Aotian closed his eyes and sat cross-legged on the ground.

For those who possessed spiritual roots, spiritual energy became an extension of their senses—almost like a second pair of eyes. The higher the cultivation realm, the more evident this truth became.

Especially the spiritual energy flowing through one’s own veins, circulating throughout the body. It functioned like an inner eye, allowing the cultivator to perceive every detail of their own organism, from spiritual veins to the tiniest particle of energy.

Similarly, when diagnosing or evaluating someone’s talent, cultivators could channel their spiritual energy through another person’s body. This process revealed every internal detail as clearly as if they were looking at themselves.

Of course, if they were to send spiritual energy into another cultivator’s body, the latter would not resist; otherwise, an energy clash would occur, with the invaded person’s body always having the advantage, as it is ‘playing at home.’

For this reason, cultivators of the same level rarely attempted to probe another’s body without permission.

However, for those at higher realms, there was no issue in forcing their way into the bodies of those with lower cultivation realms.

Using the vision granted by spiritual energy, Aotian examined his body. Under his analysis, the inside of his veins formed a rainbow of five colors, where streaks of energy from the five elements flowed along the walls, creating a magnificent sight.

‘Martial artists can only generate five-element veins because, unlike cultivators, they are not born with spiritual veins. These veins are formed by the passage of external spiritual energy, which is always mixed with the five elements. Thus, the trace left by the energy in their bodies manifests as spiritual veins with affinity for all five elements.’

Aotian recalled this but quickly set it aside and began his cultivation.

Since he needed five thought processes to control each of the elements, he used the three Illuminated Minds of the Sect Leader, combined with his own mind and his own Illuminated Mind.

Soon, energy flows began to circulate. The five elemental energies were drawn into his veins in equal amounts, spinning around each other in a perfect cycle of mutual generation.

Each mind controlled a single element, following the sequence:

Wood → Fire → Earth → Metal → Water → Wood, preventing repulsion between elements.

The energy swirled within his body, invading every corner of his veins.

His spiritual vessels swelled to their maximum capacity with energy, and Aotian had to carefully control it to avoid exceeding their resistance limit.

The spiritual energy of each element was then guided to the corresponding streaks on the walls of his veins. These walls absorbed the elemental energy, refining it, and allowing only pure spiritual energy to pass through.

The process was essentially divided into three steps:

The vein walls strengthened, becoming more resilient.

The energy was purified and condensed more efficiently by the reinforced veins.

The refined energy flowed into the dantian, where it was stored.

This cycle repeated continuously, fortifying the veins and accumulating spiritual energy.

Although it seemed like a lengthy process, everything happened in mere moments.

Normally, cultivators with mixed spiritual roots could not cultivate as efficiently as Aotian.

They generally chose only one element to train, even if their roots had multiple affinities.

After all, if they attracted energy from different affinities without being able to separately control each one, the energy would collide with the opposing affinities along the vein walls.

This would cause damage to the veins due to violent reactions between different elements. If continued, it could even cripple or shatter the veins.

The problem could be avoided by focusing on just one element, but this brought its own inconveniences.

Even when cultivating a single element, the energy from the other affinities would naturally seek balance, stealing part of the absorbed energy.

For example:

If a cultivator had dual affinities—Fire and Earth—they could choose to cultivate only Fire. This meant they would only absorb Fire-aligned energy into their body.

However, since their veins were half Fire affinity and half Earth affinity, they could only nourish 50% of their veins per refinement cycle.

Additionally, the Earth affinity would seek balance, meaning that half of the energy used to nourish the Fire Root would be stolen to sustain itself.

This meant that refinement efficiency dropped drastically, at the following rates:

2-element root → Cultivation 4x slower than someone with a single affinity.

3-element root → Cultivation 9x slower than someone with a single affinity.

4-element root → Cultivation 16x slower than someone with a single affinity.

5-element root → Cultivation 25x slower than someone with a single affinity.

And this was assuming equivalent root quality.

