As Su Qing circulated the Five Elements Qi Cultivation Technique,

the aura around him grew dense and oppressive.

It was the kind of aura that belonged to a superior being,

enough to make anyone tremble.

And this change occurred just as Su Qing was becoming a low-level Cultivator in the Qi Cultivation Realm.

The Five Elements Qi Cultivation Technique had undergone a Third-Layer Evolution.

Su Qing could feel the Spiritual Qi in his Dantian slowly being refined into Magical Power.

The Spiritual Qi in his Dantian was turning into Magical Power, step by step.

Only when all the Spiritual Qi in his body turned into Magical Power would Su Qing truly be a Qi Cultivation Realm Cultivator.

The Five Qi God Demon Wheel was also constantly aiding Su Qing’s Cultivation. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

It made Su Qing completely unafraid, even when faced with his Sea-like Elixir Field.

He was already prepared for a long period of Cultivation.

...

One day.

Three days.

Five days.

Seven days.

He had finally succeeded.

The aura around Su Qing slowly receded.

A trace of Magical Power flickered in his eyes, and his five-colored pupils slowly returned to their normal black.

"I finally succeeded."

Su Qing hadn’t expected this breakthrough to take so long.

There was no Spiritual Qi left in his body; it was all Magical Power.

The quality of Magical Power was far superior to that of Spiritual Qi.

Although it was much more concentrated, its quality was vastly superior to Spiritual Qi.

--

Host: Su Qing

Realm: Body Tempering Limit [Cyan Flood Dragon Posture: Perfection]

First-Layer Qi Cultivation [Five Elements Qi Cultivation Technique+3: Entry Level (485/500)]

Physique: 23579

Spiritual Qi: ???

Technique: .....

Synthesis Lv39 (2391/4000)

...

--

His Physique had increased again, but his Spiritual Qi was now just question marks.

Su Qing began to modify it with his mind.

’Delete the Spiritual Qi entry. Set my current Magical Power as the new baseline, with a value of 1.’

’Set my current Physique as the baseline and change its value to 1.’

--

Physique: 1

Magical Power: 1

--

After once again changing the exaggerated numbers back to one,

Su Qing thought for a moment. ’Add a decimal point to the values.’

--

Physique: 1.0

Magical Power: 1.0

...

This time, Su Qing’s modifications were complete.

As for why he added a decimal point, it was because his Physique couldn’t possibly improve as drastically as his Magical Power. By adding a decimal point, Su Qing could see even minor increases in his Physique.

These numbers were one of Su Qing’s motivations for being a grinder.

After all, being able to see his progress on the panel was a huge source of motivation.

However, after looking at the panel, Su Qing noticed something very important.

Something was wrong with the Skill Level of his Five Elements Qi Cultivation Technique.

Incredibly, Su Qing checked the time.

More than seven days had passed.

’My Skill Level hasn’t even reached Mastery?’

’And this is with the help of a maxed-out Five Qi God Demon Body!’

Su Qing did a quick calculation. Seven days, and he’d only gained this little Skill Level.

That meant he was only gaining about three points per hour.

’How ridiculous is that?’

’Although this Cultivation Technique is extremely fast at refining Spiritual Qi, it shouldn’t be this difficult to level up, right?’

’My Five Qi God Demon Body gives me a two-hundred-fold cultivation speed boost!’

"Damn it. I have a feeling that the further I cultivate, the harder the Cultivation Techniques I synthesize are going to get."

Su Qing could already see his future life of bitter grinding.

He had thought he could take a good rest, cultivate casually, and achieve Technique Perfection just like that.

"Now that I’ve reached Qi Cultivation, I should try out the Earth Escape Technique."

As a cautious person, he definitely needed to master his escape skills.

"Replicate the Earth Escape Technique nine times!"

Su Qing was being arrogant. After all, he was now at the Qi Cultivation level; replicating a Magic technique couldn’t be that hard, could it?

But while the thought was nice, Su Qing started to feel dizzy and his vision blurred.

He hadn’t lost consciousness, though.

Su Qing took a moment to recover.

After a long while, he wondered, "What’s going on? Isn’t the Earth Escape Technique similar to those other Magic techniques? And my power has already improved."

Su Qing sat down and pondered for a moment.

He thought about what, in the Immortal Cultivation World, best matched his current situation.

’Soul?’

’Could it be that the Synthesizer uses my Soul Power to replicate things?’

’But my Soul Power shouldn’t have improved that much, right?’

Su Qing didn’t quite understand. Could it be that replicating information with the Synthesizer affected both the soul and the physical body? This was the guess that Su Qing felt was closest to the truth.

