Chapter 27

Such rapid entry into meditation felt natural to Hua Jiu, and he didn’t even consider it a big deal. After he entered the meditative state, he diligently followed the cultivation techniques, controlling his soul power, which is known as soul consciousness in the cultivation world, to spread from his mind, covering the surrounding area, and searching for the invisible spiritual energy in the world.

Hua Jiu’s soul had already reached the Core Formation stage, though it was not yet solid enough. However, it was many times stronger than that of ordinary people who were just beginning to cultivate. Therefore, what ordinary people might take days or even months to sense, Hua Jiu could almost instantly perceive.

On one hand, this was naturally due to Hua Jiu’s soul consciousness comparable to the Core Formation stage. On the other hand, it was because Hua Jiu’s mind was as calm as still water, with a childlike innocence, which inadvertently aligned perfectly with the cultivation state.

Before long, Hua Jiu sensed the spiritual energy in the world and, through the seven orifices and pores of his body, guided it into his meridians, making the spiritual energy circulate in a grand cycle within his body, finally converging into his dantian and transforming into true essence. This process also helped to strengthen and stabilize his body’s vital energy and internal meridians, connecting with the world and further sensing the creation of the world, purifying his physical body.

The stronger the soul, the wider the range of soul consciousness, and thus the more spiritual energy could be introduced into the body, making cultivation faster. At this moment, Hua Jiu’s soul consciousness had already covered half of the deep ravine.

Compared to ordinary people who were just beginning to cultivate true essence, Hua Jiu’s speed was not just dozens of times faster. The deep ravine, located in the Cangman Mountains, was rarely visited by people or animals. Although it could not be compared to the spiritual mountains and caves, it had much more concentrated spiritual energy than ordinary towns.

Soon, the spiritual energy in the stone cave where Hua Jiu was located was completely absorbed. The spiritual energy, which could penetrate any gap, flowed into the cave like a stream.

After three days, a true essence lake about one acre in size formed in Hua Jiu’s dantian, indicating that he had entered the early stage of the Spirit Condensation realm. After seven days, the true essence lake had expanded to over ten acres, and Hua Jiu had advanced to the middle stage of the Spirit Condensation realm. After half a month, the true essence lake had expanded to a hundred acres, and Hua Jiu easily entered the late stage of the Spirit Condensation realm.

...

What is meant by "cultivation knows no time" is exactly this. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

Being able to absorb spiritual energy into the body ensures that the physical body remains vital, unless one’s lifespan has ended. Therefore, although Hua Jiu now had a physical body, he did not need to worry about food.

On this day, in the stone cave, Hua Jiu was still naked, but his body was covered with a thick layer of dust, making him look as if he were wearing a tight gray undershirt.

At this moment, the speed at which Hua Jiu absorbed spiritual energy suddenly slowed down, and it became visibly slower until, after half an hour, no more spiritual energy was being absorbed by Hua Jiu.

After another dozen breaths, Hua Jiu’s body suddenly trembled, and the dust scattered. His eyes slowly opened, and two beams of green light shot out, striking the air and producing a crackling sound.

The green light subsided, and Hua Jiu, despite the mess on his body, revealed a sincere and slightly puzzled smile. At this moment, his dantian had transformed into a true essence lake about five hundred acres in size.

"In just one month, I have already reached the peak of the Spirit Condensation realm. No wonder I can no longer absorb any spiritual energy; my dantian is clearly saturated. Unless the density of true essence increases, the volume decreases, and it becomes more solid. But then it will be time to冲击 the Core Formation stage. Hmm! According to the memories of Yu Mingfu and Ma Zhikuo, ordinary cultivators usually start cultivating at the age of nine, and it takes at least five to ten years to reach the peak of the Spirit Condensation realm. Even the most talented core disciples of the three sects and nine schools, who cultivate in areas with extremely concentrated spiritual energy, take more than a year to reach the peak of the Spirit Condensation realm. For me to reach this realm in just one month is clearly due to my Core Formation stage soul. However, why is my true essence lake so small?" Hua Jiu suppressed his joy, flipping through the memories of Ma Zhikuo and Yu Mingfu, and muttered to himself.

The quality of a cultivator is generally determined by three aspects: the flexibility and width of the physical meridians, the strength of the soul, and the size of the dantian. Each of these has its own standard, divided from high to low into supreme, excellent, average, and poor.

Hua Jiu’s meridians and soul were clearly supreme, perhaps even exceeding the scope of what ordinary cultivators consider supreme. However, his dantian was classified as poor.

The size of the dantian is most directly reflected in the size of the true essence lake when one reaches the peak of the Spirit Condensation realm. According to the current cultivation standards, a dantian of less than three thousand acres is considered poor, three thousand to six thousand acres is average, six thousand to nine thousand acres is excellent, and nine thousand to ten thousand acres is supreme.

Hua Jiu’s dantian might be small because his physical body was forged from a dragon’s body, and dragons are not human. The concept of a dantian is unique to humans, which is why his dantian quality is poor, and even among poor dantians, it is extremely rare. This is one of the reasons he could cultivate to the peak of the Spirit Condensation realm in just one month.

In just one month, from an ordinary person to the peak of the Spirit Condensation realm, if this news spread in the cultivation world, it would be shocking. However, if people knew the size of his true essence lake, they would likely be even more astonished.

Thinking about this, Hua Jiu felt a mix of joy and worry. He was happy about the rapid increase in his strength but worried about the small size of his true essence lake.

Hua Jiu was clearly not yet accustomed to his human identity and seemed to have little feeling or discomfort about being naked and covered in dust.

He still had two things to do next.

First, he needed to refine his seemingly large but not yet solid soul using the soul-refining method from the "Heavenly Unity Soul Refinement Technique." This refinement essentially involves continuous torture of the soul.

Second, he needed to learn spells to transform the true essence in his body into combat power.

Although Hua Jiu had taken on a human form, he still maintained the habits of a robot, acting decisively and swiftly once he made a decision.

So, he quickly selected a method to torture and stimulate his soul and began to meditate.

After a short while, Hua Jiu brought the two storage bags, the blood sword, and the black staff to his side. He then casually followed the method of refining weapons from the memories of Yu Mingfu and Ma Zhikuo, refining the blood sword and the black staff.

In the next moment, Hua Jiu’s mind moved, and the black staff disappeared. At the same time, in his mind, the black staff appeared beside his soul.

As soon as the black staff appeared, Hua Jiu controlled it to strike his soul.

"Ah—huhuhuhu—"

A pain, far more intense than bone scraping or muscle tearing, quickly spread throughout Hua Jiu’s body, causing him to scream in agony.

In an instant, Hua Jiu’s face turned pale, his expression twisted, and sweat poured from his body, making him tremble uncontrollably.

Second update delivered. Another update will be posted in the evening. Please follow, like, and review.