After returning from a rewarding journey, Lu Ping was still immersed in his delight. For many years, his Dao heart had been tranquil, unmoved by the things around him. But that tranquility had been shattered after this journey.

Lu Ping sat in his cultivation room the entire day and still couldn’t calm his undulating mind. He recalled the days where he would rather die than waste a single spirit stone and he couldn’t calm himself anymore. He fell into a memory of the past.

An unknown amount of time passed by, Lu Ping finally remembered his tutoring session with Master Immortal Liu when he entered the Eighth Layer Blood Refining Realm. Master Immortal Liu had asked for his reason for cultivating, and Lu Ping was resolute and unswerving in his answer.

“Long life.”

“Initially, I had a lot of thoughts going on in my head, lots of answers, and each of them was reasonable and something I wished for. But in the end, this is the one and only answer that I find the most realistic and most true. All the other answers will fade with time but this, this is the one wish that will remain to the end of time.”

And Master Immortal Liu laughed heartily when he heard Lu Ping’s answer.

Lu Ping’s turbulent thoughts finally cleared up and his eyes shone brightly. I cultivate for a long life. Even though this wealth is beyond what I’ve ever owned before, it is nothing but an illusion in my chase for a long life. Senior Sheng Tao was the possessor of this wealth before, but even he couldn’t keep it forever and died in the end!

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What I need to do is to convert this wealth into useful resources that assist my cultivation. Little by little, day by day, I will eventually reinforce my foundation enough to reach a new stage in cultivation.

After clearing his mind and attaining a deeper insight into his purpose, Lu Ping regained his usual composure and returned to his intense yet unremarkable cultivation.

After experiencing a life-and-death battle, Lu Ping’s willpower and prowess had significantly improved. With a sufficient supply of Blood Solidifying Pellets and Blood Vigor Pellets, his cultivation base quickly broke through to mid-stage Ninth Layer in the Blood Refining Realm and advanced to the peak of the Ninth layer.

At the same time, his arcane energy grew more abundant and stronger. After the battle with the sea snake, Lu Ping learned the importance of having an ample supply of arcane energy. Hence, he liberally used his medicinal pellets to consolidate his cultivation base even more.

Lu Ping’s cultivation right now was quite costly. Every day, he used four spirit stones and cultivated on the spirit-gathering putuan. In addition to the three bottles of Blood Vigor Pellets from the island battles, Lu Ping had hastened his cultivation progress immensely. It was no surprise that his cultivation base would improve so much.

Three months later, Lu Ping arrived in the Xuan Qi Island and learned that First Senior Martial Brother Yao Yong was preparing to break through to the Blood Condensation Realm.

The cultivation world emphasized not on the celebration after the breakthrough, but the accumulation of one’s cultivation base before the breakthrough. Hence, every cultivator would receive blessings and help from their friends and families beforehand.

As Yao Yong had accumulated enough, he planned to breakthrough on Xuan Qi Island. There were many master immortals stationed on the island, so safety was no longer a problem. The disciples from Group 7 visited Yao Yong and gave him their blessings.

Du Feng gifted five Blood Vigor Pellets, but no one knew where he found them. Shi Lingling was more straightforward: she gifted a bottle of Blood Solidifying Pellets that she used for her cultivation.

The other disciples also gifted some medicinal pellets, spirit stones, a mystic instrument, and charms to Yao Yong.

Lu Ping remembered the goodwill he received from Yao Yong, Du Feng, and Shi Lingling during his breakthrough in the middle of the competition and also during the assignment of the sect mission. And so, he packed a mid-grade spirit stone and gifted it to Yao Yong in public. In private, he pulled Yao Yong to the side and handed the spirit-gathering putuan to him.

Yao Yong was excited and extremely grateful when he saw the putuan. He told Lu Ping, “I initially prepared two Blood Condensing Pellets and another batch of medicinal pellets that the clan gave me. Adding to that my own wealth and Master Immortal Liu overlooking my breakthrough, I was seventy percent confident I’d succeed. But now, with Junior Martial Brother’s putuan, I’m five percent more confident.”

