Chapter 12 Cultivation
Upon hearing this, Chu Qing's mind stirred. Although these three people had utterly mixed spiritual roots, they at least had spiritual roots. If they could become Novices, he would have contributed to the Sect, and perhaps he could also receive some Reward according to the five spiritual roots standard.
Thinking of this, he quickly bowed and said, "Second Elder, spiritual roots are hard to find. Our Qingyang Sect is already in decline, and the Servant Hall is especially short-handed. How about..."
Yu Tong stared at Lu Li and the other two for a while, then said, "The rule of Qingyang Sect is that anyone who Awakened spiritual roots can become a Novice. But in the past, we never imagined that such mixed spiritual roots like yours could also Awaken, so there was no rule against accepting mixed spiritual roots. Alright then, following the Novice standard, you will start as servant disciples just like five spiritual roots disciples..."
Upon hearing this, Lu Li and the other two immediately looked delighted, exchanged glances, and respectfully expressed their thanks.
Yu Tong nodded, "But I must make it clear to you: I have never seen such mixed spiritual roots before. Although the Spiritual Qi in our Qingyang Sect is much denser than the outside world, I believe you will never reach Qi Refining second level in this lifetime. And our Qingyang Sect's rule is that only by reaching Qi Refining third level can one become a formal disciple. You... better be mentally prepared."
Upon hearing this, Qin Shouren and Chen Zhong's expressions immediately fell.
But Lu Li repeatedly said it didn't matter, as long as Qingyang Sect could take them in, it would be a great favor to them.
Seeing Lu Li so sensible, Yu Tong nodded appreciatively. After stroking his beard and smiling, he called a disciple.
That disciple first took Lu Li and the other two downstairs to register, then gave each of them a small cloth bag. After explaining some Sect precautions, the group headed toward the small path west of the square.
While walking, Lu Li couldn't help but ask, "Senior Brother, where are we going?"
The Senior Brother looked back at Lu Li and said while walking, "You are all servant disciples, going to report to the Servant Hall. I forgot to tell you earlier: servant disciples don't receive resource distributions."
"If you want cultivation resources, you have to work. Different tasks earn different contributions. Contributions can be exchanged for cultivation resources at the Contribution Hall, or used to exchange for cultivation techniques and martial skills at the Technique Pavilion."
"Oh." Hearing this, Lu Li stopped talking.
After walking for a long time, rows of small houses and a small square suddenly appeared ahead, with few people walking on the square.
North of the square stood a noticeably more luxurious building. The Senior Brother led the three through the square and walked in.
In the main hall, a rough-faced middle-aged man was lying on a grand master's chair, snoring loudly. The Senior Brother walked up and coughed lightly twice. The rough-faced man immediately woke up, turning over to sit up.
When he saw the Senior Brother, his expression changed. He hurriedly stood up and bowed, smiling awkwardly, "Senior Brother Liu, what brings you here?"
Senior Brother Liu glanced at him indifferently, pointed at Lu Li and the other two, and said, "These three are newly entered disciples. Arrange for them; from now on, they're people of your Servant Hall."
"Yes, yes, yes." The rough-faced man hurriedly nodded.
Seeing this, Senior Brother Liu gave Lu Li and the other two some instructions and then left.
The rough-faced man stared at Lu Li and the other two repeatedly, then said coldly, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Wen Hong, the only steward of the Servant Hall. You can call me Steward Wen. Once you're here, you must follow all my orders. If anyone dares to disobey, hehe, I'll make them wish they were dead but can't die. Remember that!"
Although Lu Li and the three didn't like Wen Hong's tone, they all expressed they remembered.
Then Wen Hong called a servant over, gave some instructions, and had the servant take Lu Li and the other two to find their residence.
The Servant Hall's housing consisted of courtyards. Normally, one courtyard would house six people, but currently there weren't many servant disciples, so many courtyards were empty. Lu Li and the other three chose an unoccupied small courtyard to move into.
