Chapter 36

Although Liu Ming was looked down upon with a disdainful gaze, he did not get angry. Instead, he entered his field without hesitation and picked ten of the fullest spirit ears, cutting them down with the standard talisman sword he carried with him.

He then took out a piece of yellow cloth from his bosom, carefully wrapped the spirit ears, and walked into the dense forest.

An hour later, after completing his task, Liu Ming returned to his residence.

Sitting down at the table, he opened the package and began to carefully examine the spirit ears one by one.

Each of these spirit ears was about half a foot long, with grains as large as soybeans. However, there were only about seven or eight grains on each ear, and their shells were all golden, as if made of red gold.

After looking for a while, Liu Ming reached out and picked a grain from the spirit ear, placing it between his hands and gently rubbing it.

The shell crumbled like paper, revealing a translucent, greenish rice grain inside. He brought it to his nose and took a light sniff, and a faint fragrance wafted out.

Liu Ming felt a slight joy in his heart and, without hesitation, found a small earthenware jar in another room. After pouring in some clear water, he removed the shells from several spirit ear grains and placed them in the jar.

He held the jar in one hand and made a seal with the other, muttering incantations.

With a "bang," a ball of crimson flame burst from his palm, enveloping the jar and burning fiercely.

This was the fire technique he had just learned.

Before long, a rich aroma of rice wafted from the jar, making one's appetite grow.

Liu Ming controlled the flame to be smaller, waited for a moment, and then extinguished the spell with a "puff," quickly placing the scalding jar on the table and opening the lid.

A layer of white rice, as clear as snow, appeared before him, fragrant and inviting.

Liu Ming took out a wooden spoon he had prepared and scooped out most of the rice, putting it in his mouth.

The seemingly scalding rice grains immediately filled his mouth with an indescribable smoothness.

Then, the grains wriggled and rolled into his stomach like living things, their taste being the most exquisite he had ever experienced.

Unable to resist, Liu Ming quickly finished all the rice in the jar.

But the next moment, a scorching sensation surged from his abdomen and quickly spread to his limbs.

"Ah, this is..."

This heat was clearly the purest essence of heaven and earth!

Without hesitation, Liu Ming immediately sat cross-legged and began to meditate and cultivate.

An hour later, when he opened his eyes again, his face was full of surprise.

In that short moment of cultivation, his magical power had increased more than a day of hard practice.

This spirit rice had an unexpected effect of aiding cultivation.

No wonder that Li Zong had said that farming might bring unexpected benefits.

If he could eat this spirit rice several times a day, his cultivation speed would certainly increase several times.

However, after this thought crossed his mind, Liu Ming immediately shook his head in denial.

Not to mention that this spirit rice was extremely rare and ordinary disciples could not obtain it from the sect, the feeling of fullness in his abdomen was even stronger than that of the fasting pill. Even with an adequate supply of spirit rice, a person could only eat it once every six or seven days.

In this case, it could only increase his cultivation speed by one-sixth to one-seventh at most.

This improvement was far inferior to the effect of his multitasking ability.

After thinking this over, Liu Ming's excitement diminished somewhat.

He put away the remaining spirit ears and returned to his cultivation room to sit cross-legged.

In the past month, he had merely used the Dark Bone Technique to convert the original essence energy in his body into magical power, so the cultivation process had been exceptionally smooth.

Now that the essence energy in his body had been completely converted, to continue increasing his magical power, he could only rely on his own hard practice.

Liu Ming had learned from the two cultivation manuals that the higher the level of the cultivation technique, the more mental energy it consumed during practice, with most of the time spent on recovering mental energy.

Of course, in general, as one's cultivation improved, their mental energy would also gradually increase.

Therefore, the same cultivation technique would be practiced at vastly different speeds by new disciples and those in the middle or late stages of the Spirit Apprentice level.

But for the most basic sect techniques like Earth Spirit Technique, new disciples generally had to stop and rest for the same amount of time after practicing for five or six hours before they could continue.

When Liu Ming used his multitasking ability to cultivate the Dark Bone Technique, he ignored all this. After practicing non-stop for five or six days, he only needed to sleep for a day to be fully refreshed and ready for the next round of cultivation.

His cultivation time was nearly twice that of other disciples.