But the Synthesizer was just an inanimate object.

Su Qing found it difficult to figure out its Rule.

"Right now, I need to absorb Spiritual Qi and convert it into Magical Power. But if I absorb Spiritual Qi so wantonly in Zhengxuan City, I’ll probably be noticed immediately."

Su Qing knew clearly that when he cultivated, the surrounding Spiritual Qi surged into his body like a spring.

So the Spiritual Qi in the area would definitely be affected.

"Zhengxuan City..."

"Zhengxuan Sect..."

"Sigh... Is it finally time to take that step?"

Su Qing knew that absorbing Spiritual Qi for a whole day in the outside world couldn’t compare to absorbing it for just one hour inside a Sect.

Take the Spiritual Qi here in Zhengxuan City, for example.

It was so much denser than the Spiritual Qi outside.

But Su Qing had secrets.

How could he possibly keep cultivating in Zhengxuan City?

Especially since Zhengxuan City had a City Lord who loved to conduct research on Immortal Cultivation.

If he ended up as a subject for human experimentation, Su Qing would be in even bigger trouble.

"I should go find out where other Sects are, preferably ones that aren’t of the Righteous Dao."

In truth, Su Qing didn’t want to do this.

But he couldn’t go without Spiritual Qi.

And if some old monster were to discover that Su Qing had no Spirit Root,

Su Qing would be in a truly difficult position. Being able to cultivate without a Spirit Root was generally considered to be part of the Demon Dao.

But a Demonic Sect might be a different story.

They probably wouldn’t even check for a Spirit Root.

Unfortunately, Su Qing had no idea where to find any Demonic Sects.

"This is so frustrating."

Su Qing was now worried about Spiritual Qi.

"Forget it, I can’t stay at Xu Ningying’s house anymore. There’s not enough Spiritual Qi. I’m better off finding a place where it’s abundant."

After thinking for a moment, Su Qing decisively tidied up Xu Ningying’s house.

He prepared to visit the Loose Cultivator gathering place again to see if there were any maps for sale.

Zhengxuan City basically had no maps of the outside world, only maps of the local area at best.

That was why Su Qing chose to go to the gathering place to buy things.

Su Qing arrived at the small town once again.

This time, Su Qing openly piloted his Flying Artifact above the entrance of the Treasure Tower.

Then, he leaped down.

He was about ten meters from the ground.

Su Qing walked straight inside.

The middle-aged man was as calm as ever, though the object he was fiddling with in his hand had changed.

"Welcome. Is there anything you need, guest?"

"A map."

Su Qing said quietly.

"A map?"

The middle-aged man drew in a sharp breath and then nodded.

"If it’s a map you’re after, the most expensive one costs one thousand Spirit Stones. It includes every location our Treasure Tower has explored."

A thousand Spirit Stones? Su Qing couldn’t possibly have that much.

"Hmm... how about a map showing the distribution of all the major Immortal Cultivation Forces?"

"All of them? A map of the major forces known to our Treasure Tower will only cost you a Hundred Spirit Stones."

"That kind of information isn’t even that important!"

Su Qing grumbled to himself, ’A hundred Spirit Stones for "not very important" information.’

’For such an expensive map, I hope it’s worth the price.’

"I’ll take it."

Su Qing took out a Hundred Spirit Stones.

"Very good. We have a deal."

The middle-aged man then took out a Scroll.

It was large, a meter long.

"This is it. Care to open it and take a look?"

"Yes."

Since he had already paid the Spirit Stones, Su Qing felt he should at least take a look to confirm its contents.

"Zhengxuan Sect..."

"Treasure Sect...?" Seeing this Sect’s name, Su Qing couldn’t help but glance at the middle-aged man.

"Peach Blossom Gorge."

"Wangyue Valley."

"..."

The middle-aged man added, "Oh, by the way, if you see a purple mark on the map, that means it’s a Demon Dao or Evil Dao location. You’d best be careful."

...

Hearing this, Su Qing’s heart leaped with joy.

’This is great! Uncle, I knew you were a good person!’

Su Qing nodded. After looking for a few more moments, he confirmed the locations of several forces.

Then he turned and left.

"Take care, and be careful out there."

The middle-aged man offered his advice again. The moment Su Qing stepped outside, he felt numerous prying eyes on him.

However, after they saw Su Qing use his Flying Magical Artifact, most of the gazes disappeared.

After flying on the Flying Magical Artifact for a while, Su Qing no longer felt any prying eyes.