Zhao Jiuge finished his night of cultivation and stood up lazily to stretch. He relied on the sun to discern direction and rushed forward. While moving, he was thinking about cultivation.

He suddenly felt a fluctuation of spiritual energy, and his eyes followed the source. He saw a fiery red plant that caught his attention. This unknown plant was only as tall as his waist and had red leaves. In the middle were three fruits that gently swayed. They looked like common fruits but exuded faint hints of spiritual energy.

Zhao Jiuge carefully examined the plant and recalled the record in the jade tube. All things in the world had spirits, and the world sometimes gave birth to animals or plants that contained spirits.

After thinking about it for a while and observing it for half a day, his eyes became red. “This should be a spirit fruit, I just don’t know what it is. However, the records in the jade tube say that most spirit herbs have powerful spirit beasts guarding them. The spiritual energy coming from it is not strong, so it must be a fairly ordinary spirit fruit.” He swallowed his saliva and looked around carefully.

He found that there was no movement and that there was nothing guarding the plant. Zhao Jiuge quickly picked the three fruits and stared at them. He could not find anything strange or extraordinary about them. He popped one of them into his mouth without any hesitation.

A stream of juice flowed down his throat and he put the remaining two fruits away. He had yet to take more than a few steps and was still savoring the taste of the fruit when he suddenly felt pain coming from his stomach. It was as if his stomach was on fire.

The pain of burning spread across his body and drops of sweat slowly fell from his face. Zhao Jiuge quickly sat down and found that the spiritual energy from the fruit had exploded in his stomach. It felt like his meridians were burning, and he didn’t dare to hesitate.

He quickly used the Sanskrit Heart Sutra to move the spiritual energy that had exploded from the fruit into his meridians. As the spiritual energy slowly mixed into his meridians, it turned into spirit force.

He repeated the greater cycle several times before the burning feeling dissipated from his stomach, and along with it went the spiritual energy that had exploded from the fruit. Zhao Jiuge couldn’t help but be surprised to find that the little spirit fruit had given him spiritual energy equal to several days of cultivation. It was difficult to imagine what kind of effect the elixirs of the cultivation world would have, and at the same time, he longed for advancement in his own cultivation.

Right now, he had just begun and had to spend time cultivating every day, to absorb spiritual energy. Once he entered the Blood Movement Realm, just the flow of his blood would cause his body to naturally absorb spiritual energy, even without cultivating. Once he reached the Spirit Transformation Realm and could mold his spiritual energy into an external force to attack, his body would automatically replenish his spirit force.

Once he reached the Foundation Realm, he would have full control of his spirit force and would create a formation inside his dantian to allow him to automatically absorb large amounts of spiritual energy. When enough spiritual energy gathered, a spirit core the size of a green bean would form in his dantian.

The quality of spirit cores was divided into nine grades, and everyone’s core was different. However, as long as one could form a core, even if it was the lowest grade, it would still increase their lifespan by several hundred years. The nine grades would determine whether they would succeed or fail in reaching the Nascent Soul Realm. Some people’s cores were too poor to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, and some people could reach the Nascent Soul Realm but would not be able to advance a step further. 

Legend had it that some people that succeeded in becoming immortals had created great signs when they formed their nascent souls. When their cores broke into nascent souls, the law horn blew and heavenly music played. Forming one’s core during the Foundation Realm was the most important step. A solid foundation was, after all, the most important ingredient. Without a good foundation, forget becoming an immortal, you wouldn’t even be able to form your nascent soul.

Even the worst core could increase one’s lifespan by several hundred years, and successfully creating a nascent soul could increase one’s lifespan by several thousand years. However, out of tens of thousands of people, only one could reach the Nascent Soul Realm. Many people died of old age at the Spirit Core Realm. As for the later realms, there was no information in the jade tube his teacher had left him, but Zhao Jiuge felt that it would be even more difficult. He knew that he had a long road ahead of him.

“Ah, it’s no wonder Teacher said that cultivation is like crossing a river with thousands of people crowding one log bridge. The path is difficult. Even if they manage to squeeze through the people, that doesn’t mean they can safely cross the bridge.” Although Zhao Jiuge said this, his eyes were filled with determination. The more difficult it was, the more eager his heart was for that wonderful world and the more he desired power to become stronger.

Eating the spirit fruit had given him spiritual energy equal to several days of cultivation. After pondering a bit, he swallowed the two remaining fruits and gained a lot of spiritual energy. Although the color of the spiritual energy in his body became darker, he still remained at the mid stage of the Spirit Detecting Realm. His spirit force was increasing day by day.