Liu Ming also learned from the two cultivation manuals that in terms of actual cultivation effect, he could not compare to the six-meridian or nine-meridian disciples.

For the same hour of cultivation, his three-meridian cultivation effect was only a bit more than half of a six-meridian disciple's and one-third of a nine-meridian disciple's.

As a result, even though Liu Ming's cultivation time was much longer than other disciples, his actual increase in magical power and cultivation speed was only on par with a six-meridian disciple.

This explained why the spirit masters were only interested in disciples with six or more meridians and ignored those with three meridians.

The difference in cultivation effect was so great that if he were a sect leader, he would also concentrate resources on the six-meridian disciples.

From this, one could imagine how terrifying the cultivation speed of Gao Chong, who possessed the 'Earth Spirit Meridian,' would be once he started cultivating.

With twelve meridians, his cultivation speed would be four times that of an ordinary three-meridian disciple.

Even with his multitasking ability, Liu Ming could only match half of Gao Chong's cultivation speed.

As for some elemental meridians like Thunder Meridian and Wind Meridian, they had no significant effect on cultivation but could greatly enhance the power of corresponding secret techniques and spells, making them highly valued by the sect.

In addition, some cultivators might be born with special innate abilities due to bloodline or other congenital reasons.

These abilities could increase cultivation speed, allow the cultivation of secret techniques and techniques that ordinary people could not, or have some other strange and unusual effects.

There were so many of these abilities that the cultivation world had yet to fully catalog them, and they were temporarily referred to as "spirit bodies."

The probability of a spirit body appearing was even lower than that of a nine-meridian or elemental meridian.

However, not all spirit bodies were useful to their owners. In fact, most known types of spirit bodies were insignificant and useless abilities.

Therefore, Liu Ming's multitasking ability seemed to勉强 be classified as a type of spirit body.

However, his ability was different from ordinary spirit bodies, which were innate from birth. His multitasking ability appeared due to an accident, making it an acquired ability.

Whether there was any relationship between the two, or if they were entirely different, Liu Ming could not determine.

At this moment, as he thought about these things in his room, he naturally felt a bit depressed. But with his strong will, he quickly suppressed his杂念 and began to cultivate the Dark Bone Technique.

...

Half a year passed in a flash!

During this period, Liu Ming, apart from completing his routine sect tasks and exchanging a few practical spells at the Spirit Law Hall, did not leave his room.

He focused solely on cultivating the Dark Bone Technique, allowing his magical power to increase rapidly.

One day, while cultivating, Liu Ming suddenly trembled, and a metallic clanging sound echoed from within his body. Then, with a mouthful of thick black gas, he spewed it out, which turned into a black mist enveloping his body.

In the midst of the black mist, several black tentacles danced wildly but vanished in a flash.

A clear incantation sounded from the wind, and with a low shout, the black mist suddenly stopped, revealing Liu Ming standing there.

"The first level of the Dark Bone Technique is finally completed. Heh heh, a year? For me, half a year is enough," Liu Ming raised his hands and saw black gas swirling between his fingers, a smile appearing on his face.

Suddenly, he raised his hand, and the tiger-bite ring on his wrist flashed. He flicked a finger at the nearby wall.

With a "puff," a black wind shot out, piercing a small hole in the wall.

Seeing this, Liu Ming was overjoyed.

This power was almost on par with the top-level Qi Practitioners, indicating that he had indeed entered the initial stage of the Spirit Apprentice level.

With this, he could finally cultivate the secret technique "Soul Chain."

At this moment, a series of continuous bell sounds suddenly rang out from outside the room.

Liu Ming was taken aback and quickly walked out of the room, looking up at the mountain top.

The bell sounds were clearly coming from the Nine-Headed Serpent Mountain, each one louder than the last, ringing nine times in succession.

"Nine consecutive rings? Could today be the day of the Nine-Headed Serpent Mountain competition!" Liu Ming's face showed a hint of surprise after hearing the bell sounds.

At this moment, several gray clouds broke through the sky from the foot of the mountain, heading straight for the mountain top.

Seeing this, Liu Ming hesitated for a moment and then immediately made a seal, casting a spell to form a gray cloud under his feet, rising into the air.

A short while later, the square at the top of the Nine-Headed Serpent Mountain was crowded with about seventy or eighty inner sect disciples, all looking solemnly at the three people in the center.