Chapter 18

The reality wasn’t like a game.

After his skill advancement, other than the fact that he was better at using his skills, Lu Yuan found that even his control of spiritual energy was much stronger than before.

Thinking about it carefully, it was not surprising that such a change would occur.

The essence of fire manipulation was to use spiritual energy to cast divine ability flames and then control them.

This process was a great test of the user’s control over spiritual energy.

The advancement of the Fire Manipulation skill undoubtedly meant that Lu Yuan’s control over his spiritual energy had also improved.

The same change also occurred to the Pill Refinement Technique and Item Manipulation.

The advancement of these skills not only allowed Lu Yuan to grasp new special abilities but also made some of his hidden basic abilities gain significant improvement.

Other than that, Lu Yuan also discovered other benefits after the skill advancement.

For example, after he had mastered the Fire Wielding Technique, his efficiency would improve when he cultivated the same types of skills like the Water Wielding Technique, Wind Wielding Technique, Lightning Wielding Technique, and the sort in the future.

After all, the principles of these divine ability skills were essentially the same as the FIre Wielding Technique.

This is what people meant when they said grasping one skill would allow one to learn other skills.

In Lu Yuan’s plan, his cultivation in the future was to develop in all aspects and not have any obvious weaknesses.

He had to cultivate the Wind Wielding Technique and other divine abilities.

This was because reality was not a game, and there was no second chance.

If he had an obvious weakness for the enemy to take advantage of, it would not be as simple as loading a file and starting over again, but rather, he would just die directly.

Thus, others might ignore their possible weaknesses and only cultivate a single spiritual root for the sake of efficiency, but Lu Yuan would not do the same.

He would only consider advancing to the Foundation Establishment Stage after he had cultivated all of his spiritual roots to perfection.

This way, when he faced opponents of the same level, not only would he have more means, but he would also have more spiritual energy.

It was undoubtedly much safer than cultivating a single spiritual root.

Lu Yuan’s cultivation method was the standard balanced development cultivation method.

It was a cultivation path that had no obvious advantages but also no obvious weaknesses.

Of course, such a cultivation path had a very obvious shortcoming: It required a large number of cultivation resources.

For instance, others only needed to nurture one account, but Lu Yuan had to nurture multiple accounts at the same time.

No matter the resources or energy spent were naturally several times more than ordinary people.

In fact, without the system, Lu Yuan would not have dared to take this route of spiritual roots’ balanced development.

However, with the system, not only could he see his skill proficiency, but he could also master each skill with very high efficiency.

With such superior conditions, if he still didn’t dare to choose to develop in all aspects, it would be as if he was retarded.

In short, the determining factor of how much water a wooden bucket could hold was always the shortest wooden plank!

Balanced development was what a steady person should do.

In terms of the steady cultivation style, Lu Yuan felt that his understanding was a level higher than Bai Dafei, who was also developing with such a style.

Bai Dafei had only understood the “being kind to others” and “developing in secret” of this cultivation style.

Lu Yuan felt that he had comprehended another layer of truth on this basis, which was “all-around development” and “invulnerability”.

For this, Lu Yuan even set his first five-year plan.

1. Reach the Foundation Establishment Stage within five years.

2. Learn five life-saving divine abilities within five years.

3. Not leave Qingyun Sect for the next five years.

Lu Yuan felt that as long as he could do these things, he should be able to live safely in this dangerous celestial cultivation world.

After thinking about his future “career plan” and deciding on the specific content of his first “five-year plan”, Lu Yuan began to take action.

Right now, he had already completed all the requirements to refine a Foundation Establishment Stage pill.

As such, it was time to start trying to refine a Foundation Establishment Stage pill.

The first step of refining a Foundation Establishment Stage pill was to obtain the Foundation Establishment Stage pill recipe.

Lu Yuan had already figured out the method to obtain the pill recipe.

It was very simple. He only needed to take his outer sect disciple waist token and go to the Pharmacist Valley’s Treasure Pavilion to exchange for it.

As a man of action, Lu Yuan took action at the first moment.

Four hours later, he returned from the Treasure Pavilion with a brand-new pill recipe in his hands.

