Mythical Cultivation

Two days flew by. Wu Ming hadn't practiced during these two days, but instead, he listened to his grandfather's advice and gathered his strength to prepare for today. Wu Ming had spent the past two days reading at home. His grandfather had previously told him that while practicing, he couldn't neglect his studies, but he hadn't paid much attention. After all, his ambition was to become a martial arts master, so what was the point of reading so many books? Just knowing how to read was enough. But now he saw it differently. In a world of immortal cultivation, with so many races and languages, what difference did just knowing how to read make him illiterate? So, for the past two days, he had been eagerly reading every book he could find, striving, if not to thoroughly understand it, to at least memorize it.

He also learned many things from the book that he hadn't known before. For example, the world is divided into nine states, and his Yunzhou is just one of them. There are many races in the nine states, and humans are only one of the more powerful ones, but not the strongest. As a result, humans don't have a good life, with large numbers of people dying all the time. This is mainly because humans are too scattered, and the monks can't protect them all. There's also a lot of information that Wu Ming didn't know before. It wasn't until reading the book these past two days that he finally understood a little more about the world. Wu Ming thought to himself that he must read more in the future.

This morning, Grandpa dragged him to the village chief's house. There were a lot of people there today. Several elders, Instructor Zhang, and several team leaders were already waiting. Nearly twenty of Wu Ming's fellow practitioners had brought their elders, leaving less than ten of them absent. Everyone gathered to discuss today's events.

"Ahem, be quiet for a moment and listen to me," the village chief coughed to quiet everyone down. "I'm sure the elders all know our purpose today. Those who should have arrived have arrived. The rest of you can only wait until next time. Follow me to the courtyard." With that, he led the way into the courtyard.

The first thing Wu Ming saw when he entered the yard was five boiling cauldrons with a big fire burning underneath. Various herbs were placed on the sides, and there were also several jade barrels. He didn't know what was inside.

Instructor Zhang stepped forward and said, "I called everyone here today for the future of the next generation of kids in my Lijia Village. We'll put the materials for the medicinal bath into the cauldron later. You take off your clothes and enter the cauldron in order. Practice the exercises you usually do until you can't stand it anymore, then come out. The longer you persist, the greater the benefit to you. Do you understand?" Instructor Zhang said to the nearly twenty teenagers.

"I understand," Wu Ming and the others replied. Seeing they understood, Instructor Zhang and several patrol leaders followed the instructions of the village chief and several elders, placing the herbs into the five cauldrons one by one. Finally, they poured the liquid from the jade barrel into the cauldrons. Only then did Wu Ming notice the jade barrel contained an unknown amount of blood. The smell suggested it was the blood of some animal.

After pouring the blood into the cauldron, Instructor Zhang called out the names of five people, Wu Ming among them. They stripped off their clothes and jumped into the cauldron, beginning to practice their techniques. The moment they entered, Wu Ming nearly cried out, feeling a searing heat envelop his body. It wasn't until he began practicing Fu Niu Fist that the sensation subsided slightly. Although still hot, he could now bear it.

After a while, Wu Ming felt a warm, slightly tipsy sensation throughout his body, almost making him sleepy. However, remembering the medicinal bath, he focused on his training. He felt his body growing stronger, his strength increasing, and an unknown substance seeping into him. As time passed, Wu Ming felt increasingly uncomfortable, as if his body were starting to feel full, like he'd eaten too much.

"It depends on their luck. The longer they persist, the better it will be for their cultivation in the future. There are several kinds of high-grade medicinal herbs and the blood of several kinds of Qi Refining Realm monsters in it. If they can adapt to it, they will be able to absorb the vitality of heaven and earth faster in the future." said the village chief.

"It's been almost an hour. We've persisted until now and have gained something or other. It just depends on how big the gain is. It seems that this group of people has good talent." said an elder of the tribe.