If a perfect single-element root was compared to a low-grade five-element root, the difference would be even more brutal.

The main factor that determined the quality of spiritual roots was the thickness of the spiritual veins.

Thus, a mid-level root could contain and condense energy at twice the magnitude of a low-level root.

A high-level root could do so at four times the magnitude.

And finally, a perfect root resulted in an eightfold improvement.

This meant that a perfect single-element root could condense up to 200 times more energy than a low-level five-element root.

The difference was simply astounding.

This would be the ideal scenario, but only if everyone could nourish with the same efficiency as Aotian does with his synthesized technique, the Celestial Rotation of the Five Elements. But of course, this is not feasible for most, and in such cases, higher-quality roots grow even more distinguished in comparison to the low-level roots, which experience a greater loss of energy during the cultivation process.

Fortunately, Aotian had found a solution.

With multiple mental processes operating simultaneously, he refined all five elements at once.

Thanks to this advantage and his synthesized technique, his cultivation speed was equal to that of a mid-level single-element cultivator.

Aotian was satisfied.

…

As his spiritual roots pumped energy, absorbing and condensing without pause, hours passed without him noticing.

Until…

His dantian became completely full of energy.

Aotian felt that there was no more space and that the volume and quality had reached their absolute limit.

At the same time, he noticed that his spiritual veins had grown so strong that the quality of the refined energy nearly exceeded what his current dantian could withstand.

This could only mean one thing:

It was time to break through to the next level.

For a cultivator to advance, the energy stored in the dantian was not the most important factor.

After all, this energy was constantly consumed in battles and when casting spells.

If the amount of energy in the dantian were the decisive factor, cultivators would avoid fighting, as they would be spending years of cultivation.

The true determining factor was, and always would be:

The strengthening of the spiritual roots.

As a cultivator nurtured their roots, the amount of energy they could absorb and refine increased drastically.

When the quality of the refined energy was on the verge of surpassing the dantian’s capacity, that was the moment to break through to the next level.

Aotian did not hesitate.

He manipulated the energy within his dantian, making it spin like a vortex, compressing it at the center.

This vortex spun faster and faster, strengthening the walls of the dantian as it passed through, making them more solid and resilient.

Since advancing in cultivation was merely a matter of accumulating energy and strengthening the dantian, the reason cultivators avoided advancing prematurely was simple:

If their spiritual roots were not properly strengthened, the quality of their refined energy would be inferior.

If they broke through like this, their dantian would fail to reach its maximum potential, forcing them to try and compensate for this weakness in later levels.

However, this rarely ended well.

With a weak dantian, the quantity and quality of stored energy would be insufficient to break future barriers or correct past deficiencies.

Thus, the fate of such a cultivator would be sealed:

A weakened dantian and undernourished roots, with no hope of future progress.

But Aotian would not make that mistake.

His dantian trembled violently.

Then…

He broke through.

His entire body shook, and stronger energy fluctuations surged from him.

The energy vortex within his dantian disappeared.

All his energy was consumed, and his dantian underwent a transformation.

It grew stronger, significantly increasing both its capacity and the quality of the energy it could store.

Which meant…

He could also release energy at the same magnitude.

This was why higher cultivation levels translated into greater power.

…

Aotian opened his eyes and smiled.

“So this is what it feels like to break through!”

Now, he finally understood why powerful cultivators never got tired of cultivating for years.

It was an addictive process.

The sensation of manipulating energy, strengthening every part of his veins and dantian, and watching his cultivation rise was extremely satisfying.

It was almost like playing a strategy game, where one managed resources to fortify structures.

With each refinement cycle, he became stronger.

He barely noticed time passing as he immersed himself in cultivation, and it was deeply pleasurable—both mentally and physically—to feel the energy flowing through his body, strengthening him with every moment.

And now, for the first time, Aotian experienced the true essence of immortal cultivation.

‘Now I understand why powerful cultivators never tire of cultivating for years on end!’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep