As for the restructuring of the Luotian Association, Luo Chen handed it over entirely to Sima Huiniang.
He extricated himself from the tedious chores.
He poured all his energy into cultivation.
Regardless of how remarkable the spoils of this battle were, there was a stark reality Luo Chen could not escape.
And that was: the Ice Fort did not truly care about a mere Luotian Association.
What they cared about was Luo Chen the individual!
As for whether the Luotian Association he founded lived or died, they did not care in the slightest.
Under such circumstances, that the Luotian Association was able to survive and reap tremendous spoils was built entirely upon the foundation of Luo Chen possessing formidable strength.
If Luo Chen had failed at the Qinhua River,
Tantai Jin might have stepped forward to protect him.
But on the Luotian Association's side, any subsequent desire to breach gates and exterminate sects certainly could not have gone as smoothly as it had.
Even when great cultivators in late-stage Foundation Establishment arrived in person, they had only sat back and watched him "flaunt his might."
"How much I can make use of the Ice Fort's banner depends on how strong I am!"
"If I am strong enough, the more leverage I can borrow, and the greater my deterrence to others will be!"
After figuring this out,
Luo Chen applied himself even more diligently to his daily cultivation.
And the reward for his diligence, accumulated over time, appeared before him almost immediately.
One month after the fall of the Divine Craft Sect.
Inside the quiet chamber of his immortal's cave, Luo Chen's whole body shuddered.
A hazy azure spiritual light abruptly spread outward from the sea of qi in his abdomen, gradually enveloping his entire body.
A feeling both profound and mystical surfaced in his heart.
"So it was like this all along!"
"Wrong—the past methods of cultivation were all wrong."
The reason that prompted him to make such an exclamation was none other than a single truth!
The Yimu Medicine King Scripture, which he had cultivated for many years, had finally reached the Great Circle!
Just like back when his primary Qi Refining method, the Eternal Spring Art, reached the Great Circle, this time, once the proficiency of the Yimu Medicine King Scripture was maxed out, a mutation occurred as well.
Or rather,
it was not a mutation!
It was completion!
Whether it was the Eternal Spring Art or the Yimu Medicine King Scripture, both were pruned and modified from the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment chapters of the Medicine King Sect's divine scripture, the Ageless Evergreen Scripture.
They could be called incomplete cultivation methods.
Among them, many special techniques, such as those for purifying spiritual power, had been excised,
leaving behind only the basic techniques for practitioners to absorb external spiritual energy.
Now, through Luo Chen's hard work and the system's help, he had completed it entirely.
At this moment, rather than calling his primary cultivation method the Great Circle Yimu Medicine King Scripture, it was more accurate to call it the complete Foundation Establishment chapter of the Ageless Evergreen Scripture!
The Ageless Evergreen Scripture.
What was meant by ageless? If the physical body did not decay, that was ageless.
What was meant by evergreen? If spiritual power flowed enduring as verdant brilliance, that was evergreen.
What was meant by ageless evergreen? If the soul was imperishable, resilient, and full of vitality, that was ageless evergreen!
As the Medicine King Sect—the wealthiest among the Six Great Sects of the Far East, boasting the highest number of Nascent Soul cultivators—their core divine scripture naturally possessed extraordinary merits.
Nothing remarkable could be discerned from those abridged basic techniques before.
Yet now that Luo Chen had completed it, he suddenly grasped its true essence.
Even if it was merely the Foundation Establishment chapter!
At this moment, within his mind, the nearly complete Foundation Establishment chapter of the Ageless Evergreen Scripture unfolded.
As if enlightened by divine nectar,
Luo Chen instantly understood how true Medicine King Sect disciples at the Foundation Establishment realm truly cultivated.
They did not restrict themselves merely to absorbing external spiritual energy.
Instead, while circulating the technique, they tempered their physical bodies and enhanced the strength of their souls!
"To think it cultivates essence, qi, and spirit all at once!"
"Physique! Spiritual energy! Soul!"
"No wonder so many Golden Core Masters and Nascent Soul Perfected Persons emerge from the Medicine King Sect."
Suppressing the excitement in his heart,
Luo Chen began circulating the technique for the first time.
The new circulation pathway bore some resemblance to the past, yet the subtle differences—even by a hair's breadth—yielded results as different as heaven and earth!
The very first step showed a change!
In the past, absorbing external spiritual energy involved circulating the technique with spiritual energy inside the body, granting the body an attractive pull to somewhat passively absorb ambient spiritual energy.
Now, however, it built upon that by projecting spiritual sense outward, actively capturing more wandering ambient spiritual energy.
All along,
Luo Chen had harbored a doubt regarding the three major transformations after Foundation Establishment.
The dantian turning into a sea was easy to understand; it expanded capacity, allowing the storage of more spiritual energy.
The liquefaction of spiritual energy was also straightforward; within a finite space, storing more spiritual energy in liquid form allowed spells to be cast with far greater power.
However, as for the third transformation—the manifestation of the soul and the projection of spiritual sense—
he had always felt its utility for ordinary cultivators was not as great as imagined!
