The Elven Cultivator

「Fourteen years passed in a flash.」

「Chenxi Calendar, Year 9281.」

Through relentless cultivation day and night, aided by Spirit Gathering Talismans and the Gui Xu Sea-Swallowing Technique, Anton finally broke through to the Middle Stage of Qi Refining just before his sixtieth birthday.

As he felt the eighteen wisps of Primordial Spiritual Qi slowly surging within his Dantian, a wave of excitement washed over Anton. He almost couldn't stop himself from letting out a shout to vent his exhilaration.

The feeling was like finally filling the experience bar in a game from his past life, watching the level number tick up with a deep sense of satisfaction.

He now understood why Cultivators liked to let out a long cry after breaking through a realm.

Breaking through to the Middle Stage of Qi Refining meant Anton could finally begin practicing Techniques.

His first goal was naturally to master a Spiritual Fire, after which he could begin learning Alchemy.

What Anton had been dreaming of was, of course, the Nourishing Yuan Pill, known as the ultimate treasure for Qi Refining Stage Cultivators.

Although he had only refined eighteen wisps of Spiritual Qi so far—a far cry from the one hundred and eight wisps required for Foundation Establishment—this was a new beginning.

With a sufficient supply of Nourishing Yuan Pills, his speed of refining Spiritual Qi would far exceed what it was before. He might even be able to refine a new wisp of Spiritual Qi in less than a year.

This was the importance of resources.

'The four essentials of cultivation are wealth, companions, techniques, and land. Wealth comes first.'

'If I were in a proper Cultivation World with the backing of a sect, I would have had Nourishing Yuan Pills to aid my cultivation right after refining my first wisp of Spiritual Qi. I could have broken through to the Middle Stage of Qi Refining in ten years at most, unlike now, where I had to grind away bit by bit.'

After sighing to himself, Anton collected his thoughts and focused on the Taoist Jade Scroll deep within his soul.

Qi Refining Stage Cultivators were limited by their shallow reserves of Spiritual Qi, so their choice of Spiritual Fires was very limited.

The most common types were Beast Soul Fire, Stone-Core Fire, and Pill Evil Fire.

Beast Soul Fire was refined using the Essence Soul of a demonic beast. Its power was decent, but it was limited by the beast's innate attributes and lacked flexibility.

Stone-Core Fire was drawn from the shallow layers of earth-veins. Its power was mediocre and it was mostly used as an auxiliary flame for Alchemy or refining ores.

Pill Evil Fire was a highly toxic Spiritual Fire that Alchemy Masters reverse-refined from their own Pill Poison and medicinal dregs. It could only be used to create poison pills and Gu Pills, making its applications very limited.

These Spiritual Fires were either too weak or too restricted in their use, making none of them a good choice.

As for top-tier Spiritual Fires like the Samadhi True Flame, Nanming Li Fire, Cyan Lotus Earth Fire, and Taiyin True Fire, they were already on the level of Divine Techniques. They were simply beyond the reach of a mere Qi Refining Stage Cultivator.

In light of this, some mighty Cultivators had invested immense effort to create and perfect a method for self-cultivating a High-Tier fire seed—one that 'relied on no external objects, transforming the ephemeral into the real through one's own power'.

Simply put, it was a method to refine a wisp of Spiritual Fire from scratch, using one's own body as a furnace without relying on external fires, Spirit Beasts, or Spirit Stones.

In fact, this method wasn't created out of thin air. It was based on the cultivation principles of the Samadhi True Flame.

Samadhi True Flame used one's own Essence (Jing), Qi, and Spirit (Shen) as fuel, combining the three to generate fire.

By following this concept and lowering the required intensity of these three components, one could refine a weakened version of the Samadhi True Flame.

And within the Taoist Jade Scroll, there were tens of thousands of Cultivation Techniques for self-cultivating a fire seed.

Some focused on using blood essence as a catalyst, while others emphasized using one's Divine Sense as the furnace. The variety was dazzling, and each had its own strengths.

From among them, Anton selected the most supreme and, at the same time, most suitable Cultivation Technique for himself—the Five Elements Flame Transformation Skill.