After a while, some of the five people began to give up and jumped out of the cauldron. Instructor Zhang told them not to relax and to continue practicing for a while before taking a rest. Later, some people couldn't stand it anymore and jumped out of the cauldron. After Instructor Zhang and his team added some materials, some people went back in to practice.

Wu Ming felt himself growing increasingly strained, his consciousness becoming hazy, and he could barely hold on any longer. He lost all thoughts, only remembering to persevere for his future cultivation. It was almost two hours, and everyone stared at the cauldron where Wu Ming lay in shock. "We're about to produce a genius in Xiaoli Village. Two hours would put him at least at the level of a true disciple in the Qingyun Sect," said an elder.

Wu Ming was almost losing consciousness, and following his body's instinct, he jumped out of the cauldron. He regained consciousness the moment he jumped out, and saw the village chief and the elders saying with regret, "You are just a little bit away from becoming a genius in cultivation."

Wu Ming was also confused, and then he heard Instructor Zhang say, "Practice first, and then you can do it after your body adapts." After that, he added medicinal materials to the cauldron that Wu Ming jumped out of.

Upon hearing Instructor Zhang's words, Wu Ming immediately began practicing. He felt his practice was surprisingly smooth, and he could even sense something floating in the air around him, as if trying to penetrate him. He also felt significantly stronger than before the medicinal bath, now possessing at least 7,000 kilograms of strength, compared to only 5,000 kilograms before.

Time passed unknowingly, and the eighteen young men completed the medicinal bath one by one. Several of them reached perfection in body tempering directly. Li Fei was one of them, and the others also reached the great success of bone refining and could reach perfection at any time.

"Okay, your medicinal bath is done, and you can all go back now. Go back and practice hard, and strive to complete your body tempering as soon as possible. The five people who have already completed their body tempering, please stay, and I will teach you the subsequent practice methods." Instructor Zhang said.

As the others left, they looked at Wu Ming and the other four with envy. After everyone else left, Instructor Zhang led them to a room and said, "You five have all reached the realm of perfect body tempering. Now I will teach you how to enter the next realm. What is Qi training? Qi training is to absorb the vital energy of heaven and earth. During the absorption process, the vital energy strengthens various parts of the body and eventually enters the Dantian, forming a trace of spiritual energy. These spiritual energies accumulate and become cyclones, and these cyclones will be your future strengths. To absorb the vital energy of heaven and earth, you must first enter a state of concentration. To enter a state of concentration, you must empty your mind and think of nothing. Then you can feel the vital energy of heaven and earth in the outside world and absorb it into your body through the practice of the exercises."

"How do we enter into a state of meditation? Instructor Zhang, please teach us." Li Fei said anxiously.

"To enter into a state of meditation is just like what I just said, you need to empty your mind. When you practice in the cauldron, do you feel that there is nothing in your mind? It's that feeling. Go back and try more. Some people succeed in three to five days, some in ten days to half a month, and some in a month. You can't be impatient, you have to take it slowly. The more impatient you are, the harder it will be to succeed." Instructor Zhang described the feeling of entering the cauldron. Wu Ming and others were recalling the feeling in the cauldron at that time.

"Don't be impatient, let me explain slowly. To absorb the vital energy of heaven and earth, you must use a technique. I will first explain the advantages and disadvantages of each technique so that you can avoid detours in your future cultivation. Since the techniques are divided into various attributes, such as gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, ice, light and darkness, the paths you will take after cultivating different attributes are also different. You must understand your own attributes when you begin to absorb the vital energy of heaven and earth. Of course, if you can't understand it, it doesn't matter much, as you can test it after you enter the sect. Now, I will teach you a basic technique for absorbing the vital energy of heaven and earth, called the Qi Intake Technique."

Instructor Zhang slowly explained a set of exercises with over a thousand words, and repeated it several times. He let everyone go home only after everyone had memorized it, and warned everyone to ask him anytime if they had any questions.