nascent Soul demonic cultivators? They’re the only ones crazy enough to do such experiments on others, since no one would dare try it on themselves. But would they really research this? Press X to doubt. It’s more likely they’d be busy causing disasters to boost their own cultivation.’

He scratched his long black hair, frustrated and with a strange look in his eyes.

Even with his vast database on cultivation, he actually didn’t have much information about the roots themselves.

But that wasn’t strange. After all, beyond their mystical nature, cultivation didn’t necessarily require deep knowledge of roots.

It was like driving a car. You don’t need to know how the engine works to make it run. You just need to know how to drive and steer it to reach your destination—the rest it does on its own.

The alternative would be the herbs and natural treasures Aotian was looking for—blessed by the world and capable of inherently altering root quality if used correctly.

These treasures would be like the car mechanics. You just needed to have them and know how to use them (pay, in this case), and they would enhance or fix the problems in your vehicle without you needing to understand how to do it yourself.

Aotian wished he didn’t have to rely on these materials to improve his root, but then—returning to the analogy—he’d have to learn mechanics himself, which, besides taking time, would require instruction—or at least some manuals.

But therein lay the problem. There were no “mechanics” in the cultivation world, at least not that he knew of. The only existing mechanics were these natural treasures.

And if Aotian truly wanted to learn even the basics from them… he needed to have at least one.

‘Looks like… I’ll have to take the risk. As cultivation progresses, it becomes increasingly slower, and my disciples have roots of at least high quality. So even though, thanks to my powerful minds and high mastery of cultivation technique, I can cultivate at a speed equal to a medium-grade root, my weakest disciples still cultivate twice as fast as I do.’

‘So, if a realm takes 10 years for them to reach, I’d need 20. Disciples with perfect roots would take 5, and those with special physiques would need at most 2.5 years. And even among the special physiques, there are stronger ones, like Rihai’s.’

Aotian began recalling the information that Rihai had tried to convey to him during moments of clarity during dual cultivation.

Since the energy connection was very strong during such sessions, they could basically transmit messages directly to each other’s body through spiritual energy, preventing interception from third parties—essentially like internal thoughts.

And normal cultivators, even those in high realms, couldn’t intercept thoughts.

‘According to Rihai, there are three types of physiques: Spiritual Physiques, Sacred Physiques, and lastly, but not least, Divine Physiques. Each of these cultivates twice as fast as the previous one. For example, the little girl Bai Jingjing and elder Jian Huiyin have Spiritual Physiques, cultivating twice as fast as someone with a perfect root. So, if I take 20 years in a realm, they take 2.5 years…’

‘And if Rihai repairs her root, her physique—which is an impressive Divine Physique—will take her to an absurd speed, needing only 7 months, while I’d need 20 years. If I need 100 years at my medium-quality root speed, she needs just around 3 years.’

The more he thought about it, the more unwilling he became to wait too long to upgrade his roots.

Currently, all his disciples had already reached the same realm as him and his outer elders, putting him under significant pressure.

Fortunately, with the innate barrier of contribution points delaying access to the next technique, along with the newly synthesized Celestial Rotation of the Five Elements technique reaching the Golden Core level—which allowed him to advance his elders without issues—this eased the pressure a bit.

But that was only for now.

If he didn’t improve his root to at least a medium quality one, which would allow him, combined with his advantages, to cultivate at the speed of a high-quality root, he would soon find himself pressured again by his disciples’ high talent.

‘Man, it would’ve been nice to reincarnate with a special physique.’ Aotian couldn’t help but daydream a little.

Ever since he learned from Rihai that every special physique was innately born with a perfect-quality root, he had drooled over the idea.

Shaking his head, he pushed those envious thoughts aside and focused on his outer elders.

Thinking about what he was about to do, his eyes sparkled, and a small smile appeared on his lips.

‘With techniques in hand, it’s time to advance!’

…

Beiyan Continent (Northern Flame), Fenglei Empire (Wind and Thunder)

Sun Yiming, the outer elder of the Punishment Pavilion, had already returned to the inn after purchasing information at the Dark Hand’s meeting point.

And upon arriving, the scene he encountered wasn’t that of nine elders calmly cultivating. No, everyone was in motion.

In the large hall they had rented, most of the elders were setting up formations under the leadership of Zhen Mo, the outer elder of the Formation Pavilion. The formations were of high quality, created with materials acquired earlier at the city’s Treasure Pavilion.

