Supreme Emperor of Mist

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The Spiritual Qi was like dust particles surrounding us. Neither touchable nor seen, they exist but don't at the same time. But everything changed the moment this particle came into the body of a cultivator.

Like how gases get condensed and turned into vapor, then become a liquid, everything comes in steps. And by using the cultivation technique created by Qin Lan in his free time, the dust-like particles slowly gathered together before being absorbed into his core in an orderly manner.

But absorbing the Spiritual Qi was just a beginning.

His body would have to be the vessel capable of holding these particles together until they formed into energy. The energy will then be released back to his body to refines his flesh. This was the meaning of Flesh Refining Realm.

There were nine different stages in Flesh Refining Realm, starting with the first stage as the weakest, all the way to the ninth stage, which is the peak of the Flesh Refining Realm. The higher is the stage in Flesh Refining, the better is the cultivator's defense.

The stage of their Flesh Refining Realm's cultivation also determined how much of the Pure Spiritual Energy they could store inside a cultivator's core. If the Spiritual Qi was a dust particle of energy, then the Pure Spiritual Energy was the concentration of the particles put together.

To be a First-Stage Flesh Refining Realm cultivator, the first thing a cultivator had to do was refine his body and flesh. The minimum requirement is to achieve the ability to freely control and uses the ten drops worth of Pure Spiritual Energy within the body.

Of course, this was just a base grading system applied to a vagrant cultivator. In this world full of various cultivation techniques, there are many ways for a cultivator to exceed the requirement. But while the cultivation technique could help the cultivator control more Pure Spiritual Energy, the same thing doesn't apply to their physique and flesh.

Without a powerful body to withstand the turbulent strength granted by the Pure Spiritual Energy, there's only one ending to those overestimating themselves. Light cases could burst their meridian by accident during cultivation, and death or cripple could fall to those in severe cases.

But this does not demotivate the cultivator from trying to get more than what they could swallow.

After all, having one to two drops more of Pure Spiritual Energy means you're better than your opponent in many cases. This is especially true because some Martial Arts and Movement Technique required Pure Spiritual Energy to be executed.

The more Pure Spiritual Energy the Martial Art or Movement Technique required, to more powerful it would be.

Qin Lan has been meditating under this tree for hours, but it seems that the route to the Flesh Refining's first stage is still long. He's not even capable of touching the limit of controlling a drop of Pure Spiritual Energy yet.

Of course, that doesn't mean Qin Lan's body was worst than the people around him. One must get their cultivation as high as possible, but that doesn't mean one is undefeatable when fighting against people below their cultivation realm.

The existence of those Martial Art was proof of that. A cultivator's core is the vessel, and Martial Art is the weapon.

Feeling that he should call it a day here, Qin Lan followed the villagers' track and quietly returned to the nameless village. On the following day, he's not as available as it looks.

He was arranged to help at the farm once more by helping in harvesting the Oxhorn Roots that matured today. Although the Oxhorn Root was planted almost simultaneously, their maturity time varies depending on the soil, water, and Spiritual Qi surrounding this place.

Certain spots always had a slower maturity time due to the lack of Spiritual Qi around there. While this can be compensated with continuous watering and soil improvement, they could only pray that it won't get delayed for days.

Furthermore, those that usually mature later than the first batch are often less desirable by the buyers. But they had no idea that all the differences it had were the time the plant took to mature. The only difference it made was the amount of Spiritual Qi that nourished the plant in its growing phase.

As the villagers had no idea how good Qin Lan was with his hand, they arranged for him to handle just a row of the Oxhorn Roots.

While it looks as easy as pulling a radish out from the soil, the Oxhorn Root is still considered a spiritual herb. And the best trait to differentiate between a spiritual and non-spiritual plant is how firm it holds the ground together.

Because a spiritual plant had a natural affinity with the earth, the soil was much more compact than the others. This made the process of harvesting the plant. Especially root-type herbs like this Oxhorn Plant is the most difficult one to handle.

"Boy, make sure you don't damage the root while pulling the medicinal plant out from the ground. Their prices will depreciate significantly if we damage the stem and the rhizome." said the manager as he showed an example of how to pull the Oxhorn Plant out carefully.

And because he's trying to keep himself low-profile here, Qin Lan merely nodded to show the hint he understands what he got to do.

Being arranged to the last row on this matured Oxhorn Plant field, everyone immediately gets to work when they're ready.

'Aii... Why do these people still try to harvest this plant using such a primitive method? Did the teaching I've given to the disciples before I went into seclusion gone down into the drain with age?' Qin Lan complained deep in his heart.

But his hand didn't stop moving at all.

Qin Lan started by putting his fingers all around the stem of the plant. This will ensure he has a good grip over the medicinal plant when pulling it out from the soil.

A hint of Spiritual Qi is injected into the stem through the application of his Gathering Technique. And because the plant was nourished by a touch of faint Spiritual Qi, it started to loosen up to absorb those Spiritual Qi.

The entire process is akin to breathing.

This was the best time for Qin Lan to give it a surprise as he yanked his hand hard and pulled the root out from the soil.

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