Chapter 43

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What made Li Wenjun feel that his efforts and suffering were not in vain was that after completing a full cycle of the Heavenly Circuit, the fine thread of energy flowing through his meridians increased slightly. The increase was extremely subtle, almost imperceptible, but it was an increase nonetheless, and that was undeniable.

With this slight increase, it meant that Li Wenjun could make progress in his cultivation even without relying on external aids like elixirs or crystals. Of course, this was just a luxury. To cultivate solely through the Heavenly Circuit, an essential external condition was required: the place of cultivation must have abundant spiritual energy. In a place like Sank County, where the spiritual energy was scarce, Li Wenjun could spend his entire life in the Heavenly Circuit and still not reach the second level of the Qi Condensation stage.

Li Wenjun persisted and completed two cycles of the Heavenly Circuit. The impurities in his body consumed their energy and gradually dissipated, disappearing without a trace. His mind relaxed, and he could no longer control his fatigue and exhaustion. His body tilted, and he fainted on the bed.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Wenjun slowly woke up. The first thing he did was to check his meridians. He activated the Eternal Spring Technique and spent an hour completing another cycle of the Heavenly Circuit.

The spiritual energy flowed very steadily and gently, like water in a stream with no gradient, without any stagnation or turbulence, calm and peaceful.

Li Wenjun opened his eyes, excitedly jumped out of bed, and started jumping around, his joy evident. He could finally call himself a cultivator. After months of diligent pursuit, he had achieved a fairly good result.

Before Li Wenjun could enjoy his happiness for long, he suddenly felt a chill all over his body. Looking down, he realized he was completely naked, and his "little bird" was frozen and curled up like a chick in a nest to avoid the cold.

Li Wenjun quickly put on his clothes and felt warm again. He rushed out of the house, found a restaurant, and ordered a sumptuous meal to reward himself.

After eating until he was full and drinking to his heart's content, Li Wenjun left the restaurant and returned home. He threw the leftover food into the dog's feeding trough. There was still a lot of meat left, and the dog also got to enjoy a feast, with oil dripping from its mouth.

Li Wenjun moved a chair to the center of the yard. The warm sunlight felt very pleasant. The well-fed dog ran over, lay at his feet, and drooped its ears, basking in the sun lazily with its owner.

Li Wenjun scratched the dog's fur, closed his eyes, and appeared to be resting, but in reality, he was planning what to do next.

Cultivation could not be stopped. He was only at the first level of the Qi Condensation stage, and in the ranks of cultivators, he was undoubtedly at the bottom. He had to work hard and persist in cultivation to make progress and catch up with other cultivators, so as not to be left behind.

However, persisting in cultivation was not as simple as it sounded. In Sank County, where the spiritual energy was scarce, making progress in cultivation would inevitably require external aids.

For Li Wenjun, the only external aid available was the Qi Gathering Powder. The remaining medicinal herbs for the Qi Gathering Powder were not much. If he continued to prepare the bath twice a year as he had done in the past month, he could last for about ten more days. After ten days, he would run out of supplies.

What to do after running out of supplies? Li Wenjun had not yet figured it out. The trading fair only happened once a year, and he could not buy a large amount of medicinal herbs again. Mount Wufeng was also covered in snow, making it impossible to gather herbs. He had to think of another way.

Besides cultivation, what Li Wenjun most wanted to do was to practice the immortal techniques recorded in the Eternal Spring Technique, which cultivators called spells.

The Eternal Spring Technique had only three spells: Fireball, Immovable Vajra, and Light Body.

Among the three spells, the Fireball was an offensive spell. The principle of the Fireball was to convert the spiritual energy that entered the body into magical power through cultivation, then force it out of the body and ignite it with a special method, and finally throw it to hit the enemy, causing damage.

The Immovable Vajra was a defensive spell. When this method was activated, a transparent protective shield would form around the cultivator, blocking attacks. Whether it was physical attacks like swords and spears or magical attacks like the Fireball, the Immovable Vajra was effective.

However, the Immovable Vajra had a significant drawback. Once the cultivator activated this method, they could not leave the range of the protective shield; otherwise, the shield would not move with them.

As for the Light Body, it was similar to the light skills of martial arts experts, but much more advanced. The Light Body lasted longer, was faster, and had more flexible movements, far surpassing secular light skills.

According to the records in the "Miscellaneous Discourses on Cultivation," there were countless methods in the path of cultivation, and the Fireball and the other two spells were among the least significant. However, for Li Wenjun, these were the means to save his life, and he had to master them proficiently.