Projecting a few li out to anticipate enemies?
His pair of spiritual eyes could see even farther!
Imprinting spiritual sense restrictions to protect storage bags?
Once a person died, anyone willing to put in the grinding effort could unravel the restriction!
Better manipulation of magical artifacts?
The enhancement was only marginal.
Only now did he realize the greatest function of projecting spiritual sense.
It was not combat, but assisting cultivation!
At this moment, after he actively projected his spiritual sense, the originally transparent and colorless wandering spiritual energy of heaven and earth faintly revealed five vibrant colors.
Resembling particles, mist, and lingering clouds of dusk.
Among them, a pale azure-tinted green spiritual energy felt most familiar and closest to him.
Wood spiritual energy!
"Come over here!"
With a shift of his spiritual sense, it acted like a small hand, snatching a small clump of spiritual energy into his body.
Just this single clump was worth a minute of his body's passive absorption!
Without pausing, Luo Chen frantically used his projected spiritual sense to seize the nearby wood spiritual energy.
This was precision capture!
Unlike the body, which, due to having five-element spiritual roots, indiscriminately absorbed five-element spiritual energy.
Under this precision capture, Luo Chen's cultivation speed was unquestionably faster.
And while capturing,
Luo Chen split his focus in two, following the methods of the Ageless Evergreen Scripture to forcibly divide out a strand of spiritual sense to conduct the second step inside his body!
The spiritual energy that had just been absorbed and only simply refined and filtered,
guided by his spiritual sense, surged toward the various large and small meridians of his body.
If the human body were compared to an intricate water network, the eight extraordinary meridians would be the primary waterways.
Even cultivation methods stripped to the bare minimum had the effect of opening the twelve standard meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians.
Yet it ended there and nothing more!
The Ageless Evergreen Scripture, however, attempted right from Foundation Establishment to clear all meridians throughout the entire body, large and small alike.
If all were cleared, then this water network would be completely unobstructed!
In this way, it could receive even more ambient spiritual energy rushing in instantly!
The main meridians had already been completely unblocked by Luo Chen during his Qi Refining stage.
What he needed to do now was use spiritual energy to open those tiny, delicate minor meridians.
The process was somewhat arduous.
Yet if completed, the benefits would be unimaginable.
Spiritual energy would circulate faster, the upper capacity limit would increase, and endurance would strengthen.
The instantaneous output would also be greater!
Moreover, during the circulation of the technique, the spiritual energy would traverse more areas of the body.
Soaked in spiritual energy day and night, his physical body would also grow stronger.
Stated this way, it might seem complicated.
Yet if viewed through another cultivation system, it was exceedingly simple.
In the second realm of body cultivation, the Blood River realm, there was a stage known as "opening meridians."
The principle here was virtually identical!
In other words, during Foundation Establishment cultivation, the Ageless Evergreen Scripture incorporated an element of body cultivation.
This was the tempering of the physical essence within the simultaneous cultivation of essence, qi, and spirit.
If he persisted long enough, each drop of Luo Chen's natal essence-blood would likewise be far more potent than that of peers at the same stage.
Clearing minor meridians, however, was a troublesome affair.
After striving and clearing just one small channel, Luo Chen felt his strength waning and had no choice but to withdraw the spiritual energy and converge it toward his sea of qi.
Almost the instant this stream of spiritual energy entered,
a drop of pure spiritual liquid fell from the clouds filling his sea of qi.
In this manner, the third step of cultivation fell into place naturally!
Capture, refine, transport, and wash the meridians.
Through this sequence of steps, the external spiritual energy, initially somewhat unsubstantial and turbulent, had become exceptionally pure by the time it entered the sea of qi.
He only needed to refine it slightly to convert it into spiritual liquid.
Time passed without him realizing.
"Phew!"
As a long, white dragon of breath escaped his lips, Luo Chen opened his eyes.
At this moment, he felt faintly exhausted.
Actively capturing external spiritual energy with spiritual sense was much like a child chasing butterflies.
Joyous as it was, tiring was genuinely tiring.
Yet the benefits of such fatigue were obvious.
One could imagine that through this practice, his soul would grow stronger and more resilient under the cumulative tempering over time!
"This is what a true soul-tempering method looks like!"
"Its effectiveness is several times better than Mind Clarifying Evil Banishing, and it isn't nearly as painful!"
After sighing in wonder,
Luo Chen first glanced at the Fierce Spirit Incense beside him.
At that glance, he froze slightly.
This stick of incense had actually burned down by half.
This was no ordinary "stick of incense" in the colloquial sense!
Fierce Spirit Incense burned exceptionally slowly.
It could support Luo Chen through a full five hours of cultivation.
"In other words, running a single cycle of my natal technique now actually takes two and a half hours?"
This gave Luo Chen quite a shock.
Previously, running a complete cycle of the Yimu Medicine King Scripture had only taken half an hour.
Judging by his current level of exhaustion, he could only complete two full cycles of the Ageless Evergreen Scripture's Foundation Establishment chapter in a day.
"The time is basically the same as the ten cycles before; only the count has decreased."
