Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 138: Improving the Kung Fu
The clear and spiritual bamboo in the mist seemed to be still sleeping in a dream. Ji An sat cross-legged in the depths of the bamboo forest, practicing the Qingmu Changchun Gong.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth formed a cyclone above his head and was inhaled into his body through his nostrils.

As he inhaled, green rays as big as sesame seeds dropped from the nearby bamboos and were swept into the cyclone.

The spiritual energy circulates in the immortal veins, and the flickering light of the Tao seeds lurking in various acupoints "processes" the spiritual energy.

Most of the spiritual energy is refined into magic power and flows into the Qi Hai acupoint, while the rest of the spiritual energy dissipates from the pores of the body.

Mixed in with the dissipated spiritual energy were some greener spots of light, which were then absorbed back into the nearby Qingling Bamboo.

Ji An seemed to have become a green bamboo in the bamboo forest, participating in the cycle of nature.

The mist was also pulled into the vortex of spiritual energy and entered his body with his breathing.

Liang Qiu, who was busy cooking breakfast, tilted his head to look at the bamboo forest, then looked towards the east, scratching his head in confusion.

The fog in the woods today is much lighter than usual and is about to dissipate. Usually, the fog will slowly dissipate after the sun comes out.

Another half hour passed, and a red sun peeked out from behind the mountains. At this time, the mist in the bamboo forest had completely dissipated.

When Ji An finished his practice, he felt relaxed all over, as if Zhu Bajie had eaten a ginseng fruit, and every pore opened comfortably.

He keenly noticed that today's practice was different from usual.

The spiritual energy needs to be refined in the immortal veins before it can enter the body. In the past, after completing the practice, the immortal veins would always feel slightly sore.

That was the tiredness caused by refining spiritual energy for a long time, but today there was no such feeling at all.

While practicing, he noticed that something was slightly different starting from a certain moment.

At that moment, the stone turtle vibrated slightly, and its carapace flashed with a warm light.

He looked inward at his Dantian and carefully observed the patterns on the stone turtle, trying to find the source of this unusual movement.

After observing for a quarter of an hour without discovering anything, he immersed his mind in the stone turtle and finally found the root of all this.

[Tao Seed: All Things Grow (low grade), hidden in the Huagai acupoint, comprehends the true meaning of the Jiamu Dao magic spell "Prosperity", and slightly improves the understanding of Jiamu Dao magic.]

[Tao Seed·Yi Mu Rejuvenation·(low grade), hidden in Yuquan acupoint, comprehends the true meaning of Yi Mu's Taoist magic 'Life and Death, Withering and Flourishing', and slightly improves the understanding of Yi Mu's Taoist magic.]

It turned out that the two wood-element seeds had reached the lower level. He began to look inward at the seeds in the acupoints and found that the two seeds had grown from the size of sesame seeds to the size of mung beans.

Ji An's consciousness exited the stone turtle, and he couldn't help but laugh three times, his voice shaking Lin Yue.

After the Tao Seed was upgraded, he could more intuitively feel the changes in the Yin and Yang energies in the Wood Element, and could more easily comprehend the divine will in the exercises.

As your understanding of the skills deepens, you will be able to understand the meaning of the wood element magic faster, forming a perfect closed loop.

The arrogant laughter scared several bamboo partridges that were foraging, and they flew away in a flutter.

Ji An closed his eyes and continued to practice the technique, carefully experiencing the changes that occurred while refining the spiritual energy.

He discovered that when the spiritual energy passed through the Huagai acupoint, the color of the Jiamu Taoist seed became greener, and when it passed through the Yuquan acupoint, the color of the Yimu Taoist seed became deeper.

There was a subtle resonance between the two Tao seeds, as harmonious and natural as human breathing.

After being tempered by the Tao Seed, the refined magic power has a very light green color, but there seems to be no change.

Ji An stopped practicing and took a long breath. As time went by, the changes brought about by the practice would become more obvious.

He had a strong premonition that his cultivation speed would be faster than before, and he should be able to break through to the middle stage of foundation building more easily.

When he walked out of the bamboo forest, he found Liang Qiu leaning against the kitchen door and talking to Huang Feihu. The meal that was usually placed on time had not yet been served.

"Today, fellow Daoist came out two quarters of an hour later than usual, and the breakfast has already gone cold.

I've put them in the steamer to keep them warm, and we'll be having dinner soon."

After breakfast, Ji An released the wind control technique, and then summoned his magic power. He was like a flying bird, floating towards the mountainside.

Arriving at the entrance of the cave, he approached the red cloud pine and used his magic power to nurture it. The wood element aura contained in his magic power could further stimulate the fire element of the spiritual pine.

The tall sacred tree swayed gently, and the front half of the pine needles became as crystal clear as fire jade, and a flash of light appeared.

After nurturing the two spiritual pines, Ji An stepped into the cave and began to prepare the potion, adding it to the mineral powder to make a medicinal mud.

He took off his outer robe, smeared the medicinal mud all over his body, and then used the Liujin Yugu Body's skin refining method to begin tempering his skin and flesh.

After applying the medicinal mud twice, Ji An ended his body training for the day. Continuing would cause too much damage to the skin and it would not be easy to recover within a day.

He made rapid progress in body training at the Qi Refining stage with the cultivation level of the Foundation Establishment stage.

After only a few days of practice, his skin had begun to turn bronze, with a faint metallic luster in the sunlight.

The first level of skin refining is called Bronze Armor. After it is fully cultivated, the skin will appear dull brass in color.

The second level is called Silver Armor. The skin changes from copper to moon white. Entering Silver Armor means that the skin's defense is comparable to that of a Foundation Establishment stage monster, and it is the kind of monster with thick skin.