After a dizzying round of busy work, the three could finally have some peace. Gathering together and sighing for a while, the three each returned to their rooms.
Lu Li eagerly opened the small bag he received at the External Affairs Hall earlier.
He didn't care about anything else, as long as there was a cultivation technique he could practice. According to Senior Brother Liu who brought them here, there should be a Qingyang Sect basic cultivation method inside.
He opened it and indeed found a cultivation technique called Qingyang Art.
His breathing immediately became somewhat hurried.
Without checking if there were other things in the small bag, he directly put the Qingyang Art into the Space Hall, then sat cross-legged on the bed, focused his mind, transformed into his true form appearance, and entered the Time Hall.
In the Time Hall, Lu Li reached out, and the Qingyang Art appeared in his hand again. This was the wondrous aspect of this pagoda: no matter what he did inside, from the outside it looked like he was just meditating.
According to Lu Li's understanding, this Time Hall was more like an illusion space-he could imagine doing anything inside, but whatever cultivation gains he made would be fully returned to his true body without loss.
Additionally, in the Time Hall, he could retrieve items from the second-floor Space Hall, but couldn't retrieve things from his true body outside. That's why Lu Li had first put the Qingyang Art into the Space Hall.
In the Time Hall, Lu Li sat cross-legged and began flipping through the Qingyang Art.
After about an hour, Lu Li had roughly read the Qingyang Art from beginning to end, gaining a general understanding of cultivation. Only when he flipped to the end did he realize that this Qingyang Art only contained cultivation methods for the Qi Refining stage; the parts beyond Qi Refining were completely blank.
Although somewhat disappointed, he figured it was better than nothing.
After spending another hour, Lu Li carefully read it again, finally memorizing the Qingyang Art completely in his mind.
Then he began cultivating. As he released his Divine Sense, he immediately sensed many violent Spiritual Qi swirling around him, more than ten times denser than the Spiritual Qi at Qingliang Temple before. This gave him more hope for cultivation.
Although his spiritual roots were mixed, with the tenfold time flow acceleration, his refinement speed shouldn't be too slow.
As he operated the technique, the surrounding Spiritual Qi immediately rushed toward his body, following Lu Li's guidance into his Dantian.
It's worth mentioning that the number of spiritual roots a cultivator has only affects the speed of Spiritual Qi refinement, not the absorption speed.
The speed of absorbing Spiritual Qi depends entirely on the grade of the cultivation technique. The higher the grade, the faster the Spiritual Qi absorption speed.
In just over a dozen breaths, the Spiritual Qi within three feet around him was completely absorbed. Taking advantage of the time when surrounding Spiritual Qi was recovering, Lu Li began operating the technique to refine these violent Spiritual Qi, transforming them into True Qi.
According to the Qingyang Art, the number of meridian point barriers differs for different spiritual roots. Heavenly spiritual roots have only one layer of meridian point barriers, dual spiritual roots have two layers... and so on. Lu Li's meridian point barriers had a full nine layers.
Each layer corresponded to different attributes, requiring True Qi of different attributes to open.
In other words, if Lu Li wanted to use True Qi to rush through meridian points, he needed to condense nine types of attribute True Qi and break through them in sequence.
When completely opening a meridian channel, meaning reaching Qi Refining first level Perfection, one could cast techniques through the meridian channel.
This was where multiple spiritual roots had more choices.
No matter what attribute True Qi was in your Dantian, as long as True Qi passed through the meridian channel, it could automatically transform into the attribute True Qi you wanted to release.
If it was a single spiritual root, one could only release single-attribute True Qi corresponding to their own spiritual root.
This counted as compensation for multiple spiritual root cultivators who worked hard to rush through meridian points.
Unknowingly, thirty hours had passed in the Time Hall.
But Lu Li showed no intention of stopping. He greatly enjoyed this sense of anticipation brought by cultivation, always thinking about quickly rushing through the second meridian point.
Bang bang bang...
Just then, a series of forceful knocking suddenly came from outside the door.