Chapter 99

Time had flown by, and it was already May of the 47th year of the Dajin Xining era. Zhu Lingwu had been in this world for four years.

They say that once one enters the immortal path, time is easily forgotten. Since Zhu Lingwu returned to his family's ancestral land to begin his cultivation, he truly immersed himself in his practice, oblivious to the outside world.

The bet between Zhu Lingwu and Zhu Junyu naturally caused a great stir, but with the support of the patriarch, who was a Foundation Establishment cultivator with the Daoist name Bai Shui, and the signed bet agreement in hand, the situation was under control.

At first, the elders of the Zhu family's main branch did speak up, as they were aware that Zhu Lingwu had a special method of cultivation, and the bet was a sure loss for Zhu Junyu.

However, the Daoist Bai Shui also intervened, asking if the items they had given to Zhu Lingwu were worthless and could be easily taken away by the main branch. This left the main branch's spokesperson speechless, and the bet was thus confirmed.

With the help of the five Xuanming Ghost Heads, Zhu Lingwu spent half a year to enter the Qi Condensation realm, achieving the first level of Qi Condensation. The bottle of Qi Condensation Pills naturally fell into his hands.

However, for the current Zhu Lingwu, taking the Qi Condensation Pills would indeed be a waste and might even cause some indigestion. After all, one Qi Condensation Pill was equivalent to the innate spiritual energy absorbed by a cultivator at the tenth level of Qi Condensation. For Zhu Lingwu, who had just started his cultivation journey, the spiritual energy was too strong.

With the help of the five Xuanming Ghost Heads, his current spiritual energy needs were more than sufficient. Moreover, the bottle contained only twenty Qi Condensation Pills, which would be useful when he advanced to higher levels of Qi Condensation in the future.

With the five Xuanming Ghost Heads helping him absorb and refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, Zhu Lingwu's cultivation speed was extremely fast. He was like a Qi Condensation genius with superior innate spiritual meridians, achieving the first level of Qi Condensation in half a year and reaching the second level in one and a half years.

Now, after about three years, Zhu Lingwu felt that he could break through to the third level of Qi Condensation in a few days. It seemed that he might win the bet with the family's Stone Screen patriarch in less than five years.

Zhu Lingwu was secretly pleased. The distinction in the Qi Condensation realm was essentially the increase in the concentration of innate spiritual energy in the body. Qi Condensation cultivation was originally about refining innate spiritual energy.

The division into levels such as the first and second levels of Qi Condensation was a characteristic change that occurred when the concentration of innate spiritual energy in the blood reached a certain level.

For example, when one reached the first level of Qi Condensation, the innate spiritual energy in Zhu Lingwu's body would begin to seep out, enveloping his body. Therefore, the first level of Qi Condensation was also known as the Initial Qi Sensation realm.

Any cultivator with a certain foundation in Qi Condensation cultivation could sense the innate spiritual energy seeping out from Zhu Lingwu's body. At this stage, Zhu Lingwu could not yet condense and control the innate spiritual energy in his body, and it would still leak out uncontrollably.

Just like when Zhu Lingwu first consumed the blood of a spirit beast, he felt that the spiritual energy contained in the blood would always seep out of his body. Now, the spiritual energy he forcibly absorbed from the heavens and earth had not yet fully integrated with the innate spiritual energy in his body.

This was not just a problem for beginners like Zhu Lingwu; any cultivator who had not reached the tenth level of Qi Condensation would encounter this issue of spiritual energy leakage.

This was also why Zhu Lingwu could sense a special aura on Zhu Junyan and Meng Yishi using his soul sense.

Only cultivators who reached the tenth level of Qi Condensation or higher could truly condense and control the innate spiritual energy in their blood, preventing it from leaking out. Therefore, the tenth level of Qi Condensation was also known as the Essence Refinement and Qi Condensation realm.

Thus, before reaching the tenth level of Qi Condensation, if a cultivator did not practice for a long time, the innate spiritual energy in their body would gradually dissipate, and they might even drop in cultivation level.

Meng Yishi, for example, had dropped from the tenth level of Qi Condensation to the seventh level due to his severe injuries and the lack of a place with dense spiritual energy for cultivation.

Well, the tenth level of Qi Condensation was still a very distant goal for Zhu Lingwu. Currently, he was at the second level of Qi Condensation, also known as the Spirit Qi Infusion realm.

At this level, the innate spiritual energy not only flowed through the blood but also began to slowly spread throughout the body, gradually improving it and expelling impurities. This was already a preparation for the Foundation Establishment stage, as the Foundation Establishment stage was about building a postnatal spiritual body. Therefore, cultivators like Zhu Junyan, who were at the seventh level of Qi Condensation, mostly ate a vegetarian diet to reduce the accumulation of impurities in their bodies.

However, Zhu Lingwu's body had already been improved during his cultivation of the Nine Turn Lightning Body Technique. Reaching the second level of Qi Condensation was just an enhancement.

But one thing was very clear: after entering the second level of Qi Condensation, Zhu Lingwu's cultivation of the Nine Turn Lightning Body Technique had made significant progress. He had already broken through to the fifth level, known as the Lightning Body Refinement, where he began to refine his body using electric currents to transform it into a lightning body.

This was not surprising, as the creator of this martial technique was a poor student who had to refine postnatal spiritual energy to break through to the innate realm. Now, Zhu Lingwu already had innate spiritual energy and had embarked on the path of cultivation, effectively using the innate realm that martial artists could only dream of to refine postnatal spiritual energy. It was like playing a game.

Of course, this was slightly different from the innate realm achieved through martial arts. The innate realm achieved through martial arts meant that the body's foundation had already been well-polished, while ordinary cultivators still needed to use innate spiritual energy to improve their bodies.

Therefore, cultivators who entered the path of cultivation through martial arts had a higher chance of reaching the Foundation Establishment stage if they could overcome the few hurdles of Qi Condensation. Unfortunately, the limited lifespan of ordinary humans made it impossible to cultivate both simultaneously.

Zhu Lingwu had obtained this information from Meng Yishi's memories, so he decided to cultivate both Qi Condensation and martial arts at the same time. With his body's innate ability to control electric currents, he had a significant advantage in cultivating the Nine Turn Lightning Body Technique.

This way, even the few hurdles of the Qi Condensation stage might pose less of a challenge, and perhaps even the Foundation Establishment stage would be smoother.

Using the so-called Yang within Yin spiritual energy he was currently cultivating and the postnatal lightning power refined by the Nine Turn Lightning Body Technique to simultaneously temper his body would not cause any conflict. It would only slightly alter the attributes of the lightning body.

After all, innate spiritual energy was a special energy that could blend with various types of postnatal spiritual energy.