After tasting the sweet benefit of the spirit fruit, Zhao Jiuge would constantly check his surroundings for spirit herbs as he traveled during the day. He closely paid attention to his surroundings because if he relaxed for even a moment, he would miss a spirit herb. This also added some joy to his life, something else to do instead of just traveling during the day and cultivating at night.

The sun rose in the east, the trees were dense, and the mountain range stretched out like a dragon. Soon, the early morning light dyed Zhao Jiuge’s face with a golden glow. Ever since he had devoured the last spirit fruit, he felt like he was not far from reaching the late stage of the Spirit Detecting Realm. The spirit force in his body had become even more dense and was as dazzling as the golden light shining on his face. He decided he would not be traveling today. Instead, after exercising a bit, he sat down to absorb spiritual energy.

Zhao Jiuge sat there cross-legged as he cultivated to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy. His closed eyes were trembling and his young face had become a little darker after experiencing a month of living in the mountains, but overall, he looked more determined.

Spiritual energy continued to cycle through his body again and again. Night fell and the sound of insects and birds echoed. Just as he felt like he had no hope of reaching the late stage of the Spirit Detecting Realm today, he heard a rustling sound. His ears moved when he heard this sound—it didn’t sound like the wind blowing through the grass.

Just as he was zoning out, the smell of earth entered his nose and he suddenly turned to the side. It was good that his cultivation level had increased, as that had made his limbs become stronger and more flexible. If it was back when he was at the village, that would have been a solid hit on him. What he saw under the scattered moonlight caused his body to be covered in cold sweat. It was three foot long with two blood-red eyes and four limbs. However, the two front limbs were raised, as if it was a person standing.

Its face was ugly and its limbs seemed thin, but its tail was shocking, giving it a sense of power. Zhao Jiuge took two steps back and pulled out the hunting knife from his back. He tightly grasped the knife as he began sizing the strange beast up. The strange beast was also sizing Zhao Jiuge up before it suddenly revealed a vicious expression. At that moment, the beast kicked off with its two back legs, and its two claws that smelled like earth slashed toward Zhao Jiuge.

Zhao Jiuge’s heart tightened and his hairs stood up. He raised his hand and slashed down at the beast. The beast did not dodge but instead swept its tail to block the knife. Zhao Jiuge felt his whole right arm go numb when the knife cut down on the beast’s tail. However, the beast’s tail was completely fine aside from a white mark. This seemingly weak beast was very strong.

Zhao Jiuge was shocked. He wanted to escape, but the beast was too close and was constantly pressuring him. The beast’s tail swept at him again, and all Zhao Jiuge could do was raise his knife and meet it with force.

This time, blood flowed out from his mouth. Panicking, Zhao Jiuge suddenly thought of the spirit force in his body and quickly moved some into his right arm. The beast pounced again, but Zhao Jiuge slashed down with all his might this time. The monster was cut open from its neck to its stomach. Blood slowly flowed out and the contents of its stomach were faintly visible.

Zhao Jiuge found that this was effective and quickly slashed at the monster even more. The monster was cut multiple times and blood splattered all over Zhao Jiuge’s clothes. There were splatters of red everywhere. The last slash was aimed at the beast’s head, causing it to fall to the ground. Then its limbs twitched a bit and it stopped moving.

Zhao Jiuge looked at the beast on the ground and felt a lingering sense of fear. He gasped for air and thought about today’s encounter. Zhao Jiuge disliked his weakness. If he had reached the Spirit Transformation Realm, he would not have had such a difficult time.

However, since this beast had been killed by him, it probably was not strong. Perhaps it had eaten some spirit herb in the mountain and had gained a bit of intelligence. Zhao Jiuge couldn’t help but remember the record inside the jade tube. All living things in the world enjoyed the nourishment of spiritual energy. No matter what kind of life form, as long as they had a cultivation method, they could cultivate. After understanding the mysteries of heaven and earth, many cultivation methods were created to help people in the future walk easier paths.

A lot of animals were born without much intelligence and relied on their natural abilities to live or die. The few that were lucky enough to gain intelligence had no cultivation method, and those that did could form a core. However, they would then be hunted by many cultivators for their cores because they were rare materials for refining pills and treasures.

Although spirit beasts had strong bodies and had much longer lives than humans, their cultivation was more difficult than that of humans. Of course, there were some powerful races with pure bloodlines and unique abilities. They cultivated faster than humans and could gain strength that would make humans tremble in fear. Today’s encounter had given Zhao Jiuge some preliminary understanding of beasts and at the same time made him yearn for the path of cultivation even more.