In addition to them, Elder Zhuan Lu of the Refinement Pavilion had just forged an alchemy cauldron using his weapon cauldron, which he had also forged earlier himself.

The two artifacts had reached the power of a Core-Tier treasure, since even without having synthesized the inheritance of Core-Tier forging arts, the Founder-Tier inheritance was still capable of creating Core-Tier treasures, as long as sufficient materials were available.

Around Zhuan Lu, there were already some formations functioning, responsible for concealing the birth of the two treasures, which released a powerful aura upon creation — thus avoiding trouble.

The alchemy cauldron had barely cooled before it was passed to Yang Shi, who, with a calm and gentle smile, began creating pills.

Everything was being done with the materials previously purchased, as if they had prepared for this… which they indeed had.

It didn’t take long for the formations, powered by spirit stones, to be activated, completely isolating the internal auras and protecting the room from external attacks.

Alongside this, Yang Shi’s pill cauldron was opened, and the pills, releasing second-level energy fluctuations, flew directly into the vial in his hand, as if they had a will of their own.

Pouring one into his palm, he smiled gently.

“I will begin.” And without a second of hesitation, he tossed the pill down his throat.

The pill descended and fell into his stomach, dissolving into energy along the way and invading his roots.

Aotian sensed the pill’s powerful energy circulating and, wasting no time, directed it to his dantian — or more precisely, to Yang Shi’s dantian.

The energy, as it was guided, nourished the roots. Aotian kept extra focus on them, as the pill’s energy possessed all five elements. Therefore, he couldn’t allow different elements to collide within the roots, or they would cause damage.

Normally, cultivation pills are made with a single element, avoiding accidents due to a lack of control when separating elements in the roots. They can also be made without elemental attributes, like healing or support pills.

Thus, a pill containing all five elements was unprecedented… and that’s why Aotian had to create the recipe himself.

Fortunately, with the Alchemical Derivation skill of Dan Hong, the inner elder of the Pill Pavilion, generating new recipes based on a few he already knew was quite easy.

Back to Yang Shi, as the energy was purified of its elements — devoured by the roots — it reached the dantian, which resembled an orb of solidified smoke, slightly unreal, but close to becoming something solid and real.

As soon as it reached it, it immediately collided against it.

Though powerful, as it was pill energy, it wasn’t violent. When it struck the dantian, it didn’t cause damage, but rather spread out like waves around it.

Half of the energy invaded its interior, and the other half circled around it, strengthening it.

That wasn’t Aotian controlling it, but rather an instinctive reaction of the pill’s energy.

Wasting no time, he took as much control as possible over that energy and forced it to strike specific points of the dantian, strengthening it.

The real issue with cultivation pills, aside from the accumulation of impurities from constant use, was the fact that they were an external and highly potent energy source.

Though it might sound strange to say, an analogy would be like cooking.

Cultivating without pill assistance is like using just the right amount of heat to cook a large piece of meat: slow, but controlled, with a good flavor in the end.

Using pills, on the other hand, is like tossing the meat directly into a live fire and taking it out quickly. It’s fast, but no matter how careful you are, it burns on the outside and remains raw inside — the result is never pleasant.

Even Aotian, with most of his minds — including the most powerful — focused on Yang Shi, couldn’t fully control that energy trying to forcefully enhance the dantian rapidly, since control, even with high-level minds, was limited by Yang Shi’s body and cultivation.

He could only direct as much energy as possible to strike the right points and strengthen the dantian in the most solid way possible. Even so, it was impossible to completely tame that wild energy to carry out extremely precise applications and build as firm a foundation as with regular cultivation.

And if Aotian was struggling like this, imagine others who rely on pills to advance. The more one uses them, the more unstable the foundation becomes; and the more unstable, the lower the control and utilization of spiritual energy.

If the dependency becomes too great, there will come a point where the cultivation becomes practically hollow, and one will barely be able to use the power of that realm — becoming a pathetic existence at that level.

But Aotian had no such concerns. After all, the foundation of his avatars synchronized with his own, and even those avatars that had used many pills and climbed almost seven levels before him, leaving their foundations unstable — now that he had caught up with them in cultivation, their foundations had already been corrected and were extremely strong.

Thus, under Aotian’s control and the pill’s enhancement, Yang Shi’s cultivation leaped from the 9th level of Foundation Establishment to the very peak of that level — just a hair’s breadth from the Golden Core stage.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep