Zhao Chun had the Swift-Walk Sword Technique for her sword practice and the Single-Line Flying Dagger as a supplement. She was not lacking in movement techniques or strength-enhancing arts either. In her previous battles, the metal and fire spiritual qi had been of great use, but her personal spiritual qi was insufficient, preventing her from using them often.
She wanted to address this by selecting a suitable cultivation method. The Great Creation Spirit Dredging Art, a rare cultivation method for expanding one's meridians, could help accumulate more spiritual qi and strengthen oneself. Zhao Chun hesitated and flipped past it.
The spiritual qi throughout her body was tyrannical and sharp; if she were to open the meridian gates further and let more in, it would not only be of no benefit but could possibly even be harmful.
If she could find a body tempering art to externally temper her physical body, like Meng Han's, then she would probably be able to use this Great Creation Spirit Dredging Art. Besides, Zhao Chun still preferred to choose a cultivation method that matched her attributes.
However, in the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion, the methods for enhancing spiritual qi were mostly for the wood and earth attributes. Walking deeper inside, Zhao Chun suddenly paused. She saw a manual titled "Art of Forging in the Furnace".
After carefully reading the portion that disciples were allowed to peruse, her expression grew a little more solemn. This art was strange! It was undoubtedly a body tempering art.
It not only forged the physical body to be like iron but also tempered the meridians and dantian internally. It could be considered top-tier. But the four words written in red brushstrokes on the manual, "Fire attributes practice with caution," made Zhao Chun's breath hitch.
After a moment of thought, she continued to read. The Art of Forging in the Furnace got its name from its cultivation method. It required one to find a great ding forging furnace, place oneself within it, and use fire to refine a golden body, just like forging an artifact.
This was an extremely orthodox metal attribute method, which perfectly suited Zhao Chun's metal spiritual root. As for why it warned fire attribute cultivators to be cautious, it was also due to this strange cultivation method.
Forging artifacts or refining pills didn't use ordinary mortal fire, but rather earth fire drawn up from deep underground, which was much more violent than common flames. Earth fire that could be used for the great tasks of pill refining and artifact forging invariably possessed some spiritual qi and was inherently lively.
If drawn by a cultivator with a fire spiritual root, it would become even more powerful. The slightest carelessness could result in a backlash against oneself, and the loss would not be worth the gain. Even alchemists and artifact refiners needed to be cautious when controlling fire, to say nothing of other disciples who had never drawn earth fire before.
Zhao Chun was not without her concerns, but this art was simply too suitable for her to give up. If she could succeed in cultivating it, she could even learn a fire controlling art as a bonus.
She always held that one should not be greedy, but when it was truly time to make a choice, she herself understood the difficulty within. The path of cultivation was inherently rugged and dangerous; if one did not try, one would achieve nothing.
Others said the major and minor examinations were dangerous, yet Lian Jing lamented that she could not participate. Now, with such a great technique laid out before her, she truly had no reason not to try! Zhao Chun took it out and said firmly in her heart, everything has a price.
If one blindly pursues stability and comfort, then what is the point of cultivation? She wanted to cultivate to her personal limits; how could she not pay a price? After imprinting the technique, she returned to her residence.
The second step was to find an earth fire forging furnace to begin her cultivation. The sect had a set number of earth fire forging furnaces. Artifact refiners or alchemists could use them for free with a voucher.
Disciples like Zhao Chun, who did not cultivate these two paths, had to pay essence stones to gain entry. As long as there was a way in, the rest was not difficult. Zhao Chun still had plenty of money on her and should be able to afford such an expense.
She continued reading the Art of Forging in the Furnace and found that it was divided into three stages. The entry level was the Copper Body, minor achievement was the Golden Body, and major achievement was generating the Golden Armor.
The first two were for tempering the physical body until it was tough and strong, while the final stage was using metal spiritual qi to forge armor, creating an external defense. The tempering of the physical body also included the skin, flesh, and meridians, greatly increasing their resilience and strength.
Once she reached major achievement, she could confidently accumulate metal and fire spiritual qi without needing to convert it on the fly during battle.
With this art that benefited both offense and defense, coupled with her swordsmanship and the Jade Twin-Fish Armguards that would become useful in the later stages, she was confident that she would rarely meet her match among cultivators of the same rank.
However, the Art of Forging in the Furnace had extremely high requirements for controlling spiritual qi and one's personal spiritual qi reserves. Zhao Chun planned to wait until her cultivation base advanced again before attempting the entry level. In addition, news came from Xu Feng.
He sent another message, saying that after emerging from the small world, he was going directly to other places for training and would not be returning to the sect anytime soon. Zhao Chun reassured Hu Wanzhi, telling her to continue living there without worry, while she herself entered seclusion to focus on her cultivation base.
Just like that, another half a year passed... Two years after Zhao Chun arrived in the Drifting Clouds World, she crossed the threshold of the fifth layer of Qi Refining and advanced straight toward the sixth layer. She herself was not surprised by this result.
This period of seclusion had been for the sake of accumulating spiritual qi to break through. Moreover, the middle stage of Qi Refining was focused on accumulation, with almost no major bottlenecks. Only when breaking through from the sixth layer to the seventh would one encounter a true obstacle, which could take some years to overcome.
Upon exiting seclusion this time, she had not yet reached the sixth layer of Qi Refining, but she was at the peak of the fifth layer. All she needed to do was connect her upper and lower dantians, and she could step into the sixth layer. It was not far off.
However, an urgent matter at hand made her put her cultivation aside for the moment. That Xu Feng, who had been away traveling, had finally returned to the sect three days ago. With the matter weighing on her mind, it was inevitably vexing.
She led Hu Wanzhi and went to the Outer Sect Spirit Plant Garden, summoning the person who had been bribed by Xu Kuangrui in the past. Together, they made their way to Heartbreak Cliff, where Xu Feng was.
(End of Chapter)