The Science of Cultivation-Chapter 275: Five-Element Cultivation Technique

Li Lang swept a wistful gaze across the tide of people conducting trade, lost in thought. He had failed to find viable materials for his cultivation, as nothing present was of adequate quality. As his escort, Jun Ziyan, had warned, the only exception was the Emberlight Stone. It was quite beautiful, with layers and layers that were all different shades of orange, but it lacked the luster of gems.

If only it wasn’t of the fire element.

Letting out a sigh, Li Lang shook his head.

He had nothing to do while he waited for Tai Xilin to hear back from his superiors from his conclave, but that didn’t mean he should be wallowing in his predicament.

Hopefully, the Bloodwave Conclave has what I need, but I also need to plan for the worst-case scenario. I need these materials as soon as possible so I can test out my five-element technique, and I don’t exactly have a lot of time to waste. There are so many other matters I have to attend to, including recruiting more students.

Hmm, maybe I can settle for lower-quality alternatives? It won’t be the most efficient, but I can have the Primordial Star Fire adjust. It may make the overall cultivation speed slower, but that can be fixed later on when I find more appropriate sources of Qi.

The only other alternative I can think of is using higher-quality crystals, but that has its own issues.

Li Lang summoned his purse and took out a piece of orange spirit crystal. It represented a sizeable sum of wealth, equivalent to one hundred red spirit crystals. It was quite a high denomination of currency for Foundation Establishment cultivators and was more commonly used by those in the Violet Core Realm.

After inspecting it in the light for a few moments, he then took out a red spirit crystal and began absorbing its Qi. The red crystal glowed as it released its energies. Li Lang shut his eyelids tightly as he focused on the energy entering his spiritual roots.

The flow was much stronger than what he was normally used to. Ambient Qi was what all Energy Gatherers relied on, but the spirit crystals provided several times more energy. As a result, the strain it put on the cultivator to filter out the correct energy was also much greater. It prevented Li Lang from filtering out all five types of Qi that he required.

Attempt after attempt, Li Lang tried to make it work until the red crystal was completely depleted, but to no avail. He let out yet another sigh as he received results that were consistent with his previous experiences.

Yeah, I’m not going to waste an orange spirit crystal when I can’t even get it to work with red crystals.

Stowing his wealth away, he didn’t have to wait much longer before Tai Xilin received a reply to his inquiry.

“Li Lang, our elders have responded. Unfortunately, our organization doesn’t possess everything you need, but we do have access to some Basilisk Heart, a high-quality Earth-grade material with pure qi of the earth affinity.”

“Oh? I feared your conclave only had your Liquid Bloodstones. Is this Basilisk Heart something found locally?” Li Lang asked.

“That’s correct. The Stonecore Basilisk that it originates from can sometimes be found in the deeper parts of the tunnels around Emberglow City. They are quite valuable, but we’re more than willing to trade some with you.”

“And how much are they worth, exactly?”

“My elders tell me they are willing to trade three Basilisk Hearts for fifty red crystals each.”

Li Lang blinked blankly a few times, expecting the price to be much steeper. Then again, he did realize Earth-grade materials weren’t exactly rare treasures to an organization like Bloodwave Conclave. They could always send a few Violet Core Realm elders to hunt for more if needed.

The only reason few ever over hunted Qi beasts of a lower realm was because they didn’t want to spoil their juniors. They needed to face their own challenges if they wanted to progress. Forcing their juniors to hunt for their materials also doubled as an opportunity to temper them. Li Lang understood these challenges to be one of the most common methods of cultivating a person’s willpower.

“Deal,” Li Lang said. “Just let me pick up a few things before going with you to finalize the deal.”

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Before Tai Xilin could reply, Li Lang had already disappeared into the crowd. He set forth to a few vendors he had his eyes on and made his purchases. The items he bought were all materials he found to be too low quality compared to his heavenly fire, but he determined it was fine for now. The efficiency of his cultivation wasn’t yet a priority until he had finalized his Earth-grade cultivation technique.

