"Hoo!..."

  Almost in an instant wheivated breathing teique, a breeze blew into the courtyard, and strands of spiritual energy from heaven ah entered his body through his opened meridians.

  The meridians that Xu Taiping had never been able to sense before were now easily sensed, and the process of guiding and refining the spiritual energy into the meridia smoothly.

  In the end, after half an inse stick's worth of effort, Xu Taiping successfully sent the refirue qi into his dantian.

  "It took only half an inse stick's worth of effort to refihis bit of true qi. pared to the geniuses mentioned by Purple Yang True Lord, it's nothing worth mentioning. But for me, I finally truly embark oh of cultivation."

  Xu Taiping wasn't too disced by his incredibly slow refining speed.

  "Grandfather said that diligence make up for clumsiness. They practice for two hours every day, so I'll practice for four hours. If they practice for four hours, then I'll practice fht hours. One day, I will catch up!"

  Xu Taipily made up his mind.

  "ht, I still have this soybean spirit crystal. Fairy Lingyue said that holding it while practig double the effect."

  He suddenly remembered the soybean spirit crystals formed ihe Earth-Hiding Fruit, so he took o on the spot and began cultivating again.

  With the help of the soybean spirit crystal, his speed of refining the spiritual energy of heaven ah was more than three times faster than before.

  "Fairy Lingyue didn't lie to me. This spirit crystal is very beneficial to me. With this, I might really be able to break through the Opening Realm within half a year!"

  Feeling the increase in cultivation speed, Xu Taiping's face was filled with joy.

  With the help of this soybean spirit crystal, his current cultivation speed was at least parable to that of an ordinary cultivator.

  In the following days, Xu Taiping spent all his time cultivating, not daring to waste a single moment, except for spending two hours each day taking care of the medial field.

  ***

  Time flew by, and three months had already passed.

  During these three months, Xu Taiping could clearly feel that the true qi in his dantian was being more abundant, and he vaguely sehat he was about to break through the densiage.

  The so-called densiage was actually a term from the "Fading Su Scripture" and described the depth of a cultivator's true qi before breaking through the Opening Realm.

  In the Fading Su Scripture, before breaking through the Opening Realm, the depth of a cultivator's true qi was divided into three levels: densing Dew, Frost Transformation, and Iation.

  Only when the depth of true qi broke through the "Iation" stage could a cultivator attempt to break through the Opening Realm.

  However, during the breakthrough from the densiage to the Frost Transformation stage, when practig the Residual Glow Teique, a yer of icy true qi would form around the cultivator's body, equivalent to wearing a top-grade iron armor.

  Even though he hadn't broken through the densiage yet, with the abundant true qi in his dantian, Xu Taiping's physical ges were also very obvious.

  For example, his vision and hearing had beuch strohan three months ago.

  In terms of vision, he could now clearly see a sparrow standing on a tree five hundred meters away. In terms of hearing, he could distinguish what kind of wild beasts were in the surrounding mountains within a mile just by relying on his ears.

  In addition, his physical strength and speed had greatly improved.

  Now, even though Xu Taiping looked thin and weak, he had no problem lifting a grinding stone weighing two hundred catties with one hand. As for his speed, he had once chased a deer in the nearby mountains and was not left behind at all.

  Furthermore, when he was still in Green Bull Vilge, he ofte hunting with his grandfather in the mountains, using bows and arrows aing traps. So in the past month, he had been able to eat wild game every day.

  With peril leaves paired with roasted deer meat and roasted rabbit meat, no matter how many times he ate, he never got tired of it.

  "Speaking of which, it's time to check the traps I set up in the mountains a few days ago. Maybe I catch a yellow goat to eat."

  At noon, Xu Taiping, who had already practiced for three hours, rubbed his stomad got up from the bed, preparing to go to the mountaio check the traps he had set up.

  Because he o cultivate, he didn't have much time for hunting, so he had set up quite a fes on several nearby mountains in the past three months. As long as he went to check them from time to time, he would be able to reap some rewards.

  But before that, he had something more important to do—

  Sell medial materials.

  It had been three months sihe first batch of Nine-Leaf White Peril seeds were sown. Xu Taiping had harvested over three hundred catties of peril roots and stems and over sixty catties of peril seeds, which was exactly three times the amount harvested from an ordinary medial field.

  "Acc to the weight, this patch of Nine-Leaf White Peril sell for at least y-six merit s, exceeding the three times I inally expected."

  After pg all the medial materials to be sold at the door, Xu Taiping took out the bone flute given by West Wind Pavilion and blew it forcefully.

  "Ji!..."

  After a while, a white-headed eagle with wings spread out to a width of one zhang arrived at the door of the courtyard.

  "Uncle White Eagle, please help me deliver these medial materials to the Hundred Herbs Hall for sale. Afterward, you take three merit s from it."

  Xu Taiping cupped his hands towards the white-headed eagle standing in front of him.

  Letting the spirit bird sell the medial materials was also a method he learned from the Jade Scroll of Transmitting Teiques. It said that ordinary medial materials could be directly given to the spirit bird to sell, saving time and effort, but three merit s had to be paid afterward.

  "I will bring the moomorrow."

  The white-headed eagle didn't waste any words. After nodding slightly, it grabbed the batedial materials with its cws and flew into the air.

  "When tomorrow es, I will have moo buy martial arts teiques from the Myriad Scroll Tower."

  Watg the departing figure of the white-headed eagle, Xu Taiping crossed his hands and stretched out, letting out a big yawn.

  Although he still o save moo buy True Fire Talismans, it was still necessary to buy a martial arts teique for self-defense. Previously, when he was hunting in the mountains, he had almost been injured by several wild boars.

  Currently, he had a full dantian of true qi, but he had no idea how to use it.

  In fact, for cultivators, it would be better to buy a spell to cultivate. However, he was embarrassed by his empty pockets and couldn't afford it at all. He could only wait until he saved more money.

  Moreover, even if he practiced the Fading Su Scripture before breaking through the Opening Realm, the amount of true qi in Xu Taiping's body was not enough to support him in casting spells."It's time to repce this bow and hunting knife."

  At this moment, Xu Taiping had already taken the bow and hunting knife from the , preparing to head to the back mountain.

  Both the bow and hunting knife were left by the previous owner of the Green Bamboo Residehe bde of the hunting knife was all nicked, and the b of the bow had broken once, which Xu Taiping had mao mend with great difficulty.

  Living alone in the mountains, with many wild animals around the yard, such basic self-defense ons were necessary.

  ***

  Half an inse stick's time ter.

  The back mountain.

  Although Xu Taiping called it the back mountain, acc to the introdu on the Jade Scroll's map, this mountain should be called Sheep Deer Mountain, named for the many yellow sheep and deer in the mountain.

  However, in his several trips into the mountain, Xu Taiping found that there were not many yellow sheep and deer, but rather many wild boars roaming in groups.

  "If I could hunt a wild boar, that wouldn't be bad. At least I wouldn't have to worry about food for the half month."

  As Xu Taiping ran through the mountain, he vigintly surveyed his surroundings while muttering to himself.

  Although cultivators practiedia, the prerequisite is to at least break through the Opening Realm. Currently, not only Xu Taiping not practiedia, but he also o rely on a rge amount of meat to replenish the physical strength lost during cultivation.