Traveling through time to cultivate immortality: a life and death test

During his years of seclusion, besides cultivating his mana, he had been cultivating his soul. Perhaps because his aptitude was truly too poor and the difficulty of advancing to higher realms was too great, he tried to accelerate his mana growth by taking Qi Gathering Pills and other elixirs used in the Qi Training stage. However, finding them ineffective, he then resolutely took a Foundation Establishment Pill, but with similarly minimal effect. He was unable to break through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, let alone the peak of the early stage. Due to the transformation of his bamboo flute, his current mana reserves were estimated to be comparable to those of a cultivator in the late Foundation Establishment stage, two or three times greater. Two years ago, he had noticed that no matter how hard he practiced, his mana levels were barely improving at all. He knew that further effort was futile and was left to purchase numerous elixirs and seek other opportunities.

During his training, he discovered another gift: a naturally powerful spiritual awareness, which surprised him greatly. He had always felt that his spiritual awareness was superior to that of cultivators of the same rank, always able to sense their presence first. He had always attributed this to his profound magical powers, not to his spiritual awareness. He had also previously sensed that his brain seemed larger, and that his memory and calculation abilities were naturally strong, but he had not connected these traits to his spiritual power. It was not until he cultivated the Wind and Cloud Power that he realized his superior spiritual power. He speculated that one reason might be related to his time travel. While his physical body had been shattered upon crossing into another world, his soul and memories remained intact. Perhaps this journey had tempered his experience, and his soul had possessed his current body, devouring his original soul. This unique process and experience had made his soul power incredibly powerful. He learned from the book that in the world of immortal cultivation, there is a very rare group of people who are born with powerful spiritual awareness. Liu Xing estimated that he might be even better than them because they could not have such a unique time-travel experience as he did.

His innately powerful spiritual awareness explains his exceptional memory and photographic recollection. Furthermore, his exceptional talent in talisman-making, alchemy, weapon-refining, and the deduction of prohibitions is also related to his spiritual awareness, requiring the brain's sensitivity and a detailed understanding of the microscopic world. This gift gives Liu Xing hope of becoming a decathlete. Once he masters these skills, he will be a true pioneer among the vast army of cultivators. With these abilities, his path to immortality will be even more pronounced, providing him with numerous avenues for making money. Money means resources, which allow him to advance his mana at a faster pace. Only by continuously pushing boundaries can he advance further and longer on the path of immortality. His only current obstacle is his own spiritual aptitude. Its poor aptitude prevents him from rapidly improving his cultivation and breaking through bottlenecks through conventional closed-door cultivation, requiring him to constantly seek opportunities.

His discovery of his gift for spiritual awareness stemmed from the cultivation methods for strengthening it described in the book "Wind and Cloud Power." This was also related to the pale yellow aura within his mana. He harnessed this aura to generate a wisp of gale-force wind, which blew and tempered his spirit, strengthening it. This spiritual cultivation technique required two prerequisites: naturally strong spiritual awareness, and the use of aura-forced energy. While the first requirement was rare, it was still achievable by a select few. The second, perhaps only Liu Xing possessed, was a unique possession, as he possessed the bamboo flute, which imparted his spiritual power. Combined, these two conditions made Liu Xing the only one in the world capable of possessing it. The benefits of a strong spiritual awareness were undeniable. Not only could one anticipate an enemy's moves, but when it reached a certain level of strength, it could also be combined with secret techniques to launch spiritual attacks. Therefore, upon obtaining the "Gangfeng Spiritual Refining Technique," Liu Xing was overjoyed and decided to practice it immediately.

During the last two years of his retreat, he spent most of his time cultivating this secret technique, tempering his spirit. Tempering the soul is an excruciating process, a thousand times more painful than cutting flesh with a knife, akin to a self-destructive torture. Because he had deeply comprehended the Xuanyin Sutra and possessed a profound understanding of the soul, he was extremely cautious the first time he practiced the Gangfeng Soul Refining Technique, generating only a hair-thin Gangfeng wind to gently touch his spirit. Even so, he let out a silent scream of agonizing pain, his entire body instantly drenched in sweat, and he nearly fainted from the pain. A lesser-willed person would have immediately given up on the practice, never daring to attempt it a second time. Having experienced a true death, Liu Xing possessed an incredibly strong will. He feared nothing, fearless of death, and unwavering in his determination to fight. Furthermore, his innately powerful spiritual consciousness came into play at this point. An ordinary cultivator's consciousness would be slowly dissipated upon contact with the Gangfeng wind, causing irreversible damage to the soul, tantamount to suicide. Therefore, they were simply unable to cultivate this unique skill.

Liu Xing roared silently in agony as he tirelessly pricked his soul with the mighty wind, feeling it as if it had been chopped into pieces. The touches grew from slow to fast, the mighty winds from fine to coarse, constantly tempering his soul. Two years passed in this excruciatingly painful, agonizingly long time. Liu Xing's soul slowly grew stronger, his consciousness doubling in strength. He estimated that his consciousness now rivaled that of a cultivator in the late Foundation Establishment stage. His ability to withstand pain also increased significantly, and he no longer roared silently or broke out in sweat during practice. The process of cultivating the Soul Refining Technique was a process of extracting the soul and refining the spirit. He finally understood the pain of the old man and Niu Xiong, whose souls he had extracted and refined. It was nothing special, Liu Xing chuckled to himself.

The cultivation of soul-refining techniques is similar to the cultivation of mana; continuous daily practice is required for improvement, a process that will last a lifetime. Besides the quantitative increase in one's soul power following a breakthrough in mana, further improvements require continuous practice of the "Gangfeng Soul-refining Technique" to temper one's soul, requiring the constant endurance of soul-drawing and spirit-refining. Without repeated tempering, there is no such thing as tempering steel. Indeed, only those who endure the most difficult hardships can rise to prominence. Considering other cultivators who desire such hardship, they lack the means. As a capitalist in Liu Xing's previous life said, "Suffering is a blessing," Liu Xing now deeply agrees.

The reason why Liu Xing stopped practicing now was because his spiritual power reserves were limited and he couldn't form a larger罡风 to further temper his soul. Even if he continued to temper himself, there would be no progress, so there was no need to waste time and endure pain in vain.

Now that he has successfully built his foundation, his magic power and spiritual awareness are twice as high as those of his peers. He is happy in his heart and has more confidence to go further on the road to immortality.