The Spiritual Fire condensed by this Cultivation Technique was called the Five Elements True Flame, also known as the Five Elements Revolving Spiritual Fire.

As the name implied, it could cycle between the Power of the Five Elements.

Besides being able to concoct Pills of any attribute, it could also instantly switch its flame attribute during combat to specifically counter an enemy's weakness.

Even in the Foundation Establishment Stage, the Five Elements True Flame was still considered a top-tier offensive tool.

Its only drawback was that the Cultivator had to possess all five types of Spirit Roots and cultivate a Five Elements attribute Cultivation Technique—a requirement that was nothing short of demanding.

But Anton happened to meet this exact condition.

'I'll go with the Five Elements True Flame, then.'

Anton had already considered the matter of his Spiritual Fire before, so he made his decision quickly and without hesitation.

The Five Elements True Flame was highly compatible with his Primordial Spiritual Qi. Together, they could produce an effect where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

After quickly memorizing the contents of the Five Elements Flame Transformation Skill, Anton didn't immediately begin cultivating. Instead, he started looking up the recipe for the Nourishing Yuan Pill.

As the most commonly used basic Pill in the Cultivation Realm, the number of variant recipes for the Nourishing Yuan Pill was staggering. One could say they had been creatively explored to their absolute limit.

When he first searched for the recipe, Anton had been dazzled by the tens of thousands of options. It took him a long time to sort through their differences.

Generally speaking, the refining principle behind all these recipes was the same: to temper a Cultivator's physical body and accelerate the speed of Spiritual Qi refinement.

The differences lay in the materials used, which resulted in variations in the final pill's potency.

When making his choice, Anton's primary consideration was the availability of the Alchemy materials. The Pill's efficacy was secondary.

After all, if the Alchemy materials couldn't be found on the Dawn Continent, or if no substitutes were available, then it wouldn't matter how good the effect was.

After a careful selection process, Anton finally settled on a variant Nourishing Yuan Pill recipe called the 'Dragon Essence Pill'.

The main ingredient for the Dragon Essence Pill was Dragon Blood, or the blood of a Spirit Beast containing a draconic bloodline. There were also over twenty supplementary ingredients.

The Dragon Blood was the most critical component. The higher the bloodline's purity, the more potent the final Pill would be.

And on the Dawn Continent, there was no shortage of creatures with draconic bloodlines.

'The only question is whether the Dragon Race bloodline of this world is compatible with the Dragon Race bloodline from the Cultivation World.'

There was no point in overthinking it. Anton decided to give it a try first. If it didn't work out, he could just switch to a different Nourishing Yuan Pill recipe.

If he succeeded, the Dragon Essence Pill, with its effects far surpassing an ordinary Nourishing Yuan Pill, would undoubtedly shorten the time he needed to break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage.

'For the main ingredient, I'll try Scale Rock Lizard blood first. If that doesn't work, I'll switch to the blood of another Dragon Beast.'

Anton no longer needed a spiritual medium to draw Talismans, which saved him a lot of materials. However, he still went out hunting once every two or three months, so he had accumulated a large amount of Scale Rock Lizard blood.

Now it would come in handy.

'As for the supplementary ingredients...'

Anton scanned the recipe's contents. Apart from two or three familiar items, the rest were materials unheard of on the Dawn Continent. He would clearly have to find substitutes.

'Tomorrow, I'll go ask Teacher Darian to borrow a few material encyclopedias and see if I can find any materials with similar properties to use as substitutes.'

Researching substitute materials for Pills was far more complex than researching substitutes for Talismans.

Moreover, the experimentation process would certainly consume a large quantity of materials.

'Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Bishui Port.'

Anton calculated to himself.

Bishui Port was a bustling commercial hub; he should be able to buy all the materials he needed there.

He had also saved up all the Scale Rock Lizard hides from his hunts over the years. He could take them to Bishui Port to sell along the way, which would give him the money to purchase the materials.

'But before all that, I still need to refine my Spiritual Fire first.'

Anton took a deep breath, sat down cross-legged, and immersed his consciousness in his Dantian, beginning to comprehend the Five Elements Flame Transformation Skill.

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