Chapter 2

Lu Ping returned from the Spirit Warehouse Pavilion with over ten spirit stones and eight Blood Purification Pills. Spirit stones could aid in cultivation and were a form of hard currency; the Blood Purification Pills, on the other hand, were used to purify the true spirit blood, enhancing the progress of cultivation.

As a disciple of the True Spirit Academy, Lu Ping was, strictly speaking, part of a group that fell between the outer and inner disciples of the True Spirit Sect. The True Spirit Sect had raised them from childhood to adulthood for free, unlike the outer disciples who had to support themselves, in order to cultivate the reserve forces of the True Spirit Sect. If they could not reach the ninth level of Blood Refinement and the Blood Fusion Foundation within fifteen years, they would become outer disciples, having to support themselves while also serving the sect.

The True Spirit Academy had a new batch of students every five years, with three levels of disciples. Lu Ping had been in the academy for nearly ten years and was a second-level disciple. The minimum standard for a second-level disciple was the fourth level of Blood Refinement. If they could not reach the sixth level of Blood Refinement by the tenth year's assessment, they would lose their third-level disciple status and become outer disciples.

At the fourth level of Blood Refinement, a second-level disciple received two spirit stones per month. At the fifth level, they received an additional Blood Purification Pill. At the sixth level, they received two more spirit stones. The seventh level was a significant milestone in the Blood Refinement stage, where the breakthrough was difficult. Once broken through, they would enter the later stages of Blood Refinement, with a significant increase in power. The benefits would also rise to six spirit stones and three Blood Purification Pills, doubling the benefits of the sixth level.

The sect also rewarded disciples who broke through to the later stages of Blood Refinement with ten spirit stones. For those who broke through to the later stages of Blood Refinement before the age of eighteen, the reward was doubled, as it was said that disciples who broke through before eighteen had a greater chance of success in the Blood Fusion stage.

Lu Ping didn't know if the rumors were true, but he knew that breaking through from Blood Refinement to Blood Fusion was a one-in-a-hundred chance, a dragon gate. Jumping over it meant a leap to the sky, becoming a formal inner disciple of the True Spirit Sect, learning the official cultivation techniques of the True Spirit Sect, and becoming a figure that outer disciples could only look up to.

The True Spirit Academy had thousands of disciples, and each year, about a hundred reached the ninth level of Blood Refinement, but very few successfully built their foundation. Each successful foundation-building was a major event in the True Spirit Academy.

Lu Ping exchanged ten spirit stones for five Blood Purification Pills, leaving him with sixteen spirit stones and eight Blood Purification Pills. In the past, Lu Ping would always use up his benefits early in cultivation. This time, with the reward, he could save some after covering his basic cultivation needs for the month.

Lu Ping thought, "It's time to prepare for the second-level competition."

Each competition was a process of vying for cultivation resources, not only for the sect's rewards to individuals but also for the allocation of resources within the squad. A squad with excellent performance could obtain more resources, half of which would go to the leading immortal, and the rest to the squad's disciples.

This was also why Immortal Liu was quite pleased when he saw Lu Ping's cultivation break through to the seventh level. The top ten disciples from each squad participated in the competition, which was the basic requirement. However, any disciple who reached the seventh level of cultivation, regardless of their ranking, could also participate.

Powerful squads already had more than ten disciples reaching the later stages of Blood Refinement!

Lu Ping returned to his small house in the academy, swallowed a Blood Purification Pill as usual, held a spirit stone in his hand, and began to cultivate. After some time, the spirit stone turned to powder, and the medicinal power of the Blood Purification Pill was also refined.

Lu Ping did not rush to improve his cultivation. Instead, he reviewed the basics from the first to the seventh level of Blood Refinement, firmly solidifying his foundation. Each time his cultivation broke through, he would do this, ensuring his foundation was extremely solid.

Even so, Lu Ping still felt a noticeable increase in his cultivation. He exhaled a turbid breath, which was a normal situation after a recent breakthrough. In the future, it would become increasingly difficult, with each level in the later stages of Blood Refinement being a significant hurdle, often taking three to five years to break through.

Lu Ping opened a wooden box on the table, took out a piece of talisman paper, and laid it on the table. He then took out a piece of graphite and some strange wooden tools, drawing on the talisman paper according to the talisman patterns in the "Basic Talisman Mastery" manual, using the graphite to lightly sketch the patterns.

Drawing talismans was difficult, and for Blood Refinement cultivators, it was even more challenging due to the intricate strokes that could not have the slightest error. Otherwise, even if the talisman was successfully drawn, its power would be greatly reduced. Lu Ping used these tools to solve this problem.

"Ha ha, this is one of the advantages of my穿越 (穿越 means '穿越' in Chinese, which can be translated as '穿越' in English, but in this context, it means '穿越' as in '穿越' or '穿越')." Lu Ping smiled to himself.

Lu Ping knew that these were just small tricks. Once a cultivator reached the Blood Fusion stage and extended their divine sense, these tools would become useless. Cultivators with divine sense could draw talismans more precisely than using these tools.

Lu Ping took out a brush for drawing talismans, made from the tail hair of a first-tier top-grade demonic beast, with a simple spirit-gathering array on the handle to better transmit spirit power to the brush.

Lu Ping dipped the brush in a mixture of spirit spring water, fine cinnabar, and the blood of a first-tier earth spirit turtle, slowly injecting his bloodline spirit power into the brush. He then carefully followed the talisman pattern he had drawn, slowly tracing it.

With the completion of the final stroke, Lu Ping exhaled a long breath. Success on the first try! It seemed that the increase in his cultivation had also improved his success rate in making talismans.

Feeling the spirit power and the power emitted from the talisman, Lu Ping was both surprised and delighted. It was a top-grade quality, the limit that a Blood Refinement cultivator could achieve.

Lu Ping thought for a moment, pricked his finger, and dripped a drop of essence blood onto the talisman. The dark red talisman light turned bright red, as if it were about to burst out of the paper.

This was a method Lu Ping had learned from the academy's scripture hall, which could enhance the power of the talisman by two levels. However, the loss of essence blood came at the cost of cultivation. Fortunately, Blood Refinement cultivators had their cultivation based on their bloodline, so the loss was much smaller compared to other cultivators. If not for this top-grade talisman, Lu Ping would not have been willing to spare this drop of essence blood.

Lu Ping sat in meditation to recover the lost blood and spirit power, then continued to make nine more talismans. Unfortunately, no more top-grade talismans appeared, only two high-grade Blood Refinement talismans, two medium-grade, and three low-grade talismans. The other two had errors during the making and were scrapped.

Such a success rate would shock other Blood Refinement cultivators if they knew. This success rate was already astonishing.

Lu Ping thought for a moment, dripped essence blood on the two high-grade talismans to make them blood talismans, and placed the three blood talismans in another box, which already contained several high-grade Blood Refinement talismans.

The remaining medium and low-grade talismans were placed in a bag, which contained dozens of medium and low-grade talismans. This bag was the result of Lu Ping's month of labor.

Although the academy's cultivators could enjoy the sect's benefits for free, it was far from enough for cultivation. Therefore, each cultivator in the academy had their own way of earning spirit stones, and making talismans was Lu Ping's method.

Lu Ping started making talismans every three days from the fourth level of Blood Refinement, never stopping for years. Through constant practice and some small tricks, he overcame the initial stage of losing spirit stones and gradually turned a profit, accumulating cultivation resources for himself. Otherwise, with his not particularly outstanding cultivation aptitude, how could he have joined the ranks of the top cultivators in the academy?

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(Note: The last part about the advertisement is not translated as it seems to be a placeholder for an advertisement in the original text.)