"Sure, they're only temporarily affected by bottlenecks and will break through soon, but this already shows how difficult the breakthrough is. Now do you realize how amazing you are?!" Fang Yu's voice carried envy.
They both had Upper Grade spiritual roots - why was Li Hanfeng's cultivation so much higher than his own?
Hearing this, Li Hanfeng didn't know how to respond.
Though he felt his cultivation speed was fast, he hadn't thought it was abnormal.
Who knew even those with Extreme Grade spiritual roots would get stuck at the third layer of Qi Refining?
When he was cultivating, he hadn't felt any so-called bottleneck at all.
After the pills were refined, he naturally broke through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining.
'Is it the influence of the Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method?'
The Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method could increase breakthrough probability - he hadn't expected it to show effects already in the Qi Refining realm.
Of course, it might also be because the Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method was quite compatible with him. When practicing this method, even without guidance from teaching elders, he easily got started and practiced it without any pressure.
Since Li Hanfeng didn't answer, Fang Yu adjusted quickly: "Forget it, can't compare with you guys. The Shushan Sect is already so much better than the outside world. If I were in my family or a small sect, even with Upper Grade spiritual roots, reaching the first layer of Qi Refining in a month would be considered good."
"Oh, what are the immortal cultivation sects like in the outside world?" Li Hanfeng didn't understand the cultivation world outside the Shushan Sect and was very interested.
Hearing this, Fang Yu immediately said: "Come to think of it, Li Hanfeng, you're from a mortal dynasty near the Shushan Sect, so it's normal you don't understand. The cultivation sects in the outside world..."
"Let me put it simply - the courtyard where we probationary disciples live already has spiritual qi that's two to three times stronger than the most spiritually rich place in my family, not to mention techniques and methods."
Fang Yu's family was a Foundation Establishment family, yet their spiritual qi environment wasn't as good as the Shushan Sect's probationary disciples.
"Also, the Qi Refining Pills we get look ordinary, right? But they're actually Upper Grade Qi Refining Pills - Upper Grade! My family would be lucky to get one every three months instead of one every ten days. Usually we practice with Lower Grade Qi Refining Pills - and that's the good conditions. Those with poor conditions can't afford pills at all."
Pill grades were similar to aptitude grades, just without the Inferior level. From low to high: Lower, Middle, Upper, then Extreme and Heavenly grades.
Li Hanfeng had never looked into the grade of pills the Shushan Sect distributed. First, he had no concept of it. Second, the Qi Refining Pills from his golden finger were even higher grade.
He never expected that the pills he looked down on couldn't even be used in the outside world.
Fang Yu continued: "So I've always thought you people near the Shushan Sect are really lucky. Unlike me - even being from a cultivation family, getting to the Shushan Sect required traveling thousands of miles. The Shushan Sect doesn't have fixed recruitment times. Each opening lasts different amounts of time, and they only accept twelve-year-olds. If you're unlucky, you might travel for one or two years and still not get a chance to join the sect."
"This time, the Shushan Sect opened its gates for recruitment after thirty years. I was able to join successfully because this recruitment lasted a whole year, and I was pretty lucky. Actually, many more people didn't make it in time."
Twelve years old is when spiritual roots mature and you can start cultivating. If you missed it, you basically lost your chance to join the Shushan Sect forever.
Li Hanfeng didn't know how to respond to all this.
The envy in Fang Yu's voice was genuine.
He never imagined his birthplace had such advantages!
Born with a built-in "school district," huh!
But Fang Yu didn't have any other thoughts - he was just expressing genuine feelings. Maybe noticing Li Hanfeng's state, he actively changed the topic. Before long, they arrived at the Technique Pavilion.
The Technique Pavilion was different from the Mission Hall - it was a three-story building, with each floor extremely spacious.
Of course, there were similarities too. The Technique Pavilion also had something like the Mission Hall's management area, also run by formal sect disciples. If you had questions, you could ask directly.
Arriving at the Technique Pavilion entrance, they followed the people ahead, took out their identity tokens, and put them in a special device at the door for testing before successfully entering.
Every time he saw these kinds of devices, Li Hanfeng felt like he was back in his previous life.
But everything around him was in ancient style.
After entering the Technique Pavilion, Fang Yu looked at Li Hanfeng enviously: "We probationary disciples can only choose from the first floor. With so many techniques, I don't even know what to pick. At least you have an elder's recommendation. If I don't find something suitable, I'll have to wait until the day after tomorrow's class to ask the teaching elder. For now I can only look around first. Let's split up for now!"
Li Hanfeng naturally had no objections and nodded.
After parting with Fang Yu, he went to the management area.
As Fang Yu said, he had a teaching elder's recommendation and didn't need to choose one by one.
But with countless techniques in the Technique Pavilion, trying to find one specific technique would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Asking directly was simpler.
Soon, he got the exact location of the Spirit Severing Blade.
He'd already learned that techniques were written on books made of special paper that you could read but couldn't take out of the Technique Pavilion. Also, the cultivation methods in the books weren't complete, so taking them out would be useless anyway.
If you decided to choose one, you'd use your identity token to exchange for a jade slip. After using the jade slip, the technique's contents would appear directly in your mind - very convenient.
Right now, no one was reading Spirit Severing Blade, so Li Hanfeng naturally wasn't polite and took out the book to read.
[Spirit Severing Blade, Lower Grade technique. Named Spirit Severing, but actually Spirit Slashing. Uses spiritual power to form a blade for long-range attacks on enemies. The higher the spiritual qi quality, the stronger the power and longer the attack range. If the spiritual qi is pure enough, its power can match Upper Grade techniques.]
The moment he saw the Spirit Severing Blade description, Li Hanfeng understood why the teaching elder had recommended this technique to him.
When it came to spiritual qi purity, with the Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method, probably few among all the probationary disciples could match him - maybe even none at all, if he wanted to be cocky about it.
If he learned the Spirit Severing Blade, he could unleash much greater power.
He continued reading.
The Spirit Severing Blade also classified spiritual qi purity levels. From high to low: Innate, Flawless, Perfect, Excellent, and the lowest - Ordinary.
If spiritual qi quality reached Flawless, the Spirit Severing Blade could unleash Upper Grade technique power. If it reached Perfect, it could unleash Middle Grade technique power, while the learning difficulty remained at Lower Grade technique level.
Reading this, Li Hanfeng frowned: "This technique seems really powerful. Why did the teaching elder only give me a suggestion?"
Logically, techniques like this should be promoted.
But soon he learned the reason.
He found out from a senior at the management area that the books in the Technique Pavilion had an interesting feature. Half the book was technique content, while the other half was comments or experiences from previous cultivators. If you agreed with someone's experience, you could inject spiritual power to show approval.
Popular techniques always had full comment sections that constantly updated. Only highly approved comments would remain and be sorted to the front of the book.
When he heard this, he was like - damn!
Isn't this a comment section with a like feature?
It proved that for convenience, nothing was surprising anymore.
The Spirit Severing Blade wasn't a popular technique, but it still had quite a few comments.
The top comment was:
[Anonymous: Don't learn it! This is a huge trap. With Ordinary level spiritual qi, this technique's power is among the lowest of Lower Grade techniques. Even with Excellent level spiritual qi, its power is just average among Lower Grade techniques. But this technique's learning difficulty is definitely top-tier among Lower Grade techniques! Remember, don't be fooled!]