[Pill Recipe: Marrow-cleansing pill]

[Refining Requirements: Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation or a fire divine ability comparable to the Foundation Establishment Stage.]

[Effect: Increase the user’s spiritual energy absorption speed, has a small probability of improving the user’s spiritual root aptitude.]

The effect of the marrow-cleansing pill was within Lu Yuan’s expectations.

The so-called marrow-cleansing pill was actually a higher-grade version of the cultivation pill.

Not only was its effect similar to the cultivation pill, but even the medicinal ingredients used were similar.

It was just that in the recipe for the marrow-cleansing pill, the age requirements for the medicinal ingredients were much older than that needed for the elementary cultivation pill.

The few extra medicinal ingredients were also extremely precious.

Lu Yuan made a rough estimation. If the cost of refining a cultivation pill was about two low-grade spiritual stones, the cost of refining a marrow-cleansing pill had risen to two mid-grade spiritual stones, which was ten times more than before.

And this was only the cost of making it. If the difficulty of refinement was taken into account, the cost would be even higher.

It was no wonder that in the large Qingyun Sect, only the direct disciples were qualified to receive a marrow-cleansing pill regularly.

After all, this wasn’t just eating pills, this was eating money!

Although the requirements to refine marrow-cleansing pills were very strict, Lu Yuan had basically met all of them.

He had even exchanged for the medicinal ingredients needed to refine the marrow-cleansing pill from the Pharmacist Valley’s herb fields before he returned.

Although he felt a little pained about his money, when he thought about the possible gains, Lu Yuan felt that the spending was worth it.

Everything was ready… Prep the furnace and start the fire!

Lu Yuan poured his green flame into the pill furnace and immediately began the preparation work to refine the marrow-cleansing pill.

Not long after, the success rate interface for the marrow-cleansing pill appeared.

[Marrow-cleansing Pill]

[Flame Temperature: 0%]

[Degree of Refinement: 0%]

[Degree of Fusion: 0%]

[Luck Value: 0 (+)]

[Current Success Rate: 2%]

The threaded pill furnace that could increase the success rate of the cultivation pill by 10% only increased the success rate by 2% for the marrow-cleansing pill.

It was clear how difficult it was to refine a marrow-cleansing pill.

As this was his first time refining a marrow-cleansing pill, Lu Yuan did not expect to succeed on his first try.

The first time would just be practice.

At the thought of this, Lu Yuan took a deep breath and threw in all the medicinal ingredients required for the refinement.

The burning green flame quickly engulfed the medicinal ingredients and began to refine them.

The moment the medicinal ingredients came into contact with the green flame, Lu Yuan felt a strong resistance.

Compared to the cultivation pill, not only were the ingredients for the marrow-cleansing pill older, but the medicinal power they contained had also reached a shocking level.

If not for the green flame, Lu Yuan would not have been able to refine them.

After spending a great deal of effort, Lu Yuan finally managed to refine all the medicinal ingredients.

It was just that in this process, he couldn’t avoid wasting a large number of medicinal properties.

However, Lu Yuan did not feel vexed because of this.

It was his first time, so it was normal for him to be unfamiliar with the process.

After all, who wouldn’t make a mistake during their first time?

For example, going into the wrong door or something.

No one was born experienced.

The so-called experienced had only developed their superb skills after experiencing the ups and downs of the world!

With this thought in mind, Lu Yuan steadied his mind and began the next step.

Refining, fusing, condensing…

[Marrow-cleansing Pill]

[Flame Temperature: 35%]

[Degree of Refinement: 25%]

[Degree of Fusion: 37%]

[Luck Value: 200]

[Current success rate: 38%]

Boom!

Following the sound of an explosion and billowing black smoke, Lu Yuan ran out of the pill refinement room in a sorry state.

Coincidentally, a senior brother from the Pharmacist Valley came out to take a breath of fresh air. When he saw the ashen-faced Lu Yuan, he subconsciously revealed a knowing smile.

Not bad, his mood today was great!

It was a good sign to be able to see the scene of his fellow sect members failing in their pill refinement the moment he stepped out!

Sure enough, the nature of humans was to gloat over others’ misfortune, and this senior brother was no exception!