With his mind set on a plan, time flowed by quickly. He soon found himself back at his estate in The Southern Darkspot with a full haul. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

Li Lang eagerly retreated into his room within the Crucible and took out his new purchases. Four unique materials sat before him.

The first one was a bottle of a turquoise-blue substance that was called Gloomfin Blood. It was apparently the blood of an underwater Qi beast by the name of Gloomfin Wyrm. As its habitat suggests, it was rich with the Qi of the water element.

Beside the bottle was a seemingly normal piece of bark. It was a common material used in alchemy, sourced from a Silent Rootlord, a Qi beast of the wood element.

The final two materials were much more eye-catching. They were both like the Basilisk Heart he bought, organs from some Qi beasts. They were naturally rich in energies of the metal and earth element.

Combined with Li Lang’s heavenly fire, all five sources of Qi were assembled, and the young scientist dove into his experiment right away.

Channeling his new Earth-grade technique, small changes began to take place within Li Lang’s spiritual sea.

Five new sources of energy flooded into his meridian channels and soon arrived at his dantian. Under Li Lang’s careful control, they carefully went into position in preparation to form a giant feedback loop.

For the early stage of Foundation Establishment, there were two main goals. One was to fill this spiritual sea with Qi. The other was to expand the sea, increasing its capacity. To accomplish that in the early stages, where there weren’t any Qi constructs in the dantian yet, it relied on careful manipulation of the flow of energies within.

Li Lang’s current spiritual sea was quite shallow and filled with neutral Qi, similar to ambient Qi, where it had no affinity with any particular element. Under the effect of his technique, his sea began to change color as more water entered. Five distinct sections soon formed, each with a different color, existing in harmony without mixing. If one looked carefully, that was because the five pools of energy were never in contact with one another.

The color of these pools slowly darkened. The changes took place over hours before settling into place. By this time, Li Lang approached the last step of his cultivation technique, which marked either his failure or success. Without hesitation, he released his hold on the five energies, removing the invisible wall that separated them.

His spiritual sea instantly became turbulent as the tides of Qi crashed into each other. It got worse as everything began to glow, just like what happened when he established a stable ring of energies consisting of all five elements. However, this time, it didn’t take place in just a small section of his dantian. It encompassed his entire spiritual sea.

Waves of energy crashed into each other, and soon, a whirlpool formed. The energies twirled within him, and the feedback loop formed. The five distinct pools of energies fed into each other while five constant streams continued to enter his dantian. It was like having five waterfalls feeding into the whirlpool below. However, no matter how fierce the whirlpool was, the five distinct sections marked by their color never changed. The waters simply changed colors as they entered into different zones.

It’s working!

Before Li Lang could celebrate, his source of energies was abruptly cut off. The items he was absorbing from ran out, but he didn’t panic. In fact, this was the part he was most curious about.

He carefully spied on the situation within his dantian as he stopped channeling his cultivation technique. It was time to see how his spiritual sea would settle when no more Qi entered.

Just like how he had designed it, the whirlpool significantly slowed down and eventually came to a standstill. Then, the five sections were separated once more by an invisible force.

Seeing how it was working as intended, Li Lang quickly channeled his technique again. This time, he used the iteration where no external source of Qi was needed. It simply allowed the five pools of energy to come into contact again, starting the feedback loop where the five elements created energy from nothing.

He did this several times, confirming how the technique worked. There were a few small areas he found he could improve, so he quickly adjusted his technique before testing it again. Every time he did this, he could sense the quantity of Qi within him reset to meagre levels, but he didn’t mind. Now was the best time to experiment.

Like that, Li Lang lost track of time once again as he finalized his technique. He only snapped out of it when he was satisfied with the results.

Just as he finished running through the latest iteration of his cultivation technique and was about to check in with his companions, he noticed a bright light shining before him. He was taken aback by the weird scene. Backing away, he carefully inspected it up and down and found the light even on his ceiling—no, he found the light to be following along whenever he turned.

It took him a full minute to realize it was coming from his forehead. He quickly placed a hand over the source, the part of the hat where he had embedded Ruby.

“Ruby?” he called out hesitantly to his most important artifact spirit.

No reply came.