Chapter 11: Three breaths to ascend the mountain, one tael of silver per time.

"Recognized by the Heavenly Dao?"

Fat Long shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly, "Then the conditions are quite high, for starters the person who establishes the sect must be at the initial stage of the Golden Core, and that is a strict requirement."

"I've looked into it, and it can be solved by crossing a bridge, finding someone in the Golden Core Stage to help you establish the sect, and then resigning to pass the position of Sect Master to you."

"A second-generation sect has no cultivation restrictions, and this would cost about 100 Spirit Stones."

"Besides that, you must possess a mountain peak as the base of the sect, and also need at least five disciples to establish the sect with you, among other things; it's extremely complicated, and the total cost would be at least 200 Spirit Stones."

Chen Qiu nodded without asking further, 200 Spirit Stones were quite a lot. Establishing a sect had to be delayed a bit, as they currently did not meet the conditions.

He then introspected, gazing at the panel inside his body that was enshrouded by clouds and mist.

-

"Name": Chen Qiu.

"Cultivation": Qi Refinement Realm Layer 3 (1%).

"Entry": 'Step by Step', 'Foundation Establishment Delayed', 'Resentful Spirit Summoning'.

"Mental Method": 'Withered Wood Blossoms'.

"Cultivation Technique": 'Earth Tunneling Technique', 'Blinding Technique'.

"Spirit Beast": None.

"Power": None.

"Country": Da Xia Country.

-

So far, his three entries were somewhat standalone, lacking interconnectedness. As a group of entries, they clearly weren't the best combination, but fortunately, he still had many opportunities to acquire more entries.

As long as he lived long enough.

Earth Tunneling Technique and Blinding Technique were also techniques he obtained from the Heavenly Dao Secret, instantly reaching the Great Achievement Realm, proving immensely useful.

It was by relying on these two techniques that he managed to escape with Fat Long so smoothly.

According to what he learned from Fat Long, killing demon beasts could enhance cultivation, but it wasn't a long-term strategy, or rather, it was just an initial trick.

At low cultivation levels, killing demon beasts could indeed rapidly enhance cultivation.

Typically, on the coming of age day, large clan families would prepare heavily injured demon beasts, allowing one to reach Great Perfection in the Qi Refinement Realm within a day.

Does this count as cheating?

Of course, it does.

It's just a bit irritating.

But thereafter, like during the Foundation Establishment Stage or Golden Core Stage, it becomes very difficult to enhance cultivation by killing demon beasts, as such creatures generally possess Spiritual Wisdom and support each other; it's hard to find a solitary demon beast at the same cultivation level.

And the most popular method for enhancing cultivation is—

'Swallowing and Exhaling Spiritual Energy'.

By cycling the mental method, each complete circulation within the body draws external Spiritual Energy inside, and each cycle of the mental method increases the Cultivation Progress fractionally, with the absorption rate depending on the grade of the mental method and the richness of the external Spiritual Energy.

His method, 'Withered Wood Blossoms', being the only Mid-grade Yellow Level mental method in this small world, was considered quite good.

As it is a 'Heavenly Dao Heart Method' produced by the small world, achieving total mastery meant reaching the 'Great Achievement' realm instantly.

While on the road, he sat cross-legged and tried cycling his mental method to Swallow and Exhale Spiritual Energy, assessing that with his method's level, in an environment with normal levels of Spiritual Energy richness, it would roughly take three days to break through to the fourth layer of the Qi Refinement Realm.

It's not slow.

Much faster than he anticipated.

It seemed like cultivating wasn't all that difficult.

...

As if seeing through Chen Qiu's thoughts, Fat Long, sitting opposite him, sighed helplessly, "Brother Chen Qiu, it seems you have a bit of a misconception about the path of cultivation. A normal person in the third level of the Qi Refinement Realm would not have the chance to come across a mental method."

"Not to mention a mental method from the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm. Once mastered, it directly advances one to the Great Achievement Realm."

"Both of these opportunities are quite rare, and having them naturally makes the cultivation progress much faster."

"But in reality, the path of cultivation is very difficult."

The two of them kept some items they could use and planned to sell the rest at the market.

He didn't choose the mental method but took a knife-type Spiritual Treasure instead.

He had previously found a mental method by chance, though it was just a low-grade Yellow Level, and he had only reached the Small Achievement Realm. It definitely wasn't as good as the "Heavenly Dao Heart Method," which could directly break through to the Great Achievement Realm upon mastery.

But... every cultivator has only three chances in their life to change mental methods without any cost.

After that, changing mental methods requires paying a certain price.

The first mental method he practiced used up such an opportunity. The remaining two chances were extremely precious, and he didn't plan to exchange them for another mental method of the same level. If he were to change, it should be for an upper-grade Yellow Level mental method, right?

...

Nothing unexpected happened at the station; after eating and drinking their fill, they scattered a handful of coins on the table and continued on their way.

They rented a horse at the station and set off again, both riding.

Chen Qiu didn't know how to ride a horse; he had never learned and only had the option of sitting behind Fat Long. Although he felt somewhat uncomfortable inside, he had to embrace Fat Long's waist for safety and look at the scenery whizzing by his ears.

When the sun was already halfway up the sky.

"Hmm~"

Fat Long turned around, jumped off the horse, handed the reins to a young station attendant, and then hands on hips, he looked towards the high mountain next to this station, his face full of emotion as he smacked his lips and said, "Here we are, Brother Chen Qiu. This is the market I told you about."

"Built on top of the mountain peak."

"If you can perform Sword Flight, you can just fly straight up, or you can climb up along the mountain path. If you can't do either and don't want to climb, you can take the quick path next to it."

To one side of the official road, there was a winding path around the mountain, which was the path taken by the poor to ascend the mountain.

Besides that, there was a short, middle-aged man with a full beard and exceptionally bushy body hair, holding a sign standing there.

"Quick path, reach the top in three breaths, one Silver per trip."

"Three breaths to reach the top?"

Chen Qiu looked at the sign skeptically, then raised his head to look towards the mountain peak piercing the clouds not far away. The peak was thousands of feet above the ground, definitely considered a top-notch tall mountain.

To reach the top in three breaths? Even with Sword Flight, that seemed impossible.

"Hey."

Fat Long just wrinkled his brows and gave a sly grin, "Brother Chen Qiu, just try it and you'll know. All I can say is it's absolutely unique."

Without saying anything more, Chen Qiu took out two Silvers; that wasn't a lot to him. He had collected plenty of small coins and scattered Silvers in the small world, so he wasn't short on petty cash. He casually threw two Silvers into the hands of the bearded man.

Before he could say anything,

he saw the bearded man's right hand suddenly thrust out, grabbing his shoulder tightly. Immediately, an intense sensation of weightlessness came from below his feet, and the surrounding scenery turned into countless points of light. In less than a breath, everything returned to normal.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already standing on the edge of a cliff on that tall mountain.

A wooden platform was laid on the ground, next to which sat a young man cracking sunflower seeds and reading a comic book. There was also a sign on the ground with an arrow pointing out.

"Wen Tian Market →"

Before he could even comprehend the situation, he saw the bearded man by his side release his shoulder. However, after taking a deep breath, the man ran towards the edge of the cliff and plunged directly into the cliff.