The third level is called Ryukin. The skin turns back to normal color and only reveals golden spots when attacked.

That is the highest realm of the Glazed Jade Bone Body. The defensive power of the skin and muscles is comparable to that of the Chaoyuan period monster beasts. It must be achieved with the help of the body refining technique. The tricky skin refining can only achieve the silver armor.

Ji An finished his body training, left the cave and flew to the top of the mountain.

The golden sun hung high in the eastern sky, radiating its light and heat with abandon. Golden-red mist swirled from the crater, and a fiery spiritual wind emanated from it, a scorching heat.

Stopping at an appropriate distance, Ji An immersed his mind in the stone turtle.

"Refine the spiritual energy and improve the Five Directions Spiritual Condensation Technique."

[Spell: Five-Direction Spiritual Condensation Technique (Mastery 5% → 6%)]

As long as this type of spell is improved, the efficiency of extracting essence will be slightly improved.

These days, Ji An has been refining his spiritual energy every day to improve the Five Directions Spirit Gathering Technique, preparing to bring it to the perfect level as soon as possible.

He began to cast a spell, and a faint golden light from the mist floating nearby gathered towards his palm.

Before long, strands of gold threads thinner than hair appeared in the palm of his hand, constantly bending and stretching.

This is the essence of the gold element. Although it is so slender, it is both sharp and tough. Sword practitioners like to use this essence to nourish their flying swords.

The five elements essence has a wide range of uses, and Jindan monks also need to use the corresponding essence to nourish their magic weapons, but the demand of Jindan monks is huge.

Seeing that the gathered gold essence had already gathered into a ball, Ji An immediately took out the topaz bottle engraved with the magic ban and put the essence into it.

Through the bottle wall, a dreamy and brilliant golden light began to flow in the bottle.

He continued to use spells to extract spiritual essence. The gold element energy here was rich, so the extraction was much easier.

By the time he gradually couldn't bear the blazing golden fire inspiration anymore, he had extracted more than forty bottles, a total of more than eight thousand strands of golden essence.

It sounds like a lot, but it can only support four or five acres of copper-veined mulberry trees at most.

Since refining his body, Ji An has been able to enter locations with thicker fog and can persist in extracting essence for longer periods of time.

He flew to the copper-veined mulberry experimental field marked out at the foot of the mountain. These spiritual trees had grown to his waist.

The mulberry leaves are a dull silver color, while the veins are bronze. Combined with the iron-colored trunk, the entire spiritual tree looks like it is cast in metal.

Ji An took out the jade bottle and chanted some magic words, releasing a dozen strands of gold essence near the roots of each spiritual tree.

The spiritual wood was like a magnet, immediately absorbing the essence into its body, and the bronze lines on its bark emitted a barely detectable faint spiritual light.

Dozens of bottles of gold essence were quickly consumed, and Ji An came to another experimental field.

Inspired by this, he thought that since the Sharp Gold Technique could stimulate tiny particles of gold-type spiritual energy, it should also have some effect on spiritual plants like the copper-veined mulberry.

So he set aside five acres of mulberry fields for a comparative experiment.

He pinched his fingers and thousands of golden lights burst out from his fingertips and spread into the mulberry fields.

Du Huaiyuan stopped the shuttle beside the cold pond, supported himself on the side of the boat with one hand and jumped out nimbly, then began to take out jars of spirit wine from his storage bag.

"Junior brother, this time I experimented with a new formula and brewed fifty jars of medicinal wine, which can greatly speed up the recovery of mana.

Put it in a cold pond to ferment for a few years and see what the result is.

In the future, this kind of medicinal wine will be in great demand. Whether I can earn more spirit stones depends on it."

He learned the water-based alchemy method, which was much less efficient than the fire-based alchemy method, and he lived a relatively tight life.

After the demon disaster breaks out, monks will inevitably have to fight frequently, and elixirs, spiritual wines or other things with similar effects that can speed up the recovery of mana will become best-sellers.

Ji An coughed twice and said:

“Brother, a few months ago, the sect’s spiritual veins were upgraded, and Scarlet Flame Peak erupted. Several sect elders came, and one of them was a senior uncle who loved wine.

Well, you know, the wine stored in the cold pond has been consumed quite a bit. You can count the amount and I'll pay the bill."

Uncle Master Jia Yu from the secret vault was a big drinker, so he took out some spirit wine to entertain him.

"Ah?!" Du Huaiyuan grinned, "Junior brother, if you do this, I won't dare to store wine here next time."

He also wanted to keep some more spirit wine for his own enjoyment.

“Brother, you are so brave to store it. This is just an accident.

The spiritual veins of Scarlet Flame Peak have benefited from this, and their quality has also been improved. The water gushing from the springs contains a richer spiritual energy, and one can clearly feel that the spiritual fish are growing much faster."

Ji An pointed at the mulberry fields outside and began to paint a long picture:

"Brother, haven't you noticed that my area has expanded a lot? In a few years, when these mulberry trees bloom, we can harvest a large number of mulberries every year.

I will provide the raw materials, and my senior brother will provide the technology. Together we will brew spirit wine, which will surely sell well in the sect, and we may even supply it to other markets and immortal cities."

The flowers of the copper-veined mulberry tree cannot be used to collect nectar, nor do they produce fruit, so only the mulberry leaves can be sold.

The jade-leaf mulberry is relatively more valuable. The mulberry leaves can be used as feed, and after flowering, they can be used to raise bees. The mulberries can be used to make wine.

Speaking of winemaking, Du Huaiyuan's attention immediately shifted to it, and he smiled:

"I have several recipes for brewing spirit wine from mulberry. Once I go back and improve them, I will definitely be able to brew spirit wine of better quality."

(End of this chapter)