Shocked, Lu Ping asked, “Even with all these treasures, Senior Martial Brother only felt seventy percent confident? Why do you need two Blood Condensing Pellets? Isn’t it enough to use just one to break through to the Blood Condensation Realm?”

Yao Yong looked at Lu Ping in surprise, then with a smile he said, “Junior Martial Brother, you sure do bury yourself in your own cultivation. You’ve never actively socialized with anyone nor are you from a big clan, so it’s no surprise you’d remain unaware. Blood Condensing Pellets are not necessarily a requirement to break through, and some talents can even advance without any pellets. However, barely one out of ten cultivators can accomplish this. Such talents are extremely difficult to encounter.”

“Blood Condensing Pellets can only increase the success rate of the breakthrough. But some cultivators’ accumulations may be too exuberant. During the breakthrough, the competition between one’s seven bloodlines will naturally be intense, inevitably prolonging the breakthrough duration and increasing the probability of failure. At times like this, one Blood Condensing Pellet is insufficient and more pellets are needed.”

“Unfortunately, the Blood Condensing Pellet may be a Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellet, but it requires twenty-four types of 500-year-old spirit herbs. But these spirit herbs only grow in harsh conditions, making them as rare as the thousand-year-old spirit herbs. This is why Blood Condensing Pellets are so valuable. Although the market prices it at two thousand spirit stones each, it’s actually priceless most of the time.”

Lu Ping finally realized that his previous plan was too naïve after hearing Yao Yong’s explanation. He initially thought that his arcane energy was on par with Yao Yong’s and if not, even stronger. And just when Lu Ping thought Yao Yong had everything he needed with all his accumulations and resources, Yao Yong himself only felt 70% confident he’d succeed. In other words, Lu Ping’s accumulation for his breakthrough was nowhere close to 50% ready.

Lu Ping didn’t know how he left Yao Yong’s cultivation room. His thinking was still too simple-minded and rash. By having enough spirit herbs to exchange for one Blood Condensing Pellet, sufficient medicinal pellets and spirit stones, and Alchemist Sheng Tao’s inheritance, he thought his chances of successfully breaking through to the Blood Condensation Realm were high. But now, he knew how wrong he’d been—his plan was a huge mistake.

The difference between him and Yao Yong was not in their cultivation resources, but in their very foundations—a cultivator’s knowledge and experience in cultivation over hundreds and thousands of years. Yao Yong’s clan would teach him everything he needed to know, every single piece of information about breaking through to the Blood Condensation Realm. Lu Ping could only rely on himself and explore on his own.

Recently, Lu Ping’s cultivation had been smooth, especially the rewarding journey to Sheng Tao’s cave-dwelling. Even though he had been constantly reminding himself, he still inevitably became a little conceited and underestimated the difficulty of the Blood Condensation Realm.

But now, he finally learned what he lacked. Even though he would soon enter the peak of Ninth Layer Blood Refining Realm, he still had a long way to go in his cultivation journey!

Lu Ping finally understood why despite more than ten thousand Zhen Ling Sect disciples being in the Ninth Layer Blood Refining Realm, only a few dozen of them would make it into the Blood Condensation Realm every year.

Now that he knew the problem, Lu Ping rallied himself to deal with the pressing situation. Using the teleportation array, he arrived at the side hall market. He bought his daily cultivation resources and sold the four low-grade mystic instruments he didn’t need to the Multi-Treasure Pavilion. He only kept three other low-grade mystic instruments for the [Blood Sacrificial Art] in the future.

He also sold an assortment of items plundered from the Xuan Ling Sect disciples and earned a total of 400 spirit stones.

Up until now, Lu Ping had yet to touch Lin Sheng’s possessions. He didn’t know how influential Lin Sheng’s clan was and there was a chance they might track him down if he sold Lin Sheng’s items in the market. He would be in huge trouble if that happened.

He initially had something else to do but after mulling it over for a second, he turned to enter the teleportation array. This time, he didn’t return to Xuan Qi Island but went to Di Kun Island, where a Blood Refining Realm auction would be held three months later.