"I wonder if the speed of cultivation has increased?"
Suppressing the stray thoughts in his mind, Luo Chen took a brief rest and resumed cultivating.
...
After a night of cultivation concluded, Luo Chen returned to his former routine.
Reading books, practicing spells, and concocting pills.
The books he was reading now were quite numerous.
From that previous battle, the Luotian Association had gathered a vast number of alchemical texts.
Even though most pertained to the first and second tiers, Luo Chen still drew a great deal of useful knowledge from them.
His alchemical foundation, which had lacked systematic instruction, gradually grew rock-solid.
He virtually had no remaining shortcomings.
Not only that, but from those alchemical secret manuals, he had also mastered two alchemical techniques and a Tier 2 water method alchemy technique.
The alchemical technique Origin Cultivating Hand came from the Danyuan Sect.
During pill concoction, it could extract the primordial qi of medicinal ingredients and nurture it through the cultivator's own spiritual energy, making it richer and more substantial.
The Danyuan Sect's signature pill, the Tier 1 Origin Cultivating Pill, primarily relied on this alchemical technique.
The other alchemical technique was called Scale Turning Hand.
This was a highly obscure technique that applied only to scaled demon beast materials for pill concoction.
The processing of demon scales had always been difficult in alchemy.
Alchemists often employed techniques meant for mineral materials, such as Folding Jade Hand and Star Plucking Hand, to handle them.
Yet the results were not particularly good.
Because the components contained in demon beast scales were extremely complex.
They were far more than mere bone and keratin.
Within them might also reside the demon beast's natal essence-blood, soul will, or perhaps even an inherited legacy!
To process such materials, relying on specious techniques like Folding Jade Hand often missed the mark by a mile.
Paired with this technique was a Tier 3 pill recipe known as the Treasure Body Pill.
It was also the sole high-tier pill recipe among Luo Chen's spoils.
The primary ingredients required to concoct the Treasure Body Pill included several specified types of demon beast scales.
According to the records, with prolonged consumption,
a cultivator could sprout protective scales akin to those of demon beasts, as if they were formidable beasts that had cultivated a treasure body.
They could even rely on their physical body to withstand attacks from magic treasures head-on.
The effect sounded formidable.
However, Luo Chen had no intention of concocting it whatsoever.
For one, it was an ancient pill recipe; he had never even heard of the specified types of demon beast scales.
Second, the rank was too high, and getting the system to achieve entry level would cost too much.
Third, his current alchemical attainment was likely still a bit lacking.
Consequently, he could only shelve this technique called Scale Turning Hand.
As for the Tier 2 water method he obtained, after examining it carefully, he also tried his hand at it.
Unlike the Falling Cloud Sect's Falling Cloud Smoke Generating Method, this was a very conventional water method without such demanding environmental requirements.
Luo Chen planned to practice it now and then when concocting pills.
Once he grew familiar with it later on, he could pass it down to his disciple, Qu Lingjun.
Speaking of pill concoction,
his recent pill-concocting duties had also lightened.
He was no longer producing Jade Marrow Pills in mass quantities.
His main focus was placed on Jade Dew Pills and supreme-grade Nether-Passage Pills.
The former affected how close his relationship with the Ice Fort remained, while the latter involved elevating his soul's foundation.
Time flowed like water through this disciplined life.
Soon, more than half a month flitted by in a flash.
Luo Chen once again entered the quiet chamber.
After a bout of cultivation,
he looked at the single increment in his cultivation progress and sank into contemplation.
The Yimu Medicine King Scripture had advanced to the Great Circle, even completing its defects to become a relatively complete Ageless Evergreen Scripture.
Yet its boost to his cultivation speed
did not seem as great as imagined?
On the realm progress bar, it barely stood at [Foundation Establishment Layer 4: 2/100].
"In nearly twenty days, it only increased by one tick on the progress bar. That means advancing to the fifth layer will require at least two thousand days."
"Two thousand days is roughly five years. Compared to the five to six years I estimated before maxing out the technique, it has only improved slightly."
Having arrived at the result of this test,
Luo Chen could not help but sigh.
What a pity!
He had previously pinned his hopes for speeding up his cultivation on bringing the technique to the Great Circle.
Now, those hopes were dashed.
Following his disappointment, Luo Chen quickly rallied his spirits.
"Now the technique doesn't just absorb spiritual energy—it also tempers the physique and trains the soul!"
"With such immense benefits, how could I be insatiably greedy?"
After all, the complete Foundation Establishment chapter of the Ageless Evergreen Scripture was something only Medicine King Sect disciples could enjoy.
In fact, it likely wasn't even for regular disciples, but required true disciples at the very least!
As a mere rogue cultivator, without paying a tremendous price, he had obtained it solely through diligent cultivation.
This was already an overwhelming stroke of fortune!
After adjusting his mindset, Luo Chen was no longer pessimistic.
Rarely for him, he opened his status panel.
Ever since advancing to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, he had been constantly occupied with the Luotian Association's affairs and had not checked it in a long time.
Under his expectant gaze, a screen of light slowly unfurled.
Chapter 299