Li Wenjun decided to first become proficient in these three spells. No matter what, he had to thoroughly understand the characteristics of the three spells. Otherwise, if he wanted to use the Fireball in a confrontation but could not, he would be putting himself in danger.

Another thing that troubled Li Wenjun was the safety of his parents. Logically, he should have set out immediately to find them after achieving some success in cultivation. However, after some thought, he abandoned this idea.

It was not that he did not want to find his parents, but his current cultivation level was too low, and his abilities were not strong enough. Diving into the vast sea of people to find his family would be a hopeless endeavor, and he would have to pray not to encounter other cultivators. With his current abilities, if he encountered other cultivators, he would be nothing more than a meal for them.

In the past, Li Wenjun might not have had such concerns, but after encountering other cultivators one after another, he preferred to think the worst and not rashly search for his parents without sufficient self-protection measures.

After an hour of basking in the sun, a plan gradually formed in Li Wenjun's mind. He decided to cultivate and familiarize himself with the Fireball and other spells while waiting until next spring to decide on further actions based on the actual situation.

Additionally, he realized that money could make even the dead work. He did not have to do everything himself. He could hire people in Sank County to help him search. Many people searching together would be much more efficient than him searching alone.

With this in mind, Li Wenjun went to find Sun Baicao.

Half a month ago, Sun Baicao had opened a medicinal herb shop in the county, buying herbs from local farmers and gatherers. Sun Baicao spent most of his time at the shop.

After finding Sun Baicao, Li Wenjun explained his idea, and Sun Baicao nodded in agreement, thinking that offering a reward to hire people to help find Li Wenjun's parents was a good idea.

Sun Baicao gave Li Wenjun many suggestions. For example, to find people, there needed to be a target. The names and physical characteristics of Li Wenjun's parents and siblings needed to be known. Who to hire for the search also required careful consideration. The amount of the reward also needed to be just right. Too high a reward could be counterproductive, causing greed, while too low a reward might not be motivating.

Li Wenjun and Sun Baicao discussed for a long time and finally came up with a plan.

Sun Baicao asked Sun Jianing to watch the shop while he took Li Wenjun to find a painter in the county. The painter drew portraits of Li Wenjun's parents and siblings based on Li Wenjun's descriptions. They then took the portraits to a printing shop, where they had thousands of missing person posters printed.

Next, Sun Baicao and Li Wenjun visited over a hundred people in the county who frequently traveled, asking them to help post the missing person posters wherever they went.

Of course, doing these things required money. Even if someone was willing to help for free, Li Wenjun felt it was inappropriate not to pay anything. Besides, if someone did not accept any payment, he would worry that they would not genuinely help him.

After these tasks were completed, another half a month had passed.

During this time, Li Wenjun used up all the remaining medicinal herbs. In the end, although some herbs were left, the types were incomplete, and he could no longer prepare the bath.

Every day, besides cultivating, Li Wenjun spent his time familiarizing himself with the Fireball and the other two spells, with Sun Baicao's help.

After this period of practice, Li Wenjun had a certain understanding of the three spells. He did not know how other cultivators used these spells, but for him, there were still many issues.

First, the Fireball.

After this period of intensive practice, Li Wenjun could now skillfully cast the Fireball, but he needed ten breaths of preparation time before casting it. This ten breaths of preparation time was not just before the first Fireball; he needed the same amount of time between the first and second Fireball.

Moreover, Li Wenjun could only use the Fireball three times in succession. After casting three Fireballs, his magical power would be exhausted, and he would need to cultivate to recover it. The recovery time was about a day and night of practicing the Eternal Spring Technique, which meant continuously completing twelve cycles of the Heavenly Circuit.

This result was unsatisfactory for Li Wenjun. If he were to use the Fireball in a confrontation, the limitations would be evident.

Next, the Immovable Vajra.

The most obvious feature of the Immovable Vajra was already mentioned in the Eternal Spring Technique. After becoming familiar with it, Li Wenjun discovered two additional flaws.

One was that once he activated the Immovable Vajra, he could not use the Fireball. He needed to focus entirely on the hand seals and incantations to maintain the protective shield. Another flaw was that even if he used all his magical power to maintain the Immovable Vajra, he could only sustain it for half an incense stick's time without being attacked.

Three incense sticks make an hour, so half an incense stick was a very short time, almost negligible.